Financial Services/Finserv


Citi starts Latin American mobile startup challenge

Citi is hosting a major new mobile innovation competition in Latin America. Called the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, the competition aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.

HSBC installs free wi-fi in UK branches

HSBC has installed free Wi-Fi in 650 of its UK branches, bringing the bank into line with Barclays, which introduced free Wi-Fi in February 2013. Both banks signed deals with BT to provide the connectivity, which is managed by BT as a white label service.

Santander well ahead in UK account switching race

Santander is emerging as the main beneficiary of the battle to attract UK current account holders while NatWest and HSBC are losing ground, according to the monthly TNS Current Account Switching Index data for April.

The value of SEPA beyond the SEPA-zone

The work corporates are doing to streamline cash management processes should not end with SEPA implementation, says. Indeed, the principles and ideas underpinning SEPA can inform progress even in the most challenging markets.

Barclays takes Harte from Commonwealth

In one of the highest-profile tech hire in recent years, Barclays has poached Commonwealth Bank’s Michael Harte as chief operations and technology officer, filling the gap left by the surprise departure of Shaygan Kheradpir last autumn.

If T2S is the answer, what’s the question?

The purpose of the European Central Bank’s T2S project is ill-defined and taking so long to deliver that it is being pushed aside by other projects according to speakers at the Swift Business Forum in London.

DTCC pushes move to T+2 settlement for US markets

US clearing body the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is pushing a move to shorten the settlement cycle for the US markets to T+2, claiming support from industry bodies and firms including JP Morgan.

MiFID II may cause pain in the dark

New EU regulations on market making and dark pools could be damaging investor choice and forcing participants to make decisions that are not in their best interests.

New solutions for optimising cash in the retail industry

Managing cash in stores remains a major challenge for retailers – trapped cash hinders working capital management and is unavailable for investment, debt repayment or business expansion. But new ways are being developed to manage store cash …

You think SEPA is over? Think again

Banks should be wary of jumping the gun and assuming that SEPA implementation is a done deal. Far from being over, the task of learning to live with SEPA is just beginning.

Africa’s mobile revolution stands in the balance

Why are different parts of Africa experiencing widely different levels of success with mobile banking, despite years of experience in Kenya? Panellists at the IPS conference in London offered a range of explanations

UK mobile banking doubles in a year

UK consumers have doubled the amount of transactions they make on their mobile phones over the last year, according to new figures released by the BBA.

Outfoxing the fixed income fracas

Fixed income is a bit like the tortoise of Aesop’s fables, while equities is unquestionably the rambunctious hare. While equities finished the race towards an agency trading model many years ago, fixed income is just plodding onto the starting lines now. But a little outsourcing may provide the rocket boost the industry needs to push ahead, according to Carl James, managing director of dealing services UK at BNP Paribas.

Custodian bank trio cut T2S asset servicing deal with Clearstream

Post-trade services institutions Clearstream, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo and BBVA have formed a tie-up in Europe, which they say is aimed at better asset servicing n Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain under the ECB’s forthcoming T2S project.

Banks back Swift KYC Registry initiative

A group of major international banks have agreed to jointly develop and use the centralised Know Your Customer Registry announced by Swift at the start of the year.

Swift speeds client onboarding with standards testing service

Swift has announced the availability of a cloud-based application designed to eases the client onboarding process between financial institutions and their clients. First outlined at the Sibos 2012 event in Osaka, the MyStandards Readiness Portal, is backed by some big names in the business – HSBC, Citi and Clearstream spoke at a Standards Forum session […]

Banking on you – how wearable tech could change finance

Something big is happening to the internet (and, no, I am not talking about Bitcoin though that would be a fascinating topic for another time). In a nutshell, it’s changing into something you wear rather than go to, writes Aman Narain, global head of digital banking at Standard Chartered.

Raincoats, taxis and the future of banking

What do taxis, the weather, mobile wallets and raincoats have in common? They are all potential variables in determining a person’s daily spend – and they provide a great opportunity for banks to use data to save customers money, according to Aman Narain, global head of digital banking Singapore at Standard Chartered.

Barclays customer data debacle raises difficult questions

Revelations that Barclays customer data was being sold on the black market to corrupt City traders have caused the bank some embarrassment over the weekend– but the incident raises more questions than it answers, according to observers.

“Unbanked banks” suffer from tougher KYC rules

Senior transaction banking executives have called for a political discussion to resolve the issue of emerging market access to banking services caused by the reduction of the correspondent banking services network.

Getting personal: banks must brace for change

Major global banks need to grasp social networks, cloud computing, user-generated content, personalisation, contextual information and gamification if they are to maintain a competitive edge and stay connected with customers. But they also need to ensure their innovations are transmitted thoroughly to all employees, according to panellists at the BAFT IFSA conference in London on Monday.

Barclays fined again for “widespread” failure to keep records

Barclays has been fined $3.75 million by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for its failure to keep electronic records, including emails and instant messages, which are required by law. The failure is the latest in a string of recent fines for the bank.

ECB to pick up post-migration SEPA issues with new retail board

The European Central Bank is to create a Euro Retail Payments Board to replace the Single Euro Payments Area Council and “help foster the development of an integrated, innovative and competitive market for retail payments in euro in the European Union”.