The introduction of seven-day account switching in the UK in September is a fundamental pillar of UK government plans to inject more competition into retail banking. But the plan has its critics – some of whom warn it may achieve the opposite of what it intends.
Securities trading in France, the Netherlands and Belgium is to move to T+2 settlement in October 2014, following a decision by Euroclear to pre-empt Europe-wide settlement reforms.
Peter Leukert, formerly of NYSE Euronext and Commerzbank, has joined banking and payments technology firm FIS after just 15 months in the job.
Bangladeshi bank AB Bank has chosen ElectraCard Services to run its ATM network and process credit and debit cards, as the bank ramps up its drive to increase financial inclusion in the country.
Predicting the future is never easy, but trying to anticipate likely developments in a particular area is essential in order to take timely action. With that caveat, Stephen Lindsay, head of standards at SWIFT, sets a boundary on a discussion on the Future of Standards: “What we are trying to do is extrapolate a little bit from where we are now to where we might be in a few years’ time,” he says.
Cover story: high frequency trading isn’t the only reason to deploy faster technology … Also in this issue: A road to nowhere? The UK’s plans to improve competition in retail banking are not without critics. The lure of the East: opportunities and challenges in the Middle East markets A watching brief: regulators are beefing up their […]
At a passionate debate in Westminster this week MPs, led by Rushanara Ali, member for Bethnal Green & Bow, called for government action in the wake of Barclay’s recent decision to close accounts for a large number of small payments businesses in the remittances sector.
With lots of different regulatory benchmark efforts now underway, the industry could be forgiven for not taking a common stance. With IOSCO issuing final principles, ESMA and the EBA are simultaneously consulting on a European set of principles. Meanwhile the UK is moving ahead with its own reforms.
UniCredit and IBM are to form a joint venture company that will offer IT infrastructure services to other financial institutions as part of a “multi-billion dollar”, 10-year agreement.
The London Stock Exchange’s plans to establish a new central securities depository in Luxembourg reveal the way regulation can have unintended consequences – in this case a proliferation of CSDs.
Clearstream, Euroclear and Eurex Clearing have signed an agreement with the ICMA European Repo Council to create a joint project aimed at improving the efficiency of the repo market.
On 23 April 2013, the markets suffered a brief, sharp drop as algorithms reacted to “news” from the Associated Press’s Twitter handle that President Obama had been injured in a bombing attack at the White House. In a few minutes, the Dow Jones dropped 145 points, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost $136 billion in […]
BNP Paribas Securities Services is to use Swift’s value added network service to connect to T2S, the single European settlement platform due to roll out in 2015-16.
Moroccan investment bank Casablanca Finance Group has installed a new banking system from Swiss technology company Avaloq, as the Moroccan financial services industry spreads its wings across Africa.
The Bahrain Bourse is to replace its trading platform with a new one provided by Nasdaq OMX, as the Bourse aims to become a trading hub in the Persian Gulf region.
Saudi Arabia’s Riyad Bank has chosen technology company Calypso Technology to help revamp its treasury operations and improve its back office.
The financial services sector’s growing interdependence between internet-accessible clearing and transaction processing infrastructure means that a successful DDoS attack can have far reaching consequences, such as customer dissatisfaction and loss of trust, brand damage, increased operating costs and lost revenue to name just a few.
After a long wait, the first real FATCA implementation deadlines are just around the corner. To meet the new account identification requirements, by 1 January 2014, institutions should be in the process of implementing the necessary upgrades in their onboarding and overall compliance systems and processes.
Turkey’s newly-merged Borsa Istanbul has formed a deal with Nasdaq OMX, under which the new Turkish market will take up Nasdaq trading, clearing, market surveillance and risk technology.
The Iraq Stock Exchange is to upgrade its trading technology using Nasdaq OMX, in a project that highlights the progress made by the country’s stock market since the American-led invasion in 2003.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Jennifer Boussuge as head of Global Transaction Services for EMEA. Boussuge has been with the company for more than 19 years, during which time she has held a number of leadership roles, most recently as head of global sales for GTS.
The possibility of jail for miscreant top bankers has hit the headlines following publication of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards final report, a compendium of all that is considered wrong with both banks and the regulator …
For the first three months of 2012, Misys was the subject of a protracted bidding war. Misys is clearly not the company it was a year ago:the firm has endured some painful change, but it has at least been quick. It has also produced what promise to be tangible benefits for users …
BNP Paribas Securities Services has added Collateral Access, an integrated and comprehensive collateral management system for both buy-side and sell-side clients.
The impact of the internet on the banking industry may yet turn out to be far more important than the financial crisis and the subsequent regulatory overhaul. Viewing statements on-line and making payments electronically is just the very beginning of the revolution.
GBST‘s Capital Markets and Six Financial Information have teamed up to enhance GBST´s solution for the Financial Transaction Tax that some European countries are introducing.
RBS has hired Carole Berndt as global head of transaction services. Berndt has been EMEA head of transaction banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the past three years. She will be based in London and report to John Owen, chief executive, International Banking, at RBS, who said: “I am delighted to welcome Carole […]
Direct market access provider Object Trading has connected its clients to Nasdaq OMX NLX, the newly launched London derivatives market, and they have begun live trading.
Spanish bank Sabadell has released a mobile app that lets consumers withdraw cash without a debit card.
Union Bank of Taiwan has signed up with global fund transaction network Calastone to automate its offshore fund transactions through the new Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation fund service.
ISO 20022 has been hailed as the lingua franca in payments and securities for some years now. It offers great potential for re-engineering the payments industry, and for process improvement, but for a standard that promises so much it is still relatively unknown.
New York start-up Simplified Financial Information is piloting a market data analytics system prior to release later this summer.
Next Bank Madrid has chosen the finalists for a competition that seeks to find the best financial services startup companies from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
The securities markets are changing rapidly in the face of regulation and technology shifts, and none more so than the fixed income markets.
Brokers will need to spend more on risk management over the remainder of 2013 if they are to survive incoming financial regulation and new technologies will be required to make that possible, according to new research by Tabb Group.
Innotribe, the Swift-backed initiative to enable collaborative innovation in financial services, has announced the names of the five contenders from the US leg of its annual Startup Challenge to compete at Sibos 2013 in Dubai in September.
The UK Payments Council has published a ‘payments roadmap’, which sets out the steps that could help to build up a shared payments infrastructure in the UK.
Customers expect their interactions to be as short, and as easy as possible, with a satisfactory outcome. This ideal customer experience can be achieved through a combination of the right strategy, the right resources, the right workforce skills and supporting tools and technology . But so many firms still fail to get it right
Much has been said about the ‘bank 3.0’ landscape. We all now know that the Generation Y consumer, or the ‘digital native’ customer, demands a new type of banking. From online, anytime banking, to mobile payments, the face of banking is changing accordingly
The Bank of Korea has installed a new system from technology company Calypso that will help it better manage the country’s sovereign reserve.
