2017 looks set to be the year in which a number of different jurisdictions vie to become the natural home of the financial technology sector. To help ensure that London remains fintech-friendly, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has created the “regulatory sandbox”.
We’re only six weeks into the New Year and already we’ve seen significant activity on the regulatory front in the U.S. and more to come in the U.K. and Europe. Meanwhile, many of the other trends we identified as ones to watch in our Year-in-Review report—bots, blockchain and co-opetition—have been dominating the headlines (along with some major acquisitions). Are you investing in the right places?
When payment systems come under attack, the broad retail and service economies suffer. That’s why legal concerns and information-sharing programs need to be reexamined.
In-app payments are cannibalizing more traditional payments.
With regulators opening up the payments infrastructure and consumers and business clients demanding á la carte but interoperable financial services from a variety of players, the industry and its would-be disruptors must adapt.
Banks need to do more than just comply with the upcoming revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2). To survive, banks will need to embrace these changes.
Modern banking is not limited to banks anymore. It’s not only about online or mobile banking, it’s about all the things you would do in your banking system, but now you can do in apps or other solutions provided by third parties, not banks. Payments are one of such functionalities.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently proposed new rules that would require payment card operators to enforce additional security measures, such as passwords or security tokens, for all online transactions over €10, aimed at fraud prevention. This is a clumsy solution to a problem that is already being addressed by far more sophisticated means, argues Nick Wallace, senior policy analyst at Centre for Data Innovation, and policymakers should reject the EBA’s proposal.
Africa is becoming a very interesting fintech innovation hub (in particular South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt). As much as 80% of the continent is unbanked, opening the door to a breadth of opportunities for fintech companies to seize market share.
Your organisation’s satisfaction with its virtual card provider is the single most important factor determining the return you will receive on your investment. So when you choose a supplier, set your expectations high.
Experts from Blackhawk, Cachet, Arroweye, i2c and more explain what loyalty strategies are moving the needle with consumers and why.
Even if President Trump puts the brakes on federal regulation of the payments industry, state regulators are poised to swerve into the open lane that creates.
The technology that underpins bitcoin has received increased attention in recent months from corporate heavyweights. Here’s how blockchain can further revolutionize payments and related industries.
Payments companies hoping to gain market share in the exploding cross-border payments market must be able to meet demands for security, customer service, low costs and simplicity.
As with any revolution, open banking will have winners and losers. How to stay competitive in the digital era?
Financial innovation is unlocking additional funding for small businesses that have been declined by their bank. Katrin Herrling, co-founder and CEO of Funding Xchange, explores.
How can wearable technology be made popular in investment/wealth management services? We suggest a number of features that can create value and relevance to individual traders and wealth managers, if made available on smartwatch trading apps.
As you consider a New Year’s resolution to improve fraud prevention in 2017, remember that implementing fraud prevention at the platform level not only protects your merchants, but actually helps you enhance growth and protect margins and profitability.
Blockchain, the foundation for digital currency transactions, shows the potential to create better passenger ID and cut down on fraud targeted at airline loyalty programs.
Card issuers have only a few months to plan and implement the new CFPB rules. For card issuers looking to control costs and maintain more flexibility, now is the time to investigate on-demand card production and lean on the experts to ensure you meet the October 1, 2017 deadline.
All signs point to the rapid nationwide decline in check use being good for consumers, businesses and the financial system. Payments Canada forecasts that by 2020, virtually all checks written by businesses and governments in Canada will have migrated to electronic payments.
I was recently asked who the biggest winner would be to emerge post-PSD2, the banks or the fintech firms. If we ignore for a moment that the biggest winners are clearly you and I, the end consumer of these services, it did reveal an interesting thought process and dynamic at play.
Artificial intelligence (AI) interfaces and chatbots could be revolutionary for financial institutions – but only if they strike the right balance between human and machine interaction.
Establishing if someone is who they say they are in today’s virtual world is a major headache for banks and fintechs, thanks to the strict regulations they operate under and the difficulty in providing non-physical, verifiable forms of identity.
Look back at some of the most interesting and thought-provoking opinion pieces on all matters fintech published by Banking Technology in 2016.
From a technology perspective, the family home has decided to rush headlong into the 21st century. When our home was built we thought we were being extremely progressive in having a Panasonic “4 lines, 10 extensions, PBX” installed with separate lines for my wife and myself and then a line for business and yes, one dedicated line for the fax machine. Cool… but fast forward a decade and a half and with the home up for sale, we were politely advised to take out all those handsets and close the door on the PBX.
We are constantly connected to the cloud (iPhone, DropBox, Google Drive just to name a few) and yet, in financial services, the adoption has been tremendously slow. In part, this is due to a lack of guidance from regulators, especially where cloud-based regulation technology is concerned. But finally there is forward progress.
Building emotional bonds with customers is a strategic imperative, and why the change programmes currently being undertaken at banks need to recognise the hidden lessons of Uber.
The PSD2 directive will let third parties use the information stored in financial institutions and the only path to achieve this leads through an open API. The API is now being discussed and developed, but it’s not clear when it will be finalised, released and deployed.
Regulations requiring two-factor authentication could force the industry to move away from frictionless payments experiences like Uber and one-click checkout.
The IRS reports that there’s been a nearly 50 percent drop in fraudulent returns, and there has been significant progress in stopping fraudulent returns before refunds are ever paid, due in part to new information provided by industry and state partners.
Given the pace of change and innovation underway in traditional industries it would take a brave person to predict how the finance industry will look in five years’ time, however I don’t believe high street banks will disappear and be replaced by online blockchain alternatives, the regulatory hurdles are just too high.
Prepaid will continue to be a key ingredient in bringing 2 billion people worldwide into the financial mainstream. But over the past five years, we’ve learned that public-private partnerships are mission-critical. And we’ve still got work to do.
The market is evolving from being dazzled by the flashy lights of innovation to buckling down and implementing plans to address the opportunities ahead. Emphasis is shifting from talking about the cool stuff to driving adoption of the most actionable innovations. Are you investing in the right trends?
As consumers start using mobile to pay each other, it’s only natural that they’ll expect businesses to pay them that way, too. For those of us who serve corporate clients, enabling electronic payments to those mobile-centric consumers is a significant opportunity.
Having achieved status as a “mainstream” financial services product, prepaid cards now must prove themselves indispensable to cardholders’ lives. To take prepaid to the next level, prepaid providers need to connect with and engage cardholders in ways that position the product as vital to their financial wellbeing.
While you might think younger millennials are more likely to make a purchase from their mobile devices, more likely to snap a selfie and more likely to want to use selfies for ID verification, in fact a new survey found just the opposite.
Having spent many years in the technology wilderness, has HPE finally determined the future of NonStop? Thinking about the more than 40 years that have passed since we were first introduced to fault tolerant Tandem Computers, particularly considering what transpired following the acquisition of Tandem Computers by Compaq and then Compaq by HPE, did we anticipate that there would be an expansion of the NonStop product portfolio? And to see not just one, but two distinct families of NonStop systems and with the possibility of further options featuring NonStop just around the corner? It is surprising to many that all this time hasn’t taken the sheen away from any of the magic that is NonStop!
Reading the technology news these days you could be forgiven for thinking that some seismic revolution is occurring almost every day! Stories abound of Airbnb, Facebook, Uber, Alibaba taking over the world and demolishing our traditional business models – ushering in a new age where the “interface is king”. But are they revolutionary and game changing disruptors? I am not so sure…
Rising cybercrime in India is no secret. According to a report by Symantec, India now ranks third in the world, after the US and China, as a source of malicious activity. In fact, the National Crime Records Bureau data reveals that in the three years up to 2013, registered cases of cyber crime were up 350%, from 966 to 4356. Dubious distinctions both, and give banks and the financial sector in India cause for worry.
