The disruptive forces of technology and legislation are forcing banks to become open and collaborative, things which they historically found challenging. A friend who owns a small business recently went through what I call a “connected and choreographed” experience to get a loan. iWoka, a digital lending company, simply asked him to log on to […]
A spike in bitcoin value after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union points to the digital currency being viewed as a safe haven for investors. But a recent bankruptcy case clouds the situation.
New Mexico becomes the latest state to enact a law that requires licenses for money transmitters. That means more bureaucracy. Here are some tips for meeting those requirements.
Too often, online merchants and their payment providers focus more on international orders than domestic transactions in the battle against fraud. But drilling down into ZIP codes and neighborhoods might be a wiser strategy.
“Silicon Valley is coming,” warned Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s boss, in a recent letter to shareholders. It’s a sentiment echoed across much of the banking world at the moment. The idea that fintech is a threat to the financial services sector is bubbling – a 2015 PwC survey found 83% of financial services professionals were […]
As a Gen Xer, I have always had difficulty relating to the obsessive appeal social media has to millennials. Tweeting and Facebook posting of mundane daily events seemed like over-sharing and just a little narcissistic to me. This is not an intellectual problem of understanding the concepts or technologies, but a kind of generational disparity […]
Traditionally there weren’t any obligations for financial institutions to provide complete information on all parties in a payment process. Today, it is quite a different story. The initiator and receiver are responsible for reporting account numbers, names and addresses of remitters. There are even cases now where regulators may prevent banks from processing transactions when […]
Extending the reach of financial services in emerging markets is an ongoing challenge and opportunity for traditional banks. Telcos have led the relatively recent development of mobile money products with great success; achieved primarily through the use of innovative technology and agents on the ground. GMSA reports that 37 mobile money markets have ten times […]
It’s no secret that the financial services industry has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting digital technology. Far from being leaders of innovation, banks are often stifled by lumbering IT systems and an inherent sense of caution when it comes to challenging the status-quo. With growing investment in the internet of things […]
In the course of a recent active business day I observed myself carrying a multitude of financial instruments. I had to make a payment from my business checking account to a local government agency and I was reluctant to use my business debit card. Should I have chosen my credit card the agency charged an […]
Are payment processors for consumer financial service providers required to understand the complex regulatory regimes to which their clients are subject, and verify that clients are complying with those requirements?
The importance of a stable deposits base has increased exponentially in the post-financial crash era. Since the 2007/8 crisis, retail banks have been forced to address huge balance sheet deficit, brought about by the freezing of mechanisms such as wholesale funding. The reaction amongst the major banks has been to stabilise income sources, growing retail […]
There is no question that consumers continue to embrace card-based payments as an alternative to cash and checks, none more so than the millennials. But cash will continue to have a role.
Meant to overcome the challenges of tokenization, payment account reference (PAR) promises more complexity and cost—and will require more attention from payments providers.
Mobile wallets already offer incentives to consumers based on spending. What about offering rewards based on money management?
The proposed sale of Vocalink to MasterCard, threatens to “kill innovation” in UK payments. This is the damning verdict of AccessPay CEO, Anish Kapoor, who is calling on payments experts to come together to voice their opinions and thoughts, before a final decision is reached. In the time it takes you to read this blog […]
Organisations select a telecommunications provider for different reasons – reliability, global interconnectivity, price and performance are some of the more common drivers – so why do institutional investment arms and FX traders still buck this trend by focusing heavily on network latencies? It is simple, there are very few sectors within international finance where time […]
There’s both a science and an art to arriving at an estimated return on investment (ROI) when it comes to legacy system replacement, writes Mike Maltby, product manager at Eagle Investment Systems. One of the biggest challenges in the decision-making process to replace legacy technology is demonstrating an ROI. System replacements, described by one consultant as […]
We are all pretty much unanimous that the once IT buzz word “big data” is no longer the awe-inspiring complex beast which can be tamed only by expensive databases and superlative data analytics platforms. Cloud architecture and collaborative open source software brought big data processing within the reach of pretty much all enterprises. Analytics domain […]
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the sector has looked to repair reputational damage, lock down compliance in the system and rapidly innovate to serve a new generation. During this period of change, banks must redefine the value they want to provide for their customers. For example, do they want to finance the future dreams a […]
The recent partnership between the two payments giants will impact fees, consumer data and other areas. An analyst discusses the benefits and motivations of the deal.
A recent NIST announcement would seem to toss SMS one-time passwords to the junk pile. But the anti-fraud technology still has value for low risk transactions.
A tough new European data protection rule, scheduled to come into force in 2018, will command businesses’ attention no matter the relationship the U.K. has with the EU.
Beware of predictions that upstarts will push aside incumbents when it comes to consumer-to-consumer remittances. The numbers tell a different story.
Sid Parashar, SVP of client relations and strategic account management, Firstsource Solutions, asks if traditional banks are now ready to take on the new kids on the block when it comes to customer communications. As the banking industry emerges from one of the most transformative periods in its history, it has been a trying time […]
Robo-advisors are becoming increasingly commonplace in the UK’s financial sector. Over the last 18 months, high street banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, Santander and RBS have all launched robo-advice platforms, and it’s not only these well-known names that are competing to own the online investment space. Smaller challenger brands like Nutmeg and Wealthfront have also […]
There was some big news for bank’s risk and finance technology departments last month. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. Notably, this standard introduces a new impairment model, commonly known as the CECL (current […]
In recent years we have seen a strong trend for institutional trading desks to leverage their data to improve trade execution results and become more recognised as active participants in portfolio performance. Two important applications of predictive analytics have arisen, both aiming to improve the manner in which trading algorithms are used and controlled. It […]
Since the global financial crisis, there has been an endemic environment of low interest rates and currency fluctuations. The effects of quantitative easing have been broadly felt by institutions across the globe; and have created major challenges for central banks, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and government pension funds. In addition to this, equity market declines […]
For once, the sound bites being used to describe upcoming changes in the global banking industry may actually be too conservative. The latest Payments Services Directive likely will revolutionize how consumers interact with their banks and the protection they can expect when paying online or on their mobile devices—and the effects won’t be limited to Europe.
In addition to brightening text messages and tweets, the popular icons beloved by everyone from tweens to Baby Boomers may soon serve a much more substantial purpose—mobile and payments authentication.
To harness the true power of tokenization—a technology that underlies mobile payments—banks need to change their thinking. Doing so could help boost the appeal of mobile wallets.
Retailers can cater more closely to the ever-changing needs and preferences of online shoppers if they resist falling prey to these four common misconceptions about how consumers pay.
As regulatory pressures mount, Jon Hallam of GoldenSource explains why removing the burden of data management from the shoulders of fund managers can help deliver absolute returns for investors. From investors wanting more bang for their buck to increasing regulatory reporting requirements, it’s fair to say that asset managers have had a fair bit to […]
In the face of an ever rising digital agenda in Europe, banks are jumping on the fintech bandwagon, hoping to jumpstart innovation. Technology stands today as a catalyst for change in established banking institutions, write Astrid Froidure, digital transformation lead at Open Reply, and Fausto Jori, owner of E-finance Reply. The spark comes in a […]
Why are the next generation of virtual cards the key to commercial card adoption? Alex Mifsud, CEO of Ixaris, explores the issue. Commercial cards are relatively commonplace in the business world, with companies using these cards to buy a raft of business related items, including client lunches, airline tickets & office supplies. Commercial cards come in […]
Big data is a promise. In theory, banks can now know more about every single one of their customers than ever before. There is a real opportunity for them to cement their customer relationships; to create targeted offers and personalised experiences that attract new, and retain existing, customers. UK’s retail banks have increasingly been using […]
The key to unlocking the potential of real-time money movement is the delivery of an intuitive and seamless experience across accounts. As demand grows among early adopters—underserved consumers, millennials and those in the “gig” economy—a larger, more mainstream consumer audience will take note and engage.
Sure, mobile payments are taking much of the developing world by storm, giving consumers safer and more efficient ways to handle money. But merchant acceptance lags. Here’s why, along with ideas for improvement.
Brexit likely will cause issues for major processors and cross-border acquirers for whom London has been a key European and cross-border processing hub. That’s in addition to a restricted market and reduced talent pool.
