The European Commission has expressed concerns that the US government shutdown is preventing a deal between the EU and US regulator, just as new swaps rules come into force for firms based both inside and outside the US.
A new monthly index that measures UK current account switching has been launched by research firm TNS, providing a snapshot of changing consumer behaviour as the UK Payments Council’s switching service begins to take effect.
Following yet another revelation that UK banks have been mis-selling financial products to their customers, this time for identity theft and credit card protection insurance, the need for high street lenders to prove that they are changing their lending behaviour has never been so great.
The London Stock Exchange has intensified its push into the derivatives markets with the launch of a new bourse called LSE Derivatives Market, which it says will create new opportunities for traders in London and provide a better proposition under the EU’s EMIR legislation than its predecessor Turquoise Derivatives.
European commercial bank UniCredit has chosen payment processing company First Data Corporation to help it pursue its mobile payments plans.
Nationwide has reported a significant increase in the number of customers switching their main current account to the building society, following the introduction of the new seven day account switching service on 16 September – but not everyone is convinced.
Trading infrastructure provider TMX Atrium has released a set of options for trading Russia through its connection to Frankfurt’s Equinix FR2 IBX data centre and the Moscow Exchange – a move designed to shepherd customers as rival providers stake out their own claims to the Russian market.
Less than one in ten UK consumers has used a mobile wallet, despite the widespread availability of the technology, a new study has found.
Eurex clearing, the post-trade arm of Germany’s Eurex derivatives exchange, is to act as the clearing house for new securities borrowing and lending venue SL-x Trading Europe when it launches in Q4 this year.
EBA Clearing has signed five financial institutions, 11 European service providers and two corporates for its MyBank E-Mandate pilot, which will begin in October and will test the firm’s solution for Sepa core direct debits for reliability, security and usability.
Momentum is building behind the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) Target2-Securities (T2S) settlement platform. With the ECB confirming the platform will be delivered on time, further proof of the industry’s confidence in the initiative has come via a series of announcements regarding connectivity to T2S.
For those involved in European payments, the final months of this year are likely to be characterised by a frenzy of activity as the deadline for migration to single euro payments area instruments looms.
Clever use of data about customers can be the key to success as customers move from cash to cards, according to Oliver Huwes, chief executive at Russian bank Tinkoff Credit Systems.
Experts are saying millions of people will abandon their old banks and switch to a new provider, following the introduction of new rules on 16 September designed to make it easier to change banks. But estimates vary widely, from single digits to tens of millions.
Mobile payments specialist Zapp is expecting to sign up five of the six major UK banks within the next few weeks, following a deal with acquirer WorldPay, announced this week. However, the platform still has a long way to go to catch-up with rival Barclay’s Pingit, which has a significant head-start, having launched in February 2012.
Russia’s BCS Financial Group has chosen to install market abuse surveillance, insider dealing and compliance tools from specialist firm b-next, as the firm prepares to enter the UK market.
Germany’s Boerse Stuttgart has chosen Nasdaq OMX to provide it with a new trading engine, which it says will decrease latency and increase throughput for members on the exchange. The Stuttgart exchange is focused on corporate bonds and investment funds for private investors, and has an average volume of €370 million per day. The exchange […]
Here’s what you don’t know about how the European Parliament is going to stretch your time and budget in 2014 …
Russian broker BCS Prime Brokerage plans to install a new pre-trade risk system called TripleCheck, which it says will help it to meet tough new regulations on algorithmic and proprietary trading.
Retail banking competition is likely to heat up over the next decade, with millions more people switching accounts every year, according to new research published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. But current levels are still far behind those found in other industries such as electricity and gas utilities, the study found.
Germany’s DAB bank has chosen a new data distribution tool called Diffusion from vendor Push Technology, which it says will help it to deliver real time data to customers. DAB Bank is an internet bank and direct broker. Founded in 1994 and based in Munich, the bank calls itself Germany’s first discount broker. The bank […]
With only one in five UK consumers using their mobile to make payments, new research suggests that the technology is being held back by consumer fears over security, lengthy sign-up processes and problems making payments outside of individual schemes.
Italian banking group Instituto Centrale Banche Popolare Italiane has introduced a new trading and recording system across its Milan operations, which it says will help it to better keep up with changing regulation and offer a better service for its traders.
Visa Europe and its majority-owned mobile money specialist Monitise have signed a deal with IBM in a major mobile banking and mobile payment collaboration targeting Europe’s banks.
Poland’s Warsaw Stock Exchange has introduced co-location systems designed to appeal to high-frequency traders, as Italy clamps down on HFT with Europe’s first HFT-specific tax. The moves highlight ongoing national and international divisions over the role of HFT in capital markets.
Created in April 2013, Turkey’s new Borsa Istanbul exchange is at the heart of an ambitious project to turn Istanbul into a major global trading centre. With the country’s economy ascendant, Turkey has a lot to offer, according to Ali Çöplü, chief information officer of Borsa İstanbul.
Turkey’s Garanti Bank has launched a new ‘socially integrated’ mobile banking service called iGaranti, which connects with Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare to help users send money to friends and family.
German derivatives exchange Eurex has signed an agreement with Russia’s Moscow Exchange that will allow it to launch Euro-Russian Rouble and US Dollar/Russian Rouble FX futures in Q4 2013.
Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank has chosen tools from SuperDerivatives to help revamp its global FX trading operations.
Russia’s BCS Prime Brokerage has launched an ultra-low latency data line between London and Moscow which it claims is the fastest trading connection yet built between the two cities.
Half of Europe’s bank branches could be obsolete within the next seven years, according to new research by real estate advisory firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
The UK Payments Council has set a date for the introduction of the seven-day account switching service, which will make it easier for UK customers to switch their bank.
Azerbaijan card processing company AzeriCard has partnered with software firm OpenWay to create a mobile wallet that helps Azerbaijanis to withdraw cash from ATMs using a mobile phone and transfer money without using a bank card.
Visa Europe has appointed Nicolas Huss as its new president and chief executive. Huss will join Visa Europe from investment management firm Apollo Group, where he is chief executive for credit card and customer servicing business Avant Spain and Ireland.
French railway operator SNCF has adopted a mobile payments system from Californian tech firm VeriFone Systems, which allows customers to pay for railway tickets using a mobile device.
Following the news that Polish banks will work together on establishing a common mobile payment infrastructure, Philippe Eschenmoser, head of business consulting at SIX Payment Services, explains why other European banks should learn from the Polish market.
Robert Barnes, former chief executive of UBS MTF, is to take up a new role at Turquoise, the MTF owned by the London Stock Exchange. Barnes, who had been advising in a consultancy since he left UBS in February, will replace outgoing Turquoise chief Natan Tiefenbrun, who is understood to be leaving for his own reasons.
As the Moscow Exchange launches a new liquidity incentive promotion, Sergey Sinkevich, head of DMA at Russian broker Otkritie, argues that Russia’s move to adopt T+2 settlement is the most important development in the last 20 years for the country’s capital markets.
Is there anything to fear about the new FCA? Well, possibly quite a lot, it would seem. A hundred or so days into the new era of the FCA and it would be hard for anyone in the wealth management or private banking sector to have missed the message that the regulation of the sector is going to be different from now on.
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.
