With so much attention on FATCA in recent times, the financial services industry could be forgiven for seeing it as the most obtrusive regulation ever imposed. This view will soon change. Once the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) comes into force, financial institutions will have far greater challenges to overcome.
US-based Webster Bank has introduced fingerprint authentication, using Apple’s Touch ID technology. The move comes as financial institutions increasingly seek to use biometrics as a tool to improve security.
US exchange BATS Global Markets is calling for an 80% reduction in access fees to the US stock market’s most liquid securities, on grounds that nearly a billion dollars in fees could be slashed without adversely affecting the market. In an open letter to the industry, the exchange also rejected what it calls a “grand compromise” on exchange fees and called for greater transparency and the avoidance of anti-competitive rules.
Digital and alternative currencies, including Bitcoin, can now be used for transactions in California, following the implementation of bill AB129 on 1 January 2015. The new bill is a step forward for cryptocurrencies which have faced tough opposition and scrutiny from global regulators. However, serious doubts about the safety of digital currencies have been voiced by banks.
The mega-chain goes mobile with many partners and a mobile app of its own with two key ingredients—convenience and loyalty.
The US is finally adopting EMV after an eventful 12 months in which barriers have been overcome. Merchant reluctance is diminishing, good progress is being made, and the ‘EMV train’ is now picking up speed, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.
As the US moves to adopt EMV chip and PIN cards and mobile payments, authentication is becoming a serious concern, particularly for customer not present transactions – evidenced by the number of Money20/20 exhibitors focusing on the topic in contrast to the blockchain focus of much of last year’s event.
Online payments provider Optimal Payments has launched a new online checkout page, designed to help e-commerce merchants with indemnified alternative payments.
ATM maker Diebold has unveiled a new concept banking platform with four “experience zones” at the Money2020 conference in Las Vegas. The concept aims to demonstrate how banks can combine convenience, security and self-service with a low cost ‘footprint’.
Banks need to stop trying to exploit customers and start actually helping people, according to Brett King, chief executive at Moven. Instead of getting people to max out their credit card, a progressive bank should use smartphones and Big Data to help the consumer with the little things.
Financial market participants have criticised plans for the New York Stock Exchange to begin monitoring itself through its non-profit division, NYSE Regulation, describing the move as a “retrograde step” that will never work in practice. NYSE is currently monitored by FINRA, an independent organisation.
The US Federal Reserve Banks have begun planning for a faster payments system in the US, following research that found US consumers favoured such a system and would be willing to pay more for it.
Comerica Bank, the incumbent issuer of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Direct Express prepaid debit card program to distribute benefits to Social Security recipients, will continue in that role under a new five-year agreement, according to a blog post published today on the department’s Website.
Regulators in the US and Europe are stepping up investigations into dark pool activity, market abuse and manipulation of financial benchmarks following a spate of damaging incidents in recent months. Tougher regulatory oversight could have a significant impact on all three areas, according to a new report by financial services technology provider SunGard.
Deutsche Bank has poached Scott Marcar, previously at RBS, to head up its IT infrastructure as the bank prepares to ramp up competition against its rivals.
Regulators in Europe and the US are struggling to get to grips with trades that appear to be travelling back in time. Led by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, new efforts are underway to synchronise time, with the help of atomic clocks.
Trading rules in the US are giving dark pools an unfair advantage over exchanges and could be damaging liquidity, according to a new report by the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre.
Mobile payments provider LoopPay has secured funding from global payments firm Visa as it pioneers a technology that capitalises on the installed base of magnetic stripe-reader point-of-sale systems rather than NFC, which is the current favourite in mobile payment circles.
Commissioner Scott O’Malia of the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission has called for continuing international co-operation on market surveillance and warned that current oversight mechanisms are flawed in terms of the data they collect and the way that they analyse it.
Pre-trade risk and post-trade processing specialist Traiana has launched a new version of its CreditLink tool for credit derivatives, which it says will help buy-side firms to trade on swap execution facilities.
ICAP has launched a swap execution facility in the UK, as part of a push to dominate both the European and the US OTC derivatives markets as they are brought under new regulation.
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.
One of the central characters featured in Michael Lewis’ controversial book Flash Boys, has added fuel to the fire of debate over high frequency trading by claiming that in a market with less HFT, average order sizes would get larger and long-term investors would benefit.
When the US Federal Reserve Banks asked for comments on improving the US payments system, the tech industry and merchants said “let’s go” while the incumbents said “whoa, not so fast” …
Perseus Telecom has launched what it claims is the first ‘trans-Atlantic’ microwave route between New York and Frankfurt, for use by banks, market makers, proprietary trading firms and other market participants.
BNP Paribas Securities Services has launched a reporting tool for investment banks, which it says will help them cope with tough new financial regulations by better monitoring their intraday liquidity.
The Dodd-Frank Act launched the acronym SEF into the alphabet soup of modern capital markets, After three years of repeated discussions, consultations, submissions and furious wrangling, Swap Execution Facilities finally come into operation this week.
Switzerland’s SIX Financial Information has begun delivering FATCA tax information to the US Inland Revenue Service, ahead of the controversial extraterritorial tax’s reporting deadline in July.
US bank PNC has linked its invoice automation platform to OB10, the global e-invoicing network run by specialist firm Tungsten Corporation, in a deal that the bank says will help its commercial customers by making payments faster and improving the quality of payments data. PNC Bank is the first commercial bank in the US to […]
Reforms to the way derivatives trade in the US and Europe are causing a conflict between consumer desire for bespoke solutions and regulatory attempts at standardisation – and the self-inflicted panic as the deadline approaches indicates the cost may be too high, according to a panel of senior capital markets representatives speaking at an event organised by the Futures and Options Association in London on Tuesday.
Most banks are still not ready for the arrival of Swap Execution Facilities, the new category of trading venues created by the Dodd-Frank act in the US to handle OTC derivatives. Worse still, market participants are almost universally negative about SEFs, according to a new paper by research house GreySpark Partners.
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.
Electronic fixed income trading, one of the last major asset classes traded by humans, could take a big step forward when a new Nasdaq OMX dark pool trading venue goes live next year.
Credit Agricole CIB has signed an outsourcing deal with Genpact, in which the technology firm will help the bank by providing its IT development and maintenance, production support, infrastructure management and user support in the US.
The latest version of the telco-backed Isis mobile wallet service has been launched across the US, following 18 months of testing in Texas and Utah by owners AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.
A surprisingly high proportion of US banks are still not prepared to comply with Dodd-Frank’s regulations on swaps, despite the impending arrival of mandatory trading on swap execution facilities, according to Charley Rich, vice president of product management at tech firm Nastel.
Nasdaq OMX is planning to launch a test facility for algo trading early next year. The Algo Test Facility will be developed jointly with Thesys Technologies, a subsidiary of Tradeworx,
Sapient Global Markets has released a suite of software and services designed to help companies meet FATCA, the controversial new US regulation that obliges banks to report their US customers so that they can be taxed.
Senior financial industry executives have expressed disappointment at the failure of the US and European securities regulators to realise a deal over derivatives reforms and swap execution facilities, the new category of US execution venues brought in under the Dodd-Frank Act.
Trading firms need to upgrade their technology as often as every three months or face getting left behind by the ferocious pace of competition, according to specialists behind the HFT industry’s breakneck expansion into the world’s emerging markets and untamed asset classes.
