Consumers Soon Can Use Softcard to do Laundry (Oct. 1, 2014)
Softcard has extended its reach to the self-serve laundry business.
Worldwide
Report: Emerging Markets Driving Noncash Payment Growth (Oct. 1, 2014)
Noncash payments are estimated to have increased by 9.4 percent last year, reaching 366 billion transactions, according to a new report from Capgemini and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Data Breach Hits Sandwich Chain, Mom-and-Pop Restaurants (Oct. 1, 2014)
Large retailers and financial institutions aren’t the only victims of fraudsters on the prowl for payment card data.
DTCC-Euroclear move on global collateral processing
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Euroclear have taken the first steps towards the creation of a global collateral processing utility with the announcement that they plan to create a UK-based joint venture, DTCC-Euroclear Global Collateral.
Cool it on compliance, says HSBC
While banks want to root out fraudulent activity as much as governments do they “need to take the temperature down”, said Bob Werner, global head of financial crime compliance and group general manager at HSBC. Speaking at a panel session on trends in financial crime compliance, Werner said: “Every time something goes wrong we don’t need the scalp of a regulator or the scalp of a banker.”
New epoch for finance as trade unbundles …
Rising political tensions and the increasing use of sanctions are making companies think twice about relying on long global supply chains, said John Calverley, head of economic research at Standard Chartered. Firms may decide that rather than hedging their bets with production, they will keep it closer to home, he said during a roundtable session yesterday.
… and financial warfare is unleashed
The threat of banks de-risking and exiting regions and businesses in fear of sanctions-related fines is upon us, said Juan Zarate, the ex-deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism to US President George W Bush. Zarate was speaking at a Standard Chartered session yesterday morning about his new book, Treasury Wars: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare.
‘Pernicious disease’ of cyber war escalates
While the average bank heist averages $6000, a cyber-thief can make off with millions. Last year 552 million identities were breached, while every call about a compromised credit card costs a bank $4.
A call to pragmatic action
In a recently published white paper on intraday liquidity reporting*, Swift urges financial institutions to initiate programs now to address serious challenges with regard to data availability, centralisation, aggregation and interpretation in meeting Basel Committee guidelines. Greater industry collaboration will also help to accelerate moves towards cost effective and sustainable models and solutions.
Outsource your way to happiness, urges SunGard
Banks can reduce the headaches associated with cost pressure, tough new regulation, legacy business complexity and changing customer demands by outsourcing non-core areas of business. That is the idea behind two new corporate actions products launched by financial technology vendor SunGard.
Technology consumerisation will soon drive wholesale innovation
The consumerisation of technology is driving the development of new services in wholesale banking as much as it is in retail, as customers demand real-time access through mobile channels.
SGSS launches Global Broker-Dealer services
Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) has launched Global Broker-Dealer Services, an outsourcing solution aimed at institutional brokers, mid-tier banks and broker dealers. The fully integrated global service includes middle-office services, back-office processing and post-trade services.
Power to the people
The growth of peer to peer lending demonstrates that there is an alternative to the traditional lending model of banks. But can crowd funders ever replace the incumbents and do they enjoy long-run advantages or face being co-opted?
The shifting sands of commerce
Changing trade patterns and attempts to ‘de-dollarise’ international commerce are changing the landscape of trade finance, as new partnerships emerge.
PayPal, eBay Going Their Own Ways; Becoming Independent, Publicly Traded Companies (Sept. 30, 2014)
eBay Inc.’s board of directors will separate the online auction Website from subsidiary PayPal next year, making two independent, publicly traded companies.
Card Compliant Granted Patent on Escheat Management, Breakage, Revenue Recognition Platform (Sept. 30, 2014)
Technologies from Card Compliant aim to help prepaid issuers manage the regulatory and compliance challenges presented by accounting standards and escheatment requirements.
InComm Joins MCX Fold (Sept. 30, 2014)
Prepaid product and technology provider InComm has partnered with Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), the retailer-led consortium that recently unveiled its new mobile payments network, CurrentC.
Cachet Financial Integrates Ingo Money Check Guarantee Services for Banks, Credit Unions (Sept. 30, 2014)
Minneapolis-based remote deposit capture specialist Cachet Financial Solutions has expanded its partnership with Ingo Money Inc.
Across the spectrum: ISO 20022 perspectives
The original concept of the ISO 20022 was to create a repository of data used in financial messaging to communicate business information of any type – and to be able to add any types of data that might arise in the future. There has been a lot of focus on the use of the standard in payments and securities messaging roles, this has obscured its current and potential use in other areas.
Work as one to rise above geopolitics, industry urged
The financial industry must work with regulators, market infrastructures and among itself to address the major issues it faces says Jamie Forese, co-president of Citi and chief executive of Citi Institutional Clients Group, during the opening plenary address at Sibos in Boston: “Perhaps the most important issue on which we must work together is encouraging regulators to build a coherent, consistent and unified regime of global financial regulation. We can’t build it ourselves; our role must be as advocates and as advocates we need to speak with one clear and consistent voice.”
Collaboration and utilities key to FMI success
Collaboration between international financial market infrastructures (FMIs) and the development of industry utilities will be a key factor in removing systemic risk and reducing costs for industry participants.
T2S competition is an opportunity, says Benito
The competition that will be introduced by the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) Target2-Securities (T2S) project among CSDs is an “opportunity” said Jesús Benito, chief executive at Iberclear. In simplifying the post-trade infrastructure of Europe, T2S is prompting new competitive forces, market entrants, challenges and even creating new words.
Regulation overkill won’t prevent another crisis
More than two-thirds of delegates who attended the Demystifying Regulators and Regulation session yesterday said they had to file reports with six or more regulatory agencies and of those, a third report to north of 11 agencies.
Reports focus on global payments growth
Growth is returning to the payments industry and new market entrants are poised to take a share of that growth away from banks, according to a clutch of payments-focused white papers released at Sibos today.
Misys launches tool to integrate corporate to bank relationships
Misys has launched the Misys FusionBanking Corporate FrontOffice, which it said integrates the corporate to bank relationship more fully. It provides banks with a tool that can aid client onboarding and functionality while enabling end use treasury customers to get commercial lending data, trade finance and payment information – and prices – out of their bank much more easily.
Banks have a role to play in crypto currencies
When a new payment system such as Bitcoin arises it tends to be successful “in areas where a need is not being met”, Gottfried Leibbrandt, Swift chief executive told delegates yesterday. He said his fascination with Bitcoin – “both a currency and an innovation” – had not changed in the past 12 months.
Big data is getting bigger, say delegates
Data loads at financial institutions are expected to increase significantly, according to a poll of delegates attending yesterday’s technology forum session on big data.
Sepa Consultancy develops Simulator
Sepa Consultancy has launched the Intraday Liquidity Simulator, a liquidity dashboard solution that provides a timeline of events, outcomes and actions in multiple currencies.
BNP launches Liquidity Access
BNP Paribas Securities Services has launched Liquidity Access, a solution designed to help banks and broker dealers manage and monitor their liquid assets. The launch comes as various regulations, including Basel III and Dodd Frank, require market participants to hold more liquid assets, closely monitor their liquidity ratios and anticipate the evolution of their liquidity positions. Intraday liquidity management and reporting is likely to be a hot topic this week as the January 2015 deadline for Basel intraday liquidity reporting looms.
A guiding light
Building a single regional market is a goal for many groups of nations; however Europe’s development of a single settlement platform is the only effort to come to fruition.
Next out of the block
Forget Bitcoin, cryptographic payments networks will be the real game-changer, according to many people working in the payments world.
The high cost of failure
Data in all its forms and access to it in real time is becoming ever more critical as financial institutions seek to manage myriad risks.
The long arm of the law
Crypto and virtual currencies have garnered plenty of headlines in the past couple of years. Now financial regulators around the world are turning the spotlight on these instruments and attempting to bring them into the legal fold.
Cross border co-operation is key to the safe evolution of financial markets
Global financial markets are experiencing a paradigm shift as governments, regulators and participants recalibrate the processes and structures underpinning global finance. The challenge is to repair and remedy where needed, with dialogue between central banks, regulators and participants, but also to avoid creating fragmented markets or worse, unintentionally reintroducing risk.
EU Lawmakers Propose Tighter Regulations for Mobile Wallets (Sept. 29, 2014)
The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the European Union law-making body, has recommended tightening regulations regarding customer authentication and protection of sensitive payment data related to mobile wallets, according to its recently released proposal of the revised Payment Services Directive.
Emerchants Acquires Store Financial UK Arm for $21.7 Million (Sept. 29, 2014)
Australian prepaid provider Emerchants Ltd. has made a bold move into the European market, acquiring Store Financial Services UK for AUS$24.9 million (US$21.7 million).
Bitcoin: Currency or Commodity? (Sept. 29, 2014)
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a public meeting next week to discuss Bitcoin and the CFTC’s jurisdiction regarding derivatives contracts that reference the decentralized digital currency.
