Viewpoint: Contrasting Payments Innovation in Europe and the U.S.
America has led Europe in payments innovation. Europe has led in payments regulation. The recent rubberstamping of PSD2 in Brussels suggests that’s likely to continue.
Industry Comment
Technology is an enabler for stability
A large part of any financial technology businesses is clearly driven by the need for banks to comply with the ever-changing regulatory requirements that affect their business. And this has brought about a frenetic period of activity and growth in this core market. These changes affect the various individual areas within financial organizations Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and others serve, including Finance (e.g. IFRS9), Risk (e.g. Basel III Liquidity, FRTB) and Regulatory Reporting (e.g. CRD IV). They also impact the way in which these processes are governed and controlled centrally
Understanding blockchain and the opportunity for financial institutions
Blockchain has the potential to further disrupt banking in the way that we know it today, transform traditional interbank and even peer-to-peer payments, open up opportunities to replace existing mechanisms for the exchange of financial information, and how customer records are stored and processed.
Viewpoint: Apple Pay Branches out of the Orchard
You’d think an A-list celebrity had shown up when Apple Pay launched in the U.K. in July. Despite some speed bumps related to transit and international acceptance, prepaid providers shouldn’t ignore the mobile wallet.
Blog: Marketing in a Mobile World Comes Down to Customer Experience
Fundamental shifts in the way socially connected and digital-savvy consumers connect have altered the customer-engagement and marketing landscape forever. To succeed, retailers and consumer brands must use data-driven engagement strategies.
Viewpoint: Good First Impressions Make for Profitable Relationships
The time has come for financial institutions to truly reap the benefits mobile connectivity offers, and the place to begin is with customer onboarding.
Viewpoint: Apple Pay Usage Report
Despite Apple Pay’s high-profile U.S. launch, recent First Annapolis primary consumer research suggests that only one in five iPhone 6 users has actually made a purchase with Apple Pay. But, that’s not the only stat that matters.
The dangers of digitisation without customer insight
In bygone days the bank manager knew each of his customers by name but could offer them only the narrowest range of products. Today the computer can tailor bespoke financial solutions in a mass market – but has no empathy with which to convey its expertise …
Cobol – do banks speak our language?
With banking IT failures happening on a seemingly weekly basis, we perhaps should be examining the language they speak more closely. Most of our banks are built on systems and programmed with languages that pre-date the birth of the internet, let alone the birth of mobile banking …
The emerging threat of trade-based money laundering in trade finance
Money laundering is a global phenomenon, evident in many parts of the world. Techniques have ranged from simple bulk cash movements across borders to more sophisticated techniques hidden in trade transactions. As trade between the Middle East and the rest of the world continues to grow, the threat of trade based money laundering becomes more […]
Automating incentives boosts bottom line
Sometimes the least obvious changes can have a big effect, and very often those changes are in areas that might considered outside the remit of the people best placed to make them. Bank staff remuneration, for instance …
The shadow Internet of Things – a new risk for financial services
While IT departments fret about BYOD and Shadow IT, a new security beast lurks on the horizon–the shadow internet of Things. A swarm of consumer devices are all connecting to the internet and beaconing out data in different forms. Because they don’t look like computers, they aren’t treated like computers, and IT departments are often not managing them to ensure that they are secure.
Chief digital officers aren’t the solution to winning the digital banking war
A bank cannot hope to compete in today’s retail banking market without a ‘digital executive team’ and banks need to reinvent their upper echelons’ if this is currently lacking, as Atom Bank and Apple Pay are merely the start of an avalanche of a new era of digital disrupters, looking to steal the lunch from traditional high street banks.
Reshaping the future of corporate banking
Pascal Augé, head of global transaction and payment services, Société Générale speaks to Daily News at Sibos about the growing importance of transaction banking for corporate customers
ISO 20022: we’ve reached the crossroads and need to act
Last year, the ISO 20022 standard celebrated its 10th birthday, and consequently it may seem a bit odd to say that after more than a decade since its inception, the financial community really should start taking assertive action. Since 2004, the ISO 20022 standard has, thankfully, witnessed substantial adoption but it has been what could be termed an “uncontrolled adoption”. So why is action so critical now?
Letter from the Editor: Change Is Good, but Slow
When I joined the company in 2007, Google was just a search engine and Apple had nothing to do with payments. It was a time many prepaid executives have compared to throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks—not everything did.
Viewpoint: Why Prepaid Expense Cards Matter
Business expense prepaid cards can fill in the gaps when credit, cash or other business payments aren’t ideal. Tapping this relatively young vertical market will require product features that make life easier for employers and employees.
Blog: Domestic Mobile Payment Schemes: Progress or Protectionism?
The creation of domestic mobile payment schemes by retail banks is good news for their customers domestically, but potentially threatens mobile payments at an international level.
Banks can see off new challenges with a flexible but secure approach to data
Even as they cement their recovery from the financial crisis, adherents to traditional banking models are facing a new storm as they grapple with the digital demands of the Facebook generation and heightened regulatory risks surrounding data. At the same time, they must match the customer service levels offered by the “challenger” banks if they are to avoid haemorrhaging business to their nimble and digital-focused rivals.
Viewpoint: A Regulatory Snapshot for Payment Services and E-Money in Europe
Payment opportunities in the EU come with complex requirements, which is why it’s important to understand the ever-changing legislative issues.
Systems you just can’t bank on: how legacy has become a liability
Let’s be clear: banks do a very difficult job – they store the value of society expressed as money. We trust them and they can’t get it wrong, but they are nothing but people and IT. Everything they own is on computer and they don’t like to take risks with this. Consequently, IT change for banks has been slow and safe. It has been incremental: bit by bit, byte by byte.
A different banking landscape
Historically, the large banks have been Lords of the Manor, between them owning every scrap of land as far as the eye can see. However, times are changing: invaders offering services the banks cannot provide as competitively have begun to disrupt the peace and take small pockets of land for themselves. Likening the march of the fintech new entrants to a land-grab by an invading force, the disruptors began with a neglected allotment here and there, then moved to take a meadow and now some are on the verge of swallowing up villages and small towns …
Viewpoint: Emerging Payments Vs. Legacy—It’s Not Either/Or
We recently surveyed more than 1,000 Americans about their payment preferences. The key trend that emerged: Traditional and emerging payments tools are being used together, not cannibalizing each other.
Viewpoint: Bitcoin: Take Charge of Your Destiny
Like it or not, the bitcoin craze is here to stay. Over time, bitcoin will be a major disruptor in payments—with broad implications for governments, businesses and consumers. Burying your head in the sand is not an option.
Frenemies at the gate
A curious cultural shift is taking place when it comes to problem-solving in the financial services industry, writes Joe Channer The sector is not renowned as a home for co-operation: competition is intense, the stakes high, and individualism rewarded. Yet the industry has recently seen a marked increase in collaborative ventures. The post-crisis environment, with […]
Wide application for wearables in financial services industry
There has been hype around wearable technology for some time now but only now is it reaching market maturity with the introduction and subsequent adoption by consumers of smart watches and wristbands. Just as we saw with smart phones and tablets, consumer technology, in this case wearables, has the potential to have a huge impact on the business world. The implications for the financial services industry are significant
Making the connection
Connecting Governance, Finance, Risk & Compliance allows firms to govern all important issues and risks that exist at the intersection of multiple functions. Breaking silos and adopting a forward looking, holistic view of GFRC functions will be what provides financial institutions with a competitive advantage
Digital disruption: can banks add interest to others’ ideas?
The high street bank has always been relied upon to be one of those unchanging constants in our lives. Takeovers and scandals have come and gone, but the digital revolution has slowly changed the way financial products are delivered. Today the Internet, mobile devices and financial services have now converged to change the way consumers manage their finances and the way they connect with their bank
How the Internet of Things is helping banks put their customers first
At the SAP Financial Services Forum in London last month, the topic of digital transformation dominated the agenda. From legacy banks with lumbering IT systems to nimble fintech startups, the consensus was clear: The long-standing status quo is simply unsustainable in an increasingly digital economy
Cometh the Digital Bank
The only banking activity that is digital is taking money out of clients’ accounts, which is performed in real-time with 100% consistency. After that the banking journey is far slower and less consistent.
Digital: serve better, not just serve more
Look at most technology initiatives around you, most are obsessed with taking the cost out e.g. ATMs, online banking or selling more e.g. marketing automation, emails. As a business it’s important to manage the cost, but when cost becomes the primary driver, it creates more problems than it solves
Blog: What the Blockchain Can Do for Gift Cards
While the role of bitcoin itself is still in question, there is a growing industry consensus that the blockchain—bitcoin’s underlying technology—may become to value, what the Web has been to information. And, the gift card industry may be the first to reap the benefits.
Reinforcing supply chain links
Despite the squeeze on capital created by the increased global regulatory burden, treasurers must still provide ample working capital for daily commercial flows, with minimum damage to their balance sheets. At the same time, the continuing rise in cross-border trade – frequently with relatively unknown and distant markets – increases exposure to geo-political and environmental risks. In such an environment, and particularly in light of post-crisis sensibilities, liquidity is more of a concern than ever, both to lubricate the daily machinations of trade and to act as a buffer for potential financial or supply-related shocks
Blog: Fighting Fraud Starts with Common Sense on the Front Lines
Some cybercriminals are geniuses, I’m sure, but my recent personal experience with fraud suggests there is a gaping chasm between the promises of high-tech fraud-prevention methods and the existing, low-tech reality.
Caught on the defensive: why the financial sector needs to reevaluate its approach to cyber risk
Contrary to popular belief, the financial sector is now far more aware and better prepared for cyber attacks. The Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report, issued 1 July, states that threat awareness has grown exponentially and the sector is leading efforts to combat cybercrime. Perhaps this isn’t surprising given 90% of large businesses across the sector had suffered a malicious attack over the past year. But what is worrying is that the financial sector is falling into a familiar trap: by focusing so much on defence, it has failed to make provisions for an effective recovery
Biometrics and authentication – a new world of possibilities
With governments, retailers, banks and (not least) consumers increasingly crying out for a means of confirming someone’s identity beyond any doubt, the search for a common, international standard of payment authentication is in full flow.
Cloud – not just the remit of the financial technology start-up
Over the past few years the financial industry has started to reinvent how it operates. Organisations are changing the way they serve their potential and existing customers, while maintaining the high levels of compliance and security that their customers and regulators require. The technologies available today mean that financial services organisations aren’t constrained in the way they once were. They can now access secure and compliant technology, on-demand, in the cloud which is helping them to create new ways to bring value to customers. But not all financial institutions have been able to take advantage of these technologies in the same way as newer entrants to the market have
Clearing the path to BPO adoption for international trade finance banks
The release in 2013 of Universal Rules for Bank Payment Obligation by the International Chamber of Commerce effectively endorsed and formalised the structure for international trade finance processes. Despite this, the volume of completed BPO transactions remains low
Viewpoint: Canada’s Digital Privacy Act Receives Royal Assent, but Breach Notification Provisions Lag Behind
It’s now law, but not all of the act is in force yet.
Viewpoint: Amendments to Canada’s AML Legislation: What’s New and What’s Next
Regulated entities that verify identity in connection with the issuance of stored value cards may find more flexibility in the principle-based approach to identity verification outlined in the proposed regulations.
