Industry Comment


The digital wealth opportunity

With the recent pension reforms opening up a plethora of investment options, financial services providers need to capitalise on the opportunity to create a value-led digital customer proposition

Blog: There Aren’t Enough Startups

Forget the hand-wringing over a possible crash in Silicon Valley from a tech startup bubble-burst. What we need are more startups to feed deep-pocketed corporations starved for innovation.

Blog: Nothing More Social

Looking ahead for Facebook, the particular opportunities with cross-border workers’ remittances are enormous … Who’s more interested in pictures of loved ones than the remote worker who is supporting her family? Who’s more interested in ‘status updates’?”

Tomorrow’s digital banking will always be a journey, never a destination

To maintain growth in our globalised, always-connected and increasingly regulated world, banks need to use digital assets and capabilities to create new value propositions for their customers, we know. The problem is how? And what is the best way of doing so in the face of what some worry could be a complete fracturing of the market due to the rise of non-traditional competition from possible banks like a Google or an Amazon?

Collaborating to fast-track the benefits of a real–time ecosystem

Immediate payments have been available for some time now. The UK led the way with the launch of the Faster Payments Service in 2008 and other countries have followed, including Sweden, Singapore and Mexico. Real-time technology is fundamental to any mobile payments initiative and immediacy is the new norm of the digital age. Other countries can learn from the UK experience to avoid pitfalls and realise the benefits sooner.

Cross-border payments: the final mile in the developing world

There are two major trends in the cross-border payments world: an explosive growth in the number of payments between developed and developing countries, and the fact that governments, regulators and commercial actors increasingly favour payments being executed in local currency and discourage the use of US dollars to settle local.

An age of enlightenment: the future of conduct risk management

In the wake of the financial crisis, the industry has been hit hard by an almost continuous stream of conduct related issues and fines; including PPI, Libor, and more recently, Forex fixing. With high levels of media and political exposure, the industry has seen its reputation suffer

Blog: The SXSW Reminder for Payments Startups

Although it’s great to see so many new players emerge at every SXSW gathering, entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs should keep in mind some basic but key considerations when it comes to launching a new payments product. Come to think of it, this mantra isn’t bad advice for payments veterans either.

An industry imperative: Swift FIN to ISO 20022 migration

As international regulators demand more detail from banks on payments to individuals and companies, the first order of business is to ensure compliance with mandates. Migrating Swift MT payment formats to ISO 20022 will allow the industry to shape the transformation of payment messaging standards rather than have others shape it – but there is a need to set timelines for implementation or cede control.

Using technology to define e-payments

The current international payments market is hugely fragmented, with multiple networks and mechanisms operating independently of each other and it is clear that new market entrants have the opportunity to shape and define the future of this industry

Blog: More than 100 Banks under Silent Siege

Last month, the New York Times revealed that a group of hackers infiltrated more than 100 banks and e-payment systems worldwide. The attack is particularly disturbing because the attackers were able to avoid detection, even while ATMs were randomly dispensing cash, for two years.

Regulations raise new questions about industry standards

Financial market regulations across the globe are increasingly focusing on risk management. This includes ensuring it is clear who firms are trading with and for, and confirming that firms can identify the instruments being traded. As a result, the field of reference data is increasingly held under the regulatory microscope and that lens extends to the standards used to identify financial instruments, writes Chris Pickles.

Don’t be the slowest zebra in the herd

At lunchtime on the African savannah, you needn’t be the fastest zebra to survive –you need to avoid being the slowest. You can only be sure you’re not the slowest zebra if you can see what the rest of the herd are up to. Efforts in software security to share information on attacks, responses, and best practices are important to understanding what the herd is doing …

Securing the future of NFC?

Ever since the deployment of Apple’s NFC solution – ‘Apple Pay’, and the various competitors launches since, there’s been speculation around what the future holds for consumer payments and how security will impact it

Don’t delegate cyber risk management responsibility

To counter cyber-crime, an organisation must have a person providing leadership and oversight in the strategic planning, execution, and assessment of security strategies, policies, procedures and guiding practices. Ensuring compliance with legal obligations in respect of information and information security is also a key responsibility. What many companies need is a chief information security officer

Breaking down BCBS 239

January’s Basel Committee on Banking Supervision report on banks’ progress towards BCBS 239 compliance threw up a telling contradiction. While global systemically important banks “are increasingly aware of the importance” of the BCBS 239 project, their sense of preparedness has decreased. In 2013, 10 of the 31 eligible banks reported they would be unable to comply fully by the 2016 deadline. This year, that number rose to 14. It is understandable that there is more work to be done, but how is it that the G-SIBs are moving backwards?

Hybrid skills shortage threatens growth say international bank chiefs

Limited availability of key skills is seen as a threat to growth prospects by 70% of chief executives in the financial services sector. A global survey by PwC shows that the disruptive impact of new technology and new competition in the sector has created new challenges for employers looking to hire in the months ahead. Concerns centre on the shortage of employees with the right combination of skills, with more than three quarters of executives looking for a broader range of skills when hiring than they did in the past.

Blog: Trends in Emerging Technologies

Younger users are setting the stage for a payments future of wearables and mobile. See what the latest consumer research from FIS reveals.

Blog: 5 Payments Trends to Watch in 2015

The U.S. migration to EMV chip technology, developments in mobile and contactless payments in retail and transit, and a focus on layered payments security, were the headlining themes from the annual Smart Card Alliance Payments Summit.

Can we trust cryptocurrencies?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a currency system seeking successful adoption must be in want of trust. Trust that a representation of value, such as a paper note, is backed by real value or a genuine obligation to repay; trust that those representations will be accepted by others as such; and trust that the representations of value are not counterfeit.

The Theory of Everything – and TCA

In the Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything the lead character Stephen Hawking lays out his vision of a single equation that explains all physical aspects of the universe. This rarefied scientific debate has echoes in the more prosaic world of Transaction Cost Analysis in financial markets, where the availability of more granular data coupled with pressure from regulators is driving a whole new wave of research and analysis, says ITG’s Michael Sparkes.

The evolving relationship between banks and IT suppliers

Customers are looking for organisations that care about their needs in a way that is personalised, responsible, transparent and – of course – secure. In recognising this, banks are stepping up to the challenge and just as technology is at the heart of this business, so their relationship with IT suppliers is a key component of this value shift.

Code Halos: the key to improving banks’ Net Promoter Score

A company’s Net Promoter Score has become an important measure of customer satisfaction. It asks them a simple question: how likely they are to recommend that company to a friend. The responses split the audience into three groups: promoters, passives and detractors. By subtracting the percentage of detractors from the promoters, banks obtain their NPS. NPS has been a valued metric in many consumer-facing industries for several years, but its importance and influence in financial services is growing fast.

Sharing threat intelligence is challenging the industry, but it’s the only way forward

Protecting your banking infrastructure from cybercriminals is one of the toughest IT challenges in banking. It keeps getting harder, even though banks are working tirelessly to protect both customers and assets. Attacks are growing in size, and new developments such as the Internet of Things mean attack surfaces are growing, as well as the number of endpoints that can be used to launch attacks.

Blog: Tackling Fraud with Data

Merchants appear to be more apt and capable of leveraging their own data today than the preceding several years. And, they are finding that using this data is more effective in combating fraud than traditional validation services.

Thaw in investment freeze drives tech hires

Technology hiring is on the up, with employment within the industry forecast set to grow at 2.19% this year, nearly five times faster than the UK average, according to the 2015 Salary Guide from specialist recruiter Robert Half.

Banking innovation: a marathon, not a sprint

Britain’s banks have reliably serviced the banking needs of millions of customers for more than a hundred years; providing a safe place to store hard-earned cash, mortgages to buy dream homes, and great interest rates to accumulate savings

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