ECS powers Bangladeshi AB Bank ATM expansion
Bangladeshi bank AB Bank has chosen ElectraCard Services to run its ATM network and process credit and debit cards, as the bank ramps up its drive to increase financial inclusion in the country.
Retail Banking
Changing banking for good: aspiration or opportunity?
The possibility of jail for miscreant top bankers has hit the headlines following publication of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards final report, a compendium of all that is considered wrong with both banks and the regulator …
Spain’s Banco Sabadell offers mobile cash withdrawal
Spanish bank Sabadell has released a mobile app that lets consumers withdraw cash without a debit card.
The financial services production line: improving the customer journey
Customers expect their interactions to be as short, and as easy as possible, with a satisfactory outcome. This ideal customer experience can be achieved through a combination of the right strategy, the right resources, the right workforce skills and supporting tools and technology . But so many firms still fail to get it right
Meeting the Needs of the Social Customer
While a child as young as nine years old can use Facebook and Twitter (despite rules saying users should be over 13), multi-million dollar financial service companies often fall behind in their adoption of social media.
The future of payments: beware of the dud?
The financial services sector needs to be wary of payments solutions that may be solving phantom problems that are of little relevance to the consumer, according to speakers at the Experian payments conference in London on Tuesday.
Doubts cloud UK Treasury retail competition plans
UK Treasury officials and senior bank representatives showed diverging views over the future of retail banking at an event hosted by Experian in London yesterday, revealing differences of opinion about how best to reform the sector.
Nationwide installs NCR anti-fraud tools on its ATMs
Nationwide Building Society has brought in a new tool from ATM maker NCR designed to protect its customers against card-skimming, a type of fraud in which criminals steal customer data from ATMs.
Taking ethical banking global
In early 2009, soon after the global subprime fallout, the official Vatican newsletter published a rather contextual referral for Islamic banking, observing that the ‘ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service‘, writes Riaz Akhtar, senior consultant, […]
Notch one up for the War on Cash
The latest figures from UK retailers show a significant move to debit cards and new mechanisms like PayPal as consumers shy away from cash and credit cards.
Banking on the user-centric experience? Begin with robust data and analytics
The UK retail banking sector is characterised by a continuing lack of competition and resultant limited customer churn between financial services providers. This has made it difficult even for new market entrants to gain market share from long-standing, less popular competitors, due to the inconvenience and complexity involved in switching banks.
Money via email: will Google bring the breakthrough?
The idea of sending money via email is not entirely new. This month, however, a new financial player entered this arena: Google announced that it will integrate Google Wallet into Gmail.
Tearing up the financial services value chain
Traditional finance is not as we once knew it. The internet has completely disrupted the financial services value chain. The banks are struggling to keep up with advancing technology. Understanding mobile, cloud computing, social media, big data and how to utilise each capability are key challenges for the banks to overcome.
Swift Innotribe names Singapore startup challenge finalists
Swift’s innovation-focused spin-off Innotribe has announced the five Singapore finalists for its global startup challenge, which aims to help innovative new companies in financial services to develop their ideas and transform them into working businesses.
Digital progression in retail banking: Europe’s banks are not fully prepared
Across Europe many banks feel unprepared for the next phase of the ‘digital revolution’, while factors such as expensive compliance regulations, poor data management and outdated systems are constraining them from implementing new solutions
eToro prepares to bring social investing to Britain
Social investment network eToro is to open up shop in the UK, having won approval from new regulator the FCA this month. Founded in 2007, eToro is a social trading network that aims to revolutionise the way retail investors and high net-worth individuals connect with the market.
Oschadbank Ukraine adopts online and mobile banking tools
Ukraine’s Oschadbank has installed a remote banking service that it says will help it to create a single ‘payment ecosystem’ that covers cards, security, payments and transfers.
Can branches survive in a cashless future?
Two different visions of the future of retail financial services did battle at the Building Societies Association annual conference in Harrogate this week , revealing a dilemma facing UK building societies.
FIS picks up four-year outsourcing deal at Sainsbury’s
Bank has named FIS as its technology partner to provide a technology platform in a fully-hosted outsourcing deal that will run for the next four years.
Building a better society
In the debate about the future of UK retail banking, the role of the building society is often overlooked, but technological change is playing to their strengths.
Mobile is there for the taking …
Financial institutions have owned the commercial payment space for centuries, but are now seeing a threat to their incumbency from new technologies that have opened up the industry to other business sectors. Mobile transactions in particular are shaking-up banking.
Video: Brett King, Moven, at International Payments Summit 2013
Brett King, founder of Moven, speaks to Banking Technology editor David Bannister about how banks have to cope with the move to a virtual world and the emergence of what he calls “smarter payments”.
Plan (TS)B back on as Co-op pulls out of Lloyds branch purchase
Lloyds Banking Group says it is well advanced in plans for the separation of branches that it had hoped to sell to Co-op Bank in compliance with a European Commission ruling following the state aid it was given by the UK government.
US banks Heritage and Central Valley adopt Fiserv tools
US banks Heritage Bank and Central Valley Bank have adopted an account processing tool called DNA from financial technology provider Fiserv. Parent company Heritage Financial says the platform’s flexibility will help the banks grow.
Spain: the next generation of payment technology?
The world is embracing digital technology in every area of economic and social activity, including those that appeared impossible to convert to a digital format completely, such as payments.
Beyond a joke
A journalist, a politician and a banker walk into a bar … sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it? Feel free to submit a punchline: personally, I’m starting to think that it would be a very sour joke. With banker-bashing now an established national pastime, the press having spectacularly fouled their own nest […]
State banking: reforming the UK infrastructure
At the beginning of March, George Osborne travelled to the English seaside town of Bournemouth to make a speech at the JP Morgan operations centre there. It wasn’t Henry V’s St Crispin’s Day speech, but it may well go down as a watershed moment in the history of the UK financial services sector. Osborne is […]
Dealing with Generation Y
Banks should pay attention to the needs of a new generation of consumers if they want to secure their business lines for the future, according to Mark Hale, head of payments at KPMG.
Mobile will kill the traditional bank branch says Brett King
Disruptive digital technologies such as mobile and the internet will destroy the established retail banking business models by removing the physical product and replacing it with a digitised bank account, according to Brett King, speaking at the IPS show in London today. “In the old days there was a physical product, and a physical store,” […]
Bank of America launches video banking ATMs
Bank of America has launched a new ATM service that will allow users to have a video conversation with a human teller at the machine.
NCR, MasterCard, ING Bank Slaski pilot contactless ATMs in Poland
Technology company NCR has introduced contactless ATMs in Poland that allow customers to withdraw cash without inserting a card, through a joint project with MasterCard and ING Bank Slaski.
Competition stirs ATM revolution
A new generation of ATMs that offer customers more personalised services will provide a core tool for increasing levels of banking competition, according to a new report by business consultancy Navigant.
PFM: looking after the pennies
Personal financial management tools have spluttered in and out of fashion, but a combination of mobile, tablet and internet banking uptake may mean their time has come, Recent years have seen the emergence of a plethora of PFM tools, each of which purports to be the best way to keep track of your finances.
Online banking use drops as mobile use doubles finds Accenture study
Banks in the UK and Ireland need to adjust to changing consumer behaviour as customers cut back on the amount of time they spend banking online and visiting bank branches, according to new research by Accenture.
FSA’s swansong opens a fast track for new entrant banks
In future, the possibility of a bank failure will be accepted as a normal market process, and barriers to entry for new start-ups, including a removal of capital requirement obstacles, will be removed, the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England have confirmed.
Resistant to digital banking? Consumers have never demanded it more.
In today’s multi-channel age, banks cannot afford to focus all their efforts on a single digital strategy any more than solely on the branch experience – the winners will be those that can see beyond channel-specific efforts and provide a truly integrated offering.
Polish bank ramps up mobile payment capability with HP/Accumulate technology
PKO Bank Polski has added a mobile payment service that covers all payment situations using the Mobile Everywhere platform from Stockholm-based Accumulate.
Mobile bill payments to grow rapidly and migrate to tablets
Almost 200 million mobile users will be making bill payments via their mobile by 2017, according to research. According to Juniper Research, there is a growing user acceptance of ‘push’ mobile banking and a sharp rise in tablet adoption that will drive users of transactional tablet banking services. The report also finds that, adoption of […]
Banking on digital solutions to build trust and innovation
Rising to the challenge of reconnecting with customers, rebuilding trust and renewing the banking experience, banks are starting to explore digital technologies and solutions.
Competition and fair play dominate retail banking debate
Reforms to the UK’s retail banking industry will help bring greater competition and consumer choice – but more needs to be done, according to delegates at the Westminster Business Forum on the future of retail banking in London this week.
