Banks from around the world were in attendance at the 16th Annual Banking Technology 2015 Awards ceremony in London last night to hear the names of the winners that had been selected from more than 120 entries, all of which were submitted to the scrutiny of an expert panel of judges. Hopeful entrants travelled from as far […]
There is no doubt that IT and IT projects are becoming increasingly critical to banks’ success, yet a recent survey by Accenture found that only 6% of the directors of the world’s largest banks have any IT experience …
The UK’s payments system infrastructure is widely recognised as market-leading. However, evolving customer expectations and innovation in the fintech sector dictate that now is no time to rest on laurels. Work must begin today to develop the payments experience that will be taken for granted in 20 years.
The news of major lay-offs to come put a dampener on otherwise good news in the financial sector jobs market in the UK last month. According to the Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor, October saw an across the board increase in both new job opportunities and new job seekers.
Tim Fitzpatrick has been appointed as the new chief executive of CHAPS, the UK’s same day high-value payment system. Currently HSBC’s Global Payments and Cash Management chief operating officer and group head of payment services.
Santander has launched a competition to support startups using distributed ledger technology in financial services. Through its subsidiary InnoVentures, the bank hopes to promote distributed ledger tools that could improve banking processes.
The threat of competition from technology companies, startups and non-banks is causing serious worry to nearly three-quarters of retail banks, causing four-fifths of them to invest in so-called ‘disruptive’ technologies, according to a new study by Infosys and non-profit organisation Efma.
SIBOS Video: Gordon Gray, SunTec
SIBOS Video: Max Speur, SunTec
SIBOS Video: Nanda Kumar, SunTec
Standard Chartered is to invest $3 billion in “strategic opportunities” and its technology infrastructure as part of a wholesale reorganisation of the bank in the wake of a $139 million third-quarter loss. The restructuring will see 15,000 jobs – 17% of its workforce – go over the next three years.
Global regulatory body the Financial Stability Board has released two guidance papers which aim to solve the “too big to fail” scenario and prevent a re-run of the financial crisis by promoting the resolvability of systemically important financial institutions.
Deutsche Börse strengthened its links with mainland China this week with the establishment of a partnership with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange to create new marketplace for the trading of renminbi-denominated offshore products under the new brand of the China Europe International Exchange.
Trade association Efma has appointed Vincent Bastid as its new chief executive, replacing Patrick Desmarès, who is retiring after 12 years in the post.
Deutsche Bank is to shed 9,000 full-time staff and 6,000 external contractor jobs in its global technology and operations infrastructure as it sets out to “modernise its outdated and fragmented IT architecture” and improve control systems.
Eight years on from the global financial crisis, and banks continue to face a growing number of challenges. Many have ceased or significantly reduced proprietary trading, with the resulting reduction in both risk and reward. This period has also seen lower risk appetite among many investors and continuing global competition which has put pressure on profit margins,
Cashfac Technologies, a specialist market leader in bank-to-corporate cash management solutions has launched Cashfac Analytics, a real-time data analysis and reporting module that enables banks and corporates to better understand their cash movements.
SIBOS Interview: Christian Westerhaus, Deutsche Bank
The fact that London’s financial services sector is also a hot spot for technology innovation is not news. In 2014, investment in financial technology firms grew by 136%. Earlier this year, George Osborne identified London’s financial technology sector as a particularly bright spot in the recovering economy – not surprising when you consider the transformational effect that information technology continues to have on the industry
Banks in the UK are increasingly shifting jobs away from London, with the result that while the overall number of banking jobs fell 0.5% between 2013-14, 77 local authorities in the UK saw the number of banking jobs grow faster than in London.
One in three retail banking customers feel their mobile banking app is not as good as online banking through a browser, according to a new study by ecommerce company First Data in the UK. The figures also revealed that more than half still have yet to use a mobile banking app – suggesting that there may be both an unmet demand for more functionality in mobile apps, and a need to convince the remaining consumers of their value.
Several new entries appear in the shortlist of vendors whose products and services have been voted for by Banking Technology readers – and several previous winners re-appear under new ownership following acquisitions.
Banks from around the world are among the candidates on the shortlist for the Banking Technology 2015 Awards, announced today, showing the continuing competitive edge regional institutions are gaining over the large international players through technology.
More transparency is urgently needed to restore trust in the FX industry, according to a new report by foreign exchange MTF LMAX Exchange – but to make that happen, the industry will have to collaborate.
Erik Zingmark, Deputy Head of Transaction Products, and Head of Cash Management, Nordea
SIBOS Interview: Benoit Desserre, Global Head, Payments and Cash Management, Societe Generale
Erik Zingmark, Deputy Head of Transaction Products, and Head of Cash Management, Nordea
Bruno Prigent , Head of Securities Services and Mathieu Maurier, Global Head, Sales Management at Societe Generale
SIBOS Interview: Dr Darryl Twigs, Head of Product Management, SmartStream
The London Stock Exchange Group is planning to launch a new interest rate derivatives venture called CurveGlobal, which initially aims to offer short term interest rate futures. Backed by several banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Société Générale, the new venture is part of the exchange’s long-held ambition to gain traction in the derivatives markets, which have historically been dominated by rivals in continental Europe.
Technology has infiltrated every facet of our lives, fundamentally changing our behaviour patterns and our expectations of what constitutes a good customer experience. The banking sector has not been immune to these changes; the industry has been forced to drastically transform its business processes and services in order to keep up with customers’ expectations. Today, customer satisfaction is judged not by the smile on the face of a cashier, but on the speed with which one can gain mobile access
Competition from financial technology companies and regulatory changes are forcing banks to adopt APIs to provide access to client information, which has many implications across the industry.
A lack of information in securities messages creates problems for financial institutions screening them for regulatory compliance. But if the audience in a session yesterday is representative, only around half of them are screening anyway.
Banks have been quick to participate in the China International Payment System (Cips) and Sibos has provided the perfect opportunity for them to boast of their involvement. The payments infrastructure, which was launched on 8 October, was described as a “milestone” by Helen Yun, managing director and head of financial institutions China, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Speaking during the Developing your transaction business with China session on Tuesday, she said the launch came at the right time, just a few days before Sibos opened.
While much of the focus at this year’s Sibos has been on China, today’s ‘Asean day’ highlights the emergence of the countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean). Many had expected the region’s trade integration to falter during the global financial crisis amid falling export demand. However a new report from Australia’s ANZ bank said the region had “defied the detractors and proved a resilient base for a new cohort of international banks”.
Sluggish economic growth in developed nations means attention is still focused on the growth markets of the Brics nations. As intra-regional trade grows, local knowledge is becoming a valued commodity.
Swift was keen to point out that the newly-launched China International Payment System (Cips) is not a competitor. Prior to the launch of the Chinese payments infrastructure, details of the system were scarce. On Tuesday at Sibos, Philippe Dirckx, managing director, head of markets and initiatives, Asia Pacific, at Swift said he wanted to clear up the idea that Cips was a competitor to Swift.
Disruptive innovation in banking and payments was overwhelmingly coming from China. Established global banks had better watch out or they may soon not have a future …
