Citizens Bank signs 5-year managed services deal with IBM
Citizens Bank is moving its back-end technology infrastructure to a managed services environment following the signing of a five-year IT services agreement with IBM.
BankingTech
MiFID II open access to CCPs called into question
As the European Commission’s MiFID II legislation moved towards implementation of technical standards, some of Europe’s national regulators are seriously worried that mandatory open access to CCPs may not be such a good idea. Concerns about the ability to manage risk and the ability to effectively handle data were highlighted by speakers at the IDX FIA conference in London yesterday.
7 Signs You Should Invest In Business Process Automation for financial services
Financial services has come under huge pressure in recent years particularly since the financial crisis. Competition, silo’d business units, efficiency in operation, compliance are just a few key issues being raised. With efficiency and competitiveness hand-in-hand and customer service as a bi-product of this, business process management (BPM), has shown just how this solution has driven cost efficiencies and overall resource efficiencies down.
Swift adds business intelligence for securities market
Swift has formally launched a new business intelligence solution for securities market participants following the completion of an early adopter programme. Watch for Securities is “ready for full scale use” by local and global custodians, investment banks, asset managers and broker/dealers, allowing them to monitor and gain business insights from their network traffic.
Reforms needed to build on Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect success
The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect link has made significant in-roads in the opening of China’s capital markets to international trading but barriers to participation, including restricted trading strategies, introduce risk and create operational complexity. The long-term success of the venture hinges on removing these barriers, according to a study carried out for the DTCC.
McKenna to head standards at Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation
Karla McKenna has been named head of standards at the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation on a year’s secondment from Citi, where she is director of market practice and standards.
EMIR ‘significantly at risk’ of failure warns FIA Europe
Industry association FIA Europe is calling on regulators to make changes to derivatives laws, including amendments to Basel III and MiFIR, as well as EMIR reporting obligations. The association argues that without the changes it is advocating, the viability of some of the new rules will be at risk.
Apple Pay comes to UK next month
Apple Pay will be available in the UK from next month, with eight of the UK’s most established banks and the major credit and debit card networks supporting it – along with Transport for London.
Need for customer focus is driving recruitment in financial services
Demand for improved customer service and new mobile banking and payments services is driving increased hiring in financial services in the UK, with employment prospects 16 percentage points higher than a year ago, according to Manpower Group,
Permanent TSB and Italian bank adopt Wolters Kluwer reporting tools
Irish bank Permanent TSB has chosen a regulatory reporting platform from Wolters Kluwer as part of its measures to cope with Basel III. Belgian bank Banca Monte Paschi Belgio, the Belgian branch of Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has also chosen the same OneSumX regulatory reporting solution.
Banks should know their customers’ digital skills says new report
As consumer adoption of mobile devices and social media increases, banks can’t really rely on standard details such as income, age and geography to serve customers better than their competitors, according to a new report by payments company TSYS and software firm FICO. Instead, they may need to recognise the different kinds of customers based on how they interact with digital technology and tailor their services accordingly.
Destined to fail: bank IT procurement for vendors
The increasing dependence of financial services on technology provides huge opportunity for IT vendors, but it also increases the supplier risk that these firms will carry, so it would be reasonable to expect the procurement process to become more rigorous.
What does this mean for vendors trying to sell into banks and other financial services businesses?
Calypso adds ‘bank-in-a-box’ for capital markets
Treasury and capital markets software specialist Calypso Technology has developed “an industrialised blueprint for reducing complexity and cost in banks”. The Calypso Bank-in-a-Box was developed in collaboration with a group of global banks to consolidate and document their processes and systems in the face of market and regulatory changes.
McObject distributor looks to crowdfunding in Europe
MCO Europe, exclusive distributor of the McObject high performance database financial markets in the UK and Europe, is raising investment through Crowdcube, the UK’s largest crowdfunding site, to fund growth and expansion. McObject’s eXtremeDB Financial Edition high-performance database is used for trading and risk management by banks, fund managers, brokers and data vendors.
Security fears ‘putting people off’ contactless mobile payments
Nearly half of smartphone users do not want to use their device to make contactless payments, mostly over fears about security, according to a survey.
Markit acquires Information Mosaic
Financial information company Markit has agreed to acquire Information Mosaic, a software provider for corporate actions and post trade securities processing. Information Mosaic’s enterprise software will allow Markit to extend its corporate actions service to support the full corporate actions trade lifecycle and enhance Markit’s asset servicing solutions. Michele Trogni, managing director, cohead of Solutions […]
Take the Banking Platforms Quiz and win an iPad
In the digital age, banks must adapt to new processes and customer expectations quickly. Yet many banks still operate legacy batch systems and have not yet transformed their ITO infrastructure. In association with SAP, Banking Technology is conducting a survey of the number of different systems banks have, and how long it takes for various transactions to occur.
EBRD to support Turkish capital market reform with 10% stake in Borsa Istanbul
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is in talks to acquire a 10% stake in Borsa Istanbul to support Turkey’s efforts to reshape its capital markets.
Swift extends KYC compliance services to securities users
Swift is extending its Know Your Customer compliance service into the securities area, making it available to fund distributors and custodians.
Deutsche Börse announces partnership with Chinese exchanges
Deutsche Börse plans a joint venture with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange to develop and market Chinese-based financial instruments to investors outside mainland China.
Things ain’t what they used to be
According to Cisco there are 15.5 billion devices connected to the internet, ranging from routers to telemetry devices, power grid controllers, smartphones and perhaps the odd toaster. Other than in retail situations this so-called Internet of Things does not immediately seem to have much to do with the financial services industry. John Bates thinks otherwise, and sets out why in his recent book Thingalytics.
FCA sets out terms for probe into corporate and investment banking
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s study into competition in investment and corporate banking will focus on choice, transparency, bundling and cross-subsidisation in debt and equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and acquisition financing. It will also consider links between competition in these primary market services and related activities such as corporate lending and broking, and ancillary services.
Capture Today’s Banking Customer Leveraging Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Improve your customer’s experience with Hybrid IT Banks must compete fiercely for new customers and to hold onto the ones they have. That means consistently meeting customer expectations, which is no easy task given the speed with which those expectations are evolving, particularly in terms of Internet and mobile interactions. Banks need to deploy technology […]
Leeds Building Society targets “customer engagement” with HP deal
Leeds Building Society is to revamp its customer engagement tools through a ten-year deal with HP Enterprise Services, which will encompass a number of independent software vendors working on different parts of the business. The deal builds on the earlier deal between the two firms in 2013, which focused on the building society’s core banking platform.
Daiwa Securities switches post-trade platforms as Hong Kong gears up for growth
Japanese investment bank Daiwa Securities has transferred its Hong Kong business onto a new post-trade processing platform built by specialist vendor Torstone. The bank says the move is part of a long-term plan to revamp its back-office technology in the city, as Hong Kong steps up its role in the integration of China’s capital markets into the global mainstream.
Banking at a digital crossroads
The Banking industry is at a digital crossroad as it faces both a wave of technology companies poised to disaggregate every facet of the business and a changing consumer that is increasingly demanding that banks products match the state-of-the-art digital services they are receiving from other industries
FIX protocol dominates in post-trade workflow
Three-quarters of market participants use the FIX protocol for confirmation and affirmation of their transactions, according to a new survey released by financial industry standards body the FIX Trading Community.
The Irresistible Rise of Real-Time Payments
Whatever label you use, instant, immediate, faster or real-time payments have moved to the top of the agenda at every payments-related event so far this year and are sure to be high on the agenda when Swift’s annual Sibos event lands in Singapore in October. Nearing the halfway mark for 2015, here’s a roundup of the stories so far …
Good news for graduates as financial sector hiring continues to grow
Concerns over a growing skills gap and lack of future talent are the biggest worries among financial firms’ recruiters, leading to a renewed focus on graduate hiring.
Efforts to harmonise real-time payments implementation are up against the clock
The window of opportunity to harmonise international real-time payments implementations is rapidly closing as plans for domestic systems move ahead according to panellists at the EBAday conference this week.
Empowering transactions: from bank regulation to customer-centric innovation
Regulation has the potential to accelerate the payments innovation sparked by the evolution of internet and mobile technologies. By giving customers the reassurance that payments can be made safely and efficiently, regulation allows providers to develop new and exciting ways to serve customers
Indian bank launches WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter mobile payments
India’s Axis Bank has released a mobile payments service called Ping Pay, which allows customers to send money to each other using Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, email or phone number. The bank says the service will help it to reach young consumers and smartphone users.
Cyber security tops DTCC risk barometer
US post-trade utility the DTCC is reporting that almost half of the respondents in its most recent Systemic Risk Barometer Study cited cyber security as their top concern, making it the single largest fear and doubling its rating compared to just 12 months ago.
The next phase of outsourcing: change the bank with digital transformation
Financial services firms have always faced market volatility, but new challenges are forcing most to rethink their traditional operating models in favor of outsourcing. The expanded use of outsourcing models will help improve revenue and create new business opportunities
UK card transactions top 1 billion per month as debit card use soars
UK consumers are spending more on their payment cards than ever before, with over a billion transactions in February, according to newly-released figures provided by the UK Cards Association.
May 2015: Retail Revolution
Revolution Retail How consumer behaviour is changing banking The next frontier for digital banking As real-time payment systems proliferate around the world, attention is turning to the issues of cross-border payments Destined to fail IT services suppliers need to understand the peculiarities of bank procurement processes. A former insider spills the beans Conference reports News and views […]
Halifax doubles mobile user base in a year
UK retail bank Halifax reports that two-thirds of its customers are now using mobile to login, doubling the number of mobile banking sessions compared to a year ago.
Industry bodies look to harmonise ISO 20022 real-time payment implementation
Global interoperability of real-time payments systems will require harmonisation of market practices and standards. A group of international clearing houses, banks, vendors, payments associations and other parties have proposed setting up an activity to look at how to deliver this under the aegis of the International Standards Organisation – and set an ambitious target of collating an initial variant of ISO 20022 usage guidelines for real-time payments before the summer.
Innotribe names South African Start-up Challenge finalists
The Innotribe Start-up Challenge attendees selected the five finalists from the African leg of the Start-up Challenge to compete at Sibos Singapore in October. The showcase was held yesterday alongside Swift’s African Regional Conference.
US lags on EMV card adoption as October deadline looms
EMV card usage is increasing almost everywhere in the world as a billion new EMV cards enter circulation – but the US continues to lag behind, despite the fact that liability shifts to the retailer from 15 October this year.
