FIS has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Brussels-based payments specialist Clear2Pay for some €375 million, saying that the deal will bolster its global payments capabilities.
The increased globalisation of business has opened up new challenges – and opportunities – for companies and the banks that serve them. Corporate treasurers and finance professionals face complexities in the payments arena that range from inconsistencies in local payment processing to new regulations, emerging payment clearing systems and the need to manage geopolitical risk in an ever-expanding array of countries. To address these challenges for their clients, and for themselves, global banks need to invest and innovate to make sure they have the solutions to meet business needs today and in the future.
Corporates want easier connection to their financial institutions – is Swift the answer or do other options exist?
As delegates finalise their plans to attend Sibos in Boston this month, Chris Church, chief executive Americas and global head of securities at Swift, discusses what they can expect
A new app-based social network that uses gamification concepts to train traders and help them to hone their skills has been launched by a former Deutsche Bank trader.
Industry veteran Tom Dalglish has joined SmartStream Technologies as head of transformation services, managing post-trade processing and data management projects for global clients. Initially he will be responsible for managing the back-office transformation programme at an unnamed European bank.
As demand for Islamic banking services continues to rise, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt has overhauled its risk management to better handle the unique needs of ethical banking.
Europe now represents 10% of total Renminbi payments in value worldwide and is leading adoption beyond Asian countries, with four European countries in the top 10, excluding China and Hong Kong, according to Swift. Overall, the RMB strengthened its position as the seventh most used global payments currency and accounted for 1.57% of global payments.
As the global banks grapple with tides of regulation, fines, and a myriad of other post-crisis issues, local Asian institutions are tooling up and stepping in to fill the gaps.
Australian bank Westpac has signed up IBM to assist a major digital banking push in New Zealand. The bank plans to use IBM’s private cloud technology to build mobile services and social media presence.
From Senegal to the Seychelles, and Botswana to Uganda, new demands and new opportunities are emerging in Africa, but there are still challenges
Standard Chartered Bank’s New York business has been ordered to suspend US dollar clearing services to retail clients of the bank in Hong Kong, following an investigation by the New York State Department which determined its transaction monitoring system does not meet anti-money laundering requirements.
Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa exchange has begun a major new project to bring all of its four clearing houses onto a single technology platform. Billed as the “world’s largest clearing project”, the Brazilian derivatives market – one of the world’s largest – has been moved first.
UK banks may lose out to nimbler competitors if they don’t modernise their systems and update their infrastructure, according to a new report by research house TechMarketView.
Capital markets participants may be able to achieve significant cost savings by making greater use of the FIX Protocol, according to a new study by post-trade specialists Alpha Omega Financial Systems.
ACI, the foreign exchange industry body, has called for the adoption of a new Model Code for sell-side and buy-side firms on financial benchmarks, to harmonise codes of conduct and prevent a recurrence of the Libor and other recent rate fixing scandals.
Firms in Hong Kong are ramping up system roll-outs in anticipation of the forthcoming Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, scheduled to go live in mid-October.
But the proposed link will face a number of problems,
One of the most distinguishing features of the current wave of financial innovation is how the innovators are often not banks, but small fintech firms often led by former bank employees.
Most capital markets firms are still not using big data and even those that do often lack a concerted strategy, according to a new report commissioned by Thomson Reuters.
Growth in the volume of debit and credit card purchases in the UK continues to outstrip the growth in value as consumers use their cards more frequently for lower value payments. A threefold increase in contactless payments was a factor in the trend.
Young Asian consumers on motorcycles want to be able to start a transaction while riding and finish it at an ATM. For many, that ability is about to become a reality as ASEAN banks switch to real time core banking systems.
The UK Government is to examine the potential of digital currencies as positive force in the wider economy and as a means of encouraging innovation in financial services.
After a decade of being the ATM maker you’ve never heard of, Diebold is returning to Europe and a year into his tenure as president and chief executive at the firm, Andy Mattes thinks that the company’s profile is about to change.
A Financial Conduct Authority investigation that found banks and brokers are failing to provide best execution highlights the need for more responsibility and education among their buy-side customers.
The reason Europe calls it a regulatory ‘hearing’ is that it is an opportunity to hear views from both regulators and the market. Of course, that’s just part of the experience as many other senses are triggered when 400 people are locked in a basement for 2 days, deprived of connectivity, food and caffeine …
New intraday liquidity reporting tools set out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision could pose a serious challenge for banks, according to a new white paper by Swift.
The London Metal Exchange is working with Colt to launch a new dedicated network interconnecting all its systems including the LME Clear clearing service.
Entries for the Banking Technology Awards 2014 have been open for a while now, but as we move into the last few weeks, this is always a time when we are flooded with questions about the process. By way of response, here are some guidelines based on my experience chairing the judging panel over the past 11 years.
The European Commission wants to bring down the barriers to cloud computing in a move that promises to revolutionise the way transaction banks can serve clients.
London Underground, DLR and Overground trains are to accept contactless payments, following an announcement from Transport for London. The decision comes as mobile operator EE sets out plans to support NFC payments on London Underground, the UK’s biggest building society begins issuing contactless cards to its customers, and Apple explores cooperation with Visa on a potential new mobile wallet.
The UK’s high street banks are failing to satisfy consumers and may be in danger of falling behind the big supermarkets, leaving them vulnerable to competitors, according to a new report by VerintSystems and the Customer Contact Association.
Nordic financial services group Nordea has gone live in Frankfurt and London with a web-based trade finance solution, which it says will help to strengthen its international trade finance business.
Trading technology firm Corvil has launched a new streaming analytics platform which it says will help exchanges, banks, brokers and other trading firms to sweep away the IT failures of the past and learn to better understand the market.
A European financial transaction tax on equities and derivatives trades could be damaging for European liquidity levels and the City of London, but it also looks set to impose serious operational challenges for banks, brokers and their buy-side clients following the failure of a UK appeal to the European Court of Justice earlier this year.
Commissioner Scott O’Malia of the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission has called for continuing international co-operation on market surveillance and warned that current oversight mechanisms are flawed in terms of the data they collect and the way that they analyse it.
Essential parts of the UK retail banking sector lack effective competition and do not meet the needs of personal consumers or SMEs, according to government body the Competition and Markets Authority, which is now planning to launch a full investigation that could last 18 months.
Current account holders in the UK are switching between banks more often than before – but with some customers struggling to see the difference between banks, more needs to be done to make switching worthwhile.
Surprising changes in customer behaviour suggests that banks need to revisit their approach to branch banking and digital services, according to a new study by Accenture.
Milan-based payment processing specialist SIA says that a migration of its systems to the Red Hat Linux environment has led to a 270% reduction in processing times.
Unlike manufacturing companies, which run their operations on a single predominant ERP system supported by a few auxiliary solutions, banks have added layer upon layer of technology, ending up with an unmanageable snarl of systems and applications. Just to put things in perspective, it is estimated that on average global banks have more than 5,000 applications.
