The World Federation of Exchanges has set up a Cyber Security Working Group with a “mission to aid in the protection of the global capital markets” in the wake of a number of attacks on international exchanges over the past few years.
Bank of Beirut has gone live on Misys Sophis Value platform, which the bank says will help it increase its STP rate, manage trade repository and cross-asset collateral and margin, and better interact with Lebanon’s other banks.
Italian CSD Monte Titoli will connect to T2S via Colt and SIA, rather than via Swift, as the two companies vie for business ahead of the June 2015 go live date.
Bitcoin is more traceable but less regulated, less expensive but more volatile, and more decentralised but less accountable, than a regular currency. Feeling confused? That’s not the half of it, according to Ernst & Young.
Turkey’s Garanti Bank and mobile operator Turkcell have partnered with Visa Europe in a deal aimed at bringing the Turkcell mobile wallet to more consumers in Turkey.
According to Manpower, one of the largest personnel firms worldwide, job prospects in the UK finance sector “look strong heading into 2014 with a Net Employment Outlook of +10%”.
Smaller regional banks may want a single-dealer FX platform; unfortunately, they’re not cheap, so UK technology company Caplin Systems is targeting regional banks that want a single-dealer FX platform without building it themselves.
Financial crime specialist Fiserv has just launched its Financial Crime Risk Management platform, which aims to help financial institutions to ward off financial crime and slash their risk.
The Banking Industry Architecture Network has gained its first member in the Middle East with the addition of Commercial Bank of Qatar to its roster.
European equities clearing houses EMCF and EuroCCP have completed their merger transaction and chosen a new name for the merged company, following the final approval by Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche to the group’s shareholder organisations the DTCC and BATS Chi-X Europe.
Sapient Global Markets has launched a close of business reporting service that it says will help capital and commodity markets trading firms to meet regulation at lower cost.
A new role for CIOs in the banking sector was highlighted at the recent Gartner Symposium: to maintain their future relevance and position, they need to be seen as consultants in the technology space, not just providers.
BNY Mellon has added a link to Bloomberg to its AccessEdge investment management service, which the bank says will help clients to better manage their collateral.
As Europe’s post-trade infrastructure is subjected to increasing levels of regulation, CSDs will be forced to change their business models to stay alive, custodians will be forced to seek alliances to find economies of scale, and brokers will have to outsource parts of their mid and back office processes to stay in the game, according to analyst firm Celent.
The group of banks holding a controlling interest in SIA, the Italian payments processor and systems developer, have reduced their ownership in a sale to a consortium of investment funds led by Fondo Strategico Italiano.
NCR is “fundamentally and permanently changing” financial services its financial services business with a £1.6 billion acquisition of Digital Insight, a Californian on-line and mobile banking solutions provider. It has also bought UK-based fraud prevention company Alaric.
An IT problem that left customers of RBS and its Natwest and Ulster Bank subsidiaries unable to use their accounts yesterday evening was described as “unacceptable” by a bank spokeswoman. For three hours – on what was expected to by the largest online shopping day of the year, dubbed “Cyber Monday” – the banks’ customers […]
Euroclear UK and Ireland is planning to shorten its settlement cycle to T+2 from October next year, bringing its operations into line with clearing in Germany and Russia, which already operate T+2.
Ghana. The word means ‘warrior king’, but it also describes a booming country of 24 million people living on the coast of West Africa. It is here that three African financial institutions – City Investments Company, NDK Financial Services and The Royal Bank – are turning to new technology to realise their plans.
Standard Chartered and Agricultural Bank of China have launched renminbi-denominated clearing services in the UK in a deal that reflects the ongoing internationalisation of the currency.
Is there an industry more obsessed with fads than banking?. Maybe it’s because it is such a follow-the-leader industry. Perhaps it’s because banking is a very me-too business with few (if any) real brand distinctions. Or is it simply that senior management is so obsessed with the needs of shareholders.
Bank algos may superficially appear to be well-tested – but the process may be open to any number of unexpected flaws, according to Steve Wilcockson, industry manager at big data specialist firm MathWorks.
Santander, Nationwide and Halifax have gained the most from the UK’s account switching service, while traditional banking names Barclays, HSBC Lloyds & TSB and NatWest have lost out, according to new figures released by advisory firm TNS.
RBS has confirmed that it is to launch V.me by Visa, the digital wallet built by Visa Europe. The decision follows a pilot programme, and will mean that RBS follows in the footsteps of Nationwide Building Society, which has just become the first UK high street brand to roll out the wallet to its customers.
Online retailers have become sophisticated at observing customer behaviour, and then marketing based on the individual’s inclinations and past actions. Now, banks are starting to do it too. That could lead to some interesting scenarios, according to Charles Radclyffe, chief executive officer at business intelligence consultancy BIPB.
Enlightened buy-side firms are facing the challenges of high-touch regulation, fragmented liquidity and ongoing cost pressures head on and developing new business models and approaches at every stage of their workflow.
With the rise in mobile payments and wallets, cash is dead and so is the ATM business, right? Not according to the ATM manufacturers, who are all being remarkably sanguine.
Russian bank Tinkoff Credit Systems has become the latest financial institution to launch a mobile wallet service, which is due to go live on 1 December 2013. The new wallet will target Russia and will be available on both Android and Apple iOS devices.
Fintech vendor Volante Technologies has launched its T2S Accelerator, which is designed to help financial services firms to prepare for the T2S settlement platform.
Financial software giant FIS is sitting in the middle of the move to mobile, with its customers serving 21 million users. Doug Brown, senior vice president, e-banking, says that’s just the beginning.
Regulators should consider carefully the implications of their actions, and not be too hasty to censure or restrict trading activity on dark pools, according to a report released by analyst firm Celent this week. The findings have been supported by senior financial services executives at Fidessa, who have called for investor choice to be maintained.
Staff at Metro Bank don’t have sales targets – instead, they are incentivised to enhance the customer experience, says Craig Donaldson, chief executive at Metro Bank. The bank is hoping this approach will pay off as it continues its campaign to win over the UK high street with the launch of a new branch at Cheapside in the heart of London.
Finland’s Aktia Bank has begun staff training on a new Temenos T24 core banking system that it plans to start implementing next year with an expected go-live date in 2015
India’s first women-only bank has launched in Mumbai and six other Indian cities, offering a service aimed at increasing financial inclusion for women in one of the world’s most populous countries.
IntercontinentalExchange is to acquire Singapore Mercantile Exchange, including the venue’s clearing house, in a deal that will give it a foothold in Asia for the first time. SMX offers futures for metals, currencies, energy and agricultural commodities.
A UK technology company has created a banking app that promises to help customers keep track of their finances at a glance, interfacing with the Pebble smartwatch which launched launched in January 2013.
Three independent UK building societies – Ipswich, Loughborough and Dudley – have agreed to use a new software as a service solution from Unisys to handle their mortgage and savings accounts. The deal represents the latest move in a series of steps by the UK’s building society sector to adopt cloud platforms.
Swift’s head of banking talks about how the industry co-operative plans to build services based the data flowing through its interbank messaging systems.
Separating customer billing from core systems can have dramatic effects on the bottom line – a study by Boston Consulting Group at one bank found that 17% of clients were unprofitable.
The wisdom of emerging market exchange deals was a subject of controversy at the Mondo Visione exchange forum in London on Wednesday, with some participants lambasting such deals as “not worth the air miles they were written on”. Others had a more positive view.
