The eye-watering amounts of money banks spend on technology are legendary – and largely inflated according to research that shows that they are paying far higher margins on significant parts of their budget than other industry sectors .
At the SAP Financial Services Forum in London last month, the topic of digital transformation dominated the agenda. From legacy banks with lumbering IT systems to nimble fintech startups, the consensus was clear: The long-standing status quo is simply unsustainable in an increasingly digital economy
A new venture plans to create a multi-asset, multi-currency institutional payment and settlements infrastructure based on blockchain technology. Called SETL, the venture is backed by Peter Randall, former chief executive at Chi-X, the multilateral trading facility that is now part of BATS, and Anthony Culligan, founder of peer-to-peer bitcoin trading site Roolo.
As part of its expansion into IT services, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has partnered with 11 banking IT solution providers to establish an open platform ecosystem for the finance industry.
The only banking activity that is digital is taking money out of clients’ accounts, which is performed in real-time with 100% consistency. After that the banking journey is far slower and less consistent.
The Plato Partnership, a consortium of asset managers and broker-dealers working to build a non-profit equities trading utility in Europe, has chosen the London Stock Exchange’s Turquoise subsidiary as its preferred partner, and the two companies announced they are exploring a “commercial collaboration”.
Look at most technology initiatives around you, most are obsessed with taking the cost out e.g. ATMs, online banking or selling more e.g. marketing automation, emails. As a business it’s important to manage the cost, but when cost becomes the primary driver, it creates more problems than it solves
Ten financial services startups have been chosen by startup accelerator Startupbootcamp FinTech to participate in its annual London program, which seeks to find the best new companies in financial services and bring them to market. Notable themes among the finalists include Bitcoin and the blockchain, big data, algorithms, cloud computing and social networking.
Some of the top banking industry associations may be joined together, amalgamated or otherwise merged, following the publication of the Financial Services Trade Association Review this month. The move poses both risks and potential benefits.
BNP Paribas has become a direct participant in CHAPS, the UK’s same day high-value electronic payment system, the 22nd bank to join in this role. More are expected to join by the end of 2016. As a direct participant, the bank can directly send and receive irrevocable, guaranteed sterling payments with same day finality, rather than through a third-party.
Apple Pay has launched in the UK without the participation of HSBC and Barclays, two of the UK’s largest retail banks.
A new global innovation centre in Madrid promises to illuminate the uses of Big Data for banks and financial institutions. Built by EY (formerly Ernst & Young), the centre is part of a $500 million investment in analytics by the company.
iPhone devices account for more than one in three mobile transactions, and are used for 10% of all global online transactions, according to new figures published by payment specialist Adyen.
Visa Europe says that uptake of contactless payments in Europe continues to climb with more than one billion transactions made in the last year. Visa cardholders spent €1.6 billion in March 2015 alone – a three-fold increase over the same period in 2014.
Popmoney, Dwolla, Square Cash, Funding Circle, Venmo, Nutmeg, Transferwise, Stellar, Kabbage … this is not a list of the latest box office hits or some weird shopping list, but a handful of the emergent FinTech companies that are sprouting up everywhere like wild mushrooms. These companies are, to a certain extent, beginning to reshape and […]
Financial systems vendor Infosys is setting aside $10 million for Irish start-ups in the wake of being selected as a strategic partner by the Allied Irish Banks financial services group. Infosys will also set up a facility in Dublin to house up to 200 staff, including some transferring from AIB.
It seems not a day goes by without seeing those three little letters and five numbers – ISO 20022 – appearing in headlines or articles. But hang on a minute, what’s all the commotion about? It’s just another message format that I need to make sure my systems can handle, right?
Velocimetrics, a developer of real-time business flow performance monitoring and analysis solutions, has expanded into the payments area with a new system developed from a custom solution built for a client.
EBA Clearing has published a blueprint document spelling out high-level business requirements for the pan-European instant payment infrastructure it hopes to start piloting in 2017 following consultation with a task force composed of more than 20 representatives of EBA Clearing service users.
Chris Larsen, chief executive of Ripple Labs, talks about his concept of the Internet of Value, and why his company is not a disruptor …
The global financial crisis devastated the reputation of the UK banking industry and it is not hard to understand why public trust in banks is at a low ebb. Since 2008, there have been at least five major scandals involving one or more banks operating in the UK, writes Peter Duffy Along with the reputational damage […]
Challenger UK retail bank Atom has received its licence from the Bank of England, meaning it will now be able to go ahead with plans to launch later this year. The bank will add competition to the UK retail banking sector, which until 2010 had not seen a single new entrant for 150 years.
The afternoon sessions at the Banking Technology Forum 2015 focused on mobile payments, the data dilemma, cyber-security and regulation with speakers from Zapp, GSMA, EY and many others
There is a nuclear revolution going on in banking and payments with new digital challenger banks like Atom and Starling seeking to displace established banks that are themselves turning to real-time payment infrastructures to retain customers and under regulatory pressure to open up to FinTech competition from mobile players and payment service providers (PSPs). Crypto-currencies, cyber-security and other tech challenges were also addressed at the Banking Technology Forum 2015
Corporate users are increasingly adopting mobile payments, according to figures from HSBC, which expects usage of its HSBCnet Mobile corporate banking platform to double over the next 18 months, reaching $100 billion in payments.
Banking by mobile phone and tablet has become the primary way UK customers manage their finance, according to new research published by the British Bankers Association.
For the new banks now is the chance to disrupt the banking industry. No legacy systems or existing processes or old thinking – they can jump straight to the new. Except, of course, those new banks that are being spun out of existing banks, where that infrastructure, IT and operations are supported by the current systems of the existing bank …
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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?
The vast majority of payments worldwide are still made in cash. But if mobile were to combine e-commerce with proximity payment, that could be a problem for banks. One potential solution is tokenisation.
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.
Deutsche Bank plans to open three innovation labs as part of its €1 billion investment in digital initiatives over the next five years. The bank has partnered with different technology partners for each of the Deutsche Bank Labs and will be working Microsoft in Berlin, HCL in London and IBM in Silicon Valley.
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.
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 […]
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.
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.
