Viewpoint: Enough with the 2016 Predictions—Let’s Think Bigger!
Forget predictions. We’ve got work to do. There are several significant challenges for payments that need to be solved from fixing cross-border payments to making payments disappear.
Industry Comment
Viewpoint: The Future of Payments Is Already Here, So What’s Next?
With more contactless cards in the U.K. than people, the new age of payments is already here. But we’re not done yet, and thanks to biometrics, we could be the next form factors.
Keeping file-based threats out of bank vaults
While mention of bank robberies will often conjure images of masked criminals and high-speed car chases, most modern instances of the crime are being conducted from behind computer screens. In addition to the lure of stealing cash, these criminals are going after banks for valuables such as the personal data of customers, details of mergers and acquisitions between companies and the private tax information of corporations, data is fast becoming an incredibly valuable commodity in its own right
Trust, data, and why marketplace lenders are here to stay
New peer-to-peer platforms that match lenders with borrowers are proving to be more efficient than banks at connecting those with money and to those that need money. Known as marketplace lenders, this new industry is still very much in its infancy, currently representing a tiny proportion of total loans compared to bank lending
Industry Views: 2015 Game-Changers, Priorities for 2016
To kick off the New Year, we asked payments industry thought leaders to tell us what happened in 2015 that will most influence payments in 2016 and to discuss their hottest priorities for the next 12 months. Responses run the gamut from a combined Visa/Visa Europe to compliance, wearables and the impact of Chase Pay.
From training to trendsetting: how institutions reverse the fintech migration
Aspiration doesn’t look like it used to. The face of Eighties ambition was a power dresser, clad in a suit with shoulder pads as they rushed to Wall Street to earn as much as they could, whereas today’s bright young things are more likely to be found sipping lattes at a co-working space in Silicon Valley
Viewpoint: Staying Relevant through Gift Card Innovations
There’s no questioning the popularity and appeal of gift cards—especially during this time of the year. Giving recipients the ability to treat themselves to something they really want or need has become prized among gift buyers. What’s even more exciting is how the concept of gift cards continues to evolve as new brands and card types launch.
Viewpoint: Prepaid Regulations Should Go on a New Year’s Diet
The CFPB needs to return to its original plans on prepaid regulations and put its proposed rules on a New Year’s diet. By issuing rules focusing solely on disclosure, the CFPB could issue guidance earlier in 2016 that would help consumers, prevent access disruptions, and potentially reduce the size of the landfill needed to for the mountains of noncompliant cards and marketing materials.
Blockchain: ushering a new era in fintech
The distributed ledger – the central nervous system of the Bitcoin system – is the most sweeping departure from the long-standing financial bookkeeping practices followed since the codification of the Medici’s double entry accounting system.
2016 – dismantling risk governance silos
If 2015 is to be remembered as the year regulators challenged boards to demonstrate their strong governance over their risk management, 2016 promises something just as important. In fact, 2016 will arguably be a truly momentous year in the world of non-financial risk as it could well become the year that risk governance silos are finally dismantled
Helping millennials chart today’s financial waters
Millennials – those highly sophisticated, tech-savvy men and women born between 1980 and 2000 – present enormous opportunities for banks and other financial institutions. Yet to be successful, these businesses must understand and meet the needs of a generation that grew up having it all, seeing it all, and being exposed to it all since early childhood – and that is no easy task.
Legacy systems – still the big barrier to banking innovation
Outdated legacy IT systems are a major stumbling block for traditional UK high street banks as they look to fight back against their often more agile rivals, widely known as ‘challenger banks’, who unhindered by complex, unwieldy IT infrastructures are typically better positioned to innovate.
Viewpoint: Overcoming Prepaid Debit’s Value Issue
Churn is by far the biggest challenge facing prepaid debit card companies. Issuers can combat it by tapping smartphones and real-time analytics to deliver personalized services through a preferred communication channel.
Viewpoint: EMV’s UX Fail and the Case for Contactless
Poor user experience with EMV could be a boon for contactless cards and NFC mobile payments. But retailers could take immediate steps to improve the UX with contact EMV, starting with cashier education.
Viewpoint: The Payments Landscape: The Friction is Real
When it comes to the payments, there are more choices than sweet treats at Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC (i.e., the world’s largest candy emporium!). The payments landscape is likely to become increasingly confusing and fragmented as retailers ramp up their efforts to influence buying decisions. If we don’t help our members evolve and understand how things are changing, credit unions risk losing the transaction and engagement.
Could banks become our 24/7 personal assistants?
Digital technology is on the verge of transforming banking, in a similar way that Spotify has completely changed the music industry and Netflix has revolutionised broadcast entertainment
Cyber-security will drive New Year jobs boom
Employment prospects in the UK finance and banking sector in the New Year are the brightest in the past three years as high profile data breaches, such as those at TalkTalk and Sony, create a surge in demand for cyber-security experts.
Blockchain Ready?
2015 has been a year of extensive discussion about what role blockchain can play in making processes in the financial services industry more efficient. It has also been a year where both banks and start-ups have been testing whether distributed ledger technology can adequately replace costly legacy systems and improve securities processing, writes Brian Collings. […]
Time to think strategically about Basel capital calculations
As part of the ongoing Basel reforms, the Bank for International Settlements is busy rewriting the rules that govern how much capital banks must maintain in order to mitigate different types of risk. So far the Standardized Approach for Measuring Counterparty Credit Risk Exposures and the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book have garnered the most attention. However, these are just two components of a much larger package of changes to the Basel capital requirements, which banks need to think about holistically and start factoring into their technology programs now
Enhancing global real-time payments: tackling fraud and AML
Quick business successes can be built on the UK’s payment system that will play a key role in encouraging the efforts required to ensure that it achieves the “world class” status the industry is aiming for.
A lesson in effective stress testing
Integrated stress testing is the preferred tool from a supervisory perspective. And that’s on a global basis. It may not be new, but it is featuring increasingly higher on the regulatory agenda and so understanding the technological opportunities is all important. A key building block for effective and integrated stress testing is an integrated balance sheet strategy
Why 2016 is the year asset managers must take back control
There is an uncanny similarity between Prime Minster David Cameron’s emphasis of moving from a “low wage, high tax, high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, and lower welfare society” and a shifting focus among the asset management community.
Viewpoint: Holiday Forecast: Gift Cards Continue to Expand the Online and Mobile Landscape
It should be no surprise to anyone that gift cards are forecasted to be uber popular again this holiday season. However, it will be crucial for those in the prepaid industry to be mindful of plugged-in shopper preferences to capture holiday spend.
Viewpoint: Why Your Survival Rests on Customer-Centric Strategies
Knowing your customer is taking on new meaning for retailers, If you want to thrive, you must give your customers a personalized shopping experience with a simple integrated payments process.
Viewpoint: Digital vs. Plastic: Death Match or Perfect Marriage?
In 5 years plastic cards will be dead! A bold prediction for sure and likely one you’ve heard in any of a dozen payment mixers you’ve attended over the last year. But for our restaurant brands, we see a more nuanced picture that requires us to execute a simple, perhaps obvious, formula.
Viewpoint: Money20/20 Highlights Emerging Payments Trends
The five most important takeaways from Money20/20 that will shape payments for the foreseeable future.
Viewpoint: Accessing Europe: The World’s Largest Single Market
Craig James explains how passporting with an e-money license allows U.S. prepaid companies to conduct business in EU countries.
Digitising the banks
Banking and disruptive change go hand in hand. There was the era of deregulation. Then the 2008 crisis and the era of re-regulation. Then PPI. Now there is digital, and no sector is secure from its transformative power, not even a heavily fortified one …
The Rise of Instant Payments
In this age of tablets and smartphones, customers expect instantaneous access to information and services. Emails, tweets, shopping: everything is now real time or forget about it. As a result, instant payment is upon us, writes David Andrieux. Benefits of instant payments aren’t hard to see. For the economy, they allow consumers and businesses to […]
Planning for success: pre-transformation considerations are critical
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 …
Why the ‘World Class Payments in the UK’ report is of global significance
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.
Lay-off plans dampen optimism in FS jobs market
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.
Addressing technology debt in the wake of regulation
Recent years have seen unprecedented changes to the technical infrastructure of financial institutions. Many of these changes have been driven by regulatory mandates drawn up in response to the financial crisis of 2007/8. As the Global Systematically Important Banks battle to comply with the January 2016 deadline of the Basel III Directive BCBS239, it is […]
Viewpoint: Virtual Currency State Roundup
Legislators and regulators are grappling with how to apply existing money transmitter laws to an emerging industry. Read about the challenges and latest developments across the U.S.
Why pending rate rises fuel the need for collateral optimisation
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,
From 700BC coins to digital wallets and beyond – the three millennia evolution of payments
From the very first coins changing hands in 700 BC, through to the Bank of England pioneering the first use of a pre-printed form – or cheque – in 1717, and the emergence of credit cards in the mid 20th century, how we pay for goods and services has continued to evolve. We now face a cashless society
Why should banks care about ‘tech levels’?
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
Viewpoint: Selfie Generation Demands Personalization
The selfie boom was born in 2003 with the world’s first front-facing camera, and millennials are the first generation to grow up with technology focused on one’s self, bringing new expectations to the meaning of personalized, digital services.
Viewpoint: Prepaid Opportunities: What Are You Leaving on the Table in the Battle for Customer Acquisition and Retention?
Personalization has become more important than ever to consumers, as they shun anonymous mass advertising in favor of individual reviews and one-to-one brand engagement. But what if instead of helping big brands to adapt, you were to lead the change? This is where competitive advantage comes to life.
Viewpoint: Carrier Pigeons and What the Payments Industry Can Learn from FedEx
Clearly there’s an issue with how banks manage cross-border money transfers and payments. The process is inefficient, costly and archaic. That being said, I can understand why it is the way it is—building a truly global platform that enables FedEx-like payment transfers is no easy feat.
