Retail Banking


Mobile to take lead in payments over the next five years

Mobile phones will take an increasingly leading role in the payments space over the next five years as a result of technologies that allow safe storage of payment details in smartphones, according to a report prepared by the Consult Hyperion on behalf of Payments UK.

Wide application for wearables in financial services industry

There has been hype around wearable technology for some time now but only now is it reaching market maturity with the introduction and subsequent adoption by consumers of smart watches and wristbands. Just as we saw with smart phones and tablets, consumer technology, in this case wearables, has the potential to have a huge impact on the business world. The implications for the financial services industry are significant

Digital: serve better, not just serve more

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

Apple mops up mobile payments market

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.

The role of intelligent analytics in retail banking

Since the financial crash retail banks are faced with more regulatory and financial restrictions than could have been envisioned. This is coupled with increased levels of competition and much reduced consumer trust. Intelligent analytics may offer part of the solution.

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.

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.

Webinar: Digital Disruption – Customer-Driven Innovation in Retail Banking

Digital innovation is disrupting the retail banking industry worldwide. Many perceive the trailblazers to be the hot start-ups – creative, legacy-free, pioneering the latest digital and analytics technologies. But established ‘traditional’ banks have the opportunity to reinvent or reinvigorate their brands in the digital world – with an already captive audience and decades of transactional […]

Demystifying mobile payments

As mobile handsets become more prevalent as a tool for retailers, for payments, loyalty and engaging with consumers in and out of the store, security of sensitive data becomes increasingly more important.

Retail banks face falling customer satisfaction and loyalty globally

At first glance the message for banks from the latest World Retail Banking Report 2015 looks like very bad news for traditional banks. Globally, customers’ propensity to leave their primary bank is on the rise while their willingness to make referrals or buy additional products from their primary bank has decreased significantly.

NCR offers cloud control for Android-based ATMs

NCR has announced a radical new approach to ATM network deployment, with cloud-based enterprise application allowing banks to control and manage thin-client devices running a locked-down version of the Android operating system.

Tomorrow’s digital banking will always be a journey, never a destination

To maintain growth in our globalised, always-connected and increasingly regulated world, banks need to use digital assets and capabilities to create new value propositions for their customers, we know. The problem is how? And what is the best way of doing so in the face of what some worry could be a complete fracturing of the market due to the rise of non-traditional competition from possible banks like a Google or an Amazon?

Santander launches ISA mobile app

Santander has launched the UK’s first standalone ISA mobile app , which was designed and developed with mobile specialist company Monitise.

Code Halos: the key to improving banks’ Net Promoter Score

A company’s Net Promoter Score has become an important measure of customer satisfaction. It asks them a simple question: how likely they are to recommend that company to a friend. The responses split the audience into three groups: promoters, passives and detractors. By subtracting the percentage of detractors from the promoters, banks obtain their NPS. NPS has been a valued metric in many consumer-facing industries for several years, but its importance and influence in financial services is growing fast.

Sharing threat intelligence is challenging the industry, but it’s the only way forward

Protecting your banking infrastructure from cybercriminals is one of the toughest IT challenges in banking. It keeps getting harder, even though banks are working tirelessly to protect both customers and assets. Attacks are growing in size, and new developments such as the Internet of Things mean attack surfaces are growing, as well as the number of endpoints that can be used to launch attacks.

Banking innovation: a marathon, not a sprint

Britain’s banks have reliably serviced the banking needs of millions of customers for more than a hundred years; providing a safe place to store hard-earned cash, mortgages to buy dream homes, and great interest rates to accumulate savings

Financial services disruption – why I’m backing the banks

For banks, a race to remain relevant is on. In the past few weeks, Lloyds Banking Group has announced its intention to double-down on digital banking, closing branches and cutting costs. In the US, BBVA Compass announced that its agreement with startup Dwolla to offer real-time payment facilities to customers makes it the first mainstream bank to open its technology platform to digital developers like Dwolla

Bitcoin capitalises on Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy

Following its success during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy this year, alternative currency Bitcoin is gaining popularity and could be poised for major growth in 2015. But the currency still has a long way to go before it catches up with rivals such as PayPal, Visa and MasterCard.

Monitise deepens ties with partners to raise £49 million

Monitise plans to raise £49.2 million through extensions of its relationships with Santander, Telefónica and MasterCard. The money raised will be used to ‘support the development and accelerated roll-out of its global platform capabilities’.

Banks should go digital says Monitise

The time is right for a new breed of digital-only banks to enter the market and steal away share from the established players, according to a new report by Monitise.

Don’t neglect social media and tablets, banks warned

Banks will be judged on how well they provide mobile services and social media interaction in the coming years. Instead of being just another channel, these forms will be the first point of contact for customers, according to a new report by analyst firm Celent.

The brave new world of mobile banking

The digital era is changing your bank rapidly. Is your mobile testing & assurance practice ready? P Venkatesh, director of the product division, and Srivatsan TT, vice president of the solutions group, at Maveric Systems discuss the issues

The mobile movement driving multi-channel banking

Despite the significant challenges faced by the UK’s banking sector over the last decade, there has been a dramatic evolution in the customer experience following the introduction of online, telephone and mobile banking. While the branch remains an important channel, especially for older customers, mobile technology is rapidly redefining how customers interact with their banks.

Getting ready for mobile payments

With the penetration of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets constantly growing, attention is increasingly turning to mobile marketing, mobile commerce and mobile payments. It is still the case, however, that these trends are largely played out in specialised media, and do not influence the actual behaviour of consumers. This is especially true for mobile payments, with consumers very sceptical about this concept

Diebold: on the comeback trail

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.

Back-office legacy still holding back banks

Setting up a bank in the UK is costly, time-consuming, heavily regulated and not easy. As a result, the dynamic, start-up culture that drives innovation in many other sectors is less prevalent within banking and financial services.

Mobile banking to overtake online within five years

Analyst firm Juniper Research reckons more people will be using mobile apps for banking than web-based options by 2019, as the 800 million people who used their phones for banking more than doubles to 1.75 billion in five years.

Banks must educate consumers about fraud says Aite

Banks need to do more to educate consumers about the ways in which they may be exposing themselves to fraud risks, according to a new report by Aite Group using data from ACI Worldwide, which notes that one in four consumers has been victimised by card fraud in the past five years.