The European Commission (EC) wants to update the fourth Anti-Money Laundering directive so that it also covers virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin. In the UK, the Treasury has followed suit by announcing plans to subject virtual currency exchanges to the same regulations as banks. This isn’t surprising. Gunnar Nordseth, CEO and co-founder of Signicat, muses over the possible […]
Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a European subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa Group, is looking for a new core banking system, Banking Technology understands. The bank is a long-standing user of Misys’ software, including Equation for core processing, Trade Innovation (TI) for trade finance, and Opics for treasury and capital markets. In 2010, Misys announced ATB’s successful […]
Virtual account management (VAM) holds great promise for corporates to centralise and reduce bank accounts. Banking Technology‘s payments expert, Heather McKenzie, explains. One of the promises of the single euro payments area (SEPA) was that it would enable more efficient cash management infrastructures for the euro. In a 2014 study, Economic analysis of SEPA, PWC predicted a […]
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, is looking to develop an internal blockchain prototype called “DNBCoin”. In its recently published annual report for 2015, DNB says this year it will aim to use blockchain to improve its business and mentions DNBCoin as an experiment with its own digital currency. The bank doesn’t go […]
MiFID II is delayed yet again as the European Commission (EC) asks the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for a “rethink”. ESMA has received a letter from EC concerning certain parts of the regulation draft. EC wants a rewrite of three technical standards that govern trading on commodities, exemptions for companies providing support market […]
Deutsche Bank is cutting its retail outlets in Germany from 700 to 500 as it looks to lower costs and adapt to digital banking. Christian Sewing, head of private, wealth and commercial clients and member of management board, Deutsche Bank, says the cuts are “necessary as the retail bank’s profitability has decreased over the last […]
BBVA is upgrading its ATM network with Wincor Nixdorf’s CINEO cash recycling systems to enable banknotes deposited by customers to be reused for cash withdrawals. The Spanish bank says that until now, ATMs had two different slots for cash deposits and cash withdrawals although cash from the deposits slot could not be used for cash […]
The Payment Services Directive (PSD) legislation was adopted in 2007 with the objective of making cross-border payments across the EU as easy, efficient and secure as “national” payments within a member state. With the arrival of PSD2, the trend of digital innovation in payment will accelerate, states Antony Bream, UK managing director at Crealogix. The original Directive […]
Vermilion Software, a UK-based supplier of client reporting and communications software, has completed a project at Jyske Bank in Denmark. Jyske Bank, which holds the third largest market share in Denmark and specialises in private banking, embarked on the IT revamp last summer. On the way out was the in-house built system. Jacob Jensen, head […]
British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB) is looking to modernise its core software. It is believed the bank has settled for a new platform – Temenos’ T24. BACB is a London-based wholesale bank that specialises in trade finance and treasury services to Africa and the Middle East. The bank has been in the system selection mode […]
The European Commission (EC) has presented an action plan to fight the financing of terrorism, including targeted amendments to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) that was implemented in May 2015. These include an amendment to include a list of all compulsory checks financial institutions should carry out on financial flows from countries having strategic […]
Central securities depositary Euroclear and consultancy Oliver Wyman have issued a report on the use of blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underpins Bitcoin transactions, in capital markets. The firms arguing that major existing players will have to work with newcomers to create a framework that operates between firms and under regulatory obligations. Blockchain and […]
Two online lending platforms – Spotcap and Credibly – have separately raised a total of £71.8 million in capital facilities, lending support to the sector’s prospects in the eyes of investors. Berlin-based, online lending platform Spotcap has raised €31.5 million (£23.8 million) in new funding led by international private equity firm, Finstar Financial Group, with participation from […]
Global investment and private bank, UBS, has signed an agreement to expand its use of the AppDynamics Application Intelligence Platform across its critical applications to supports its digital transformation initiatives. “Using AppDynamics we have been able to improve the speed at which we identified and remediated application issues, as well as avoid incidents in the […]
In a new whitepaper, the US post-trade infrastructure provider Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), has voiced its belief that the financial services industry “has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine and modernise its infrastructure” by employing blockchain in a coordinated manner. Blockchain is the transaction model used to transfer ownership of crypto-currency bitcoin. It was developed […]
If 2015 was all about how the financial sector continued its post 2008 crisis transformation, 2016 looks set to promise even more developments in the same vein across the EMEA region. The ongoing change continues to be remarkable in its depth and scope impacting financial institutions and technology firms like Wolters Kluwer Financial Services who exist to enable banks and others to navigate risk and regulatory complexity
Buy-side block trading venue Liquidnet has released a set of EMEA trading algorithms, which it says will help market participants to find liquidity ahead of the European Commission’s upcoming MiFID II legislation, which introduces important changes for dark pools.
CaixaBank is launching imaginBank, Spain’s first mobile-only bank providing banking services exclusively through mobile apps and social networks.
The European Union’s initiative to create a Capital Markets Union in Europe is currently stuck in a quagmire of political debate. That shouldn’t discourage politicians and regulators from taking the necessary steps as soon as possible, according to a new report by the International Capital Markets Association.
On 12 January new EU regulations on securities financing will take effect. Local regulators including France’s AMF have warned financial institutions to be ready for the new rules, which require greater transparency.
French telecoms firm Orange is to create a new bank called Orange Bank together with French insurer Groupama, in a move the two firms say will help to break open the banking market using mobile phone technology.
The US and eurozone countries both look set to have live real-time payment infrastructures by the end of 2017, both using the ISO 20022 for real-time messaging standard.
Complying with the European Commission’s Payment Services Directive II is like climbing the massive sandstone bulk of Ayers Rock in Australia – you think you’ve reached the top, and then you realise you still have a long way to go, according to speakers at the recent European Payments Regulation conference in London.
Italian payments company SIA is expanding its P2P service Jiffy into Germany, together with IT firm GFT Technologies. The move is part of SIA’s plan to roll out real time money transfer via mobile phone to 400 million European current account holders.
The European Commission has acknowledged that further delay to MiFID II may be ‘necessary’, following a letter from ESMA which said it would not be possible to implement the legislation in time. The delay follows an earlier setback in May and means the new rules could be delayed until January 2018.
Trade association Efma has appointed Vincent Bastid as its new chief executive, replacing Patrick Desmarès, who is retiring after 12 years in the post.
A new online market for buying and selling financial research has gone live in Europe. Focused on providing buy-side firms with more transparency, the new RSRCHXexchange is based in the cloud and is aimed at helping institutions comply with MiFID II research unbundling requirements.
European stock exchange BATS Chi-X Europe has created a new order book for auctions, which it says will help traders to make larger trades. The new book is set to go live on 19 October, and represents an effort to satisfy long-term traders interested in larger order sizes.
As the SEPA deadline has come and gone, what will be built upon its advances towards digitisation and standardisation?
Target2-Securities, the European Central Bank project to harmonise Europe’s post trade infrastructure, has finally gone live in Italy – three months after Italy’s last-minute decision to drop out of the first wave earlier this summer.
No one involved in the UK financial services industry could have failed to notice the recent increase in level of fines issued by the UK’s City Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority. Mary Stevens, from risk and regulatory technology company Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, analyses what the fines mean for the industry.
LCH. Clearnet is to begin offering clearing clearing services for Spanish securities executed on BATS Chi-X, Turquoise and Traiana from Monday 7 September 2015, subject to regulatory approval. The new service, which introduces interoperability for the market segment will operate under the existing Title V settlement framework until the revised dates have been published by Iberclear […]
MiFID II comes into effect in January 2017, which might seem a long way off, but you need to start preparations now if your institution is really going to benefit
The European Commission has adopted new rules that make it mandatory for certain OTC interest rate derivative contracts to be cleared through central counterparties.
Banks may need to revisit the way they handle data, in preparation of an upcoming agreement between the European Commission and the US authorities on data-sharing.
Swiss exchange group SIX and Swiss telecoms company Swisscom are planning to create a Switzerland-wide, universal mobile payment solution in collaboration with banks. The plan encompasses shopping as well as peer-to-peer payments.
So after the protracted and ongoing rollout of SEPA, along comes further EU regulation in the guise of the second phase of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) with further challenges to banks impacting the provision of one of the core banking services – namely payments
Samsung is set to launch its upcoming payments service Samsung Pay in Europe within months, following a deal with MasterCard which will see Samsung Pay rolled out across the region through MasterCard’s Digital Enablement Service.
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.
More than 30% of all suspicious transaction reports in the European Union are triggered by the use of cash, according to Europol, with the €500 note – not widely used for payments – still in demand.
