The high cost of failure
Data in all its forms and access to it in real time is becoming ever more critical as financial institutions seek to manage myriad risks.
Worldwide
The long arm of the law
Crypto and virtual currencies have garnered plenty of headlines in the past couple of years. Now financial regulators around the world are turning the spotlight on these instruments and attempting to bring them into the legal fold.
Cross border co-operation is key to the safe evolution of financial markets
Global financial markets are experiencing a paradigm shift as governments, regulators and participants recalibrate the processes and structures underpinning global finance. The challenge is to repair and remedy where needed, with dialogue between central banks, regulators and participants, but also to avoid creating fragmented markets or worse, unintentionally reintroducing risk.
EU Lawmakers Propose Tighter Regulations for Mobile Wallets (Sept. 29, 2014)
The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the European Union law-making body, has recommended tightening regulations regarding customer authentication and protection of sensitive payment data related to mobile wallets, according to its recently released proposal of the revised Payment Services Directive.
Emerchants Acquires Store Financial UK Arm for $21.7 Million (Sept. 29, 2014)
Australian prepaid provider Emerchants Ltd. has made a bold move into the European market, acquiring Store Financial Services UK for AUS$24.9 million (US$21.7 million).
Bitcoin: Currency or Commodity? (Sept. 29, 2014)
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a public meeting next week to discuss Bitcoin and the CFTC’s jurisdiction regarding derivatives contracts that reference the decentralized digital currency.
Changing the world
Change is a theme at this year’s Sibos. But what type of change? A cross-section of delegates discuss what they think will be the main disruptive forces in their part of the business.
Clear2Pay Sibos14 Supplement One Payments World
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A city that commands attention
One of the most attractive cities in the US, Boston is also steeped in history: get your walking shoes on and explore the many historical and culinary delights of the Sibos 2014 host city.
Access all new areas
While mobile commerce and payments have been slow to take off in Western countries, the developing world has been stealing a march with innovative services and products.
Silver linings
In early September, cloud computing stories finally became interesting as an apparent hacking attack on Apple’s iCloud released hundreds of photos of ‘celebrities’ in the nude. It was a perfect story for the mainstream media, combining celebrities with nudity and a bit of unintelligible (to them at least) technology thrown in for good measure. Among […]
Banking Technology Awards 2014 – shortlist announced
Banks from as far afield as Brazil, New Zealand and Singapore are among the candidates on the shortlist for the Banking Technology 2014 Awards, announced today, showing the continuing competitive edge regional institutions are gaining over the large international players through technology.
ISO 20022: the beginning of the future?
The ISO 20022 standard is 10 years old this year, but its roots go back to some five years before that, and the story of its development and adoption is likely to go on for many years in the future. The datum point is probably the publication in 1999 of a Green Paper from SWIFT called ‘Building Standards for Tomorrow’. The modest proposal in that document is that “the next generation of standards will be based on a structured and formal framework”.
Blackhawk Network Acquiring Parago for $290M (Sept. 25, 2014)
Blackhawk Network (NASDAQ: HAWK and HAWKB) today announced it’s acquiring Dallas-based consumer incentives firm Parago Inc., continuing an acquisition streak that’s advancing the prepaid and payments network’s reach into new markets within the corporate and consumer incentive space.
Green Dot Launches GoBank Checking Account Exclusively at Walmart (Sept. 25, 2014)
Green Dot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT) reinforced its position yesterday as a full-service financial products and services provider with the announcement of a nationwide rollout of GoBank, a checking account product available exclusively at U.S. Walmart stores.
Show the Industry You’re a Winner; Submit Nominations for the 2015 Paybefore Awards (Sept. 24, 2014)
It’s time to pick your categories to win in Paybefore Awards 2015.
Visa Boosts Technology Strategy with Recruitment, Tech Facility (Sept. 25, 2014)
Visa Inc. is bolstering its technology resources by creating 2,000 full-time technologist positions and opening a technology development center in India next year.
MPIW Backs Tokenization, Calls for Coordination (Sept 25, 2014)
A key payments industry group is throwing its support behind tokenization—with a few caveats as to the hurdles that remain before broad industry adoption can occur, including coordinating different tokenization models.
Clinkle a Clunker? (Sept. 25, 2014)
After three years in “stealth mode”—and $30 million in venture funding—once-hot mobile payments startup Clinkle has finally launched, but with a drastically scaled back platform.
GAO: CFPB’s Data Collection Security Procedures Need Improvement (Sept. 25, 2014)
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has determined that the CFPB must take additional measures to mitigate risk of “improper collection, use or release of consumer financial data,” according to a recently released report.
Intraday Liquidity Reporting
Reporting on the management of intraday liquidity risk will start on a monthly basis from 1 January 2015 to coincide with the implementation of the liquidity coverage ratio reporting requirements. Christian Goerlach, global head of FI balance sheet & liquidity, Deutsche Bank, takes a closer look at some of the issues facing global banks.
SEC beefs up surveillance as Barclays probe results in $72 million fine
The Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its drive to monitor and enforce the financial markets by implementing new surveillance tools to examine and inspect reconciliations. The deal comes as the US regulator charges Barclays with failing to build adequate compliance systems and the bank suffers a fine in the UK.
60 Minutes Skewers ‘Gov’t Bureaucracy’ on Tax Refund Fraud; Highlights Role of Prepaid (Sept. 23, 2014)
If you were watching 60 Minutes on Sunday night, your heart probably stopped during the story on “The Tax Refund Scam.”
Citi Mobile Challenge Launches to Fuel Innovation (Sept. 23, 2014)
Citi this week launched Citi Mobile Challenge, a global competition to facilitate new concepts among technology developers surrounding mobile banking and payments.
E-Payments Surge in Nigeria, but Challenges Remain (Sept. 23, 2014)
Electronic payments are growing fast in Nigeria, with the total volume of e-payments reaching a new high of N10.85 trillion (US$ 62.2 billion) in 2013, according to data from the country’s central bank.
Better use of data is route to new revenue says EFMA report
Banks should focus their efforts on using data to provide better services to merchants, retail customers and other businesses – and they can build a more efficient business, according to a new report by Kurt Salmon and the European Financial Management and Marketing Association.
Open source middleware is everywhere in financial services
Enabling rapid growth and agility with creaking IT systems poses a major challenge to UK financial services companies where the IT infrastructure, as in many other industries, has evolved over time and features a wide variety of solutions.
Citi seeks developers in global mobile banking challenge
Citi has launched a global mobile challenge that it says will help to inspire technology developers to reimagine mobile banking and payments. The bank plans to host a series of events in Miami, New York and Silicon Valley in November, after which finalists will get the chance to bring their product to market with help from Citi.
How to build a better SunGard
As SunGard’s first ever chief technology officer, Steven Silberstein knows a thing or two about financial technology. In a past life, he was global head of prime brokerage at Lehman Brothers. He later became chief information officer at Chi-X Global, before joining SunGard in a newly-created position two years ago.
‘Banking’ the Unbanked with Direct Express (Sept. 22, 2014)
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Direct Express Debit MasterCard program now serves nearly one-quarter of the nation’s entire unbanked population, a recent cardholder survey confirms.
Canada’s Supreme Court Raises BIG Federal Preemption Issue (Sept. 22, 2014)
Did Canada’s Supreme Court just create a significant regulatory issue for the country’s prepaid issuers? According to at least one prominent Canadian attorney who’s following the court’s decisions, it appears quite possible—although more investigation is needed.
Alibaba Sets Record with $25 Billion IPO (Sept. 22, 2014)
Last week’s initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group exceeded even the outsized expectations of most observers, raising $25 billion and setting a new world record for an IPO.
Home Depot Says 56 Million Cards at Risk, Eliminates Responsible Malware (Sept. 22, 2014)
After Home Depot confirmed earlier this month it was the victim of a customer data breach affecting shoppers at its U.S. and Canadian stores, the home improvement retailer confirmed late last week that as many as 56 million payment cards are at risk.
Blog: ‘Banking’ the Unbanked with Direct Express
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Direct Express Debit MasterCard program now serves nearly one-quarter of the nation’s entire unbanked population, a recent cardholder survey confirms.
Is your analytics solution getting the better of you?
All banks, whatever their size rely on data to make decisions. With that in mind getting that data in a timely manner and in a format that can be digested easily is critical. So why can this be so difficult? We are all used to receiving reports from our systems and even the most rudimentary examples will utilise some form of analytics, however simple. We might be getting the reports and be used to the status quo, but is your analytics platform getting the better of you?
Green Dot Nabs Tax Refund Processor for $320 Million (Sept. 18, 2014)
Green Dot Corp. has entered an agreement to acquire Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (TPG), the largest consumer tax refund processor in the U.S., for $320 million.
Introducing Andrew Buckley, Head of Core Products for MasterCard in Europe (Sept. 18, 2014)
Paybefore was invited to sit down with Buckley, who joined the payments network 15 months ago, during MasterCard Europe’s prepaid conference, which concluded yesterday in Budapest.
