FinTech


Cometh the Digital Bank

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.

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 new payments landscape: we need a new mind-set

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 […]

Harmonisation of ISO 20022 is crucial – but who should be in charge?

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?

The Talented Mr Ripple

Chris Larsen, chief executive of Ripple Labs, talks about his concept of the Internet of Value, and why his company is not a disruptor …

HSBC sees boom in use of mobile among corporate customers

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.

Planning the digital transformation journey

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 …

Destined to fail: bank IT procurement for vendors

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?

Calypso adds ‘bank-in-a-box’ for capital markets

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 three new labs as part of €1 billion digital investment

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.

Markit acquires Information Mosaic

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 […]

Things ain’t what they used to be

According to Cisco there are 15.5 billion devices connected to the internet, ranging from routers to telemetry devices, power grid controllers, smartphones and perhaps the odd toaster. Other than in retail situations this so-called Internet of Things does not immediately seem to have much to do with the financial services industry. John Bates thinks otherwise, and sets out why in his recent book Thingalytics.

Mobile banking: what consumers really want

The growth of mobile money has been a steep upward curve and looks set to continue – Juniper Research predicts that there will be one billion mobile banking users worldwide by the end of 2017, up from 590 million in 2013. A recent Forrester report predicted that purchases on mobile devices would double by 2018, as even more people become comfortable buying online and retailers create more user-friendly mobile experiences

Capture Today’s Banking Customer Leveraging Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Improve your customer’s experience with Hybrid IT Banks must compete fiercely for new customers and to hold onto the ones they have. That means consistently meeting customer expectations, which is no easy task given the speed with which those expectations are evolving, particularly in terms of Internet and mobile interactions. Banks need to deploy technology […]

FIX protocol dominates in post-trade workflow

Three-quarters of market participants use the FIX protocol for confirmation and affirmation of their transactions, according to a new survey released by financial industry standards body the FIX Trading Community.

Mobile banking users to double by 2020

On the background of a recent study revealing that UK mobile banking users are set to double to 32.5 million by 2020, banks need to tailor their customer experience models heavily towards mobile devices, with the fundamental focus on creating a “mobile-first” strategy, if not the more radical “mobile-only” strategy

May 2015: Retail Revolution

Revolution Retail How consumer behaviour is changing banking The next frontier for digital banking As real-time payment systems proliferate around the world, attention is turning to the issues of cross-border payments Destined to fail IT services suppliers need to understand the peculiarities of bank procurement processes. A former insider spills the beans Conference reports News and views […]

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.

Hotsourcing: the third way for sell-side ops

A decade ago, one of the driving factors behind outsourcing was reducing cost and headcount. However, with the growing regulatory and compliance burden, firms are increasingly becoming more cautious about outsourcing.

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.

Beating the (IT) budget blues

By following simple principles and incorporating solid processes and tools the IT budgeting and forecasting process can be a source of value to both the IT department and the businesses it serves

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.

ABN Amro extends Temenos relationship to private banking

ABN Amro plans to implement the Temenos WealthSuite integrated wealth management platform for its international private banking business. It will also be able to extend the use of the T24 core system to its private banking and diamond & jewellery business, giving it one platform with one operating model across multiple business lines.

Cinnober issues call to IT industry to restore trust

Exchange technology vendor Cinnober has invited financial IT companies to participate in a new Financial IT Quality Assessment initiative, which is intended to generate a public, industry-wide framework for quality assessment of financial software. The initiative is an attempt to restore shaken confidence in the sector and avoid further regulatory pressure.

MCX makes Mooney interim chief exec

Merchant Customer Exchange, developer of the CurrentC mobile payment platform has appointed financial services and payment industry veteran Brian Mooney as interim chief executive. Mooney succeeds Dekkers Davidson, who is leaving MCX to pursue other opportunities.

Real-time payments: the next frontier

Customer driven innovation is powering change in the payments industry. Real-time Payment infrastructures (RTP) – whether they are called Faster Payments, Immediate Payments or same-day clearing – are now a reality, with many countries having implemented RTP functionality, and others actively considering the imminent roll-out of RTP projects in their domestic market.

Volante lays Foundation for faster payment systems integration

Financial messaging and data integration specialist Volante Technologies has taken a step into the world of packaged products with the launch of VolPay Foundation, a development platform “designed to ease the challenges of payment integration and payment processing projects”.

Out with the old in New Orleans?

Innovation in a mobile real-time world will be to the fore in the discussions as the US payments industry gathers at Nacha Payments 2015 to consider the opportunities and challenges against a background of rapid technological and regulatory change. What can those embarking on project learn from those who have already been there?

Buy-side builds confidence as home-brew smart order routers gain ground

Buy-side firms stand to gain from developing their own smart order routers and carrying out their own capital markets research. But the growing independence of the buy-side must still be weighed against sell-side advantages of scale, according to speakers at the Trade Tech conference in Paris on Tuesday.