Talking Heads: a matter of principle
Five years on from the financial crisis and banks still face a rising tide of regulatory initiatives. Daily News at Sibos asked several industry executives whether the price of regulation is becoming too high
Analysis
New game, new rules: how banks can re-invent utilities
The world we know is changing. As the famous baseball player Yogi Berra once said, “the future ain’t what it used to be”. In the old future, collaborative sourcing involved banks creating a single provider to deliver ‘the least common multiple’ at a lower/utility cost.
Swift at 40: James Willis
To mark Swift’s 40th Birthday, Banking Technology is publishing a series of interviews with staffers looking back over how the organisation has changed during their time there, and where they see it developing in the future. Today: James Wills, senior business manager, banking initiatives/standards
Swift at 40: Alain Raes
To mark Swift’s 40th Birthday, Banking Technology is publishing a series of interviews with staffers looking back over how the organisation has changed during their time there, and where they see it developing in the future. Today, Alain Raes, chief executive EMEA and Asia Pacific.
Where the world is your lobster …
Rapidly becoming an international transport hub, Dubai is a thriving multicultural city. David Bannister, editor of Banking Technology, samples some of the city’s culinary and cultural delights.
Bricks or clicks? The choice isn’t yours
The challenging ongoing economic climate and the resulting shrinking markets have created an environment of greatly increased competition. In order to deal with the pressures of recession, retail banks are increasingly being forced into a strategic transformation of business structure, culture and practice. How they interact with customers is a prime focus during these transformations, writes Mike Davies, Regional Vice President Sales EMEA North at GMC Software Technology.
Life beyond legacy: exploring the options
The payment industry has never seen so much change or opportunity. It continues to be reshaped by shifts in the economic landscape, new technologies and customer needs and this is set to continue.
Viewpoint: Hiring and Retention Tips from a Payments Recruiter (September 2013)
The scoop on the hottest jobs in prepaid. Plus, how to attract (and keep) the best talent.
Blog: Will Prepaid Change the Way China Shops? (August 2013)
By Shoney Yuan, Ceridian Stored Value Solutions (SVS) Take a stroll down any street in one of China’s big cities and it’s hard not to feel excited about the business potential this vast nation offers. Sophisticated marketing and innovative advertising compete for your attention as a consumer. There is much to buy—from groceries, to household […]
Q&A with David Hunter, Ukash
Ukash recently has undertaken a slate of major new initiatives, expanding its Paybefore Award-winning platform to offer a full spectrum of services to cash-preferred consumers.
From collateral to liquidity management: the importance of a Golden Repository
A fragmented data architecture can threaten a financial institution’s ability to keep track of its assets. All too often, front office systems are separated into individual asset classes and lines of business, making the integration of the transaction flows from these systems very difficult.
Regulation: a torrent of trouble for wealth management
Regulation is a key driver of change on IT strategies across the wealth management sector, and brings huge challenges, especially for smaller players: predictions are that the cost of compliance may rise by a further 16% by 2015.
Viewpoint: Our Role in Helping People Manage Their Money Successfully (August 2013)
It’s time for the prepaid industry to once again innovate by embracing next-generation processing technology and creating new tools that help people improve their financial behavior.
Viewpoint: A Win-Win Proposition: Savings on GPR Cards (August 2013)
Adding a savings tool to GPR cards drives usage and retention and helps cardholders get ahead.
The globalisation of immediate payments – rolling out faster transactions
The way we pay is evolving, with changing consumer attitudes and new technologies combining to usher in a new era of payments and banking.
Evolution of Payments
One common thread unites developed and emerging economies across the globe – the ubiquity of mobile devices are changing the way people interact with businesses and each other. In many countries, the number of mobile phones in use surpasses the number of consumer bank accounts. This shift in consumer behaviour is changing the face of payments as we know it.
Demystifying m-commerce
Payments made via mobile devices are fast becoming de rigueur as tablet sales are expected to overtake personal computers by 2017. Shane Fitzpatrick addresses five common myths about m-commerce and how to capture online revenues. Smartphones are already more popular globally than desktop PCs and of the 1.875 billion phones to be sold in 2013, […]
Stand by for light speed: high performance computing in financial services
Most debates about High Performance Computing in financial services quickly turn into conversations about high frequency trading, but there are many more reasons for getting the best of out of systems. Electronics and computer technology have always been pushing the boundaries of smaller, faster, cheaper (or at least, ‘more affordable’) and financial services firms have always been quick to take advantage of the latest advances.
Can balloons really enable HFT, or is it just hot air?
As the high-frequency trading arms race continues, some firms are exploring the idea of using lighter-than-air balloons as a faster way of transmitting data.
Viewpoint: 7 European Markets and Their Shifting Prepaid Opportunities (Spring 2013)
An Edgar, Dunn & Company study compares the existing state and prospects for corporate and government prepaid programs in Europe in 2010 and 2013. We assessed seven European countries— France, Italy, Germany, the U.K., Spain, Poland and Turkey—and rated the attractiveness of each market, based on the legal and regulatory environment and prepaid market receptiveness, against the prepaid market opportunity.
How to achieve customer-centricity
Why are banks and insurers struggling to operate as true customer-centric organisations when they know great customer service is a crucial differentiator? The answer lies in the enterprise operating model, which can create a structural barrier to achieving customer-centricity, writes Sean Tomlinson. head of consulting, private sector, Steria (right). The problem with the enterprise operating […]
Industry Views: Card Manufacturers Talk EMV (Pay Magazine, Spring 2013)
Although the network EMV liability shift is about two years out, card manufacturers already are consulting with their U.S. issuing clients to help them make decisions now about how they will approach the transition to EMV.
Judge Rules in Favor of Merchants, Strikes Down Fed’s Interchange Rule (August 2013)
A U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Federal Reserve Board overreached in its interchange and network routing rulemaking. If upheld, the decision will have huge consequences for issuers, program managers and other payments stakeholders.
Market surveillance: a watching brief
The US Securities & Exchange Commission is often accused of using skateboards to chase Ferraris in its attempts to keep up with trading houses, but less than a year after announcing that it intended to create a new market surveillance system – and six months after going live with it – its cloud-based approach is […]
Strengthening financial visibility for improved risk management
New research shows that large businesses are continuing to identify risk management and corporate governance as pressing financial priorities. To achieve true visibility into these areas, corporate treasurers need detailed insight and accurate forecasting capabilities.
EMV – driving the global eradication of card fraud
Authentication, risk management, transaction integrity and cardholder verification, are the four features that define the EMV standard, specified by EMVCo, the organisation that manages the EMV standards and associated compliance processes. These are designed to protect merchants, acquirers and cardholders from fraudulent transactions. However, closing the loop on fraud altogether will be almost impossible without […]
Innovators’ Spotlight: Waspit Group Inc
With an evolved platform and new B2B focus, NYC firm is making a buzz in “Engagement Banking”.
Viewpoint: A Closer Look at Choosing an HSA Administrator (July 2013)
Employers looking at consumer-directed health care plans with HSAs tend to pick providers based on one or two administrative details, but they really need to dig into what kind of benefit experience employees will get. The quality of that interaction can make all the difference, and yield happy, engaged employees.
Pressing the reset button
Whether or not the coalition government succeeds in implementing all of its proposals remain to be seen but undoubtedly the transformation of the banking sector – across all levels – is most certainly underway …
Showrooming, Mobile Shoppers and the Changing Face of Retail (July 2013)
For the lucrative and important teen demographic especially, shopping doesn’t start at the mall or even in a magazine. It starts at the virtual corner of Instagram and Vine.
FATCA-style agreements present taxing times for GRC teams
If your role has anything to do with governance, risk and compliance or with international tax agreements, then you’ll be familiar with the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the potential impact on many of the world’s financial institutions …
Risk data: can it be both efficient and compliant?
With six months before the 4th Capital Requirements Directive comes into force, many will be asking what technological improvements will be necessary to efficiently manage risk going forward. Before they embark on a costly overhaul of their data systems, firms should look at what regulatory trends are likely to require similar changes in the future and adjust their specification accordingly.
Roundtable: the Future of Standards
Predicting the future is never easy, but trying to anticipate likely developments in a particular area is essential in order to take timely action. With that caveat, Stephen Lindsay, head of standards at SWIFT, sets a boundary on a discussion on the Future of Standards: “What we are trying to do is extrapolate a little bit from where we are now to where we might be in a few years’ time,” he says.
Four steps for denying DDoS attacks
Financial institutions have been battling waves of large distributed denial of service attacks since early 2012. Many of these attacks have been the work of a group called the Qassam Cyber Fighters, which until recently posted weekly updates on Pastebin about the reasons behind its attacks.
The battle for benchmarks: divisions in the ranks?
With lots of different regulatory benchmark efforts now underway, the industry could be forgiven for not taking a common stance. With IOSCO issuing final principles, ESMA and the EBA are simultaneously consulting on a European set of principles. Meanwhile the UK is moving ahead with its own reforms.
Making contact … eventually
Despite security concerns, contactless payments technology continues to be rolled out globally. Visa International recently estimated that the volumes of contactless transactions it will process during 2013 will quadruple. MasterCard’s figures show that since 2012 there has been a 50% increase in the number of contactless cards it has issued.
Industry Views: Building Long-Term Cardholder Relationships with Financial Literacy
Despite what you’ve been seeing in the mainstream media recently, many prepaid card providers have not only lowered fees in the last few years but many are educating cardholders about how to avoid fees altogether.
NCLC Attacks Overdraft on Prepaid Products Again (July 16, 2013)
The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) again is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to prohibit overdraft on prepaid products and limit the ways in which credit and prepaid may be associated.
Twitter shakes up market: the impact of social media on algos
On 23 April 2013, the markets suffered a brief, sharp drop as algorithms reacted to “news” from the Associated Press’s Twitter handle that President Obama had been injured in a bombing attack at the White House. In a few minutes, the Dow Jones dropped 145 points, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost $136 billion in […]
In New York Times, Prepaid Fee Story Misses the Mark (July 2013)
Patrice Peyret of Banking Up responds to a front-page article in the New York Times, “Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees.”
