Without the right digital strategy, small and midsize banks risk ceding built-in advantages to larger competitors. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully move into the digital realm and retain customer engagement (and sales). Mobile banking has become an imperative for retail bankers looking to keep pace with the industry and satisfy customers’ needs. It […]
Blockchain has been hailed as a disruptive force capable of revolutionising the banking sector. While this may be the case to some extent, the impact may be overstated when it comes to wider back office operations, argues Paul Westgate, product manager at Linedata. In the clamour to proclaim blockchain, and those cryptocurrencies built on blockchain technology, […]
How can the use of technology in the banking sector motivate and drive employees (and lead to improved business performance)? Dennis Fois, CEO of Rant & Rave, explores. Over the last few years we have seen challenger banks like Atom, Tandem and Starling embark on their venture to steal market share and customers from established […]
With regulators placing ever greater demands on institutions in the area of sanctions, it is essential that institutions screen their customers and transactions against relevant sanctions lists. Regulators are showing less tolerance for errors than in the past. Not only have fines have been imposed on banks but also on payments companies and casinos. Specifically, […]
A consensus is building along the payment frontier: Banks can serve as platforms though which a plethora of third-party services and customers are able to connect through an API.
With some $25 billion at stake, personalization and going digital will help ensure returns for the all important fourth quarter.
Many retailers still insist on treating payments as merely a functional step of the purchase process. But connected consumers desire payment experiences. Here’s how to offer them.
Cost savings are not the only thing to consider when relocating your business. Applications, systems, hardware and people are all being moved and a seamless transition is essential to ensure there is no downtime and no risk to your reputation or finances. Most people see international relocation as a cost-saving initiative but if that is […]
In early June, Reuters disclosed that the US Federal Reserve had detected more that 50 cyber security breaches from 2011 through 2015. It should be noted that this may only represent a small fraction of the Fed’s total exposure during this period. It turns out that, unlike the Washington-based Board of Governors, the 12 privately […]
The tectonic plates of the banking sector are shifting faster than ever. High street banks are under stress from the massive competitive threats generated by their leaner, technology-driven fintech rivals and challenger banks. These fintech companies are finding success simply by being more efficient or by taking advantage of emerging and highly effective technologies such […]
Since the EU imposed interchange decreases in December, issuers have reduced rewards and increased fees. What might the future hold? Building ways to monetize the vast amounts of data at issuers’ disposal.
As the U.S. payments industry marks the first year of the EMV rollout, questions abound about the spread and use of the technology. Among the concerns is how restaurants will handle tipping.
As regulators increase their focus on financial technology firms, some of those companies are eager to welcome more rules, which could lead to less expensive and complicated businesses. Much depends on one fintech’s application before U.S. regulators for a national charter.
The number of branches operated by major banking groups in the UK has halved over the last 20 years. In fact, Britain’s banks closed more than 600 branches across the UK between April 2015 and April 2016. This is hardly surprising as more and more people move online, often mobile-first, to complete most of their […]
“Give me a solid foundation to stand on, and I will move the Earth.” I am still looking for cement trucks that are pouring foundations – virtual or otherwise – for the new normal of banking, but I can’t find them. Bankers are really confused as to how to succeed in their own business. But like Johnny Lee, I might have been lookin’ in all the wrong places.
What is FTR 2015 and how does it affect banks operating in the cross-border payments space? Marc Recker, Head of Market Management, Institutional Cash Management at Deutsche Bank, explores. The challenges and complexities of complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CFT) regulations are certainly not new in the financial industry. Over the past […]
There’s a cultural misconception that security equals lockdown in the financial sector; disclosure runs counter to that perception. Banks are less inclined to share intimate details of attacks because they don’t want to damage market confidence and that makes cyber security a major challenge for the sector. Swift has recently sent a letter out to customers […]
The disruptive forces of technology and legislation are forcing banks to become open and collaborative, things which they historically found challenging. A friend who owns a small business recently went through what I call a “connected and choreographed” experience to get a loan. iWoka, a digital lending company, simply asked him to log on to […]
A spike in bitcoin value after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union points to the digital currency being viewed as a safe haven for investors. But a recent bankruptcy case clouds the situation.
New Mexico becomes the latest state to enact a law that requires licenses for money transmitters. That means more bureaucracy. Here are some tips for meeting those requirements.
Too often, online merchants and their payment providers focus more on international orders than domestic transactions in the battle against fraud. But drilling down into ZIP codes and neighborhoods might be a wiser strategy.
“Silicon Valley is coming,” warned Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s boss, in a recent letter to shareholders. It’s a sentiment echoed across much of the banking world at the moment. The idea that fintech is a threat to the financial services sector is bubbling – a 2015 PwC survey found 83% of financial services professionals were […]
Traditionally there weren’t any obligations for financial institutions to provide complete information on all parties in a payment process. Today, it is quite a different story. The initiator and receiver are responsible for reporting account numbers, names and addresses of remitters. There are even cases now where regulators may prevent banks from processing transactions when […]
It’s no secret that the financial services industry has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting digital technology. Far from being leaders of innovation, banks are often stifled by lumbering IT systems and an inherent sense of caution when it comes to challenging the status-quo. With growing investment in the internet of things […]
In the course of a recent active business day I observed myself carrying a multitude of financial instruments. I had to make a payment from my business checking account to a local government agency and I was reluctant to use my business debit card. Should I have chosen my credit card the agency charged an […]
Are payment processors for consumer financial service providers required to understand the complex regulatory regimes to which their clients are subject, and verify that clients are complying with those requirements?
There is no question that consumers continue to embrace card-based payments as an alternative to cash and checks, none more so than the millennials. But cash will continue to have a role.
Meant to overcome the challenges of tokenization, payment account reference (PAR) promises more complexity and cost—and will require more attention from payments providers.
Mobile wallets already offer incentives to consumers based on spending. What about offering rewards based on money management?
Organisations select a telecommunications provider for different reasons – reliability, global interconnectivity, price and performance are some of the more common drivers – so why do institutional investment arms and FX traders still buck this trend by focusing heavily on network latencies? It is simple, there are very few sectors within international finance where time […]
There’s both a science and an art to arriving at an estimated return on investment (ROI) when it comes to legacy system replacement, writes Mike Maltby, product manager at Eagle Investment Systems. One of the biggest challenges in the decision-making process to replace legacy technology is demonstrating an ROI. System replacements, described by one consultant as […]
We are all pretty much unanimous that the once IT buzz word “big data” is no longer the awe-inspiring complex beast which can be tamed only by expensive databases and superlative data analytics platforms. Cloud architecture and collaborative open source software brought big data processing within the reach of pretty much all enterprises. Analytics domain […]
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the sector has looked to repair reputational damage, lock down compliance in the system and rapidly innovate to serve a new generation. During this period of change, banks must redefine the value they want to provide for their customers. For example, do they want to finance the future dreams a […]
The recent partnership between the two payments giants will impact fees, consumer data and other areas. An analyst discusses the benefits and motivations of the deal.
A recent NIST announcement would seem to toss SMS one-time passwords to the junk pile. But the anti-fraud technology still has value for low risk transactions.
A tough new European data protection rule, scheduled to come into force in 2018, will command businesses’ attention no matter the relationship the U.K. has with the EU.
Beware of predictions that upstarts will push aside incumbents when it comes to consumer-to-consumer remittances. The numbers tell a different story.
Sid Parashar, SVP of client relations and strategic account management, Firstsource Solutions, asks if traditional banks are now ready to take on the new kids on the block when it comes to customer communications. As the banking industry emerges from one of the most transformative periods in its history, it has been a trying time […]
Robo-advisors are becoming increasingly commonplace in the UK’s financial sector. Over the last 18 months, high street banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, Santander and RBS have all launched robo-advice platforms, and it’s not only these well-known names that are competing to own the online investment space. Smaller challenger brands like Nutmeg and Wealthfront have also […]
There was some big news for bank’s risk and finance technology departments last month. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. Notably, this standard introduces a new impairment model, commonly known as the CECL (current […]
