Banks and brokers in Europe are bracing themselves for ‘double witching day’ on Wednesday, in which two days’ worth of trades are expected to settle on a single day, as 25 European nations move to T+2 settlement for the first time.
Increased sanctions, tighter anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) controls, plus client demands for a quicker, better all-round service in the cloud and the move to shared service platforms present client onboarding challenges to banks. But there are also opportunities, said Karen Braithwaite, BNY Mellon’s global head of client service, treasury services.
While banks want to root out fraudulent activity as much as governments do they “need to take the temperature down”, said Bob Werner, global head of financial crime compliance and group general manager at HSBC. Speaking at a panel session on trends in financial crime compliance, Werner said: “Every time something goes wrong we don’t need the scalp of a regulator or the scalp of a banker.”
Rising political tensions and the increasing use of sanctions are making companies think twice about relying on long global supply chains, said John Calverley, head of economic research at Standard Chartered. Firms may decide that rather than hedging their bets with production, they will keep it closer to home, he said during a roundtable session yesterday.
The consumerisation of technology is driving the development of new services in wholesale banking as much as it is in retail, as customers demand real-time access through mobile channels.
The growth of peer to peer lending demonstrates that there is an alternative to the traditional lending model of banks. But can crowd funders ever replace the incumbents and do they enjoy long-run advantages or face being co-opted?
Growth is returning to the payments industry and new market entrants are poised to take a share of that growth away from banks, according to a clutch of payments-focused white papers released at Sibos today.
BNP Paribas Securities Services has launched Liquidity Access, a solution designed to help banks and broker dealers manage and monitor their liquid assets. The launch comes as various regulations, including Basel III and Dodd Frank, require market participants to hold more liquid assets, closely monitor their liquidity ratios and anticipate the evolution of their liquidity positions. Intraday liquidity management and reporting is likely to be a hot topic this week as the January 2015 deadline for Basel intraday liquidity reporting looms.
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.
The face of retail banking in the UK is changing. In July 2010, the sector witnessed something not seen in over 100 years – the launch of a new high street bank. And where Metro Bank led the way, new and non-financial consumer brands are following suit.
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.
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.
BNP Paribas and SIX Payment Services are planning to target merchants in Belgium with a new payments partnership, which they say will offer competition on payment terminals and acquiring services for the first time.
Citi has launched an equity trading app called Total Touch, which it says will help make it easier for investors to execute block trades in the European market.
Apple may have lined up the chief executives of Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase to laud the launch of Apple Pay, but reaction from the wider industry was more muted – disappointed, even.
Just over one million UK consumers have switched their current accounts using the UK Payments Council’s seven-day switching service during its first year of life, according to new figures released this week – but some observers believe more change is needed.
London and Singapore are fast closing the gap on Hong Kong in the race to become centres for offshore renminbi business and capitalise on Beijing’s ambition to make the RMB a global currency.
Michael Harte, chief operations and technology officer at Barclays, says the growth of Chinese online e-commerce business Alibaba is the threat that keeps him awake at night – and that major banks could be in danger of losing touch with their own customers.
Barclays plans to offer corporate banking users a new security services based on Hitachi’s Finger Vein Authentication Technology from early next year and is considering introducing it to branches for consumers.
The increased globalisation of business has opened up new challenges – and opportunities – for companies and the banks that serve them. Corporate treasurers and finance professionals face complexities in the payments arena that range from inconsistencies in local payment processing to new regulations, emerging payment clearing systems and the need to manage geopolitical risk in an ever-expanding array of countries. To address these challenges for their clients, and for themselves, global banks need to invest and innovate to make sure they have the solutions to meet business needs today and in the future.
The bailout of Espirito Santo Bank brings back unwelcome memories of the events of the last financial crisis and raises the spectre of moral hazard returning to the financial services industry both in the UK and abroad. But how far have we really come since those dark days of 2008 and the collapse of Lehman Brothers and how far do we still have to go? A quick look at recent events gives us a good indication.
Europe now represents 10% of total Renminbi payments in value worldwide and is leading adoption beyond Asian countries, with four European countries in the top 10, excluding China and Hong Kong, according to Swift. Overall, the RMB strengthened its position as the seventh most used global payments currency and accounted for 1.57% of global payments.
As the global banks grapple with tides of regulation, fines, and a myriad of other post-crisis issues, local Asian institutions are tooling up and stepping in to fill the gaps.
Standard Chartered Bank’s New York business has been ordered to suspend US dollar clearing services to retail clients of the bank in Hong Kong, following an investigation by the New York State Department which determined its transaction monitoring system does not meet anti-money laundering requirements.
One of the most distinguishing features of the current wave of financial innovation is how the innovators are often not banks, but small fintech firms often led by former bank employees.
The European Commission wants to bring down the barriers to cloud computing in a move that promises to revolutionise the way transaction banks can serve clients.
Standard Chartered has launched a mobile wallet in the Philippines through a partnership with Globe Telecom, in a deal that will tap into demand for mobile money in one of the world’s strongest remittances markets.
The mobile wallet is having a transformative effect on people’s lives in developing countries, bringing safer, faster, easier financial services to the people who need it most
Nordic financial services group Nordea has gone live in Frankfurt and London with a web-based trade finance solution, which it says will help to strengthen its international trade finance business.
Essential parts of the UK retail banking sector lack effective competition and do not meet the needs of personal consumers or SMEs, according to government body the Competition and Markets Authority, which is now planning to launch a full investigation that could last 18 months.
Current account holders in the UK are switching between banks more often than before – but with some customers struggling to see the difference between banks, more needs to be done to make switching worthwhile.
A lesson learned from the global financial crises was how critical free cash flow can be for corporates, their customers, and their suppliers. As businesses seek to unlock cash flow from day-to-day operations, savvy treasurers have discovered vendor payments as a means to extend payment terms while improving vendor health, writes Chris Bozek, Managing Director, Head of Global Trade and Supply Chain Products Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The explosion of data in the securities and capital markets industry – more than 30% CAGR – is rapidly becoming a problem for market participants and managing that challenge will require a disciplined approach to the development of new data architectures.
The outsourcing of middle and back office functions by banks and brokers is now the norm, with nearly all firms outsourcing at least part of their functions to specialist providers such as custodian banks.
A new generation of trading venues is competing their way into the European securities markets with plans to make trading more efficient. But will they bring benefit to banks and investors?
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 of Deutsche Bank, takes a closer look at some of the issues facing global banks.
Citi has chosen the ‘headliner’ finalists for its mobile innovation competition in Latin America, the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, which aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.
Citi has launched a new set of trading features and transaction cost analysis tools on its Citi Futures and Options Execution platform, which it says will help clients to gain clarity from their futures clearing merchants.
Citi is hosting a major new mobile innovation competition in Latin America. Called the Mobile Challenge LatAm 2014, the competition aims to bring together individuals and companies with innovative ideas to create applications for Citi’s Latin America mobile banking platform.
HSBC has installed free Wi-Fi in 650 of its UK branches, bringing the bank into line with Barclays, which introduced free Wi-Fi in February 2013. Both banks signed deals with BT to provide the connectivity, which is managed by BT as a white label service.
