Citihub Consulting, a global IT advisory firm, has partnered with IT services specialist Excel IT to offer a combined proposition covering infrastructure strategy and architecture through to migration logistics and ongoing support.
Barclays has launched a cloud-based contingency payment service for corporates, which the bank says will help corporates to make payments even if they are unable to use their primary channel, for example during an internet outage. The deal comes as financial institutions and corporates increase their focus on risk mitigation.
ANZ has signed a five-year, A$450 million (£208 million) strategic agreement with IBM, the centrepiece of which is the establishment of a cloud-based Innovation Lab based on IBM’s Bluemix cloud development platform-as-a-service.
Service provider Ciber claims to have solved one of the most expensive problems in business: upgrading legacy systems to make them secure and cloud friendly. Its new system, Ciber Momentum, converts the code from languages such as Cobol, Ada and Pascal into a more cloud-ready format.
At the SAP Financial Services Forum in London last month, the topic of digital transformation dominated the agenda. From legacy banks with lumbering IT systems to nimble fintech startups, the consensus was clear: The long-standing status quo is simply unsustainable in an increasingly digital economy
Over the past few years the financial industry has started to reinvent how it operates. Organisations are changing the way they serve their potential and existing customers, while maintaining the high levels of compliance and security that their customers and regulators require. The technologies available today mean that financial services organisations aren’t constrained in the way they once were. They can now access secure and compliant technology, on-demand, in the cloud which is helping them to create new ways to bring value to customers. But not all financial institutions have been able to take advantage of these technologies in the same way as newer entrants to the market have
The release in 2013 of Universal Rules for Bank Payment Obligation by the International Chamber of Commerce effectively endorsed and formalised the structure for international trade finance processes. Despite this, the volume of completed BPO transactions remains low
Cloud-based technologies are spreading rapidly through the business world: the research firm IDC expects the cloud software market to be worth more than $100 billion by 2018, implying compound annual growth of more than 21%, roughly five times faster than traditional packaged software. It is clear that cloud computing is on course to become an […]
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 […]
Leeds Building Society is to revamp its customer engagement tools through a ten-year deal with HP Enterprise Services, which will encompass a number of independent software vendors working on different parts of the business. The deal builds on the earlier deal between the two firms in 2013, which focused on the building society’s core banking platform.
Financial services firms have always faced market volatility, but new challenges are forcing most to rethink their traditional operating models in favor of outsourcing. The expanded use of outsourcing models will help improve revenue and create new business opportunities
The Object Management Group has formed a new working group to study issues of documenting and controlling data across distributed cloud environments, a big inhibitor of cloud for those with strict data sovereignty requirements such as banks and financial services firms.
Cloud computing is becoming more prevalent throughout the financial sector but many firms say they are less than halfway to having a firm cloud strategy in place, with controls and security remaining primary concerns.
As many more tech companies begin offering bank-like services, mainstream banks are searching for ways they can fight back
Britain’s banks have reliably serviced the banking needs of millions of customers for more than a hundred years; providing a safe place to store hard-earned cash, mortgages to buy dream homes, and great interest rates to accumulate savings
BT has formally today the availability of a personalised video capability as part of its Cloud Contact portfolio of services following pilot project with two UK retail banks. The system, which allows businesses to email individually tailored videos to millions of customers by integrating relevant data with video templates, was developed by Israeli marketing technology specialist Idomoo.
For banks, a race to remain relevant is on. In the past few weeks, Lloyds Banking Group has announced its intention to double-down on digital banking, closing branches and cutting costs. In the US, BBVA Compass announced that its agreement with startup Dwolla to offer real-time payment facilities to customers makes it the first mainstream bank to open its technology platform to digital developers like Dwolla
Banks and other financial institutions are finally spending more on growing new products in areas such as mobile and data analytics rather than maintaining legacy systems, according to a new report by Capgemini.
Argentina’s Banco Macro will use the Mambu cloud as the basis for a new business unit, which will offer loans to micro-enterprises and small businesses. The aim is to provide a lifeline to areas that have historically lacked access to financial services.
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.
Australian bank Westpac has signed up IBM to assist a major digital banking push in New Zealand. The bank plans to use IBM’s private cloud technology to build mobile services and social media presence.
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.
Unlike manufacturing companies, which run their operations on a single predominant ERP system supported by a few auxiliary solutions, banks have added layer upon layer of technology, ending up with an unmanageable snarl of systems and applications. Just to put things in perspective, it is estimated that on average global banks have more than 5,000 applications.
Australian broker Macquarie Futures has begun using a cloud-based reconciliation service from Gresham Computing and Amazon Web Services, which the broker says will help it to make its North American derivatives business more efficient.
Firms looking to adopt cloud-based services should consider the security and data privacy implications associated with moving critical systems into the cloud, and not let vendors drive their technology strategies for them, according to Bank of England CIO John Finch.
Combining development and operational deployment of software into a more integrated cycle can greatly improve time to market and improve efficiencies giving “10 times faster software driven innovation”, delegates at the annual SifmaTech trading systems conference and exhibition in New York were told.
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.
Could the establishment of an enhanced outsourcing oversight capability do more for asset managers than simply satisfy the FCA? A more mature set of oversight metrics could be used to provide foresight into how the outsourcer might perform in the future.
Across the financial services sector, the question is now less about where cloud technology is being used, and more about where it isn’t used. Where do financial institutions draw the line when it comes to deciding whether to keep a process or IT-related service in-house or outsource it to specialists such as Amazon Web Services, SAP and many others?
Despite the well-known benefits of cloud computing, 75% of banks in Europe are using outdated core banking systems. Why are some banking institutions slower to adopt cloud than others?
Following the tumultuous change that came in the wake of the subprime crisis, capital markets firms have yet to regain a strong foothold but 2014 is showing increasing evidence of a shift to a higher gear.
Bank of America is working with Facebook’s Open Compute project on a radical revamp of its systems. David Reilly, head of its Technology Infrastructure unit, tells Banking Technology why Software Defined.Infrastructures are the way ahead.
A new mobile voice recording service is being developed by UK tech company Voxsmart, which it claims is the first to automatically capture every type of communication on a mobile device so that it can be used for trading compliance purposes, including the FCA in the UK and Dodd-Frank in the US.
The burgeoning wealth of Asia represents a huge opportunity for asset managers that can scale their businesses across the region, but it will place huge strains on firms’ operations, driving them to explore a new approach to outsourcing.
Credit Agricole CIB has signed an outsourcing deal with Genpact, in which the technology firm will help the bank by providing its IT development and maintenance, production support, infrastructure management and user support in the US.
India’s first women-only bank has launched in Mumbai and six other Indian cities, offering a service aimed at increasing financial inclusion for women in one of the world’s most populous countries.
Three independent UK building societies – Ipswich, Loughborough and Dudley – have agreed to use a new software as a service solution from Unisys to handle their mortgage and savings accounts. The deal represents the latest move in a series of steps by the UK’s building society sector to adopt cloud platforms.
Start-up financial analysis company Kenshō is planning to become the first professional analytics platform built completely on Nasdaq OMX’s FinQloud cloud computing platform, which is powered by Amazon Web Services.
Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depositos bank is planning to grow its trading business in Brazil, using a hosted service provided by SunGard.
Cloud computing company SAP has signed a deal with Citibank for a major new cloud platform that promises to simplify corporate to bank connectivity for some of the world’s largest banks, Banking Technology has learned.
