Seven startup financial services companies have been chosen by the FinTech Innovation Lab London, which returns to the city for its third year running. Candidates include a web-based program for real-time geopolitical risk assessment, tools that help small business owners manage their finances and faster data exchange and reconciliation technologies.
Digital and alternative currencies, including Bitcoin, can now be used for transactions in California, following the implementation of bill AB129 on 1 January 2015. The new bill is a step forward for cryptocurrencies which have faced tough opposition and scrutiny from global regulators. However, serious doubts about the safety of digital currencies have been voiced by banks.
The big four high street banks lost ground in the current account market in the first year of the UK Payments Council’s current account switching service, mainly through poor customer service. But the guarantee did not accelerate the pace of account switching, according to an independent survey of bank customers.
The London Stock Exchange has set out plans to add EuroCCP as a third clearer for its main market from March 2015, joining LCH.Clearnet and Switzerland’s SIX x-Clear.
Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, the financial services industry has faced challenges like never before. Headlines around bankers’ bonuses, PPI miss-selling and Libor manipulation have led to a lack of trust from consumers. In response, traditional banks need to join the new generation of financial service providers and their customers in their new natural habitat – online and on mobile.
Faster Payments, the UK payment clearing system, is planning to expand access to more payment service providers in the coming year. The organisation has set out its plans in a new Whitepaper, which explores possible cooperation with the Bank of England to develop new settlement models for non-bank payment service providers.
Barclays has launched a new video banking service on smartphone, tablet and computer, which it says will allow customers to have face to face conversations with the bank anytime, anywhere, without having to visit a branch.
It has been a busy week for the banking industry. The first big news was the publication of a comprehensive health check of 130 large European banks by the European Central Bank, which was commissioned in response to the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. Brussels lauded the latest investigation as the most intense scrutiny that European banks have ever been put through.
UK bank TSB is emphasising its shift to customer-friendly online services as it seeks to redefine itself in the wake of its split from Lloyds Banking Group last year.
Controversy over the handling of derivatives dominated talk at the Mondo Visione Exchange Forum this week, where panellists contested the value of interoperability and whether CCP contagion might bring down the financial system.
The Financial Stability Board is proposing a new minimum standard for total loss-absorbing capacity, which is designed to provide confidence that systemically important global banks can absorb losses without upsetting financial stability and the wider economy.
The challenger banks are coming of age. Aldermore, the UK’s fastest growing bank, is rumoured to be preparing for its IPO, just like OneSavings Bank, which was the first bank to list on the stock exchange since Bradford & Bingley in 2000.
The fintech start-up sector and renewed spending by larger firms are combining to create a demand for IT skills that is outstripping supply in some areas. Cyber-security, big data, business intelligence and application development skills are all in demand.
Lloyds Banking Group’s decision to close 200 branches and axe 9,000 staff was to be expected – but the firm’s digital plans highlight the changing nature of retail banking and the bank branch in general.
UK financial services firms are increasing their spending on IT but may still not be doing enough to fend off competition, according to the latest survey of the sector from the Confederation of British Industry and PwC.
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 London Metal Exchange has launched its new clearinghouse LME Clear. Built by vendor Cinnober, the system is an important plank of the exchange’s ambitions, which have become more grandiose following its takeover by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing at the beginning of 2013.
As the UK Payments Council looks back on the first year of its current account switching service, numbers have risen but the change has been gradual and a disappointment to some. That could soon change as private banks make their move, according to senior financial services experts.
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.
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.
The Financial Conduct Authority has recently issued a series of “considerations” for firms that are thinking about using third-party technology banking solutions. The considerations do not seek to tell firms how to structure their IT procurements but rather provide a useful framework for firms to demonstrate that their IT services are effective, resilient and secure.
Regulators in the US and Europe are stepping up investigations into dark pool activity, market abuse and manipulation of financial benchmarks following a spate of damaging incidents in recent months. Tougher regulatory oversight could have a significant impact on all three areas, according to a new report by financial services technology provider SunGard.
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.
UK banks may lose out to nimbler competitors if they don’t modernise their systems and update their infrastructure, according to a new report by research house TechMarketView.
London Underground, DLR and Overground trains are to accept contactless payments, following an announcement from Transport for London. The decision comes as mobile operator EE sets out plans to support NFC payments on London Underground, the UK’s biggest building society begins issuing contactless cards to its customers, and Apple explores cooperation with Visa on a potential new mobile wallet.
The UK’s high street banks are failing to satisfy consumers and may be in danger of falling behind the big supermarkets, leaving them vulnerable to competitors, according to a new report by VerintSystems and the Customer Contact Association.
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.
Surprising changes in customer behaviour suggests that banks need to revisit their approach to branch banking and digital services, according to a new study by Accenture.
The Fairbanking Foundation, a non-profit charity focused on improving the financial health of consumers, has launched a drive to encourage banking providers to improve their products and achieve an additional 15 Fairbanking Mark certifications from the Foundation by October 2015.
The BBA has called for regulators to do more to improve competition in UK retail banking by making changes to the way payments, capital, access to funding and proportionality of regulation are handled and opening up more opportunities for challenger banks.
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 major new effort spearheaded by the Bank of England and the UK Treasury has been launched to shore up the cyber defences of the UK financial services industry, amid rising concerns that testing has exposed serious unaddressed weaknesses.
Despite falling costs, banks are continuing to charge “unjustifiable” fees that rip off retailers and consumers as they move away from cash towards debit cards and other forms of payment, according to the British Retail Consortium’s Payments Survey for 2013.
More than two years after the UK’s FSA introduced rules on mobile call recording for financial institutions, more than half of those affected still have not rolled out a solution – leaving many at risk of enforcement action, according to a new report by analyst firm Ovum and computer telephony specialist Teleware.
ICAP has launched a swap execution facility in the UK, as part of a push to dominate both the European and the US OTC derivatives markets as they are brought under new regulation.
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.
New UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has made a good start in its first year of life and has helped to contributed to a “sea change” in the way conduct is viewed and treated by financial institutions, according to Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA.
Santander is emerging as the main beneficiary of the battle to attract UK current account holders while NatWest and HSBC are losing ground, according to the monthly TNS Current Account Switching Index data for April.
There is a danger that regulation will push financial services so far down the path of homogeneity that it hinders innovation and hurts customers, warns Robin Fieth, chief executive at the Building Societies Association.
