Worldwide


Talking Heads: RMB internationalisation

As the Chinese Government continues its phased internationalisation of the renminbi, financial institutions are evaluating their strategies. Daily News at Sibos asked some Sibos delegates what financial institutions need to do to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by RMB internationalisation.

Sibos delegates slam “ill-conceived” regulation

Sibos delegates have sent a blunt message to the world’s financial regulators that new regulations are neither well planned nor well implemented. Eighty per cent of delegates expressed their negative views regarding regulation in yesterday’s regulation plenary session.

SunTec lets Visa put its foot down and Xelerate

Visa Europe is to introduce a new services suite called Xelerate Card Services from revenue management and business assurance firm SunTec, which it will use to track a peak volume of 100 million transactions a day. Xelerate is designed to help bill member banks and approved non-members of Visa Europe in 36 countries. Visa Europe […]

Afghanistan hails its own bright banking future

Despite making headlines for all the wrong reasons for decades, Afghanistan is now trying to persuade the international banking community that there is a brighter future ahead for the country

Connecting the unbanked key to easing poverty

Globally, around 50 per cent of the population do not have a bank account. Whether that is perceived as a surprisingly large or surprisingly small ratio is questionable; what is certain is that there is a potentially significant opportunity to provide those financial services

More collaboration ahead, says Swift’s Leibbrandt

Front and centre of the agenda that Swift set out at the beginning of this week’s Sibos is the concept of collaboration and cooperation – a perennial theme for Swift, but Leibbrandt told Daily News at Sibos there is a change in the air.

Operational risk: Hell is other people

As the focus on operational risk increases, Nicholas Pratt discovers that the greatest threats to a bank’s security lie outside of its four walls

Innovation: there is a better way

Innovation in financial services may not generate products quite so world-changing as the inventions of Edison, but the principle of finding better ways to do something does inform most developments.

Corporate actions: standard and deliver

The complexity of corporate actions has stymied automation efforts for more than a decade. But there could be light at the end of the tunnel …

Omnichannel: the new normal for retail banks

With customers expecting consistent service across all channels, banks must step up to the plate and streamline their processes when it comes to customer interaction. Using the omnichannel approach, they’ll also reap the rewards of better customer intelligence and a clear idea of how best to spend precious budgets.

Talking Heads: this year’s model

How is the global custody and asset servicing model changing? Will consolidation occur? What do clients want? Daily News at Sibos finds out

Talking Heads: the financial crisis

Crawling from the wreckage – Daily News at Sibos asks whether the industry will experience another Lehman Brothers-type crisis. Have market participants learned their lesson?

Accuity rolls out flexible database tool

Two years on from the merger of Accuity and Bankers Almanac, the company has combined its counterparty and payment databases into a new tool that allows users to integrate them into their own workflows.

Retail banking: underwriting the revolution

New technologies are transforming the consumer experience in retailing and in banking. For banks to remain relevant, they need to work with innovators, writes Paul Skeldon

Deutsche Bank signs wealth of global deals

Deutsche Bank has signed deals with Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and China Merchant Bank to use its products and services in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Securities settlement: the guessing game

With implementation of Europe’s Target2-Securities beginning in 2015, financial institutions are still defining their strategies and business models. Some questions remain to be answered.

Barclays builds on Pingit head start

Barclays is making a determined effort to capitalise on the two-year lead it has built up with its Pingit mobile payments application with two new applications intended to allow retailers to integrate mobile payments into their services.

Standard Chartered backs mobile wallets

Standard Chartered has launched a mobile wallet service targeted at corporate clients in Kenya. The service has been developed in partnership with Safaricom, which operates the mobile money transfer service M-Pesa. The bank hopes the deal will herald the start of a major drive to open up financial inclusion in emerging markets.

BofA Merrill Offered Faster Corporate Payments to Asia (Sept. 17, 2013)

Sept. 17, 2013 Bank of America Merrill Lynch is aiming to improve the speed and efficiency with which banks and corporations can make high-dollar payments to Asia. The company’s new Accelerated Payments to Asia solution uses smart routing technology to mitigate the difficulties typically faced by corporations making U.S. dollar payments to Asia due to […]

rePower Expands in Europe, Adds paysafecard (Sept. 17, 2013)

Sept. 17, 2013 MasterCard is expanding the reach of its rePower prepaid card reload network to more European nations and adding partners as part of its push to make loading cash onto prepaid cards easier for consumers across Europe, according to Matt Lanford, MasterCard Europe’s head of prepaid. At the 2013 MasterCard Europe Prepaid Conference […]

BAML builds single data repository

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has completed consolidation of client transaction banking data from multiple systems into a single centralised data repository. The service will provide corporate clients with up to 14 months of data online or in file format.

Fundtech aims to make bureau offerings cheaper

Transaction banking specialist vendor Fundtech has released a new financial messaging platform called Global Messaging Plus, which it said would make service bureau offerings such as software as a service more attractive to tier one and two banks.

Digitisation of cash a focus at Innotribe session

Bitcoin has had a bizarre beginning, full of whats, ifs and maybes. In what seems to be a case of virtual reality came virtual cash, with software written by an anonymous donor and a principle that could play a leading role in the future of online transactions.

MasterCard and EFL partner to underwrite unbanked SMEs

MasterCard and Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) have announced a global partnership to promote small business growth in developing countries. The partnership, agreed yesterday at Sibos, provides international issuers in developing markets with new tools to help to improve credit underwriting for unbanked small businesses.

Swift sets course for collaborative compliance

Swift’s “True North” is the fact that it is a cooperative, and it will focus on this as it moves towards developing collaborative industry utilities to address complicated issues in areas such as KYC.

Yorkshire paves a path in shared services with HP alliance

The UK’s second largest building society is being moved to a modern delivery platform managed by HP, with the establishment of a Shared Services Alliance with HP Enterprise Services UK to offer the platform to a wider range of UK financial services institutions.

Cyberspace: beyond the rule of law?

Cover story: It’s not just the criminals who are trying to get into your systems – banks need to look at the bigger picture to create an effective cyber defence Also in this issue: Where worlds collide:  In Turkey’s dynamic financial services markets minarets mix with mobile  masts and ATMs with ancient monuments . Swift […]

Data management: Knowledge is power

Standardised data architecture at financial institutions is no longer a ‘nice to have’. Regulatory pressures and headline grabbing fines have rocketed enterprise data management to the top of the boardroom agenda.

Brave new worlds

International financial centres can play an important role in easing companies’ participation in new markets. Heather McKenzie looks at the elements needed to build a successful financial centre

Capital One Exits Isis Mobile Wallet (Sept. 16, 2013)

Capital One Financial Corp. this week ends its trial run with the Isis Mobile Wallet, raising questions about what combination of payment cards Isis will have when the wallet officially launches later this year.