BankingTech


Technology fragmentation imposes testing burden on banks

As banks increasingly digitalise and provide mobile services to user’s mobile devices they face the double-whammy of having to test software that has to run on multiple environments and doing it in an increasingly short time-scales as continuous release development cycles become the norm.

The dangers of digitisation without customer insight

In bygone days the bank manager knew each of his customers by name but could offer them only the narrowest range of products. Today the computer can tailor bespoke financial solutions in a mass market – but has no empathy with which to convey its expertise …

Cobol – do banks speak our language?

With banking IT failures happening on a seemingly weekly basis, we perhaps should be examining the language they speak more closely. Most of our banks are built on systems and programmed with languages that pre-date the birth of the internet, let alone the birth of mobile banking …

LSE/DTCC regulatory reporting tie-up shows the way for collaboration

London Stock Exchange and The Depository Trust & Clearing are partnering to provide clients with a connection to the LSE’s UnaVista Approved Reporting Mechanism. The service will allow DTCC clients to comply with the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation through their current connection from DTCC’s Global Trade Repository.

Citihub and Excel IT ally for cloud data centre services

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.

The emerging threat of trade-based money laundering in trade finance

Money laundering is a global phenomenon, evident in many parts of the world. Techniques have ranged from simple bulk cash movements across borders to more sophisticated techniques hidden in trade transactions. As trade between the Middle East and the rest of the world continues to grow, the threat of trade based money laundering becomes more […]

Digitalisation will double bank IT spending in next four years

Bank IT spending in developed markets is set to double over the next four years, according to figures provided by analyst firm Gartner. The rise is driven mainly by the desire to reduce maintenance costs on legacy IT and support newer, digital technologies.

Automating incentives boosts bottom line

Sometimes the least obvious changes can have a big effect, and very often those changes are in areas that might considered outside the remit of the people best placed to make them. Bank staff remuneration, for instance …

Roundtable: a world of real-time payments

Call it immediate, instant, fast(er) or real-time, the drive to speed up payments is being discussed in almost every country. As part of that discussion Banking Technology and ACI Worldwide brought together international participants from Australia, Europe, the UK and the US review the opportunities and challenges ahead.

September 2015: corporate Challenges

PULLING TOGETHER Banks are losing corporate business to alternative providers. What can they do to fight back? PREVIEW: SINGAPORE SLINGS AND ARROWS Innotribe takes centre stage at Sibos 2015 – what’s left for the traditionalists? SURVEY: LEGACY REPLACEMENT Multiple overlapping and redundant systems are holding back modernisation ROUNDTABLE: THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF IMMEDIATE PAYMENTS Call them […]

Singapore slings (and arrows)

For those who attend Sibos every year, it can seem as though the conference never actually ends – it simply adjourns until the following year. This year, the rise of distributed ledgers and the role of non-bank players in financial services look set to top the agenda – but there will also be a strong focus on innovation, women in finance and millennials.

How ANZ used mapping in its merger with National Bank

When ANZ decided to make its acquisition of New Zealand’s National Bank into a single brand, it had some wide-ranging rationalisation ahead of it to reduce costs while expanding service coverage. Software from Californian geographic information systems specialist Esri helped.

The rise of ‘halal hubs’ represents an Islamic finance opportunity

An interesting trend is developing in the halal sector: regional hubs are developing in places that have some local demand but not the size that would be significant markets on their own. Think of Malaysia (the largest) or Dubai or tiny Brunei. Each sees the halal sector as being strategic to their economic growth, and for Dubai and Brunei at least, as key aspects of their economic diversification. This trend has the potential to support global growth in the Islamic economy as well as SME development but need a lot of (costly) infrastructure put in place to open up the international side to SMEs

RSRCHXchange launch targets MiFID II research reforms

A new online market for buying and selling financial research has gone live in Europe. Focused on providing buy-side firms with more transparency, the new RSRCHXexchange is based in the cloud and is aimed at helping institutions comply with MiFID II research unbundling requirements.

Fidor UK launch promises social media revolution in retail

Online-only bank Fidor has launched in the UK, promising to change the way retail banking works by letting the customer build the services and products they want to use. The bank is part of a new wave of fresh banks entering the market, many of which focus their efforts online rather than on the high street.

Saxo opens trading platform with advanced API

Saxo Bank is to allow access to its multi-asset trading and back office infrastructure through a new open API that will allow developers and partners to integrate Saxo’s trading functionality into their own applications and systems.

Top-tier banks rally round R3 distributed ledger project

Nine major global investment banks have formed a partnership to explore the potential of distributed ledger technology in financial markets. The project, led by financial technology company R3, aims to create early standards for the emerging technology that will make it easier and more efficient as it grows.

Nationwide revamps branches with new NCR self-service ATMs

UK building society Nationwide has begun a £500 million project to improve its branch network using NCR latest generation of self-service ATMs. The project aims to bring the kind of self-service experience customers can get at supermarkets to the retail bank branch.

The non-bank bank?  

Saxo Payments isn’t a bank, and the chief executive isn’t a banker. So how does he think he’s that’s going to help shake up international payments?

 

Reshaping the future of corporate banking

Pascal Augé, head of global transaction and payment services, Société Générale speaks to Daily News at Sibos about the growing importance of transaction banking for corporate customers

ISO 20022: we’ve reached the crossroads and need to act

Last year, the ISO 20022 standard celebrated its 10th birthday, and consequently it may seem a bit odd to say that after more than a decade since its inception, the financial community really should start taking assertive action. Since 2004, the ISO 20022 standard has, thankfully, witnessed substantial adoption but it has been what could be termed an “uncontrolled adoption”. So why is action so critical now?

Looking for the best of all worlds in real-time payments

Central banks need to play a greater role in the provision of infrastructure for low value payments and existing models revised to balance risk and rewards, according to new research published by the Swift Institute.

Turkey listings advance LSE’s derivatives ambitions

The London Stock Exchange says that the launch of Turkish derivatives on its derivatives market represents part of the long-cherished goal of growing its derivatives business around the world. It also represents the exchange’s ‘open access’ policy.

The payment services market under the eye of the regulator

The UK payment services market has been under the spotlight in recent months with the introduction of a new Payment Systems Regulator created with the intention, amongst other things, of opening up the industry to new and emerging payment service providers.

Russia’s NSD introduces off-exchange settlement

Russia’s central securities depository NSD has implemented back-to-back settlement technology for off-exchange delivery-versus-payment transactions with securities denominated in Russian rubles. The bank accounts and transactions may be in rubles, US dollar, Euro and Chinese yuan.

Payment Systems Regulator names members of strategy forum

The Payment Systems Regulator, the new economic regulator for UK payment systems, today confirms the line-up of the Payments Strategy Forum it has set up to set the strategy for innovation in payment systems where the industry needs to work together.

Transform Compensation Management to Increase Results and Mitigate Risk in Banking

Mitigating risk while rewarding success has become a complex and growing concern in banking. Recent regulatory changes stemming from the financial crisis mean modern banks face regulations from several entities and multiple levels of government that require them to govern, monitor, audit, and report their incentive plans with higher levels of detail than ever before. Many organisations are now challenged to meet these internal and external compliance requirements.

Bloomberg and Traiana to automate post-trade for FX options

Post-trade processing company Bloomberg STP Solutions and post-trade and risk specialist Traiana have begun a joint effort to develop a straight-through processing infrastructure for FX options. The partners say it will help to reduce post-trade costs for market participants, which have typically remained higher than execution costs.

ATM cash usage continues to grow in UK

Figures from Link, the UK’s cash machine network, show that the number of ATMs in the UK reached 70,180 in July, passing 70,000 for the first time. ATM figures from July, show that the total amount withdrawn from cash machines in July 2015 was £11.3 billion, up 4% compared with July 2014.

ISSA sets out financial crime principles for securities

The International Securities Services Association adopted a set of compliance principles to address the “critical challenges” posed by financial crime. The new principles aim to establish “a clear global standard for the opening and maintenance of cross-border securities accounts”.

Swift selects finalists for Innotribe Startup Challenge 2015

Swift has named the 20 finalists for the 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge finale, which will take place at Sibos in Singapore this October. The finalists include companies focused on personal finance, foreign exchange, data protection, mobile banking and e-commerce as well as social media, big data, payments and many other areas.

Italy live on T2S (at last)

Target2-Securities, the European Central Bank project to harmonise Europe’s post trade infrastructure, has finally gone live in Italy – three months after Italy’s last-minute decision to drop out of the first wave earlier this summer.

Contactless payments set to boom as limit rises to £30

More than £2.5 billion was spent in the UK using contactless cards in the first half of 2015 and this is likely to increase even more as the upper limit for contactless payments increases from £20 to £30 from today.

Hatstand aims cyber-security service at capital markets

Global capital markets specialist, Hatstand, has launched a cyber-security risk assessment service that will enable businesses to better understand the current state of their preparedness against the risk of cyber-attacks and identify any shortfalls in their existing governance programmes.

Ciber machine will convert Cobol into cloud ready code

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.