UK banks are still in “a difficult place” as they face economic uncertainty, increased cost and competitive pressures, complex regulations and rapid technological changes – but the changes that are happening in the payments industry offer scope for them to reclaim the initiative and deploy innovative solutions.
Dutch cooperative Rabobank has increased its outsourcing of banking software development and testing, via a five-year deal with technology specialist Cognizant that the cooperative hopes will provide it with the benefits of stronger technology.
Four out of five financial institutions are not ready for new regulations governing the trading, reporting and clearing of OTC derivatives, according to a new survey by US communications company IPC.
Peter Reitz, managing director of Eurex Repo and Eurex Bonds since 2006, has stepped down from the posts. He will continue to bear overall responsibility for the two subsidiaries on the Eurex Executive Board.
Online investment bank Saxo Bank has opened an office in Istanbul, Turkey, following its acquisition of local broker Değer Menkul Değerler in May last year.
Total bank IT spending across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific will grow to $179.2 billion in 2013, an increase of 3.4% over last year according to research and consulting firm Celent.
The newly created East Africa Exchange, which is currently taking its first steps in Rwanda, is part of a regional integration project between Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda that aims to boost liquidity and provide a commodities market for 130 million people across the region.
At the centre of the national crisis sits a banking industry tarnished in the public’s eyes by poor performance, excessive pay and the ongoing need for state support. Just where does the industry go from here and how does it start to rebuild trust?
Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 940 more jobs, the latest in a series of savage headcount culls at major financial institutions. Separate announcements earlier this week confirmed 200 human resources jobs would be axed, and a further 175 cuts made in the Halifax branch network.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has improved its connectivity to the outside world, through a deal with low-latency specialist Telstra Global at its new data centre at Tseung Kwan O.
Too many brokers are still using outdated methods such as email and telephone to confirm trade matches, undermining the advantages gleaned from high-performance trading technology, according to a new study by financial research firm Aite Group.
Chilean broker Banchile, part of Santiago- based Banco de Chile, has deployed a brokerage platform from UK systems supplier Fidessa that will link it to international trading venues.
The upcoming IPO of Russia’s Moscow Exchange on its own bourse is just one step in a titanic effort to transform Russia’s capital markets and attract attention from international investors – and it may not be the most important one, according to Serge Alexandre, electronic trading services at Russian broker Otkritie.
Former Liquidnet Europe head John Barker is to take up a new role at Russian financial services firm BCS Financial Group, Banking Technology has learned.
German central securities depository Clearstream has partnered with Belgian bank and insurance firm Belfius, to develop a new collateral service for bilateral trades, focusing on OTC derivatives and aimed at corporates and medium-sized banks.
The London Stock Exchange Group has entered a partnership with Peru’s Lima Stock Exchange, in which the LSEG will provide trading and smart order routing technology to Peru.
Proposals in Germany that would affect the country’s capital market structure could create problems of regulatory arbitrage when the European Commission’s MiFID II arrives in 2015-16, according to Mark Spanbroek, general secretary at the FIA European Principal Traders Association.
Nasdaq OMX is to combine its market technology and corporate solutions businesses, in a move that it says will help the firm provide more transparency to customers and a stronger business proposition.
As job cuts continue to bite at some of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions, new figures from Bloomberg Industries reveal the scale of the cull driven by lacklustre macroeconomic performance in Europe, a declining stock market and tightening financial regulation.
Cambodia’s Acleda Bank has embarked on a massive programme of expansion in a bid to reach unbanked customers in the country, drawing on core banking technology provided by Swiss banking software company Temenos.
Swift has opened its Innotribe Startup Challenge 2013 for entries. The year-round competition is intended to introduce financial industry decision makers and early-stage investors to the “innovations and emerging companies that are poised to transform the industry”.
An alliance between central securities depositories in Germany, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and Australia aims to tackle the expected global shortfall in collateral arising from tough new financial regulation.
Faced with flatlining IT budgets, global CIOs must better exploit the business potential of technology to achieve results – currently they realise only 43% of that potential says Gartner. Top of the priority list is what the research firm calls ‘digital technologies’. In this it includes mobile, analytics, Big Data, social media networking and cloud, […]
A heated argument that erupted between panellists at an event in London yesterday signals deep divides in Europe over the role that financial regulators should take as France and Germany introduce their own national rules.
Interdealer broker ICAP has raised $36 million through the sale of a 12% stake in its Traiana post-trade processing and risk management business to a consortium of banks – Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Nomura, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Market participants have expressed support for controversial new proposals in Germany to control high-frequency trading, including a requirement to obtain a licence or stop trading.
The banking industry, integral to our commercial and personal lives, has always evolved with the times to embrace new challenges and consumer attitudes. Technology plays an obvious and increasingly important role in this evolution.
Online trading service DCM Capital has released a trading platform with a social media sentiment feed, allowing traders to incorporate information from channels such as twitter and Facebook into their trading decisions.
HSBC is to pilot a foreign exchange netting system in China after getting approval from authorities there – the first foreign bank to get such approval. The programme is part of the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange’s recently launched Foreign Currency Centralised Management pilot scheme for multinational companies.
Investors looking to trade in Russia can now take advantage of a new high-speed route from Frankfurt to Moscow, built by technology and connectivity provider TMX Atrium. The idea behind the new link is to provide access for clients that need low-latency access to the Russian market, which currently represents the world’s sixth largest economy, […]
IT2 Treasury Solutions, a UK company that provides treasury management software and services for large corporations and small and mid-sized financial institutions, has been sold to Wall Street Systems, a subsidiary of trading technology provider ION Trading.
Bank AlJazira has commissioned infrastructure specialist Siemon to supply the IT infrastructure for new data centres across Saudi Arabia as part of its strategy for growth and to secure technical advantage. Siemon was selected as the supplier of choice in a competitive tender with two other industry-leading manufacturers. According to Ahmed Al Hassan, head of […]
European regulators have until March to impose a code of conduct on banks contributing to the creation of the Euribor interbank lending rate benchmark. The deadline is included in recommendations published by the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Banking Authority following their joint work on benchmark rate-setting processes in the wake of the Barclays Libor scandal and other rate-fixing revelations.
US exchange operator BATS Global Markets’ revelation earlier this week that it may have accidentally breached best execution regulation on thousands of client transactions over a four-year period has been criticised by senior buy-side traders, who have expressed disappointment at the failure of exchanges to serve long-term investors.
The finance sector has been plagued with bad press over the past five years, with little respite for those in the industry, but despite the issues faced by the sector, 59% of IT jobseekers would still consider entering the industry, writes Richard Nott, website director at CWJobs.co.uk.
Swift, the Brussels-based financial messaging consortium has appointed Juliette Kennel to the newly-created post of head of market infrastructures. Kennel, formerly head of standards, will be responsible for bringing together Swift’s activities in this area. Swift’s relationships with other market infrastructures is a focus for Gottfried Leibbrandt, who took over as chief executive last summer, […]
Citi has established a set of alliances with Clearstream and Euroclear Bank that it says will transform the way broker-dealers manage their collateral, freeing up precious resources as onerous new regulations in the US and Europe burden banks with tougher collateral requirements.
Western investment firms looking to trade in Asia Pacific should not rely on algorithms that have been ported from the US or Europe, according to William Capuzzi, president of trading technology company ConvergEx’s global execution business – instead, they should adopt dedicated tools built from the ground up.
JP Morgan has begun rollout of its new multi-asset class trading platform, JP Morgan Markets, which the firm says will make it easier for clients to bring together different elements such as research and analytics and convert them into successful trades.
ATM maker Diebold has developed an ATM that lets customers withdraw cash without using a card – and saves the bank money in the process.
