Federal regulators are planning to tighten the screws on marketplace lenders over concerns about consumer protections and reckless lending. At a marketplace lending policy summit, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry told lenders to expect a new regulatory framework this fall that would support “responsible innovation.”
Most people have heard of the headline-making achievements in artificial intelligence (AI); systems winning quiz shows and beating world champions in chess. These are the poster children of the discipline but there is a quieter revolution taking in shape in other areas, including regulatory compliance in financial services. Writing for Banking Technology, Mike MacDonagh, London-based […]
In a mere 15 months, approximately 5,000 financial institutions across Europe will be required to provide open access to customer, transaction and payment information via APIs. “This is a massive amount of work,” said James Whittle, director of industry policy for Payments UK, the representative body for the country’s payments industry, speaking at the EBAday […]
A new open ecosystem – where banks can enable third parties to develop mobile banking apps and cash management solutions for them – has many advantages over the previous closed world, where everybody tried to do everything themselves. The key to successful “opening up” is to provide a standard interface, such as a smart phone to a bank account, that is accessible to third parties whilst retaining the necessary control.
While it sounds like something for which you’d need to visit a doctor, Swift’s HVPS+ will likely be a talking point during the payments industry panels at this month’s Sibos. Announced in mid-August, the high-value payments system task force is an important component of Swift’s ISO 20022 harmonisation initiative. A number of central banks, market infrastructures and banks from around the world are members of the task force.
“Give me a solid foundation to stand on, and I will move the Earth.” I am still looking for cement trucks that are pouring foundations – virtual or otherwise – for the new normal of banking, but I can’t find them. Bankers are really confused as to how to succeed in their own business. But like Johnny Lee, I might have been lookin’ in all the wrong places.
Mastercard faces a £14 billion claim ($18.6 billion) in the U.K. over interchange fees in a case filed with the country’s Competition Appeal Tribunal. The claim comes two years after the European Union labeled the interchange charged by the payment card network as unfair. European interchange caps went into effect in December of 2015.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has revised the “Information Security” booklet of the agency’s FFIEC Information Technology Examination Handbook.
Home Depot’s complaint asserts that Visa and Mastercard “unlawfully” fixed interchange fees at high levels.
The House Financial Services Committee will meet Sept. 13 to mark up a bill that would overturn major provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Initially proposed in June by Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the Financial CHOICE Act would strip significant authority away from the CFPB, renaming it the Consumer Financial Opportunity Commission and tasking the agency with the dual mission of protecting consumers and ensuring competitive markets.
The Brexit unrest aside, Europe is taking initiatives to make a sounder, more user-friendly economic landscape. By using technology solutions and digital innovation, the European Union (EU) is encouraging greater transparency, usability and higher standards of security for all manner of web-based banking and financial transactions. Irrespective of any governmental re-organisation, and the trickled-down impact […]
Banks and fintech companies need to collaborate to succeed, argue Saxo Bank’s global COO, Søren Kyhl, and Stig Tørnes, head of business management. And that requires a change of mindset on both sides, the sooner the better. Fintech has become the buzzword for a diverse group of companies whose ambition is to bring efficiency to financial […]
The CFPB on Sept. 8 announced a $100 million fine against Wells Fargo for what the agency called “widespread unlawful sales practices.” The agency said the fine is the largest such penalty it has ever issued.
What is FTR 2015 and how does it affect banks operating in the cross-border payments space? Marc Recker, Head of Market Management, Institutional Cash Management at Deutsche Bank, explores. The challenges and complexities of complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CFT) regulations are certainly not new in the financial industry. Over the past […]
A New York Department of Labor (DOL) rule that has been bitterly opposed by a major prepaid card association is being implemented anyway. The N.Y. DOL has issued its final rule regulating methods and payment of wages, including the use of payroll cards, in the state and includes no substantive changes from its second revised proposal in June.
Iran has won a slight reprieve in FinCEN’s latest advisory for anti-money laundering and countering terrorism measures.
There’s a cultural misconception that security equals lockdown in the financial sector; disclosure runs counter to that perception. Banks are less inclined to share intimate details of attacks because they don’t want to damage market confidence and that makes cyber security a major challenge for the sector. Swift has recently sent a letter out to customers […]
A spate of email fraud schemes involving stolen consumer information and financial institutions being duped into conducting wire transfers has prompted the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to issue an advisory Sept. 6 in an effort to thwart the illegal activity.
A handheld card reader released last year has helped U.S. law enforcement agencies seize or recover about $10 million in fraudulent prepaid funds, according to the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Consumers and businesses alike will often consider a company’s reputation before entering an agreement with them. After all, why would anyone choose an organisation which has history of letting its customers down, over another with a spotless track record? It’s unsurprising then that once the reputation of traditional banks in the UK was tarnished by […]
Welcome to the dark, scary world of “shadow data”, which can easily turn into a nightmare for enterprises from data governance, compliance, reputation and financial losses points of view… Are you sitting comfortably? Yamini Kona, principal consultant, financial services at Infosys, is going to tell a chilling tale. Imagine a scenario where an employee shares […]
Consumer adoption of mobile payments is on the upswing, according to a new report by First Annapolis Consulting, which found that 74 percent of respondents had made at least one mobile-based payment in the preceding 12 months—up significantly from just 40 percent a year earlier.
The disruptive forces of technology and legislation are forcing banks to become open and collaborative, things which they historically found challenging. A friend who owns a small business recently went through what I call a “connected and choreographed” experience to get a loan. iWoka, a digital lending company, simply asked him to log on to […]
A spike in bitcoin value after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union points to the digital currency being viewed as a safe haven for investors. But a recent bankruptcy case clouds the situation.
New Mexico becomes the latest state to enact a law that requires licenses for money transmitters. That means more bureaucracy. Here are some tips for meeting those requirements.
Too often, online merchants and their payment providers focus more on international orders than domestic transactions in the battle against fraud. But drilling down into ZIP codes and neighborhoods might be a wiser strategy.
“Silicon Valley is coming,” warned Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s boss, in a recent letter to shareholders. It’s a sentiment echoed across much of the banking world at the moment. The idea that fintech is a threat to the financial services sector is bubbling – a 2015 PwC survey found 83% of financial services professionals were […]
Virtual bank accounts (VBAs) are a hot topic among the treasury community today. While you may have heard of VBAs before, their usage is rapidly evolving – and their benefits for treasurers continue to grow. Dick Oskam, global head of sales for transaction services at ING Bank, explains what VBAs are all about. In an increasingly […]
Prepaid card-related complaints to the CFPB ticked down in July, the bureau announced in its latest monthly consumer complaint report. The month saw 211 complaints about prepaid products, down 5 percent from 223 prepaid complaints in June and slightly below the monthly average of 215 since the CFPB began tracking prepaid complaints in July 2014.
Apple is pushing back against a bid by a group of Australia’s major banks to be allowed to negotiate collectively with the U.S-based tech giant over contactless payments. In a filing with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released Aug. 30, Apple called upon the regulator to reject a request by the banks to collectively bargain with Apple in negotiations to offer Apple Pay to their customers.
As a Gen Xer, I have always had difficulty relating to the obsessive appeal social media has to millennials. Tweeting and Facebook posting of mundane daily events seemed like over-sharing and just a little narcissistic to me. This is not an intellectual problem of understanding the concepts or technologies, but a kind of generational disparity […]
Traditionally there weren’t any obligations for financial institutions to provide complete information on all parties in a payment process. Today, it is quite a different story. The initiator and receiver are responsible for reporting account numbers, names and addresses of remitters. There are even cases now where regulators may prevent banks from processing transactions when […]
Extending the reach of financial services in emerging markets is an ongoing challenge and opportunity for traditional banks. Telcos have led the relatively recent development of mobile money products with great success; achieved primarily through the use of innovative technology and agents on the ground. GMSA reports that 37 mobile money markets have ten times […]
In the wake of the cyberattack that struck international financial messaging network SWIFT earlier this year, U.S. banking regulators say that they are assessing cybersecurity threats facing the country’s financial institutions and the controls in place to defend against attacks.
Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, RedOwl field data scientist, ponders the curious case of Galen Marsh, who stole masses of data from his former employee, Morgan Stanley, by using a very simple hack of the client data management system. In a climactic conclusion to an insider threat story that has been developing since 2015, Morgan Stanley agreed to […]
It’s no secret that the financial services industry has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting digital technology. Far from being leaders of innovation, banks are often stifled by lumbering IT systems and an inherent sense of caution when it comes to challenging the status-quo. With growing investment in the internet of things […]
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s proposal prohibiting financial services firms from including class action waivers in arbitration agreements has another critic: The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) has sent a letter to the federal agency about the “negative” impacts the rule would have on the prepaid industry.
In the course of a recent active business day I observed myself carrying a multitude of financial instruments. I had to make a payment from my business checking account to a local government agency and I was reluctant to use my business debit card. Should I have chosen my credit card the agency charged an […]
Are payment processors for consumer financial service providers required to understand the complex regulatory regimes to which their clients are subject, and verify that clients are complying with those requirements?
Banking Technology, ACI Worldwide and Nets have joined forces to survey the global market about the highs and lows of its current journey towards real-time payments. From individual institutions’ readiness to key market drivers, obstacles and fraud concerns, and everything in between – survey participants from across the globe share their views.
