Analysis


Will banks suffer casualties in the battle to own the customer experience?

Technology has infiltrated every facet of our lives, fundamentally changing our behaviour patterns and our expectations of what constitutes a good customer experience. The banking sector has not been immune to these changes; the industry has been forced to drastically transform its business processes and services in order to keep up with customers’ expectations. Today, customer satisfaction is judged not by the smile on the face of a cashier, but on the speed with which one can gain mobile access

Is everybody API?

Competition from financial technology companies and regulatory changes are forcing banks to adopt APIs to provide access to client information, which has many implications across the industry.

It’s not who you know, it’s what you know

Sluggish economic growth in developed nations means attention is still focused on the growth markets of the Brics nations. As intra-regional trade grows, local knowledge is becoming a valued commodity.

From tiny acorns …

From its tentative early steps to open the Swift network to corporations, Swift has been steadily building its corporate membership. Swift membership is increasingly an option for not only large multinationals, but also medium sized companies. Daily News at Sibos looks at the current status of Swift for Corporates.

Retailers Continue to Challenge Interchange Fee Settlement

Target Corp., Amazon.com and a host of other retailers continue to challenge MasterCard, Visa and several large banks over the terms of a $7.25 billion settlement reached in 2013. The settlement was supposed to end the retailers’ claims that the banks and MasterCard and Visa artificially inflated interchange fees. Several of the largest retailers, however, […]

The path to a post-trade utility

Shared utilities could save institutions as much as 40% of their current processing costs, but there are challenges to implementation.

The value of utility

Compliance obligations are increasing for financial institutions. A utility approach to the issue is gaining favour …

Finding the right fit

Trade finance plays an important role in helping to grease the wheels of the global economy. A largely paper-based process, effort is being put into finding ways to automate and improve processes for banks and corporates. 

Building a new risk architecture

It seems that at each Sibos, certainly since the financial crisis of 2008, a regulatory deadline is looming large. This year’s model is the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s (BCBS’) 11 principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting (BCBS 239), with which globally systemically important banks (GSIBs) must comply by 1 January 2016. However, a report on the progress of adoption reveals a lack of preparedness.

Meeting the need for speed

Real-time payments systems and infrastructures are being rolled out globally. What impact will they have on financial institutions? How fast is too fast? Daily News at Sibos asked delegates where the trend is heading …

The instant catalyst

Immediate payments are acting as a catalyst for banks to add value and develop holistic payment solutions. In this extract from World Payments Report 2015, the impact of immediate payments on banks’ offerings is examined

Rearranging risk

Pushing more complex products towards mandatory central clearing may increase the risks to which CCPs and clearing members are exposed. Frances Faulds examines whether CCPs can continue pooling risks in a safe and efficient way

Keeping it real

Global interoperability of real-time payments systems will require harmonisation of market practices and standards.

Chips off the old blockchain

The distributed ledger is one of the hottest topics in financial services. Born out of the crypto-currency bitcoin, the blockchain concept has gone mainstream and the first area to feel the impact is likely to be payments.

ISO 20022: Working in Harmony

Despite celebrating its 10th birthday in 2014 – or perhaps because of it – the number of variations of ISO 20022 being deployed is prompting concerns that it is rapidly becoming less useful as a standard. There is increasing recognition that differences in implementation and market practices could lead to a fragmentation of the standard.

Coming in from the cold

Fostering innovation in financial technology has become a much more collaborative affair: global banking giants are courting small technology start-ups in the hopes of gaining a competitive edge in financial services …

Caught in the crossfire

Cyber attacks cost little to perpetrate, but plenty to prevent. A focus on external and internal factors will help financial institutions to mitigate the threat.

Europe’s unsettling times

T2S, Europe’s harmonised settlement platform, is live. With a series of migration waves scheduled up until full live operation in July 2017, the next few years are likely to be characterised by intense activity as market participants finalise their strategies …

CFPB Draws Line in Sand Regarding Arbitration Clauses (Oct. 7, 2015)

Prior to today’s field hearing in Denver, the CFPB has announced it’s considering proposing rules that would restrict consumer financial companies from using certain types of arbitration clauses that block consumers from forming class action lawsuits to obtain compensation.

ECJ’s Takedown of Safe Harbor Spells Trouble for U.S. Firms (Oct. 7, 2015)

Europe’s top court has struck down a longstanding agreement that enabled U.S. companies to handle the personal data of users in the European Union without being subjected to EU privacy rules, in a decision that will significantly affect not only tech giants like Google and Facebook, but payments and financial services companies, as well.

Technology is an enabler for stability

A large part of any financial technology businesses is clearly driven by the need for banks to comply with the ever-changing regulatory requirements that affect their business. And this has brought about a frenetic period of activity and growth in this core market. These changes affect the various individual areas within financial organizations Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and others serve, including Finance (e.g. IFRS9), Risk (e.g. Basel III Liquidity, FRTB) and Regulatory Reporting (e.g. CRD IV). They also impact the way in which these processes are governed and controlled centrally

Understanding blockchain and the opportunity for financial institutions

Blockchain has the potential to further disrupt banking in the way that we know it today, transform traditional interbank and even peer-to-peer payments, open up opportunities to replace existing mechanisms for the exchange of financial information, and how customer records are stored and processed.

Fintech for corporates: partnering for success

With global investment into the fintech arena growing at an astonishing rate, it is only a matter of time before the corporate sector begins to feel its true force. Fred DiCocco, head of market management, BNY Mellon Treasury Services, discusses how banks are adapting. Fintech is triggering a monumental shift in the payments space, with […]

Viewpoint: Apple Pay Branches out of the Orchard

You’d think an A-list celebrity had shown up when Apple Pay launched in the U.K. in July. Despite some speed bumps related to transit and international acceptance, prepaid providers shouldn’t ignore the mobile wallet.

Viewpoint: Apple Pay Usage Report

Despite Apple Pay’s high-profile U.S. launch, recent First Annapolis primary consumer research suggests that only one in five iPhone 6 users has actually made a purchase with Apple Pay. But, that’s not the only stat that matters.

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 …

EC Seeks Input on Simplifying Cross-Border VAT Payments (Sept. 28, 2015)

With European Union law now requiring merchants to tax digital goods based on which country the buyer is located in—instead of where the seller is located—the European Commission (EC) is canvassing interested parties for feedback on the system of reconciling and paying taxes to national governments.

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 […]

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 …

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