In an effort to improve the protection offered to consumers, and to harmonise data practices, the EU is currently in the process of passing two pieces of legislation: the Cybercrime Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Few people have given much thought to how these will align with international financial regulation.
All of the UK’s mobile network operators have extended their carrier billing offerings by connecting to Gemalto’s direct billing platform, the mobile security solutions provider announced.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has chosen Canadian IT firm CGI Group to help its corporate clients manage the transition to SEPA, the European Union project to simplify bank transfers denominated in euros.
Spain’s CaixaBank is planning to target Brazil’s payments industry via a new joint venture with US transaction processing firm Global Payments that builds on the bank’s experience of digital channels its home market.
Banks should not be afraid to go further and faster in their adoption of cloud computing, says Mohamed Gamil, chief operating officer at Islamic Bank of Britain.
For firms who remember MiFID I, and those that don’t, round two is almost upon us. This month, the Council of the EU agreed their general approach, meaning that the draft of MiFID II/MiFIR is free to advance to the European Parliament. If all goes according to the current plan, the new combined legislation will be with us in time for 2015 implementation.
Financial technology company SIA has acquired Italian telecoms firm Emmecom, as part of a plan to create a new technology infrastructure across Europe for merchants and banks.
Market participants have condemned a proposal in the UK House of Commons that calls for the UK government to consider implementing a tax on high-frequency trading activity in the country.
The introduction of seven-day account switching in the UK in September is a fundamental pillar of UK government plans to inject more competition into retail banking. But the plan has its critics – some of whom warn it may achieve the opposite of what it intends.
Securities trading in France, the Netherlands and Belgium is to move to T+2 settlement in October 2014, following a decision by Euroclear to pre-empt Europe-wide settlement reforms.
A mobile wallet offering built by Kalixa Group claims to be able to turn just about any phone – including the iPhone – into an NFC payment device. The toolkit has launched in the UK, marking the first step in the firm’s plans for Europe-wide NFC mobile payments.
Mobile operator EE is launching a UK mobile payments service called Cash on Tap, in a move that highlights recent efforts across Europe to make mobile payments a reality.
At a passionate debate in Westminster this week MPs, led by Rushanara Ali, member for Bethnal Green & Bow, called for government action in the wake of Barclay’s recent decision to close accounts for a large number of small payments businesses in the remittances sector.
German exchange Deutsche Börse is to launch a new block trading service in partnership with Liquidnet, the buy-side crossing network.
The on-going turf wars that have held back the adoption of using mobile phones as a payment device at the point-of-sale will soon be a thing of the past if the progress made in Bratislava over the past year is any indication. The success of a project involving Visa Europe, Tatra Bank, Telefónica Slovakia’s O2 operation and a substantial number of retailers makes the Slovakian capital a showcase market for contactless technology.
The London Stock Exchange’s plans to establish a new central securities depository in Luxembourg reveal the way regulation can have unintended consequences – in this case a proliferation of CSDs.
Clearstream, Euroclear and Eurex Clearing have signed an agreement with the ICMA European Repo Council to create a joint project aimed at improving the efficiency of the repo market.
European securities regulator ESMA has started the latest round of consultation on OTC derivatives clearing with the release of a discussion paper on regulatory technical standards for the European Market Infrastructure regulation, the new pan-European rulebook.
BNP Paribas Securities Services is to use Swift’s value added network service to connect to T2S, the single European settlement platform due to roll out in 2015-16.
KBC Bank Ireland has signed up payments technology company Tsys to help launch its debit card portfolio in Ireland.
A partnership between German and Turkish payments specialists aims to take advantage of Turkey’s rising levels of online commerce, with the help of three Turkish banks.
Mobile payments looks set to receive a boost in Poland after six banks announced they will collaborate to create a new standard in the country.
Turkey’s newly-merged Borsa Istanbul has formed a deal with Nasdaq OMX, under which the new Turkish market will take up Nasdaq trading, clearing, market surveillance and risk technology.
NYSE Euronext has launched EnterNext, a market for small- and medium-sized companies, in the Netherlands for the first time – a move the exchange says will help local SMEs to get the financing they need.
German exchange group Deutsche Börse has announced what it claims to be the world’s first vendor-neutral marketplace for cloud services.
Spanish business to business payment platform Licuos has been named as the winner of Innotribe Startup Disrupt, a competition to find the most innovative financial services startups in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive threatens to have a significant operational impact on the industry. Fund managers will soon be subject to a host of new requirements including increased KYC and due diligence, better risk and liquidity monitoring, and new reporting and disclosure requirements. However, in the UK the transition looks to be particularly […]
Spanish bank Sabadell has released a mobile app that lets consumers withdraw cash without a debit card.
Next Bank Madrid has chosen the finalists for a competition that seeks to find the best financial services startup companies from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
Financial services observers have expressed support for the UK Payments Council’s new roadmap – but serious concerns remain about the viability of the proposals, which are backed by the UK government as part of a drive to improve services for consumers.
Fixed income trading venue MTS is to launch a new platform called MTS Swaps designed for buy-side firms that want to have more control over how they trade interest rate swaps.
The financial services sector needs to be wary of payments solutions that may be solving phantom problems that are of little relevance to the consumer, according to speakers at the Experian payments conference in London on Tuesday.
A new joint project between Spanish financial services project Next Bank Madrid and Swift’s Innotribe innovation wing aims to unleash the potential of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American start-up companies in financial services.
Asset management firm BlackRock and Euroclear Bank aim to unlock the potential of the European exchange-traded fund market by making settlement for ETFs cheaper and more efficient.
As the first deadline for implementation of the Single Euro Payments Area approaches in February 2014, you could be forgiven for thinking that it is pretty much all over – or at least will be by October 2016, when the second deadline arrives. Don’t count on it, cautions Ruth Wandhöfer, global head, regulatory & market strategy, Citi Transaction Services.
ICE Clear Europe is to begin clearing for NYSE Liffe’s London derivatives market on 1 July, marking the end of NYSE’s migration from LCH Clearnet, and the beginning of ICE’s integration with NYSE Euronext, which it purchased in December for $8.2 billion.
Further uncertainty in the Eurozone has been prompted by unconfirmed reports that the European Commission is considering watering down the 11-nation proposals for a financial transaction tax – but any revisions may have to wait until September, following elections in Germany, according to sources close to the subject.
One in four customers in the UK is now using mobile banking services– and bank-driven systems are leading the way, according to new research by mobile payments specialist VocaLink.
Spanish banks La Caixa and Santander have partnered with telecoms firm Telefónica to create a joint venture offering mobile payment services and a digital wallet designed to relegate conventional payment methods to the history books.
SwissLife Banque Privée is to implement the Avaloq Banking System at its French operation, which was established last year.
