Analysis


European Supervisor Wants to Tighten up EU-U.S. Agreement

Following a new privacy shield agreement, which upon approval will replace an expired Safe Harbor pact between the U.S. and the EU Commission, European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli last week said he supported the agreement.

Innovators’ Spotlight: PaySwag

Retailers have long recognized the importance of customer engagement to drive sales and retain customers. But Reno, Nev.-based PaySwag is proving the power of engagement to improve results in a somewhat unexpected sector—bill payments.

U.K. Gov’t Group Calls for Open Banking Standard

A U.K. government panel is calling for the development of an open banking standard that will enable banking data to be shared and used securely, giving consumers access to tailored financial solutions and an easier way to compare products and services.

Russian Lawmakers Want to Ban Bitcoin

Bitcoin continues to encounter hurdles as its supporters try to facilitate the digital currency’s mainstream acceptance. Though certain states and countries are welcoming bitcoin, or permitting it with certain provisos, Russia is considering a ban.

Q&A with Emily Baum, Prepaid International Forum

The Prepaid International Forum (PIF) is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2016. Emily Baum, a non-executive board member of the forum and business development director of PrePay Solutions, tells Paybefore more about PIF, where the 23-member group is headed and how the industry is responding to calls for increased prepaid regulation following the Paris terrorist attacks.

Clearing contradictions in derivatives regulation

There’s one challenge that regulators seem unable to address, and that is regulation itself. Today’s evolving regulatory environment seems to be beset by a range of internal contradictions. One such contradiction is the banks’ decision to act as clearing providers for derivatives businesses.

Innovators’ Spotlight: Poynt

Electronic payment options for consumers are proliferating, and shoppers expect merchants to accept the full gamut of form factors. But for retailers—especially small and midsize enterprises (SMEs)—it can be tough to keep up. That’s where Poynt comes in.

Memory muscle

An in-memory DBMS with its roots in embedded systems for the defence and aerospace sectors is setting records for manipulating financial data. Chief executive Steve Graves told Banking Technology how it works.

CFPB Takes Aim at Lack of Checking Account Options for Consumers

The CFPB announced today a three-prong approach to ensure consumers are receiving a fair shake regarding checking account access. But what may surprise many in the prepaid industry is that the agency also is providing information to consumers about the prepaid option.

Rob Binns to join Misys as chief financial officer

Financial software provider Misys has appointed Rob Binns as its chief financial officer. Binns joins Misys from HP where he was head of treasury and investor relations. He joined Hewlett-Packard in 2007 from Mercury Interactive and has held a number of senior finance positions in the company including VP Software Field Operations and VP Investor […]

Hassan named chief digital officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Morgan Stanley has appointed Naureen Hassan as chief digital officer for Wealth Management, a new position in which she will lead the strategy and marketing of digital tools and platforms serving the firm’s 16,000 financial advisors and 3.5 million clients. Naureen Hassan served most recently as executive vice president, Investment Services Segments and Platforms at […]

Trader voice – the last bastion of the old world

The largest vendors in the trader voice market are now in a similar position to IBM in the late 1990s: their solutions are proprietary, expensive to maintain, and lacking true open integration …

Viewpoint: Leaders, Learners and Laggards

I talk with a lot of banking leaders who describe their approach to innovation as being a “fast follower. My typical retort is that they are half-right—most of them are definitely followers, but there usually isn’t anything fast about their approach.

Viewpoint: Mobile Wallet Myth-Busting Starts Now

For those of us in prepaid, combating misrepresentation of our products in the media is nothing new. A recent news story claiming banks are leaving customers on the hook for fraud if they use a mobile wallet shows there’s plenty of work to do for new payment methods.

Report: Fraudsters’ Test Runs Surged in Q4 2015

Cybercriminals could be ramping up their attacks on financial services providers, according to a new study. The fourth quarter of 2015 saw a tenfold increase in “bot attacks”—essentially test attacks meant to gauge the security of targeted systems—according to the report by ThreatMatrix, a San Jose, Calif., cybersecurity company.

Money market statistical reporting: challenges for 2016 and beyond

Money Market Statistical Reporting presents a fair number of challenges. And firms are pressed for time to prepare for these requirements, according to an overview prepared by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. Where they may have adopted tactical solutions in the past to meet transaction level reporting obligations, now is a good opportunity to think more strategically about investing in the right platform and infrastructure. This is especially true given that daily reporting obligations will soon be extended in 2018 to include securities and financial transactions

Why is it so hard to know who you’re doing business with?

Every bank wants to achieve a single view of a customer, but no-one has found an easy, cost-effective, scalable way to do it. The simple fact is that there is too much customer information, entering the bank from too many places, to align and maintain into a single view. An effective solution would reduce costs, allow the bank to generate revenue faster, facilitate KYC processes and meet regulatory requirements.

Mismatched trade detection poses risks for banks

While some of us have experienced the speed at which sales are completed on the trade floor, most of us have heard tell of it. So it’s no surprise that mismatched trades is a common challenge for most banks, giving rise to the finance technology industry creating a brand new category – solutions for the management of the P&L trading desk

Viewpoint: 5 Banking Trends for 2016

Financial institutions are undergoing a seismic transformation. Digital technology is reshaping what consumers want from their banks and the way they conduct transactions. Let’s take a look at the top five banking trends for 2016.

FinCEN Seeks Comment on Cost Analysis of CDD Proposal (Jan. 12, 2016)

A proposed rule that would place new Customer Due Diligence requirements on financial institutions—including prepaid issuers—has taken a step forward with the release of two new documents estimating the impact and cost the proposed rule would have on regulated institutions and seeking comment from stakeholders by Jan. 25.

Keeping file-based threats out of bank vaults

While mention of bank robberies will often conjure images of masked criminals and high-speed car chases, most modern instances of the crime are being conducted from behind computer screens. In addition to the lure of stealing cash, these criminals are going after banks for valuables such as the personal data of customers, details of mergers and acquisitions between companies and the private tax information of corporations, data is fast becoming an incredibly valuable commodity in its own right

Trust, data, and why marketplace lenders are here to stay

New peer-to-peer platforms that match lenders with borrowers are proving to be more efficient than banks at connecting those with money and to those that need money. Known as marketplace lenders, this new industry is still very much in its infancy, currently representing a tiny proportion of total loans compared to bank lending

Industry Views: 2015 Game-Changers, Priorities for 2016

To kick off the New Year, we asked payments industry thought leaders to tell us what happened in 2015 that will most influence payments in 2016 and to discuss their hottest priorities for the next 12 months. Responses run the gamut from a combined Visa/Visa Europe to compliance, wearables and the impact of Chase Pay.

From training to trendsetting: how institutions reverse the fintech migration

Aspiration doesn’t look like it used to. The face of Eighties ambition was a power dresser, clad in a suit with shoulder pads as they rushed to Wall Street to earn as much as they could, whereas today’s bright young things are more likely to be found sipping lattes at a co-working space in Silicon Valley

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