Banking

An efficient financial sector is central to maximizing an economy’s potential by helping it to make optimal and longer-term investments. Developing countries face a chicken and egg dilemma when it comes to financing, because it is hard to have efficient financial services without companies that can make good use of funding. This article examines how practical intervention to build the capacity of financial services through professional training will boost developing countries.

The scourge of financial crime is increasing. It’s being driven by organised crime rings, fuelled with billions of compromised data records, who are systematically and methodically targeting financial services firms with sophisticated application fraud attacks that use stolen or falsified identities in an effort to obtain new accounts.

The financial crisis a decade ago exposed the considerable challenges of resolving large, globally active banks. In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – which has insured deposits and resolved failed banks since the Great Depression era – is one of the agencies leading the resolution planning effort. The chairman of the FDIC discusses the Corporation’s current bank resolution tactics in a global environment.

The hold traditional banking once exerted over consumer finances has seriously eroded in the Digital Age, with fintech presenting a formidable challenge to banking’s sovereignty. Customers are shrugging off any loyalty they may have had to their main banks and are opting for the providers with the most convenient, efficient, secure and, above all, speedy financial solutions. Can banks survive in the fintech world, and if so, how?

Belgium’s KBC has since its inception 20 years ago been committed to meeting its customers’ multiple needs, helping them realize their dreams and protecting them as they achieved them. In the process, it grew into one of Europe’s top bank-insurers, today serving 11 million customers. But that enviable success is not enough. KBC is in the midst of a Digital First metamorphosis that is pushing through the known boundaries of customer service.

Innovations in technology have transformed the way we bank in our personal lives. Now, as long as we have a Wi-Fi connection and a mobile phone, tablet or laptop to hand, we are able to check our balances, make payments and transfer money anywhere at any time.

Why do we need stress tests? Since the financial crisis, stress tests have become the main instrument of bank supervision. In stress tests, supervision interacts with regulation and bank capital requirements. Research highlights the role of stress-test supervision in dampening the incentives of banks to take risks, especially when capital requirements are not effective.

Successful e-commerce is as much about the customer experience as anything else. Choices need to be clear but abundant; payment quick and easy—or customers will move on. Having become accustomed to purchasing goods and services seamlessly through digital channels, customers expect the same from their providers of financial products and services. Banks need to employ a lesson or two from the e-commerce giants to meet customer expectations.

SWIFT has a long history of enabling financial institutions to communicate with each other reliably and securely; thousands of banks use the SWIFT network for interbank messaging. Faced with the twin threats of intensifying cybercrime and growing compliance requirements, banks are scrambling to be secure and compliant while also profitable. SWIFT has developed robust financial-crime solutions that assist its members to comply with the gamut of regulations—from AML to KYC—profitably.

Since trade finance is lifeblood of global business, it has a positive role to play in driving sustainable practices. Here, banks can lead by example: through collaborative efforts, they can play a crucial role in encouraging a diverse network of counterparties to safeguard environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, while also stimulating growth. So, how can “sustainable trade” be fully realized to meet these ends?