Ever since Open Banking first launched in the UK nearly three years ago, the promise of sharing data to achieve more efficient, personalised banking services has been made a reality. Spurred on by increased customer centricity, banks have acted on the PSD2 mandate to deliver smarter, aggregated services to their respective customer base.
With useful data and information piling up in the financial realm, firms can use all the help they can get to more efficiently compile and employ it. Automation, which manifests itself in many forms, is a must for financial institutions. Natural language processing translates words into useful tools and applications that enable financial companies to be more compliant, profitable and sustainable and is experiencing increasing adoption in the financial industry.
Brazil is among the countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its banking sector has been tasked with providing urgently needed financial support to its hard-hit individual and corporate customers. One bank that has stood out during the crisis has been Banco de Brasília S.A. (BRB), serving the Federal District. BRB recently changed its strategy and has met the challenge head-on through timely and successful innovation, leading by example.
2021 brings a new administration to the White House and, with it, a more favorable outlook toward sustainability, especially climate change. How much this shift in policy will influence financial regulations and ultimately banks, especially in the US, is not yet certain. But banks should prepare for stronger pressure on the financial industry to contribute to the effort to foster sustainable development through stricter disclosure requirements and redirected investment goals.
As the months roll on, the full effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have become clearer across the globe. Without a doubt, among the hardest hit regions has been Latin America. But despite the difficult health situation, banking systems have, so far, responded well to the socio-economic impacts of the crisis.
Little will be affected as much by the ageing of the world’s population as pensions. In Europe, the ratio of workers to pensioners has decreased and in 40 years will be roughly two to one rather than the much healthier four to one of the recent past. Many wonder from where the pension funds will come, and they should. The solution may lie in the new Pan-European Personal Pension Product.
It may seem to bankers that they have been unfairly targeted by increasing compliance requirements recently. One directive after another has flowed down the pipe from regulators. But as firms have discovered, building and maintaining a culture of compliance and integrity brings with it many business rewards. What are the five best ways that financial institutions can weave compliance, business integrity and corporate social responsibility into all aspects of their operations?