Credit cards have become indispensable to both consumers and businesses in expediting the payment process; but when disputes arise, the system can break down into acrimony and injustice, especially when intentional fraud is committed. What programmes are card schemes Visa and Mastercard implementing to streamline the current chargeback system, settle disputes quickly and efficiently, and to protect the innocent? The new Open World model provides some answers.
Competition is intensifying in the banking sector, with fintech start-ups, technology giants and social-media leaders targeting various parts of the financial-services profit pool.
Weighing the possibility of adopting AI and automated decision-making is no longer a choice for banks; this technology has proved its worth in everything from combating fraud to meeting compliance requirements to providing excellent customer service via chatbots. As banks struggle to be profitable in the post-financial crisis era, AI has been an invaluable friend to those that have learned how to make it work for them.
Credit cards have become an essential staple of the financial world within the past century, so a world without them seems inconceivable today. But the marriage of Open Banking with Instant Payments is making that reality look more plausible, and in the not-too-distant future. How can banks not simply survive but excel in the new post-card world, in which the payments process moves in-house, providing a wealth of data?
There’s good and bad news for UK banks in the 2018 FIS PACE study on SMB banking, which surveyed hundreds of small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) throughout the country. The good: 7 out of 10 SMB clients are satisfied by their banks’ performance.
The trend toward global interconnectedness has never been stronger, with innovation and technology helping to make the impossible now possible. The rewards are vast in terms of reduced cost, increased opportunity and greater inclusion, but there is an obstacle that is slowing progress: existing proprietary banking infrastructure. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story, as the way is being paved for full worldwide banking integration.
In Europe, PSD2 is opening up previously inaccessible bank-customer data, with customer consent, to third-party providers, all in an effort to provide consumers with more financial options at the best prices. Although some bank managers are focused mostly on compliance, others are looking at the bigger picture: at Open Banking as a new opportunity to boost customer satisfaction and meaningful interaction.
The introduction of the European Commission’s banking directive PSD2 both recognises the shift towards Open Banking and helps drive the change; with banks expected to share private financial data with third-party providers at the request of clients, the payments industry is entering a period of radical change. What are the implications for the financial landscape, and how are banks adapting to the revolution?
For European banks, regulations (GDPR, MiFID II, PSD II, Open Banking) are aligning at a time when they are already warding off digital disruptors intent on wooing customers with convenient, cutting-edge technology-based offerings. Financial institutions that adopt a wait-and-see approach will likely lose ground in a rapidly changing financial landscape, but those who adapt and maximize their formidable advantages will prevail.
With the implementation of the Open Banking Standard, the United Kingdom embarked on a new era of openly accessible customer financial data, which should result in greatly improved products and services. If financial institutions work together to innovatively collect, analyse and share data, customers’ needs will be most efficiently satisfied; that is why Open Banking is not confined to the UK but is spreading worldwide.