On the worldwide web, the more players involved especially in a financial-payment transaction, the greater the risk that someone in the cyber circle will attempt to commit fraud. Europe’s new PSD2 promises to offer consumers many advantages, including greater choice in payments providers, but banks must simultaneously install advanced fraud-detection platforms that correspond in intensity with increased customer-centric flexibility and value.
2017 has been a good year for US stock-market indices, in large measure due to the staggering performances of the Big Five of the technology sector, which are hitting levels not seen since the dotcom boom 20 years ago. Characterized by unmatched success in such areas as platform strength, innovation reinvestment, acquisitions and talent attraction, these technology giants seem guaranteed to keep on winning.
Leading has always been demanding of one’s personal skills and knowledge, but the world of digital has upped the ante even more for banking executives. Digital stewardship, decentralised decision-making and followership are three practical approaches toward developing digital leadership, crucial for financial institutions that are shepherding their staff and clients through the unknown and continuously evolving digital journey.
The “club” of companies or banks that haven’t had their data raided by hackers is becoming more and more exclusive, as more and more hackers breach databases that give them access to credit cards, transactions, customer history – anything and everything they can make a quick buck off of.
Digitisation is driving unions across the financial world, and especially in the payments industry. Mastercard’s pioneering acquisition of the UK bank-account-based payments system Vocalink sets a precedent for such mergers all around the globe, in large measure due to the growing influence of the world’s first truly digital generation, the Millennials, who demand instant transactions in real-time.
Millennial and Gen X bank customers seem to be relatively independent, adept at employing online and mobile apps to complete their financial transactions. However, research shows that these digitally confident customers still value personalised advice, especially regarding investment decisions—and retail banks are in the best position to meet that need through immediate, tailored solutions developed using available customer data.
The tidal wave of banking regulations during the aftermath of the last financial crisis has given a boost to an unlikely beneficiary: artificial intelligence. Regtech along with AI, ML and NLP are the new warriors employed by many forward-thinking banks to get a handle on the massively costly compliance workload, and many are witnessing a return to profitability as a result.
Traditional banks have a long history, which is good and bad—good because of well-established customer relationships; bad due to cumbersome legacy systems, some created in the days of analog, that struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the digital age. Like it or not, to keep up with customers and competitors, most banks have a lot more ground to cover.
Governments around the world have joined the battle against money laundering – passing laws that put an end to anonymous banking services and under-the-table money transfers and payments that enable crime and finance terror.
SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is the grease that keeps the wheels of the worldwide economy moving. Some 25 million messages – most of them money transfers – pass through the SWIFT system daily.