Technology

Cyberattacks have become one of the biggest threats, not only to business but to society at large. Cybercriminals, hacktivists and nation states are now capable of deploying malicious code to bring down everything from corporates to critical infrastructure in an instant.

With Brexit just around the corner, the European banking sector is under significant pressure to forecast and mitigate potential economic shocks. Given the levels of uncertainty over possible outcomes whilst the details of any potential deal (or no-deal) still to be confirmed, how forewarned can banks actually be without testing hundreds of possible permutations? 

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning in all corners of the financial sector, particularly in anti-money-laundering (AML) efforts, has excited and inspired onlookers and participants alike. But as with all innovations, there are pitfalls to unquestioning acceptance that can actually worsen the situations these technologies are meant to address. Human intelligence must work cooperatively and in the lead role alongside AI and ML to guarantee the best results.

The United States has reached a critical point in determining data privacy standards. With mounting concern among all stakeholders, it is no longer a question of whether more privacy laws will be enacted, but how—and specifically, whether the problem will be resolved at the state or national level.

In the decade following the global financial crisis, banks have faced a flood of new laws and regulations. The pace of change has been furious. Banks have been forced to hire more and more bodies to manage large, enterprise-wide efforts in an attempt to simply stay ahead of regulatory enforcement actions and the ensuing fines and penalties.

You could be excused for thinking that financial inclusion is a given. In reality, however, this is far from the truth. As illustrated by a recent report by the World Bank, 1.7 billion adults across the world are ‘unbanked’, meaning they do not possess a bank account or have access to formal finance. This situation is not confined to just one part of the world. Whether you live in a developed country or developing region, the unbanked can be found. For example, just 14 percent of adults in the Middle East hold a bank account.

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.

The platform economy, today’s economic and/or social online matchmaker, is set to transform another industry – financial services. To keep up, banks will need to adapt their business models to an outside-in approach that recognizes the importance of openness and collaboration in developing personalized products and services that enhance the banking experience for customers and enable them to manage their finances holistically.

Digitalization has become second nature to many banks around the world, but not all. In the Central European country of Hungary, many banks—and their customers, who are relatively uninformed of the ways going digital can enhance their personal financial management—are in the early stages of the digital banking voyage. The time has arrived for Hungarian banks to jump into the present, or remain behind in the past.

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?