Technology

Blockchain—a cryptographic, decentralized distributed ledger system—is gaining acceptance and prestige as its multiple advantages, such as immutability, become clear, even to normally cautious financial organisations. But it isn’t all smooth sailing. Especially in Europe, some of the new data and privacy regulations clash head-on with blockchain and its attendant crypto-currencies. Can the technology overcome these hurdles and continue on its path toward broad, industry-wide adoption?

How can banks and financial institutions get through to the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, the so-called “millennials”, also known as Generation Y, given their shorter attention spans and distrust of brand loyalty?

Anyone working in banking knows that customer expectations are charging ahead at full throttle, fuelled by technology advances. Fortunately banks can use innovations such as AI and IoT to meet customers where they are at, and a recent Fujitsu report shows they are doing—or planning to do—just that. So what can we reasonably expect banking to become as a result of this transformative process?

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.

Machines are capable of “thinking” faster than their human creators, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they think better. Computers have their place in helping humans, but that doesn’t mean it is wise to let them take their place. Machines make mistakes, too, although theirs are a little different than the ones humans make. Is there a middle ground at which computers and humans can work together effectively?

Financial-technology development is full of promise but is lacking one thing: talent, especially female talent. Few young women are jumping on the fintech bandwagon as a career option. There are many reasons for this reluctance, from stereotyping in elementary school to viewing a tech career as “too male”, but efforts are underway to change this attitude and bring gender diversity to one of today’s most pivotal fields of influence.

It is becoming clear that trade digitisation has huge potential to unlock access to world trade for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The move away from laborious, manual, paper-based processes will lever simpler access to trade finance

Back in 2015, Deutsche Bank embarked on an ambitious 20:20 strategy, organised around four strategic goals – to become simpler, more efficient, to modernise outdated technology and reduce risk.

Many banks have given up the fight and are working to get along with those fintech upstarts, but not regarding one area in particular: top-notch tech talent. When it comes to tech staff, the gloves are off, and banks are fighting to both recruit and hold on to the cream of the crop, recognizing how indispensable experienced professionals have become in the digital world.

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.