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News and resources on retail banking, consumer finance and reinventing customer experience in finance.

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Expert opinions

Leon Fischer-Brocks

Leon Fischer-Brocks Co-Founder | CEO at Bloxley

Fintech Founders, Take Note - Funding Rules Just Changed

As a founder that just completed a seed round, I’ve seen firsthand how much the funding environment has changed over the past couple of years. Yes, in 2025, there is more capital flowing into fintech again, but early-stage startups are playing by an updated rulebook. Investors are more disciplined, timelines are longer, and expectations are hig

/retail /startups Digital Banking

Shagun Malhotra

Shagun Malhotra CEO and Founder at SkyStem

Why solid accounting practices are fundamental to business resilience in 2025

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the turbulence felt unprecedented. Fast forward to 2025, and turbulence is now the norm rather than the exception. Whether it's the impact of economic policies on global stock markets, disruption from emerging technologies or environmental events, barely a month goes by without a new headline event. From...

/regulation /retail Financial Risk Management

Viacheslav Kostin

Viacheslav Kostin CEO at WislaCode Solutions

Top 7 Mobile Banking Features That Make Life Easier

Mobile banking has become a cornerstone of modern financial management, offering tools that make handling money faster, safer, and more intuitive. For banks, fintech startups, and individual users, these apps deliver efficiency and flexibility, reshaping how we interact with our finances. This article highlights seven standout features that are re...

/retail Mobile Financial Services (MFS)

Alex Kreger

Alex Kreger Founder and CEO at UXDA Financial UX Design

The End of Average: AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Digital Banking CX

In 2024, banking crossed a critical threshold. No longer satisfied with being simply digital and inspired by interactions with Chat GPT, customers began demanding something deeper—experiences that understand them. Banks turned to a powerful ally: artificial intelligence. The result? A seismic shift from transactional to transformational. AI didn’t...

/ai /retail Innovation in Financial Services

Sam Boboev

Sam Boboev Founder at Fintech Wrap Up

Deep Dive: Monzo's Business, Explained

Monzo has emerged as one of fintech’s standout success stories – a digital bank that now boasts over 12 million customers and a profitable business model. In an industry where many challengers are still chasing sustainable unit economics, Monzo has redefined what banking can be – and where it’s going. Launched in 2015 as a scrappy startup, Monzo

/payments /retail

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Research

Impact Study

Case Management: The key to revolutionising cross-border payments

While the challenges of case management and inefficient E&I processes are not new, the need to address them is more pressing than ever – especially given the G20’s roadmap deadline and the impending global migration to ISO 20022.  In today’s digital era, end-users expect payments to be faster, cheaper and more convenient than ever before – whether domestic or cross-border. As global payment barriers are overcome, banks are tasked not only with meeting customer demands, but business and regulatory ones too.  Enhanced cross-border payments – as supported by the G20’s roadmap and the richer data that ISO 20022 provides – are becoming a real differentiator, with the capability to unlock tremendous value for institutions. However, while a lot of attention is paid to seamless transactions, one area has historically been overlooked: exceptions and investigations (E&I).  This continues to present a significant challenge for both payment providers and corporates, and is impacting numerous networks and technologies. Yet, if harnessed effectively, E&I tools can help institutions significantly reduce costs, speed up processing times, improve transparency and, by extension, satisfy the G20’s targets.  This Finextra impact study, in partnership with Swift, explores:  The advantages of effective E&I processes;  Why solutions are needed to reach the next level; and  How banks can effectively embed them in their infrastructures. 

157 downloads

Impact Study

Reimagining customer journeys: How can banks upscale experience and boost retention?

To stay competitive and better serve their customer base, financial institutions (FIs) must urgently reimagine their customer journeys — from onboarding to the broader lifetime experience — or risk facing a hit to their market share. Technology has significantly transformed the financial services industry, particularly over the last five years. Challenger banks and fintech firms have rapidly gained popularity thanks to their ability to offer fast, simple, digital services. According to data from Plaid, nearly nine out of 10 consumers were using a fintech application in 2023. This percentage will continue to grow.  Financial institutions (FIs) must urgently reimagine their customer journeys or risk facing a hit to their market share. Indeed, today’s customers are more likely than ever to switch primary banking relationships if they do not receive the services they are looking for. Young, digital natives continue to shape this market, with research revealing that 44% of Gen Z customers have changed their primary banking relationship in the last 12 months. The call to competition cannot be ignored.  But how can FIs innovate to meet these demands, while simultaneously running legacy systems? This Finextra impact study, in association with Hyland, explores how financial institutions can:  Reinvent onboarding and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes;  Upscale the overall customer journey;  Look to artificial intelligence (AI) for product enhancement and integration; and  Present real-world case studies for each of these objectives. 

155 downloads

Impact Study

NextGen retail banking: A roadmap to successful modernisation

Learn why retail banks must transition to modern, composable, future-ready infrastructures today – and how they can devise journeys that are tailored as well as cost-effective. A significant portion of the retail banking landscape still relies on legacy systems, some of which can be costly and hamper innovation. According to a report from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), 58% of the UK’s financial services firms use legacy infrastructure for some operations, while 33% depend on it for most of their activities. In North America, the picture is similar, with around 40% of US banks still using the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) – a coding language dating back to 1959. Some surveys indicate that up to 70% of bank IT budgets are spent on maintaining these legacy systems.   Today, with rapidly evolving consumer demands, technological advancements, stiff competition, and regulatory upheaval, outdated infrastructures are no longer tenable – and risk negatively impacting banks’ efficiency, agility, and customer experiences. So, how can retail banks modernise, while controlling costs and ensuring minimal impact on day-to-day business applications?   This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Oracle, analyses:  The key challenges of legacy banking systems  How to draw up a tailored roadmap for modernisation  How to quantify progress and measure success 

363 downloads

/retail

FinextraTV

What Is Prompting The Growth in Demand For Pay by Bank?

While attending Money 20/20 2025 in Amsterdam, Todd Clyde, CEO, Token.io spoke with FinextraTV about Pay by Bank and what is driving its current growth. Defining what Pay by Bank is, Clyde showed how several initiatives and efforts across the world are contributing to a rise in its demand, how the technology itself has evolved, and what this might mean for the future.

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Long reads

Sehrish Alikhan

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

Solving modern KYC challenges

In today’s digital age, banking is expected to be seamless, frictionless, and to make it plain and simple: easy. However, with a constantly shifting regulatory landscape, increased demand for hyper-personalisation and desire to be digital – financial institutions have obstacles to overcome to keep up with consumer demand. A pain point in the digit...

Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton Contributing Editor at Finextra Research

Why do customers and business leaders diverge on client experience views?

Customers aren’t ‘buying’ companies’ improved customer experience (CX) claims or promises, and company leaders aren’t buying the value of spending more to delight the customer. At least not in large percentages on either side of the commerce spectrum, according to a recent global study. When it comes to the leaders of the companies surveyed, respo...

Madhvi Sonia

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

The LGBTQ wealth gap: What financial services must do next

April 2025 numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the median weekly wage of a typical employee in the United States is $1,001. The Human Rights Campaign analysed this data and found that on average, for LGBTQ+ workers, earnings were around $900 a week. This wage gap equates to LGBTQ+ employees earning 90 cents on the do...