Payments professionals from banks across Europe are gathering in Edinburgh this week for EBAday, hosted by the Euro Banking Association and Finextra. We're liveblogging events here.
17.35: Earlier, we spoke to Deutsche Bank's Dean Sposito. That about wraps it up for day one. We'll be back tomorrow.
17.10: Brown is now being quizzed by Dowson on mobile apps. Brown says that it's easy to think of good mobile services but the difficulty is in plugging it in to the back office. RBS actually wound down some of its mobile ops because after deciding that it's better to take your time than rush and find yourself in trouble with the wiring down the line.
17.03: Brown begins by disabusing Folker Hellmeyer of any thoughts on an independent Scotland joining the euro - we can't even tear them away from the Scottish pound.
Onto the serious stuff: it's difficult to innovate when dealing with new regulation but you can use new rules to innovate - eg Faster Payments. Mobile is interesting because banks realise that it is a huge area but the regulatory picture has yet to fully emerge.
16.34: We end day one with a round-table on 'global regulation and intraday liquidity management' featuring RBS's Kevin Brown and Ashley Dowson from the Sepa Consultancy.
16.20: My colleague Liz sends this note on the Sepa Now! panel:
The big thing was that XML IOS 20022 will be required for end to end Sepa processing. A lot of corporates either won't be ready for that or aren't aware of that.16.06: Meanwhile, at the Sepa session:
16.02: Light notes that shops in the high-street are closing down as commerce moves online and to the mobile. Social media is also now becoming a factor as firms look for new ways to sell. Cites Amex's use of Facebook and Twitter.
15.52: All this brings us to Broxis and MyBank, which will start its pilot officially on 4 June. Here's his interview from earlier today:
15.47: From the UK to Italy and ICBPI's Capponcelli who says that the government is now making a concerted effort to digitise the economy. E-commerce accounts for just five per cent of Italian companies' turnover, compared to a European average of 14%.
15.40: Back at my panel, Accenture's Light is drawing a contrast between a UK project that saw collaboration - chip and PIN - and one that has seen banks go their own way - contactless cards. The first has been a huge success, the second hasn't (yet). Moving into the present, we have collaboration, through the Payments Council, on
account switching and building a
database for mobile P2P payments. [Of course Barclays didn't fancy collaboration and decided to go it alone through Pingit.]
15.32: We've let my colleague Liz Lumley out of her cell/TV studio for the Sepa panel and she's tweeting furiously:
15.29: Alfing is singing the praises of the Dutch collaborative e-payments project iDeal. In contrast, he says, cross-border e-commerce lacks a choice of payment methods offering reach and conversion at a fair cost. MyBank (covered at 13.00) could be the answer.
15.13: And it's off to the 'collaboration in online payments and e-services now with ICBPI's Giuseppe Capponcelli, EBA Clearing's John Broxis, Paul Alfing from Thuiswinkel and Jeremy Light from Accenture. EBA Clearing CEO Gilbert Lichter moderates.
Others are attending the Sepa now! session, also known as:
14.42: Back at the liquidity and collateral management session, Lightfoot asks how liquidity risk management exist alongside credit risk management. Brachet says that in Target2 there are very clear guidelines obliging payment by noon. Not a central bank reg but it works.
14.32: While I'm here, a parallel stream is examining the the future of cooperation models and partnerships. UBS's Falk Schwesinger is among the speakers:
14.26: Mouchel is talking about the challenges of the regulatory push for greater use of clearing houses. This may be designed to reduce risk but can have the opposite effect - you can end up dealing with firms you would avoid on bilateral basis.
Neyer: Liquidity must be managed intraday, you must have an automated overview of position, and you must be able to price it for customers.
14.08: I've made it to the liquidity and collateral management session. Martine Brachet from SocGen, Fred Mouchel from EBA Clearing, Pierre Calvert from Diamis and Gene Neyer from Fundtech are on the panel. Peter Lightfoot from RBS moderates.
13.00: At last year's event EBA Clearing outlined plans to launch MyBank, which aims to create a pan-European electronic payments service for online shopping, enabling buyers and sellers to complete transactions through their e-banking portals.
Now, the group has confirmed its first live test transaction between France's BRED Banque Populaire and Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI) ahead of a four-month technical pilot trial of the system, commencing early next month.
You can read the full story and watch an interview with John Broxis, Step2 director of EBA Clearing talking exclusively about the project to EBAdayTV,
here.
12.27: Ball is hugely impressed with Chinese banks. Warns that it will be very difficult to crack their market and not just because of regulatory hurdles. Nevertheless banks need to work on big emerging markets like China and India.
Back to the collaboration theme, Caviezel says that client needs are growing exponentially and are so complicated that banks and other players such as tech vendors need to work together. You can't do everything yourself.
12.14: Ball says he's pleased that DB's attitude to corporate customers has changed. We wouldn't have scored very highly on customer service seven or eight years ago. We were going down the call centre route but have come back from the 'abyss' and now clients have a "seat at the table".
11.59: Caviezel notes that we were in the middle of a crisis during last year's EBAday and its the same this week. He agrees with much of Hellmeyer's analysis but notes that we're in technical recession and life is "not easy for us bankers" at the moment.
Caviezel says 2014 means one thing in Edinburgh...Scottish independence referendum [I'm sure something else happens that year]. We could return in a few years with a nineteenth euro member.
Groundhog day: Caviezel at EBAday 2011, when we were also in the midst of a euro crisis11.38: While we wait for people to make their way back to the hall, you can read am EBAday-related blog post on 'transaction banking enters the era of customer experience' from Craig Ramsey
here.
11.28: Following a quick coffee break for delegates to mull over such an upbeat assessment on the euro, it's time for a roundtable on 'supporting customers in a dynamic payments and transaction banking environment'. Doug Ziurys from Flmetrix moderates and is joined by Deutsche Bank's John Ball and JP Morgan's Alexander Caviezel.
11.10: After a forthright presentation, we're now onto questions from the floor. Asked is Europe being punished for having one currency but many fiscal policies, Hellmeyer says 'yes' - the crisis means Europe will move politicly closer together faster than expected. [I don't think Folker will be invited to any Ukip events in the near future.]
10.59: Hellmeyer is coming out aggressively for the eurozone, arguing that the debt and deficit situations are far less dangerous than assumed and drawing flattering comparisons with the US.
Predicts that there is only a 10% chance that the crisis will intensify in near term. He calls on the media to report this view (well, we're doing our bit here).
10.43: Nymphius has now handed over to Folker Hellmeyer, chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, for the keynote 'economic and financial markets outlook' in 45 minutes.
Right from the off, Hellmeyer warns that he doesn't subscribe to the orthodox view on the euro crisis. He doesn't agree with many economists that Greece has failed to take action to address its problems and reels off a huge list of reforms. No other country has undertaken more reforms but some of my colleagues say they've done nothing!
Hellmeyer says Greece must stay in the euro. He's not convinced that "Angie" (Merkel) understands the issues and prefers Hollande's approach.
10.30: Nymphius is explaining the conference's theme: 'innovation through collaboration'. Is this a contradiction - if you innovate to get an edge on your competitor, why work together? Because collaboration extends the reach of innovations.
10.20: Having fuelled up on coffee and bacon, the delegates are filing in to the conference hall for the start of a busy day:
09.14: Once delegates have registered and grabbed some breakfast, at 10.15 EBA chairman Hansjörg Nymphius will welcome attendees before handing over to Folker Hellmeyer, chief economist at Bremer Landesbank, who will try to cover the small matter of Europe's 'economic and financial markets outlook' in 45 minutes.
Nymphius speaking at EBAday 201109.09: A quick reminder that delegates can download the conference app:
09.06: The first EBAday was held in Frankfurt in 2006. After stints in Rome, Helsinki, Vienna, Luxembourg and Madrid, we've made it to a sunny, if chilly, Scotland, and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
View Larger Map08.58: The programme at EBAday 2012 - entitled 'achieving innovation through collaboration' - comprises keynotes, panel discussions and debates featuring more than 50 of Europe's leading figures in payments who will discuss new challenges in the transaction business in Europe.