Future Finance News Analysis

Finextra and Oracle have gathered together some of the industry's top thought leaders to assess the key trends and issues within transaction banking, regulations and retail banking. This group will analyse the latest news on upcoming regulations, new service offerings and industry issues shaping the new financial services landscape with regular blog posts, video interviews, webcasts debates and surveys.

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

Trade in Services Agreement threatens bank data sovereignty

A clash between globalised financial services and domestic governments is looming. Activity by the US authorities particularly – from spying on friendly foreign governments, to aggressively pursuing sanction breakers and tax avoiders domiciled overseas – risks fragmenting globalised industry into regionalised pockets of influence and jurisdiction....

10 July 2014 /security /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

Trade finance creates a 10 billion dollar risk

BNP Paribas is in a real fix. It faces censure for allegedly being found guilty of breaching US rules on money laundering, and of breaching US sanctions, between 2002 and 2009. These alleged breaches relate to Cuba, Iran and Sudan. The risks involved for the bank are potentially terminal; the fine it is threatened with – rumoured to be around US$1...

11 June 2014 /regulation /wholesale

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

Bad as gold

The news that Barclays has been fined for manipulation of the gold benchmark is another nail in the coffin of trader autonomy and of voluntary data-based benchmarks. It also highlights the risks for speculators operating in the unregulated derivatives market when the ‘house’ is in charge of fixing the price. Q: So who got stung this time? A: Bar...

29 May 2014 /regulation /wholesale

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

That's settled: T plus 2 settlement takes hold

The settlement lifecycle for equity trades is being shortened from T+3 to T+2 across developed markets. Cost benefit analyses have shown support from correspondent banks, custodian banks, buy-side firms and service bureaus on the basis of risk reduction and efficiency improvements, however the costs for implementation may be disproportiona...

07 May 2014 /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

Smartphones can unlock bank vaults

Apps are making the banking sector more vulnerable to cyber-attack, say European regulators, who recommend that firms hold capital as insurance against such an event. The ‘Joint Committee Report on risks and vulnerabilities in the EU Financial System’ is just as applicable to financial institutions elsewhere in the world, providing an assessment o...

15 April 2014 /security /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

European Banking Onion unpeeled

News that the European Parliament finally agreed the terms for ‘banking union’ on 20 March 2014 raised lacklustre cheers from the world of finance. The ‘union’ here is regulatory, taking the management of troubled big banks out of the hands of the many national authorities and putting it into the hands of the few European authorities. That is a bi...

25 March 2014 /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

ATMs: No change there then

Regulators from the US to the Philippines have issued warnings to ATM firms that they should be cognisant of upgrading their operating systems by 8 April 2014, the date by which support for Windows XP will expire. Since Sam Woods, director of UK regulator the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) condemned technology at UK banks as “antiquated” in ...

20 March 2014 /security /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

FX - The next big crash?

The news around foreign exchange suggests a storm is brewing, as speculation and light-touch regulation converge. Spot foreign exchange trading will reportedly become more automated where, until recently, it has been very opaque, with voice traders able to obfuscate their margins and - it has been alleged – to rig the market. This has annoyed thei...

05 March 2014 /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

The data crater

Enormous amounts of customer data have been lost in thefts affecting both retailers and banks. A recent case of data loss at Barclays allegedly included psychological profiling of customers, adding a new dimension to the problem of identity theft. Did the bank accidentally ‘add value’ to the pirated information? Authorities are responding, but the...

17 February 2014 /security /regulation

Dan Barnes Writer at Information Corporation

Funny money

Turning down money from a potential customer who fails a test, is expensive. Building profiles of all of your customers is costly in both cash and resources. In fact, until HSBC and Standard Chartered cumulatively paid US$2.2 billion to US authorities in 2012 it seemed that failing to adhere to the anti-money laundering / know your customer (AML/...

06 February 2014 /payments /regulation