Trends in Financial Services

A community to discuss the future of financial services and any other interesting trends, strategies, ideas, views.

Retired Member 

Microsoft Technologies in Financial Domain - SWIFT

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is one of widely accepted way to do financial transaction between financial institutions. It has over 8,300 banking organizations, securities institutions and corporate customers in more than 208 countries. If you look at the SWIFT evolution in the market they cover overall market...

09 August 2008 /payments

Retired Member 

The threat of regulation can be regulation in itself

Henry Kaufman’s article in Wednesday’s FT, ‘The principles of sound regulation’, was an interesting read with its consideration of eight precepts of sound financial regulation and conclusion that while many financial institutions resist new constraints on their autonomy, central bankers will need to make financial supervision a much higher priorit...

08 August 2008

Retired Member 

Leverage technology for cost cutting - SWIFT

Most Financial Institutions have been very slow in upgrading themselves with new technologies. Obviously they cannot do frequent upgrades BUT all of them should regularly review their existing systems to identify areas where technology can help them in cost reduction. One of big operation cost for any financial institution is in sending financial

08 August 2008 /payments

Retired Member 

Putting billions back on the bottom line?

Finextra recently reported the Management Consultancies Association research, which asked 70 members of the British Bankers Association about their outsourcing plans. The results included two surprising responses: “41% of respondents expect to increase outsourcing levels” but at the same time; “Only 54% felt their organisation understood how to get...

22 July 2008

John Cant Managing Director at MPI Europe Ltd

Cross words over Sudoku, well then use poker?

So why this cryptic title? Well, if, like me, you have picked up a newspaper one evening over recent weeks and flicked through past the natural disasters, credit crunch and housing crises to try to find some lighter material, you may have ended up on the “puzzles” page. The typical page will have a selection of brain teasers including the traditio...

31 May 2008 /wholesale

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Is Brazil finally emerging from the shadow of its rivals?

Is the general scepticism about Brazil’s inclusion amongst the BRIC countries justified? The country is politically stable, it has a rising economy, a well-educated workforce and a burgeoning financial market of its own. Perhaps it seems too similar to India in the early part of the decade? Certainly concerns about the sluggish approach to fiscal...

27 May 2008

Retired Member 

Card Users at Risk of Physical Attack

Despite many sophisticated measures in place to protect cardholder data during and after a credit or debit transaction, the most likely source of PIN compromise is the simplest. Referred to as “shoulder surfing” it is the oldest and easiest way for a criminal to obtain your PIN. Unfortunately, the current payment card security standards have all...

09 May 2008 /payments

Retired Member 

Ethereal Carrots and Vague Sticks

The real impact of the European Commission Code of Conduct for Clearing and Settlement has been somewhat patchy. Despite 60 organisations – representatives of Europe’s stock exchanges, clearing houses and securities depositories – declaring their allegiance to the Code in a letter sent to Charlie McCreevy at the end of last year there appear to be...

29 April 2008

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Seven good reasons why banks should engage in social media

More than 300 consumers who are active Internet users participated in a survey conducted by the Society for New Communciations Research, focusing on how customer care influences brand reputation given the widespread adoption of social media. Top findings include: • 59.1% of respondents use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience...

29 April 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

Under pressure. Or not, as the case may be

Parallels can be drawn betwen the airline industry of yesterday to the clearing and settlement space of today. As with the emergence of Airbus, which united a disjointed European air-manufacturing market and challenged the crown of Boeing whose dominance was the result of single US airline infrastructure, the Code of Conduct on Clearing and Settle...

25 April 2008