Latest long reads: Finextra Research

Ushering in a new era of real-time payments

Dominique Dierks Content Manager at Finextra

Ushering in a new era of real-time payments

The progress in real-time payments (RTP) has been significant over the last few years, and the momentum is showing no sign of slowing down. Today, there are around 96 RTP systems operational globally, with more and more countries building out their payments landscape. The economic impact of real-time payments is significant. In 2023, 266.2 billion...

22 hours /payments

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

What are A2A payments?

The European Payments Initiative recently released a report stating that A2A payments are going to spike usage in the next few years; which begs the question, what are A2A payments and how to they differ from other digital payments methods? A2A payments, short for account-to-account payments, are the transfer of funds from one bank account to anot...

25 September 2024 /payments

AI validation and governance: How banks are securing their AI models

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

AI validation and governance: How banks are securing their AI models

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI have become one of the largest topics in banking in the last two years. From OpenAI’s launch to the EU AI Act coming into effect, things are heating up. Banks are becoming more comfortable with the use cases AI is offering them, which means that ensuring AI models are being validated properly (doing wh...

25 September 2024 /ai

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

What is core banking?

With modernisation ever at the forefront of financial professionals’ minds, core banking is the buzz phrase that just won’t go away. But what exactly do we mean by core banking? And why does it need updating? In this latest article of Finextra’s explainer series, we’ll dive deep into the history and transformation of core banking. A short history ...

24 September 2024 /retail

What is the Regulated Liability Network?

Níamh Curran Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is the Regulated Liability Network?

UK finance announced the successful ending of the experimental phase of the Regulated Liability Network (RLN) last week. Following this UK Finance held a launch event with speeches from some of the partners who worked on the RLN – such as HSBC, EY, Barclays, Nationwide, and Lloyds – as well as announcing their next steps. While the outcome of the e...

23 September 2024 /payments

What does the UK’s proposed Digital Assets Bill mean for the future of crypto?

Chris Holmes Peer at House of Lords

What does the UK’s proposed Digital Assets Bill mean for the future of crypto?

On September 11 a new bill to clarify the legal status of digital assets, including crypto-tokens, was introduced to the House of Lords. Based on extensive work published by the Law Commission of England and Wales earlier this year the bill proposes a “third category” of personal property rights. Currently under UK law there are two traditional ...

20 September 2024 /regulation

Why commercial banks should be concerned about a digital pound

David Skeie Professor of Finance at University of Warwick

Why commercial banks should be concerned about a digital pound

The prospect of digital currencies becoming part of our everyday lives has been on the agenda for the last decade. The closest they have come to impacting the mainstream financial system and economy in the West was the stablecoin Libra, later renamed Diem, proposed by Facebook in 2019. This attracted a significant backlash from regulators and conce...

19 September 2024 /payments

The UK’s renting and mortgage nightmare: Tools to combat crisis

Sehrish Alikhan Reporter at Finextra

The UK’s renting and mortgage nightmare: Tools to combat crisis

The current UK rental market is a disaster of epic proportions. The cost of living has spiked, the rental market is a jungle, and salaries have remained the same despite inflation and rising prices. Adding a cherry on top, wage growth is at its lowest in almost two years. Due to these dire circumstances, the UK public is clearly struggling. The a...

18 September 2024 /markets

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

What is mobile banking?

Mobile banking enables customers to manage financial services – such as their balance, transfers, standing orders, statements, direct debits, overdrafts, and bill payments – via their smartphones. For this reason, mobile banking – compared to other legacy banking channels such as branch, internet, and even carrier pigeon – is the fastest-growing ch...

17 September 2024 /payments

Embedded finance adoption: What are the real catalysts?

Sameer Dubey Chief Product Officer at Griffin Bank

Embedded finance adoption: What are the real catalysts?

Embedded finance has become one of the biggest buzzwords of the 2020s in the fintech space. It broadens access to financial services, simplifies user journeys, lowers barriers to purchases—and of course has been a major growth driver for all kinds of companies. Embedded finance—which essentially means providing financial services at the point of g...

17 September 2024 /retail

Scott Hamilton Contributing Editor at Finextra Research

US cheque dependency: Time for a change

The US leads the way in cheque usage among most countries across the globe, with about 11 billion items issued according to the most recent in-depth study available (2021). That’s a dubious honour, to be sure, though that annual item number has continued to drop over the past three years. Only France got anywhere close to the US in terms of per c...

16 September 2024 /retail

AI skills are more likely to land you a job interview in the UK

Kirstie McDermott Senior Content Editor at Amply

AI skills are more likely to land you a job interview in the UK

According to research from the Industrial Skills Strategy Council, 20% of the UK workforce could be significantly under skilled for their jobs by 2030. With other data showing that 27% of UK workers feel they don’t have the right digital skills for their job role, a disconnect between what employers want, and what employees can deliver, is emergi...

13 September 2024 /people

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