Latest Retail banking reports and research: Finextra Research

White Paper

UK Open Banking API Performance 2023-2024

In this fourth annual report, APIContext evaluated the performance of UK Open Banking APIs from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The UK’s Open Banking system is arguably the most advanced in the world, having been in place since at least 2018. The time in market for this ecosystem offers lessons and best practices to other countries that are looking to implement similar API-driven financial systems; as well as banks and financial institutions that seek to differentiate through quality customer experiences. In this updated report, APIContext evaluates the performance of Open Banking APIs provided by various types of financial institutions in the UK. These include the major “CMA9” banks (the nine largest banks required by UK law to provide Open Banking services), traditional High Street banks, credit card companies, building societies (similar to credit unions in the United States), and new digital banks, often called neobanks. All the data in this report are based on real API calls, having tested the APIs in real-world conditions using the same process that consumers would go through. These calls followed the FAPI (Financial-grade API) standards, which are specifically designed for securely sharing sensitive financial data. The report includes: Key analysis of the UK's Open Banking API performance 2023 - 2024 Availability and reliability of API endpoints Latency metrics (DNS, TCP connect, SSL handshake, processing, and total time) Performance by cloud provider (AWS, IBM, Azure, and Google) Comparative analysis between different bank types (CMA9, traditional, and neobanks) Cloud provider comparison and other detailed findings Key takeaways and recommendations for various players in the ecosystem

13 January 2025 307 downloads

Event Report

AI’s Role in the US Financial Services Sector

How US organisations are balancing innovation and compliance The regulatory landscape for AI in the US is fragmented, with states proposing their own regulations. California’s recent attempt to regulate AI through SB1047, which included provisions for a kill switch and legal liabilities for tech companies, failed to pass. This illustrates the complexities and challenges in creating a unified regulatory framework across the country. Despite regulatory uncertainties, AI adoption in financial services is growing. About 50% of companies have embraced generative AI, while traditional AI applications have been integral for decades. AI has been crucial in areas such as anti-money laundering, fraud protection, and know-your-customer (KYC) processes. The full potential of AI in data management and client services is yet to be realised, with many applications still in internal testing stages. This report highlights the key takeaways of a discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted for the PREDICT 2025 campaign, by a panel of industry experts. It includes: An overview of how AI has been adopted across the US thus far; How generative AI has been integrated into banking; Primary concerns with AI use; and Regional perspectives and approaches to AI regulation.

08 January 2025 243 downloads

Impact Study

Catering to a new generation through unified card programmes

How Gen Z is changing the payments landscape, why operational costs are soaring, and how a unified card programme can help financial institutions to unlock a competitive advantage and drive growth. Globalisation continues to shape the market as money moves between banks, businesses and even countries quicker and in higher numbers than ever before. Both debit and credit cards remain vital in today’s payment experience but changing consumer demands and the surging popularity of neobanks leave traditional banks fighting for top-of-wallet status. On one hand, traditional banks are battling surging operational costs. From a functionality point of view, the world is getting smaller. Today, there is not much perceived difference to the consumer between debit cards, credit cards, and prepaid cards. Yet behind the scenes, many banks run each of these products in different platforms and set-ups, each racking up its own costs. Add to this mix services like personal loans/buy now, pay later (BNPL) schemes and increasing regulatory demands, you have created the perfect storm: Having to bolt on a new, disparate system every time the services are extended – which costs time, money, and adds high regulatory burden. On the other hand, the consumer expectations of a new generations are shaping the market. Gen Z’s preference for digital, seamless payment methods is changing the financial landscape and traditional banks need to adapt their service offerings in order to match these new demands. This impact study, produced in association with FIS, explores: Increasing cost pressures: Why operational costs are soaring How a new generation is shaping the payments landscape Tackling change: The benefits of a unified card programme Case studies: A practical approach to change Watch the on-demand Finextra webinar with FIS - Unifying card programmes: The cost-reduction imperative

06 December 2024 240 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025

A special edition for NextGen:AI 2024 Artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to revolutionise the financial industry making id more efficient, enhance customer experiences, reduce costs, and create new products and services. AI is transforming how institutions manage risk, intercept fraud or crimes, personalise customer experiences, improve efficiencies across their operations, make investment decisions, and many more use cases which are still being developed. Some industries have already started to embrace AI and banks can be included in that, but financial services still has room to learn from the developments of other ecosystems. At the same time, the innovation in AI is now being driven by legislation. The EU AI Act came into effect in 2024 and is the most concrete piece of legislation, but other jurisdictions are developing their own and will continue to watch how the EU progresses. With the new possibilities AI is opening for financial services, there are new risks. Biases, model issues, cyber security, and compliance issues are among some of the hurdles which AI presents to financial institutions. Adding to this are the serious sustainability issues which AI can create for financial institutions planning to use it long term. This report has been written in collaboration with Box, Innovate Finance, and RedCompass Labs, and contributions from Globant, the United Kingdom House of Lords, ING, NatWest Group, Sumsub, and Smarsh. It explores: How financial services can embrace AI; Some of the key emerging AI use cases; Global legislative outlook for AI; AI sustainability and energy efficiency; How AI can transform financial services metadata extraction.

25 November 2024 972 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Payments 2025 – Digital, Instant, Profitable?

A Sibos Special Edition The global payments landscape is in a period of rapid transition, with technologies and regulations making a serious impact. Yet looking to the future of the payments industry, how can we ensure that it is digital, instant, and profitable? While consumer behaviours continue to evolve in tandem with this. Artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), Blockchain, and even more pioneering technologies are shaking up the payments systems all in their own way. Adding to this atmosphere of flux, is an developing regulatory framework which promises to alter this situation further. Regulators are facing an uphill battle attempting to legislate on emerging technologies while keeping consumers safe, and providing the best outcome for payment service providers (PSPs). As we move towards milestones like open finance and more rapid payments, there is a chance the payment ecosystem could look quite different within the next few years. Under these growing pressures, global payments organisations will need to ensure that they are able to bend and adapt to the circumstance, or risk snapping. Never has it been more important for PSPs to collaborate with each other, and regulators, to ensure the best outcomes. This Sibos 2024 special edition report, was produced with contributions from Accenture, Deloitte, EBA CLEARING, Finastra, FIS Global, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, PPI AG, Swift, and Wise. It explores: The evolution of instant payments in 2025; The modernisation correspondent banking and cross border payments; Preparing the upcoming EU payments legislation; The key to successful digitalisation; The technology innovations reshaping the payments sector.

17 October 2024 997 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025

Embedded finance is changing the payment landscape in Africa. The question now is: what will it take for embedded finance to truly scale across Africa? The global embedded finance market is set to grow beyond $228 billion by 2028 according to Juniper Research. As this market matures and consumer confidence in the technology grows, this will likely prove to be a significant chunk of global financial services. In Africa, this emerging trend has the potential to unlock new economic opportunities. As a less mature market, it is not as hindered by legacy payments systems, making it ripe for payment innovation from embedded finance. It has the potential to reshape the continent’s current payments landscape, broaden innovation opportunities, and drive financial inclusion. As a market Africa is very adaptable to different technologies, and embracing of newer, more agile services. A lot of the population to the majority of their banking through their mobile phones, making embedded finance fit seamlessly into financial worlds of the populace. Yet there are many factors which will alter and develop the ability for embedded finance to take hold. This Finextra report, sponsored by Kora, received contributions from Binance, Indelible Inc., Mojaloop Foundation, and Nikulipe. It explores: Making embedded cross-border payments work in Africa; Unlocking the opportunities of embedded e-commerce in the African market; Embedded finance: Encouraging African financial inclusion; Why personalisation in embedded finance is the next step for African fintech; Regulating Africa to encourage embedded finance innovation.

10 October 2024 292 downloads

Impact Study

Microservices Architecture: Future-Proofing Payments Technology

It is high time for banks to move away from legacy thinking and embrace modernisation to remain competitive in the industry. Financial institutions have long been threatened by innovative, tech-savvy fintech firms that do not have to maintain decades-old back-office systems. Core banking systems within banks have evolved, but with additional pressure from incoming regulation and subsequent reporting, progression and modernisation has not kept pace with industry developments. In the US alone, the real-time payments market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% until 2030. An institution’s success in scaling their payment processing in response to this shift will rest heavily on how their systems are set up. Cloud-native payments processing is the most viable option to keep pace with innovation demand and competition; enabling banks to build upon flexibility, at low cost and risk. These enablers also make cloud infrastructure – both public and private – attractive for banks that have struggled to streamline, maintain and upgrade their legacy infrastructures. This Finextra research paper, produced in association with Diebold Nixdorf, explores the opportunities of microservices architecture. It discusses: Then & Now: Monolithic vs. microservices architecture Overcoming microservice challenges The benefits of a micro-approach Real-world examples and cases studies And more. Click here to join the Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Diebold Nixdorf, to watch as our panel of iindustry experts explore the benefits of microservices architecture, and what needs to be done to ensure migrations are streamlined.

27 August 2024 426 downloads

White Paper

APIs, Automation, and AI

An Arsenal to Defend Against Card Transaction Fraud Fraudsters are no longer individuals who are looking to infiltrate gaps or weaknesses in how our businesses are set up. They are expert technologists and strategists that steal customer data, take over accounts and break into tough security measures. Between 2023 and 2027, merchants are expected to lose a total of $343 billion to online payment fraud, driving home the point that the time is now for technology to be leveraged to reduce card transaction fraud, which is growing in numbers and complexity. APIs, automation, and AI are all integral to an effective fraud mitigation strategy in 2024. This Finextra whitepaper, produced in association with Mastercard, discusses how these technologies – if used in the right way – can support financial institutions evolve to emerging threats with increased speed and accuracy.

12 August 2024 353 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Digital Banking in Europe 2024

A Money20/20 Special Edition. In 2023, fintech investment in the EMEA region dropped to $24.5 billion, down from $49.6 billion in 2022 – a seven year low. Macroeconomic and global political conditions are creating challenges for growth, with upcoming general elections around the world adding to the uncertainties in financial ecosystems. Despite these challenges, the outlook for European digital banking remains positive. The region continues to lead in innovation within the financial sector. This Finextra report, a Special Edition for Money20/20 Europe, features interviews with key players in the European financial services and fintech industries. It includes insights from Vodeno, EY, J.P. Morgan, Swift, Tink, and TrueLayer, and explores the following topics that will be addressed in Amsterdam: Hyper-personalisation: Moving towards super apps Embedded payments driving the Banking-as-a-Service revolution Variable recurring payments: The next step in European open banking Is Europe ready for MiCA? From Web1 to Web3, or Markets1 to Markets3 How European fintech is facing macro challenges

04 June 2024 984 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of UK Fintech - 2015-2035

An IFGS Special Edition UK Fintech Week 2024 With UK Fintech Week's flagship event - Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) - returning for its 10th anniversary, Finextra and Innovate Finance have partnered to publish this report, which acts as your go-to-guide to everything you need to know about financial services and technology in the UK. ‘The Future of UK Fintech: 2015 – 2035: An IFGS Special Edition’ includes commentary from the brightest and best across the fintech ecosystem, discussing and debating the crucial issues facing the sector now and in years to come. This includes key insights from industry experts from Cogo, EY, Konsentus, Marqeta, Standard Chartered Ventures, and Zopa Bank. Scoping out the next decade to come, this report explores the agenda topics below and more: The Next Decade of FS and Innovation: What Lies Ahead Fintech Beyond FS Borders: How Fintech is Impacting other Industries and Sectors UK and the World: Keeping our Crown while Learning from Others Transformative Technologies: Opportunities and Risks Users of Tomorrow: The Next Generation of Consumers The Shifting Ecosystem: Who Will Lead?

15 April 2024 698 downloads

Impact Study

APP Fraud Liability: A Guide for Banks

Fraud is running rampant. The UK Government's 2023 'Fraud Strategy' report highlighted that fraud now accounts for over 40% of crime, yet receives less than 1% of police resources. More needs to be done to ensure that the consumer is protected. This is why, as per the Financial Services and Markets Bill, all PSPs will now be required to reimburse fraud victims from October 2024. In light of these upcoming changes, banks need to reassess how they manage liability associated with APP fraud and develop new methodologies in order to investigate and mitigate fraud more effectively. This Finextra impact study, produced in collaboration with Form3, gives banks a guide to tackling the new APP fraud liability landscape. It highlights: Risk scoring payments Implementing the right intelligence Considering false positives Ensuring explainability And more.

06 March 2024 560 downloads

White Paper

UK Open Banking API Performance 2022-2023

The UK continues to be at the forefront of the global Open Banking revolution thanks to the proactive attitude of regulators. As the most advanced Open Banking market in the world, the UK provides an example of best practices in the implementation of API-based Open Banking that other jurisdictions can use as a model. In this report, we study the performance of the Open Banking APIs exposed by the large CMA9 UK banks, traditional High Street banks, credit card providers and building societies, and new entrant banks (neobanks). Some of our key findings include: There continue to be significant API performance differences between banks; There is a significant difference in total latency between the fastest and slowest banks; Cloud choice makes a huge difference in performance; And more. Download our analysis of Open Banking API services today to learn more.

07 November 2023 651 downloads

Impact Study

What should European Banks prioritise in their payments modernisation journeys?

Payments modernisation is no longer a luxury for financial institutions. Dramatic shifts in consumer appetite, complete overhauls of financial regulation and a need to prioritise resilience mean that banks have little choice but to rethink their systems to operate in this brave new world. European banks have a particularly challenging task ahead of them. ISO 20022, open banking and API enablement initiatives, and the introduction of real-time, cross-border payments makes modernisation of legacy systems ever more complex. This Finextra report, produced in association with Volante Technologies, explores the current European banking landscape and answers: What European deadlines are impacting banks’ payments modernisation plans? How are European countries progressing toward payments modernisation? Will Payments-as-a-Service help firms push payments modernisation ahead? And much more. Download the report today to discover more.

06 November 2023 528 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Digital Banking in North America 2024

2023 was characterised by increasing amounts of uncertainty and a lack of clarity across the financial world. The collapse of banks, including Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republican Bank, in March 2023, added strain to already unsettled financial markets. While market volatility has remained relatively stable, soaring inflation and climbing interest rates slowed economic growth and this is expected to continue into 2024. While forecasts regarding the length and severity of a possible recession are speculative, experts are even more divided about stock market predictions for 2024. Optimism is strong in many investors who expect that 2024 is the year rates will stop rising and predict bullish turns that will see markets soar to new heights. Yet with many other factors affecting North American markets, the only certainty we can expect as we look towards 2024 is more uncertainty. This Finextra report on the outlook of North American banking trends, is produced in association with Money20/20 and includes key insights and commentary from industry experts at EY and Mastercard.

23 October 2023 740 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of Fintech in Latin America 2023

Many companies, countries and regions have forged ahead in leveraging data, cloud, blockchain and AI. One such region is Latin America, where according to Statista, there are 2,300 registered fintech companies, operating across payments, remittances and lending. Latin America is a region with undoubtedly high user penetration across the internet and associated services, but obstacles to financial inclusion remain and prevent individuals from being banked or served by their financial services providers. What this means is that Latin America is ripe for fintech companies to leverage this opportunity and offer a solution to this substantial, yet online, population. However, some progress has been made. Organisations in Brazil and Mexico saw a staggering $6 billion in investments into fintech companies in 2021. Further to this, in Brazil, the number of finance app downloads increased by 274% from 2019 – 2022 and in Mexico, the number of downloads more than tripled. Paraguay, however, is the country with the highest share of adult population using mobile money services. Digital payments is the area of fintech that is most widely used, accounting for nearly eight in 10 users in 2022. Personal finance, neobanking, and alternative lending are also present within Latin America, with Nubank as a clear success as the largest digital bank in Latin America and one of the largest in the world with 1.34 million. When Latin America leverages technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud and data, the region will become one of the world’s leaders in fintech and grow across the digital banking, digital payments, personal finance, lending, and investment sectors. This report, in association with NovoPayment, compiles expert insights from a range of firms, including: BBVA, Kueski, PagBank PagSeguro, provides predictions for the future of fintech in Latin America.

09 August 2023 313 downloads