Latest reports and research: Finextra Research

Event Report

AI strategies for scalable, secure and compliant banking

Delving into effective strategies and tools for secure and compliant AI integration in banking, emphasising the importance of open-source models, the role of generative AI, the advantages of synthetic data, and the influence of regulatory frameworks. Integrating AI in banking involves more than just adopting new technologies; it requires aligning these technologies with specific banking use cases to maximise benefits and mitigate risks related to data security and compliance. Open-source models facilitate this transformation by offering a collaborative platform for innovation and transparency, essential for building trust and ensuring the safe use of AI in banking. The journey from proof of concept (POC) to production in AI and machine learning is often lengthy and complex. This extended timeline highlights the challenges organisations face in integrating AI into their operations. Embracing new tools and technologies and learning to utilise them effectively is crucial for overcoming these challenges and applying AI to day-to-day operations, leading to significant benefits in efficiency and innovation. When looking at other markets, the United States has become a hub for tech giants, focusing on fostering innovation, while regions like Japan remain cautious, reflecting their unique regulatory landscapes and societal risk appetites. This diversity in regulatory approaches presents both opportunities and challenges for firms operating globally, necessitating a nuanced understanding of each market’s unique dynamics. This webinar report summarises the discussion of a Finextra webinar, hosted with Red Hat, by a panel of industry experts. Discover: How AI is enhancing innovation, efficiency, and security; Synthetic data and regulatory impact; What factors are holding organisations back from fully adoption AI-driven services; Balancing innovation and regulation; And more.

07 February 2025 3 downloads

Impact Study

Are you ready for CBPR+? Accelerating modernisation and efficiency through ISO 20022

Challenges and strategies for financial messaging professionals to be CBPR+ compliant by November 2025. Financial institutions’ ISO 20022 for CBPR+ migration timelines vary enormously, yet the deadline is the same for all financial institutions – whether they have fully adopted ISO 20022 or are yet to make significant progress. By November 2025, ISO 20022 will become the sole globally recognised standard for interbank cross-border payments, and the new MX messaging format will fully replace the old MT messaging format. Concerningly, adoption has not picked up as significantly since the co-existence period began in November 2023. In January 2024, the ISO 20022 adoption rate of the top 175 financial institutions stood at 19%. By December 2024, this number had grown to 32.9%. It’s clear that institutions need to significantly accelerate their migration efforts over the next few months – or risk the consequences of non-compliance. ISO 20022 is not just a compliance update – the data-rich format enables organisations to enhance their analytical capabilities, improve their service offering, improve straight-through processing, strengthen anti-money laundering and compliance efforts, and more. This impact study explores readiness for the impending ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline and features commentary from experts at Finastra and Visa. It answers: What needs to happen between today and November? What are the main challenges institutions have been facing? How can they streamline successful strategies to hit compliance by November and beyond? What happens in November 2025 for organisations that have not made the deadline? Join the Finextra webinar, 'The ISO 20022 for CBPR+ deadline is looming: Are financial organisations prepared?', hosted with Finastra, to learn more.

05 February 2025 33 downloads

Impact Study

Bank Legacy Transformation: Exploring the Solutions

Where do banks stand with legacy transformation today? What are the market factors and changing consumer demands that make transformation increasingly crucial? Legacy transformation is not a new challenge for banks. However, as technology capability continues to advance, along with it the potential for innovation and new business models serving a digital customer base, the pressure of no longer being constrained by legacy infrastructure intensifies. Despite being the central nervous system for banks’ operations for decades serving a business purpose, legacy systems have become inadequate, and those trained to use them may lack the skills needed to meet sophisticated demands for real-time and seamless experiences. Here’s how banks can decouple their systems from each other to evolve and grow, untangle technology challenges to drive digitisation, and invest in technology and employees to ensure obstacles to rapid and gradual modernisation are removed. This impact study, produced in association with Veritran, will: Consider frameworks that prioritise initiatives based on their impact; Explore specific recommendations for each of these challenges; Propose strategies on how to integrate systems that will address data silos; Highlight clear ROI examples, efficiency gains, and enhanced customer outcomes; and Emphasise that there is no need for legacy system abandonment and modernisation can be conducted gradually without disruption.

14 January 2025 223 downloads

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 310 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 241 downloads

Event Report

Sustainable Finance Live – Natural Capital Finance

A Record from the Sustainable Finance Live Conference and Hackathon 2024 On 8 October 2024, Finextra Research and ResponsibleRisk held the annual Sustainable Finance Live hybrid conference and hackathon, in partnership with NayaOne. The conference took place at Events@ No6 in London, and started off with a welcome from founder of ResponsibleRisk and contributing editor for Finextra, Richard Peers. Peers opened with an introduction outlining the themes and objectives of this year’s event: to understand natural capital risk, pricing, and trade. The focus areas of the conference were natural capital, agriculture, supply chains, as well as regulation and reporting. The sessions also highlighted highlighting new technologies that are being used to collect nature-related data such as Earth observation and satellite reporting. Richard Peers, contributing editor at Finextra and founder of ResponsibleRisk, moderated the conference: “What we wanted to do is to put on an event aimed at explaining the landscape of a natural capital transaction, with the associated data providers identified along the way. Ending the process in an asset management trading platform, taking into consideration all the steps that a regulated entity has to undertake, to prove to the financial industry that this can be an asset class, that is as tradable as any other.” Download a Visual Record of the event below to discover key themes of the event’s panels, keynotes, and hackathon. We cover: Natural capital trading from field to trade; How nature financing can be achieved; The role of data, economic profit, and policy for natural capital; How to build a sustainable ecosystem using natural value; Visions and results from the hackathon; And more.

28 November 2024 140 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 973 downloads

Impact Study

2024 Fraud Trends in Banking, Insurance, and Beyond

How generative AI is boosting fraud protection in an increasingly complex environment. As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of institutions to secure data and systems. Over 2024, the fraud landscape has been complex, and organisations must push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining a high security bar as the availability and democratisation of AI increases as we're going into 2025. The tidal wave of incoming regulation in the financial sector is an aspect that will help banking and insurance companies to safeguard their customers and data in the best way possible. Yet regulation alone does not address fraud – it’s up to individual organisations to leverage the potential of technology, and review their solutions, processes, and thus ensure compliance and safety. As fraud and regulation increase in the space, technology is one of the key factors that will help banks and insurance companies to address these increased fraud risks. Generative AI enables organisations to deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, and combining these capabilities with carrier network insights can not only help them significantly reduce authentication fraud, but also ensure regulatory compliance. This impact study, produced in association with AWS and Vonage, examines the current fraud landscape across financial services, banking, and insurance, highlighting how generative AI and network APIs can help prevent fraud while enhancing the customer experience. Explore: Fraud trends in 2024 The impact of regulation Why data is the new gold How organisations can innovate with generative AI Best practices

31 October 2024 477 downloads

Event Report

Managing Fraud Risks with Synthetic Data

A Practical Approach for Businesses Services Industry The financial services sector is in a constant state of evolution, and so too are the challenges it faces, particularly in the realm of financial crime. This mounting issue has become a significant concern for institutions, customers and regulators alike. The key to addressing this lies in our approach to data - its quality, management, and applications. Harnessing the power of synthetic data and AI tools has become a pivotal factor in business transformation, particularly in addressing the issue of financial crime. The ability to streamline operations and enhance efficiency is a major challenge businesses face, but the introduction of synthetic data offers promising solutions. Synthetic data provides a comprehensive view of all types of crime, a feature that is crucial for global banks often grappling with segmented fraud activity. This broader perspective enhances the institutions’ capability to effectively fight financial crime. This report summarises the discussion had during a Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Red Hat, and explores: The role of synthetic data in combatting financial crime Implications of new regulation How synthetic data enhances crime detection A practical apprach for managing fraud risk

22 October 2024 273 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 998 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 293 downloads

Impact Study

Adding GenAI To Your Fraud Prevention Strategy

We explore the numerous benefits of generative AI for fighting fraud. In an instant payment, cross-border world, fraud is more nefarious and prevalent than ever. Recent research shows that worldwide, APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud now represents 75% of all digital banking fraud on a dollar-value basis. By 2026, losses are expected to reach $5.25 billion – revealing that APP fraud is one of the biggest threats to financial institutions (FIs) globally. The next pre-emptive step in the fight against fraud is generative AI (GenAI), which uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate new content like text, audio, video and even new computer code. While GenAI is still in the fledgling stages of adoption within fraud prevention, it will soon become a true differentiator. But how exactly are scammers deploying AI to their advantage? What are the best ways to incorporate GenAI into a fraud prevention strategy? How should consumer privacy be managed? This impact study answers these questions and casts an eye over the current fraud landscape, the regulatory implications, and the vital role of innovation. This Finextra impact study, produced in association with Outseer, explores: The evolution of scams; The role of AI; Technology and the impact of generative AI; How to embed AI in the best way possible; Addressing regulatory challenges and concerns; And more.

27 September 2024 417 downloads

Survey

The Global Fight Against Trade-Based Financial Crime

Broken inside, broken outside: Uncovering the internal weaknesses and external pressures fuelling a $1.6 trillion challenge. Trade-Based Financial Crime (TBFC) is a global issue, draining $1.6 trillion annually from economies—funds that could otherwise fuel development, build infrastructure, and stabilise financial systems. Instead, these resources are diverted into criminal networks that operate across borders, exploiting the very institutions meant to protect global finance. This is a crisis that goes beyond numbers; it strikes at the core of trust and stability in the financial world. This global survey, conducted in the summer of 2024, revealed the alarming extent to which financial institutions remain unprepared in the face of the growing threat of TBFC and sheds light on the significant challenges, technology gaps, and fragmented risk management strategies that enable significant financial crime. Input from leaders at ING and ITFA reinforces the critical role of technology in combating TBFC, while also acknowledging the operational challenges that remain. Implementing AI-driven solutions at scale is proving to be a significant obstacle for many institutions, with the timeline for action growing ever tighter. Download this Finextra survey, produced in association with Eastnets, to explore: Why TBFC is a growing global crisis What internal roadblocks institutions are facing An investigation into the external challenges of combatting TBFC Recommendations for what risk leaders should do next And more Click here to join us for the Finextra webinar, Global Trade Based Financial Crime: Where Trade and Payments Meet, and hear from our panel of industry experts discuss the finding from this survey and the current state of trade-based financial crime globally.

25 September 2024 294 downloads

Impact Study

Mastering the Transition to ISO 20022

Strategies for Compliance and Automated Testing in Financial Services With a regulatory storm incoming, the need for testing solutions – whether they be generic or tailored – is greater than ever before. As the financial services industry undergoes a vast amount change, particularly around the introduction of new rails on the ISO 20022 framework, these tests are proving vital for international banks and other institutions in the chain. Yet, for this sector change is not a binary phase; it is almost always underway. To tackle this challenge in a sustainable way, automation is key – giving institutions the confidence to weather the storm of regulation with ease. With the ISO 20022 standard now a prerequisite, organisations must convince their business leaders that the migration mandated for November is not just an IT project – it is fundamental to company-wide strategy. This impact study, produced in association with Unifits and featuring expert commentary from BearingPoint and Accenture, explores how institutions can master the transition to ISO 20022 and streamline compliance through automated testing. Discover: The impact and evolution of testing The benefits of testing automation The strategic role of technology and compliance Trends to watch: New rails and regulations Real-world case studies And more.

16 September 2024 496 downloads