Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Report

Underpinning Innovation with Real-Time Payments

Real-Time Payments growth is just the beginning. Real-time payments systems are proliferating around the world, with higher values and volumes together with greater cross-border connectivity. The industry is tasked with designing and creating the market infrastructure that supports this growth, and is increasingly turning to hybrid multicloud deployments to deliver a new wave of innovation that can take place within all manner of systems, from fraud detection through to liquidity management and accounting software. Increased collaboration and global standards underpin the upward trajectory of digital transformation in a rapidly changing financial ecosystem. Download the full white paper below to find out more.

31 March 2020 902 downloads

Report

The Irish Banking Ecosystem, Interconnection and the Speed of Change

Irish banks are operating in a rapidly changing market and must embrace new technologies and business models to keep pace and to stay ahead of energetic new entrants. But the same banks should accept that they cannot make this transformation alone and have to seek out new partners if they are to succeed or even survive in a new marketplace. The current trends towards open banking services, increasingly digitised products, and the appetite for real-time payments is playing out globally. In Ireland, where fintechs and big tech both reside in increasing numbers,the trend is especially acute. Many banks are adopting a cloud-based strategy to cope with new processing demands and to extract value from the increasing amounts of data, constantly generated from a myriad of remote devices. ‘Fast, agile and secure’ is the order of the day in order to join up the dots in the emerging ecosystem and be a frontrunner in the development of dynamic new products and services. The question is, can banks do it alone and what are the key ingredients for a successful partnership? Download the full white paper to find out more.

16 March 2020 413 downloads

Report

The Information Advantage: Driving Opportunities and Mitigating Risk in a Hyper-Connected World

What's next for business in this world of digital services and data? Collaboration, interoperability and a trusted network in which to operate came to the fore as the key factors to support business growth and financial services transformation during a recent roundtable, held under Chatham House Rule. The roundtable was hosted by Finextra, in association with OpenText, and brought together payments and industry stakeholders to discuss the pertinent issues and drivers around digital and operational transformation. The themes have percolated and resonated in follow-up discussions since. Delegates discussed the pressing challenges as well as opportunities, and how to solve them in order to improve the landscape for commerce. Download the full report to find out more.

09 March 2020 417 downloads

Report

The Future of Regulation: 2020 Predictions

Transformative regulations designed to stimulate and steer the exploding number of developments in innovation will be a dominating influence across the financial services industry in 2020, driven by the ongoing pressure fintech disruptors exert over incumbents. Concern over regulatory enforcement has increased significantly. Firms understand they are putting themselves at risk by violating regulations, and nearly 25% feel that the most important function of compliance is the avoidance of incurring such fines. This report explores the key regulatory updates that are bearing down on the financial services industry during 2020 and beyond, delving into the ramifications of the changes and consult industry experts to unscramble the intricacies of each regulation to advise on how to best prepare for each transition. Download your copy of the report now.

04 March 2020 578 downloads

Report

Payments, 2020 and Beyond: How Today's Trends Drive Tomorrow's Strategies

2020 is set to be another transformational year in the payments industry. Regulatory and innovation-driven trends set in motion in the 2010s, such as real-time/instant payments, open banking and ISO 20022 migration, will become the defining themes of the 2020s. Global, regional and domestic payments infrastructures will experience drastic overhauls in the coming years, as market participants race to connect and transact with greater speed, data transparency, and interoperability. While all geographies are experiencing these transitions, not all are progressing at the same rate, or in the same direction. As the author William Gibson famously noted: “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed”. This impact study explores the distribution of innovation, regulation and disruption across selected domestic and regional payments markets, as well as initiatives with global reach such as SWIFT’s ISO 20022 migration. Find out more by downloading your copy below.

26 February 2020 1190 downloads

Report

Unlocking Revenue Through Digital Identity

Banks' business is not banking, it's trust. When it comes to identity and authentication processes, financial services providers must look to the Nordic region as a blueprint. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have leveraged partnerships with banks to form strong and established digital identity propositions. Banks are at an advantage in comparison to governments, third parties or other financial services players, however a degree of collaboration is required because traditional lenders cannot succeed alone. Download your copy of the white paper below to find more.

30 January 2020 693 downloads

Report

4 Regulatory Changes Impacting Data, Identity, and the Digital Trail

This Finextra Impact Study, produced in association with DocuSign, examines the foremost regulatory changes affecting financial institutions and the businesses which transact with them, the key issues arising out of these changes and the avenues for opportunities in this dynamic context. Digital transformation has swept through the financial services industry, spurring innovation and prompting incumbents and disruptors alike to reassess how they can remain competitive while meeting complex regulatory requirements. This 4-point study outlines the 4 key regulations affecting financial services and why digital solutions hold the key to smooth compliance. Compliance with the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), Regulation E updates, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Final Rule implementation and the refining of Capture Consent laws each demand that firms are equipped to manage these regulatory changes. Find out more by downloading your copy below.

22 January 2020 470 downloads

Report

The Critical Role of Cloud in Digital and Operational Strategy

The operational challenges facing financial services firms are only increasing - from regulatory requirements to new entrants and now open banking and digital transformation - all at a time when competition has never been stronger. Fortunately, cloud computing services are constantly improving and maturing. Now banks can get more than cost-savings from their use of the cloud. It can improve cost management, enhance data security and data management, reduce operational risk, and enable banks to migrate to a more decentralised, digital and collaborative operating model. However, there are issues that banks, both new and old, must consider to optimise their use of the cloud, such as cultural challenges, skills shortages and operational obstacles. One way to overcome these challenges and ensure the most effective use of cloud technology is for banks to work with a growing number of expert organisations to support and manage their cloud migrations and digital transformations.

27 December 2019 929 downloads

Report

Embracing Open Banking with Secure and Interconnected APIs

In financial services today, data is an asset. But only if it can be accessed, transformed and integrated securely into internal and external ecosystems. In the world of open banking the definitions of competitor, partner and customer are blurring. It is particularly important for financial institutions to have a cohesive strategy to manage the integrations that tie together their systems from back office to customer-facing channels. This needs to happen across lines of business and international operations, and be able to expose functionality and data to build innovative new services with third parties. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have become the most accepted method for building systematic connecting points between an organisation and the outside world. They are often used internally as well, alongside more traditional internal integration patterns such as file transfers and middleware. The widespread use of APIs has led some to talk of the “API economy” as a way to describe the new business models emerging. Large organisations are transforming themselves to compete and partner with new service entrants such as aggregators while start-ups create new businesses by combining functionality provided by APIs from multiple sources. There are many drivers for organisations to develop an effective API strategy. Within financial institutions from the board level down there is pressure to continually modernise and embrace digital transformation to optimise costs, become more efficient at developing new products and services and boost revenue from customers that expect better, faster, anywhere/anytime service.

20 December 2019 645 downloads

Report

How to Protect and Grow in the Fintech Industry

A 3-Step Guide to Generating Revenue and Becoming Profitable. A monetisation strategy must be devised so that the company can decide what value will be created and who will pay, whether it is the customer, thirdparties that want access to the consumer or third-party beneficiaries who can derive value from the user. There is no universal formula for success that can work across all business models. The most common way of generating revenue is charging consumers. This would work well in a startup model as these organisations are unencumbered by legacy infrastructure and cost structures, so new financial services entrants can charge fees that are lower than what customers are accustomed to paying, while at the same time, continuing to create better user experiences. However, untrusting customers want more than a better customer experience and companies need to establish revenue sources that can be diversified over time. Additionally, financial services providers must give their customers a reason to bank with them and this can be done by ensuring defences are built against financial crime, providing analytically driven decisions and streamlining the lending process. With this in mind, there are three important steps to be taken to proceed towards long term profitability.

09 December 2019 425 downloads

Report

The Future of Banking is Open

The open banking dialogue has at last moved on from compliance concerns and turned to what opportunities, as well as challenges, exist for banks. 2019 could be the year that open banking takes hold but only if banks are able to deliver value-added, premium services via application programming interfaces (APIs). These tools are still in their early stages of development but through robust testing, more standardisation, intelligent use of data and partnerships, banks can develop services that both enhance the user experience and generate new sources of revenue. Banks should be looking at what valuable services they can actually charge for, what services go beyond data capture and money movement and involve new lines of revenue – from online FX wallets to digital banking. They should also look at areas such as corporate banking that are ripe for disruption given that the current dashboard services on offer are typically basic and static. Download this new whitepaper from Finextra, in association with Token, as we explore the shift towards ‘premium’ API-driven banking culture, what drivers and challenges are shaping the developments, and what the new wave of open banking products and services might look like.

29 July 2019 1192 downloads

Report

Clearing and Settlement: The new battleground for payments innovation

There is significant innovation and competition afoot in the world of payments initiation, driven by consumers and corporates on the demand side, and traditional banks, fintechs and challengers on the supply side. This is mirrored by what can reasonably be called a revolution in the world of clearing and settlement. Real-time / instant payments, blockchain and distributed ledger, new solutions to the old problems of cross-border correspondent banking, and many other initiatives all have the potential to transform how payments are processed, cleared and settled. Financial institutions therefore need to find ways to provide compelling business services based on new methods of payment initiation and novel customer experiences, while keeping pace with the multiplicity of back-end clearing and settlement options – all while managing costs, staying ahead of compliance, and growing market share.

12 November 2018 951 downloads

Report

The Banks as Universal Digital Trusted ID Providers

This whitepaper by Finextra and HID Global explores the new trends in digital identity and highlights how financial institutions are well placed to play a central role in these developments as well as some of the more advanced responses in the financial sector from both a regulatory and business case perspective. Being able to prove you are who you say you are is the basic underpinning of many economic activities, and traditionally this proof has come in the form of personal interactions and physical documentations. But over the past 20 years, the concept of digital identity has emerged, with varying definitions, and several long-term trends that have been building over the past decade are combining to transform digital identity and the way consumers and businesses interact and transact in the economy. Digital identification and authentication will be radically different in the coming years than the simple username and password combination that have persisted since the dawn of the digital age. And financial institutions, with their long experience of identity assurance and trusted role within the economy, are well placed to play a central role in these developments. Download this new whitepaper produced by Finextra, in association with HID Global, exploring these trends and highlighting some of the more advanced responses in the financial sector from both a regulatory and business case perspective.

06 November 2018 847 downloads

Report

Payments Transformation: Jostling for Position in the New Digital Landscape

The world is moving ever faster. The willingness of consumers and businesses to tolerate any delay or inconvenience is rapidly approaching zero. Fintechs are entering the market at record pace with a focus on taking profits from any inefficient market. The banking industry is starting to move. From the rapid rise of instant payments to SWIFT gpi, banks are forming a competitive response to these market forces gaining market and mind-share. Download our fourth annual research paper by Finextra in association with Fiserv on the state of the payments market and the competitive challenges and pressures. It focuses on the challenges banks face in building intelligent experiences for their corporate and retail clients to meet their increasing expectation of speed, seamlessness and security. The survey sets out the various aspects of banks transitioning to meet the opportunities and challenges of the ‘faster / instant’ world; the market context (new competitors, new regulations, operation and technologies) with which the banks are contending, the key issues around instant payments and building the business case to support the investment required. This information is supplemented by a look at what’s happening with blockchain and distributed ledger technology. The research was undertaken in September 2018 and is based on a survey of over 100 financial services professionals from around the world.

24 October 2018 1521 downloads

Report

Payment System Assurance – Reducing Risk through Effective Testing

Banks traditionally offer three services: accepting deposits, making loans and moving money. Once an area in which there was little competition and regulatory focus, today payments is a product led business that has changed beyond all recognition. Now banks and the infrastructure providers are at the centre of an environment which moves vast numbers of transactions and monetary value both domestically and internationally and often in real time. Against this backdrop there is increased regulatory legislation and compliance. All payments must be vetted to ensure both their authenticity and funding, and against various watch-lists – anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing etc. Further, the banks’ clients now expect the ability to initiate payment transactions from a gamut of devices from the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and TMS (Treasury Management System) systems of large corporates to the mobile devices of millennials. The only certain feature of banks’ payments infra structure today is change, and the amount of change is at historically unprecedented levels. With the huge risks – business, financial, regulatory and reputational - to banks of failures in their payments infra structure, the importance of testing in this area has never been greater. Download this paper produced by Finextra and Iliad solutions examining the quality of the payments-related testing approaches and systems used by banks operating in the UK. It also sets out the obstacles currently preventing them from moving from limited automation and obsolete processes, to a completely new approach based on a strategic investment in technology to rationalise, simplify and fully automate their testing.

19 September 2018 472 downloads