Middle and Back Office Solutions Insights

Speaking on the sidelines of FinovateEurope, Benoit Legrand, the chief innovation officer of ING Group discussed the intricacies of innovation from psychology to the bank’s innovation budget. As new technologies kindle the start of global fintech, it is imperative that incumbent banks adapt their mindsets and invest heavily, without fear... read more

“At what point should a bank move away from a traditional vendor? The answer is probably at the point at which the amount of change you want to put through the platform is being slowed down by the vendor’s change process,” says Michael James, head of technical architecture in financial services at Altus Consulting. “You... read more

Some non-financial counterparties (NFCs) are unaware of impending reporting obligations under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), according to market participants. “Financial firms really need to be reaching out to their non-financial counterparties to help educate them, get them comfortable with the regulatory... read more

Ambiguity around financial counterparty categorizations due to the delay in the implementation of the update to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (Emir), remains of concern for small financial counterparties (FCs) that fear they won’t qualify to avoid clearing obligations, according to Roger Cogan, head of European public policy... read more

Over the past few years, technological advances, regulatory changes and the introduction of a range of new market participants has driven efficiencies and opportunities across the payments world, but the fast-changing nature of the industry has created the need for systematic, forward planning. That’s according to Eleni Coldrey, business... read more

By 2030, artificial intelligence (AI) will save the banking industry more than $1trn, according to analysts. Of that vast sum, it is expected that banks and credit unions will save $217bn—simply by applying AI to their compliance and authentication practices, and to other forms of data processing. I recently reviewed the first steps that... read more

Digital-only challenger banks and new market entrants are vulnerable to savvy criminals looking to exploit weak anti-money laundering (AML) controls, according to John Davies, chairman on Kompli-Global and deputy chair of the Emerging Payments Association (EPA). Speaking at the launch of the EPA’s new whitepaper on financial crime, in... read more

In the first half of 2018 the UK received record levels of investment in the fintech sector – with over $16bn investment, according to KPMG. That’s $2bn more than the amounts raised in the Americas and China, individually, and six more than the rest of Europe. But while the UK has been active in its pursuit of fintechs, uncertainty... read more

Early on in my treasury consulting career, a new client approached me with what seemed to me a rather unusual request during their system implementation: “Could you please set up Deutsche Mark as one of our currencies?” I blinked. Deutsche Mark – the former German currency replaced by the euro in 2002? My confusion must have shown... read more