Tuesday 30 September 2014

Sibos: day one round-up

@Swift
Sibos 2014 kicked off in Boston with the focus inevitably on regulation, standards and the build-up to the much anticipated plenary which revealed Swift's pricing strategy.

Monday 29 September 2014

Interfering with interchange fees: Is the EU going too far?

European Parliament. Source: Björn Laczay
Are European Commission (EC) proposals to cap card interchange fees a threat to innovation and competition?

That’s the contention of a new paper by David S Evans, a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago and chairman of Global Economics Group, a legal advisory firm.

Thursday 18 September 2014

Why are P2P payments slow on the uptake in the US?


© www.zafin.com
After speaking with Chris Burfield from FIS about the vendor’s recent person-to-person (P2P) payments project at US-based Everbank, a question arose: why are these types of services slow on the uptake in the US?

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Have European banks given up on core banking system replacements?

© www.itrw.net
Despite the emergence of new technology and increasing competition, it seems the replacement of core banking systems is not on the agenda for European banks. Instead, banks are investing in niche IT projects to not only maintain their existing systems, but to introduce incremental changes, which can provide a quick return on investment (ROI) and meet their business and consumer needs.

Monday 15 September 2014

New challengers to the UK banking market

Welcome to the IBS table of the challengers to the UK banking market.  

We have put together a list of financial institutions looking for business in the UK.

More details on the core system decisions of the respective banks can be found on the IBS website.

We welcome any input to the table and will be making regular updates, so if you would like to add to the list please contact us via email or the comments section below.

Thursday 11 September 2014

SAP Financial Services Forum: The inside track

This week’s SAP Financial Services Forum in London was a reminder of the supplier’s strengths and weaknesses in this sector. It was also a reminder of just how far SAP has moved in the last few years from its Walldorf and ERP centricity. In part through some major acquisitions, of course, it is now far more diverse and international than it was, with this also a key reason for almost ten per cent of its revenues now coming from the financial services sector.

Thursday 4 September 2014

FIS's takeover of Clear2Pay: what’s the story?

Brussels, home of Clear2Pay
The pool of independent companies in the payments processing space has shrunk yet again, with Clear2Pay being taken over by US fintech giant, FIS. The official announcement, of course, praises the €375 million acquisition, with Clear2Pay stating that ‘the combination of these two companies will be uniquely qualified to deliver true payment systems convergence’. Which translates into plain English as FIS will have an even larger portfolio of payments systems and solutions, some complementary, some competing.

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Can Apple make the mobile wallet work?

So far the mobile wallet has been the dog that failed to bark in the payments world. There is little progress despite the fact that the key technology, NFC, has been around for a while, and despite the success of Paypal, an online money transfer and payment platform, for many years now.