Hamish Monk - Community Author: Finextra Research

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is supply chain finance?

Supply chain finance (SCF) – also known as reverse factoring – was birthed by globalisation and the increasingly complex, multi-party supply chains that enable it. While the use of SCF necessarily fluctuates in line with the health of the geopolitical landscape (as well as the shifting weight of regulatory and reporting requirements) it will remai...

05 August 2025 /wholesale

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is treasury technology?

According to PwC’s 2025 Global Treasury Survey, in today’s volatile “macroeconomic environment, a ‘cash-first’ operating model is no longer optional. Treasury must lead with forecasting accuracy, real-time visibility and centralised control.” The only effective means for organisations to achieve these goals – as well as weather the headwinds of st...

29 July 2025 /ai

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What are embedded payments?

Embedded payments are a type of embedded finance, whereby financial services are extended within non-financial contexts. In such a scenario, the business-to-customer (B2C) firm stands as an intermediary between the customer and the financial institution (FI) – meaning the bank is (superficially) removed from the banking process. While this is not...

22 July 2025 /payments

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is robo advice?

Robo advice in the context of the financial services industry refers to automated investment advice available around-the-clock, over the internet. The process typically begins with an information gathering phase – often in the form of an online questionnaire – before which investments are automatically executed on behalf of the client, based on th...

08 July 2025 /wealth

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is predictive analysis?

Predictive analytics is a method of data analysis used within the financial services industry – and beyond – to forecast business-related outcomes. It sits on a spectrum, beginning with descriptive analytics, the most basic form of data analysis, then moving to diagnostic analytics, predictive analytics, and finally prescriptive analytics – the mo...

01 July 2025 /ai

Mounting geopolitical tensions underscore the need for public cloud diversification

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

Mounting geopolitical tensions underscore the need for public cloud diversification

Today’s industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, is characterised by smart systems, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), advanced robotics, and automation. If these innovations are the locomotives of Industry 4.0, then their fuel is data. Be it customer behaviour, engagement, attitudes, or personal information, data – ...

24 June 2025 /cloud

To ESG or not to ESG? Britain’s ‘Big Four’ banks buck the trend of DEI retreat

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

To ESG or not to ESG? Britain’s ‘Big Four’ banks buck the trend of DEI retreat

A counterbalance to claims of trans-Atlantic ESG de-prioritisation, Finextra’s investigation into the UK’s top financial institutions prove that some industries are keeping ESG front of mind. On Sunday 6 June 2025, The Observer published an article in its business and economics section which revealed how leading British firms had “re-written” thei...

17 June 2025 /inclusion

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is natural language processing?

The term natural language processing, or NLP, describes a computer’s ability to understand, interpret, or generate human language. It is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) which uses algorithm-backed machine learning (ML) to recognise both the written and spoken word. Testament to its utility, in 2023 the market size of NLP in finance was valu...

10 June 2025 /ai

What happens when money thinks for itself?

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What happens when money thinks for itself?

This is an excerpt from The Future of European Fintech 2025: A Money20/20 Special Edition. The evolution of financial technology is characterised by increasing levels of simplicity, efficiency, and integration. We saw this in 2016, when Europe’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) encouraged financial institutions to open up their data and i...

04 June 2025 /payments

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is AI bias?

The term ‘AI bias’ refers to situations whereby an artificial intelligence (AI) system produces prejudiced results, as a consequence of flaws in its machine learning process. Often, AI bias mirrors society’s inequalities, be they around race, gender, class, nationality, and so on. In this instalment of Finextra’s Explainer series, we ask where bia...

03 June 2025 /ai

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is quantum computing?

Developments in quantum computing are edging the technology ever closer to real world, industrial application. So what is quantum computing exactly, and how might it be applied to financial services? The journey to quantum theory The history of physics can be characterised by successive scientific revolutions that deepen humanity’s understanding o...

27 May 2025 /devops

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is deep learning?

Artificial intelligence (AI), a concept once confined to the realms of science fiction, has in the last several years entered the mainstream – with the release of OpenAI’s inaugural ChatGPT model, and other competitor engines subsequently, transforming innumerable industries. Often uttered in conjunction with ‘AI’ is the term ‘deep learning’, thou...

20 May 2025 /ai

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