Research

clear
clear

Latest Results from /regulation

Report

The Future of Wealth Management 2022

A sector at the beginning of its digital renaissance. Increased digitisation of goods and services throughout the 2010s gathered pace long before Covid-19 turned the global outlook on its head. The pandemic served only to reaffirm this shift to digital as a matter of urgency.    The wealth management sector was not spared the upheaval; however, it appears to be emerging from the crisis with an invigorated sense of progress.    The disruptive forces of digitisation and Covid-19 are now joined by a groundswell of consumer expectation. This is clearly witnessed in the soaring uptake of retail investment tools and applications, greater access to financial instruments and widespread revolt against the traditional inaccessibility of financial services.  This report, the Future of Wealth Management 2021 with interviews from Accenture, Coutts, Hargreaves Lansdown, Nutmeg, Oxford Risk, Tilney Smith & Williamson, and UBS Global Wealth Management will explore the forces currently shaping the industry. It will examine not only what these forces are, but how and why they form the structural foundation for a sector which is at the very beginning of its digital renaissance.

1115 downloads

Report

Addressing the Poverty Premium: A data-led approach

Poverty premium is a term that means so much more than being charged more for certain products and lack of credit history; it can also equate to digital exclusion. With an increasing focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda, banks do not wish to be seen to be as socially irresponsible. Regulators and authorities are increasingly turning their attention to these issues as well, understanding that the poverty premium is a roadblock to regional and national economic progress. Banks therefore need to find ways to offer more nuanced services, so that fair banking is open and accessible to everyone. And this ultimately works to their advantage as well. Not all of the demographic that is let down by digital services is poor - think millennials without a credit history, or older baby boomers who aren’t digitally savvy- but by being unbanked or excluded from the system, can easily follow a downward spiral and end up badly off. There is scope and opportunity for banks to provide digital educational and coaching services as well, to bring people on board, better educate them and of course, avoid certain pitfalls. With shrewd capturing, processing and analysis of data and technology, banks can take the lead by addressing the tired bias that exists in traditional credit decisioning models against certain credentials or attributes, which is often a result of programming by human bias. Through open banking and shared data, particularly as this theme trickles into other sectors such as energy, insurance and healthcare, fintech startups and neobanks are already driving change in this respect. Download your copy of this Finextra white paper, produced in association with Cognizant, to learn more.

296 downloads

Report

Five Factors to consider when building Operational Resilience

The term resilience is receiving a significant amount of airtime in 2021. While the pandemic certainly pulled into focus the need for resilient systems across financial services, the push toward financial resilience was first born in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Since 2008, focus has shifted toward building resilience across operations in the financial services sector, by assessing vital business functions, setting levels of tolerance that these functions can withstand, and testing the tolerances at regular intervals. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision defines operational resilience as the ability of a bank to deliver critical operations through disruption. This ability enables a bank to: Identify and protect itself from threats and potential failures; Respond and adapt to – as well as recover and learn from – disruptive events. Unlike typical risk management or more traditional compliance-based approaches, when it comes to operational resilience, banks should assume that disruptions will occur – and consider their overall risk appetite and tolerance for disruption. In the context of operational resilience, the Committee defines tolerance for disruption as the level of disruption from any type of operational risk a bank is willing to accept, given a range of severe but plausible scenarios. While the ability to predict which areas are likely to cause disruptions was once the purview of a human supervisor, given the shift to digital operations, it is only logical that firms employ tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to identify patterns and risks within an institutions’ complex technology systems. This Finextra impact study, in association with BMC, outlines five key considerations that financial institutions must be aware of, ahead of impending regulatory deadlines, as well as the technology-based solutions available to assist them in building a robust and compliant operational resilience strategy.

253 downloads

Report

Cost of doing business as usual or an avoidable drain on margin?

Operational loss events related to Execution, Delivery and Process Management (EDPM), and Clients, Products and Business Processes (CPBP) can represent the most financially damaging losses for banks.  Yet these often fly under the radar of more PR-friendly talk around cybercrime, money laundering and fraud defences.  There is relentless pressure for revenue growth, client acquisition and flow. But margin is just as important, if not more so. Every operational loss event that occurs because lessons have not been learned from previous failures, is a direct and significant hit to margin.    While risk management departments might be aware of the scale of the problem, how many people working in data reconciliations, operations or IT could tell you the average cost of a loss event? How much focus is being directed from the board and C-suite to make sure that operations have what they need to improve data quality and flow, introduce intelligent automation and remove manual touchpoints and opportunities for failure?   This Finextra white paper, produced in association with SmartStream Technologies, examines what more can be done to translate operational risk measurement into operational and financial margin improvements, and the barriers to overcome.

193 downloads

Report

Stemming the tide of Social Engineering Scams with Behavioural Insights

Fraud and cybercrime are always on the increase, evading the latest security conventions and morphing into a different approach, following the money. In the same way, banks and financial organisations worldwide need to continuously respond and adapt. Global events create new trends and directions for fraudsters to exploit and the recent Coronavirus pandemic is no different.   Social engineering fraud has gripped the industry in the last year and in particular, phone and business email scams seem to be resulting in the highest losses; indeed, according to the US Federal Trade Commission, 77% of fraud complaints reported by consumers in the US involved contact by phone.   In the UK, it is more commonly referred to as Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, and while measures have been introduced, such as the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) code and Confirmation of Payee, to protect consumers and to detect and prevent scams and illicit funds transfers, more needs to be done in the UK, and globally.   The good news is banks can access and utilise increasingly sophisticated technology and expertise to meet the fraudsters’ aptitude, analysing behaviour patterns, for example, to uncover social engineering scams. Behavioural insights can be used to inform new strategies and respond to attacks in real-time where other security controls have failed.   With large losses becoming increasingly publicised, and hence reputation brought into question, the industry must respond, and it is incumbent upon all players to collaborate and be proactive around accountability and prevention.   This research paper from Finextra, in association with BioCatch, explores the recent uptick in social engineering attacks globally, and how banks can respond using the latest technology and security measures.

223 downloads

Report

From Surviving to Thriving: Digital Customer Engagement beyond Video Conferencing

During the Covid-19 pandemic, and ensuing national lockdowns, one of the key challenges for financial services professionals involved in customer or client advisory has been ensuring a smooth digital migration – and that consumers are adequately served via video conferencing solutions. Now that the industry has largely adjusted to this ‘new normal’, it is time for those across the retail, private banking, and insurance sectors to think about how to further upscale their online customer journey, client service, and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes, by adopting an innovative, omnichannel, digital customer engagement solution. By providing easier online access to financial guidance and advice for existing clientele, financial players assume a more customer-centric approach, which can result in improved customer retention, increased revenues, and maintenance of marketshare. Download this Finextra impact study, in association with Unblu, to learn more.

206 downloads

Report

Responding to Lending Disruption

Building an ecosystem and new business models. The lending market has been ripe for disruption for some time - and now COVID-19 has exposed the laggards, brought innovators to the fore, and accelerated trends that were already in motion. The global pandemic also highlights just how important lending is – it is critical to keep the economy going - and how lenders need to be responsive in a crisis. Disrupters are making existing processes better (or revamping/replacing them altogether), creating new business models, and targeting new customer segments. In these unprecedented times, traditional lenders need to respond and future-proof their business. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. On the demand side, consumers now have higher expectations of their lenders. After months of lockdown and moving their lives online, consumers expect the same convenience from their lenders as they get with Amazon, Netflix or Zoom. The user experience should be slick, decisions quick, and delivery instant. As banks respond to the disruption in the lending market, and learn from the fintech companies that do this better, they will also have to adjust to the new normal of working remotely. All banks have had massive increases in customer queries as the effects of the pandemic have taken hold. In the UK, for example, the government introduced measures that meant individuals could take a payment holiday of up to six months on their mortgages and other personal finance products. Lenders were inundated with requests, and some found their legacy systems creaking at the seams. While some lenders have struggled, the pandemic is also providing opportunities for nimble plays. Fintech company Kabbage, for example, created a gift certificate programme to help small businesses with their cash flow to tide them over through the worst of the pandemic. Businesses can sell gift certificates through Kabbage Payments, which can be redeemed at any time, with the funds deposited in their accounts the next working day. Last year Kabbage announced a tie-up with Facebook so that businesses could get a wider audience for their certificates by listing them on the social media platform. Download your copy of this Finextra white paper, produced in association with FIS, to learn more.

605 downloads

Report

The Future of Payments 2021

The Road to Successful Digital Transformation. Every player that operates within the intricate ecosystem of financial services is at a tipping point. The pandemic deeply entrenched the digital agenda, especially for payments, and financial institutions recognise that the effects of Covid-19 are likely to have a permanent impact on the industry. Tink1 found that 74% of European banks see an increased need to enhance their digital services, and 65% believe that banks must increase their speed of innovation. This immense pressure to digitise is being played out across the globe, as regulators and industry bodies scramble to expedite timelines for the modernisation of payments systems. On top of this, technology firms and fintech startups have never been more innovative, leaping into action to capitalise on the opportunity the pandemic presented and shepherd financial services into the new digital world. Embedded finance is answering the demands of consumers, and incumbents are eager not to lose their footing by investing heavily to innovate and evolve. Open banking has taken hold in several jurisdictions, and in certain circumstances, is flourishing into the more expansive open finance. Ultimate success will depend on fundamental impediments such as incumbent banking cooperation, consent mechanisms, and concerns around privacy being managed or removed. Certainty around digital identity is predicted to bolster not only the momentum toward open finance, but to build on the capabilities required to deliver a central bank digital currency. 2020’s upheaval of brick-and-mortar retail led to the soaring uptake of e-commerce and a shift in payment trends, as contactless transactions became the norm. While the efficiencies of this new digital world have been exponential, criminal activity has naturally followed, and financial institutions are having to protect customers from sophisticated fraudsters. New forms of crypto assets further complicate the situation, especially as regulators attempt to balance the need to regulate alongside the need to foster innovation, all the while attempting to protect consumers from new forms of harm. The opportunities, however, are myriad in nature. The seemingly unquenchable appetite for the potential new technologies hold payments modernisation appears to be outpacing the historically risk-averse financial services sector. With expert views from Banking Circle, Nuvei, and Thunes, in this report, you will learn from industry leaders about the events and trends defining global payments into 2021 and beyond. The report includes insights from BNY Mellon, Citi, Deutsche Bank, ING, J.P. Morgan, Metro Bank, Nationwide Building Society, Open Banking Implementation Entity, Plaid, Rabobank, Raiffeisen Bank International, Société Générale, and SWIFT.

1436 downloads

Report

The advantage of Machine Learning in preventing fraud

Accurately identifying customer behavioural trends and proactively preventing payments fraud and other criminal activity at the outset can be done with machine learning. Ingesting tens of thousands of complex signals and analysing patterns to monitor activity is more effective than blocking transactions based on hard-coded and antiquated rules. Fraudsters can learn to circumvent these, and trusted users are put at risk, which is why embedded machine learning algorithms can be valuable. Download this Finextra impact study, in association with Sift, to learn about: Payments fraud and how machine learning is being leveraged today, Account takeover fraud, the biggest future threat to banks, and Synthetic ID fraud, the next opportunity for machine learning.

391 downloads

Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Valuing Nature: Better Assessing Financial Risk

A Visual Record from the Sustainable Finance Live workshops 11 - 12 May 2021. On 11 and 12 May 2021, Finextra and ResponsibleRisk brought together sustainable finance experts to discuss how financial services firms and technology companies can achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Debunking the myth that revenue cannot be generated through trustworthy implementation of ESG measures, this programme of interactive co-creation workshops targeted a number of sub-sectors within financial services, and spoke to the specific challenges and opportunities through a lean back, lean in and learn model. The event explored how providing investors with dynamic data can help define the impact on both natural capital assets and dependencies on ecosystem services. This will be crucial for the future of our planet. In his recent HM Treasury-commissioned review, ‘The Economics of Biodiversity’, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta stated that when considering this topic, it becomes a study in portfolio management, and we must approach it as asset managers. Today, nature is under-priced and under-valued. The best that each of us can achieve with our current portfolios will result in a collective failure. However, if biodiversity is viewed as a portfolio of natural assets, there will be increased resilience against the impact of shock. Download a Visual Record of the event below to find out more.

80 downloads

Report

Five Business Benefits for Analysing and Combatting Fraud

A Finextra Research Impact Study in association with Aerospike. With increased financing options at point-of-sale, card-not-present transactions, and contactless payments, comes a resultant surge in fraudulent transactions and financial crime. This increase in digital fraud has been catalysed by the recent Covid-19 pandemic-induced shift to online banking and commerce. Now more than ever, financial institutions must implement payments authentication processes to prevent the long-term risks associated with fraud, including slimming margins and reputational damage. One way financial players can stay ahead is to analyse all available historical and real-time data, and apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools – which encompass a range of algorithmic approaches that derive from statistical methods such as regressions and neural networks – to decipher legitimate transactions from the illegitimate. There are, however, five further business benefits to understanding customer risk profiles. Actionable insights derived from fraud profile analysis can help banks visualise each customer, not as a collection of disassociated data points, but as a mosaic, made up of different characteristics that merge to provide a comprehensive view. This can lead to complex, holistic, and predictive analysis of customers’ behaviour – generating consistent and tailored services. Download your copy of the paper below to learn more. 

218 downloads

Report

Fintech, ESG and IFCs: Embedding Sustainable Business Models

A Finextra Research Impact Study in association with Jersey Finance. While the landscape for financial services is currently being re-shaped by the twin trends of digital technology and the rapid rise of sustainable finance, leading international finance centres (IFCs), always nimble and adaptable, are seizing on the opportunities. Close analysis of these trends highlights an even more significant intersection at play with both these mega trends converging symbiotically, leading to fintech playing a part in the scaling up of sustainable finance, while the latter in turn accelerates innovation in fintech. Adoption of AI is improving the ability of financial service providers in leading jurisdictions, such as Jersey, to meet compliance needs, while also driving down process costs that might act as a barrier to sustainable finance. Equally, the growth in sustainable finance leads to greater demands for fintech solutions, adapted to the specific needs of IFCs. Evidence of these major trends and their impact on IFCs are included in the findings of this latest Finextra report, a study which Jersey Finance is pleased to support. As an IFC facilitating cross-border investment through our expertise in areas such as fund governance, fiduciary and administration for private wealth, we are focussed on enhancing our capabilities in the digital space, while sustainability is already integrated into our core offering. Furthermore, this symbiotic convergence is becoming a notable factor in firms’ service delivery within Jersey’s financial ecosystem. Firms such as Apex and IQEQ are tailoring their fund solutions to include new data-driven propositions, developing new tools that deploy the latest technologies to collect, evaluate and report ESG data. Sustainable finance solutions like this are seeing strong take-up by managers, keen to meet both the growing investor demands for transparency on the impact of their portfolios and to streamline their regulatory compliance under emerging frameworks, such as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR). It’s clear IFCs have a vital role to play during this global transition and leading jurisdictions such as Jersey, with long standing expertise in supporting cross-border capital flows and a flourishing fintech cluster, can call upon both these strengths as we gravitate to a more sustainable future. Download your copy of the paper below to learn more.

292 downloads

Report

The Cloud-native journey - Why Hybrid Cloud and Open Source go hand-in-hand

The financial services industry has been turning to cloud services and technology in droves to accommodate the pressures, security demands and cost savings of digital transformation projects, as well as regulatory compliance priorities. To become and remain agile, financial organisations must move beyond legacy practices, particularly when the speed of change in the industry is at such an all-time high and accelerating. Variants in cloud technology have quickly emerged leaving financial services organisations with choices far beyond mere public cloud solutions. Security and availability demands have led many institutions to continue to rely on private cloud deployments- those within the organisation’s security perimeter or firewall. While at the same time, managed cloud services and Software-as-a-Service options have increased the number of public clouds organisations are using. Other factors such as regulatory requirements mean financial services firms need to not only keep certain data within a certain geographical location but also should review the risk associated with relying on only a single cloud provider. Compounding the regulatory challenges, the advancements and innovations around 5G and IoT are leading to new levels of edge computing, with corresponding cloud requirements. As a result of this proliferation and the arising complexity from multiple clouds, as well as the need to have enterprise-wide management thereof, banks and FIs have needed to move away from a single cloud strategy and utilise a hybrid cloud and platform approach and a cloud-native mindset. From a business, security, risk and operational standpoint, the stakes have simply become too high not to be hybrid. Download your copy of this Finextra white paper, produced in association with Red Hat, to learn more.

321 downloads

Report

Sustainable Finance Live - Reimagining Risk Modelling ESG Solutions

A Visual Record from the Sustainable Finance Live workshops 8-9 December 2020. Debunking the myth that revenue cannot be generated through trustworthy implementation of ESG measures, this co-creation event focused on real-time forward-looking measurement of climate change and nature loss to address transitional and physical risk, following a lean back, lean in and learn by doing model. The workshop detailed how alternative data from sources such as satellites and sensors can augment traditional risk systems and provide insights for the future of sustainable financing. Diving deep into the practical challenges of risk management, the sessions considered using alternative data to inform credit decisions, with speakers providing advice on how to embrace sustainable finance. The interactive forum welcomed a set of cross-functional skills from individuals spanning the technology, business and finance sectors. Initially taking a generalised approach to understand reporting across ESG finance sectors, it became apparent that specific use cases were needed. Richard Peers, founder of ResponsibleRisk and contributing editor for Finextra Research, outlined the key questions for the event: What are the issues and opportunities for risk management working with alternative data to inform credit decisions? How can these decisions be quantified against physical and transition risk? With a top-down approach, a clear focus of the sustainability components and trying to infer the process of assessing the following, the workshop focused on: Using alternative data to inform physical and transition risk How satellite and sensor data can provide insights for investment and governance professionals Plotting the steps to resolution of existing problems and mainstream use of data Identifying how to prevent lack of proper pricing of ESG risk   Download the full report below to find out more.

72 downloads

Report

Adapting to a shifting Cards Landscape

Identifying opportunities for Issuers. The payment cards industry has changed dramatically in recent years, with new technologies and regulations spurring innovation and lowering the barriers to entry for issuers. Meanwhile, there has been a shift to digital payments, which has created opportunities for bank and non-bank issuers alike. Card payment volumes have been growing, and the world’s standout region is Asia Pacific. China is the star performer, and the number of cards in issue is staggering. And while digital wallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay have pushed the growth of mobile payments in China, cards have a key role to play. Similarly, in Africa, where mobile money services like mPesa have been hugely popular, there is still a role for payment cards in the rapidly developing markets.  Cards are also in demand in other regions. In Europe, the most recent figures from the European Central Bank show an increase in the number of payment cards issued. So far, there has been a reported shift to digital payments in various markets, such as the Middle East, and even the least internet-savvy consumers have changed their spending habits and are now shopping online. In the physical world, contactless - both on smartphones and cards - has been successful in providing convenience for cardholders in stores. Additional innovations have attempted to make it even easier for customers to tap and go.  Card programmes have become increasingly cost-effective, especially for issuers who are unencumbered by legacy systems. With on-demand digital printing, for example, cards can be personalised and issuers can order a smaller print run for smaller customer segments as they are needed – such as fans of a football club – rather than committing to a large batch upfront. Download your copy of this Finextra white paper, produced in association with FIS, to learn more.  

626 downloads