Latest reports and research: Finextra Research

Report

Data-First Transformation in HR: The Value Proposition of Implementing Compensation Technology

Wholesale digital transformation is the new norm in financial services. It will stay this way too, as organisations need to become agile, continually morphing and transforming in line with more sophisticated data management as well as frequent regulatory updates and iterations. In terms of operations and, more specifically, HR, banks can analyse data on employees to optimise business functions, better attract and engage top performers, and improve productivity in the same way that they leverage customer behavioural analytics to improve products and services. Holistic capturing of data can inform and fuel all manner of cultural transformation. With a greater view and better management of staff compensation across an organisation, a light can be shone on any pay inequalities, for example. Thus, diversity issues can be addressed and eradicated. Manual processes, heavily reliant on spreadsheets, are overdue for transformation, and greater understanding of rewards strategy and history alongside a better understanding of employees can strengthen and promote a stronger business ethos and brand and help attract the best talent. In this way, data-fuelled technology to improve compensation management can yield wider benefits to the business, and with a simplified and agile data management system, schemes of equal and greater complexity can be supported. Download the full paper to find out more.

30 September 2019 165 downloads

Report

Payments Transformation: Building a Vision Which is Instant, Seamless and Secure

2019 marks the 5th edition of the annual Fiserv and Finextra global payments survey. Since the 1st edition in 2015 the change, and the increasing pace and scale of change has been the consistent characteristic of the payments landscape, whether at a central infrastructure level or that of individual providers, all driven by rapidly changing customer expectations. As in previous years, the survey was undertaken online during the summer of 2019, garnering responses from senior executives at banks and financial institutions globally. The requirement to move money instantly, seamlessly and securely is now clearly understood. The ability of the payments industry, however, to deliver on that expectation is still very much a ‘work in progress’. Increasing the speed of moving money is a marathon, not a sprint and will take some years for the technical challenges and commercial benefits to be comprehensively worked out. This year we found a strong alignment of views across strategy and opportunities. The findings highlight again the extent to which the payments landscape remains dynamic and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Download the paper to read the results.

23 September 2019 1218 downloads

Report

AI, Open Banking and Client Lifecycle Management – Differentiation Opportunities Abound

In mid-2019 Finextra and Pega conducted an online survey of senior business and technology managers from 27 countries, representing 54 financial institutions and fintechs, on the impact of AI and open banking on their strategies for onboarding, KYC and client lifecycle management. This survey sought to gauge the current perception in the market of AI’s current use and suitability, and potential benefits and challenges, for implementation in the areas of onboarding, KYC and Client Lifecycle Management. It also asked questions to evaluate where open banking provides opportunities for growing market share and revenue growth, and to what extent it complicates onboarding and regulatory compliance processes. Download the paper now to read the results.

20 September 2019 886 downloads

Report

The Future of AI: Applications for banking business transformation

While artificial intelligence has established itself as a disruptive technology for decades, AI is at the peak of the hype cycle now and banks have started to apply this technology to transform traditional models of businesses. However, being a multi-faceted technology, financial institutions must decipher whether it is machine learning, robotics, deep learning, business intelligence, natural language processing or algorithms that are the most beneficial. While some banks launch chatbot applications and virtual assistants, others do not have the talent within the business to deploy innovative products that are personalised for their customers, and an even smaller number do not understand the value of AI. Finextra’s The Future of Artificial Intelligence 2019 report will explore how the financial services industry can leverage tried and tested experiments of AI in other industries to transform how transaction services can be reshaped. The report looks at how machine learning, deep learning and robotics could benefit banks and could improve customer experience and security, aligning decision-making factors with ethics to improve how a financial institution operates.

16 August 2019 858 downloads

Report

Top Global Banking Technology Trends

Against the backdrop of an increasingly digital world, banks are facing growing competition, in many cases from non-traditional players, which puts greater emphasis on the need to innovate whilst simultaneously transforming their businesses- all the while keeping an eye on the bottom line. The effect of these imperatives on banks’ IT systems, infrastructure as well as go-to-market strategy is further complicated by regulatory compliance – particularly around opening-up market access to enable greater competition, eg. KYC, AML, PSD2. This research paper produced by Finextra, in association with Virtusa, examines and analyses how banks are responding to these significant changes in their market by identifying the top 10 banking technology trends for 2019.

14 August 2019 1396 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

Interconnection and the speed of change in the Nordics

There has been a consistent focus on digital transformation within the Nordic traditional financial services industry. This paper, produced by Finextra in association with Equinix, explores how interconnection and collaboration can help banks successfully navigate digital transformation and secure competitive advantage within the Nordics, and indeed any banking ecosystem. In 2018, through an online survey of over 100 expert financial services professionals, and a series of one-to-one interviews with senior bankers, our previous paper laid out key issues and opportunities faced by banks over the next five years. This paper builds on this survey to examine why the Nordic region is unique and how the area has embraced digital innovation, while also maintaining traditional banking ideals. It will also point to where challenger banks stand in the Nordics, how this relationship will play out and how the data conundrum is being dealt with amid the wave of digital payments.

23 July 2019 410 downloads

Report

Utilising AI to Prevent Financial Crime

The convergence of open banking, data protection regulation, digitalisation of services and advancement of technology and artificial intelligence has caused profound and prolific changes to the financial services industry. It has also opened new doors and fresh opportunity for fraudsters, who are equally taking advantage of new technologies and the reams of data that now exists in the banking ecosphere. Keeping transactions secure as financial organisations move into a world of open banking is a race that gets faster by the launch of a new banking API. Risk management, cyber security and fraud strategists need to collaborate to stay ahead of the competition, while addressing the needs of the new digital customer, which includes the hefty task of protecting their data. Questions about liability in multi-party transactions and ever-increasing systems and protocols abound, as businesses transform to an end-state not yet known. New attack vectors in transactions and account opening come to the fore on a daily basis. How can banks utilise Machine Learning (ML) and AI in the fight against fraud in this real-time and fully digital marketplace With the emergence of open source technology, is there scope for data sharing to arm organisations with real-time information and anomaly detection? Could business functions communicate better internally to support the fight against fraud? This research paper by Finextra, in association with Feedzai, gathers the views of several senior data science and fraud experts from across the financial services industry on how to tackle fraud with AI as open banking and digitalisation continue to evolve.

09 May 2019 456 downloads

Report

UK Open Banking APIs Performance Analysis: 2018

The report examines the performance of the UK's CMA9 group of Open Banking APIs in 2018. The purpose of the report is to establish a methodology and benchmarks for measuring API performance. With a wave of API-based services and business models transforming financial services in many markets, the dependency on service quality of APIs will become critical to banks, fintechs and, most importantly, to both consumers and business customers. The 28 page report details the API performance of 11 major UK banks across a variety of technical performance measures through 2018. The report includes APImetrics proprietary Cloud API Service Consistency (CASC) scores for all 11 banks. CASC scores are derived using APImetrics active monitoring platform, which gathers data from up to 75 locations worldwide on four clouds. Additionally, the report details the comparative performance of AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. The report is researched and written by the consulting team at APImetrics and published in partnership with Finextra Research.

03 May 2019 904 downloads

Report

Could a Unified Approach to Digital Identity Disrupt the Banking Industry?

Digital identity - the body of information or unique identifiers and user patterns that detect individuals online and on their devices – could become the most valuable commodity for the citizens of the future, said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt back in 2013. It is also a source of both huge opportunities and significant challenges for banks and other financial institutions. Banks must ensure they are able to correctly verify identities, have control over how the information is used and ensure that they provide the right service to the right person in the right context. But should banks be able to meet these challenges, the benefits are clear – greater volumes of customer participation and transactions, the ability to generate and access huge volumes of data, and the chance to create a more seamless and intuitive customer experience. Could a unified approach to digital identity disrupt the banking industry? And could it also be the key to enhancing the customer experience? This research paper, produced by Finextra, in association with Ping Identity, seeks to address these questions and more, by speaking to the identity managers at leading institutions for their views and bringing to the fore a major aspect of the change afoot within the global banking industry.

02 May 2019 606 downloads

Report

The Missing Link in Re-Mapping Ecosystems

What are the issues for fintechs or challenger banks straddling the constraints and opportunities of PSD2 and the opening of the retail banking market? Fintechs, who have been given an open goal in the wake of PSD2 have their work cut out to align themselves to large financial organisations in order to make the most of the opportunities afforded. When the end state is not known, and there is a dearth of clear examples of ecosystems in which banks, corporates and smaller third parties can come together, it poses a very difficult challenge to get it right. At an exclusive roundtable hosted by Finextra in association with EPAM, prototyping language was one key mistake highlighted by a delegate on the part of fintechs looking to connect and partner with large banks. The example given, which was not the first of its kind, was that the prototyping language is a potentially overlooked point of failure. Neither robust, sustainable nor repeatable, it signalled an early death knell for any future potential. Download the full paper to find out more.

10 April 2019 419 downloads

Report

The Future of Personal Identity

2018 saw the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across the European Union and European Economic Area and subsequently in the UK, a new version of the Data Protection Act (DPA) was enacted. Despite this new wave of regulation, lack of security in new technology may call for yet more standards in the future. Technology providers, financial institutions and governments are all being closely scrutinised following a year of substantial data breaches and compromises of trust. Most notably the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal, has resulted in the marketplaces in the US and UK looking to learn about best practices and innovation from other countries. This report on The Future of Personal Identity analyses the advantages and disadvantages of private, public and federated identification systems and whether industry leaders believe that banks are in the best position to provide trusted authentication services.

18 March 2019 534 downloads

Report

Key Drivers, Emerging Trends and Developments in Corporate Banking

In seeking to serve the ever-evolving and increasingly global needs of their corporate customers banks face a diverse and complex set of challenges. At the heart of these is the issue of how banks can remain relevant to their clients in a world in which their regulators are opening banking to new competitors who are both agile and powered by the latest technologies. The response of banks to these challenges is the adoption of a new and transformative approach, focused on supporting their corporate clients on an end-to-end basis on all their customer journeys. Through the development of new financial ecosystems supported by innovative new capabilities (such as Virtual Accounts, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain) banks seek to give their clients speedy access to the information, insight, cash and credit they need to maximise the efficiency of their business operations on a global basis. In developing their strategic responses banks are increasingly moving away from their legacy approach to IT development based on a combination of inhouse build and / or purchase from traditional vendors, toward partnering with often relatively small specialist fintech providers. This research paper produced by Finextra, in association with Oracle, analyses these key market drivers and emerging trends and developments, bringing to the fore major aspects of the transformation of corporate banking.

11 March 2019 664 downloads

Report

Cyber Security in Financial Services: Orchestrating the Best Defence in an Evolving Threat Landscape

Data, IT and business security have always been paramount for financial organisations. But in an increasingly digitised world, more data is being produced faster than ever. Financial organisations are encouraged to share customer data while at the same time being expected to safeguard it with progressively stronger measures. Data they are responsible for often resides outside their organisation and can be accessed by a multitude of systems and devices. In 2018 the World Economic Forum (WEF) surveyed more than 12,000 executives around the world about what they considered to be the biggest risks to doing business, ranging across political, societal and technological concerns. Cyber-attacks were considered the number one risk by executives in Europe and advanced economies. Financial Services has been, and continues to be, a targeted sector, and cybercrime is becoming sophisticated on an industrial scale. A more strategic and wholesale approach needs to be adopted industry-wide to fend off the threat, particularly as detection and response times are increasing. Download this new paper by Finexra and ServiceNow to find out more.

27 February 2019 444 downloads

Report

Roundtable insights

Finextra Research, Finastra and Microsoft held exclusive breakfast roundtables in Munich, Paris and Stockholm which explored how the payment sector is developing payment services to the corporate and retail markets. The discussions, held under Chatham House Rule, explored how factors such as instant payments, open banking, fintechs and payments infrastructure are impacting banks and how banks can compete and remain relevant. Download the paper to learn: How factors such as instant payments can disrupt fintech, and whether the German banking sector can adapt to the European pace of development. How open banking, immediate payments and fintech disruption are impacting banks in the Nordics, where the rapid pace of development is leading the industry. Future requirements for customers, how cloud technologies can lead to new business models, and how banks can compete

06 February 2019 627 downloads