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Compliance supplementIn-depth look at regulatory compliance
and technology innovation
A good fit?We examine the drivers for the
adoption of biometrics in banking
2014 FStech AwardsBarclays, RBS, Misys and Fiserv
among those shortlisted
February 2014 edition
FStech looks at the issues and technologies set to make their mark in 2014
Hot right now
Formerly FST - the leading audited business title for UK financial services technology decision makers
FStechFStech
Online: www.fstech.co.uk
Twitter: @FStechnology
Blog: www.fstechnology.blogspot.com
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20 The next steps
FStech brings you 14 FS technology predictions for the year
ahead, taking in the likes of the mobile revolution, Bitcoin,
payments and social customers
24 A good fit?
Glynn Davis takes a look at the drivers for the adoption of
biometrics in the banking sector
38 Hot right now
Scott Thompson reviews the Fintech Insight 2014 report, in
which FinTech analysts and influencers provide viewpoints into
the issues and technologies set to make their mark in 2014,
those on the wane, and those still to deliver
EditorScott Thompson
Email: [email protected]
Contributing WritersDavid Adams, Glynn Davis, Paul Golden, Liz Morrell, Hannah Prevett, Francis Stokes
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Retail bankingIn-depth supplement looking at mobile,
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FStech takes a look at the year’s most importantFS technology-related developments
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Scott Thompson is Editor of FStech. His blog on all things FS tech can be found at: www.fstechnology.blogspot.com. He can be contacted at: [email protected]
2014 will be more of the same; IT glitches, poor customer service and negative headlines etc etc. Yes, there will be a number of interest-ing technology develop-ments in 2014, particu-larly in the payments arena, but what will really change this year compared with 2013? Very little, I fear
Just another yearWith 2014 in full flow, Scott Thompson looks for reasons to be cheer-
ful but it’s all a bit of a struggle
Welcome, dear readers, to the first
FStech of 2014. Christmas is now but
a distant memory. Torrential rain is
sweeping the country as I write this and the
optimism that comes hand in hand with a new
year has well and truly vanished. In the banking
world, all the talk of a shiny, happy new sector
emerging from the ashes of the financial crisis
looks to have been misguided. 2014 will be more
of the same; IT glitches, poor customer service
and negative headlines etc etc. Yes, there will be
a number of interesting technology developments
in 2014, particularly in the payments arena, but
what will really change this year compared with
2013? Very little, I fear. A gloomy introduction, I
know; one that was sparked by recent events and
off the record conversations with senior industry
figures. First up, the year kicked off with the
news that the Co-operative Bank is to be
investigated by both the FCA and PRA for its £1.5
billion capital shortfall. Groan. Secondly, we were
only two days in to January when we got the first
IT failure of the year as NatWest and RBS
customers were unable to pay by card at Tesco’s
petrol stations; those shoppers using the retailer’s
pay at pump feature found that their PINs were
not accepted.
It’s not the first time RBS has been in the news
for card-related issues. Many UK online retailers
were affected by an RBS IT glitch on Mega
Monday (2 December) as customers were unable
to make payments, although the bank insisted
that this latest issue was down to a fault with
Tesco’s technology. It may well have been a
problem at the retailer’s end but nonetheless the
mainstream media saw fit to report it along the
lines of, RBS in yet another balls up.
Also rather depressing was a report in The
Guardian, claiming that more than 300,000 of
Britain’s poorest people live at least 1km from a
free-to-use cash machine and face a fee ranging
from 75p to £10 to withdraw money via an ATM.
The Labour MP Frank Field, an adviser to the
government on tackling poverty, told the paper it
was “time to take the gloves off with the
industry, as soft reasoning has not worked...
Getting the poor to pay for the privilege of taking
out their own money is a grotesque practice,
which should end immediately.” I don’t often
agree with politicians but the man has a point.
The main players have washed their hands of any
responsibility here. And that just adds fuel to the
banker bashing fire. To quote a Guardian reader
who responded online to the ATMs story: ‘Not
being able to access your cash when you are
hard-up, or having to pay £1.75 every time you
do, is social isolation and marginalisation. Being
in that position as a result of deliberate red-lining
by retail banks is discrimination.’
RBS chief executive Ross McEwan apologised
to those RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers
who couldn’t make online and card payments on
Mega Monday. “The systems failure was
unacceptable. Monday was a busy shopping day
and far too many of our customers were let
down, unable to make purchases and withdraw
cash,” he said. “For decades, RBS failed to invest
properly in its systems. We need to put our
customers’ needs at the centre of all we do. It will
take time, but we are investing heavily in building
IT systems our customers can rely on.”
All of which sounds great, but right now it’s
just words, of little comfort to beleagured
customers and the financially excluded being
driven into the arms of Wonga et al. One of my
contacts recently said to me: “The banks who
took bail out money are busy positioning
themselves as customer centric organisations, but
wait until they get away from the government;
that will all quickly change.”
Harold Wilson once quipped: “I’m an optimist,
but an optimist who carries a raincoat.” The
optimist in me wants my contact’s theory to be
way off. “We need to put our customers’ needs
at the centre of all we do.” The banks should
have been doing that all along but, hey, at least
there’s a recognition that the status quo have
been taking their customers for granted for way
too long. The optimist in me who carries a
raincoat, however, looks back to the financial
crisis and the lack of progress since then and
thinks, the more things change, the more they
stay the same. Ah well...We can but hope that
better days are ahead and when I come to write
my end of year review piece I do so while eating
a large slice of humble pie.
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 0 5
E d i t o R ’ s c o m m E n t
need to know
P A G E 0 6 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
n E w s o v E R v i E w
DECEMBER
Bank robbing ain’t what it used to
be...Robberies in British banks have
fallen by more than 90 per cent in less
than two decades, the British Bankers
Association reports. There were 66
such incidents in 2011, down from
847 in 1992. The decline is being
attributed in part to the use of
technology, such as CCTV cameras, as
well as screens to protect staff and
specialist fog to disperse criminals.
Also, branches are holding less cash
and time-delay safes ensure that staff
have access to less money. There is
closer co-operation between banks,
the police, post offices and other
victims to share information about
armed gangs. And better training to
ensure staff are well prepared to
handle robberies.
Anthony Browne, chief executive of
the BBA, said: “Banks are working
hard to confine armed robberies to
the world of TV dramas. Being caught
up in a bank job is a terrifying ordeal
for staff and customers that can scar
lives for decades. It’s great to see that
the number of these crimes have
fallen sharply in recent years. Anyone
trying to rob a bank now faces much
better CCTV, protective screens that
can rise in less than a second and even
special fog designed to disperse
criminals. Banks will continue to work
closely with eachother, post offices
and the police to make such raids a
thing of the past.”
The new current account switching
service has had a decent if
unspectacular first few months.
Tracking research by the Payments
Council shows that people in the UK
are becoming increasingly aware of
the service, helping to contribute to
switching levels for the last quarter of
2013 rising 17 per cent year-on-year.
The organisation’s first ‘dashboard’
covers the period from service launch
on 16 September to the end of
December and provides detail on:
customer awareness of the service;
customer confidence in it; and service
performance. The findings show that
by December 59 per cent of the
general public were aware of the
offering. This was achieved with the
help of the first phase of a national TV,
radio and print advertising campaign
which kicked off at launch alongside
many individual providers’ own
campaigns. A second burst of
advertising began on New Year’s Day
and is scheduled to run until March.
Fifty eight per cent of people,
meanwhile, are confident in how the
new service works, with three-
quarters of us thinking it would be
quick and easy to switch a current
account from one bank or building
society to another. During the last
quarter of 2013 there were 306,240
switches. There were 83,729 switches
in December 2013, a 54 per cent
increase on the same month in 2012
when there were 54,329.
JANUARY
Research published by Genpact
revealed a tangible shift in personal
banking preferences in Britain. A
survey of 2,337 adults, conducted by
YouGov, showed that 64 per cent of
people online who hold a current
account with a bank or building
society would prefer to conduct their
banking online or via a mobile
application compared to just 29 per
cent who prefer telephone or
in-branch banking.
Twenty nine per cent, meanwhile,
had not used their bank’s call centre
service. Hugh Morris, Genpact’s vice
president of Banking, FS and
Insurance, Europe, said: “This survey
is a clear signal that the industry must
change its approach and begin to
direct resources away from call centres
and branches and towards better,
more effective facilities for customers
to do their own banking. It shows
unequivocally that consumers are
moving away from the ‘branch and
telephone banking’ model and
demanding a more ‘virtual banking’
services model.” The research
suggests consumers are driving the
rise of the virtual bank as they demand
faster banking and better interaction
with their bank, a trend that is
predictably led by the internet
generation of 25-34 year-olds. This
band of technology savvy ‘Generation
Y’ is the most likely to prefer banking
online or via a mobile application (75
Rounding up the major FS tech-related stories from the last two months
new
s o
verv
iew
Expansion plans: Metro Bank.
n E w s o v E R v i E w
per cent) and the least likely to prefer
to visit a branch (11 per cent). Current
telephone and in-branch banking
delivery services are viewed as being
analogue processes in a digital world.
These are associated with waiting,
whether in a queue or on hold, and
seen as cumbersome and time
consuming.
Metro Bank announced that it had
raised £387.5 million from private
investors and institutions to fund its
expansion plans. It is delaying plans to
float on the London stock exchange
until 2016, following strong interest
from both private investors and
institutions. Vernon W. Hill, founder
and chairman, commented: “The
revolution in British banking continues,
with strong investor support from
existing and new investors, who
believe in the Metro Bank growth
model.” It sold the common stock at
a share price that was 30 per cent
higher than at its previous capital
raising in June 2012, with the deal
bringing the total amount raised by
the bank so far to £641 million.
Launched in July 2010, the venture
now has more than 280,000 business
and personal customer accounts, and
opened its 25th store on Friday, 17
January in Milton Keynes. Store
expansion across London and the
South East remains central to its
growth plans, with up to 12 more
pencilled in for 2014, and an
additional 500 jobs to be created.
Tech spending by North American
banks will grow from $56.9 billion in
2013 to $59.5 billion in 2014.
According to Celent, there is strong
growth in retail banking spending; key
priorities include the monetisation of
digital channels, enhancements to the
user experience, and omnichannel
sales and service endeavours.
Spending on wholesale banking will
also continue to climb, particularly as
midsize banks look at upgrading
aging cash and treasury management
solutions. “The good news is that new
investment spending is skyrocketing
and that maintenance allocations are
on the decline,” says Celent’s Jacob
Jegher. “It’s still quite challenging to
get projects funded, however. Projects
are encouraged but highly scrutinised,
and they come with the requirement
of a fast return on investment.”
Many Lloyds Banking Group customers
were unable to use ATMs and debit
cards on Sunday, 26 January. Problems
with its IT servers affected debit card
transactions for the Halifax, Lloyds,
Bank of Scotland and TSB brands. The
chief executive of TSB, Paul Pester,
took to Twitter and replied to several
peeved customers personally. He said:
‘My apologies to TSB customers
having problems with their cards. I’m
working hard with my team now to
try to fix the problems. PDP.’
In a statement, Lloyds Banking
Group commented: “We apologise
that earlier today, between 3pm and
6pm, some customers were unable to
complete their debit card transactions.
Although the majority of transactions
were unaffected, we are very sorry for
the inconvenience that this will have
caused. At the same time, some
customers encountered problems at
approximately half of our 7,000 ATMs.
This was resolved by 7.30pm, and all
of our ATMs are now working.”
The move by Republicans to champion
the repeal of the Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act (FATCA) is a step in
the direction of common sense.
That’s according to the boss of
one of the world’s largest independent
financial advisory organisations. Nigel
Green, the founder and chief
executive of deVere Group, made his
comments in the wake of the
Republican National Committee (RNC)
voting Friday, 24 January to adopt a
resolution to repeal the US law. He
said: “I hope that this heralds the start
of the critical review that FATCA
should have already been subject to,
which has not taken place to date;
plus the start of a national and
international conversation on this
immensely important issue – again
something, that has to date not yet
taken place.”
Green added: “The Republicans’
bold stance is part of a groundswell of
anti-FATCA feeling in Washington and
beyond and, to my mind, it represents
real progress in the fightback against
a law that has a host of serious
unintended adverse consequences.
FATCA is hugely expensive to
implement (costs that will surely be
passed on to the public) and highly
ineffective. It will do little, if anything
at all, to tackle the serious challenge
of offshore tax evasion as it does not
actively target tax cheats. Instead it
relies upon a ‘dragnet approach’ to
haul in the personal financial
information of millions of ordinary
Americans – the vast majority of
whom are not suspected of owing
taxes – on the off chance they happen
across some illegally hidden assets. All
Americans should be concerned about
FATCA because it will reduce foreign
investment in the US thereby
threatening American jobs, fuel the
likelihood of tax hikes, increase
consumer costs for dealings with
banks and other financial institutions,
potentially damage important
international trade relations, and it
will (and already is) turning American
citizens who live and/or work outside
the US, and American firms operating
globally, into financial pariahs.”
The RNC’s vote to back a FATCA
repeal follows Senator Rand Paul’s
opposition last year when he
introduced legislation, citing privacy
concerns, to have parts of the law
scrapped. FATCA, which the Obama
administration intends to implement
from 1 July, requires financial
institutions to report all their American
clients’ financial activities directly to
the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS),
or be subject to a 30 per cent
withholding tax.
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 0 7
n e w s
P A G e 0 8 F e B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
The Awards will take place on Thursday, 27
March at the London Lancaster Hotel.
Now into its 14th year, the event
recognises excellence and innovation in the field
of information technology within the UK and
EMEA financial services sector. Scott Thompson,
Editor, FStech comments: “Congratulations to
all the shortlisted companies. Competition has
been particularly fierce this year. Once again
there are many great examples of cutting edge
technology suppliers and financial institutions
making innovative and effective use of
technology in various pockets of the sector. I’m
looking forward to meeting with the judges to
decide the winners and to the big night in
March.”
There follows a selection of categories and
shortlisted companies. For a full list, visit: www.
fstech.co.uk/awards.
Best Use of Social Media
Friends Life
LMAX Exchange
Social Advisors
Best Use of IT in Retail Banking
Barclays Bank
Co-operative Bank of Kenya/Misys
Lloyds Banking Group
Nationwide Building Society/IPL
Nationwide Building Society/IRESS UK
Best Use of IT in Wholesale & Investment
Banking
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Trade Pro)
Deutsche Bank
GE Capital UK
Investec Asset Management
Nutmeg.com
UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions/Splunk
Best Trading System
Deutsche Bank
MahiFX
Maybank Group/Misys
Portware
Best Use of IT in Insurance
Achmea Insurance/BlackLine Systems
Exeter Family Friendly
LV=
Best Use of Technology in
Customer Service
Barclays/BT
Barclays Bank (SmartCall)
Deutsche Bank
LV=
Santander/Vizolution
TEB SME Banking Group
Best Use of Online Services
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
LV=
Nutmeg.com
Standard Chartered Bank (China)
Swissquote Bank/Temenos
Unity Trust Bank
Best Use of Mobile
Bank of the West/Fiserv
Barclays (MyDevice)
Barclays Bank
Deutsche Bank (Mobile Platform)
Global Payments/Intuit
RBS/Monitise/Visa Europe
Societe Generale
Thomson Reuters
FStech Awards: shortlist announced• LV= home insurance has
implemented Xactware’s claims-
estimating solution. LV= desk
adjusters are using it to scope,
estimate and settle property losses
from the office. This has enabled it
to improve claims efficiency and
deliver better service to its
customers. LV= is also using the
solution in concert with members of
its supply chain.
• Hastings Direct is rolling out
Eptica’s multi-channel customer
service platform. The company will
use it to centralise knowledge and
make it available across email,
telephone and web self-service
channels. Initial implementation
commenced in December.
• BLME (Bank of London and The
Middle East), the largest Sharia’a
compliant bank in Europe, has
selected ClusterSeven’s Enterprise
Spreadsheet Management (ESM)
software. It will utilise this to provide
control for its key business
spreadsheets and the data they
manipulate.
• The Gores Group has made an
undisclosed investment in Natterbox,
a UK company specialising in mobile
and voice intelligence. The venture’s
mobile voice recording product
offers compliance with the growing
global regulations in the financial
services sector.
• LMAX Exchange is to become the
first regulated MTF to list Ven,
enabling brokers, institutions and
banks to trade the digital currency.
David Mercer, CEO at LMAX
Exchange, says: “Ven is already used
for real goods and services but this
is a major step forward in the
development of virtual currencies in
that listing on LMAX Exchange
makes it a tradable currency.”
i n B R i e F
Barclays, Nationwide Building Society, RBS, Lloyds Banking
Group, Fiserv, BT and Misys are among the companies
shortlisted for the 2014 FStech Awards
Biggest and best yet: 2013 FStech Awards.
F e B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G e 0 9
Anti-fraud/Security Strategy of the Year
Ally Bank
Barclaycard
Garanti Bank/FICO
Nationwide Building Society/SAS
VEN/ValidSoft
Outsourcing Partnership of the Year
Credit Suisse/BT
Coller Capital/DataArt
National Australia Group Europe
National Savings & Investments/Atos
Tiaa-Henderson Real Estate/Telstra Global
USS/Civica
Payments Innovation of the Year
European Payment Services
i-movo
Nordea Bank/Misys
Paylib Services
Syniverse
The Currency Cloud
Ukash
Unity Trust Bank
Virtual Piggy
WorldPay
IT Team of the Year
Citi
Deutsche Bank
Exeter Family Friendly
Lloyds Banking Group
LV= CIO department
National Australia Group Europe
Cloud Computing Innovation
of the Year
Bank of America
BFA Bank/Diasoft
BlackLine Systems
Mambu
Workshare
Risk Management Software of the Year
Aon Benfield
Acclimatise
Fiserv
OpenGamma
Quantifi
SIX Swiss Exchange
TeleWare
TM Group
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
Xactium
Most Innovative Product of the Year
Adaptiva
ACI Worldwide
FircoSoft
Fluency Solutions
Landmark Information Group
Platform Black
SanDisk
SunGard Financial Systems
Tarmin
Technology Provider of the Year
Cinnober Financial Technology
Eze Castle Integration
Fixnetix
MarketsPulse
MphasiS
Perforce Software
Phoebus Software
PROFILE Software
S&P Capital IQ Real-Time Solutions
Sentronex
Online/Mobile Technology Provider
AirWatch
Arxan Technologies
BlackLine Systems
CurrencyFair
Distribution Technology
MarketInvoice
Monitise
Quintessential Finance Group
Seven Investment Management
Truphone
Most Disruptive Financial
Sector Technology
Acquis Exhange
BATS Chi-X Europe
Citicom Solutions (UK)
Mambu
miiCard
NetPay
smartTrade Technologies
Tradable
TransferGo
Vizolution
Zapp
ZNAP
• Legal & General Network has
chosen Intelliflo’s Intelligent Office as
the new PoS solution for its
Appointed Representatives and
Directly Authorised members. Five of
L&G’s partner firms have been
involved in the development of this
project, to ensure that the solution
and the training required exactly fits
the needs of L&G’s distributors. The
move follows a roll-out of the
system to their wealth sellers.
• Nine out of ten of senior financial
executives questioned for KPMG’s
Global Anti-Money Laundering
Survey said that money laundering
issues are back at the top of the
agenda in their organisation. And
84 per cent now consider it to be a
major concern within their business
risk assessment.
• Barclays has denied media reports
that it is set to close a quarter of its
High Street branches. A
spokesperson says: “Increasing use
of technology is changing the way
in which customers choose to do
their banking and creates
opportunities for Barclays to offer
services in new ways,
complementing the branch network.
Whilst it is inevitable that there will
be speculation about how these
changes will impact on the branch
network, this will be driven by the
needs of our customers and,
therefore, there is not a target for a
number of branches to be closed,
nor a timeframe for such action.”
• Lloyds Bank has joined Tradition’s
Trad-X, a platform for the trading of
global interest rates swaps, as a
founder participant. Daniel Marcus,
CEO of Trad-X, comments: “As one
of the leading GBP banks, Lloyds will
add further quality liquidity, as well
as product expertise and input in the
development of our nascent GBP
hybrid platform.”
i n B R i e F
p a y m e n t s n e w s
p a G e 1 0 F e B R U a R y 2 0 1 4
RBS, Lloyds and Barclays (which has already
rolled out its Pingit mobile payments
offering) are notable absentees.
Nonetheless, getting five banks onboard at this
stage is pretty good going. The aforementioned
banks line up alongside WorldPay, Optimal
Payments, Realex and SagePay, working
together to prepare the roll-out of Zapp
payments to customers, merchants and
businesses in 2014. Together this group
represents over a third of all UK bank accounts
with 60 per cent of UK merchants being able to
take advantage of the service. And Zapp says it
will continue to recruit new members
throughout the year. Peter Keenan, chief
executive at Zapp, says “I am truly excited to
announce our lead financial institution partners:
HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and
Metro Bank. Together with our already
announced acquirer partnerships, we will go to
market with real scale offering simpler, more
secure and efficient payments to millions of
customers and businesses. I am delighted that
these financial institutions and acquirers have
chosen to innovate to deliver value to their
customers, lead the market and deliver huge
benefit to the UK economy.”
Zapp has been set up by VocaLink; it bypasses
the card networks and is powered by the Faster
Payments service. It does not require a
standalone app, instead offering real-time
payments on consumers’ phones through their
existing mobile banking application. Zapp says it
will charge a transaction fee that is a “fraction”
of the two to three per cent fee PayPal charges.
It works through secure digital “tokens”, which
mean customers don’t need to reveal any of
their financial details (including bank account
details) to merchants when they are shopping.
And because Zapp is integrated into the mobile
banking app it’s only the financial institutions
that know account details. Payments will be
covered by similar protections as exist today for
debit cards, ensuring that in the event of goods
not being delivered or an issue with the payment
the consumer will be covered.
Mobile has been something of a thorn in the
side of the banking establishment. Dealing with
consumer adoption of mobile payments is a
significant challenge for the industry, as firms
grapple with adapting their models to these
omnichannel times. Throw in the potential
invasion of their markets by new non-traditional,
digitally savvy entrants, such as Amazon and
Google, and we could see some organisations
pushed to breaking point. Teaming up with the
likes of Zapp, then, would seem like a good fit.
Steve Pateman, head, UK Banking, Santander,
says: “Our customers want the choice to be
able to pay on the go using mobile technology,
and the Zapp proposition is second to none
with its capabilities.” Tony Prestedge,
Nationwide’s chief operating officer, comments:
“By using Zapp, consumers will be able to make
quick and secure payments directly from their
existing mobile banking app. This announcement
follows our launch of V.me by Visa and the
deployment of a suite of best rated mobile
banking and mortgage apps, showing our
commitment to delivering innovative payments
and online services. We will continue to invest in
new technologies that will make our customers’
Big year ahead for Zapp• 2014 will not be the year that NFC
takes off and neither will 2015,
according to Ovum. A growing
number of alternative enabling
technologies are readily available, and
at lower cost to merchants and
consumers. There is a chance that
hosted card emulation (HCE) could
help the case for NFC as it provides a
cloud-based model for NFC that
makes service provisioning much
easier for issuers, developers, and
other third parties. This has the
potential to open the market to more
innovation and competition. However,
this will happen only if the card
schemes get behind HCE and security
concerns are addressed.
• Alternative payments will overtake
cards for e-commerce transactions by
2017, according to a WorldPay study.
This found that online purchases
made using alternative payments will
rise to 59 per cent in 2017 from 43
per cent in 2012. Card payment
market share (including credit and
debit) will decline from 57 per cent in
2012 to 41 per cent in 2017.
E-wallets will equal cards as the most
popular payment method globally. In
2012, $295 billion was processed
through e-wallet payments. This is set
to rise to $1,656 billion by 2017.
• Cumberland Building Society has
launched Pay2Mobile, enabling
internet banking customers to send
money to a friend or relative’s
Cumberland current account using
their mobile phone number, without
needing to share account details.
Customers download an app,
available on iOS and Android, and to
receive money they register their
mobile phone number to their
preferred Cumberland current
account via internet banking. The app
also includes a feature called Balance
Peek which allows customers to
check balances without having to log
on to mobile banking.
i n B R i e F
HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank
are to offer Zapp mobile payments to 18 million customers
across the UK
Onboard with Zapp: HSBC.
p a y m e n t s n e w s
F e B R U a R y 2 0 1 4 p a G e 1 1
lives easier and give them more control of their
money.”
Industry reaction
The venture will go head to head with a number
of other mobile payments offerings including
big hitters such as PayPal and Weve’s (the joint
venture between Vodafone, O2 and EE) much
hyped upcoming mobile wallet service; unlike
many of its competitors it has not rushed to
market which could well prove to be a strength.
While the competition is great, so are the
potential rewards. Twenty million adults will use
their mobiles to pay for goods and services by
the end of the decade, with the value of
purchases tripling from current levels to £14.2
billion in 2018, according to a report published
late last year by the Centre for Economic and
Business Research (Cebr). The study,
commissioned by Zapp, notes that the figure is
even higher when all mobile transactions are
included (such as bank to bank transfers) at
£18.1 billion (citing VocaLink data). By 2020, it
will represent 1.4 per cent of total consumer
spending.
Mobile has been the next big thing for a
number of years; thus far it’s been a case of all
hype, very little substance. But Stuart Gregory,
VP eWallet at digital payments outfit Skrill says
that the emergence of Zapp is yet another sign
of the growing demand from consumers for
digital wallets. “Widespread familiarity of, and
confidence in, online banking and e-commerce
along with the near ubiquity of mobile devices
is driving through change. We all want faster
and easier ways to pay and mobile and digital
wallets are the natural extension to our
increasingly cashless lives. It is also encouraging
that the firm behind the tech – VocaLink – is
UK-based, and the support the five banks are
giving them is a massive endorsement for British
business and technology. We welcome Vocalink
to the market, as a fellow London-headquartered
organisation and see this announcement as
further evidence that European companies are
leading the way in new and innovative new
digital payment methods.”
Gilles Ubaghs, senior analyst, financial
services technology, Ovum, gives a thumbs up
to the fact that Zapp builds on Vocalink’s Faster
Payments infrastructure and enables merchants
and banks to bypass the existing payment
schemes. “For merchants this poses potentially
great benefits in terms of reduced interchange
fees and substantially faster if not immediate
payment settlement. For consumers on the
other hand, the benefit for electronic and
mobile commerce remains significant as it
effectively provides a simplified payment
mechanism without the need to create a new
and separate wallet distinct from their existing
bank accounts, and avoids the need for fiddly
and unnecessary virtual prepaid wallets separate
from other accounts,” he says. “In-store
payments may take longer to get off the ground
as merchants and consumers alike adapt to a
device based system whereby the merchant
essentially authenticates itself to the consumer.
However with VocaLink reportedly opening up
its API to developers, there remains strong
potential for Zapp to innovate and develop in
ways that may gain greater consumer traction.”
He adds, though, that critical to the long-
term success of Zapp will be the user experience
and gaining consumer awareness of the
platform. “The involvement of participating
banks will go some way in helping this, however
as the recent roll-out of contactless showed, this
may nonetheless be a longtail growth pattern
rather than an overnight revolution. Alongside
this with more countries and regions developing
faster payments like infrastructure, if Zapp
proves successful in the long-term could prove
to be a model for other markets. Visa and
MasterCard will likely be watching developments
closely.”
Zapp in action...
Online shopping
A pass code is generated during online checkout
and the customer inputs the code into their
mobile banking app to make the payment.
Paying a bill
The customer opens the mobile banking app,
then scans a QR code at the bottom of the bill
to make the payment.
Paying a retailer
After opening the mobile banking app, the
customer scans a QR code or taps a contactless
reader to make the payment.
s o U n d B i t e s
“People thought Big Data would take
off. There has been a lot of hype but
Big Data has already moved to the
trough of disillusionment phase. The
feedback from banks is that they
don’t want to hear another Big Data
story. Use cases are low and often less
dramatic versus other issues whch are
more pressing. It will come, but it
won’t be as big as everyone
predicted.” pp. 38 - 39
“I think we’re very lucky to be
working in such a fast moving and
innovative industry. My only grumble
is that it can be easy for business
leaders to overlook the importance of
technology, and I think IT teams
commonly find this within their
organisations. Technology’s often not
seen as a vital tool until something
goes wrong with it.” p. 18
“If history is a reliable guide, PR
agencies will get rich out of it (new
retail banking entrants) as companies
trumpet their new ideas, but will
consumers trust an organisation
they’ve never heard of with their
money? You may have a visionary, like
Anthony Thomson or Richard Branson,
but as many have found in UK FS
before, actually bringing services to
market is very hard.” pp. 30 - 31
“2014 will be more of the same; IT
glitches, poor customer service and
negative headlines fuelling the
nation’s favourite past time, banker
bashing. Yes, there will be a number
of interesting technology
developments in 2014, particularly in
the payments sector, but what will
really change this year compared with
2013? Very little, I fear.” p. 5
Choice quotes from this issue of FStech
a d v e r t o r i a l
P a G e 1 2 F e B r U a r Y 2 0 1 4
The Global Banking Crisis of 2007-2010 was the biggest
crisis to the world’s financial system since the Great
Depression of the 1930s and the global nature of the crisis
led to subsequent attempts to harmonise regulatory regimes
globally in order to improve standards at multinational financial
institutions. Regulatory compliance alone is one of the biggest
reasons for automated contract management software proving to
be such a boon to financial institutions looking to improve visibility
and control of the data that they hold. Incidentally, when we talk
about ‘contracts’, we could be talking about mortgages, loans,
agreements, terms and conditions, leases or insurance policies. All
these documents should be viewed as dynamic, evolving entities,
but they are often filed away as paper copies and then forgotten
until something goes wrong or they expire. This information is
fragmented and inaccessible and without ongoing supervision
and/or intervention, all kinds of problems can ensue: documents
get lost or destroyed, potential savings or revenue streams are
ignored and critical review dates can pass unnoticed. But hiring,
training and retaining staff to manage and support these contracts
is expensive and staff leaving can chip away at expertise and best
practice.
Lost
Many institutions will admit in private to having no idea where a
particular contract is located, let alone being able to access a
specific term or clause in it without a time consuming manual
search. This in turn, means they cannot analyse their contracts by
vendor, customer, product, or service line or be able to take
advantage of negotiating leverage or optimising contract
performance. They cannot spot the interdependencies amongst
their contracts, track correspondence or their contingent liabilities.
Even if they do, they have no reliable process in place to alert the
correct person or to respond to the triggered risk. Ownership of
contracts may be spread across several people or departments,
with no one ‘owning’ the whole process and key milestones
falling through the cracks. Failure to comply with contract terms
and conditions is a significant cause of loss of revenue and, over
time, can run into millions of pounds.
Workflow
In addition to compliance and risk assessment, companies are
increasingly moving from a paper intensive process to an electronic
paperless process with all the benefits that that can bring to office
efficiencies. Workflow inefficiencies stem from not knowing what
needs to be done and by whom. Contracts may go through ten or
twenty revisions with each version being saved, until in the end,
nobody is 100% sure which is the final, correct version. When
amendments are made via emails going back and forwards
between a dozen people, the confusion can be even worse.
Reputation
Another factor to consider is that when you’re running a business
where your reputation depends on having a professional image,
then out-of-date contracts or missed renewal or expiration
deadlines can give entirely the wrong impression to potential
customers and the wider world. For example, when despite six
reminders, famous toyshop Hamleys’ online store domain expired
just before the Christmas 2009 shopping season, the company
faced embarrassment and ridicule. Risk assessment may be driven
externally by regulatory compliance, but internally it is driven by
management fear of fines and compensation claims. Protecting
your brand, means keeping a weather eye out for potential
banana skins and anticipating crises before they even begin. There
is a growing recognition that the way in which contracts are
managed throughout their lifecycle can impact quite significantly
on revenue and cash flow for all concerned. And this is where
specialist software comes in, because it can help automate certain
processes while keeping everyone informed of updates and
deadlines.
Take Up
The Aberdeen Group published research in 2007 which showed
that, on average, 68% of a company's revenue comes through
formalised contracts but only 82% of contracts of ‘best in class’
organisations (that is, well-known businesses including High Street
names) have electronic contract management; that leaves 18%
that don't and which are still dealing with pieces of paper. Drilling
down further, 51% of businesses are still fully manual, as opposed
to only 8% who are fully automated, a huge gap of 43 points and
a surprisingly low percentage to have taken full advantage of the
benefits. It looks like the business case for software has yet to be
made to everyone even though short implementation times and
immediate benefits mean a fast ROI. Misplaced and out-of-date
paper contracts, alongside the risks and missed savings that go
with them, will still be around for a while, but as the burden of
regulatory compliance increases, the risks of failure to comply will
surely outweigh the reticence of taking up contract management.
For more information, please visit: www.easysoftware.co.uk/
document-management-solutions/contract-management-
solutions/
Contract management - peace of mind for the financial services industry at your fingertips
Howard Frear, Director of Sales and Marketing, EASYSoftware, says the days of trying to
remember contract deadlines, terminations and extensions are over
Invoice Management has just got easier
1 Accelerated processing times
2 Enhanced data quality of posted invoices
3 Better visibility to available cash flow
4 Real-time view of authorisation cycles and reporting
5 Revision-proof storage of electronic invoices
EASY INVOICE
Say hello to lower invoice processing costs, better controlled invoice
receipt-to payment times, improved cash flow and robust audit compliance
www.easysoftware.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1284 727870
Untitled-3 1 10/02/2014 12:59:29
r e s t o f w o r l d n e w s
P A G e 1 4 f e B r U A r Y 2 0 1 4
i n B r i e f
• South Africa’s Nedbank has
adopted INETCO Insight. Having
grown by over two million individual
and small business clients over the
last two years, the bank chose the
solution to improve its operational
efficiency and maintain its customer
experience levels in the face of
growing transaction performance
complexities within the ATM and
PoS service channels.
• CaixaBank is utilising Oracle
solutions for the deployment of its
new Big Data infrastructure. The
bank is pushing ahead with this in
order to develop a 360-degree view
of customer activities, integrating
the data created in its various
channels.
• Wells Fargo Visa consumer credit
card holders are now able to load
their cards into the Isis mobile
wallet. This marks the first phase of
an agreement between the US FS
outfit and Isis, the mobile commerce
JV created by AT&T Mobility,
T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless.
• Swedbank has pulled the plug on
its mobile payment solution Bart just
six months after launch. In June last
year, Swedbank announced that
Bart, which involves QR codes
photographed by cameras mounted
next to cash registers, was in
Axfood grocery stores. But it has
failed to attract enough users and
retailers, leading the bank to cut its
losses and concentrate instead on
Swish, the service it has teamed
with other FIs on.
• Turkish banking group, Türkiye
Finans Katılım Bankası, has deployed
Opengear’s Remote Management
Gateways at its branch office sites.
It also has plans to roll-out
Opengear technology to a further
145 sites including several
datacentre locations.
TradingFloor.com was revealed in beta
during January. It enables traders around
the world to share their trades with peers
and aims to transform trading into a social
experience.
It’s a concept which has been gaining traction
in recent years, particularly among foreign-
exchange traders, via such sites as eToro and
Tradeo. But Saxo Bank lays claim to being the
first major player in the financial sector to move
into this world. The FI’s co-founders and
co-CEOs Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen
said in a joint statement: “We want to set free
the peer-to-peer power of traders around the
globe by enabling them to connect online with
experienced and like-minded investors who are
tired of input from salespeople from traditional
banks.”
They added: “Having revolutionised online
trading as a first mover in 1998, we now want
to democratise access to trading and fund
management by
opening up the
otherwise closed
world of trading. We
are now enabling
investors to share their
trades openly, interact
with each other, post
comments and
strategies, discuss
ideas, follow and copy
eachother. We believe that this may radically
change how investors will go about trading FX,
CFDs, options, futures, bonds and equities in
the future, making trading a social experience.
At the new TradingFloor.com, you can see what
the best participating traders are doing with
their own money in any asset class of your
choice. We are deliberately only featuring real
traders with real accounts trading their own
money to ensure a social trading community of
serious investors.”
The portal also features a range of content
for traders, such as market news and views,
data, insights and trade ideas from Saxo Bank’s
research teams and VIP authors. A real-time
trade stream will showcase current market
sentiment. ITV News correspondent Angus
Walker has come onboard and will, along with
former Bloomberg and BBC World anchor
Owen Thomas, front an on-demand TV channel,
reporting from the FI’s trading floor.
World firsts: news round upSaxo Bank has launched a new portal which takes its trading
platform and adds in social features
Most clicked stories at www.fstech.co.uk
during January...
Wells Fargo pilots Isis mobile wallet
‘Game changer’ SMC4 unveiled
LBG apologises for IT glitch
North American banks step up IT spending
Spotlight on FinTech innovation
Brits flock to deal/incentive/review sites
Most read at fstech.co.uk
Claiming a social first: Saxo Bank.
If any organisation in the Western
world claims to not be a social
company, they are wrong. Why?
Because whether or not they like it
– and whether or not they are
aware of it – their brand and their
products are already featured
across a multitude of networks.
Regardless of what your social
media policy says, people are using
public forums to discuss and
debate the value of your service.
David Oates is VP of International at Actiance, provider of the
leading information governance and compliance platform. “We
often see examples of how customers with a negative experience
find their voice on social media”, he says. “And when they are
compensated and treated with due respect and care, they can
turn into huge brand advocates. Customers often recognise that
anyone can make an error, even large corporations. When they
then receive an apology and are compensated for that error, it
reinforces their decision to do business with them in the first
place and they can even develop a stronger loyalty bond than
they initially had.”
In the financial services industry, many organisations are
waking up to the fact that social media is the preferred medium
of communication for a large slice of their audience. By engaging
on these channels, they can now not only gain a great deal of
intelligence around buyer behaviour, they can also become a
more “human” brand with a personal touch.
There is, however, inherent risk in all communication. And for
regulated industries, the risk can seem too great. What happens
if things go wrong, what if the wrong kind of information leaks
out? How can organisations protect their brand on social media?
“One truth, which we find ourselves re-iterating again and
again,” says David Oates, “is that the biggest risk when it comes
to communication across social channels is to do nothing. An
organisation can no longer afford to stand back and choose to
not take part in the conversations that are happening around
them.”Recent years have seen an erosion of brand trust for many
banks. As a result, financial organisations need to be more aware
than ever of how their reputation can be affected by getting
communications wrong.
And it’s not just social media channels that play a part in an
organisation’s ability to provide a consistent and reliable customer
engagement platform. Equally important is the ability for internal
groups to collaborate and communicate effectively and safely.
However, internal collaboration channels – such as instant
messaging, group chat, enterprise social networks and more – are
also subject to regulatory requirements and need to be deployed
in a safe and compliant way.
“There are ways to mitigate the risks involved in deploying
these communications platforms, in order to enjoy benefits such
as improved productivity, remote working and quicker issue
resolution”, says David Oates. “Compliance issues should never
be the reason for any organisation to shy away from unified
communications, social media or social collaboration.”
By having a solution in place which manages the access and
usage of applications, an organisation can provide granular
control of how and when groups and individuals interact with
each other. Content can be monitored as groups engage with
each other on various platforms – both internally and externally.
“One of the main issues we help our customers with is the
ability to wrap context around data,” says David Oates. “The
social media, collaboration and unified communications systems
generate an awful lot of unstructured data. So when you’re
facing litigation and need to provide these records, public or
internal, you’re up against a very lengthy and painful discovery
process. And with that discovery comes the challenge of piecing
together conversations – and trying to determine in what
situation and with what purpose comments were made.”
In that light, context becomes something which can be of
immense value. According to the Association for Information and
Image Management (AIIM), it costs on average £0.13 per day to
buy 1 Gb of storage – while it costs in the region of £2200 to
review the same amount of data. This is before you add
processing and collection costs. So the idea of being able to
simplify and speed up the process can quickly equate to pounds
and pence.
“This makes financial sense for organisations of all shapes and
sizes,” David explains. “We currently provide compliance
platforms to ten of the top ten US banks and eight of the top ten
European banks. Catering for organisations with the most
stringent regulatory requirements gives us a tremendous amount
of confidence in the marketplace. We want to make social
business happen, in a safe and compliant way.”
The Actiance platform covers a vast range of applications
within unified communications, enterprise social software and
social media through a single interface. The platform has a huge
footprint in regulated industries worldwide and integrates with all
the main archiving systems, leveraging existing infrastructures.
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 1 5
Social business means business
A d v E R t o R I A L
l e t t e r s
lett
ers
to
th
e ed
ito
r Plastic fantastic?
Come the launch of plastic £5 notes in 2016, there
will be challenges for banks and users of cash
machines in making sure that these devices are
adapted for the new substrate and new designs.
Ensuring that the new notes are correctly recognised
will be critical, and finding the right technology
suppliers will be crucial for banks in reconciling that
issue, but equally there is presumably going to be a
phase of dual circulation where polymer and paper
notes of the same denominations will circulate. Whilst
to every man and woman on the street this doesn’t
cause any major problems, the unseen parts of the
cash cycle will have to adapt processes to ensure that
the old notes are retired and the new notes
re-circulated. Having enough capacity and flexibility
within the cash cycle and systems that banks, security
companies and other major users of cash have will be
key to the continuation of smooth cash flow – but will
go largely unnoticed by the general public.
Whether the currency is paper-based or polymer-
based, the on-going challenges for banks are
essentially the same: counting, authenticating and
quality sorting to make sure that the notes we use day
in and day out are fit for purpose. These operations
happen largely out of sight of the public but ensure
that cash is available around the clock in ATMs and via
bank branches. If this were to stop or in some way be
less effective, the man on the street would certainly
notice. The arrival of polymer substrate is another
milestone on the journey for cash – there will be
plenty more to come.
Ben Thorpe, director of global marketing & strategy,
Glory Global Solutions
2014: Regulation and elections may reshape
payments landscape
Existing regulatory reforms and new legislative
initiatives are set to have a profound effect on the
payments industry over the next 12 months. Political
events may also leave their mark. In Europe,
corporates need to rapidly finalise their preparations
for migration to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA),
even noting the recent proposal to allow a six month
grace period until 1 October, which may come as
welcome news to those companies that have been
struggling to meet the 1 February deadline. At the
same time, negotiations will be continuing to
determine the final shape of the Payment Services
Directive 2 and the draft Regulation on cards
interchange – together making up the strategically
important “Payments Package.” Meanwhile, May will
be a key month for European politics, with elections to
the European Parliament due to take place. The full
impact may not be felt this year, but the vote has the
potential to significantly influence the priorities for
further regulatory change over the next few years.
Looking outside Europe, more countries around the
world can be expected to be working on
implementing the Basel III principles, following the
EU’s lead with its CRD IV package of reforms in 2013.
At the same time, preparations will be taking place in
response to the Basel Committee for Banking
Standards (BCBS) recommendations for managing
intraday liquidity risks. Meeting the new requirements
is likely to be challenging, but will have an upside in
the form of enhanced liquidity management
information and control. Elsewhere, watch out for
further evidence of two key 2013 trends (the
introduction of near-real time retail payment systems
and the adoption of XML ISO 20022 as the standard
for payment system messaging) continuing to gather
pace across the globe.
But returning to Europe, SEPA migration will remain
the most pressing payments issue in the near term. For
those corporates who are ready to take full advantage,
2014 will mark the year they can look to benefit from
the greater standardisation and centralisation on offer,
particularly in sectors such as utilities and
telecommunications that need to collect direct debits
from huge numbers of clients.
Simon Newstead, head of market engagement, RBS
Business Services
Letters to the Editor should be emailed to: [email protected]
P A G e 1 6 F e B r U A r Y 2 0 1 4
Cloud computing supplement
· Virtualisation · Security · Future of cloud computing
Other features
· 2014 FStech Awards review · Future of FS technology · Big Data
For further information, email the Editor at:
In the next issue of FStech…
d i a r y
26-27 February: Customer Analytics & Insights in Retail Financial ServicesLocation: London
Website: www.customer-analytics-in-finance.com
26-27 February: Cloud Expo EuropeLocation: London
Website: www.cloudexpoeurope.com
04-05 March: Connected Business ExpoLocation: London
Website: www.connected-business.co.uk
27 March: 2014 FStech AwardsLocation: London
Website: www.fstech.co.uk/awards
08-09 April: TradeTechLocation: Paris
Website: www.wbresearch.com/tradetecheurope
08-10 April: IFINTEC Location: Istanbul
Website: www.ifintec.com
29 April - 01 May: Infosecurity EuropeLocation: London
Website: www.infosec.co.uk
29 September - 02 October: Sibos 2014Location: Boston
Website: www.sibos.com
08-09 October: IP ExpoLocation: London
Website: www.ipexpo.co.uk
06 November: FStech/Retail Systems Payments ConferenceLocation: London
Website: www.fstech.co.uk/payments
20 November: FStech/Retail Systems Payments AwardsLocation: London
Website: www.payments-awards.com/awards
Further information on industry events at www.fstech.co.uk/eventsFStechFStechNow available:
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Coming up
Got an event to publicise? Send the details to Scott
Thompson, Editor, FStech at: [email protected]
FStech roundtables
FStech hosts exclusive roundtables throughout the year, which
are free to attend for financial IT professionals. Recent topics
under discussion have included cloud computing, social business,
retail banking and IT security.
For further information on our forthcoming roundtable events,
contact Rebecca Reeves at: [email protected]. Or on:
020 7562 2417. For sponsorship enquiries, contact Sonia Patel:
[email protected]. 020 7562 2430.
FStech: How did you get into the sector?
Mick Bradley: My strongest subjects at school were engineering
and mathematics, so it was no surprise when I started my career
in mechanical engineering, where I worked my way up from a
mechanical engineer to senior management. I was introduced to
IT when I was presented with a dumb terminal, keyboard and
asked to feed it with information. Being an engineer, I soon
asked for data reports and was told they would be done in 18
months! I went out that same day, purchased a computer and
taught myself to program and the rest is history. My interest in
tech has driven me to a host of different jobs in very different
organisations – from very small start-ups to large enterprises. My
core passion is still building things and solving problems. That’s
one of the things I love about the technology sector: there are so
many opportunities to try so many different things. But change is
the only constant. To succeed you need to be adaptable, keep
focused on the problems you are solving for your customers and
build, shape and manage your team to achieve this.
FStech: The biggest influence on your career?
MB: I would have to say this is actually two people. When I
started my engineering apprenticeship my father gave me some
advice that I’ve lived by ever since. Spend more time listening
than talking – the people talking to you have a lot more
experience and knowledge, so listen, learn and then make
decisions. While this is very basic advice, it’s probably the most
valuable lesson I’ve learned. My first big challenge as an IT
director was to consolidate seven datacentres into one. To say I
was keen was an understatement, and the advice my manager
and mentor gave me at the time has proved to be the second
most valuable lesson in my career. He simply told me to keep
looking over my shoulder to make sure my team was still with
me. Since that day I have been very focused on building and
empowering teams to work to a common set of goals and to
make sure that everyone has a stake in those goals.
FStech: Who in the sector inspires you and why?
MB: There are some really great start-ups out there doing
fantastic things that bigger companies just couldn’t do. And FS
tech start-ups are really forging ahead. Some of my current
favourites are FinTech startup GoCardless. It makes it really easy
for small businesses to take direct debit payments. All of a
sudden SMEs are working in the same way as the big guys,
putting them on a more equal footing. Level Money, a personal
finance service, is set to make it easier to budget on the go from
your phone. Aimed at younger users, the app automatically
updates spendable cash and provides
real-time information to show how
much money you have in your
accounts. How many of us wish we’d
had that when we were younger?
FStech: Which IT professional do
you most admire?
MB: For me, it has to be inventor of
the web, Tim Berners-Lee. His vision has changed the way the
world works – I think for the better. Even though the internet is
relatively new, we already take for granted the impact it’s made
on our lives; it’s accelerated the rate of business, and it is ‘normal’
to work with people wherever they are in the world. Socially, it’s
so much easier to keep in touch with friends and family. And the
Internet of Things, the next generation of internet technology,
looks set to change things even further. Add to that the internet’s
potential to improve life for people in developing nations through
faster, more reliable communications, and better access to
education and business opportunities. I can’t think of a single IT
professional that has made more of a positive contribution.
FStech: Is there anything that you dislike or that frustrates
you about the sector?
MB: I think we’re very lucky to be working in such a fast moving
and innovative industry. My only grumble is that it can be easy for
business leaders to overlook the importance of technology, and I
think IT teams commonly find this within their organisations.
Technology’s often not seen as a vital tool until something goes
wrong with it. But, used properly, the right kit can bring huge
benefits that go beyond faster email. It can help organisations
plan ahead, get real-time insights into their performance and
speed up business. It’s up to us as the techies to make sure
everyone sees how technology can make a difference.
FStech: What technology can’t you live without?
MB: The technology behind Sky+. I travel a lot and it’s great to
be able to record anything I’m likely to miss while I’m away. I love
that I can do it all from my phone now too.
FStech: What was your last banking experience both online
and on the High Street and were they positive experiences?
MB: Over Christmas I couldn’t have survived without online
banking. What did we do without it? I love that I can check my
account and transfer money without having to go into a branch
or pick up the phone. Having said that, I also use my branch to
pay in cheques. When I see I have a cheque to pay in my heart
sinks and the cheque is likely to sit in my wallet for a good while
before I finally make it to the High Street. When I do, as long as
I time it right and the queues aren’t too long, it’s actually fine. My
kids also like the fact that I can transfer money to them instantly,
and by instantly I mean from my phone while they’re waiting!
P A G E 1 8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
q & A
Talking headsMick Bradley, MD EMEA, Violin Memory
a p p o i n t m e n t s
F e B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4 p a G e 1 9
Ex-CEO of RBS Insurance and Europe General Insurance for
Zurich Financial Services, Annette Court, has joined Workshare
as a non-executive director. She will be providing strategic
direction in order to support the growth of the business
globally. Workshare is a provider of secure enterprise
collaboration and communication applications.
Fidessa group has announced two new sales appointments for
its sell-side business. Emily Thomas will become global head of
new business sales based in New York, and Phill Jeffrey Asia
Pacific regional sales director based in Hong Kong. Thomas has
worked for Reuters and Arthur Andersen, while Jeffrey joins
from Greenline Financial Technologies.
People on the move
True Potential Investments has announced the appointment of
Emma Napier as head of distribution. She will lead the
company’s business development team, driving forward growth
plans for the firm’s wealth platform business. Napier has
worked in the IFA community for over 20 years. Her most
recent role was as head of adviser relations at The Platforum.
Formerly of Thomson Reuters, Terence Chabe has joined the
new business and sales department at Sentronex, a provider of
outsourced IT solutions to FIs. “I am excited to join such a
young, vibrant company. I have known CEO Joe Sluys for a
number of years. It was his entrepreneurial forward thinking
and drive that encouraged me to join the company,” he says.
Saxo Bank has appointed Matteo Cassina in a newly created
position of global head of institutional business. He will be
based at the online trading and investment specialist’s Canary
Wharf office. The appointment is part of Saxo Bank’s strategy
to continue its growth within the institutional space (this also
involves placing its core institutional activities in London).
David Child has been appointed as non-executive director by
tech services supplier Intelliflo. With over 25 years of experience
in the FS industry, he started his career at The Bank of England,
before moving to DBS Management (latterly Misys Financial
Services). In 2003 Child joined The Exchange as MD and took
the company through its acquisition by Vertex.
Joe Garner is to be the new CEO of Openreach, which is
responsible for BT’s local access network in the UK. He brings
substantial commercial, operational and regulatory experience,
having worked at HSBC, Dixons and Procter & Gamble. His
most recent role was at HSBC where, as head of the UK bank,
he was responsible for launching M&S Bank.
BCS, a trader of equities and FX on the Russian exchange, has
appointed John Barker as executive chairman. He brings more
than 20 years of management experience in the financial
market to the firm and was formerly the managing director and
head of international at Liquidnet Europe. He has also held
various senior positions at Instinet Global Services.
Phill Jeffrey
Emma Napier Terence Chabe
Matteo Cassina David Child
Joe Garner John Barker
Annette Court
Doorways to digital transformation
“Digital and mobile have proven to be pervasive trends
that have deeply rooted themselves in how businesses
look at customer experience and business processes. For retail
banks, these trends are not only about investing in and using new
technology or how they will support it. It is about looking at how
the bank can do more with less to provide the best customer
experience and leveraging digital transformation as a means to
accomplish just that. Going forward banks will need to look at
how “digital doorways”, such as contact centres, web, social
media, branches and mobile, can enable them to deliver an
enhanced and differentiated customer experience.
For example, banks have access to large amounts of data
especially from branches and contact centres linked directly to
their customers’ behaviour, channel interactions and product
selections. By investing in analytics banks can use the data to:
develop more targeted products and services, enhance flows of
digitised documents, improve web designs and service processes.
With customer and operational analytics, a myriad of opportunities
exist for both enhancing customer experiences and capturing
efficiency gains. For example, typical outputs can result in:
improved product offerings, more relevant leads, optimised web
design and better service, increased and improved self-service,
optimal use of agents for value-added selling activities, and many
more. Heading into 2014, banks will need to look at how they
can best leverage the right mix of digital doorways to transform
their current capabilities into truly differentiating digital customer
experiences.” Pierre Yves Glever, channels global practice head,
Capgemini Financial Services
Stand up and be counted
“2014 will be the year that businesses stand up to the storage
industry and demand fairness from storage vendors. There are a
lot of common misconceptions in the industry, ranging from the
statement that ‘hardware only last three years’ and ‘it’s normal
for a system to slow down once capacity fills up’. Businesses need
to stop being made to replace their storage every three years.
There are solutions out there that are built to last. The right
storage vendor can provide zero touch storage that last for five
years and can be filled to 100 per cent. The days of holding
customers to fourth and fifth year service agreements are finally
going away and some of the old school vendors who rely on this
to fuel three year life cycles are being found out.” Gavin
McLaughlin, solutions development director, international, X-IO
More intelligent use of cloud computing
“In 2014, to get more from the cloud, businesses will start to
move away from working within one rigid cloud model. Instead
FStech brings you 14 FS technology
predictions for the year ahead, taking in
the likes of the mobile revolution, Bitcoin,
payments and social customers
The next steps
2 0 1 4 o u t l o o k
P A G E 2 0 F E B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4
of outsourcing to just one CSP and buying an off-the-shelf
package, businesses will expect to be able to work with a CSP
that knows them inside-out. This CSP will work as an integrator
to source, establish and manage the most relevant third party
deals for a flexible and tailored solution. Working with the right
CSP will allow businesses the chance to get more than just the
basics from the cloud in 2014, taking each business objective as
a starting point and using cloud computing to meet that
objective. So whether it’s accommodating a mobile workforce
with Desktop as a Service (DaaS), or provisioning for overseas
expansion with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), businesses will
be utilising cloud computing more intelligently in 2014.” Kevin
Linsell, head of service development, Adapt
Improving customer service while reducing
costs
“The big dilemma for financial institutions is to
reconcile the need for creating differentiation in
experience to win customers while lowering the
cost of service. Often these are seen as
conflicting objectives, but they don’t have to
be. Some of the more innovative retail banks
have put a lot of time into using technology to
make customer interactions easy, relevant,
transparent and cost-effective. They are doing
this by focusing on customer data and analytics,
integrating the different channels a customer
might use and also fundamentally re-engineering
business processes by looking at how technology
can not only improve the customer experience,
but also reduce the cost of business.” Rahul
Singh, president, business services, HCL
Technologies
IT feels the need for speed
“At home if you need a new app, you can just
visit the Apple store and buy one for a few
pounds, which works seamlessly with all your
other apps. Excuses will dry up in 2014 for why
IT can’t do the same at a corporate level. IT will
need to be faster, more innovative and agile in
2014, speeding up time to market for
technology based products and services. In
practice, this will feature a greater focus on
systems integration for easy plug and play IT,
like APIs and integration architecture; rapid
procurement frameworks with nimble suppliers;
IT innovation roles with clear ROI targets; agile
development and delivery methods; and an
acceptance of disposable IT, where IT solutions
are built with shorter lifespans to meet
immediate needs; 10 year life expectancies will
be far and few in between. We will also see a shift towards
continuous improvement of systems, where applications are
improved all the time, rather than in big upgrade projects. IT
functions have two cultures at the moment – the “run” people,
who have to keep the lights on and resist any kind of change to
avoid risk and the “build” people, often in business lead projects
or consultants, who like to look at the art of the possible. The
“build” people often engage the “run” people only when they
want to throw what they’ve built over the wall into Business as
Usual (BAU) support. Going forward, CIOs need to bring the BAU
team in when they are designing new solutions or upgrades, to
help design the eventual service they will support. This is standard
ITIL best practice but often not done. In a world where the
development cycles and gaps between development efforts are
constantly reducing (the latter to zero) CIOs need to ensure that
these two types of people find more common ground this year.”
Ben Grinnell, global CIO services leader, North Highland
Leveraging the benefits of electronic channels
“Advances in technology and the adoption of industry standards
have accelerated the value of electronic bank channels in recent
years. We expect several related trends to continue to evolve in
2014. In short, electronic bank channels are all about improving
the flow of information between banks and corporates to drive
operating efficiencies and optimise the use of working capital.
SEPA implementation, for example, will actually help corporates
operating within the European Union achieve this, through a
simplification of their account structures. Other technology
initiatives such as eBAM – electronic bank account management
– will also make it easier for corporates to manage their multiple
accounts around the world.
One of the aims of all these industry standards, as well as the
networks across which banks and corporates interact, is to
improve straight-through processing (STP) for corporate
transactions by automatically reconciling a company’s back-office
systems with its own bank accounts. We foresee more corporates
adopting these multi-bank messaging technologies that leverage
these standards over SWIFT and other purpose-built networks this
year. The challenge for transaction banks in 2014 will be ensuring
their technology seamlessly connects to clients, not just
exchanging information bilaterally, but between multiple buyers,
sellers and banks. In 2014, we should see banks start to adopt
common technologies and standards that support a many-to-
many environment. Similarly, banks will also be looking to make
the process around supply-chain finance far cleaner – rather than
just pushing payments from one party to another. Transaction
banks will increasingly ensure that financing and the flow of
payments and information about goods and services being sold
resides in one central location. Ultimately, cloud computing is an
important part of that more connected future.” Ken Deveaux,
global head of channels and distribution, RBS International
Banking
F E B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 2 1
Personalisation drives innovation
“This feels like an old trend, but the next step is personalisation
based on rapid, confident authentication of the person in
possession or in near proximity to a mobile device, automobile,
point of sale terminal or even a smart TV. Our voices are unique
identifiers and are totally underutilised as such. In 2014, thanks
to the marketing efforts of consumer electronics manufacturers
like Samsung and LG, as well as video programming distributors
like Comcast and DirectTV, people are learning how they can use
their voice and TV remote controls to cut-through the clutter of
multi-channel offerings. In the next two years they, along with
financial services companies, retailers and others will learn to add
voice biometric-based speaker identification along with speech
recognition to deliver a highly personalised, results oriented user
interface.” Dan Miller, senior analyst & founder, Opus Research
Bitcoin will continue to gain ground (but not as a currency)
“Bitcoin will continue to attract more people as a store of value
and a speculative investment asset. I predict that the value of
Bitcoin still has the potential to double (as of 11 December 2013
at 8:08 AM PT: 1 BTC = 915 USD) by the same time this year. But
I believe it will have a hard time becoming mainstream as a
currency, due to its expected continued volatility amidst regulation
authorities and governments figuring out what to make of the
cryptocurrency.” David Marcus, president, PayPal
2014: the year regulation gets serious
“If 2013 was a year of revelations in the UK banking industry –
with most of them being ugly hangovers from the pre-crash days
– 2014 is set to be a year of sober improvement and studied
reflection for senior figures in the industry. In the UK, the FCA’s
use of attestations in the final few months of 2013 have been a
signal of determined intent. These agreements, where senior
figures are asked to assume personal responsibility for their
business’s regulatory compliance, have raised the ugly spectre of
criminal charges for senior figures should the substance of their
attestations prove unfounded. For most, however, they have
merely focussed the minds of senior figures on compliance, with
regulatory rectitude, and the technology that enables it, becoming
an ever more central concern for those in charge of overall
strategy. I have certainly noticed a trend whereby senior bankers
are thinking more in terms of risk – and that is systemic risk at an
industry and economy-side level – rather than solely in term of
compliance: the spirit, as well as the letter of the law.
This trend is reflected elsewhere around the world, and with
CRD4, Basel 3 and parts of Dodd Frank, as well as the Volcker rule
and the Vickers recommendations all coming into force, even the
most senior bankers are being compelled to consider the why
(these rules came to be in place) of industry regulations, rather
than just the how (my company can obey them at the lowest
possible cost). Coupled with that is a real improvement in
communications, not just between the regulators and the banks,
and the banks and technology providers, but also between the
regulators and the technology providers – a vital third pillar of the
system. With that third channel of communication in place, it
should be much easier (and much less costly) to implement and
refine the business-wide IT architectures that are needed to
support and secure the compliance programmes that accompany
complex and stringent industry regulations. Working with banks
and technology vendors in such a tripartite manner will do a great
deal to help regulators to promote stability and sustainability in
the global financial service industry. That’s good for banks, good
for business, and good for the economy as whole, and I hope to
see it become commonplace in 2014.” Said Tabet, global expert
on financial services compliance and risk, EMC
Mobile marches on
“Mobile, mobile and more mobile. Google’s executive chairman
Eric Schmidt might not have a buzzy catchphrase for it like “post
PC era,” but he is certainly onboard with late Apple co-founder
Steve Jobs’s line of thinking: the future is mobile, and the future
is now. ”Everyone is going to have a smartphone,” Schmidt said
during a segment for Bloomberg TV in which he shared some
predictions for the technology space in 2014. “The fact that so
many people are connected to what is essentially a super-
computer means a whole new generation of applications around
entertainment, education, social life…those kinds of things.”
“The trend has been that ‘mobile was winning,’ ” Schmidt
continued. “It’s now won.” He added that smartphones and
tablets are already outselling traditional PCs. As an extension to
the mobile march, low price will become a critical driver in global
consumer-electronics product creation, as emerging economies
absorb a dramatically larger fraction of all devices sold. The result
of bringing hundreds of millions out of poverty is a shift in design
motivation from the radically innovative, to incremental change at
2 0 1 4 o u t l o o k
P A G E 2 2 F E B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4
low cost, driven by the creation of a new purchaser segment in
consumer electronics. Expect the sub-$100 smartphones to
dominate the phone category in the drive to connect billions
across the globe. We are seeing cheaper models from China,
Africa and South America that will hit the market with a storm.
The BRIC nations alone have a potential to drive over a billion
units.” Scott Bales, former chief mobile officer, Moven
Big year for payments sector
“2014 will see another busy year for the industry, with uncertainty,
risk and mobility being key areas. The creation of the Payment
Systems Regulator will be the biggest change. The regulator
won’t officially start regulating until April 2015, leaving a period
of uncertainty looming over us. This is heightened by the
European Commission’s legislative proposal for a revised
Payments Services Directive and a regulation on Multilateral
Interchange Fees. The retail banking sector is seeing cyber
security become the number one risk factor. As a result of this we
expect to see increased diligence in this area and a large
investment in both detection and prevention of these threats. In
addition to that, the Current Account Switching Service is now in
full swing which will boost customer mobility. It will become
especially pertinent to retail banks looking to offer improved
banking experience in a bid to attract new customers. We will
also see an increase in the mobility of payments this year as the
Payment Council’s new mobile payment service comes into effect
in spring. In summary, 2014 is shaping up to be another big year
for the industry with some exciting times ahead.” Chris Dunne,
payment services director, VocaLink
Rising fraudulent applications in 2014
“Irrespective of the messages from Whitehall highlighting our
improving economy, fraud continues apace and this trend looks
set to continue into 2014. Many communities – particularly the
inner cities – continue to face on-going challenges such as
financial stress, a challenging employment market, rising costs
and pressure on disposable income. As a result, the temptation
to attempt fraud will remain intact. Perhaps surprisingly, the
motivation to commit fraud is identified as prevalent among
wealthier income groups as their reliance on maintaining a
perceived lifestyle continues to be funded by on-going access to
credit cards, current account overdrafts and short-term loan
facilities. In 2013 fraudulent applications for credit cards saw the
largest rise. We believe that there’s every possibility that this trend
will stick in 2014.
Current accounts will also continue to be targeted by
fraudsters, particularly following the launch of seven-day account
switching and the arrival of new entrants to the market.
Elsewhere, despite instances of mortgage fraud falling,
the sector still sees the highest rate of fraudulent
applications across all financial services
products. Mortgages will always be
seen as offering third-party fraudsters rich pickings, highlighting
the need for lenders to use as many checks as possible including
trusted panels of solicitors, advisers and valuers, as well as
maintaining vigilant electronic ID checks. However, it’s not all bad
news. Despite a significant increase in attempted fraud,
investment in better fraud prevention by the UK’s financial
services sector is paying off. Institutions are now uncovering even
greater numbers of application fraud when compared to the
same period last year, and we think that this can only increase as
more organisations invest in tools and services.” Nick Mothershaw,
director of fraud and identity solutions, Experian
Building a single view of social customers
“For years, all online identification mechanisms were not only
completely separate from real identity, but were also unconnected
to eachother. Because of this, companies have been struggling to
obtain a ‘single view’ of the customer for decades. Building a
social identity has the potential to tie all of these details together.
If you can tie the data together (not just between customer
service channels, but at all points your business touches a
customer) it gives the ability to deliver completely personalised
service. Consumers expect a joined up seamless interaction,
therefore this should be a key consideration for brands going into
2014.” Harry Rollason, community manager, Conversocial
ATMs will offer increasingly cardless services, driven by
mobile wallets, P2P apps and a growing number of
interesting use cases
“Ukash is challenging the perception that only those consumers
who are ‘banked’ can access cardless services at ATMs. Initiatives
such as our Cash Withdrawals service provide customers with a
unique code which can then be redeemed at a cash machine.
And we’re seeing an increasing number of use cases whether it’s
for P2P payments, corporate disbursements, refunds, prizes,
gambling account payouts or emergency cash. To date, without
any marketing, more than 1,000 newly verified customers
have used the Cash Withdrawals service at Bank
Machine ATMs in the UK. This has given us a
clear indication that cardless cash
withdrawal is a service in which
consumers have confidence.”
David Hunter, CEO, Ukash
F E B R u A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 2 3
Travel through an airport and you will see facial recognition
in widespread use and in some countries fingerprinting is
also being used to recognise individuals. But within the
financial services industry the use of biometric technology is used
only sparingly despite being around for many years. UK firms like
Nationwide were doing experiments some 20 years ago with
fingerprinting but they came to very little, mainly as a result of the
high costs of this extra security when compared with existing
solutions such as chip and PIN.
Peter Jones, business manager for security solutions EMEA at
Hitachi, suggests the challenge is to show that the technology is
being used in a constructive way to improve customers’ lives.
“Security alone is not a sufficient driver for the adoption of
biometrics,” he says, especially in those countries where chip and
PIN technology has been regarded as enough of a deterrent to
criminals.
Where biometrics has been implemented there have been
obvious drivers, often specific to that particular market. In Japan,
for instance, an increase in fraud and the liability shifting from the
customer to the bank prompted the deployment of biometrics
onto 80,000 of the country’s 180,000 ATMs. To tempt customers
to use this more secure technology the banks enabled them to
withdraw larger amounts. Anthony Duffy, director of retail
banking at Fujitsu, agrees that customers need to see the benefits
of using biometrics and suggests Japanese banks also worked at
convincing people that there was some cache in using biometrics
and also greater speed of transactions.
Fujitsu has worked with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and Ogaki
Kyoritsu Bank as well as Brazil’s second largest bank Bradesco,
which has introduced the Palm Secure biometric solution into
many of its ATMs at its branches and as standalone units in
shopping malls. “The extra security has helped them to provide
b i o m e t r i c b a n k i n g
P a g e 2 4 F e b r U a r Y 2 0 1 4
A good fit?Glynn Davis takes a look at the drivers for
the adoption of biometrics in the banking
sector
more services on its ATMs and (effectively) operate them as part
of its branch network,” says Duffy.
Other concentrations of adoption are in Central and Eastern
Europe such as Poland and Turkey where the driver has been
financial inclusion, according to Jones: “We’ve worked with
smaller banks and they’ve seen it as a driver to target the
un-banked. It’s seen as a tool for inclusion.”
In 2010 PBS Bank in Poland pioneered biometric technology
on some of its ATMs that enabled benefits claimants to collect
their money by simply keying in an ID number and placing
their finger on the reader. It was a similar story in Turkey with
Isbank, which deployed the same technology onto 3,000 ATMs
and in branches.
The common element to these implementations is the use of a
central database that holds the individual’s biometric record,
which Jones says is important because the objective has been to
create a card-less experience for these un-banked customers.
It has been different in Japan where Duffy says the model has
typically involved customers having a high-end chip card that
holds their biometric details – this must match their actual finger
vein or palm vein when presented to the ATMs reader. Taking this
route is partly down to the regulators disliking the banks holding
separate data on their customers.
Both Fujitsu and Hitachi agree that the most secure forms of
biometrics use vein recognition – with the former’s solution, palm
vein, while the latter has developed a finger vein solution. They
believe this is more secure than fingerprinting, voice and iris
recognition as these can all be scanned and recorded and
therefore be potentially used illegally by fraudsters.
For Duffy it is a case of using the relevant solution for
each separate scenario – dependent on the level of security
required. “You have to balance the benefits versus the cost,” he
says. Neil McEvoy, managing director at Consult Hyperion, agrees
and suggests biometrics should be used as part of a mix of
security measures. “If it is an account balance request then it
could be done by voice recognition whereas if it is for moving
money then it could be voice and fingerprint recognition as
well as a question being asked of the customer. You can go up to
the serious security for some transactions and biometrics will be
part of this.”
James Goldhill, associate director at Transform, believes care
has to be taken as consumers have seen contactless introduced
and that this has led to an element of mistrust as there is a “fear
security is being compromised for ease of use.” He says it needs
to be clear that where riskier transactions are undertaken then
higher levels of security should be expected – and this is where
biometrics would fit in well.
Opening the door
As McEvoy sees it, a number of factors are working in favour of
biometrics that will result in its widespread adoption by financial
services firms – especially in the area of smart mobile devices:
“The previous model of PINs and passwords is breaking down as
we often use the same for all log-ins and (smart) technology is
moving towards ubiquity.”
Possibly playing a major role in this is Apple with its iPhone 5s
that uses fingerprint recognition to access the device. “Apple
will open the door and the banks, Visa and MasterCard will
then see that customers are using this technology,” he says,
adding that should the US firm open up its API (Application
Programming Interface) to third-party app developers then
biometrics will be much more widely used and will inevitably
enter the mainstream.
This all adds up to a positive future, according to McEvoy:
“We’ve done biometric work in the dim and distant past and we
were sceptical about it but not now. In two or three years time it
will be used a lot more. And in five years’ time there will be full
roll-outs.”
Goldhill reckons in countries like the UK, where deployment of
biometrics to ATMs would be very costly, it seems sensible that it
will more likely be initially introduced onto mobile devices. “As
individuals we buy our own phones so deployment is a lot more
practicable,” he suggests. However, he does not expect it to
happen overnight, particularly in the UK: “The High Street
banks have had conversations about biometrics but we’ve
not even seen the pilots yet. It’s all quiet here, possibly because
it is only one of many things that the banks are dealing with at
the moment!”
Jones suggests one of the problems is the legacy infrastructure
and outdated mindsets in some mature markets which make it
difficult to see any major decisions being made on biometric
implementations. “The emerging countries are OK with the leap
whereas (in the UK) we’ve a bloated banking infrastructure.
Other markets in Central and Eastern Europe are fast moving and
the banks are not constrained,” he says.
He adds that the first moves in the UK will be within corporate
banking whereby the bank provides a terminal to its business
customers who then access it via biometric technology. There
could also be internal implementations as Duffy reveals that
Fujitsu is talking to a number of banks about introducing
biometric log-ins for laptops on the trading floors where hot-
desking is a feature.
Another example of this internal use of biometrics can be seen
at Sber Bank in Russia that uses the technology on the entry
points to some of its buildings thereby limiting access into
sensitive areas to specific individuals only.
When these tentative steps by some financial services firms are
combined with the examples of serious implementations by
banks in some other countries, then it is clear biometrics has
come a long way since it first emerged a couple of decades ago
and it will undoubtedly be widely adopted around the globe. But
such are the major differences in the financial infrastructures of
individual countries that the speed of take-up of the technology
will vary wildly country-by-country.
F e b r U a r Y 2 0 1 4 P a g e 2 5
s p o n s o r ' s i n t r o d u c t i o n
p A G E 2 6 F E B r u A r Y 2 0 1 4
The FCA in the UK and
the Dodd-Frank Act in the
US have introduced new
regulations that require
financial organisations to
record all business-related
communications. These
regulations outline strict
record-keeping requirements for swap dealers and major swap
participants and also cover transactions involving equities, bonds,
derivatives and financial commodities. It is critical that mobile
conversations are recorded, no matter where the trader is in the
world, to ensure there is an audit trail for compliance purposes.
Put simply, if your business operates in any of these areas,
you’re required to:
•Recordallrelevantcommunicationonmobiledevices,including
SMS messages
•StoreallrecordeddataforatleastayearintheUK
• Take reasonable steps to stop staff discussing business on
unrecorded devices
TruphoneMobileRecordinghelpsfinancialinstitutionsfulfillthese
requirements,whileatthesametimeprovidingbettercallquality
and faster data connections as a benefit of Truphone’s unique
global architecture. Purpose-built to record both voice and SMS
traffic internationally,TruphoneMobileRecordingcapturesdata
within the network itself – meaning there’s no effect on your
calling experience.
Ourmobilerecordingplatformworksacrossanyhandsetand
therearenocalldelays.Ithelpsyoumeetregulatoryrequirements,
quickly and easily, and recordsmost callsmade globally. That’s
becauseweruntheworld’sfirsttrulyglobalmobilenetwork,with
aglobalrecordingarchitecture,thatwasbuiltontrulydisruptive,
patentedtechnology.
Most recording services use specialist handsets or apps to
either capture traffic on a device or divert it to a remote server.
This results in connectiondelaysofup to30 seconds for long-
distancecalls, in-call latencyofup to1.5 secondsand reduced
phonefunctionality–something thatencouragesstaff toavoid
the software and therefore breach regulations. With Truphone,
there are no call delays because of our patented forking
technology, that enables your traders to conduct business as
usualwhilethecallgetsrecordedandstoredsecurely.
Most mobile operators also enable recording only in the
country where they are based. For example, if you sign on
with them in the UK, you can avail of mobile recording only
in the UK. To record mobile conversations of traders travelling
or based in other countries, you will have to work with a
provider inthatcountry.NotthecasewithTruphone.Truphone
is the only network to offer a global recording architecture
whereevenifyourcompanyisbasedintheUK,andyourtraders
areinHongKongorNewYork,Truphoneensuresalltheirmobile
conversationsarerecorded,encryptedandstored. This iswhat
trulydifferentiatesournetwork–aglobal architectureand the
abilityforyoutoworkwithonetrustedpartner.
Truphone Mobile Recording is available as either a hosted
solution, which features a highly secure, resilient, cloud-based
storage service;or it can integratewith your existing recording
equipment, plugging directly into any third-party recorder/data
access component, as required. Access to these recordings is
securely encrypted andautomaticallymonitored – ensuring the
systemcanbeusedasevidenceinacourtoflaw.
Highlysecureandtotallyflexible,TruphoneMobileRecording
adapts to your existing systems too, so your teams can close
business, on the go
Business as usual, no matter whereyouareintheworld
TruphoneMobileRecording
is a purpose-built recording
service that helps facilitate
financial organisations in
meeting evolving industry
regulation, such as the
Dodd-Frank Act in the US
and FCA regulations in the UK. Unlike other recording
solutions,TruphoneMobileRecordingcapturesall voiceand
SMS traffic from within the mobile network. No apps, no
delays.So, itsbusinessasusualnomatterwhereyouare in
the world.
TruphoneMobile Recording is powered by the Truphone
network, which connects over 200 countries with a single
global infrastructure.Therefore,Truphone isTHEonlyglobal
recording solution in the marketplace.
About Caterham F1Based out of Oxfordshire, the Caterham F1 Team first entered the F1 circuit in 2010 and immediately started to compete on a global level. The constant push for excellence presented significant technical and logistical challenges, but with the support of Truphone the Caterham F1 Team has risen to the task and quickly established itself as formidable force within F1 racing.
Caterham F1 business challenge In F1, the only thing that matters is performance and pursuing that means using resources intelligently to secure every possible advantage. The Caterham F1 Team collects more than 20GB of data from every race as a result, with trackside analysts in constant contact with the Oxfordshire HQ. Every second counts and clear communication is crucial. That’s where Truphone comes in.
The Truphone solutionAs official Mobile Telecommunications Provider, Truphone keeps the Caterham F1 Team connected no matter what. Truphone’s unique systems tools monitor network performance to identify and address issues in real-time, while a dedicated Business Help Team is always available just in case. Truphone’s unified global network also spans over 220 countries, delivering improved call quality to ensure the team collaborates as productively as possible and no time is wasted, ever.
Truphone’s patented technology and unique approach gave the Caterham F1 Team a competitive advantage other mobile operators couldn’t replicate…
• Exceptional serviceOutages aren’t an option for the Caterham F1 Team, so Truphone’s proprietary system tools provided a real benefit by constantly testing network stability and addressing issues in real-time. Additionally, Truphone’s worldwide coverage and support offered extra peace of mind.
• Greater collaboration Truphone overcomes international borders to allow local calls between a growing number of countries, such as the UK, US and Australia. That means better call quality and no roaming fees – which stopped cost limiting communication and bought the team closer together.
• Increased productivityTruphone offers global tariff bundles for both groups and individuals that are customisable through a range of add-ons. The Caterham F1 Team seized on this by creating bespoke plans to free staff from the stress of monitoring their usage, letting them focus on the next race.
© 2013 Truphone Limited. All Rights Reserved. (2013)
Want to know more? Get in touch.
020 3006 4300 | [email protected] | truphone.com/business
Caterham F1 case studyPutting Caterham F1 on the road to success
Tom Webb, Caterham F1 Head of Communications
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A G E 2 7
Putting Caterham F1® Team on the road to success...............................................................................................................
C A S E S T U D Y
Caterham F1® team case study
About Caterham F1® Team
Based out of Oxfordshire, the Caterham F1® Team first entered the F1 circuit
in 2010 and immediately started to compete on a global level. The constant
push for excellence presented significant technical and logistical challenges,
but with the support of Truphone the Caterham F1® Team has risen to the
task and quickly established itself as formidable force within F1 racing.
Caterham F1® team business challenge
In F1, the only thing that matters is performance and pursuing that means
using resources intelligently to secure every possible advantage. The
Caterham F1® Team collects more than 20GB of data from every race as a
result, with trackside analysts in constant contact with the Oxfordshire HQ.
Every second counts and clear communication is crucial. That’s where
Truphone comes in.
The Truphone solution
As official Mobile Telecommunications Provider, Truphone keeps the
Caterham F1® Team connected no matter what. Truphone’s unique systems
tools monitor network performance to identify and address issues in
real-time, while a dedicated Business Help Team is always available just in
case. Truphone’s unified global network also spans over 220 countries,
delivering improved call quality to ensure the team collaborates as productively
as possible and no time is wasted, ever.
.....................................................................................................................
“Truphone is definitely making the Caterham F1® Team more effective. We
operate on a global level… we send huge amounts of data around the world.
Without that, we simply couldn’t compete.”
Tom Webb, Caterham F1® Team Head of Communications
Truphone benefits
Truphone’s patented technology and unique
approach gave the Caterham F1® Team a
competitive advantage other mobile operators
couldn’t replicate…
• Exceptional service
Outages aren’t an option for the Caterham F1®
Team, so Truphone’s proprietary system tools
provided a real benefit by constantly testing
network stability and addressing issues in real-time.
Additionally, Truphone’s worldwide coverage and
support offered extra peace of mind.
• Greater collaboration
Truphone overcomes international borders to allow
local calls between a growing number of countries,
such as the UK, US and Australia. That means better
call quality and no roaming fees – which stopped
cost limiting communication and bought the team
closer together.
• Increased productivity
Truphone offers global tariff bundles for both
groups and individuals that are customisable
through a range of add-ons. The Caterham F1®
Team seized on this by creating bespoke plans to
free staff from the stress of monitoring their usage,
letting them focus on the next race.
Want to know more? Get in touch.
020 3006 4300 | [email protected] | truphone.com/business
About Caterham F1Based out of Oxfordshire, the Caterham F1 Team first entered the F1 circuit in 2010 and immediately started to compete on a global level. The constant push for excellence presented significant technical and logistical challenges, but with the support of Truphone the Caterham F1 Team has risen to the task and quickly established itself as formidable force within F1 racing.
Caterham F1 business challenge In F1, the only thing that matters is performance and pursuing that means using resources intelligently to secure every possible advantage. The Caterham F1 Team collects more than 20GB of data from every race as a result, with trackside analysts in constant contact with the Oxfordshire HQ. Every second counts and clear communication is crucial. That’s where Truphone comes in.
The Truphone solutionAs official Mobile Telecommunications Provider, Truphone keeps the Caterham F1 Team connected no matter what. Truphone’s unique systems tools monitor network performance to identify and address issues in real-time, while a dedicated Business Help Team is always available just in case. Truphone’s unified global network also spans over 220 countries, delivering improved call quality to ensure the team collaborates as productively as possible and no time is wasted, ever.
Truphone’s patented technology and unique approach gave the Caterham F1 Team a competitive advantage other mobile operators couldn’t replicate…
• Exceptional serviceOutages aren’t an option for the Caterham F1 Team, so Truphone’s proprietary system tools provided a real benefit by constantly testing network stability and addressing issues in real-time. Additionally, Truphone’s worldwide coverage and support offered extra peace of mind.
• Greater collaboration Truphone overcomes international borders to allow local calls between a growing number of countries, such as the UK, US and Australia. That means better call quality and no roaming fees – which stopped cost limiting communication and bought the team closer together.
• Increased productivityTruphone offers global tariff bundles for both groups and individuals that are customisable through a range of add-ons. The Caterham F1 Team seized on this by creating bespoke plans to free staff from the stress of monitoring their usage, letting them focus on the next race.
© 2013 Truphone Limited. All Rights Reserved. (2013)
Want to know more? Get in touch.
020 3006 4300 | [email protected] | truphone.com/business
Caterham F1 case studyPutting Caterham F1 on the road to success
Tom Webb, Caterham F1 Head of Communications
truphone.indd 2 11/02/2014 15:07:38
Truphone Mobile RecordingGlobal compliance for global businessesTruphone Mobile Recording can seamlessly record, encrypt and store all your business calls. It’s become an indispensible tool for international financial organisations who need to comply with industry regulations from the Dodd-Frank act in the US to FCA regulations in the UK. That’s why five of the eight largest investment banks in the world are already using Truphone Mobile Recording. We are the only recording solution that helps facilitate global compliance, without compromising on call quality.
All your calls – on the record - Record all your business calls and texts, simply and securely.
- Get up and running quickly with no interruption to your normal phone service.
- Enjoy clearer calls, faster internet access and lower rates in over 220 countries.
Visit truphone.com to learn more
0531_TMR_1_Page_Ad_AW.indd 1 10/02/2014 16:49Untitled-1 1 11/02/2014 09:39:45
c o m p l i a n c e s u p p l e m e n t
30 Breaking barriers
Launching a new bank today could take as little as nine months under the
new regulatory framework. David Adams reports
32 The innovation game
Opinion among vendors and solution providers appears to be divided on
whether excessive regulation is holding back new financial services technol-
ogy. Paul Golden reports
34 A matter of time
Hannah Prevett looks at how FS organisations have responded re. the legal
requirement to record mobile communications to and from trading floors
Features
FStechFStech
Changing horizons
Sponsored by
In January, Ed Miliband
announced that If Labour
won the 2015 General
Election it would instruct
the Competition and
Markets Authority to assess
whether limiting the market
share of the biggest banks
would benefit consumers
and small businesses.
Although a number of
industry experts and even
the governor of the Bank of
England Mark Carney
questioned whether limiting
the size of banks would
have the desired effect on
competition, the fact is, at
present, the largest five
banks hold about 85 per
cent of the UK’s current
accounts (Lloyds Banking
Group has 30 per cent, RBS
16, HSBC 14, Barclays 13,
Santander 12) and 67 per
cent of mortgage lending.
True, the number of
people switching to a
different bank has increased
since the government
launched a major initiative
to encourage this in 2013:
the Payments Council says
switching rose by 17 per
cent in the last three months
of 2013 to 306,000 and
about eight per cent of
customers switched last year, up from a long term average of four
per cent. But these are still fairly small numbers within the overall
picture.
But might this sector be transformed in the near future by the
injection of new blood? Both Tesco and Virgin are set to
launch current accounts during 2014. And we might be
about to see many more new entrants, suggests Anthony
Thomson, founder and former chairman of Metro Bank.
With regulatory changes having made the banking license
application process much quicker and less onerous and
improved access to payments services for new entrants, Thomson
believes we may see a boom in banking applications over the next
three to five years, including from new firms with a greater
focus on particular areas of the country. He told delegates at the
Future for Regional Banks conference in November that a
source at the FCA had revealed 21 companies were in the
pre-application phase.
The regulatory changes that may enable this began when the
FSA was replaced by the FCA and PRA last spring, but were driven
by work the FSA completed during 2012. There are now two
routes a company wanting to launch banking services can follow.
One is to present the Regulator with full details of their
application up front – a route that might be taken by an overseas
bank seeking to launch services in the UK.
Completely new entrants might be more likely to take the
second route: presenting regulators with a business plan, upon
which they then receive detailed feedback. Having addressed any
issues highlighted by the regulator they can then submit their
application in the knowledge it is more likely to be approved. The
full process could be completed within about nine months. By
comparison, it took Metro Bank two and a half years to pass
through the previous application process.
Banks are also no longer required to hold such large amounts
of regulatory capital as in the past – an important step, says Fiona
Brownsell, CEO and founder of the consultancy and systems
integrator Tusmor, as this means launching a bank no longer
depends above all “on the depth of your pockets.”
Launching a new bank today could take as little as nine months
under the new regulatory framework. David Adams reports
Breakingbarriers
c o m p l i a n c e o v e r v i e w
p a G e 3 0 F e B r U a r Y 2 0 1 4
S p o n S o r e d B Y
The final regulatory change Thomson believes will give new
entrants a big boost will be the forthcoming establishment of a
dedicated regulatory body for payments. This should mean
that access to the payments processing systems (owned and
controlled by the largest banks) is disproportionately expensive
for new entrants and smaller companies. “The new payments
regulator is critical to remove the final hurdle that has
been preventing new entrants launching current accounts,”
says Brownsell.
Technology in play
Technological advances will also help. Online and mobile
technologies are enabling the further development of mobile and
online banking services that do not require a branch infrastructure,
while more use of off the shelf, or outsourced banking
technologies will allow new entrants and smaller players to
construct – or in some cases share – effective IT infrastructures at
far lower costs.
Brownsell believes more banks with a regional focus could
provide UK consumers and businesses with the same benefits
enjoyed by customers of regional banks in Switzerland and
Germany, with more localised decision making and greater
financial support for local businesses and communities.
Thomson thinks the credit union sector could also become
more important at a local level, applying for banking licenses to
take deposits and increase their lending. But he feels that while
some new entrants to the banking sector may have a regional
focus to begin with, all will be able to exploit online and mobile
technology to increase their geographical reach.
The question is, if these new entrants do appear in the market
will it really make much difference? Eric Leenders, executive
director of retail at the British Bankers Association (BBA), stresses
the organisation’s commitment to supporting new entrants, but
acknowledges the factors that seem to limit account switching.
People are most likely to switch, he suggests, either because of a
disastrously negative experience with their current bank – not
that common an occurrence – or because another bank is
offering a tempting proposition. But it seems many consumers
now assume that their own bank is likely to copy good ideas seen
elsewhere at some point, so wait rather than switch.
Thomson’s response to these points is to point to the 230,000
people who have signed up with Metro Bank: a proposition that
is not based on price. He also points out that the consultancy
Simon-Kucher is predicting 12 per cent of consumers will switch
in 2014, while research from industry watchers including Deloitte
and PwC suggests that up to 40 per cent would do so if there
was ‘a real alternative’. “The challenge to the new entrants is to
be that real alternative.”
Tony Prestedge, chief operating officer at Nationwide, believes
we will see significant innovation in banking over the next few
years – but not just come from new entrants: “from other sectors
and particularly from the technology sector.” He points to the
emergence of offerings such as
GoBank in the US, “effectively a
tablet-based bank”, as an
example of the way technology
may change consumer
expectations. He also believes
many new entrants are likely to
specialise in particular areas of
consumer finance, such as
payments, consumer finance, or
unsecured lending, rather than
offer the complete range of
banking services.
But Alex Kwiatowski head of
financial insights, Europe, at IDC,
remains unconvinced that the
new entrants will make much
difference. “If history is a reliable
guide, PR agencies will get rich
out of it as companies trumpet
their new ideas, but will
consumers trust an organisation
they’ve never heard of with their
money?” he asks. “You may have
a visionary, like Anthony
Thomson, like Vernon Hill, or
Richard Branson, but as many
have found in UK financial
services before, actually bringing
services to market is very hard.”
Thomson is convinced that
the new wave of banks will
enrich the market. “We have
the potential to see lots more
new banks,” he says. “Some
will look like credit unions, we
may see peer to peer lenders
acquiring banking licenses; and
we will see regionally-based
banks. None of us has a crystal
ball, but the rules have been
massively simplified, the time to
launch has reduced, the capital
you have to hold has reduced;
and issues around accessing the
payments system are being
resolved. So all the barriers that
did exist have been reduced or
removed.”
The consequences of those
changes will start to become clear
this year.
F e B r U a r Y 2 0 1 4 p a G e 3 1
In the 2014 Global Regulatory Outlook report
published by Kinetic Partners, the firm’s global
head of consulting Monique Melis observed that
the investment banking and broking community
has come under intense pressure from regulatory
authorities since the global financial crisis. While
acknowledging that regulators are trying to impose
higher moral standards without destroying the
industry, she warns that heavy-handed oversight is
arguably just as detrimental for financial innovation
as the outcome of ‘light touch’ regulation was.
Sunil Prahbu, industry consultant for banking
and insurance at Lexmark, is one of those who
believes regulatory compliance has stopped banks
from adopting innovative new technologies like
mobile and cloud. “Banks have been investing
heavily in compliance to keep abreast of demanding
regulatory requirements, but this has come at a
cost as evidenced by the numerous outages
experienced by RBS customers in recent times.
Other contributing factors include the liquidity
crisis, the global financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis
and outdated core-banking backbone, which will
not be able to completely leverage the new
technologies.”
According to CCL Co-Comply director Chris
Kaye, regulation is holding back technology
innovation in two ways. “Firstly, the need to
comply with regulation is absorbing the bulk of
firms’ IT budgets and this is just to keep the lights
on; there is no budget, capacity or even desire to
innovate at the same time. Secondly, the biggest
innovation and opportunity for financial services is
the cloud. However, people are still nervous about
or do not fully understand the growing regulatory
implications and risks of moving data, especially
sensitive data, to the cloud. Some of the greatest
technical advances are being witnessed in less regulated territories
such as Africa, where mobile technology is completely changing
the payments market.”
Overly tight deadlines and lack of technical clarity are holding
back the industry. The amount of resource that firms need to
commit to meet unrealistic deadlines means they endanger their
Regulation and technological innovation are not
always the most comfortable of bedfellows and
opinion among vendors and solution providers
appears to be divided on whether excessive
regulation is holding back new financial services
technology. Paul Golden reports
The innovation game
c o m p l i a n c e & i n n o v a t i o n
p a G e 3 2 F e B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4
‘business as usual’ as well as pretty much halt new initiatives
while the ‘has to be done’ stuff gets done. That is the view of
Steve Young, CEO at Citisoft, who suggests that the basic issue
with regulation is that it tends to be politically driven and thus has
no focus for how firms may need to adapt or replace their
technology to adhere to it. “The other major frustration is that
the detailed requirements that may require technology code or
configuration changes are never easy to
extricate from the pages and pages of legally
scribed jargon which is very often vague,
especially in the early stages of the regulation’s
life, thus limiting the supplier’s opportunity to
develop in line with the regulation.”
Another take
However, Simon Kirby, senior pre-sales
consultant and solvency II specialist, SAS UK &
Ireland says increased regulation often means
that financial services companies need to do
something better, quicker or smarter. “This
means that they will seek to improve systems
and processes, which in turn drives demand for
technology innovation. The regulators realise
that they also need to improve their use of
technology in order to make better use of the
data they receive from the firms they regulate.”
His colleague and capital markets industry
lead Vincent Kilcoyne adds that innovation in
technology, both in terms of processing speeds
(high performance computing, in-memory and
grid) and delivery models (cloud), are providing
organisations with access to functionality and
services that would previously have been the
sole preserve of banks with big IT budgets.
“Whilst the fact that banks are having to
spend more on regulation may mean that they
are spending less in other areas (for example,
on the development of new financial products)
this doesn’t necessarily mean that regulation is
holding back technology innovation in the
financial services sector,” states Neill Vanlint,
MD EMEA and Asia, GoldenSource.
“If anything, the opposite is true; there is a
strong argument to suggest that regulation is
pushing forward technological advances and
helping to unlock new opportunities. The Legal
Entity Identifier, which is triggering a raft of
innovation across the industry, is a great
example of this. Data aggregation, improved
risk management processes and knowing customers better are all
examples of operational benefits that have been derived from the
regulatory onslaught.”
Regulation is actually driving innovation in technology as firms
are having to streamline their workflow to remain in line with the
new rules, claims Fidessa director of group strategy, Steve Grob.
“Key to this is consistent information from front through to
middle and back office and reducing the number of different
systems that each firm operates.”
The European Commission’s proposal for a new regulation to
build on the existing Markets in Financial Instruments Directive
(MiFID) framework is a recent example of regulation changing to
reflect advances in technology.
“The new proposals are designed to take into account
developments in the trading environment since the implementation
of MiFID in 2007, including advances in technology and gaps in
transparency to investors and regulators,” explains Kinetic
Partners associate director, Alison Adcock.
Market, product and technology developments have been
seen as outpacing the provisions of the original directive, with
structures such as high frequency trading and dark pools falling
outside the scope of the original MiFID. But there is also a
divergence of opinion among the industry participants interviewed
by FStech on whether regulators have a responsibility to monitor
developments in technology to ensure that new products and
services are compliant with existing regulations.
“Many of the regulations are pan-European or even global in
nature, but with local interpretations it would be a complex
challenge for the regulator to monitor every technology platform
and ensure compliance in various jurisdictions,” says Prahbu.
According to Kirby, it is the job of financial services companies
to ensure that new products and services comply with existing
regulations. “This may change in the future, but at the moment
regulators like the FCA do not have the resources to review and
approve all the new products and services that are issued.”
Vanlint agrees, while adding that regulators should take an
active interest in emerging technology and how this may create
challenges for new or upcoming regulations – a view shared by
Kilcoyne, who reckons it is essential that regulators remain
attuned to risks that may be relevant to their remit such as
hacking or data oversight.
Grob explains that in Hong Kong and Singapore the regulatory
authorities are compelling market participants to undertake
formal due diligence on their technology and suppliers to confirm
that their systems meet various criteria in terms of resilience,
failover and compliance.
Kaye says regulators need to keep on top of the implications
of new products and services and Young goes even further,
suggesting that in an ideal world regulators would also ensure
that the various regulations are complementary and co-ordinated
as far as possible, allowing firms to take a more holistic view and
implement strategic changes.
“The volume of regulations introduced has led to many tactical
solutions for each individual issue and this is not in the medium
and long-term interest of anyone,” Young concludes.
F e B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4 p a G e 3 3
S p o n S o R e d B Y
Since the economic downturn, the banking sector has faced
a raft of new regulation. But amongst the cacophony of
hype around heightened financial reporting and disclosure
requirements, a small yet punchy bit of legislation tiptoed into the
fray pertaining to mobile recording. First dreamt up by the then-
FSA, mobile call recording regulation was initially floated in the
UK in 2009. The financial regulator sought to impose call
recording and full communications recording of all trade in the
UK market, whether it was voice or data, or whether it be a fixed
or mobile connection. But the regulation didn’t come to fruition,
when it became obvious that there wasn’t the technology
available to perform such tasks. Any technology that was in place
wasn’t enterprise-ready, says Rik Turner, a senior analyst on the
financial services technology team at Ovum. “It meant a lawyer
who particularly wanted to record a conversation on their mobile
could do so, but it did require user intervention and therefore
could not be compliant.”
A year later, the FSA decided the technology had evolved to a
satisfactory extent and it would enforce the regulation from
November 2011. At this time it became a legal requirement for
regulated investment firms to record all mobile phone
conversations relating to certain markets and store them where
they could be easily recalled for investigation purposes if
necessary. Compliance came with a hefty price tag: the FSA
admitted that the cost of recording and putting the secure
storage systems in place would cost up to an initial £10,000, with
an ongoing cost of £2,000 per user, per year. For a large
investment bank that adds up to an eye-watering comms bill –
not to mention a logistical nightmare.
The right approach
For despite the fact that the technology had evolved to a
satisfactory standard, there were still some teething problems.
Two main approaches had emerged as the de facto industry
standards. The first was what was known as the application or
software client approach. “In other words, your IT department
would bung onto your corporate mobile a software client which
would sit on top of the operating system thereby enabling the
phone to record the conversation in a compliant manner,” says
Turner.
This proved unpopular amongst users. As calls would often
have to be routed through the company’s landline network, there
would be delays, much to the chagrin of the traders. “When
you’re dealing with high net worth individuals, delays with the
call being set up, which affected both incoming and outgoing
calls, is just not acceptable,” says Furmidge, head of product
management, financial technology services, BT.
BT was amongst the trailblazers of the most popular alternative
– the SIM, or network-based approach. “It’s the approach that BT
took from the beginning in the UK. We worked with a partner
and we were basically able to replace the standard SIM card
within a mobile phone with a SIM. Then that made sure that for
Hannah Prevett looks at how FS
organisations have responded regarding
the legal requirement to record mobile
communications to and from trading
floors
A matter of time
m o b i l e c a l l r e c o r d i n g
P a g e 3 4 F e b r U a r Y 2 0 1 4
S P o n S o r e d b Y
an outbound or inbound call that call was trapped in the mobile
network and effectively streamed down to our datacentres where
that could be recorded,” continues Furmidge.
For other providers, it has been more a case of a trial and error.
Red Box Recorders initially opted for the application-based
solution. “What became apparent is
that it wasn’t an enterprise solution.
It had some delays in the connectivity
which didn’t really fit well with the
users themselves, but it served a
purpose in the first stages of roll-
out,” says Lee Jones, chief executive
at Red Box Recorders, which has since
ditched the application approach for
a SIM-based alternative.
A knee-jerk reaction to the
legislation, to simply get any half-
viable solution in place, was
commonplace, says Paul Liesching,
SVP, Truphone Mobile Recording, the
mobile call recording business at
communications company Truphone.
“What banks don’t like doing is
going to these tactical siloed solutions
that can’t provide them any kind of
strategic benefit.”
This is one of the reasons the
bigger players – including Truphone
and BT – appear to be cornering the
market when it comes to mobile call
recording. BT claims to have 5,000
mobile call recording clients, which is
a third of the total number of mobiles
the FSA originally estimated would
need to be recorded when it initially
announced its intentions for the
legislation (Ovum places the number
closer to 25,000 in the City of
London). Both offer much more
besides mobile call recording,
including an all-important global
reach.
The days of opting for a regional or local solution are long
gone, says Furmidge. “Something which started with the FSA
taking the lead in the UK is clearly becoming a global requirement,”
he comments. “Even with the Dodd Frank regulations, (in the
United States) it’s not just limited to people in the US – it’s actually
anybody trading on the US markets. That includes firms in Asia,
firms in the UK trading on the US markets in those swaps areas
have to be recorded.”
Yet whilst the regulation is becoming more global, and
seemingly the solutions are too, there remain a few inconsistencies
in the legislation which leads to minor regional inconsistencies in
approach. For example, in the UK, many financial services
companies have plumped for cloud storage – despite a few initial
concerns about security. “A lot of banks ran out of time (to
become compliant) and had to go into the cloud because onsite
takes longer. All of our customers at that point said, ‘we’ll go to
the cloud and then we’ll migrate onsite once everything has
settled down’. Very few have,” says Liesching. “I think they’ve
stayed in the cloud because it works, it’s easy to administer, it’s
easy to control and we’ve been through over 60 security
assessments.”
Meanwhile, over the pond, US banking counterparts have
been more reluctant to take advantage of cloud storage solutions
due to the stringent Dodd Frank regulation which dictates in the
event of an investigation, an FS firm must be able to retrieve all
related files and information – including mobile and landline calls,
emails, instant messaging and so on – within 72 hours.
“Therefore, having all that information in one place gives them a
better chance of getting back to the regulator within that
timeframe, and the most logical place to have it is onsite,”
explains Liesching.
One of the effects of regulation becoming more globally
widespread is that vendors are keen to find ways to leverage the
masses of data being gathered by call recording. Rather than
having thousands of audio files languishing in a datacentre, they
could use analytics tools to gain useful insights. But further spend
on analytics tools is not currently top of the list for budget
allocation, says Furmidge. “It’s seen as a nice to have. Firms are
getting basic recording and compliance in place at the moment.
But we do think it will happen and certainly we are positioning
ourselves to be able to do that for customers.”
Analytics will present yet more opportunity for vendors in the
mobile recording space. Op3nvoice, which enables firms to
search voice recordings for words or phrases, is just one that’s
sprouted in recent years. Its director of financial services, Jason
Boud, is the former head of voice at investment bank Credit
Suisse. He says that whilst there remains some pushback to
mobile call recording, it’s simply a case of ‘like it or lump it’ for
the investment banking community.
“They don’t have any choice, it’s as simple as that. If you work
in a highly regulated industry, everything you do is monitored and
recorded. I guess the choice you have as a trader is whether you
go and work in a different industry. If you speak to any
compliance person in any bank they’ll have the same view,” he
observes.
Tantrums on the trading floor withstanding, it’s only a matter
of time before the regulation gets teeth and begins to bite those
who are non-compliant, says Ovum’s Turner. “It might be this
year, it might be next year, or they might wait until 2016, but the
first time somebody gets a fine, everybody else in the City will run
around like headless chickens saying ‘for Christ’s sake, what do
we have in place?’”
F e b r U a r Y 2 0 1 4 P a g e 3 5
S P o n S o r e d b Y
awards 2014
Best Use of Social Media
Friends Life
LMAX Exchange
Social Advisors
Best Use of IT in Retail Banking
Barclays Bank
Co-operative Bank of Kenya/Misys
Lloyds Banking Group
Nationwide Building Society/IPL
Nationwide Building Society/IRESS UK
Best Use of IT in Wholesale & Investment
Banking
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Trade Pro)
Deutsche Bank
GE Capital UK
Investec Asset Management
Nutmeg.com
UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions/Splunk
Best Trading System
Deutsche Bank
MahiFX
Maybank Group/Misys
Portware
Best Use of IT in Insurance
Achmea Insurance/BlackLine Systems
Exeter Family Friendly
LV=
Data Governance Project of the Year
Allianz Ireland
Ecclesiastical Insurance/SAS UK and Ireland
ISDA/Sapient Global Markets
MKK Central Securities Depository of Turkey
National Australia Group Europe
Best Use of Technology in Customer Service
Barclays/BT
Barclays Bank (SmartCall)
Deutsche Bank
LV=
Santander/Vizolution
TEB SME Banking Group
Best Use of Online Services
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
LV=
Nutmeg.com
Standard Chartered Bank (China)
Swissquote Bank/Temenos
Unity Trust Bank
Best Use of Mobile
Bank of the West/Fiserv
Barclays (MyDevice)
Barclays Bank
Deutsche Bank (Mobile Platform)
Global Payments/Intuit
2014 FStech Awards Shortlist
Awards Gala Dinner and CeremonyThursday 27 March 2014, Lancaster London Hotel, Hyde Park
Congratulations to the finalists!
We are delighted to announce the 14th annual FStech Awards shortlist. Barclays, Nationwide Building Society, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group, Fiserv, BT and Misys are among the companies shortlisted for the 2014 FStech Awards. The winners will be announced on Thursday 27 March at the London Lancaster Hotel.
We look forward to seeing you on the night as we once again celebrate the innovative, fast moving financial services technology sector.
Branding sponsorWith thanks to our sponsors
42-43_FStech-Awards.indd 1 10/02/2014 12:51:38
RBS/Monitise/Visa Europe
Societe Generale
Thomson Reuters
Anti-fraud/Security Strategy of the Year
Ally Bank
Barclaycard
Garanti Bank/FICO
Nationwide Building Society/SAS
VEN/ValidSoft
Compliance Project of the Year
Barclaycard
Deutsche Bank
Handpoint
Lloyds Banking Group
National Australia Group Europe
Sapient Global Markets
Systems Integration Project of the Year
Bank of America
Citi
Commercial Bank of Africa/Temenos
Best Use of Networking/Cabling
LMAX Exchange
National Australia Group Europe
Visa Europe/BT
Outsourcing Partnership of the Year
Credit Suisse/BT
Coller Capital/DataArt
National Australia Group Europe
National Savings & Investments/Atos
Tiaa-Henderson Real Estate/Telstra Global
USS/Civica
Payments Innovation of the Year
European Payment Services
i-movo
Nordea Bank/Misys
Paylib Services
Syniverse
The Currency Cloud
Ukash
Unity Trust Bank
Virtual Piggy
WorldPay
IT Team of the Year
Citi
Deutsche Bank
Exeter Family Friendly
Lloyds Banking Group (IT PM and BA Department)
LV= CIO department
National Australia Group Europe
Cloud Computing Innovation of the Year
Bank of America
BFA Bank/Diasoft
BlackLine Systems
Mambu
Workshare
Risk Management Software of the Year
Aon Benfield
Acclimatise
Fiserv
OpenGamma
Quantifi
SIX Swiss Exchange
TeleWare
TM Group
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
Xactium
Most Innovative Product of the Year
Adaptiva
ACI Worldwide
FircoSoft
Fluency Solutions
Landmark Information Group
Platform Black
SanDisk
SunGard Financial Systems
Tarmin
Technology Provider of the Year
Cinnober Financial Technology
Eze Castle Integration
Fixnetix
MarketsPulse
MphasiS
Perforce Software
Phoebus Software
PROFILE Software
S&P Capital IQ Real-Time Solutions
Sentronex
Online/Mobile Technology Provider
of the Year
AirWatch
Arxan Technologies
BlackLine Systems
CurrencyFair
Distribution Technology
MarketInvoice
Monitise
Quintessential Finance Group
Seven Investment Management
Truphone
Most Disruptive Financial
Sector Technology
Acquis Exhange
BATS Chi-X Europe
Citicom Solutions (UK)
Mambu
miiCard
NetPay
smartTrade Technologies
Tradable
TransferGo
Vizolution
Zapp
ZNAP
In association with Media partner
Barry Holland Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual AchievementTo be announced on the evening.
Overall winnerTo be announced on the evening.
Book Your Table Now: www.fstech.co.uk/awards
42-43_FStech-Awards.indd 2 10/02/2014 12:51:43
The report, created by PR bods Metia, contains contributions
from Aite Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Celent, Chartis
Research, Citisoft, Consult Hyperion, Deloitte, Everest
Group, Greenwich Associates, IDC Financial Insights, KapronAsia,
Lipis & Lipis, Mercator Advisory Group, Ovum and Pierre Audoin
Consultants. “We have gathered the views of 34 of the smartest
influencers in FinTech,” says Steve Ellis, CEO, Metia. “Some
sectors such as retail banking and cryptocurrency, are experiencing
a period of rapid innovation. Business practices in other areas,
such as payments, are being challenged as disruptive technologies
make their presence felt. Regulatory pressures are a constant;
institutions are looking to technology to help them deal with this
pressure. It’s an exciting time to be in FinTech.”
It is indeed. Credit where credit’s due, the report, weighing in
at 50 plus pages, for the most part succeeds in capturing the
sense of a sector in a state of flux. Yet seasoned FS technology
observers should note that they won’t find anything out of the
blue here or very many bold predictions. Bitcoin? Check.
NFC? Check. Big Data? Check. All present and correct. You get
the picture…
In terms of the latter, it was the big miss of 2013, according to
Daniel Mayo, practice leader, Ovum. “People thought it would
take off. There’s been a lot of hype, but it’s already moved to the
trough of disillusionment phase. The feedback from banks is that
they don’t want to hear another Big Data story. Use cases are low
and often less dramatic versus other issues which are more
pressing. It will come, but it won’t be as big as everyone
predicted,” he says.
Ben Keeler, director of practice development, Citisoft: “We
don’t see 2014 as the year Big Data arrives on the buy-side but
we do see managers leveraging tools born out of the Big Data
movement. Technologies like Hadoop were created to support
Big Data concepts and allow for better handling of large,
structured and unstructured data sets. Investment managers will
actively be evaluating these technologies in 2014 and their
findings will likely 1.) crystalise what the next generation data
warehouse will look like for the buy-side and 2.) drive investment
in next generation portfolio and security analytics tools.”
Progress is also being made in Asia Pacific banks. “We believe
that by 2020 most of the largest banking institutions in Asia will
have Big Data analytics capabilities,” comments Michael Araneta,
consulting and research director, IDC Financial Insights.
Don’t believe the hype
Bitcoin receives mixed reviews in the report. It has landed acres of
press coverage and whipped up an intensely loyal and enthusiastic
following, but regulatory uncertainty remains an obstacle.
“Regulators don’t yet know what to do with Bitcoin. Thailand has
banned digital currency exchanges outright; Germany has
acknowledged the currency as a legitimate transaction unit and
even collects sales tax on the transactions; and US federal
regulators have imposed daunting requirements that Bitcoin
exchanges get licensed as money transmitters and comply with
AML regulations,” says Julie Conroy, research director, Aite
Group. “Amid these ups and downs, Bitcoin’s value has fluctuated
f i n t e c h i n s i g h t 2 0 1 4
P A g e 3 8 f e B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
Hotright now
Scott Thompson reviews the FinTech Insight 2014 report, in which analyst houses and
consultancies provide viewpoints into the issues and technologies set to make their mark
in 2014, those on the wane, and those still to deliver
substantially but recouped lost value quickly, a sign of resilience.
It is too early to know whether Bitcoin and its brethren will
weather the storms necessary to make it to mainstream. To do so,
the currencies will need to sacrifice some of their outsider
standing and work within sovereign regulatory structures in order
to remove the uncertainty swirling around them. The question is
whether this can be accomplished while the currency retains the
efficiency that drives value in legitimate use cases.”
“The interesting thing about Bitcoin is in my opinion, and for
that matter in other people’s opinion, the technology of
maintaining the open and distributed ledger and the use of
cryptographic ‘proof of work’. But this is technical and as a
consequence it’s boring to journalists and no one understands it,”
says David Birch, global ambassador, Consult Hyperion. “The only
interesting thing about Bitcoin, if you don’t understand the
technology, is the ‘currency’ which has a wonderful creation myth
and a devoted following who display a fervour that is extraordinary.
Hence the tremendous media focus, on the wrong thing, the
appearance of an alternative to the state-issued, interest-bearing
flat currency money system.”
Gilles Ubaghs, senior analyst, Ovum, urges us to keep in mind
that, even if Bitcoin fails, the principle behind it still stands and a
more price stable system could easily arrive in its place.
NFC and social media fare less well. The former is given short
shrift by Thomas Zink, research manager, IDC Financial Insights.
“Most commercial NFC roll-outs have reached a state of ongoing
paralysis after the first wave of early adopters. Even in Japan and
Korea, where NFC saw a much larger uptake than elsewhere, it
remains a niche product for transit payments and students,” he
notes. “Those who have invested in mobile NFC are stuck having
spent too much money and effort to let go. The hope is that
consumers eventually will change their minds and embrace the
technology.”
And social media gets blasted out of the water by Celent. “It
will remain ‘cold’ in 2014. It is one of the most talked about
subjects but still very immature. Banks are having a hard enough
time managing basic social media interactions and security
threats and many have expressed concern that angry customers
are more likely to post comments than satisfied customers. Just
look at #AskJPMC. The list of companies that have had their
Twitter accounts hacked is almost endless, and the aftermath may
put into question doing more than simple customer support and
PR.”
So, those are the damp squibs, but what about the hits in
2014? Daniel Latimore, senior vice president, Celent, sees good
times ahead for core banking vendors. “The concept of ’rip and
replace’, if not dead, is in critical condition. Vendors who are
open to interoperability will have a leg up in 2014.”
“Moving away from rip and replace so that banks can conduct
projects in phases is very attractive and we’re seeing more
institutions moving in this direction,” observes Christine Barry,
research director, Aite Group.
Another area which is going to be hot in 2014 is
data lineage and data provenance, according to
Virginie O’Shea, senior analyst, Aite Group. “It
comes back to the need for an audit trail and
pushing ownership of data and responsibility
back on the business. Even the buy-side is
waking up to the need to improve data
governance and will continue working on
developing best practices over the next 12
months.”
Elsewhere, real-time payments has made
astonishing progress and 2013 was a
watershed year, argues Leo Lipis, managing director, Lipis
& Lipis. “Many of the innovators now sit in the
developing world, e.g. Nigeria, India, Chile, Brazil,
places you might not expect. Two of the largest
markers have also not made much progress; Europe
with SEPA and the US who voted against same day
payments at NACHA last year. The Fed Reserve has
initiated a public consultation on how to speed up
payments in the US but it is early days there.”
Finally, in the retail banking space tablets will take off. “Some
banks view this as just another channel and another cost. Where
banks have worked on a tablet app with responsive design,
you get an uptick in activity through cross selling,” Deloitte
points out.
It also notes that there has been noise around social credit
models with firms such as Kreditech, Neo Finance and Lenddo
that are generating credit scores using social data. The
advancement of computer processing capability, improvements
in analytical software, reduction in the cost of storage
combined with the widespread adoption of social media have
facilitated this.
And it wouldn’t be a FinTech predictions report without at
least one mention of Google Glass. The next big thing or a load
of nonsense? Deloitte is sitting on the fence. “Banks globally
have talked about bringing out an app. It will be interesting to
see if this is something to watch and whether of not it will gain
wider adoption.”
IDC Financial Insights’ Zink, however, goes out on a limb. “I
don’t think mobile NFC or wearables will change the way we pay.
Expanding the forecast to 2020, I have doubts whether there will
be a need for proximity payments in the first place. While
consumers will still pay at shops and restaurants, commerce will
have virtualised. Whether the price is displayed as a barcode, an
NFC tag, or in another way won’t matter. Payment technologies
will have converged to provide the consumer with the simplest
and most convenient solution.”
And he concludes: “As for 2030, cash will still be king.”
Good news for consumers, who still like and trust coins and
notes. Bad news for the banks and card schemes who would like
it gone asap.
f e B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A g e 3 9
On the brink?Freddie McMahon, head of innovation and strategy at FusionExperience, looks at
how the FS industry is facing competition from a growing range of challengers
As the global economic outlook improves, the FS
market is focusing on how it can return to growth.
However, everything from new banking entrants to
virtual currencies and innovations in digital transactions has
created major changes that threaten the dominance of the
UK’s “big banks”. As a result, financial services is on the
brink of a transformational era with its entrepreneurial
energy creating the potential for long-term change.
Challengers to the big five banks are focused on using
behaviour economics to drive customer acquisition and
make significant inroads into traditional banking. For exam-
ple, Tesco Bank recently announced that £12 billion a year is
spent using its credit card by 6.8 million customers. As a
result, it is now planning to offer current accounts to con-
solidate its position in the market. With large amounts of
capital and a captive customer base, supermarkets have a
significant opportunity in the FS space. By using available
data to detect behavioural patterns, retailers can use the
margins in their financial products to influence behaviours.
For example, by identifying customers who prefer short-term
lending, retailers can offer consumers discounts or promo-
tions to encourage spending on financial products with
lower-interest rates.
In addition, some of the most successful challengers to
traditional banks are joining the market with simple products
that have a lower-level of risk. Fast-growing institutions, such
as Metro Bank, are launching ‘stores’ on the High Street that
offer simple services so they can reduce the overheads asso-
ciated with compliance and capital adequacy requirements.
Adopting this approach allows new challengers to quickly
achieve scale. Within the last year, Metro Bank has doubled
the number of customer current accounts and raised almost
£400 million to fund future expansions plans including the
creation of 200 new branches by 2020. Alternative lending
platforms have also invested in technologies that collate
unstructured data to build a single-customer-view. As
demand for lending exceeds supply, new entrants are using
algorithms to determine risk profiles in a matter of minutes
and based on a combination of richer data sources than
banks. Everything from social media interactions, web his-
tory, purchasing behaviour and previous correspondence can
be captured and used as the basis of instant lending deci-
sions to grow market share. The big players are also coming
under increasing pressure from new online entrants, such as
crowdfunding firms like seedrs.com and spacehive.com,
which are continuing to emerge all the time. The rate of
growth for new platforms is so rapid, that the Massolution
Report recently revealed that European crowdfunding vol-
umes grew 65 per cent in 2012 to $945 million; donations
crowdfunding grew by 85 per cent; lending-based crowd-
funding grew 111 per cent and equity-based crowdfunding
grew 30 per cent.
A raft of digital giants are also setting themselves up to
displace some of the capabilities traditionally reserved for
banks. For example, Apple and Google are rapidly evolving
monetary wallets for mobile devices linked with near field
communication payments for payments ‘on the go’.
Smartphones are facilitating this change in behaviour and
companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and
Amazon are acting as intermediaries, which pioneer stored
monetary value. Whilst this evolution has been happening
for some time, such developments will allow digital compa-
nies to use stored monetary value as a ‘living current
account’ that effectively bypasses the banks. The emerging
acceptance of virtual currencies has also contributed to the
beginning of a paradigm shift in modern micro monetary
systems. Whilst there are still question marks hanging over
the longevity of Bitcoin, it is placing pressure on organisa-
tions to create a system that enables frictionless money
transfer. Bitcoin has grown its reputation as a peer-to-peer
digital currency that offers a secure financial system inde-
pendent of traditional banks. In addition, low-cost or non-
existent transaction fees have driven the uptake of Bitcoin
among online retailers who can increase sales margins by
accepting it as a method of payment. So far, Overstock.com,
Zynga, OKCupid, and WordPress have all signed-up to using
it. As the FS industry approaches a stage where serious
money is invested in virtual currencies, it is likely that we will
see brands, for example, Apple and Amazon, start to create
their own virtual currencies. It is now only a question of time
before the banking industry reaches a tipping point where
the redistribution of cash liquidity materially impacts banking
as we know it today. The convergence of so many different
entrants into the financial services sector means it is becom-
ing even more important for financial providers to sense-
and-respond to the changing market dynamics being driven
by consumers. As a result, Big Data is becoming the differen-
tiator of FS providers who need to understand customer
behaviours and anticipate changes in the consumption of
services. Collecting, connecting and correlating data has
become a ‘must have’ for any firm providing financial prod-
ucts for informed, timely and actionable decisions that keep
pace with the rate of change. The traditional banks need to
become data-driven businesses in order to effectively com-
pete against the combination of new entrants and an ever
fickle, increasingly demanding customer.
P A G E 4 0 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
c o m m E n t
• Understand the global trends and spending by your global competitors• Discover the latest advances in ultra low latency networks• Discuss the security issues involved with cloud and hybrid solutions – and how to solve them• Debate the concept of private build networks vs managed services• Gain insight from our case studies into how other leading organisations are building high performance networks utilising technologies such as lean packets, coherent optical transport and software defined networking (SDN).
Webinar, exclusive to FStech
The infrastructure at theheart of the financial sector
Don't miss your chance to attend - Register now at:
www.fstech.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, 25th March 2014
Time: 11:30 - 12:30
Join our hosts to discuss the above mentioned issues, trends and concepts
Scott Thompson is Group Editor at FStech. He has been working in journalism for 14 years, during which time he
has held senior editorial positions at and contributed to a number of business and technology-related publications.
Chris Janson is currently Sr. Industry Market Manager, Financial and Public Sector with Ciena and an adjunct
lecturer at Northeastern University in Boston, where he teaches courses in product development and engineering
economy. He holds an MBA from Boston University and Bachelor of Science from Wentworth Institute of Technology.
FStechFStech
41_webinar.indd 2 12/02/2014 14:25:32
t a l k i n g p o i n t
Industry reaction to the news that the European Commission has announced an extension of the deadline for SEPA compliance by six months.Tony Virdi, vice president and head of
banking and financial services in the UK
& Ireland, Cognizant: “This will no doubt
come as a welcome relief to many UK
organisations. While major banks have
already started advising and guiding their
corporate clients in readiness for
migration, there are too many FIs who
were unsure whether the immediate
migration date of 1 February 2014
applied to them, so have not started
planning for SEPA migration yet.
Ultimately, if they have subsidiaries,
branches or even bank accounts within
Eurozone countries, they will need to be
SEPA compliant within the year. This
extension shows that the EC recognises
many are not ready and gives them a
grace period, but they still need to react
swiftly to be ready on time.
Ensuring SEPA compliance isn’t a quick
fix; the level and scale of change depends
on the individual organisation and
companies need to work closely with
banks to ensure they are compliant. This
requires effective planning and
communication to determine the right
solution and process ahead of the
deadline. Eurozone corporates still have
some way to go to meet even the
extended deadline of SEPA compliance.
The challenge is that the banks need to
work with their corporate clients as a
trusted partner to explain the rationale
for the approach to compliance. This,
alongside the wider economic issues in
the Eurozone is proving a challenge, and
take-up is slower than anticipated. Plans
need to be put in place to respond to this
in a timely and effective manner.
Internationally, there are success stories
we can learn from to help a successful
migration even with this delay. In Finland,
for example, due to timely preparations, a
clear schedule, strong relationships with
software companies to help them with
this change and continuous collaboration
with all parties involved, SEPA migration
has been smooth and it is this level of
in-depth planning that the UK market can
learn from.”
Jonathan Williams, drector of strategic
development, Experian: “We welcome
the European Commission statement on
the introduction of an additional six
month transition period to help migrate
euro payments to SEPA. Whilst it is
regrettable that all payment service
users in the Eurozone will not be ready
by the original deadline of 1 February
2014, the lack of migration to the new
standards has been proven for a long
while and specifically the percentage of
direct debits has lagged far behind what
was expected. The figures being used by
the Commission and the European
Central Bank are certainly more up-to-
date than those published for November
transactions which revealed 64.1 per
cent of credit transfers and only 26 per
cent of direct debits were processed
using the new schemes. It is therefore
unsurprising that the authorities have
taken this decision, although we have
before suggested that a moratorium on
penalties for non-compliance was
likely.
This still leaves some key questions
unanswered: Who will legislate to
waive the provisions of the SEPA
regulation and when can this be
done? Can payment service providers
process old Euro transactions using new
SEPA schemes and, if so, will they be
forced to? Who will bear the cost of
running the old systems for six months
longer, if that is necessary? What will
happen if a payment fails because it
does not comply with the SEPA
technical requirements? Who bears
the cost and effort in repairing and
re-processing it?
The organisations which remain
behind schedule have been given a six
month reprieve to get their house in
order. For businesses in this situation, this
is their last chance to get compliant by
working with a payment service provider
to upgrade the necessary software and
processes, as well as verifying data
where necessary. As non-compliant
businesses have effectively been issued a
reprieve with this extension to 1 August
2014, it may be that the EC will interpret
rules more strictly and penalties may be
levied. For businesses still to make the
transition, the risk of being made an
example of and fined heavily is too high
to chance.”
Neil Burton, director of product strategy,
Earthport: “Small businesses are
dependent on cash flow and governments
cannot let them suffer, as they would if
they’re not ready to transact payments
by February when the SEPA deadline is
eventually reached. Most regulated
financial service providers stepped up to
the challenge – Earthport had to delay
other developments to be SEPA-ready by
the deadline. The efficiencies gained by
treating cross-border Euro payments as
domestic payments are designed to bring
benefits to all users of the system.
Enforcement is needed so that these
benefits can start being realised.”
talking point
Ensuring SEPA compliance isn’t a
quick fix.
p a g E 4 2 F E B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4
ANIMAGOTECHNOLOGYEVENT † Register before 19:00 on 03.03.14 and Connected Business will waive the standard admission fee of £35
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– Customer Experience - Future Trends & Insights
– Driving insight from Customers: the Science of Big Data
– In or Out: The case for remote working
– Who's Leading the Change - Collaboration Starts here - Unlocking the Potential of Employee Engagement
For the full programme visit www.connected-business.co.uk and register yourself and your team today!
Untitled-1 1 24/01/2014 10:10:27
Infosecurity Europe is the largest and most attended information
security event in Europe. Held in London and taking place from
29 April to 1 May, it is a free exhibition featuring over 325
exhibitors and a diverse range of new products and services plus
a free education programme attracting visitors from every
segment of the industry across Europe.
Top three reasons for visitors to attend:
1. Keep-up-to-date/see what is new
2. Educate myself/my team
3. Talk to product experts or technical staff
Collect CPD/CPE credits
The Education Programme is shaped by the industry for the
industry. Addressing the latest challenges and industry needs it
will provide you with business critical insight, best practice and
practical case studies. Speakers include information security
thought-leaders from public and private sector end-users, policy-
makers and government, analysts, industry experts, service
providers and vendors.
Featuring five conference and seminar theatres and a
comprehensive programme of workshops and training courses,
the Infosecurity Europe Education Programme helps you to
further develop your career and learning.
Meet with the key industry players
From the New Exhibitor zone to the Country Pavilions, discover
the latest products and solutions of the local and international
scene. This is your best opportunity to receive expert advice and
to discuss your needs with key information security players.
Infosecurity Europe is the most important date in the calendar
for information security professionals across Europe. The
attendees reflect every segment of the information security
industry coming from key sectors including:
• IT distribution companies
• IT hardware, software, manufacturers and suppliers
• End-user information security professionals
• Government professionals
Infosecurity Europe 2014 Keynote Theatre
This year’s Keynote Theatre agenda will address the theme of
security as a business enabler, focusing on how a proactive,
resilient security strategy can add value to, and support growth
and transformation in the hyper-connected business. Bringing
together senior end-user practitioners from the public and
private sectors, policy-makers and analysts, the programme
will provide strategic insight, best-practice and real-life
experience, providing a unique opportunity for delegates
Show time
i n f o s e c e u r o p e
p A G e 4 4 f e B r u A r Y 2 0 1 4
FStech brings you its preview of the 19th
Infosecurity Europe event
to learn directly from the experts who are at the sharp-end
of information security. With panel discussions, presentations,
interviews and Q&A sessions, delegates will leave the
sessions with strategic insight and practical tips that will enhance
their personal skills and assist them in developing and
implementing a robust information security strategy for the next
12 months.
Supporting innovation and transformation
Information security is evolving, moving beyond technology to
become a business discipline. By developing risk-based,
intelligence lead security strategies, the information security
function is able to determine what the real level of risk is to the
business, and support decision-making within the organisation.
To do this the information security function needs to shake off
the reputation for being risk averse, stifling innovation, agility and
efficiency with strict controls and policies to become business
lead – sharing the risk appetite of the business whilst protecting
the enterprise with business lead strategies. So how can security
functions start thinking like the business and become a business
partner? How can business knowledge be brought into the
security team? How can security be integrated into agile business
practices and transformation? Keynote Theatre attendees will
gain insight into how to transform information security to truly
support the business.
Future-proofing information security and protecting legacy
systems
The pace of technological changes continues to increase.
As businesses become more connected than ever before
information security practitioners are tackling the dual challenges
of securing current legacy systems that are increasingly vulnerable
to new risks, whilst looking ahead at how to future-proof
tomorrow’s legacy. At the show attendees will benefit from the
opportunity to find out how to protect current legacy systems
and build resilience in current technology to protect against
future threats.
‘Applification’ of business and implications for security
As applications increasingly become an essential part of a
business, agile software development is critical to enable rapid
adaption and speed to market. At the same time, ‘applification’
throws up a host of information security challenges. Embedding
information security into software development is critical
to minimise vulnerabilities and ensure software meets
regulations and OWASP standards. At Infosecurity Europe 2014
attendees will discover how DevOps can be used to embed
security in the development lifecycle and how security and
development can work together to achieve best practice and
ensure the rapid delivery of secure applications to enable business
growth securely.
Attendees of the Keynote Theatre will also have the opportunity
to learn about business critical topics including building a
predictive threat intelligence capability, balancing security versus
usability, building transparency and trust in the supply chain, Big
Data security intelligence, Generation Y and information security,
and what’s new in cybercrime.
Speakers already confirmed to speak in the Keynote Theatre
include senior representatives from Skype, Pearson, Viacom
International Media Networks, Premier Farnell, Home Retail
Group, Rank Group, Travis Perkins, GE Capital and Amgen.
Alongside this, a host of other theatres will be running including
the Business Strategy Theatre, Technical Theatre, Security
workshop and the Information Security Exchange Theatre,
providing a format to meet all educational needs.
For more information about what’s on for 2014, the educational
sessions and to register for the event, visit: www.infosec.co.uk/
visiting.
f e B r u A r Y 2 0 1 4 p A G e 4 5
There are few technologies to have filled more column
inches in the past three years than contactless payments.
As distribution of cards and deployments of contactless-
enabled PoS terminals gathered pace, it seemed this form of
payment was finally being embraced into the mainstream. But
the industry remains fragmented and customer response
lukewarm. Is this technology really coming of age?
Predictably, the payments companies who have placed large
bets on contactless say a new day is dawning. In its annual results
statement at the beginning of the year, Visa said that its revenues
had climbed thanks to the “rapid adoption” of contactless
payments. UK consumers spent £460 million on Visa contactless
in the year to November 2013. This represents more than a
fourfold increase, from payments of just £96.7 million in 2012.
Mark Austin, director of contactless at Visa Europe, believes
the solid set of financials are representative of a shift in public
perception. “This is a sign of increased consumer awareness and
confidence, as well as the growth in acceptance,” he says.
Large-scale deployments have certainly helped contactless’
cause. Many High Street names, including the likes of Marks and
Spencer, McDonald’s and Boots, have kitted their stores out with
the technology. Likewise, card issuers have upped distribution of
contactless-enabled cards: one in three people in the UK
now have a card in their wallet or handbag. But the two
need to go hand in hand, says Mark McMurtie, director at
Payments Consultancy. “The issue with contactless is that it
has been a classic chicken and egg scenario,” he says. “Do
you issue the contactless cards before the retailers have
upgraded their acceptance infrastructure, or do you do it the
other way around?”
Raja Ray, product manager at VeriFone, admits that the case
for contactless isn’t attractive enough to entice IT directors to
upgrade their hardware before the end of the natural hardware
lifecycle. “In many retail segments, contactless by itself is
c o n t a c t l e s s
P a G e 4 6 F e B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4
Hannah Prevett attempts to wade through the hype surrounding contactless
Tipping point
probably not a compelling
enough proposition to demand a
proactive upgrade. So they’ll
implement it as they upgrade
their PoS systems and upgrade
their card acceptance systems,”
he says.
But Ray also suggests that
there will be increasing pressure
from consumers to accept
contactless – especially in light of
developments around mobile
payments (m-payments). “For
the first time there will be a
consumer demand that will
require filling. We’re going to
start seeing customers saying,
‘I’d like to use my phone because
I can see other people doing it.’
At the moment, there isn’t that
demand among customers,
although there’s demand in the
industry; retailers see the service
benefit.”
The retailer POV
The benefits for retailers are two-
fold. The first is a cost-saving
benefit, the second time saving.
Roy Ford, IT director at Spar,
realised merchants could save 40
per cent on processing fees if
customers paid by contactless.
Time savings are particularly applicable in high volume retailers,
such as a coffee shop or a Marks and Spencer at a train station in
central London. Both serve high volumes of customers –
particularly during peak times. Serving customers more quickly
can mean more cash ringing in the till.
Is the time-saving incentive similarly compelling for consumers?
Alex Kwiatkowski, head of financial insights Europe at analyst
firm IDC, is sceptical. “Is that convenience factor enough? Am I
in that much of a hurry that I’ve got to pay for my cup of coffee
by contactless because I could not wait the 30 seconds it takes
for me to hand over a £5 note and for the barista to give me
my change?”
Worries about security continue to hamper take-up too, says
Bernhard Lachenmeier, head of products and marketing at SIX
Payment Services. “Customer concerns about security is one of
the major hurdles to widespread uptake of contactless payments
so far,” he admits. Yet he’s not conceding defeat just yet. “That
is not to say that there is no hope of encouraging a change in
perception towards the technology. While many Europeans may
struggle to remember the days before chip and pin, this
technology was also met with hostility from consumers in its early
year,” adds Lachenmeier.
With more use, customers are likely to become less wary of
contactless and more attuned to its merits, says McMurtie. “Quite
rightly, consumers always have concerns, but these are dissipated
with usage, and also with reassurance from their bank and from
the retailer. A greater push towards education should help speed
up adoption.”
Visa Europe’s Austin agrees that retailers need to be educating
both their staff and customers about how the technology works.
“You do need to make customers aware that contactless is now
a payment option for them, and you need to make sure your staff
are confident in accepting contactless cards,” he says. And card
issuers need to play their part too, he adds. “Retail support is
crucial in encouraging consumers to use contactless payments,
but it’s not the only factor: there’s an onus on us and on
our members who issue contactless cards to do our bit to
encourage usage.”
With more than 36 million contactless cards now having been
issued in the UK and 300,000 merchants accepting payment
through this method, it seems this has reached a tipping point.
And the needle on the dial could be moved a few more inches by
some high-profile upcoming deployments. A major milestone will
be the roll-out of a contactless payment pilot by Transport for
London across the London transport network later this year.
Londoners can already tap their credit or debit card instead of an
Oyster Card on the capital’s buses, but a similar system is
expected to be implemented across the entire network later
this year.
There are other predictions for the medium-to long-term
future of alternate and contactless payments. M-payments is a
major growth area, says Lachenmeier. “The next step for
contactless will be incorporating NFC technology into smartphone
devices. With consumers increasingly completing a number of
day-to-day tasks from their mobiles, this could prove to be a
popular solution.”
“So far logistical issues have stood in the way of widespread
adoption of contactless technology via smartphones – mobile-
enabled contactless payments rely on the right deals between
credit card companies, banks, mobile manufacturers and mobile
networks. However, Visa has made moves to bring mobile
networks on board across Europe, which could be a sign that the
contactless revolution is on its way. Vodafone, Orange and
Telecom Italia signed deals with Visa across Spain, France and Italy
last year, so contactless smartphone technology will be one to
watch in 2014,” he predicts.
Gazing into the crystal ball, technologists conjure images in the
mind’s eye of paying for groceries via wearable technology. But
Kwiatkowski warns against technology for technology’s sake.
“Just because something is technologically possible, that doesn’t
make it operationally desirable.”
F e B R U a R Y 2 0 1 4 P a G e 4 7
To make the directory section as easy as possible to use, we have added an index of headings below. These are listed alphabetically in order for you to find the products and services you are looking to source.
c a l l 020 7562 2430 s o n i a . pat e l @ f s t e c h . c o . u k fa x 020 7374 2701o r 020 7562 2429 e m m a . s t o k e s @ f s t e c h . c o . u k
D i r e c t o r Y o f k e Y p l aY e r s
• Actionable Intelligence Solutions and Value-added Services• Call Centre Technology and Applications• Customer Experience Management• Core Banking and Payment Solutions• ERP / Business Solutions• IT Infrastructure Solutions
• IT Security Solutions• Mobile Voice Recording• Open Source Management Solutions• Payment Efficiency and Risk Solutions• Software Version Management & Development• Telecoms Provider
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FStechFStech
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FStech
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tech
FStech FStech
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tech
Red Box brings simplicity to digital recording, with flexible solutions that are easy
to specify, install and manage.
We focus on voice and data capture: Red Box software solutions cover
everything from storage and event logging, to retrieval, playback and analysis.
Our latest products incorporate web-based interfaces for worldwide access to
replay, configuration and maintenance.
We have over 20 years' experience and a strong reputation for innovation.
Little wonder, then, that Red Box solutions are used in over 120 countries.
Red Box Recorders LtdBradmore Business ParkLoughborough RoadBradmoreNottingham
NG11 6QA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)115 937 7100Fax: +44 (0)115 937 7494email: [email protected]
erp anD business solutions
customer experience management
eGain is a leading provider of cloud customer engagement solutions. Trusted by leading brands, eGain solutions help design and deliver smart, connected customer journeys across social, mobile, web, and contact centres. eGain solutions help leading financial services companies to improve contact centre effectiveness, increase customer loyalty and lifetime value, maximize ROI on web self-service, and deliver consistently excellent customer experiences.
For more information and inspiration on building multichannel customer journeys, visit http://customerjourney.egain.com/financial or contact us via www.egain.com
eGain Communications EMEA Ltd258 Bath RoadSloughBerks.SL1 4DX
t. +44 (0) 1753 464646e: [email protected]
core banking anD paYment solutions Auriga is a software solutions company, specialized in end-to-end systems that integrate the various delivery channels used in retail banking. The Company is a specialist provider of innovative multi-channel solutions to banks and other financial institutions, always focusing on shared and integrated architectures as enablers for the implementation of new distribution channels as well as for the promotion of cross-channel capabilities.
Auriga’s flagship solutions are WinWebServer (WWS), a unique cloud-based concept to manage all distribution channels consistently and with minimum effort, regardless of the manufacturer of the terminals, and PlainPay a mobile app integrated in WWS architecture, testimony of how Mobile technology can become a cross channel enabler in today’s banks’ multi-channel strategy.
Mrs. Antonella ComesMarketing & Communication Manager
Auriga Strada Vassallo,170125 Bari (BA)[email protected] [email protected] Phone: +39.080569211Fax: +39.0805692112
And visit us atWebsite: www.aurigaspa.com
call centre technologY anD applications
m-hance has over 25 years’ experience of implementing integrated ERP and CRM solutions which provide organisations with real-time business intelligence, effective resource allocation and improved customer management. m-hance’s core solutions are complemented by an innovative range of integrated cloud, mobile and social applications which improve productivity, cut costs and provide a rapid ROI. With over 100 financial services customers, including NCB and London & Capital, m-hance has the knowledge and solutions to improve your business’s competitive advantage. For further information, visit http://www.m-hance.com/sectors/financial-services/
m-hanceTrinity HouseBredbury Park WayStockportSK6 2SN
Tel: (0)161 406 2300E: [email protected]
Jan_February_2014.indd 1 10/02/2014 10:32:21
D I R E C T O R Y O F K E Y P L A Y E R Sc a l l 020 7562 2430 s o n i a . pat e l @ f s t e c h . c o . u k fa x 020 7374 2701
o r 020 7562 2429 e m m a . s t o k e s @ f s t e c h . c o . u k
erp anD business solutions
it infrastructure solutions
Eze Castle Integration is the leading provider of IT services to hedge
funds and investment firms. More than 600 funds rely on Eze Castle to
be their single source of strategic IT consulting and support in designing,
procuring and managing their infrastructure. Services include Outsourced
IT, Private Cloud, Disaster Recovery and BCP, Storage, Archiving and more.
Eze Castle Integration has offices in London, Boston, Chicago, Dallas,
Geneva, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco,
Singapore, and Stamford.
Eze Castle Integration9 Marylebone Lane2nd Floor, London, W1U1HL
Simon Eyre, Director of Service T: +44 (0)207 071 6835E: [email protected]
Dean Hill, Director of Sales EMEAT: +44 (0)207 071 6807E: [email protected]
it securitY solutions
IPL – Big Enough to Trust, Small Enough to CareIPL creates competitive advantage for Financial Institutions from Central Banks and
National Regulators to the world’s largest Building Society. Put simply, we have an
unparalleled pedigree of delivering high quality IT Software and Business Consultancy
solutions within the most complex, highly secure and regulated environments. We
facilitate advances in organisation’s data lifecycle management strategies by improving
data quality, data integration and data governance practices.
We have recently delivered Nationwide’s new online banking platform and its
underpinning multi-channel framework.
IPL – welcome to our world of intelligent business.
IPLEveleigh HouseGrove StreetBathBA1 5LR
T: +44 (0)1225 475 000E: [email protected]: finance.ipl.com
it securitY solutions
ValidSoft Limited provides the world's leading telecommunications-based authentication
solutions. Our cutting-edge technology presents the only integrated product set that provides
both card-based and electronic fraud prevention solutions. Validsoft's solutions include
real-time proximity-based card fraud detection (VALid-POS®), as well as Internet Out-of-Band
Man-in-the-Browser protection, Mobile based transactions and Voice Verification for Telephone
Banking through its VALid® solution. It is also the first commercially available four-factor
authentication solution through the combination of its own proprietary voice biometric
technology coupled with Proximity Correlation Analysis. The solutions are designed for mass
markets, in a highly cost effective and secure manner, yet are easy to use, intuitive and lever-
age the most ubiquitous devices available. ValidSoft is the only security software company in
the world to be awarded the European Privacy Seal for their product, VALid-POS®, which
certifies its compliance with European Data Protection law.
ValidSoft (UK) Ltd 9 Devonshire SquareLondon EC2M 4YF United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 3170 8125www.validsoft.com
EASY SOFTWARE UK was founded in 1990 and is Europe’s foremost provider of integrated document management technologies with more than 12,000 customers worldwide.
UK customers include the Co-Op, Anglian Water and The Premier League.
We are a Microsoft Gold Partner and the second largest global provider of SAP archiving solutions. We promote our document management solutions through a network of 200+ global sales partners. EASY ENTERPRISE™, our flagship solution includes packaged solutions for invoice processing, contract management and HR records management.
EASY SOFTWARE
T: +44 1284 727870F: +44 1284 727871E: [email protected]: www.easysoftware.co.uk
mobile voice recorDing
Red Box brings simplicity to digital recording, with flexible solutions that are
easy to specify, install and manage.
We focus on voice and data capture: Red Box software solutions cover
everything from storage and event logging, to retrieval, playback and analysis.
Our latest products incorporate web-based interfaces for worldwide access to
replay, configuration and maintenance.
We have over 20 years' experience and a strong reputation for innovation.
Little wonder, then, that Red Box solutions are used in over 120 countries.
Red Box Recorders LtdBradmore Business ParkLoughborough RoadBradmoreNottingham
NG11 6QA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)115 937 7100Fax: +44 (0)115 937 7494email: [email protected]
Jan_February_2014.indd 2 10/02/2014 10:32:23
D I R E C T O R Y O F K E Y P L A Y E R Sc a l l 020 7562 2430 s o n i a . pat e l @ f s t e c h . c o . u k fa x 020 7374 2701
o r 020 7562 2429 e m m a . s t o k e s @ f s t e c h . c o . u k
telecoms proviDer
Worksmart Technology is a Mitel Managed Services Specialist Partner providing One Voice hosted communications, mobile communications and collaboration solutions throughout the UK. With its head office in London, Worksmart Technology has been providing innovative and customer-focused IP based communications services since the year 2000 and offers the complete range of desktop telephony services, call management and recording, mobile, audio and web based conferencing and collaboration solutions, with flexible monthly rental terms and outstanding customer service.
For more information go to www.worksmart-uk.com [email protected] 0207 921 8900
WORKSMART TECHNOLOGYHarling House47-51 Great Suffolk StreetLondonSE1 0BS
Tel: 020 7921 8900Fax: 020 7921 8901
software version management & Development
Perforce Software
The financial services sector is under constant pressure to reduce cost,
consolidate IT systems, and search for higher margin. Perforce enterprise version
management solutions help development teams keep projects in compliance and
on schedule. With Perforce, IT and the business work in concert on important
digital assets, including software code, documents, multimedia, spread sheets,
images and more. Over 100 financial services organisations, such as NYSE
Euronext, Deutsche Bank, Moody’s, and SunGard, use Perforce to develop
compliant, secure enterprise applications.
European HQ:West Forest GateWellington RoadWokinghamBerkshire, RG40 2ATTel: +44 (0) 845 345 0116Email: [email protected]: www.perforce.com
open source management solutions
Offering award-winning software and consulting, Black Duck is the partner of choice for open source adoption, governance and management. According to Gartner, “by 2015 at least 95 percent of IT organisations will leverage open source within mission critical software deployments, but less than 50 percent will have effective governance programs.”
We help financial services organisations harness the power of open source technologies and methods for faster innovation and improved efficiency by:
• Reducing operational and security risk• Ensuring regulatory and organizational compliance• Maintaining quality when software is built from externally-sourced code • Managing code across the application lifecycle
Black DuckUnited Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 3290 0770E: [email protected]
paYments solutions
VocaLink designs, builds and operates world-class payment systems and ATM switching platforms. It operates the UK national payments infrastructure, a national grid for payments. Last year it processed over 10 billion UK transactions: value £4.9 trillion.
VocaLink, with its vision and proven capability, is leading the way in payments. It provides the infrastructure for the Faster Payments Service, which helps businesses and individuals realise the value and benefit of real-time payments. VocaLink is at the forefront of mobile payments, driving a new era of ultra-convenient commerce.
VocaLinkDrake HouseHomestead RoadRickmansworthWD3 1FXUnited KingdomTel: +44 (0) 870 165 0019Email: [email protected]
A member of China Telecom Global Limited (CTG), China Telecom Europe (CTE) is
CTG’s business arm for EMEA region. Headquartered in London, CTE has 6 wholly-
owned subsidiaries and representative offices in EMEA. Leveraging its state-of-the-
art Euro-Asia Network (ENS), and CTG’s extensive international infrastructures, CTE
provides world-class integrated communication solutions to meet the ever growing
demands of multinational enterprises, carriers and telecommunication service
providers. CTE’s comprehensive portfolio of services delivers industry-leading
resilience, speed and diversity to meet the stringent requirements of partners and
customers, which include many Fortune Global 500 companies.
China Telecom (Europe) Limited
2nd Floor, Bellerive House
3 Muirfield Crescent,
London, E14 9SZ, United Kingdom
T: 0044 (0)20 75377156
Fax: 0044 (0)20 75377044
http://www.chinatelecomglobal.com/
Jan_February_2014.indd 3 10/02/2014 10:32:30
s i g n i n g o f f
f E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 P A g E 5 1
The most tweeted
FStech Online (www.
fstech.co.uk) stories in
December/January....
1. 2014 FStech Awards: shortlist announced
Barclays, Nationwide Building
Society, RBS, Lloyds Banking Group,
Fiserv, BT and Misys are among the
companies shortlisted for the 2014
FStech Awards. See pp. 8 - 9 for
more details.
2. UK banks onboard with Zapp
HSBC, first direct, Nationwide,
Santander and Metro Bank are to
offer Zapp mobile payments to 18
million customers across the UK.
3. M-payments: innovation, disruption, consolidation
This year will see continued
technology and service innovation in
the mobile payments space,
according to Ovum.
4. M&A gaming? ansarada has an app for that
The world’s first M&A game app has
been launched by virtual dataroom
provider ansarada.
5. Brits flock to deal/incentive/review sites
The increasing savviness of British
consumers’ in finding the best deals
generated £14 billion in sales via
price comparison, voucher,
cashback, loyalty and product review
websites in 2013.
6. Nedbank migrates to FLEXCUBE
South Africa’s Nedbank has selected
Oracle FLEXCUBE to modernise its
infrastructure and improve operating
efficiency and customer service
delivery.
t o P o f t h E t w E E t s
Book review
Title: Cybersecurity:
Managing Systems,
Conducting Testing, and
Investigating Intrusions.
Author Thomas J.
Mowbray. Publisher: Wiley,
Price: £42.50 (paperback
and e-book). Reviewed by Francis Stokes.
The market is not short of variation when it
comes to books about computer security. From
professional reference to casual hobbyist,
penetration to defence, all share a common
thread. So when I came upon this book by Dr.
Thomas Mowbray, I expected more of the same,
but what I actually got was something a little
different. Initially covering a series of antipatterns
(the idea that for any problem, there are one or
more responses that are widespread and
persistent, yet ineffective for purpose) the first
chapter’s format illustrates a problem, starting
usually with a catchy buzzphrase like “webify
everything” and “you can’t patch dumb”,
presenting the typical (inadequate) approach,
and finally a proposed solution. I was taken
aback by lack of technical depth for both the
problem and solution, and actually felt a little
disappointed. But after reading the entire text it
seemed that this book wasn’t written for me, a
programmer and enthusiast, but instead for
someone in an enterprise/management position.
What I perceived to be a lack of depth turned
out to be a careful and intentional laying of
foundations. The language and format used to
discuss these ideas in the early stages seems
more an attempt at not scaring an unfamiliar
reader away, preventing an anxiety that could
easily occur from the introduction of such a
large topic. Curiously, the “Who this book is
for” section claims to address graduates in
cybersecurity and professionals already in the
field, who in my own opinion should have a
working knowledge of most of the book’s
content. Dr Mowbray is obviously a competent
security professional, but is versed in the dark
and sacred art of being able to transcribe ideas
to non-technical members of management.
Interestingly, throughout the text he laces in his
seal of approval and support for the SANS
institute’s GPEN certification (a qualification Dr
Mowbray has obtained), and subtle put downs
to the CISSP, a recognised standard in computer
security.
The material covers an array of more basic
topics, such as Linux software installation from
source and packages, explanations of different
types of anti malware measures, their
applications and usage, network administration,
specifying details applicable to virtual machines
when appropriate, and an intro to imaging and
installing Backtrack, a well known and trusted
build of Linux built with security, pen testing
and exploit creation in mind. By the time the
first hints of network traffic analysis come in,
the reader is halfway in and has been well and
truly primed. There are sections on BASH shell
and python programming, which like many of
the sections in this book, feels a little like a light
speed crash course, only glossing important
concepts in a sentence or two. For these tools
to be used effectively in any context, more than
a few pages are required. The “Assignments”
section at the end of the chapter doesn’t
encourage further reading in these areas either,
only that the user should copy out the programs
parrot fashion, in a kind of code-by-numbers
style. This is somewhat understandable since
the text aims to cover such a range of topics,
but without attributing a weight of importance,
it would be easy for the reader to get lost in the
sea of the rapidly changing discussion. Common
areas of exploitation are similarly glossed, with
buffer overflow and SQL injection explained side
by side as if closely related.
The final sections deal with securing small
and large businesses in different ways, mainly
through the education of both employees and
end users, and through good practices such as
keeping software up-to-date. If you are looking
for a text to take you in depth with the gritty
aspects of buffer overflow, XXS, or SQL
exploitation, this may not be the book for you.
However if you are a professional in a non
technical management role looking to gain the
understanding needed to enhance
communication within an organisation, this is
the best option. If you use this book as a Rosetta
Stone, and not a reference manual, you will
most certainly see its value.
![arXiv:1402.2690v1 [physics.flu-dyn] 11 Feb 2014for simulating external aerodynamics problems using the JST (Jameson-Schmidt-Turkey)scheme or upwind schemes [17–29]. Some concerns](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/610ae6b32f265c0f21418e96/arxiv14022690v1-11-feb-2014-for-simulating-external-aerodynamics-problems.jpg)
