Much work has been done to standardise and automate fund processing, with several commercial solutions available, but the cost of processing fund transactions is still significantly higher than for bonds or equities and this is hampering critical mass. Is a more centralised market infrastructure needed to tackle processing costs? Writer Frances Maguire
Banks have so far been wary of adopting remote cloud-computing services, often because of security concerns. However, cloud operators are posing a threat to existing companies across a spectrum of businesses, and banks cannot afford to ignore the public cloud for long. Writer Phil Jones
Likhit Wagle, IBM's global leader for banking and financial marketsBanks will be forced to make profound changes to their business strategies- and their technology - to prop up their return on equity. However, messy and conflicting legacy IT systems have developed into a 'hairball' that threatens to choke banks' efforts to streamline. Writer Phil Jones
From revamping the humble ATM to eradicating time-consuming coin transactions, the banking world's technology teams have surpassed themselves over the past 12 months when it comes to problem solving and money saving. The Banker's Innovation in Banking Technology Awards celebrates those behind the industry's brightest ideas.
The rise of the so-called 'Generation Y' customer base has major implications for the way in which retail banks operate: from channel strategy to the manufacturing process, product design and risk management, the traditional retail banking model will have to change dramatically if it is to successfully capture the imagination of this discerning, tech-savvy customer segment. In this Masterclass, Michelle Price, business editor of The Banker, and Senthil Kumar, vice-president of global financial services marketing at Oracle, discuss the issues.
The iPhone could potentially make major inroads into the underutilised world of mobile banking and consumer finance with its easy-to-use interface and ever-growing range of cheap, downloadable applications. However, obstacles remain. Writer Nicholas Pratt
In response to pressure from the Reserve Bank of India, Indian banks have made huge investments in modernising their IT infrastructure during the past 10 years. But there is still much work to be done, particularly around customer relationship management, payments and financial inclusion. Writer Rekha Menon
The recent management reshuffle at business software maker SAP led to the departure of the chief executive Leo Apotheker. His replacement as one of two co-CEOs, former head of product development, Jim Hagemann Snabe, gave his view of the post-crisis world in an interview with The Banker's editor Brian Caplen at Davos just before the announcement of his promotion.
Inconsistent reference data is an ongoing industry-wide problem that leads to time-consuming trade breaks and results in millions of dollars of unnecessary annual expenditure. The industry is considering creating a centralised reference data utility that would provide a global store of transaction information. In this Masterclass, John Mason, CEO of SmartStream's DClear Utilities, outlines the industry's efforts to address them. Writer Michelle Price
Identity cards have been largely welcomed by the banking sector for their ability to efficiently prove customers' ID when they open accounts or enrol for new products and services - and it is only a matter of time before their use increases, with economies around the world introducing variations of the fast-growing technology. Writer Wendy Atkins
Banks' back offices were exposed by the recent crisis as inefficient, lacking in scalability and ripe for increased regulatory scrutiny. Policy-makers and regulators, meanwhile, began to call for the creation of centralised industry utilities, in a bid to reduce the systemic risk associated with the trading, processing and clearing of a variety of complex products.