South African company Aplitec saw a gap in the payments market and devised a cheaper alternative to the EMV standard. Stuart Theobald explains how this upstart company has stolen a march on the global card giants.Smart cards have heralded a technical revolution in payments systems across the globe. But the industry smart card standard Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) is not without its challengers. One that has caught the attention of Visa particularly is a small South African IT company called Aplitec.
How should banks meet the challenge of growing competition from retailers for financial services? And where should their technology priorities lie? Bill Hartnett, financial services manager at Microsoft, gives Parveen Bansal some pointers.Software giant Microsoft is well known not only in the consumer world, but it has also made serious inroads into the financial services sector, where it commands the majority market share in the server and desktop computer operating systems areas.
TowerGroup estimates that total IT spending in the global financial services industry will rise 4% from nearly $334bn in 2003 to just over $347bn in 2004. Continuing this growth pattern, total IT spending will increase to $379.2bn by 2006, at a compound annual rate of 4.5% from 2004. Banking customers, both corporate and individual, demand superior service and are taking note of their institutions’ performance gaps vis-à-vis other service industries. Innovation will shift dramatically from the traditional, vertically focused dimension of banking products to a horizontal integration of new service breakthroughs by virtue of a federation of alliances and partnerships. Bank business strategy will shift from short-term cost cutting mandates to long-term value and revenue growth.
There are signs that volume in exchange-traded derivatives is growing faster than over-the-counter products. Frances Maguire examines the drivers behind this trend and the impact of clearing on trading in capital markets.Standardised exchange-traded contracts have always represented the tip of the iceberg, dwarfed by the volumes carried out by banks over the counter in the form of complex, structured, customised instruments. While this is still the case and both continue to grow, a study – published by Morgan Stanley and Mercer Oliver Wyman in June 2003 – found that for the preceding 18 months, exchange-traded derivatives had grown faster than off-exchange products for the first time in a decade.