We had an interesting dinner this week talking about customer onboarding. The focus was on counterparty banks and corporate account opening processes, and the ongoing challenges therein. In a nutshell, due to the documentary and regulatory requirements for proof of identity and trust, the account opening process is the worst part of banking and can…
Last month, I posted an update on the comparisons between Apple, Google and Samsung’s mobile wallets, so this month I thought it worth comparing their adverts. Let’s start with Apple Pay. The tagline is: If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone. I guess the marketing guys spent an age coming up with that…
I just found some interesting research about how banks in Europe are reacting to the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), and what other banks worldwide think about it. PSD2 is a work-in-progress European regulation that will impact financial institutions already operating within the scope of the first Payment Services Directive of 2009. PSD2 extends the…
I was sitting the other day thinking about the good old days. In the good old days, if something was big and challenging, banks would get together and create a co-operative to solve the problem. SWIFT, Visa and MasterCard were all bank created co-operatives. Admittedly, times have changed and now Visa and MasterCard are private…
Following our regular weekly interview, the Finanser talks this week with one of Europe’s fastest growing unicorns, Klarna, in conversation with co-founder and Deputy CEO Niklas Adalberth, To begin with, perhaps you can tell me how you and your colleagues came up with the idea of Klarna. Sure. When we started this company, the entire…
What happens when the cost of payments reaches zero, the speed of payments is instant, and everyone globally can make and take a payment, what happens then? I just had an interesting chat with someone and realised two things: one is that we’re talking about moving away from batch to real-time, and that’s where the…
In the spring of 2015, the Financial Services Club ran an online survey, in collaboration with Cognizant and VocaLink, about the nature and state of the world’s largest payment processing infrastructures and whether they are fit for purpose. The survey reviewed the areas influencing payments; the technologies that have the most impact; the ability of…
The real way to crack the onboarding and criminal activity is to create strong and secure digital identities. We are moving in that direction, but it’s a long slow process. For ages now, I’ve written about getting rid of passwords and improving authentication using mobile technologies: Why is KYC so difficult? AML prevention lies in…
When you talk non-stop about digital, it sometimes gives you a reality check when you actually live life in a physical world. The frustrations of crashed systems, products that don’t work, call centre operators who aren’t co-operative and check-in staff who can’t check-in. Equally, there are the moments of pure bliss such as the smell…
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