IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Middle East and Africa (MEA) retail banks are the strongest believers in a cashless society, prioritizing digitalization to drive financial inclusion, according to a study released by Temenos. The report, prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit, reveals that the Middle East is poised to encourage digital financial inclusion, with young populations and smartphone use predicted to hit 74% by 2025. Of the 65 senior bankers in the region who responded, 6 in 10 think cash will dip below 5% of retail transactions in the next five years, compared to 48% globally.

 The “new normal” has placed an added importance on digital workers needed to automate mission critical tasks. Robotic process automation (RPA) pioneer, Blue Prism has been helping UK group Leeds Building Society handle the upsurge in customer enquiries over the deferral of mortgage payments. Payment holiday requests exceeded 2,000 a day and this is all now being handled by the RPA solution developed by Blue Prism for the building society. So, how should companies be managing their customer relations in the face of Covid-19? 

 Finastra has $1.9 billion in revenues, 10,000 employees and over 8,500 customers, including 90 of the top 100 banks globally. The firm’s focus in recent years has been very much centred around platform development and getting the customer experience right. Anand Subbaraman of Finanstra explains how platformification is evolving from its original focus on retail banking. 

 Pelican offers an open API interoperability hub and is seeing increasing interest from banks in this area as they look to capitalise on the opportunities of open banking. The firm believes a highly functional API development and deployment environment is essential for banks to provide innovative solutions. In this interview Pelican’s Founder and CEO, Parth Desai, and the firm’s Sales Director, Abhinav Desai review the state of play in open banking in the UK and across Europe.

 Small businesses represent 43% of the US economy, yet many are struggling to access Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, under the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Many US banks are unable to offer services to new small business customers in a timely manner, due to the complex nature of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules and obligations. Fenergo has launched a plug-and-play solution that allows US business and commercial banks to digitally onboard new clients, while digitally satisfying Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and BSA requirements, reducing the time to onboard and rapidly process new PPP loan applications. 

The password is a dying breed, and biometrics and digital identities are taking its place. However, consumers are still cautious when it comes to using fingerprints, facial recognition and voice to authenticate payments. In this episode, reporter Sunniva Kolostyak speaks to Daniel Kornitzer at Paysafe about embracing the benefits of biometrics and raising awareness. 

Most people in the UK still use a traditional bank as their primary account, with digital banks typically used for other secondary activities. However, in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, we’ve seen people turning to FinTech apps, with usage increasing 72%. The disruption of the global pandemic will expose the gaps in traditional banks’ digital infrastructure and could see many providers accelerate modernisation plans to meet the demand for digital service. Since the outbreak began, cash usage has halved, and consumers are increasingly opting for other methods of payment such as Apple Pay. The rise of the contactless payment limit mirrors these behavioural changes, but does this really mean the death of cash in the long term?

 Strong Customer Authentication is coming. Or is it? The Covid-19 pandemic may be a factor in a further delay to SCA but it is not the only rock in the path over which the plans may stumble. Paul Rodgers, Chairman of Vendorcom and panel member at the UK Payment Systems Regulator, outlines the issues facing the adoption of SCA. Vendorcom is a multi-stakeholder membership organisation that connects seekers, solvers and shapers in the European Payments Community. Rodgers believes regulators and card issuers must take a more pragmatic stance during this unusual period. 

 Within the Finance and IT sectors, data analytics solution provider iDelta believes many are very well placed to continue to operate on a business as usual footing in the face of the pandemic. While finance sector PLCs are inherently risk averse, iDelta believes there is a broader risk attached to any cancellation or suspension of programmes of work – many SMEs in the sector would be forced to scale back, resulting in further job losses. There is an opportunity here for finance sector PLCs to help by maintaining or increasing the volume of project work, keeping staff, suppliers and contractors engaged so that the finance sector of the economy is part of the economic solution rather than another part of the problem. 

More than half a trillion real-time payments transactions will be processed over the next five years, according to a report from Florida-based payments group ACI Worldwide and Global Data. The report analyses global real-time, account-to-account payment volumes and forecasts across 30 global markets, projecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4% from 2019 to 2024.India is poised to lead the world in real-time payments volume over the next five years, with transaction volumes set to grow from 15.3 billion in 2019 to 52.8 billion in 2024. Additional key countries and regions to watch for real-time payments growth include the US (42.1% CAGR growth), the Nordic countries of the P27 initiative (20.9% CAGR growth), ASEAN (39.0% CAGR growth) and Europe. Among the countries relatively new to real-time payments, Malaysia, Finland and Belgium are predicted to have the most exponential growth in the next five years, with an expected CAGR of 176.5%, 90% and 67.9%, respectively