Author: Charlie Burgess

An Inside Look at New Value: Crypto Trends in Business and Beyond

An Inside Look at New Value: Crypto Trends in Business and Beyond
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Ripple

This is a sponsored post by Ripple, Gold Sponsors of FinovateEurope in London, March 22 -23.

The blockchain industry saw some big changes last year, brought on by a maturing crypto landscape and the development of innovative new technologies.

Ripple set out to better understand and further analyze this rapid evolution through both primary and secondary research.  Our work included surveying more than 2,000 global financial institutions, business, individuals and developers to uncover the key perceptions and trends related to the tokenization, management, and movement of digital assets, as well as the adoption of the core technologies that encompass and underpin these trends.

We are excited to bring you our hot-off-the-press 2022 report “New Value: Crypto Trends in Business and Beyond” which spotlights key findings on the current state of blockchain and digital asset applications, including their benefits, blockers, and future use cases. This report includes a large section on payments, but also expands beyond payments to help the industry better understand how crypto solutions more generally are being used in both financial and business applications worldwide, and, beyond business, by governments and individuals as well.

The report is divided into four sections:

  • Tokenize: establishes the digital representation of value on the blockchain
  • Manage: wields tokenized value through holding, hedging, staking, lending, borrowing, etc.
  • Move: sends value from one place, person or organization to another, i.e. payments
  • Compliance

And within these four sections, it covers a variety of critical topics across the crypto landscape today. These topics include the emergence of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) — notoriety of the former grew rapidly while the latter remained largely in the research and development stage, though a number of countries are actively exploring the technology. While familiar to seasoned players in the space, the use of crypto for Decentralized Finance (DeFi), portfolio and capital management is advancing. And of course, payments leveraging crypto have continued to grow dramatically.

Industry Perception

As we’ve noted, the crypto and blockchain industry is maturing and with that, institutions and enterprises are realizing the potential benefits of applying this technology to their own organizations for a variety of use cases. Interestingly, enterprises tend to be more optimistic than financial institutions on the benefits of blockchain, the potential impacts and the enthusiasm to adopt this technology.

With last year’s explosion of popularity in NFTs, there is a growing number of interested individuals outside of what we’ve traditionally seen in this space. And there is a growing number of use cases that encompass functional NFTs (e.g. for ticketing, or voting) and business-oriented NFTs (e.g. representing real-world assets of various types). Given the agility and power of assets represented on the blockchain, the surge in creative use cases and interest among both individuals and businesses isn’t surprising.

Whether you are considering using CBDCs, NFTs, or cryptocurrencies, or anything else on a blockchain, sustainability should be taken into account. And, we confirmed, there is still a lot of progress to be made in educating consumers, institutions and businesses alike on the differences in carbon emissions between blockchains and the performance advantages of a sustainable blockchain.

Regional Perspectives

The report offers insight into interesting regional differences. Asia Pacific (APAC) is particularly optimistic about the value that blockchain technology can bring to individuals, businesses and institutions in the region. We highlight key findings around why APAC consumers are purchasing NFTs, the potential that APAC enterprises and financial institutions see in CBDCs, and more.

Research results draw parallels between our data on crypto’s positioning in Latin America (LATAM) and recent news of related current events in the region. New Value highlights the distinct stance LATAM financial institutions and businesses have taken on crypto related to payments, inflation and the impact this technology will have in the coming years. While respondents in Europe and North America see the value of these new technologies, they tend to be somewhat less optimistic about their impact than those in APAC or LATAM or MEA.

Looking Ahead

Findings from the New Value Report have far-reaching implications for more than just the financial services industry. Digital assets and the new technologies that drive them will have a profound impact on both the economy and the individual, the government and the artist, the enterprise and the unbanked, and everyone in between.

Download the report here for a comprehensive first look at the exponential climb toward the Internet of Value, and how crypto is paving the way.

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Finovate Webinar: Enhance Customer Lifetime Value and Optimize Operating Efficiency in Mortgage Processing

Finovate Webinar: Enhance Customer Lifetime Value and Optimize Operating Efficiency in Mortgage Processing
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar

Artificial intelligence and automation have been at the forefront of the financial services industry. This rapid digital acceleration driven by the pandemic has forced lenders to modernize their lending ecosystem to stay relevant in the new normal.

Today you know that the success of your business depends vastly on your ability to use technologies to harness the power of data and provide hyper-personalized products and services to your customers. However, only 40% of lenders believe they have the required digital capabilities to undertake such a transformation.

Watch for this intriguing discussion as top experts from Quantiphi discuss how AI-first digital engineering can re-imagine traditional lending processes to help you enhance customer lifetime value and reduce operating costs in this highly competitive business environment.

Featuring: 

  • Sanjeev Sethi, Head – Banking & Financial Services, Quantiphi
  • Vijay Mannur, Practice Head – Marketing Analytics, Quantiphi
  • Milind Wasaikar, Client Service Executive, Quantiphi
  • Moderated by: Julie Muhn, Senior Analyst, Finovate

Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels

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FinovateEurope 2022 eMagazine

FinovateEurope 2022 eMagazine
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Finovate eMagazine

It’s no secret that the last few years have been challenging ones, and the simple act of bringing our community together in the same space feels like a major accomplishment. So, while it’s great to be back at FinovateEurope 2022 in person in London, it’s not enough for us to simply be present. The last few years have brought about dramatic changes all over the world, and it’s clear that more changes are coming. The financial world has been searching for a new status quo since early 2020, and while we may be closer now to something more settled and sustainable, we still have some way to go before we get there.

The good news is that creativity in fintech abounds. The innovators and dreamers among us have given us new tools, technologies, and ideas to help us meet these challenging times, and steer our financial system towards a brighter future. 

Download the FinovateEurope 2022 eMagazine, to discover why now is a crucial moment for the fintech industry, and what leading fintech, banks and industry players are doing to create the kind of inclusive, resilient, streamlined financial ecosystem that fintech has been building towards for years.

Featuring: 

  • The FinovateEurope 2022 Fintech Trends Power Panel recording
  • On-demand Digital Demos, and the Best of Show winners (*when announced!) 
  • Going Green – more information on Finovate’s new Sustainability Scholarship for fintechs 
  • Women’s History Month interview with Meghan Lapides 
  • Exclusive interviews from back-stage at FinovateEurope 
  • And more!

Change is upon us; the question now is whether or not we use it to something meaningful.

Download now >>

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Simplifying the Financial Services Sector with Low-Code

Simplifying the Financial Services Sector with Low-Code
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Sponsored

This is a sponsored post by Paul Higgins, EMEA Banking Lead, Mendix, Silver Sponsors of FinovateEurope, March 22 – 23 in London.

Innovation in the banking sector has proven its value to society during the COVID-19 crisis. For example, during times of physical distancing, enabling contactless banking and offering bank employees the possibility to work remotely were particularly relevant. Looking to the future at a post-COVID, post-Brexit world, it’s time to reflect on how the sector has adjusted, the sweeping changes ahead and the challenges those changes present.

The burden of legacy tech

The number of regulators and ever-changing regulations can make the financial services industry a daunting place. Changes must be implemented quickly to ensure compliance and avoid significant fines. This means that IT delivery in a financial institution is often more complex and nuanced than in less regulated industries. Many organizations, particularly the more traditional banks, run on legacy monoliths that aren’t easy to make changes to. Such changes carry the risk of causing outages that can damage the reputation of the bank and can also incur fines. Just last month, Nationwide received negative press because of a payments outage around the time that many get paid and pay their bills.

Can a financial institution risk being left behind by not migrating off legacy systems?

Many banks try to reduce the risk of such outages at critical times of year, usually end of month, quarter, and year, by establishing “frozen-zones” that limit changes to IT systems to only those deemed as essential to the stability of the systems. Additionally, the appetite to replace legacy systems is very low due to the huge complexity and inherent risk involved – often the famous adage applies “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. But you have to ask, can a financial institution risk being left behind by not migrating off legacy systems?

Seeing off nimble fintechs

The pandemic showed how vital digital transformation is for every industry – people needed remote access to services, products, and their jobs. In the financial industry, the consumer-facing part is generally quite far in the digitalization journey, with most customers able to access online and mobile banking. Not so with corporate banking and internal employee access to systems. But according to McKinsey, in the case of remote working, companies moved 40 times more quickly than they thought possible before the pandemic. And the expectation is that the digital transformation journey will continue this acceleration.

In the past, accelerating digital transformation has required large teams of developers working non-stop on a single project for months. The pandemic highlighted that this was simply not sustainable. Tech teams need to be able to juggle between projects, adjusting their priorities as and when required. To do so, they require a different approach to their delivery.

Nine out of 10 IT leaders in financial services believe their firm will need to invest in digital projects over the next two years just to survive in a rapidly changing market.

Low-code provides a compelling answer to this new problem. Low-code platforms enable even the most traditional banks and financial services companies to compete with nimbleness of their fintech rivals. The time to act is now: recent Mendix research found that nine out of 10 IT leaders in financial services believe their firm will need to invest in digital projects over the next two years, just to survive in a rapidly changing market.

The value of low-code

Many banks in Europe have turned to cross-functional, agile teams to provide the collaboration needed to develop the solutions that answer customer needs and drive revenue growth. This requires providing both developers and non-developers with tools that enable them to operate together. And financial institutions that haven’t implemented such agile methods still recognize the value of close collaboration between business and IT.

The Mendix low-code platform is a recognized market leader because it fosters this collaboration by providing two integrated development environments: one for non-technical people, often from the business side, and another for pro developers. This enables non-technical staff to work hand in hand with the development team in creating applications.

Both the technical and non-technical teams use the same visual development language to develop apps, bringing together those that understand the business problems with those that understand the IT landscape, core systems, and services to contribute to the vision of a product. And IT stays in control through built-in governance and guardrails that ensure compliance with the established standards of the organization.

It seems set that low-code will play a vital role in the financial services industry in accelerating digital transformation and increasing the speed of innovation.

Photo by Essow from Pexels

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The Value of Third-Party API Integrations

The Value of Third-Party API Integrations
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Sponsored

This is a sponsored post, written by Tracy Schlabach, Director of Marketing at Accusoft.

Fintechs, ISVs, big banking corporations, and SaaS solutions all have immediate needs in common, they all need to bring forth financial technologies that improve both the customer and employee experience. The challenge is building and launching these technologies quickly, efficiently, and within a scalable, sustainable model. Product managers and development teams are all evaluating options to assist with meeting stakeholder demands for quality, while also meeting the need for speed to market. Enter the hidden value of third-party software integrations.

The secret life of APIs

Digital transformation is an ever-increasing priority for all businesses as well as an initiative that is seeing a surge in funding. In a recent State of the API Economy 2021 report by Google, 56% of enterprise leaders say APIs help them to build better digital experiences and products. Leaders are also finding value in focusing on an API-driven strategy and 52% say APIs accelerate innovation by enabling partners to leverage digital assets at scale.

How API integration works

At a very simple level, an API consists of code that allows two separate technology systems to communicate and interact with one another. It functions as a translator and messenger; delivering user requests and data from one system to a completely separate system. This effectively allows an application to utilize the features and data of other applications without having to build out that functionality from scratch.

For example, the Uber ride-sharing app connects customers to available drivers within a specific area. It does this with a combination of smartphone geolocation and accurate maps, but the Uber app doesn’t have mapping capabilities. To get those features, it connects to Google Maps by way of an API that allows it to access the relevant navigational data and use it to connect customers to drivers.

Purchasing new software doesn’t mean throwing out existing tools, which substantially reduces the risks associated with technology investments and upgrades.

Another key function of APIs is their ability to automate key processes and connect legacy infrastructure to newer technology systems. Data can be collected in one system, for instance, and “pushed” into another system automatically. This not only eliminates the complicated (and error-prone) task of manually transferring data between different systems, but also allows users to build a workflow in an application they’re already accustomed to, without having to learn an entirely new system.

More importantly, since APIs allow newer technologies, devices, and legacy applications to talk to each other, they provide firms with substantial flexibility when it comes to adding new platforms. Purchasing new software doesn’t mean throwing out existing tools, which substantially reduces the risks associated with technology investments and upgrades.

The cost savings with API integrations

When you purchase a third-party API integration you’re gaining more than additional functionality for your application. You also gain access to a team of developers and support specialists who are here to assist you from POC to deployment and beyond. Leaning on the specialization of a third-party vendor allows your developers to focus on application enhancements and release your product to market faster. This ultimately saves your company valuable development time and realizes product revenue faster.

Interested in learning more?

Could your business benefit from an API-led digital transformation strategy? Schedule a consultation today to learn more about the document management API integration options available from Accusoft.

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How Fintechs Can Use Smart Data Fabrics to Achieve Record Growth

How Fintechs Can Use Smart Data Fabrics to Achieve Record Growth
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Guest Post, InterSystems, Sponsored

This is a sponsored post, by Michael Hom, Head of Financial Services Solutions, InterSystems. InterSystems are Gold Sponsors of the upcoming FinovateEurope in London, March 22-23.

Last year was a record breaking for the global fintech sector, with investment reaching $102 billion – an annual increase of 183%. This growth was in large part spurred on by the pandemic which brought about major changes in consumer banking and spending habits, with eight in 10 people in the U.K. alone now using fintech products for banking and payments. At the same time, demand for fintech is also growing due to increased digitization among incumbent banks as these institutions try to keep pace with evolving customer demand for digital services and applications.

However, despite this growth, fintechs, much like more traditional financial services institutions, face a range of technical challenges which if not addressed could stall their progress. This was evidenced in recent research from InterSystems, which found that a staggering 81% of fintechs globally see data issues as their biggest technical challenge. Therefore, with data vital to everything from making informed decisions to delivering personalized services, addressing these challenges needs to be a priority for fintechs if they are to sustain the momentum of 2021.

The implications of fintechs’ data struggles

The data challenges being faced by fintechs fall under two distinct issues. Firstly, 41% of fintechs globally say they are unable to leverage data for analytics, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), while 40% of fintechs experience difficulties in connecting to customers’ applications and data systems. This indicates that not only are fintechs often unable to use their data effectively, but also they are struggling with data silos and integration.

These issues can have implications for fintechs such as hindering their ability to make informed decisions about the types of products and services they should be offering customers, and how they can continue to innovate to meet evolving customer needs. Additionally, for B2B fintechs in particular, integration challenges will make it more difficult to sell their applications to enterprise customers who need solutions that fit seamlessly within their existing infrastructure and that allow them to obtain the much-needed flow of bidirectional data.

On top of this, the data challenges cited by fintechs could hinder their ability to comply with financial regulations. Not only is this a concern from a regulatory standpoint, but it also may put the 93% of fintechs that hope to unlock the opportunities of partnering with incumbent banks at a disadvantage. After all, security and regulatory compliance are essential for banks and are key considerations when making decisions about which fintechs and firms to work with.

Time for a change of data architecture

Consequently, to build on the growth they have experienced over the last year and to be in the best position to capitalize on lucrative relationships with incumbent banks, fintechs globally must begin to address the problems with their data management. The starting point must be to find a way to bridge data silos and make integration easier.

Within the wider financial services sector, traditional firms, such as JPMorgan, Citi, and Goldman Sachs, are turning to data fabrics to solve these data challenges and provide a consistent, accurate, real-time view of data assets. A new architectural approach, data fabrics access, transform, and harmonize data from multiple sources on demand. By weaving together different data sets, from both within and outside the organization, and providing easy and uniform access to data, a smart data fabric can help fintechs to generate insights that can be used to get to know their customers better and gain complete visibility to accelerate business innovation.

This type of data architecture will also allow fintechs to create a bidirectional gateway between their applications and their enterprise customers’ production applications, legacy systems, and data silos. This approach will help those fintechs to ensure that their solutions can be quickly and easily integrated within their customers’ existing environments, which is particularly beneficial for fintechs looking to collaborate with banks.

‘Smart’ or enterprise data fabrics elevate this approach further by embedding a wide range of analytics capabilities, including data exploration, business intelligence, natural language processing, and ML directly within the fabric. This makes it faster and easier for organizations to gain new insights and power intelligent predictive and prescriptive services and applications.

As such, smart data fabrics address both the data integration challenges facing fintechs and their currently inability to use data with more advanced technologies such as AI and ML to extract valuable insights. As smart data fabrics allow existing legacy applications and data to remain in place, thereby removing the need to “rip-and-replace” any of their existing technology, this approach also enables fintechs to maximize their previous technology investments.

With so much potential within the global fintech sector, implementing a smart data fabric will allow fintechs to address their most pressing data challenges. They will have the ability to make more informed decisions based on accurate information and insights, deliver the products and services their customers need, and collaborate with other institutions. Ultimately, this will ensure fintechs are in the best possible position to make 2022 an even more successful year than the last.

Photo by Min An from Pexels

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Streamly: A Glimpse into the Future of Finance in 2022

Streamly: A Glimpse into the Future of Finance in 2022
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Speaker series

According to Fintech Adoption Index’s research, one-third of all consumers globally utilize at least two or more fintech-based services, and the trend is growing. The fast-paced evolution of fintech necessitates organizations to keep up and continue to provide services that clients desire.

Eight fintech leaders take us on a tour of their prospects for the future of finance in the coming year, featured exclusively on Streamly, a media partner of Finovate.

Featuring a line of the FinovateFall 2021 speaker faculty, including:

  • Marc Corbett, Solutions Engineer at Backbase
  • Ryan Ruff, Head of Fintech Relations at ASA
  • Matthew Covi, CEO & Co-Founder, Signal Intent
  • Luvleen Sidhu, Chair, CEO and Founder at BM Technologies
  • Trevor Marshall, Chief Technology Officer at Current
  • Beth Johnson, Chief Experience Officer at Citizens Financial Group
  • Scott Stewart, CEO at Innovative Lending Platform Association
  • Peggy Mangot, Operating Partner at PayPal Ventures

Watch the video now >>

Photo by Fábio Lucas on Unsplash

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Work From Home, Identity Crime, and the Two Biggest Threats to FIs in 2022

Work From Home, Identity Crime, and the Two Biggest Threats to FIs in 2022
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Interview, List series

Finovate Research Analyst David Penn sat down with Simon Marchand, Chief Fraud Prevention Officer at Nuance to talk about the current state of financial crime, what banks are particularly worried about, and the benefits of using voice as a key biometric identifier in the authentication and verification process.

“What I focus on is making sure that Nuance’s voice biometrics technology can be applied very specifically to track down fraudsters. One of the main challenges when you try to stop any kind of fraud is finding the human beings that are pretending to be someone else. What we do is identify the human beings (which) allows fraud teams to find the fraudsters themselves and prevent fraud much more easily and much more effectively. I’m here to make sure that Nuance’s expertise is applied in the best possible ways to stop and prevent any kind of identity crimes.”

On the top concerns for financial institutions when it comes to identity crime in 2022.

“The first is that we’re still going to have a lot of employees working from home … If you’re working from home, you’re not only easier to manipulate and socially engineer from a fraudster’s perspective, but also you’re alone, unsupervised, and have access to a lot of very sensitive information. Banks are very concerned about how they can protect their customers privacy and personal information as effectively in a work from home environment as they would do in an in-person environment.”

“The other big threat is that fraudsters are quite significantly shifting to account takeovers and subscription frauds – very identity-focused crimes. They have adapted very, very rapidly during the pandemic and they have seen that it’s very profitable to focus on those specific attack vectors. They are moving away, especially in the U.S., from those card-not-present kinds of fraud, card skimming, and all these things that we have been fighting for a couple of years, and it looks as if 2021 is on track to be the worst year in the past 20 years when it comes to the number of identity theft victims in the U.S. So fraudsters are moving toward (the new crimes) and we need to move quickly if (we) want to make sure that we’re protecting our customers.”

Watch the full interview below.

Find out more about Nuance and the work they do >>

Photo by Shelby Waltz from Pexels

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InterSystems and Unqork on Increasing Speed to Productivity and Making the Most of Data

InterSystems and Unqork on Increasing Speed to Productivity and Making the Most of Data
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar, InterSystems, Interview, Webinars

“Banks are recognizing that there is a wealth of data and predicative analytics that can be used to curb future risks, but it’s all about how easily their teams can get access to it.”

Christian Lewis, Client Director of Financial Services, Unqork and Joe Lichtenberg, Global Head of Product and Industry Marketing, InterSystems, join Finovate Analyst David Penn to discuss how to cut down on latency in getting information and data to the right people, how to help organizations become more agile, and how to accomplish both goals while using fewer development resources than you might expect.

Watch the full discussion below and find out more about the work InterSystems and Unqork do >>

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Help with My Loan: Fixing More Than Just the Time Problem in Lending

Help with My Loan: Fixing More Than Just the Time Problem in Lending
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Podcasting

Greg Palmer, VP at Finovate, takes five minutes with Chris Karageuzian, CEO & Co-Founder of Help with My Loan, to explore some of the pain points that still exist for both customers and bankers when it comes to getting loans approved, and how Help with My Loan is cutting through the noise and coming to the rescue.

Want to know more? Listen in the the Help with My Loan Podcast episode.

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Gloss Without the Undercoat? The Longer-Term Results of Digitizing Without the Right Foundations

Gloss Without the Undercoat? The Longer-Term Results of Digitizing Without the Right Foundations
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar

Title: Gloss without the undercoat? The longer-term results of digitizing without the right foundations
Duration: 1 hour

With staff costs at around 50% of all operational expenditure in some banks, it’s easy to see why reducing the human element from the banking relationship can be attractive. Digital take-up rates received a massive bump during the recent pandemic, which has added weight to the notion that banking employees are not as necessary as they once were.

But can you reduce your resource levels once you’ve pushed customers to the digital channel?

Recent evidence suggests that the drive towards digital without careful attention being paid to the experience the customer receives can lead to unexpected costs.

Catch up on this #FinovateWebinar with Bob Meara, Senior Analyst for Retail and Corporate Banking at Celent, and Andrew Stevens, Global Principal for Financial Services at Quadient, as they analyze new research results, uncover critical gaps in the customer experience, and recommend practical steps to join digital transformation with longer term sustainable cost savings.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

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Reimagining the Commercial Banking Digital Client Experience Using Real-Time Analytics

Reimagining the Commercial Banking Digital Client Experience Using Real-Time Analytics
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar

Watch it now!

Title: How BMO is reimagining the Commercial Banking digital client experience using real-time analytics
Duration: 1 hour

Like most banks, the pandemic caused BMO to accelerate self-serve options for both its retail and commercial digital banking platform. But, self-service is not a one-size-fits all strategy!

Working with Quantum Metric, BMO leveraged real-time data to build an experience for its commercial customers that replicated the ease and usability of its retail platform, but reflected the needs and behaviors of its commercial clients.  

Watch this webinar, featuring Quantum Metric and BMO to hear our experts discuss: 

  • Building a data and analytics strategy that supports an iterative approach to product development
  • Identifying user frustrations, errors, and confusion on commercial sites with real-time data
  • Quantifying the long-term impact of negative user experiences
  • Establishing a customer-centric mindset through Continuous Product Design

Moderated by Finovate’s David Penn, and featuring Sean Ellery, Head, Digital Innovation, North American Treasury & Payment Solutions; Steven Teo, Director, Innovation & Digital Controls, North American Treasury & Payment Solutions; Darko Mitrovic, Director of Account Management, Quantum Metric; and Michael Hanson, Regional Vice President of Banking and Financial Services, Quantum Metric.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

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