Agile banking needs a new core

If you had the chance to design a bank from scratch using only one system, what would it look like?

When we started to run our banking services, we had a look at the banking value chain. Banks produce services directly for clients 'at the front'. Less visible and much more important: 'in the back', banks provide complex technical infrastructure for processing, accounting and regulatory tasks. At the front, there’s plenty of new competition. Fintech start-ups usually pick cherries from the front-end banking businesses. But they still rely on crucial processes from the old banking infrastructure.

This article originally appeared on JAXenter.com

To branch or not to branch... is that the right question?

• The quest to justify banking's oldest distribution channel continues despite the wonders of self-service automated kiosks and the growing adoption of mobile banking. 
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• The arguments for and against branch banking are well publicised these days, and yet we continue to debate the subject year after year.

Video banking: the best of both worlds

OK, so video banking is not the latest trend, and a number of banks around the world have been offering it for some time now (the Polish market has been particularly prolific – think Idea Bank, Alior Bank, ING and Raiffeisen). 

It is a very important channel – as it offers actual human contact in the increasingly faceless mobile banking world and thus shouldn’t be neglected.

It combines the best of both worlds – modern technologies and human interaction.

Dear banks, social media doesn’t have to be scary

Dear Banks,

How's it going? If you're reading this, you must be on social media, or you're at least checking the internet. That's great.

I've been meaning to write this letter for a long time. The first thing you should know is that I think you're really important. Sure, I might like to joke about banker's hours and bailouts, but the truth is, the alchemical process that turns pay cheques into cash has always inspired me. And I'm not alone.

Banking and financial services technology world, unite!

IBS Intelligence has launched a new global platform – IBS Chat – dedicated to increasing conversation and knowledge sharing within the financial services industry as a whole.

IBS Chat aims to bring industry participants together to exchange views and ideas, ask and answer questions on all matters relating to banking and financial services technology.

Sustainability-focused banking: a compelling case?

There is profit and positive impact in sustainability-focused banking and there is proof, states Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) as it publishes a new report based on a decade of data.

‘Why isn’t all banking done this way?’ the organisation now asks the policy makers, regulators and banking institutions worldwide.

Do we need the digital-only bank?

Post-crisis a lot of people don’t trust banks. You can’t really blame them, it’s just the way things are now. That mistrust hasn’t stopped people using their banks, of course – where else would they keep their money? Apart from stuffing it into the mattress there isn’t much choice.

Never fear, those of you clamouring for a different way to do banking (raise your hands – anyone?), as a wave of digital-only banks have arrived to save the day.