The death of bank products has been greatly under-exaggerated

Source: Moven

Since 2005 I’ve been predicting the decline of branch banking. For almost ten years I fought bankers who decried my assessment that branches would cease to be the most important channel in banking, to be replaced by far more efficient mechanisms for revenue generation and relationship. Today the discussion is increasingly resorting to a sort of desperate plea — 'but branches aren't going to die completely, are they?' No one is saying branches will grow.

The UK, the US, Spain, and a host of other countries are seeing the lowest number of bank branches in decades. For the UK you’d have to go back 60 years to find lower numbers of bank branches than we have today, and 2014 saw the use of bank branches fall 6% in a single year — the biggest reduction ever. 

2015: The year fintech really took off

I have been tremendously excited to see how the FinTech sector as a whole has moved up to a whole new level this year. And what particularly excites me is the way two particular groups have seemed to really recognise the role of fintechs in underpinning economic growth.

By Anders La Cour, CEO of Saxo Payments

Untangling the blockchain: A real game changer

The hype around blockchain is growing rapidly. The question is whether such hype is justified – will blockchain technology revolutionise the financial world?

This question has been on my mind ahead of this week's European Payments Council (EPC) General Assembly Meeting, at which I shall be presenting on the topic.

Hybrid architecture for ATM networks: It’s music to a CIO's ears!

Asked who he listens to, Eric Clapton once replied, 'JJ Cale', and in later years these maestro musicians teamed to transform numerous well-known songs in a way few would have thought possible (check out their medley of 'After Midnight' and 'They Call me the Breeze'). Even now, I can tell it's JJ Cale playing a tune on the radio after just a couple of picks — he was that good.

I wish this were true with ATMs. If every financial transaction had an audio track, I could tell within just a few 'notes' whether it’s routing my personal information via a NonStop system. The folks at HPE tell me that in America the chances of my ATM transaction not passing through at least one NonStop is really slim. But being able to identify the systems involved would satisfy any uneasy feelings I might have about who else might be 'listening in' on my transaction.

Capital markets: Buying habits signal a shift towards the cloud

62% of technology projects in capital markets over the last year have cost less than $500,000, with 45% having a Capex of less than $250,000 according to our latest research.

This came as somewhat of a surprise. 

My conversations with fintech companies serving capital markets have been consistent – times are getting better. Institutions are spending again and, although pressures are there, confidence is returning. Regulatory demands, technical upgrades and changing customer requirements were supposed to be pushing firms to spend. So, in a market widely known for major, wholesale technology change, this level of spend marks a real shift. 

Core banking system mistakes, masterstrokes and predictions

• My previous blog, looking at the evolution of the core banking systems sector over my 20+ years, seemed to be well received and prompted quite a few memories and opinions among my peers. So I decided to do a second ‘Farewell to Cedar/IBS’ piece as I weigh up my next steps in the sector.

These are my ‘Top Five’ mistakes and masterstrokes and ‘Top Ten’ predictions. Let me know if you agree, any other worthy contenders? It would be good to get a debate going!

By Martin Whybrow, founder of IBS Intelligence

The core banking systems market: then and now

• As I prepare to leave IBS, the company I set up 24 years ago, it seems a fitting moment to take stock of how far the core banking systems market has come in that time.

By Martin Whybrow, founder of IBS Intelligence

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.