The 'Pay' model is strong but the banks are still in play

The big guns – Apple, Samsung and Google – are dominating the mobile payments news cycle now that their respective ‘Pay’ platforms threaten to disintermediate the world’s banks. 

They won’t have it all their own way, though; banks are responding with their own platforms. But is it too little, too late?

EuroFinance 2015 in Copenhagen: Witness the treasury fitness

Denmark and Copenhagen are two European locations that have polled as the happiest and healthiest in the world. What better place, the organisers of EuroFinance must have thought, to host a conference on ensuring that the treasury industry remains happy, healthy and fit for purpose? Health and exercise parables were abundant in Copenhagen, where delegates were encouraged to give their company strategy a check-up.

Brain drain a pain as Infosys stops hiring SAP executives

With the news of 16 SAP executives moving to Infosys, the issue of sudden staff departures has come under the spotlight. The fear of a brain drain to businesses and even countries is the stuff of nightmares. All that lost talent, investment and time.

Treasury & capital markets: utility in vogue again

Amidst all of the hype and activity around retail-oriented digital banking, it is sometimes easy for industry watchers to ignore the treasury and capital markets (TCM) sector. It can appear that the main focus for innovation is elsewhere. The suppliers seldom change, though they reduce in number through M&A, and many of the business pressures look little different from one year to the next.

FIS purchase of Sungard – is big always beautiful?

FIS has made its biggest acquisition to date, splashing out $9.1 billion on fellow US vendor Sungard. But with both companies already having large, complex structures and numerous product portfolios (due to their earlier M&A activities), is there a danger of creating a convoluted, near impassable maze?

Is it time to debate the Digital Only business model?

For many bank executives today, there are very real concerns about the impact on their business models by so called digital disruptors. The question is how long will that disruption last, and is being digital enough of a differentiator to create large corporate casualties?

If you are like me, then you must be getting tired of seeing messages about 'Unicorns' and how Uber owns no taxis, and AirBnB has no hotels blah, blah, blah. 

How important is a modern core banking system, really?

With an ever-increasing stream of digital-only banks springing up around the world, IBS Intelligence ponders how vital is it for these tech-savvy banks to have genuinely modern core systems?