According to Christopher Ward, head of product management for PNC’s treasury management division, “We’re ready, we’re in process of implementing APIs with customers. I would proffer most customers are not ready for it.”; Bank of America also stated they are ready for open banking; however many banks aren’t as prepared and being ‘ready’ for open banking is up to interpretation; the article from Tearsheet shares other perspectives on open banking and how some banks might be missing the point of open banking. Source
Lloyds Bank is testing biometric authentication technology for its online banking customers; the development is centered around the use of Microsoft's Windows Hello which has fingerprint and facial recognition capabilities and can be used with Windows 10 devices. Source
New regulations in China tightening controls on P2P lenders will now require P2P lenders to partner with a custodian bank; Chinese banks are not eagerly partnering with the alternative lenders as fraud has been rampant in the industry; less than 5% of the country's 2,534 P2P lenders currently have a partnership with a custodian; custodians will add another layer of authentication for the P2P lending industry since they have high standards for money transfer and safekeeping; currently none of China's big four banks have partnered with P2P lenders for custodian services; smaller banks are getting involved and bank to platform relationships are taking on various forms. Source
Business Insider released the below chart this week highlighting what banks fear the most; for 2016, banks view existing large incumbents as their biggest threat followed by fintech startups; BI posits this is due to the incumbents having large customer bases and significant capital to fund projects; the perception of threats from fintechs increased from 14% in 2015 to 18% in 2016.
As of December 2016, shadow loans in China reported an annual increase of approximately 15% to 14.1 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion); a study by UBS reports that as the market grows one area adding increased risk is regional banks, specifically banks located in China's Rust Belt region, which have been integrating the shadow loans into various methods for diversifying their balance sheet risk as the steel and metal-producing provinces struggle to remain profitable in the changing economy; the UBS report says alternative financial statement accounting regarding the loans could lead to a number of issues including overstated capital adequacy ratios, understated nonperforming loans and reduced provision charges. Source
It has been fascinating to watch the TSB saga unfold in the UK. The challenger back had an embarrassing outage...
Fifth Third has announced a $112 million investment in a five year project that will upgrade its technology and help it to partner with fintech firms; enhancements involved with the upgrade include video conferencing with remote experts, Wi-Fi in branches, distance learning and real-time data feeds to fintech partners; following the investment the company will be driven more by its new web-services and APIs; it also plans to more openly partner with fintech companies for data sharing. Source
The options for banks to compete in a changing financial services landscape are to either build, buy or partner; while we have seen a number of banks build their own technology or partner with fintechs, there has yet to be significant acquisitions in the market; an article in Tearsheet highlights how few purchases banks have made and how that compares to the amount of investments in fintech companies. Source
Forbes reports on new technology in the automotive sector; says internet of things connectivity will allow users to connect their bank accounts with their vehicles; Forbes talks with industry experts about the market's evolution. Source
Banks are integrating automation to help improve cost pressures yet competition from fintech companies continues to increase; professionals believe the market's fintech revolution will transform the industry and lead to greater automation, consolidation and fintech partnerships; banking automation appears to be one leading factor banks are focusing on as they analyze the market's competitive challenges; automation, blockchain and new technologies are all important topics being discussed at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos. Source