#Security #threats continue to expand in financial services and #banks, insurance companies and securities #firms #should #look at #managed security for better protection, says Accenture.
Financial Technology
Security firms have evolved their techniques to meet mounting #threats on a digital front, as such #banks #must #change too. At NICE Actimize, a cybersecurity and compliance firm established in 1999, Mary Ann Miller, senior director and fraud executive advisor, told Bank Innovation that within banks, departments have merged to better address threats. “Banks are […]
Bank Innovation
#Banks seen as lagging in their digital transformation program saw a decrease of 11% in #future #value
When it comes to #creating future value for shareholders, banks are lagging badly behind GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) companies, and they also trail financial #technology (#fintech) companies. Our analysis of Capital IQ data in 2017 indicated that future value represents 49% of the total value of GAFA companies and 40% of the total value of fintech companies, with “future value” defined as the premium investors are willing to pay beyond the value of current operations.
Future growth value of banks launching an aggressive digital transformation program was 20%, but banks seen as lagging in their digital transformation program saw a decrease of 11% in future value. Clearly, innovation is a key driver for creating future value in banking, but banks cannot simply snap their fingers and magically transform themselves into innovators.
Our experience shows that there are five key steps to creating future value through innovation:
Getting on board the digital transformation train is not easy, as the pace of change is accelerating. To capture trapped value, banks need a disciplined, systematic approach to change, acknowledging that change is a constant evolution rather than a single event. Speed is becoming the critical factor for both decision-making and transformation.
Banks need to transform their core businesses, determining what is required just to stay viable, and then what is needed to increase profits. But they should no longer be thinking in terms of moving from phase to phase. Rather, they should create an innovation architecture and work on getting the timing, scale and direction right, so that they can manage the investment process and the allocation of capital in both core and new businesses. The ultimate objective should be a circular path of growth and renewal.
It is worth keeping in mind that banks cannot succeed at digital transformation without a) identifying, training and retaining the right people and b) helping their people understand and adapt to the #challenges of the digital era. The order of magnitude of the hiring, training and adapting involved is far beyond anything banks have experienced so far. Banks, as well, have a social responsibility to deal fairly with their employees. I will discuss these and other “people” factors in my next blog.
The post European banks face challenges in creating future value appeared first on Accenture Banking Blog.
EXCLUSIVE – Apple introduced the iPhone X yesterday, and as pundits predicted, it does away with Touch ID in favor of #Face ID, a biometric authentication system based on the user’s face. The accuracy of Face ID is supposed to reduce false positives to 1 in a million (though the demo failed on stage yesterday) […]
Bank Innovation
In a recent post, Liz Spayd, the newly appointed Public Editor of the New York Times, asked the open question as to whether Times readers see the paper as being overly liberal.  In particular, supporters of Donald #Trump have complained that New York City’s traditional journal of record has a “relentless bias” against the Republican […]
Bank Innovation
ESMA has released a new paper on blockchains and #distributed #ledgers as part of a fact-finding effort into the #technology.
fintech techcrunch
Given that the ‘distributed ledger’ #technology upon which #Bitcoin has been developed allows a payment system to operate without the need for intermediaries such as #central #banks, it is looking increasingly likely that the financial system is set to undergo a comprehensive transformation.
It also implies that centralized payment systems could begin to be phased out and replaced by decentralized ones, with trading, clearing and settlement being just three examples of processes likely to undergo disintermediation.
Whereas a centralized system relies on all parties to trust a third party (the central bank, in most cases) to keep a secure, correct digital record of transactions, the Bitcoin transaction relies on there being numerous copies of this record distributed across the network. Assuming, then, that the cryptography of the system works, the requirement for a third-party becomes largely irrelevant.
(Source)
Central banks play a pivotal role in ensuring financial stability within a monetary system, however, meaning that payment innovations are being closely monitored by banks such as the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. Indeed, central banks have a responsibility in supporting safe payment systems.
Bitcoin’s notable price volatility since its creation, for instance, is one of the key concerns for central banks – were a systematic price crash to occur, it remains debatable as to just how much responsibility the central bank could or should bear. Even the bank is technically not at fault, a widespread loss of confidence in the bank and the financial system could still arise.
Most central banks are in ‘monitoring mode’ at present, generally stating that more research needs to be done before policy can be considered. More recently, however, Bitcoin’s growth has prompted some central banks to express interest in possibly issuing their own digital currencies, backed by their respective country’s government. While this is yet to materialise anywhere, the Bank of Canada has been among the most open to exploring such technology.
The bank’s senior deputy governor Carolyn Wilkins stated last month that “we have to envision a world in which people mostly use e-money, perhaps even one that’s not denominated in a national currency, such as Bitcoin”, although remained wary of the ostensible risks that could arise, where central banks would struggle to implement monetary policy and where massive losses could be realized were the currency to crash. Wilkins has made clear that the Bank of Canada will explore the implications of digital currencies over the course of its three-year corporate plan.
While much of the attention (and indeed, risk-aversion) on Bitcoin has primarily been concerned with the currency’s nascent price volatility, the Bank of England (BoE) has focused more on the potential impact of the distributed ledger technology. The UK central bank has provided particularly glowing feedback to #blockchain, with the bank’s chief economist Andy Haldane recently praising the technology’s potential capability in solving the challenge of ‘how to establish trust – the essence of money – in a distributed network’.
Like the Bank of Canada, moreover, Haldane is also in favor of issuing a government-backed digital currency, although in the UK’s case he argues that it could be used to charge a negative interest rate on currency, a measure which is not possible at present due to the widespread use of banknotes which could simply be held in safe deposit boxes to maintain value and would thus render attempts by the central bank to implement a negative rate as useless. The shift from paper to paperless currency, however, opens up the possibility of digital currency creation.
In the BoE’s paper published last year, The Economics of Digital Currencies, the bank estimated that the amount of bitcoins circulating within the UK economy was less than 0.1% of sterling notes and coins and only 0.003% of broad money balances. As such, the impact from any serious Bitcoin fallout on the UK’s financial and monetary systems is considered negligible.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, has gradually become more vocal about the subject. During Bitcoin’s early existence, the US central bank was notoriously silent about Bitcoin, but began discussing the subject soon after the FBI shut down Silk Road – the illegal online marketplace – when 26,000 BTC worth $ 3.6 million was seized in October 2013.
In early 2014, Fed chief Janet Yellen stated that the Fed does not have the authority to regulate Bitcoin, due to the fact that this is ‘payment innovation that is taking place entirely outside the banking industry’. She did raise concerns about the potential for money-laundering, however, and has also recommended that Congress address the legality issues for those unregulated entities involved in virtual currencies.
The Fed has also conducted empirical analysis which has sought to test the security of the cryptography for transactions and the distributed maintenance of the ledger. The US central bank has remained somewhat averse to Bitcoin, highlighting the February 2014 bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange at the time, and concluding, therefore, that Bitcoin many risks “whose nature and proportion are little, if at all, understood”.
More recently, the Fed’s official position has been to quietly monitor developments as they happen, but it has not stated whether it is considering issuing its own digital currency.
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), however, seems to have recently shown considerable enthusiasm towards the advancement of digital currencies. Although not explicitly a central bank, the BIS holds the membership of 60 global central banks, and has been instrumental in determining much of the regulatory landscape since 2007’s financial crisis. In its November 2015 paper, the CPMI Report on Digital Currencies, the BIS states several potential risks arising from the growing use of digital currencies, such as consumer losses resulting from excessive volatility, as well as fraud &8211; a problem which has plagued Bitcoin on previous occasions.
The report also acknowledges the diminished role that financial intermediaries could play as digital currencies and distributed ledger systems become smarter. Ultimately, though the BIS’ opinion on digital currencies remains favorable, especially pertaining to those which have a decentralized payment mechanism, describing them as “an innovation that could have a range of impacts on various aspects of financial markets and the wider economy”.
The challenge in addressing Bitcoin appears to be more complex for China’s central bank at present, however. According to Goldman Sachs research from March 2015, the Yuan is being used for 80% of global transactions into and out of Bitcoin, indicating the digital currency’s overwhelming popularity in China. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem were it not for the fact that the People’s Bank of China banned the handling of Bitcoin transactions in December 2013, before closing down more than 10 of the currency’s exchanges in March 2014.
The view from the central bank is that the currency has no ‘real meaning’, but the consensus view is that it is being used for large-scale money laundering. The huge popularity of Bitcoin in China suggests that, while some may be using Bitcoin for speculative purposes, a large proportion are using the currency to shift money illegally out of China.
Conclusion
More recently, however, it appears that China’s view towards Bitcoin could be warming. In an October publication, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) stated clearly that we are now in the “post-Bitcoin era,” acknowledging the development that bitcoin has ushered in through the “expansion of distributed payment and settlement mechanism”. Whether such sentiment will ultimately be transmitted through the corridors of the central bank remains to be seen at this stage.
Given that minting and distributing a digital currency should cost a fraction of the cost of printing and distributing a physical currency note, one should also bear in mind the seignior age benefits of moving towards paperless currency – that is, the potential revenue the government will retain from such a cost-saving. Along with the fact that digital currency transactions will be easier to track and less susceptible to illegal uses, there seems to be plenty of incentives for central banks to promote the development of digital currencies like Bitcoin.
The post Central Banks Face Bitcoin Pressure appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Reply