Tag Archives: Banking

SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW WITH GARETH EVANS, SENIOR FRAUD AND FINANCIAL CRIME PREVENTION CONSULTANT AT BAE SYSTEMS

A conversation with Gareth Evans, Senior Fraud and Financial Crime Prevention Consultant at BAE Systems

1. What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

I hope the audience will gain an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities from the evolution of banking in particular around the challenges of customer experience against security.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

I’m interested to understand different perspectives around the best way to secure the bank in the most open way possible.

  1. What do you enjoy most about your role?

Going out and meeting customers and industry professionals and getting different perspectives on the various challenges we face.

  1. How did you get into the industry?

Right place, right time. I was starting my career at a bank when the internet came into our lives, as a result I started getting involved in internet banking and the challenges that came with this new world. I didn’t know very much and neither did anyone else back then, so we learnt as we went and 20+ year later here I am.

  1. Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

Too many to pick one. I loved driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in California, I love Sydney Australia (where I am lucky enough to be moderating an event at the end of July) and many other cities around the world (which is a good thing as this role has me spending a lot of time travelling).

Join Gareth Evans on the webinar entitled ‘How to strike the right balance between reducing fraud and creating a frictionless experience for your genuine banking customers‘ BAE Systems on 20th June at 10AM London/11AM CET.

How goal-based advice combined with a realistic risk framework helps wealth managers grow their business and reduce risks

We believe that goal-based advice is superior to any other form of investment advice as clients always have financial goals. All clients have at least one goal in mind when they invest, even if they only want to increase their wealth or minimise losses. This type of investment advice requires a realistic risk framework which enables accurate wealth projections and a superior user experience.

Todays’ advisory processes rely mostly on outdated, single-period risk frameworks: take the example of Markowitz, a methodology from mid-last century and yet widely used in investment management.

The basic assumption of this methodology is that returns are normally distributed and that the expected returns do not change over time. Most wealth managers still use conventional single-period risk frameworks like Markowitz although it has been proven empirically that returns are not normally distributed: one proof is that capital markets have had higher losses than gains in the past. Negative returns have been observed both in greater magnitude and with a higher probability compared to the ones implied by normally distributed returns (so-called ‘Fat’ Tails).

This mismatch results in a significant liability risk of the wealth manager: all investment portfolios derived from conventional risk frameworks consequently carry a higher downside risk than projected.

Additionally, conventional risk frameworks do not include the clients’ financial goals, savings or liabilities which are all needed for professional financial and wealth planning. Hence, a sound wealth development cannot be forecasted considering the clients’ financial goals. Further, key wealth parameters like inflation cannot be integrated into the wealth forecast, aggravating the above outlined liability risk of the wealth manager.

To overcome this, wealth managers need a risk framework which is realistic and generates investment recommendations that best fit to the individual situation of the client. Therefore, a multi-period stochastic optimisation risk framework should be used: it simulates wealth development based on the clients’ financial goals accurately and mitigates the liability risk for the wealth manager.

With a multi-period risk framework, a goal-based advisory solution can also be significantly improved: the ideal goal-based advisory solution is responsive (reacting to changes instantly), holistic, individual, and includes the wealth manager’s specific market view. Some of that functionality is enabled by the multi-period risk framework:

Register to our Webinar to find out more and how your advisors can be supported through our solution to grow their business, both from existing or new clients.

Author:

Marc Mettler, Head of Business Development, 3rd-eyes AG

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://ch.linkedin.com/company/3rd-eyes

Web: www.3rd-eyes.com

Join Marc Mettler on a webinar entitled ‘How Digital Wealth Planning can Help Your Financial Institution Grow AuM and Revenue‘ by 3rd-eyes on 7th March at 3PM London/10AM New York.

Register Here!

How AI Cyber Defenses are Fighting The Next Generation of Bank Robbers

Perhaps the most quintessential crime of them all, in-person bank robberies have become all but a thing of the past. At the same time, cyber-crime cost the average financial services company more than $18 million last year, meaning that this year, the greatest threats to the industry will undoubtedly be found online.

An Evolving Adversary

According to the FBI, the number of annual U.S. bank heists has fallen 60% over the past quarter century, despite significant population growth. The amount of money stolen in these heists, meanwhile, has declined by almost two-thirds since just 2003, even as financial institutions’ assets doubled during that span. Indeed, the typical bank robbery now nets a mere $6,500 for its perpetrators, who are subsequently apprehended at a historically unprecedented rate. The truth is that risking decades of imprisonment for a couple months’ rent simply isn’t worth it.

Smart criminals know these facts and are staying home, with many earning higher incomes than ever before by stealing encryption keys rather than physical ones. In 2018, for the second consecutive year, financial services firms suffered the highest volume of cyber security incidents among all economic sectors, with European banks facing an average of 85 serious breach attempts in just the last 12 months. And while banks and insurers have responded by investing in high maturity security systems, these systems are largely predicated on the traditional approach to cyber defense, which has been antiquated by fundamental shifts in the nature of the cyber-attack.

One such shift is the rise of insider threats, which now account for 74% of all business cyber security incidents. Malicious employees have the advantage of familiarity with the networks and information they manipulate, while their credentials allow them to exfiltrate the most lucrative data without raising red flags. Another critical development in the cyber threat landscape has been the dramatic increase in the speed of cyber-attacks: modern strains of ransomware, for instance, can encrypt an entire network in less than a minute. The reality is that human incident responders cannot counter such fast-acting threats on their own; in fact, the mean time that financial services companies take to detect a security breach is 59 days. And most critically, cyber-criminals today are constantly innovating their tactics to bypass traditional security tools, which use rules and signatures to spot the threats of the past.

A New Era of Cyber Defense

 To counter tomorrow’s unforeseeable, machine-speed threats, companies must go beyond yesterday’s security systems by embracing an innovative approach, one that finally gives their security teams a fighting chance. As the first ever autonomous response tool on the market, Darktrace Antigena is that innovative approach — leveraging artificial intelligence to halt in-progress cyber-attacks within two seconds. Trusted by many of the world’s largest financial companies, Darktrace learns an individual ‘pattern of life’ for each user, device, and network, a sense of ‘self’ that constantly changes as organizations evolve and grow. This ability to differentiate between normal and abnormal behavior allows Antigena to contain both insider threats and never-before-seen attacks, each of which tend to elude conventional tools. And by restricting compromised devices to their typical pattern of life, Antigena can surgically intervene without interrupting business operations.

Antigena has proven capable of parrying highly subtle and fast-acting threats, wherever they originate. During the devastating WannaCry epidemic in 2017, Darktrace detected and neutralized the advanced ransomware strain on behalf of several customers, including an NHS agency. AXA, one of the world’s largest insurers and another Darktrace customer, uses Antigena to guard against increasingly automated cyber-threats. “We’re not being attacked by human beings anymore,” said Yorck Reuber, AXA’s Chief Technology Officer for North Europe. “Computers are attacking us, software is attacking us, and so the only way forward is using AI to protect ourselves.”

In our upcoming webinar, a security industry expert will analyze the most sophisticated cyber-threats of 2018, including insider attacks and ransomware witnessed in the wild. The webinar will also outline expectations for 2019’s threat landscape, specifically as it pertains to the financial services sector, and detail how cyber AI tools like Darktrace Antigena are helping organizations defeat the next generation of bank robbers.

Learn more about AI autonomous response in our webinar:

The Future of AI-Powered Cyber Defense for Financial Institutions

Date: Thursday, January 17

Time: 10:00 a.m. EST (New York) / 3 p.m. GMT (London)

Presenter: Max Heinemeyer, Director of Threat Hunting at Darktrace

Max is a leading cyber defense expert who specializes in offensive security. At Darktrace, he works with customers to help them respond to advanced and innovative threats. Prior to his current role, Max led the Threat and Vulnerability Management department for Hewlett-Packard in Central Europe.

The Dos and Don’ts of Collaborative Partnerships for Banks

A list of five dos and don’ts for banks collaborating with fintechs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do treat prospective fintech partners as serious vendors

The term “fintech partnership” often means an invitation to the bank’s lobby. Sandboxes, pitch competitions and in-house accelerators are (not always but very often) merely a means of creating buzz and PR fuel but aren’t taken seriously enough or implemented properly.

Don’t evaluate fintechs on uneven ground vs. traditional vendors 

This has got to stop. Banks must start treating fintech companies as potential vendors of the IBM, Microsoft, Accenture and McKinsey calibre. Afterall, change comes from the outside. I realise that this comes at a risk to the bank and that not all fintechs are created equal. So, how does a bank evaluate whether a fintech company is worth assessing and working with as a serious vendor?

Do research into what you need before meeting with fintechs

What is the problem that needs solving? Who is the right partner to help you achieve these goals? Often it’s a fintech company who got sick of traditional solutions and did it themselves.

Don’t try to fit a square plug into a round hole

The time is ticking down to when third-parties can access customer accounts and competition is gonna get fierce. Our advice is to take the research further by partnering with a fintech who offers a clear proof of concept model and is willing to put their money where the mouth is.

Do think outside the box

Seemingly contrary to the above advice, playing it safe with robust research and a proof of concept doesn’t mean dismissing a totally new direction or the creation of a completely new channel.

Don’t continue relying on what’s made the bank their fortune in the past

New regulations in the form of PSD2 and GDPR, together with increasing competition when it comes to foreign exchange and cuts to revenue sources due to tighter multi-interchange fee restrictions mean the same ways of doing business isn’t enough.

Do invest appropriately once you’ve partnered up

If the bank doesn’t believe in the partnership enough to invest appropriately in branding, promotion and acquiring users then it was the wrong partnership to enter into in the first place.

 

 

 

Don’t just assume that the innovation box is ticked and move on to “business as usual”

As per the advice above, investment in a new product, solution or partnership should be measured in more than just your currency of choice. Long-term success is rarely seen without a decent nurturing period.

Do move quickly

Banks have just over a year before they have to expose PSD2 interfaces to third-parties.  Google, Apple and Facebook have already launched payment solutions that can be introduced to the European market once they have API access. Amazon is reportedly looking to partner with a big bank.

Don’t wait until it’s too late

Choose a fintech partner who can move quickly and commit to moving just as rapidly. Banks have a window of opportunity in order to make sure disruption moves at a much slower rate and – preferably – under their control.

The mobile payments landscape is currently competitive but you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Note: this post has been shortened – read the full post here

Register for a webinar entitled Profiting From Mobile Payments: How Do Banks Make Money From Mobile Wallets?‘  on 14th June at 3PM London/10AM New York.

Register Here!

Daniel Döderlein, CEO, Auka

A conversation with Daniel Döderlein, CEO at Auka

Daniel is an award-winning serial entrepreneur with a background from several IT and Telecom startups. He founded one of Norway’s first domain and web hosting companies at the age of 17. A regular on the speaking circuit, Daniel has recently been invited to speak about upcoming banking disruption and mobile payments at Google Next in Europe, Paris fintech forum, Viva Tech and London Fintech Week.

BRW: What sets Auka apart from other fintechs? 

Generally we see a lot of fintechs applying “makeup” to their existing solutions. Some are successful, most are not. I believe that relates to a lack of problem solving. You have to find a problem and create a good solution backed by stellar execution. We defined our problem with the mobile payment solution we created. Enabling people and businesses to pay and get paid with ease, without any need for hardware. Digitising money and making it universally available and useful is our mission. The results so far speaks for themselves. We have served millions, empowered thousands of businesses, delivered financial results to the extent that we have paid out dividend to our shareholders. We have won multiple awards and have obtained and retained our own license since 2012. Our technology has been licensed by more than 100 financial institutions. I think that sets us apart from most fintechs

BRW: What are the advantages/disadvantages being a Norwegian fintech selling technology to banks in other regions?

Norway and the Nordics are stable, trustworthy and transparent countries. That resonates with our values and ways of business. I think this gives us an advantage as many companies out there over sell their solutions and abilities, while we focus on selling what we have proven already. Norwegians are known for being honest, straightforward and to the point. I hope and feel that our current and future customers value that. This attitude saves them time, getting to the important points faster. The Nordics also have a good list of successful companies – including many unicorns in the technology – and financial services sector. As a small region with a higher success rate than many other regions on average, we benefit from high quality attention and conversations from the get go.

BRW: Most banks accept that third parties will provide banking services to consumers. Accepting that, what are the three main challenges facing banks?

1. Someone else will become the primary interface that customers use to deal with their financial services.
2. Someone else will know more about the customer, making it harder for the bank to see the whole picture vs. what the third parties may be able to.
3. With more players in the market, there will be more choice for the customer to choose from. This means banks must innovate and compete on product diversification vs. the commodity service sales they have mastered. This requires a fundamental shift in mindset and culture, and that takes time

BRW: You are known to be more than willing to predict the future in banking. How can you be sure that Auka have the solutions to help bank prosper in the future?

Predicting the future for mobile payments is not that hard. In fact we are not predicting it, we have built it and proven it already. What we are saying is that what has already happened in the most mature markets will eventually happen everywhere. So we lean on facts, giving potential customers a glimpse of their own future based on what has happened elsewhere. Learning from this we have figured out that the best way to predict the future is to create it. We have done that once, and will continue to do it for the next generation of services, also for what’s next, after mobile payments.

BRW: Why do you believe banks are best positioned to keep dominating financial services? 

Again because its been proven in the Nordics. In China the banks could have done their own AliPay, but they did not. So Alipay did it. Now that has become the downfall for the Chinese banks, at least in terms of payments and commerce enablement. So if the banks do what has been done before, but fast, they can win the attention of the customers. This is the first frontier but they need to act fast.

BRW: There’s loads of webinars every month on this subject. Why should bankers listen in on this one?

We are sharing facts and experiences from the most successful markets. These are not predictiona but valuable insights from the movers and shakers who have already transformed the most modern markets on the face of the planet. Also we have a great panel, that should make this not only useful, but also funny, dynamic and interesting.

Join Daniel Döderlein on 14th June for a webinar entitledProfiting From Mobile Payments: How Do Banks Make Money From Mobile Wallets?’ at 3PM London/10AM New York

Register Here!

Bart McMannon – Channel & Product Marketing Manager, Panini

A conversation with Bart McMannon – Channel & Product Marketing Manager at Panini

Bart McMannon

Bart McMannon serves as Panini’s Channel and Product Marketing Manager and has over 20 years’ combined experience in Product Management, Marketing, and Development.

He has brought new products to market and has improved many products for various companies. After much market research, Bart is currently focused on expanding Panini’s product portfolio and increasing channel sales.

Join Bart McMannon on 5th October for a webinar entitled How Intelligent Capture Can Help Digitally Transform Your Financial Institution  at 2PM London/9AM New York.

1. What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

I am confident attendees will learn about what “intelligent” scanners are and the benefits of using them, both in banks and in business.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

I am looking forward to learning more about their current beliefs on remote deposit capture and reactions to the intelligent scanner model.

3. What do you enjoy most about your role?

I greatly enjoy introducing new technologies and product into the market and even better . . . love hearing that they make life easier!

4. How did you get into the industry?

I was a product manager for years and owner of a small company that produced small electronic products so when the opportunity arose to serve both the banking and small business industry, I jumped at the chance.

5. Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

My favourite place is wherever my family is. There are many beautiful places in the world and I love to travel, so whenever/wherever my family can join me is my favourite place to be.

Join Bart McMannon on 5th October for a webinar entitled How Intelligent Capture Can Help Digitally Transform Your Financial Institution  at 2PM London/9AM New York.

Register Here!

Kuldip Singh Chiheru, Strategic GTM Head, Global Financial Services, Atos

A conversation with Kuldip Singh Chiheru, the Strategic GTM Head, at the Global Financial Services for Atos. 

Kuldip Singh ChiheruExperience • 2016-2017 Atos Strategic GTM Head – Loans
• 2015 – 2016 Atos FS Global Solutions Head
• 2012 – 2015 Global FS Bus Development Head 
• 2008 – 2012 Global FS Market leader
• 2001- 2008 KPMG & Atos KPMG FS Advisory
• 1997-2001 ICAP eTrading Program Lead
• Prior: HSBC Midland International Banking

Background
• BSC (Hons) Chemistry
• MSc Information Technology
• MBA Aston Business School

What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

I hope that they understand the characteristics of a hyper competitive best class lending business model. Modern business solution design for agility and innovation and learning a business case for a best in class lending business. Another key note I hope the audience will learn from participating in this webinar is leveraging industrial scale deployment models for accelerating transformation.

For example, most financial organizations dream of launching new marketing offers or enabling a new partner channel  in seconds or adjusting lending processes in minutes. This can be the reality NOW. Rather than taking several months, and suffering extreme opportunity costs.

What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

I will be looking forward to discussing the investment priorities for Loans in next 1-2 years and a business case for the Retail Loan Factory for their priorities.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The most satisfying aspect is helping customers transform their business and setting the target operating model benchmark for best in class for the next 15 years.

How did you get into the industry?

My passion for the industry grew even further when I was an International Banker with HSBC Midland.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

I have so many, each with their own unique attractions. The NW of India Punjab is very enlightening and the Canadian wilderness great for out door activities.

Don’t miss the chance to join Kuldip Singh Chiheru and Atos in their upcoming webinar ‘Lending Agility and Innovation For A Best in Class Digital Bank of the Future

Register Here! for this free webinar