Cash versus digital payments: How to achieve financial inclusion
3 min read - One of the more complex challenges banks must solve is to make payments more efficient. Recent news headlines show significant shifts from physical identification and physical forms of payments to digital forms in many jurisdictions. Europe recently announced a mandate…
Don’t rebuild your SWIFT connectivity on cloud
4 min read - Banks and businesses worldwide have embarked on a modernization journey, trying to re-imagine their systems and get ready for the world of tomorrow. While each institution faces different challenges, all are seeking common goals: new and improved channel experiences, integrated…
Banks are losing money on new payment systems
3 min read - Payments modernization reminds me of bathing toddlers. It could sometimes be quite a project at our house, when our boys were toddlers, with splashing, shouting, and arguments over bath toys. So why bathe both at once? Because the alternative is…
Why ISO modernization is so important for financial institutions
3 min read - With the migration to ISO 20022 financial messaging standard, the world is moving toward a standardized system of payment messaging. ISO 20022, which SWIFT will enable for cross-border payments beginning August 2022, will significantly benefit financial institutions (FIs). But these…
How is SWIFT still relevant after five decades?
4 min read - Too many people in the payments industry today hold the misconception that the SWIFT network is only for cross-border payments. This was indeed the case in 1973, when 239 banks from 15 countries joined forces to create an efficient, automated,…
Fueling the financial industry with open source cross-border payments
3 min read - Financial services, payments, streamlining inefficient processes is in our blood. So, it’s no surprise my colleague and contributor to this article, Nitin Gaur and his team, tackled the unthinkable four years ago by building a global payment network addressing remittance…
Passport to innovation: Paving the way to mainstream blockchain adoption
5 min read - Global payments giants, Visa, is actively ramping up its pursuit of embracing blockchain technology, but will this added brand power form a catalyst for more mainstream adoption? Blockchain is the driving force behind the development of cryptocurrencies. Without a distributed…
Battling financial fraud in the new age of payments services
4 min read - The arrival of COVID-19 has inspired new opportunities for the unscrupulous. According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, approximately 770,000 fraud claims accounting for USD922 million in losses were filed between January and June 2020 – a 13% increase…
Streamlining financial netting with blockchain
5 min read - A process that is ripe for digitization and automation is financial netting, a way of consolidating or reconciling multiple payments between two or more parties to create a single amount due to each participant. It simplifies doing business and reduces…