It is often stated that 'Data is the new oil', suggesting that data, like oil, holds immense value but remains unusable if unrefined. While this comparison simplifies, it effectively highlights two significant trends: A fierce competition to capture as much customer data as possible, waged not only by Big Tech and social media giants but also by major e-commerce players and supermarkets through loyalty programs. Growing investments in deriving insights from this accumulated raw data. The advancements in AI play a critical role, yet they merely scratch the surface. Beneath, sub ..read more

  The financial industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Banks are evolving from mere repositories of money and providers of loans and investments into facilitators of our financial journeys and personal assistants in financial well-being. This shift marks the beginning of an era characterized by embedded banking and deproductization. Traditionally, banking has focused on facilitating transactions, managing money, and mitigating risks. Our interactions with banks typically occur when we need to deposit or withdraw money, apply for a loan, or manage investments. Unfort ..read more

Financial crime continues to be a major issue, undermining the trust and safety of global financial systems. The United Nations estimates that a staggering 2 to 5% of global GDP, or between EUR 715 billion and 1.87 trillion, is laundered each year. Moreover, about 50% of companies worldwide have experienced fraud in the last two years, underscoring the urgent need for effective measures against financial wrongdoing. Financial crimes fall into three main categories: money laundering, financial fraud, and sanctions evasion, each with its own implications. However, sanctions evasion ..read more

Following our previous blog 'Rethinking AML: A Call for Innovation and Efficiency' ("https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2024/02/rethinking-aml-call-for-innovation-and.html"), where we navigated the complex world of AML and pinpointed three primary categories of malicious financial activities: Money laundering: Transforming proceeds from illicit activities into seemingly legitimate funds. Sanction bypassing: Circumventing governmental sanctions. Payment Fraud: Exploiting stolen or fake payment details to illicitly acquire goods or funds. Focusing on Payment Fraud, we discern two pr ..read more

In the financial services sector, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) continues to be a topic of intense debate. Discussions oscillate between advocating for stricter regulations and questioning the extent of banks' responsibilities in overseeing (policing) financial transactions. AML regulations are pivotal in preventing the use of financial institutions for facilitating crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. However, the effectiveness of these measures is often under scrutiny, especially considering their impact on legitimate customers and banks' financial models. Desp ..read more

Just over a year ago, I wrote a blog describing how merchants struggle with an efficient refund process (cfr. "Refunds - A bigger problem than you would imagine" - https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2022/07/refunds-bigger-problem-than-you-would.html). The traditional method of refunding is by sending funds back to the original payment method, but this method is not just costly and complex; at times, it is downright impossible. This issue was also identified by Jeremy Balkin, a former executive of JP Morgan and now founder and CEO of TodayPay, which offers “Refunds as a Service”, enabling me ..read more

The phrase "too many meetings" resonates widely among employees in the corporate sphere. This pervasive sentiment clashes with the pressing need for executives to boost productivity, prompting a reevaluation of the meeting culture in many organizations. Consider these startling statistics: Organizations devote an estimated 15% of their time to meetings. A staggering 71% of these meetings are deemed unproductive by participants. The average employee spends around 4.5 hours in meetings weekly, with 30% of employees reporting over 5 hours. The higher one climbs the corporate ladder ..read more

Every business inevitably engages in a checkout journey. In B2B contexts with low-volume but high-value transactions, this can be a lengthy, manual process. Nevertheless, the same three key steps can always be identified: Finding and Selecting a Product or Service Collecting and Delivering the Product or Service Paying for the Product or Service These 3 steps can always be identified, but they may vary in sequence depending on the specific use case. Optimizing each step to be as frictionless as possible for the customer is a crucial aspect of conducting business. Let’s delv ..read more

In the dynamic world of financial services, rapid innovation, rising customer expectations, and increasing complexity are the norm. This reality necessitates a shift from traditional in-house operations to more specialized, external partnerships. Historically, these relationships have predominantly followed a customer-supplier model, focusing mainly on financial negotiations. However, there’s a growing trend towards* long-term strategic partnerships*. Financial considerations remain crucial, but there’s an increasing awareness that squeezing partners for short-term gains is unsust ..read more

Last year I celebrated two decades of immersion in IT, specifically within the Financial Services sector. During this period I have been a witness to remarkable transformations in banking and technology. The emergence of Fintech companies and their customer-centric approach, along with significant advancements in software engineering like Agile methodologies, microservices, and cloud computing, have reshaped the landscape. Yet, intriguingly, the back-office operations of many financial service companies have remained relatively static over these years, still grappling with manual encodi ..read more