The Next Wave of Internet Banking

Online banking has come a long way over the past decade from having experienced the highs of the dotcom boom era to the subsequent lows of the immediate post-dotcom period when it was often accused of having reneged on its initial promise of providing low-cost convenient banking. Online banking has finally matured in recent years by not only attracting the ... More info

The Next Wave in Internet Banking

The Internet banking model was originally built with a view to merely replace identified brick-&-mortar services and provide an online means of reaching out to the bank. This model was not mature enough for the market as these Internet banking solutions served as mere aggregating mechanisms. Slowly new features like inter-bank local payments, international remittances, communication through secure e-mail with ... More info

Partner Portals – What’s in it for Banks

Portals are those Websites that aim to be entry points to the World Wide Web, typically offering search engines and/or links to useful pages, and possibly news or other services. Partner portals are portals owned by companies that give access, based on the function involved, to their various partners so as to forge deeper relationships. Partner portals, as they stand ... More info

Safety Tips For Online Banking

Online banking completely changed the way we interact with banks and other financial institutions, to the way our fathers did. Online banking is a powerful "value added" tool to eliminate costly paper handling and teller interactions in an increasingly competitive banking environment. As the Internet continues to expand exponentially, banks and other financial institutions have increased their use of the ... More info

Soa Plug-and-play Services

Shifting economic conditions and rapidly evolving IT strategies along with mergers and acquisitions have left few banks with an appetite to untangle the morass of legacy systems running their businesses. Due to the siloed architecture within banks, where each business unit has their own systems and islands of information, core-banking replacement is a complex integration exercise. Islands of systems have ... More info

Managing Risks in Core Banking Replacements

Core banking replacement has for quite some time been considered fraught with high risks. The costs are potentially bordering on the prohibitive and many still believe that their present in-house systems are satisfactorily serving the purpose. But the wind is changing direction and fast. There is a rising acknowledgement of the fact that banks, irrespective of size and geography, face ... More info

Key Challenges in Core Banking Replacement

Core banking replacement has, for long, been considered a strict no-no by banks. Established comfort level with existing technologies and processes, relatively comfortable margins that provided the luxury of overlooking operational inefficiencies, and finally, the fear of the unknown, have all ensured that banks steered clear of this subject. But the current competitive environment with increasingly demanding customers is forcing ... More info

The Core Banking Juggernaut Rolls on

Tier 1 banks are taking the lead and embarking on a total overhaul of their core processing platforms. The verdict - new age core systems are leaving an indelible imprint on the banking landscape..., at least to the extent of gaining acceptance and engulfing few legacy systems in its wake. This article seeks to highlight some of the trends in ... More info

Payments Business 3s Approach

Payments - the numero uno facet of a payment system, enables the circulation of funds. Without a robust infrastructure enabling smooth flow of funds, financial institutions can rarely assume the role of a financial intermediary in the economy.... In order to confront the numerous parallel players in the remittance market, banks need to maintain a payments system infrastructure and refine ... More info

Get More From the Core: Drivers of Back-office Transformation

Get More from the Core: Drivers of Back-office Transformation - A white paper on core banking.  In the recent past banks were esoteric institutions that acted as custodians of cash and handed out loans. Today they have been transformed into dynamic, multichannel organizations that strive to continuously bring innovative products to the marketplace.... All this has been done in order to ... More info

M-payment: a Threat to Anti-money Laundering

By H. Paul Leyva, J.D., C.AM.C. October 1, 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), March, 2008:  " … there are already indications that money launderers and those that finance terrorism will avail themselves of the new m-payment systems.” NEW YORK, NY—Brittany has never filed an income tax return to report her $200,000.00+ income as a high-class call girl. ... More info

Who Caused the Credit Crunch? Men and Their Testosterone?

True to form, economists have offered a range of explanations for the financial crisis that threatens the world and which so few of them managed to predict. Some blame something called collateralisation, others easy money, still others lax regulation. But, by focusing on the technicalities, have they overlooked a more obvious culprit - men? After all, it is men who ... More info

Whatever Has Happened to Mike Blackburn’s Halifax?

Following the events within financial institutions in the UK in late September 2008, Philip Suter recalls some of his memories from working for Yorkshire based building societies who later became banks.   In the early 1980’s Banks, Building Societies and some insurance companies started buying up estate agents throughout Britain. The objective was to have a vehicle to sell their ... More info

Last Bank Standing-The Wall Street Mega-Crash

Dateline Washington, October 19th (get it?) 2010: the Peoples Bank & Trust of America has now established itself as the only bank of any kind in the USA, totally owned and managed by the US House of Representatives.A 2/3 majority must now approve all investment banking transactions; your district representative's staff reviews individual mortgage applications; and all 401(k), ... More info

House of Representatives

Daily Market Commentary for September 29, 2008 from Millennium-Traders.ComAmericans watched as Republicans and Democrats childishly pointed fingers at each other, for the reason of the failed plan. Americans have no interest in watching Congressional childish play, we just want the problem fixed! (read more)http://www.millennium-traders.com/news/newscommentary.aspxEconomic data released today:Personal Income and Outlays:U.S. Personal Income ... More info

Mortgage Interest Rates Move Up After Historic Fall

For the two weeks after the government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae we saw a historic drop in mortgage interest rates. In fact it was the largest two week drop since 1995. This was after rates had been gradually falling for the previous two months on rumors of the takeover. After the drop, we saw ... More info

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