IBS Journal December 2015


As the calendar year is drawing to a close, we are looking at its highs and lows in the banking and technology space. And what a year it’s been!


Embarrassing technology outages, takeovers, resig- nations and corruption scandals, eye-watering fines for misbehaving banks, major cost cutting pledges, layoffs and branch closures – the list just goes on…


The consolidation among the big players contin- ued, whilst the start-up industry is bursting at the seams with all the newcomers trying to get a slice of the fintech action. All things mobile/digital (no surprise there) and blockchain seem to have been getting the most love in the course of 2015.


At the Sibos conference the blockchain presenta- tions were standing room only. Perhaps this was partly due to the fact that whilst everybody is talking about it, many have a very vague idea of what it actually is. Fear not, IBS Journal is here to help – in this issue we put blockchain under the spotlight. What is it, how does it work, who is doing what, and what are the attractions and drawbacks – all this and more on p36–39.


But let’s not forget the old guard. The standout deal of 2015 in the banking tech space has to be the acquisition of Sungard by FIS and Sungard’s subsequent sale of its core banking unit to rival Silverlake Axis. FIS splashed out $9.1 billion on the fellow US fintech provider, and assumed its impressive debt of nearly $4.2 billion. This was swiftly followed by the disposal of the Ambit core banking unit, raising $12 million from the sale. No big deal, one might say, but the same unit was purchased less than ten years ago by Sungard for… $120 million. $100 million evaporated in less than a decade – that takes some doing.


And one more highlight of the year, of course, is the change of ownership at IBS Intelligence. We are now part of the Cedar Management Consulting International family, with exciting develop- ments and a strong growth trajectory for 2016. Bring on the new year!


Tanya Andreasyan, Editor


© IBS Intelligence 2015


www.ibsintelligence.com


5


editor’s note


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44