Contents In this issue
6 News in numbers The headlines and vital statistics impacting the sector.
Big interview
8 Digitalising the world’s bank In 2021, HSBC embarked on an ambitious scheme of digitalisation, spending billions to transform a range of client functions. As one the largest financiers on earth, with customers and staff scattered the world over, embracing the immense power of new technology surely makes sense. And as the bank’s Group CIO explains, revamped platforms have the opportunity to take
11 4 Regional focus
11 A window into Europe Following Britain’s departure from the EU, several UK fintechs have increased their presence in the Benelux countries. This isn’t hard to understand: cities like Amsterdam and Brussels are perfect for ambitious globalised fintechs keen to access the European market. Abi Millar talksto Simon Boonen, fintech lead at ING, and Kim Van Esbroeck,
HSBC to even dizzier heights, in fields as varied as customer onboarding and cybersecurity. Andrea Valentino chats to Steve Van Wyk to learn more.
8
country head Belgium at Aion Bank, about why so many financial players are drawn to the region.
Digital banking
14 Credit where it’s due Since 2021, UniCredit has been busy integrating technology into everything it does, sharpening internal processes and offering customers dynamic new products. But what does that revolution actually look like in practice? And to what extent can the Italian giant use digitalisation to support the country’s ailing business community? Andrea Valentino catches up with Luboslava Uram, UniCredit Italy’s chief digital and information officer,and the group head of the bank’s retail business platform, to learn more.
In partnership with:
for a post-pandemic world How SmartStream is revolutionising banking through data
Post-trade solutions
The world has changed a lot since the start of the pandemic. Back then, the big question hanging in the air was how banks and businesses would respond to a zero interest rate environment. Now, we are looking into the face of a recession and both inflation and interest rates are rising at rates not seen for decades.
The war in Ukraine has brought further challenges, as it freezes business involving Russia. At the same time, banks are having to adjust to wave after wave of new regulations governing payments, as settlement times contract and put service and execution at the forefront of customers’ minds.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of increasingly intense competition between big banks, challenger banks and fintechs. Data is the new currency and data management solutions are the new weapons in this ongoing battle.
All parties, from Tier 1 banks to the more agile fintechs, need to have access to high-quality data and lightning fast reconciliation systems, as well as streamlining the labour-intensive and time-consuming processes of exceptions management.
Every single one of these challenges is firmly on the radar for SmartStream Technologies, which works hard to pre-empt the challenges that financial institutions will face before the industry even knows they are coming.
Whether it is its AI-enabled reconciliation solution AIR, the new Lightning product that automatically generates matching rules to speed up the onboarding of data sources, the newly launched exceptions management system, or the company’s state-of-the cash and liquidity management platform that helps banks to maximise revenues in a world of rising interest rates, or its learning AI Affinity that keeps essential skills in an organisation’s systems rather than its people, SmartStream is helping the industry to adapt to the new post-pandemic world.
In an ever-changing world, innovation must be constant. And innovation is in SmartStream’s DNA.
On page 17
Post-trade solutions for a post-pandemic world
20 AI and ML spell innovation
22 Putting clients in control of digital payments
24 A new kind of gold
26 Pushing the button on cash and liquidity
Employee experience 27 All maxed out
Even before the pandemic, banking was famously stressful. Since 2020, the strain has been ramped up even further, with remote working and lockdowns just two of the challenges employees now face. Given a career in banking takes a heavy toll on mental health even in normal conditions, things are far from easy. Jim Banks talks to Alison Unsted, CEO of the City Mental Health Alliance, as well as the former industry senior executive, about how HR teams are supporting staff, the importance of openness from top executives – and whether fundamental reforms to working hours and staff responsibilities are needed.
Smart buildings
30 Take that to the bank With bank branch closures coming thick and fast, and ATMs disappearing across the UK, the ability to access in-person banking, and even physical cash, is being drastically curtailed. Consumers, for their part, are facing a banking environment unlike anything
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
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