Pandemic blues

In the Efma-Infosys Finacle ‘Innovation in Retail Banking’ 2020 study, author Jim Marous strikes a somber note when he says, “COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on consumer needs and behaviors, changing business models and creating significant new opportunities. More than ever, innovation is the foundation for digital transformation and must be prioritized to unlock the potential for post- crisis growth.”

The year 2020 will go down in the history books as a transformational one for the financial services industry. In particular, for the unavoidable progress made towards cashless societies becoming a reality.

Stahl, the world leader in the specialty chemistry of coatings, processing and treatments, has engaged leading blockchain group Finboot to supply its blockchain middleware solution MARCO to improve the way it shares and verifies its products’ sustainability credentials with brands that use materials treated with Stahl chemicals.

Lightico, pioneer of next-generation digital customer interactions, welcomes Rich Corriss as its new Director of Customer Success. A banking and technology veteran with nearly 30 years of experience, Mr. Corriss will help lead Lightico’s continued growth in the banking, auto finance and credit union space following rapid growth in 2020 including a number of regional banks and credit unions.

NICE Actimize, a NICE business (Nasdaq: NICE) today announced that FACEPOINT, which launched an industry-leading biometric risk screening engine, has joined the X-Sight Marketplace, bringing its cutting-edge facial recognition technology for advanced KYC and watch list risk screening to the ecosystem.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) provides powerful solutions to achieve decentralized operations, but running a DLT platform securely remains a challenge. One critical problem in such platforms is the secure management of the keys that are used in the DLT operations. Using a cryptographic technique called secure Multiparty Computation (MPC), it is possible to overcome the key management problem in DLT platforms.

Tech is disrupting the conventional banking sector from back office core banking to customer-facing processes. Islamic banking is no different. Wael Malkawi, executive director at ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS), spoke with IBS Intelligence about how technology has disrupted Islamic banks in recent years.

How has Islamic banking evolved/changed in the past few years?

Client onboarding has become a key strategic focus for many financial institutions, driven by the need to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and manage risk. As the pace of change increases, it is critical to understand which initiatives banks should be prioritising in order to meet their goals.

Today Chase, the largest co-brand card issuer, and Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline and a Star Alliance founding member, announced a strategic partnership that will make Chase the exclusive issuer of the airline’s Aeroplan U.S. credit card. As a part of this partnership, Mastercard will become the exclusive payments network for the new offering in the U.S.