Open Banking Workgroup 
The first objective of the Open Banking workgroup is to help banks explore opportunities presented by the new Payment Services Directive, PSD2, together with open banking standards like the Open Financial Exchange (OFX). The group will focus on how banks can capitalise on these regulations to establish a new relationship model with their customers based on the open banking environment. The group aims to establish best practice in defining an open banking strategy by exploring value-added services and their contribution to banks revenues. 
The group is co-chaired by Oscar Sala, VP Product Strategy, Strands, and Jordi Guaus, Head of Digital Marketing, CaixaBank. 

Virtual Currencies Workgroup
The Virtual Currencies workgroup will scrutinise the 5th Anti Money Laundering (AML) Directive which will include clear explanations of how virtual currencies are defined together with how blockchain based payment companies will become ‘obligated entities’ under the terms of the directive. The workgroup will analyse questions such as: What are the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats that virtual currencies present? How should the new AML regulation be manifested in action? How is the risk picture changing for banks? 

The group is co-chaired by Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, Senior Vice President, Nets Group and Peter Stephens, Head of Blockchain, UBS.

Strong Authentication in M-Commerce Workgroup
Addressing issues and authentication solutions in m-commerce will be the principal focus of this workgroup, which will pay particular attention to remote consumer-to-business payment transactions initiated via the mobile device. Both app and browser based authentication solutions will be explored, with a view to creating a joint Mobey Forum and Aite Group research report. 

The group is co-chaired by Ron Van Wezel, Senior Analyst, Aite Group, Roney Castro, Principal Advisor, UL and Jacob Ost Hansen, Nordea. 

“Mobey Forum’s central objective has always been to enable banks and financial institutions to leverage new technologies and business models to reinforce their leadership in financial services,” comments Maikki Frisk, Executive Director, Mobey Forum. “Digitalisation is changing the world at an unprecedented rate; there is barely an area of our lives that is unaffected. Similarly, a huge proportion of our day to day activities have their foundations in commerce. This means two things: Firstly, that banks and financial institutions have a vital role to play in helping everyone that inhabits the digital world to harness its power to enrich their lives. Secondly, as banks respond to digitalisation, they have a tremendous opportunity to establish new, deeper relationships with customers, generating innovative new services and capitalising on the revenues these will generate. For this to happen, however, they must be ahead of the curve. Our three new workgroups zero in on some of the most influential developments in banking and fintech today. I can’t wait to be part of the discussions.”

Mobey Forum’s workgroups provide a platform for strategic discussion and collaboration on a particular area of interest for members. The groups aim to prevent stakeholders from developing ‘tunnel vision’ by bringing together vendors, banks, financial institutions and other service providers to network, share experiences and exchange views in a commercially neutral environment.

The three new workgroups will join Mobey Forum’s popular Bank Disruption workgroup which will continue its wide-ranging work into the second half of 2017 and beyond. All groups will meet this week at Mobey Forum’s second quarterly member meeting of the year, kindly hosted by Inside Secure in Edinburgh, Scotland.