Hamish Monk - Community Author: Finextra Research

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

What is an API?

The world of financial services is increasingly connected. This is thanks to the unsung hero of the digital world: application programming interfaces, or APIs – a millennial innovation opened out to the financial sector through a series of open banking regulations, including the first installment of the Payment Services Directives, in 2007. APIs, ...

05 August 2024 /devops

How to onboard a new customer: Streamlining banks' journeys

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to onboard a new customer: Streamlining banks' journeys

Customer onboarding describes the process by which banks and financial institutions take uninitiated individuals and give them access to pre-agreed products. The challenges around this journey include bringing numerous segments of the bank together; ensuring communication with the customer is clear and concise; as well as that all compliance boxes...

30 July 2024 /retail

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

Understanding consumer duty

With the UK’s Consumer Duty standard due to come into force this month, it is time for a recap on its objectives, how it is working to improve consumer protection for financial firms, and what can be expected from the annual board attestation on 31 July 2024. Good outcomes for customers Announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2021 an...

23 July 2024 /regulation

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

PSD3 use cases

In 2026 the existing second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will formally be replaced by two new pieces of legislation: the first Payment Services Regulation (PSR1) and PSD3. The European Commission’s aim is to boost payments security and level the playing field between banks and payment initiators (PIs). With the transition period well underwa...

16 July 2024 /regulation

How to use AI to provide personalised services

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to use AI to provide personalised services

Today’s discourse on the nature, consequences and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) can often obfuscate the technology’s immediate, on-the-ground applications. In this article, Finextra considers 5 distinct ways in which AI may be used by financial institutions to better serve their customers. Five use cases The proverbial secret sauce in...

09 July 2024 /ai

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to prevent a cyber-attack

In June, Russian ransomware-as-a-service gang, Qilin, stole data covering 300 million NHS patient interactions – and demanded an alleged £40 million for its return. The leak meant that two of the health service’s biggest trusts, King’s College hospital and Guy’s & St Thomas’, “had to cancel 1,134 planned operations, including cancer and trans...

02 July 2024 /crime

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to spot APP fraud

According to Nick Green, director, Purple Patch Broking, “APP fraud is now the number one payments threat and is expected to reach $5.25 billion by 2026.” Last year alone, UK bank fraud losses topped £1 billion. Authorised push payments (APP) fraud is the increasingly sophisticated financial crime that tricks victims into sending funds directly...

25 June 2024 /crime

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to verify a digital identity

In May 2024, the European Union’s Digital Identity Regulation came into force – requiring member states to offer at least one EU Digital Identity Wallet to citizens, by 2026. Given digital identity is a relatively new theme in Europe, the uninitiated’s perception of it will be prejudiced by the representation in films – whether it be Ethan Hunt a...

18 June 2024 /identity

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

How to realise the benefits of CBDCs

With a good amount of responses to Finextra’s introductory short read, ‘What is CBDC?’ we follow up to address the prevailing commentary: “What would be the main purpose of introducing digital currency?” The answer to this can be given in terms of the benefits of central bank digital currency (CBDC). In this article we respond to our community by ...

11 June 2024 /crypto

Hyper-personalisation - Are super-apps over?

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

Hyper-personalisation - Are super-apps over?

Hyper-personalisation has become something of a buzzword in discussions of the Future of Digital Banking in Europe. On the ground there are many holes that need to be plugged – both in terms of the technology and scalability – before it can become prevalent. A Deloitte report, ‘The Future of Retail Banking: The Hyper-Personalisation Imperative’, ...

04 June 2024 /retail

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s super-app: How to use hyper-personalisation in your business

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s super-app: How to use hyper-personalisation in your business

The super-app is the final boss of hyper-personalisation; the assembled endgame of the personal finance app (PFA). Look up – it’s swooping down to save the day; dropping a gamut of services in the palm of end-users’ hands. Alas, the term ‘super-app’ has become something of a nebulous catchphrase in the land of financial services. To help demystify ...

04 June 2024 /retail

Hyperbitcoinisation: Fantasy or reality?

Hamish Monk Reporter at Finextra

Hyperbitcoinisation: Fantasy or reality?

The first page of the cryptocurrency history book should open in the early 1970s, when the United States ceased to back the dollar with gold – thus ushering in an era of fiat currency. The status quo has hardly changed since, and to this day money continues to be printed via the issuance of public debt, without tangible limits. This is one of the ...

28 May 2024 /crypto

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