The retail banks were responsible for the highest number of reports (486) – almost 60% of the total. This was followed by wholesale financial markets on 115 reports and retail investment firms on 53.

The root causes for the incidents were attributed to third party failure (21% of reports), hardware/software issues (19%) and change management (18%).

The FCA has recently warned of a significant rise in outages and cyber-attacks affecting financial services firms. It has also called on regulated firms to develop greater cyber resilience to prevent attacks and better operational resilience to recover from disruptions.

According to the new data obtained by RSM, there were 93 cyber-attacks reported in 2018. Over half of these were phishing attacks, while 20% were ransomware attacks.

Commenting on the figures, Steve Snaith, a technology risk assurance partner at RSM said: "While the jump in cyber incidents among financial services firms looks alarming, it's likely that this is due in part to firms being more proactive in reporting incidents to the regulator. It also reflects the increased onus on security and data breach reporting following the GDPR and recent FCA requirements.

"However, we suspect that there is still a high level of under-reporting. Failure to immediately report to the FCA a significant attempted fraud against a firm via cyber-attack could expose the firm to sanctions and penalties from the FCA.

"As the FCA has previously pointed out, eliminating the threat of cyber-attacks is all but impossible. While the financial services sector emerged relatively unscathed from recent well-publicised attacks such as NotPetya, the sector should be wary of complacency given the inherent risk of cyber-attacks that it faces.

"The figures also underline the importance of organisations obtaining third party assurance of their partners' cyber controls. Moreover, the continued high proportion of successful phishing attacks highlights the need to continue to drive cyber risk awareness among staff.

"Interestingly, a high proportion of cyber events were linked to change management, highlighting the risk of changes to IT environments not being managed effectively, leading to consequent loss. The requirements for Privacy Impact Assessments as a formal requirement of GDPR/DPA2018 should hopefully drive a greater level of governance in this area.

"Overall, there remain serious vulnerabilities across some financial services businesses when it comes to the effectiveness of their cyber controls. More needs to be done to embed a cyber resilient culture and ensure effective incident reporting processes are in place."

Fig1: The number of cyber incidents reported to the FCA by regulated firms in 2018 broken down by the sector the incident impacted (source FCA):

Fig2: The root causes of cyber incidents reported to the FCA (source FCA):

Fig3: The breakdown of incidents in 2018 categorised as 'Cyber attacks' (source FCA):

But it is the speed at which the technological advancements have reached that has forced traditionally slow-moving financial institutions to heavily invest to remain relevant to their consumers and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Personal

Banking is one of the oldest businesses in the world, going back centuries ago, in fact, the oldest bank in operation today is the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472. The first instance of a non-cash transaction came in the 20^th century, when charga-plates were first invented. Considered a predecessor to the credit card, department stores brought these out to select customers and each time a purchase was made, the plates would be pressed and inked onto a sales slip.

At the end of the sales cycle, customers were expected to pay what they were owed to the store, however due to their singular location use, it made them rather limiting, thus paving way for the credit card, where customers that had access to one could apply the same transactional process to multiple stores and stations, all in one place.

Contactless

The way in which we conduct our leisurely expenditure has changed that much that we can now pay for services on our watches, but it wasn’t always this easy. Just over a few decades ago, individuals were expected to physically travel to their nearest bank to pay their bills, and had no choice but to carry around loose change and cash on their person, a practice that is a dying art in today’s society, kept afloat by the reducing population born before technology.

Although the first instances of contactless cards came about in the mid-90’s, the very first contactless cards associated with banking were first brought into circulation by Barclaycard in 2008, with now more than £40 million being issued, despite there being an initial skepticism towards the unfamiliar use of this type of payment method.

Business

Due to the changes in the financial industry leaning heavily towards a more virtual experience, traditional brick and mortar banks where the older generation still go to, to sort out their finances. Banks are closing at a rate of 60 per month nationwide, with some villages, such as Llandysul closing all four of its banks along with a post office leaving it a ghost town.

The elderly residents of the small town were then forced into a 30-mile round trip in order to access her nearest banking services. With technology not for everyone, those that weren’t taught technology at a younger age or at all are feeling the effects most, almost feeling shut out, despite many banks offering day-to-day banking services through more than 11,000 post office branches, offering yet a lifeline for those struggling with the new business model of financial firms.

Future innovations

As the bracket of people who have grown up around technology widens, the demand for a contemporary banking service continues to encourage the banking industries to stay on their toes as far as the newest innovations go.

Pierre Vannineuse, CEO and Founder of Alternative Investment firm Alpha Blue Ocean, gives his comments about the future of banking services, saying: “Artificial intelligence is continuing to brew in the background and will no doubt feature prominently in the years to come. With many automated chatbots and virtual assistants already taking most of the customer service roles, we are bound to see a more prominent role of AI in how transactions are processed from all levels.”

Technology may have taken its time to get to where it is now, but the way in which it adapts and updates in the modern era has allowed it to quicken its own pace so that new processes spring up thick and fast. Technology has given us a sense of instant gratification, either in business or in leisure, we want things done now not in day or a week down the line.

Sources:

https://www.sysco-software.com/7-emerging-trends-that-are-changing-finance-1-evolving-cfo-role/

https://www.vox.com/ad/16554798/banking-technology-credit-debit-cards

https://transferwise.com/gb/blog/5-ways-technology-has-changed-banking

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2016/08/30/five-major-changes-that-will-impact-the-finance-industry-in-the-next-two-years/#61cbe952ae3e

This is according to Aaron Lint, Chief Scientist and VP of Research at Arxan Technologies, who discusses with Finance Monthly below, touching on the key elements of tech security and the use of financial applications across devices.

There’s a systemic problem across the financial services industry with financial institutions failing to secure their mobile apps. With mobile banking becoming the primary user experience and open banking standards looming, mobile security must become a more integral part of the institution’s overall security strategy, and fast.

When a company fails to consider a proper application security technology strategy for its front line apps, the app can be easily reverse-engineered. This sets the stage for potential account takeovers, data leaks, and fraud. As a result, the company may experience significant financial losses and damage to brand, customer loyalty, and shareholder confidence as well as significant government penalties.

Where’s the proof?

A recent in-depth analysis conducted by Aite Group of financial institutions’ mobile applications highlighted major vulnerabilities including easily reverse-engineered application code. Each app was very readily reversible, only requiring an average of 8.5 minutes per application analysed. Some of the serious vulnerabilities exposed included insecure in-app data storage, compromised data transmission due to weak cryptography, insufficient transport layer protection, and potential malware injection points due to insufficient integrity protection.

For example, of the apps tested, 97% lacked binary code protection, meaning the majority of apps can be trivially reverse engineered. Of equal concern was the finding that 90% of the apps shared services with other applications on the same device, leaving the data from the financial institution’s app accessible to any other application on the device.

This metadata is built by default into every single unprotected mobile application in the world. It provides not only an instruction manual for the APIs which are used to interact with the data center, but also the location of authorization keys and authentication tokens which control access to those APIs. Even if the applications are implemented without a single runtime code-based vulnerability, this statically available information can provide an attacker with the blueprints they are seeking when performing reconnaissance.

There is no shortage of anecdotal evidence which shows that hackers are actively seeking to take advantage of vulnerabilities like the ones identified in the research. For example, recently mobile malware was uncovered that leveraged Android’s accessibility features to copy the finger taps required to send money out of an individual’s PayPal account. The malware was posted on a third-party app store disguised as a battery optimisation app. This mobile banking trojan was designed to wire just under £800 out of an individual’s PayPal account within three seconds, despite PayPal’s additional layer of security using multifactor authentication.

So, what’s the solution?

To minimise the risk of all of the vulnerabilities being identified and ultimately exploited, it is essential that financial institutions adopt a comprehensive approach to application security that includes app shielding, encryption, threat detection and response; and ensure their developers receive adequate secure coding training.

App shielding is a process in which the source code of an application is augmented with additional security controls and obfuscation, deterring hackers from analysing and decompiling it. This significantly raises the level of effort necessary to exploit vulnerabilities in the mobile app or repackage it to redistribute it with malware inside. In addition, app-level threat detection should be implemented to identify and alert IT teams on exactly how and when apps are attacked at the endpoint. This opens a new avenue of response for an organisation’s SOC (Security Operations Center) Playbook, allowing immediate actions such as shutting down the application, or sandboxing a user – essentially isolating them from critical system resources and assets, revising business logic, and repairing code.

App shielding and the other types of application security solutions mentioned above should be incorporated directly into the DevOps and DevSecOps methodologies so that the security of the application is deployed and updated along with the normal SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). App Shielding is available post-coding, so as not to disrupt rapid app development and deployment processes by requiring retraining of developers. This combination of best practices increases an organisation's ability to deliver safe, reliable applications and services at high velocity.

Conclusion

It’s no secret that the finance industry is a lucrative target because the direct payoff is cold, hard cash. Research is showing that virtually none of the finance apps have holistic app security measures in place that could detect if an app is being reverse-engineered, let alone actively defend against any malicious activity originating from code level tampering.

We would reasonably expect our fundamental financial institutions to be leaders in security, but unfortunately, the lack of app protection is a disturbing industry trend in the face of a significant shift into reliance on mobility. Organisations need to take a fresh look at their mobile strategy and the related threat modeling, and realise how significant the attack surface really is.

This Customer Experience Exchange for Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) is an outstanding opportunity for you to learn lessons from the most successful financial institutions in the field. In just two days out of the office you’ll save months and potentially years of strategy heartache. You'll hear from leaders from across North America talk about their winning strategies in Financial Services, Banking and Insurance.

To ensure the Exchange offers the highest degree of relevancy, only senior executives responsible for strategic customer experience development and investment are invited to attend. This exclusive format allows you to connect with those peers whose insights you respect most – through exceptional networking, business meetings and strategic information sharing sessions.

For more information visit the Customer Experience Exchange for Banking, Financial Services & Insurance website

A tap over the limit

2018 saw biometric payment cards transition from theory to reality. Partnerships with banks, vendors and payments schemes gained real traction worldwide and have continued to do so into 2019.

In March this year, the UK’s first biometric payment card trials were announced by Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest to great acclaim, with the solution described by NatWest as, “the biggest development in card technology in recent years.” The major motivation cited behind these UK trials? The opportunity to ‘scrap the payment cap’.

Since its launch more than a decade ago, the popularity of contactless card payments has grown considerably, and adoption in the UK has been particularly high. Recent industry figures suggest the total value of contactless transactions reached £5.9 billion in February 2019 alone - an increase of 19.8% during the same period in 2018 - while almost 83% of consumer debit card transactions are now contactless.

Limited to £30 per transaction however, the true potential of contactless payments has been cut short. While the cap responds to security concerns, adding biometric trust to a payment card can empower banks to lift the payment cap without impeding consumer convenience.

The natural evolution of the contactless card? We think so.

Biometrics is taking centre stage as a means to strengthen security without simply adding more forgettable PINs and passwords.

Security for the age of apps

Open banking and the mandates of PSD2 are making banks, merchants and device makers consider how they can best deliver multi-factor secure customer authentication (SCA) solutions. Meanwhile, in an increasingly connected, always-on world, consumer demands for a more seamless UX have never been higher.

Biometrics is taking centre stage as a means to strengthen security without simply adding more forgettable PINs and passwords.

Its application in mobile devices is increasingly extending beyond simply opening the device to guarding the applications within them. From open banking apps and digital wallets, to m-commerce and in-app purchases, consumers are rapidly realising the benefits biometrics bring to managing and protecting their financial lives.

Introducing biometrics can also enable stakeholders to foster greater consumer trust and safeguard privacy concerns. Not something to shy away from in a post-GDPR Europe.

Payment form factors are exploding!

With over 20 trials announced across the globe, the biometric payment card is likely to be the next big fingerprint-secured solution to revolutionise the payments world. But the possibilities for new form factors are endless – from wearables to USB authentication dongles.

Biometric authentication has an unrivalled opportunity to unify the authentication process across form factors and platforms.

In parallel, we’re also likely to see biometrics technologies beyond fingerprints continue to grow in adoption. The success of fingerprint has paved the way for other biometrics technologies to achieve success, including touchless facial and iris recognition solutions. In fact, we’re increasingly likely to see solutions combining multiple biometrics technologies where, for example, a device could authenticate your face and fingerprint at the same time. By ‘layering’ security with biometrics, the FS world can continue to improve UX, reduce fraud, and perhaps finally say goodbye to PINs and passwords.

Consumers are the key to everything

In an age of increasingly connected, seamless solutions across industries, the consumer experience sits at the heart of everything. Biometric authentication has an unrivalled opportunity to unify the authentication process across form factors and platforms.

For payments, and the FS world more broadly, biometrics answers an age-old question: how do we add security without harming UX? This balance of trust and convenience is vitally important and is what will see the technology continue to thrive in smartphones and in applications far beyond.

It’d be naïve to look too far ahead, but we can be sure that if the rest of the year continues with the same pace as the first quarter, the biometrics industry will certainly be kept busy!

Website: https://www.fingerprints.com/?utm_source=iseepr&utm_campaign=FinanceMonthly_article

Blog: https://www.fingerprints.com/blog/you-are-the-key-to-everything/?utm_source=iseepr&utm_campaign=1bn_blog

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FingerprintCard

The quality and efficiency of financial management services have improved by leaps and bounds after the industry finally decided to embrace the Internet of Things. But as impressive as the changes are, there’s still a lot more to do to meet the expectations of a more demanding client-base. Thus, it doesn’t take much to figure out that future innovations need to focus on more inclusive and interactive models that make the most of available technology.

It’s too early to tell what the future holds for the industry. However, these trends give us a glimpse of how wealth management could look like in the years to come.

A More Digital Industry

Looking back at how “traditional” things used to be for the wealth management industry merely a decade ago, the rapid and strategic digitalization of most firms and companies is nothing short of amazing.

As big and small companies alike prepare for an influx of younger and hipper clients, automation and digital integration become even more essential aspects of their marketing efforts. In fact, industry leaders are already carrying out groundbreaking centralized digital marketing strategies that are pushing the rest to follow their lead.

To thrive, organizations have to rethink and reshape their approaches and decipher how they can use technology to their advantage.

Robo Advisors at Your Service

Witnessing how successful chatbots are at offering 24/7 customer support for many companies around the globe, the financial services industry strives to do the same – if not better – with robo-advisors.

While this can be a huge hit-or-miss situation, it’s a risk worth taking for many asset management firms. Aside from software-based solutions being more cost-effective than traditional investment management, this development has the potential to catch the fancy of millennials who are almost always fascinated with what technology can do.

You can’t deny that digital assistants enhance and empower customer experience. Be that as it may, it's too soon to tell for sure if robo-advisors will ever become competent replacements for human advisors, especially in offering customized and long term investments proposals.

Sustainable Investing Becomes an Even Bigger Hit

The growing interest in sustainable investing is expected to swell in the coming years as more people are encouraged to take socially and environmentally-conscious investments.

Millennials have been leading the awareness campaign towards sustainable investing and its principles; and the overall response has been positive, to say the least.

At the rate things are going, wealth managers will have to pay more attention to impact investments and find a way to incorporate the ESG philosophy into their management approaches, should they wish to attract the millennial market.

The Age of Better-informed Investors

There was very little interest in wealth management pursuits in the past few decades because the majority of the population basically had no idea what it’s all about. Thankfully, things have changed, and they continue to change for the better.

As information and resources on asset management and financial services become easier to access, people from all walks of life are opening up to the concept of investing and becoming more conscious of the state of their financial health.

The future shines bright for the wealth management industry.

Dr Gero Decker, Co-Founder and CEO of Signavio notes that financial institutions can no longer anticipate a comfortable unchallenged position, with modest expectations from customers in terms of their banking experience; and retained loyalty based on traditional relationship banking models.

Gone are the days when customers opened a bank account and remained a customer for life. Now customers are willing to swap and change who they bank with at a click of a button.

Poor customer service cost UK businesses £37 billion^[1] in 2018, a significant increase of £31 billion from the previous year. New agile FinTech entrants who offer a streamlined, customer-centric experience are threatening traditional banks; with 20% of market share potentially compromised.

How then can traditional banks rise to the challenge of delivering a superior customer experience amidst the evolving boundaries of customer expectations?

Poor customer service cost UK businesses £37 billion^[1] in 2018, a significant increase of £31 billion from the previous year.

For starters, financial institutions that seek to retain their leadership position in an increasingly saturated market, must prioritise customer centricity across all their processes and ensure these business processes are directly connected to the customer experience.

Serving customers remains the central goal for banks, and the best way to retain customer loyalty is to understand every touch point of the customer journey.

As customer service evolves to become the new battleground for the financial services sector, the customer journey must be placed at the centre of operations, connecting customer knowledge with everyday operational realities. This will allow banks to deal with the record number of complaints, all the while remaining competitive.

Traditional banks need to think beyond customer experience, to a broader measure called customer journey mapping. Customer journey mapping places each and every one of their business processes firmly centred on the needs of their consumers. Creating a system which records all incoming complaints, categorises them and identifies their root cause. Customer journey mapping when utilised effectively, encourages banks to visualise all elements of customer experience, viewing interactions from the perspective of the consumer and ultimately reorienting all decisions around customers.

Banks should also look to empower employees across various departments, assuming they will become more unified as they use customer insights to identify bottlenecks and eliminate duplication of efforts.

Banks should also look to empower employees across various departments, assuming they will become more unified as they use customer insights to identify bottlenecks and eliminate duplication of efforts.

Leveraging customer data to construct a real-time picture, allows banks to see the entirety of the journey from both internal and external perspectives offering full visibility over existing customer pain points. This unique product viewing lens through the eyes of the consumer provides game-changing insight likely to result in an enhanced customer experience, lower operational costs and ensures banks’ ability to deliver on its promises.

Mckinsey research^[2] shows that superior customer experience raises the likelihood that a customer will increase deposit balances, open new accounts and products at a bank. In the realm of trust and loyalty, customers can be your biggest advocates, providing the much needed competitive edge in an increasingly saturated market.

Through aligning customer journeys with internal processes, traditional banks effectively shift the mindset from internal efficiency to external, customer-driven success. The challenge put to them by agile new entrants have in a way provided traditional players with a scrutinising scope into the future of their industry, by increasing the standard for best practice. It is important they embrace the customer journey as a fundamental strategy, supported by an intelligently organised, clear operational performance metrics informed by customer feedback.

^[1] https://www.ringcentral.co.uk/blog/dissatisfied-customers-cost-businesses/

^[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/customer-mindshare-the-new-battleground-in-us-retail-banking

That is why, when the Competition and Markets Authority ordered the implementation of so-called Open Banking almost three years ago, everyone excitedly welcomed the prospect of upstart new banks and other fintech companies using technology to challenge the Big Five. Here Kevin McCallum, CCO at FreeAgent , talks to Finance Monthly about the different ways big banks are making the most of Open Banking.

More than a year after roll-out began, however, it looks more like the little guy is not yet making the inroads expected. In the new Open Banking race, it is the incumbents which are still leading the field.

When the CMA found insufficient competition in banking, it was no surprise - almost 90% of business accounts are concentrated with just four or five institutions, while 60% of personal customers had stayed with their bank for more than a decade.

The central solution was to be Open Banking, starting with requiring banks to allow rivals and third-party services access to customers’ account data - subject, of course, to the necessary permissions. This, the theory went, would spur competition through innovation - we would see banks reduced to interchangeable commodity services, mere infrastructure providers, with nimble, agile third-party services innovating on top, spurring the banks in to action.

In the same timeframe, we have certainly seen the emergence of digital-only challenger banks like Starling, Monzo, Tide and Revolut. While all of them offer 2019 features like savings round-ups, spending analysis, budgeting and merchant recognition, most of the innovation has happened within the walled garden of the traditional account.

Starling and Revolut are already registered for and engaged with Open Banking. Starling is now supported by MoneyDashboard and Raisin UK, while Revolut’s API is supporting connection to many third-party apps. But it’s fair to say the upstarts were expected to dive in to Open Banking faster and deeper than this, some consider them to be behind the curve.

What we have seen, instead, is the big banks leaning heavily in to Open Banking.

HSBC was amongst the first to offer account aggregation, the practice through which consumers can access account data from rival banks, inside a single provider’s own app, initially through a separate Connected Money app.  Barclays, Lloyds and RBS/NatWest have since gone as far as offering the facility inside their core apps.

Of course, the big banks are incentivised to pull in rivals’ account data. Being the first port of call for all finance matters is attractive, whilst account data from other institutions can be used to aid product marketing and lending decisions.

In truth, we have begun to see the first signs of innovation amongst third-party services which plug in to those accounts. CastLight is helping lenders more quickly understand customers’ affordability, Moneybox is helping users round up spending in to savings, Fractal Labs uses knowledge of account activity to help businesses better manage their cash. We have even seen a large bank powering such new-style services in the shape of TSB’s loan comparison service, powered by Funding Options, which surfaces products from across providers.

But, even so, these use cases are not a step-change from the kind we already had before, albeit using less sophisticated methods of data collection. At FreeAgent, where we have offered bank account integration through more rudimentary means for several years now, we sense strong customer demand for efficient, API-driven bank account access. Most onlookers, and digital-savvy customers of the new-wave banks, expected more than this by now.

Why has the pace of Open Banking innovation to date been relatively underwhelming?

First, only the UK’s nine largest banks were mandated by the CMA to make account data available through APIs by the January 2018 deadline.

Ironically, the upstarts have been relatively more free to sit back. Indeed, unlike the legacy holders, they have no burning platform they need to quickly save; for them, the future is growth.

In fact, though, as smaller, less-well-resourced entities, they also have to plan out their investment more carefully than wealthier institutions, rather than dive headlong in to costly initiatives. Monzo is on-record as saying it will embrace the possibilities slowly, exploring whether to build features like account aggregation “in 2019”. When you’re a bank - even a cutting-edge, agile one - “move fast and break things” is a hard mantra to follow.

Furthermore, actual technical implementation of Open Banking is, shall we say, non-trivial. Adoption is complex, and far more complex for account providers than for third-party accessing services. In many cases, writing native code to enable integrations, whilst it may be considered messy, has been more straightforward than adopting Open Banking APIs.

Finally, the big banks, the “CMA 9”, have pushed compliance with Open Banking right down to the wire. Whilst they have been first to the punch, had they managed to launch sooner it may have encouraged the upstarts to compete more quickly.

It won’t stay like this forever. The Open Banking timeline has been an ironic inversion of the class of companies we typically expect to be canaries in the mineshaft of technical trailblazing. But banking innovation is about to become more evenly distributed as the balance between big guns and small players levels out.

From September, all banks, even the smaller ones, must be compliant with Open Banking standards. That is going to be an interesting moment for the new wave - can you really be considered the plucky upstart when you are subject to the same compliance framework as the lumbering giants?

Further regulatory compulsions on the big banks - and one in particular - could further spread Open Banking innovation downstream.

As part of conditions attached to its £45 billion government bail-out during the banking crisis, RBS has been compelled to funnel £700 million in previous state aid in to measures supporting business banking competition.

This so-called Alternative Remedies Package includes several pots of innovation funds, and the scheme’s independent administrator has just made the first innovation awards - £120 million to Metro Bank, £100 million to Starling, £60 million to ClearBank. Metro is promising “radically different” business banking, including “in-store debit card printing, lightning-fast lending decisions, fully digital on-boarding, integrated tax”; Starling says it will build “full suite of 52 digital banking products to meet the needs of all sole traders, micro businesses and small SME businesses”.

Even more awards are due to be made through 2019, likely spurring new use cases for Open Banking, and more besides, that many had not yet dreamed of. This level of funding is going to be an enormous catalyst for the kinds of companies that are really well placed to deliver.

The pace of technology adoption doesn’t always happen as quickly as it sometimes can feel.

Sometimes a great idea can take a long time to bubble up and gain widespread adoption. Shortly after the invention of the horseless carriage, Michigan Savings Bank is said to have forecast: “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad.”

Technology becomes successful when innovation becomes normalised, when enough adoption has been seen that what, once, was considered new fades away and becomes part of the furniture.

Although we have spent the last couple of years talking about the Open Banking initiative, and although its roll-out has been slower than expected, this should not distract us from the likelihood that, in a short while, the innovation and adoption cycle around it will have accelerated to the extent we see many, many new use cases all around us spurring more services and more competition.

The ultimate test of Open Banking, then, will not be who is first to market - it will be when we no longer talk about it at all.

That’s according to a new in-depth study, commissioned by Asset Control and executed by independent research firm OnePoll.

Also playing to the focus on expertise, 48% of the sample overall referenced ‘a third party has productised industry knowledge that we can benefit from’, among their main drivers for adopting standard products and services instead of internally solving business data challenges. In line with this focus, by far the biggest consideration respondents had when costing an external technology solution was ‘the availability of skills in the market for the approach chosen,’ cited by 49% of respondents in total.

Cost was also a big issue driving the uptake of third-party technology solutions. 48% of the survey sample ranked the fact that an outsourced solution ‘was more cost-effective’ among their top reasons for using it.

Martijn Groot, VP Marketing and Strategy, Asset Control said: “Financial services businesses are often attracted into adopting an outsourced approach by a straightforward drive to cut costs, coupled with a desire to tap into broader industry knowledge and expertise.

“Adopting third-party solutions typically allows firms to reduce costs through improved time to market and post-project continuity,” he added. “And the opportunity to take advantage of the breadth of expertise and understanding that a third-party provider can deliver gives them peace of mind and allows the internal IT team to focus more on business enablement which typically involves optimal deployment, integration and change management.”     

The benefits of an external third-party provider approach were further highlighted when respondents were asked where they looked first for data management solutions. The most popular answer was ‘externally bundled with complete services offering (e.g. hosting, IT ops, business ops) as part of business processes outsourcing deal’ (28%), followed by ‘externally bundled with tech services offering (e.g. hosting, IT operations) as part of IT outsourcing deal’ (21%). ‘In-house with internal IT’ trailed well behind, with only 17% of the survey sample referencing it.

According to Groot: “The answers show that rather than just following the data and having to install and maintain it, businesses are increasingly looking for a much broader managed data services offering, which allows them to access the skills and expertise of a specialist provider.

“Firms today also increasingly want to tap into the benefits of a full services model,” he continued. “They are looking to join forces with a hosting, applications management or IT operations approach and often that is in a bid to achieve faster cycle time, reduced and more predictable cost of change and a demonstrably faster ROI into the bargain.”

(Source: Asset Control)

But what’s the difference between a financial analyst and a credit analyst? Below David Smith, a cryptographer from the Smart Card Institute, explains for Finance Monthly.

The job of a credit analyst differs from that of a financial analyst. But they have one thing in common; a prerequisite skill in research and analysis.

A credit analyst has his/her role anchored on credits alone. Basically, the credit analyst is responsible for the vetting of an applicants credit profile to ascertain if the applicant is eligible enough for a grant or loan. In cases where the applicant is not qualified to receive a loan based on his/her previous credit records, the credit analyst offers possible solutions and alternatives to the applicant.

According to masterfinance a credit analyst sources relevant information from files of the applicant relating to his/her credit records and financial habits. When all is verified, the credit analyst can then recommend the applicant to the office responsible for the issuance of loan.

Credit analysts can work in the bank, credit card issuing companies (This is not to be misconstrued with the credit card manufacturers who make use of magnetic stripes in the process. Credit analyst are not into digital hardware but more into finances of a complex nature), credit rating agencies, investment companies and any other financial institution in need of their analytical prowess.

To become a credit analyst, one must need to have bagged a degree in finance, accountancy, economics or related fields.

Financial analysts on the other hand are involved in a more versatile role when it comes to finances. They carry out researches on a broader level. These researches involves a critical survey into the macroeconomic and microeconomic environment around a potential business or sector which can assist the business or sector in making informed decisions on a planned financial step they are about to take.

For instance, if a company decides to make its shares in equity available for the public to come invest in, they will need a financial analyst to look at the possibilities involved in the proposed venture and pre-tell the outcome. This will enable the company make the right decisions.

They are also required most times to forecast the financial future of a business judging from certain parameters on ground. This calls for a more detailed research and results.

Financial analysts can work anywhere the traffic in finances is massive unlike the credit analysts. Financial analyst can fit into just any business space and help business owners make decisions from the backdrop of options and findings.

To become a financial analyst, one must obtain a degree in either math, accounting, economics, finance, business management or related fields. Other fields that are likely going to give one an edge in the hiring table are: computer science, physics and engineering. Becoming a chartered financial analyst is the peak of the qualifications followed by an MBA in same field. Companies generous enough can train their staff on financial management and analysis.

There’s also worries about Brexit, and the impact that will have on the world of FS, leading to job insecurities and further stress. Below, Vicki Field, HR Director at London Doctors Clinic, discusses the options for available for your team and their own struggles with mental health.

A recent survey conducted by Mental Health England identified that financial services jobs are 44 percent more likely to cause a stress-related illness than the average role in the UK.

Mental health is one of the fastest growing reasons for absence in the UK, having increased by a whopping 71.9% since 2011, which has cost the UK economy £18bn in lost productivity, according to analysis from Centre of Economic and Business Research 2017. The financial services sector has the highest percentage of employee absences due to mental ill health, according to research from HR consultancy AdviserPlus, which analysed 250k employees to identify that 34% of all absence was related to mental health.

However, the negative impact on the sufferer is hard to quantify in terms of cost or pounds. Mental health problems can eat away at happiness and have life changing impacts on people. So, what can we do at work to help?

While many employers acknowledge that mental health is a key employee concern, few have a specific well-being strategy in place. Probably unsurprisingly, half of the employees in the banking and financial services industries believe that businesses are not doing enough to support the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees, according to a study by Westfield Health.

While many employers acknowledge that mental health is a key employee concern, few have a specific well-being strategy in place.

Mental wellbeing used to be a topic that was actively avoided at work, with employees being worried about admitting that they had mental health issues. Whilst this is still true today, there are some high-profile campaigns which have given more focus to the prevalence of mental health issues and encouraged people to discuss and share their experiences. For example, Prince Harry established ‘Talking Heads’ with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to highlight mental wellbeing and has in turn been very honest about his own struggles following the death of his mother.

While companies do not carry responsibility for the general health of their employees, they do have a “duty of care” for their employees. In simple terms, this means that a company should take steps to avoid putting their employees in a position where they could be made ill by their work.

So, as the subject of mental health becomes more prevalent in the workplace, what can employers do if they think a member of the team may be struggling with their mental health?

Here are some points for team managers to consider.

1. Long or short term issue. There are two main types of mental ill health: a long-term ongoing mental health issue such as being bipolar or having clinical depression; and a probable short-term or temporary issue which is caused by life events or work such as anxiety, stress, or depression. Most people with ongoing mental health problems will meet the definition of disability in the Equality Act (2010) in England, Scotland and Wales and Disability Discrimination Act (1995, as amended) in Northern Ireland. This means the person must meet the criteria of having an impairment that has substantial, adverse, and long-term impact on their ability to carry out everyday tasks.
2. Put reasonable adjustments in place. A company has a legal responsibility to put “reasonable adjustments” in place to help the employee at work, if their condition constitutes a disability. However, even if it’s a short-term issue, putting adjustments in place can stop it turning into a longer-term problem. Just like a physical disability would require changes such as special chairs or computer screens, people experiencing mental health problems may require reasonable adjustments. This could take the form of introducing some form of flexible working (i.e. working from home more frequently or avoiding rush hour travel), for example. Each person is unique, so talk to them about what they need. Obtaining a doctor’s report with proposals is the best place to start.
3. Read their stress levels. Work can be a major stressor, when people start to feel overwhelmed or stressed by their work or by being at work. Everyone is different, and enjoyable pressure for one person can be hugely stressful for another. Most people need an element of pressure to enjoy work, but it’s when it turns into ‘stress’ that the issues start. As a manager, therefore, it’s really important to understand if any of your team are feeling stressed or anxious, and ensuring that you act to remove the stress for your employees if it is caused by work. Regular 121s to discuss workload will help you understand if there are any issues developing.
4. Measure and monitor absence patterns. This is a key way to understanding if there are any underlying conditions so tracking absence and having regular back to work interviews is important. Long-term conditions may present with a range of short-term or intermittent absence and it can be hard to identify if someone really does have a lot of dodgy tummies, or if they actually suffer from severe anxiety. Therefore, if you feel like an employee does have a lot of intermittent absence, offering confidential support through a private GP practise or an occupational health provider can have a significant impact on someone’s health, and their productivity and motivation at work.
5. Manage physical burnout. Additionally, if people are working hard and become ill, physical burnout can be frequently accompanied by mental burnout; or the start of mental health problems. If someone is feeling ill, and is still working, because they either feel forced to for fear of losing their job, or fear of failing to achieve objectives, it will start to impact their mental health. These negative feelings of stress and anxiety drive more symptoms of physical ill health, and it can become a vicious circle where the person never fully recovers and feels well. Talking to your team member is the best way to get to the bottom of how they are feeling, through 121s, back to work interviews or even just casual ‘chats’ in a social space.
6. Send them to the doctor. Whilst one of your team might not feel comfortable discussing their mental health with you, no matter how sympathetic you are, they may with a GP or occupational health professional. Doctors can support physical and mental ill health, identify any connections, and support the employee’s recovery, as well as help identify if work is one of the main issues for the depression, stress or anxiety. A GP will also aid with suggesting ‘reasonable adjustments’ at work. The old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ is often the case when managing mental illness at work, with employees more likely to remain in work if there are early interventions.
7. Know your employees. On a personal level, there are also short-term issues which may affect the mental wellbeing of your employees: life events such as bereavements, divorces and family problems can cause significant emotional distress for people. We are all only human which means that there is an impact at work - people may be less focused, or show visible emptions, or even dress differently. There may be a few weeks or months where behaviour changes, or work drops off, and offering support to your team member during this time can have significant benefits for all parties in the long run.

How can I identify if someone’s mental health is suffering?

• Has the person’s behaviour suddenly changed? Are they visibly upset at work (crying?) Are they suddenly angry, and shouting at colleagues? Are they withdrawn and quiet?
• Do they look different? Have they stopped washing / taking care of themselves?
• Has intermittent absence increased? Stress can have physical symptoms such as regular colds, or upset tummies.
• Has their conversation changed? Are they repeatedly self-critical, or talking about how stressed they feel?

What is the role of the employer or team manager?

Always ensure you measure absence and have back to work interviews after every period of absence so you can monitor any potential issues; measuring and monitoring absence is the only way to effectively manage it. Discuss their workload and stress levels as part of a normal 121, so it becomes part of ‘normal’ conversation and not an awkward or difficult topic.

Asking someone if they are ‘ok’ is an important part of any manager’s role, but you’re not a mental health expert, or a counsellor or a doctor. If you are able to talk to your team member, and they share that they are experiencing some issues, you can get support from your HR department, from a GP or OH practitioner, or a variety of charities such as MIND.

Sometimes just listening to them, possibly changing their workload, or giving them time off, will sort the problem. However, if it is a longer-term issue, it’s important to get professional help.

Look at what can be done in the workplace to support them, talk to them and if necessary get a medical report. There’s a lot of help out there, so do ask for it.

A lack of access to finance is one of the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs in low-income communities. 80% of women owned businesses with credit needs are either unserved or underserved – a $1.7 trillion financing gap. By working with women on how to collectively save money, develop their business skills and facilitating access to affordable loans, CARE has seen an astounding uplift in success rates.

In Ethiopia, CARE has recently supported 5,000 women entrepreneurs in this way, resulting in an increase in their income of 500%. The programme supported women entrepreneurs from the slums of Addis Ababa to set up or expand their own businesses.  Approximately 70% did not have any savings in the beginning of the project - this number was reduced to 3.6% when the project concluded three years later.

All data points in the same direction: investing in women’s economic empowerment is critical to unlock their economic and social potential.  Women are shown to be stronger savers, more prudent borrowers and calculated risk-takers. Giving women better access to financial products and services could unlock $330 billion in annual global revenue.

CARE is therefore calling on the global financial sector to improve products and services for women.  This will not only have a positive impact on individual women, but also their communities and, ultimately, national economies.

Through CARE’s ‘Access Approved’ campaign, women from Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast, Jordan and Peru share their stories on film for the first time, telling the banks what they think is needed to open up access to finance for women.  These new films aim to bring the real issues to the fore, providing clear and personal recommendations to the financial sector including:

1. Develop products and services that are specific to women’s needs (Martha from Peru)
2. Offer alternative solutions to collateral requirements, such as loans based on savings group activities, and introduce loans with more flexible repayment terms (Jeanne from Ivory Coast)
3. Train and employ more women within the financial industry  (Sarojini from Sri Lanka and Bara’a from Jordan)

Women face all kinds of hidden barriers to accessing finance - just because they are women. Take Yeo Nakoni, a female vegetable farmer from the Ivory Coast: “I’ve worked this land now for 35 years, but the land doesn’t belong to me. In our community women don’t own land, it belongs to men.” This systemic inequality is then compounded when women try to access finances to grow their businesses: “When we go to the bank to ask for a loan, we’re denied because we have no collateral.”

Yeo is part of CARE’s Women in Enterprise Programme, supported by H&M Foundation, which has reached 133,000 women entrepreneurs globally since 2014. Yeo is a member of a savings group, based on CARE’s flagship Village Savings and Loans Association model. In her words: “This approach allowed us to strengthen our group spirit, savings and especially the repayment of loans taken out from the group. Every Sunday we each put in 500 francs (0.86 USD) and from that we are able to give each other loans. We repay our loans with interest, so our fund can grow. Within the group we can help each other. What we can do as a group, you can’t do by yourself.” 

However, sometimes group members require larger loans and other financial products to meet their business needs. This is why CARE also supports savings groups to link safely to formal financial service providers. Thanks to CARE’s partnership with a local microfinance provider, Yeo was able to take out a low-interest loan of around 2,500 USD to expand her enterprise. She is now confidently repaying her loan and she is extremely proud of what she has achieved.

Laurie Lee, Chief Executive, CARE International UK comments: “Investing in women entrepreneurs is not just the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do. Women represent an enormous untapped market for financial institutions and we want to work with them to open up new opportunities.  This makes business sense for both financial institutions and the women we support.”