Indeed, with this open banking project, customers will now be able to request their financial information to be shared with other institutions. The open banking initiative was introduced by the Central Bank of Brazil in 2019 and hopes to improve market competition and financial education in the country

This model of open application programming interfaces (APIs) enables third-party developers to build applications and services around the various participating financial institutions. The project aims to modernize the system of data sharing as well as allow consumers to pay bills and money transfers outside of their bank’s environment.

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But, despite their current success, in India at least, the bank have been struggling with issues in flexibility and speed when it came to IT, having particular trouble with external challenges and traditional modes of technology. But now, as software develops, they are now optimising the use of DevOps and Agile to encourage their development as a company even more.

Balasubramanian Ganesh, Chairman & Head of HSBC Technology India (HTI) spoke to The Economic Times about how they transformed their relationship with IT and software through their employment of DevOps and Agile in one of the biggest financial organisations in the world. “From fraud detection, to automating components of customer service, these next gen technologies, along with Cloud, are integral to the next phase of our digital transformation.”

“We continue to migrate more data and services to the cloud, which also enables us to optimally utilise AI and ML technologies. We are also leveraging biometrics to provide a more secure and simpler banking experience for our customers in different businesses and markets.”

Last year, HSBC Technology India was also awarded a NASSCOM (an award associated with IT and Business) and on discussing the award Ganesh said, “We received the award for our multi-pronged approach to training and up-skilling colleagues.”

Ganesh also told The Economic Times that implementing DevOps and Agile into a team was not always a straight forward task suggesting that it took a lot of re-thinking and re-developing of both the people involved and the office space they used. He further spoke of the 5 challenges that were faced in order to allow this type of re-organisation to work. Them being:

• The re-design of the IT targeting operating model
• Introducing a discipline framework for Agile
• Re-configuring office practices and environments
• Simplifying key processes
• Developing governance and metric.

As well as discussing DevOps and Agile with The Economic Times, Ganesh also spoke of the key to a company’s development is to accept and welcome a diverse range of workers from all backgrounds.

“Diversity is more than gender for us at HTI, and we are increasingly focusing on differently-abled, and LGBT+ persons. These measures include ensuring accessibility of our centres for differently-abled associates, to Pride month celebration in 2019, bolstered by awareness and sensitization sessions.”

The post How HSBC are using DevOps and Agile to transform their services appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Last month, Volt was granted a restricted authorised deposit-taking institution (Radi) license by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

The new license will enable the bank to term deposits, foreign exchange and offer savings and transaction accounts before moving towards credit cards, loans and mortgages as it progresses to a full licence.

Australia’s first digital bank

Steve Weston, CEO at Volt, commented to Finextra: “As the first digital bank in Australia, we are using technology to challenge the way banking is done. Temenos’ Cloud will allow us to launch quickly and at the same time meet Australian regulations.

“Incumbent banks in Australia have grown complacent and benefited from the inertia that comes from the difficulty of changing banks. With Temenos software, we can adapt to the customers’ changing needs, reduce costs and innovate faster.”

Weston also noted that the digital bank will be a trailblazer in a new era of banking and every experience will be mobile-led, personalised and customer focused.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Australia’s Volt moves digital banking to the cloud appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Bottomline Technologies PT-X payments and business solution suite is a cloud-based platform that is widely used by companies across the UK to operate their accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll operations.

The cloud-based suite enables banks and businesses to connect to various payment schemes in the UK such as Bacs Direct Credit, Direct Debit and Faster Payment Services.

‘Enhanced APIs’

“Whilst our APIs have been in use for many years, we are always raising the game to lead the market and ensure our clients, banking partners and developer communities find our technology simple to use and can easily integrate it within their own environments,” said Nigel Savory, Managing Director, Bottomline Technologies.

The APIs enable “flexible, frictionless” access to the Bottomline Technologies PT-X platform.

Additionally, the enhanced APIs will enable corporations and banks to move away from legacy payment technology with a “quicker, more cost-effective” migration path that is seamless to users, as well as offers feature-rich payment processing functionality.

New Payments Architecture

“With the amount of change underway in the UK payments market, the recent introduction of Open Banking and the New Payments Architecture in the works, it is vital that our solutions remain flexible, comprehensive and, most importantly, help to futureproof our customers’ businesses,” added Savory.

“As industry initiatives are introduced, our aim is to ensure our customers and partners are able to take advantage of new functionality quickly and effortlessly.”

The solution also offers additional value-add modules which includes financial document automation, direct debit lifecycle management, and payment fraud risk management.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

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According to the Automation Test Lead at HSBC Private Banking, Richard Owusu, technology has revolutionised and brought up new ways of banking which didn’t exist before.

New ways of banking ushered in by technology:

• Cryptocurrency
• Open banking: allows third-party institutions to create their own applications to interact with banks
• Robo-advisors: algorithms that work out some of the complex decision making in banking.

Advantages fintech brings over traditional banking:

• Makes banking products highly available to customers 24/7
• Online Bank is far easier and cheaper to setup than the traditional mortar and brick banks
• Customers can conveniently make a transaction at any place and time
• As banking becomes very complex, technology is relied upon to reduce human errors and oversight.

“Technology and finance have become inseparable in the last decades, it is far easier, cheaper and convenient to set up an online bank than building a brick and mortar bank for a financial institution,” added Owusu.

Implementing a DevOps culture

Differently, adopting DevOps practices has become key for many fintech firms wanting to deliver a steady stream of banking applications. By implementing a DevOps culture, application delivery time can be reduced, and product quality can be improved. As long as DevOps is built into the application lifecycle, methods can be emphasised for collaboration between testing teams, and development and deployment tools can be used for scalability, predictability, manageability, high availability and support.

Joshua Grant, Automation Engineer at SpotX, agreed: “From a testing point of view, my two cents would be that, due to younger and smaller organisations, fintech has afforded a great lever of flexibility and ease in taking contemporary methods and patterns of working onboard, particularly around the DevOps culture and more cutting-edge technology stacks (functional programming, micro service-driver/cloud-native architectures). Differently, I believe the scale of traditional FIs are going to put a significant lead time on adopting said practices and when buying from a wider range of stakeholders.”

Embracing agility

Despite this, DevOps isn’t the only practice financial institutions should be implementing. According to a recent report by Oracle, by embracing new operating models for modern finance we can become exactly the kind of “agile finance leaders” businesses require. This includes using cloud and digital technologies effectively, as well as requires finance professionals to develop a broad set of skills.

Graham Perry, Territory Manager at Neotys UK and Ireland, added: “Fintechs don’t carry the technical debt of traditional financial institutions so have an advantage from an agility point of view. Cloud architecture also enables fintechs to create scalable architectures, giving them a technical advantage and the ability to create an agile delivery culture.”

Interestingly, a graph by CIMA Global found that agile finance leaders are further ahead on the journey:

Furthermore, the EU legislation that regulates firms who provide services to clients linked to ‘financial instruments’ through electronic platforms, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), also appears to have a large impact on the way FIs operate.

EU legislation – MiFID 11

This fairly recent legislation makes sure that financial institutions operate in the “fairest and most transparent way possible”; ensuring regulators have a greater insight into regular goings on trading floors and sales desks across the region which, in theory, should help spot any irregularities early; giving banks greater responsibility to make sure that they are targeting appropriate investors for anything they sell.

“Flexible fintechs are able to reduce lead-times between code/deployment, and even the time between a change in market conditions and the deployment of the code it inspires. A good example would be how organisations in the industry react to regulatory change, such as MiFID 11, where, due to late final confirmation of terms, large established FIs are effectively forced to accept that there are lengthy delays when reflecting regulatory changes into systems. Whereas, with fintechs, the more rapid turnaround in converting an idea into deployable code the faster it’s able to react,” continued Grant.

MiFID 11 has been impacting fintech and its future since it came into force at the beginning of January. Typically, fintech consists of automation advice, high-frequency trading, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, digital payments, peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding, artificial intelligence and big data analytics. AI and data analytics can be unregulated, while services such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, P2P, and crowdfunding usually follow national laws. This means fintech companies must follow the MiFID 11 guidelines when creating new innovative technologies in order to deliver services while protecting investors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, fintech doesn’t necessarily mean the end of traditional banks. The majority of large banks lack agility and DevOps practices, and instead, still rely on outmoded and unwieldy legacy IT systems. However, technology has revolutionised the way large banks work, so they should adjust to the potential of fintech by finding ways to collaborate with new entrants, while ensuring the MiFID II legislation is applied – at the end of the day, it’s all about entrepreneurial culture, collaboration and learning within the bank, as well as making a financial return.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Fintech vs traditional finance from testers perspectives appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

This move hopes to support Contino’s presence as “one of the most experienced and capable transformation consultancies in the region”, boasting some of the “brightest minds” within DevOps and the cloud.

The new capabilities, skills and mutual customer opportunities arising from this partnership hopes for considerable expansion opportunities in the APAC region, with all three of the largest banks in Australia now coming under Contino as a result.

Craig Howe, Nebulr founder and CEO, stated: “Contino’s global footprint and considerable IP and experience set them apart in the world of DevOps.

“I founded Nebulr with a vision of creating an amazing engineering culture that delivers first-class work and I see this as a fantastic opportunity for us to push the boundaries of this vision yet further.”

Written from press release by Leah Alger

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The report Pathways to Profit: Leveraging Next Generation Technology to Drive Profitable Growth, found that financial institutions are concerned they don’t have expertise and sufficient resources to realise the full potential of the above capabilities.

Top priorities of capital market firms and their biggest pain points was revealed by the report, with financial institutions feeling challenged to invest and find expertise to help realise the full potential of AI, DL and cloud computing.

‘Collaborating with industry partners’

The report also found utilising the scale of Fintech partners to effectively deploy AI, machine learning, and robotics, and collaborating with industry partners who can create new networks, could bring value to all surveyed participants.

Tim Gokey, president and chief operating officer of Broadridge, said: “While banks are poised to benefit from rising interest rates, stronger economic conditions, growing profits, buoyant stock markets and leading firms are establishing partnerships with technology specialists to enhance their operational infrastructure and secure their future.

‘Unique business offerings’

“These Fintech providers offer an important resource to banks, providing knowledge in areas where these institutions are resource constrained and enabling them to focus on ways to augment their own unique business offerings.”

The report concludes capital markets firms are adopting cloud technology at a different pace, depending on their business, and a better understanding of internal customer data for capital markets firms will improve marketing and sales opportunities, as well as client experience.

Key executives at 69 capital markets firms were surveyed, in a bid to learn more about their strategies to grow revenues and improve efficiency.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Cloud computing helps capital market firms drive new revenue, says report appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The greatest portion of the market share in 2016 was held by public cloud services accounting for 36%, because of the strong security track record and transparency of leading cloud providers, the report noted.

The report stated the growth is driven by the rising sophistication of cyber attacks and the increasing use of cloud services for data storage.

Due to cost savings and flexibility, businesses are progressively transferring their data to cloud servers, the report stated, with the cloud security market providing solutions and products focused on the security of governance, data protection and compliance.

‘Rise of ransomware and malware’

Access management tools and cloud identity was most widely used, accounting for the largest market share of US$287.3million, according to the report.

Small and medium businesses are estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 35% over the forecast period, with large enterprises increasingly adopting cloud security services due to data centres being frequently attacked.

Email and web security increased over many enterprises due to the rise of ransomware and malware in particular, and because of strict regulatory policies by various governments.

Hybrid deployments are estimated to be the fastest-growing market, because of improved security, cost saving, and enhanced organisational performance, according to the report.

The report also noted the demand for cyber security solutions have been the greatest in government agencies, healthcare organisations, insurance, e-commerce and banking

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The cloud-connected storage and security solutions provider surveyed 450 people from 6 countries in the Asia Pacific, including Malaysia, who work in manufacturing, financial services and technology.

Barracuda’s vice president of Asia Pacific, James Forbes-May, revealed that 58% of Malaysians surveyed said they trust the cloud more than they did five years ago. Although, only 36.10% of Malaysian respondents said their organisations use the cloud.

Google; the preferred public cloud provider

The Malaysian survey participants chose Google as their preferred public cloud provider, with 70% of organisations using the service; 48% cited using Amazon’s services and Microsoft Azure was close behind with 40%.

The survey findings showed that security is a concern; with 66% of Malaysian respondents saying their organisations had added additional security measures to secure access to the public cloud.

Forbes-May added: “68% of Malaysian surveyed said their organisations have been targeted by cyber security attacks in the past.

Storing bank details in the public cloud

“These attacks hinder business operations and worst business loss. 37% of the Asian Pacific respondents said customers or employees lost faith in the organisations security measures.

“While 30% reported a temporary closure of business; 22% of those surveyed entirely lost their customers.”

Barracuda noted that despite security issues, 65% of Malaysian respondents store their bank details in the public cloud, with 48% admitting they store personal employee data via the public cloud.

Written by Leah Alger

The post Barracuda unveils Malaysia’s cloud transition appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The French cloud provider’s datacentre aims to provide better reliability, speed and security for customers invited by OVH to use its 40,000 servers and facilities.

OVH received €400million in funding from nine banking companies in June 2017 and a €250million investment from investment firms KKR and TowerBrook in October 2016.

OVH’s head, Hiren Parekh, said to Computer Weekly: “The UK market interfaces with international businesses, not only in Europe but around the world.

“So by having a physical presence in the UK, OVH is not only addressing the local market at SMEs or even large companies, we’re also supporting international trade through new and substantial export opportunities.”

Although its datacentre opening was delayed by several months, and external factors were given the blame, the company is planning to introduce two other datacentres, this time in the United States.

“Like all projects of this scale, there can be delays due to external causes, which are beyond OVH’s control. Because of the size of the project, it can be related to any works around the building – there are many different factors,” added Parekh.

Parekh also noted that he is hoping to open new facilities in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands by 2020.

By Leah Alger

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