The Buzz

In this Weekly Wrap episode of "The Buzz" podcast, the Bank Automation News editors unpack  what could become a trend in regulatory fines in 2022 as well as predictions for core and cloud banking.     The BAN team addresses one automation company's prediction that repeat errors stemming from spreadsheets and other manual process could soon see much bigger fines from U.S. regulators. The team also...

In this episode of “The Buzz, Bank Automation News speaks with financial services and technology attorney Josias “Joe” Dewey on automating financial contracts. A software developer who is also a partner at the international law firm Holland & Knight, Dewey helps banks automate loan and financial documents. He also co-authored “The Blockchain: A Guide for Legal and Business Professionals.”

Banks and fintechs implementing open application programming interface (API) builds should look first to security measures as early security and authentication checks prevent up to 80% of risk vectors in API frameworks, Jason Harmon, chief technology officer at API design and development company Stoplight, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of “The Buzz” podcast.

In this Weekly Wrap episode of "The Buzz" podcast, the Bank Automation News editors discuss HSBC and IBM's use of distributed ledger technology to conduct commercial central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions, including foreign exchange settlements.    The BAN team also addresses a prediction from the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization and Aite-Novarica Group that the Canadian prepaid...

Digital banking usage is up at Citizens, with 90% of consumers and 86% of businesses reporting that they use digital channels for their banking needs — a significant increase over usage during COVID-19 lockdowns, says Beth Johnson, chief experience officer at Citizens Financial Group , in this episode of "The Buzz" podcast.   Last year, 85% of consumers and 71% of businesses reported using digital...

SentiLink co-founder and CEO Naftali Harris tells Bank Automation News how the rise in automated payments adds gravity to the identity verification and fraud prevention ecosystem, details automated fraud prevention processes, and offers predictions for what’s next for fraud in 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shut down has led to a significant increase among consumers adopting digital technologies to interact with the world. Now is an especially exciting time for financial services, Vince Passione, CEO of lending platform and online marketplace LendKey, tells Bank Automation News in this episode of "The Buzz” podcast.

In this week’s episode of “The Buzz” podcast, the Bank Automation News editors unpack the recent earnings report for robotic process automation company UiPath, and its plans for expanding its solution in a discussion on why UiPath might have mergers and acquisitions ahead.

Banks turn to the cloud to build new services, leverage infrastructure. In this week’s podcast the Bank Automation News editors discuss the technology lessons that can be gleaned from this week’s earnings calls from the “Big Six” Canadian banks. The Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, National Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reported earnings. Technology-r...

With some $350 billion in U.S. tax refunds given each year, three fintechs have teamed up for Tax Refund Unlock, a new service that offers consumers ongoing, incremental access to the money they would normally receive as a single payment after filing their annual tax returns.    The partnership includes Salt Lake City-based Atomic, a provider of application programming interface (API) payroll inte...

As interest and investment in cryptocurrency spikes this year, banks and financial institutions (FIs) must decide whether and how to become involved, or potentially lose revenue and customers if they opt out.    This is the message from Lawrence Pruss, senior vice president at Memphis, Tenn.-based Strategic Resource Management (SRM) in this week's episode of "The Buzz" podcast. SRM is a consulting...

Embracing blockchain, RegTech and payments among recommendations. In this week’s episode of “The Buzz” podcast, Anand Subbaraman, Finastra’s senior vice president and general manager of cloud, core and digital banking discusses with Bank Automation News three strategies he believes banks need to embrace: a broader product portfolio, new technologies such as blockchain, and regulatory challenges as...

Weekly Wrap discussion on how Temenos is accelerating innovation    Core and digital banking provider boosts developer access, highlights use cases   In this week's "Weekly Wrap" podcast, the Bank Automation News team discusses some of the latest from core and digital banking solutions provider Temenos gleaned from its SCALE developer conference, where the company showcased how it is fostering inn...

This week, the Bank Automation News team discusses what banks are doing to make it possible for customers to invest in cryptocurrency and how financial institutions can leverage blockchain beyond crypto.  The BAN team also drills down on the growing popularity of buy now, pay later solutions in Mexico, where BNPL is being marketed as a tool to help the underserved rather than a credit card replace...

The automation company WorkFusion, which offers a packaged solution to financial institutions and counts the $1.7 trillion Deutsche Bank and the $4.1 billion Carter Bank & Trust among its customers, will focus on shifting its own premise solution to the cloud.  In this week’s episode of The Buzz, WorkFusion’s new CEO, Adam Famularo, discusses how the company is building out a software-as-a-ser...

Artificial intelligence can pick up on patterns humans would ignore — patterns that can indicate crime in cross border payments, for instance.  In this week’s episode of the Buzz, Yaron Hazan, vice president of regulatory affairs for cybercrime and big data analytics vendor ThetaRay, breaks down for Bank Automation News how the tool’s machine learning and AI discovered an unusual pattern in cross-...

The latest trend in digital banking customer experience is adding on-screen voice, which allows customers to switch from chat or other self-serve experiences to speaking with a person within a mobile app or digital banking site.  In this week’s episode of “The Buzz” podcast, Dan Michaeli, CEO and co-founder of customer service platform Glia, tells Bank Automation News that on-screen voice allows c...

Facebook for years may have topped cybersecurity firm Vade’s “Phishers’ Favorites,” a report of the most impersonated brands in phishing attacks, but the $2 trillion Credit Agricole bank recently edged out the social media giant with 17,755 unique phishing URLs.  Facebook’s topple from the No. 1 spot was a surprise, Adrien Gendre, chief product officer at the AI-based cybersecurity firm, tells Ban...

Payments remain an essentially manual process despite the move toward automation, Steve Kramer, vice president of product at billing and payments platform PayNearMe, explains in this week’s episode of “The Buzz.”     In this podcast, Kramer sits down with Bank Automation News to discuss how banks can automate payments to reduce customer friction, including options for digitizing cash and digital w...

Banks of all levels, from large global firms to credit unions and challenger banks, are expressing interest in modernizing their core, Temenos Americas President Jacqueline White tells Bank Automation News in this week’s episode of “The Buzz” podcast.   The reason varies, but core technology is aging, and with it the employees who can code in the older systems, White said. That’s pushing some fina...

Banks use robotic process automation (RPA) to merge back-end systems after acquisitions and are starting to automate more self-help for customers.  That’s in addition to the more common use case of automating the creation of customer accounts, says Jesse McHargue, senior solutions engineer with RPA company Nintex, in this week’s episode of “The Buzz.”  “I would also say that we are starting to see...

Bank Automation News sits down with the vendor’s new CIO, Sumit Johar, as well as Ken Mertzel, global head of financial services, to discuss how financial institutions can expand citizen development and the automation opportunities banks may be missing. 

In this episode of “The Buzz,” Bank Automation News speaks to Alok Prasad, CEO of startup CashRepublic, about using automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to help communities of color take advantage of banking services. CashRepublic serves the unbanked currently with two Florida locations where customers can cash checks, make wire transfers and other services. It plans to launch an app later...

In this episode of “The Buzz,” Bank Automation News speaks with cybersecurity research analyst Micah Musser of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technologies, and a co-author of the recent report, “ Machine Learning and Cyber Security: Hype and Reality ” about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in creating sophisticated attacks.   AI and ML cou...

Definitions, clarifications and other non-obligation material make up 65% of the information in regulations. That leaves a mere 35% that involves an actual obligation, according to reg-tech firm Ascent. That means banks and other regulated industries — and more specifically, their lawyers — spend hours combing through information in search of actionable items, according to Andrew Steioff, senior m...