Daniel Meere - April 16, 2021 - 170 views

Failure to keep pace with technology change is now a top risk factor for financial services organizations, according to the most recent Banana Skins Index, which measures the risks facing the banking industry. Coming in at No. 3 in the index, technology risk has never ranked so high in the 15 years that the CSFI […]

Amit Anand - September 1, 2020 - 392 views

Limbo is a tough place to be. Yet that’s where lenders find themselves as Congress debates a new round of stimulus packages that could impact the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness phase. As banks await the final details of the legislation, they can use the time to ready their lending operations for greater flexibility and […]

Amit Anand - August 20, 2020 - 696 views

The impact of the pandemic on small businesses has spurred changes in banks’ lending practices – but the upheaval hasn’t stopped there. While the shifts underway in functions such as trade finance and mortgages are typically more nuanced, they speak to how important small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) are to banks – and how critical […]

Douglas McCuaig - July 28, 2020 - 467 views

Now comes the hard part. After getting remote access right and investing in the work from anywhere (WFA) model, the next thing for banks is tackling how to manage and measure productivity in the new workplace. Job performance data is surprisingly easy to collect – but at times difficult to accept. Nevertheless, building a positive, […]

Amit Anand - July 21, 2020 - 478 views

COVID-19 changed the stakes in small-business lending: While the top four banks provided 36% of small-business loans before the pandemic,  they disbursed a scant 3% in the first round of the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). As large banks fumbled their PPP response, fintechs and smaller lenders stepped in to fill the gap. Online […]

Amit Anand - June 26, 2020 - 570 views

As someone who has spent his entire career in banking and financial services – and who currently lives in one of the largest U.S. banking markets – it’s good to see that banks are part of the solution for the $2.2 trillion (yes, trillion with a “T”) CARES Act for combating the adverse economic impact […]

Douglas McCuaig - April 23, 2020 - 1658 views

Before COVID-19, banks’ disaster plans typically covered outages affecting 10% to 20% of their workforce. No bank had a scenario for 100% disruption. But with the pandemic closing offices and branches around the globe and requiring nearly all employees to work from home, the need to enable employees with remote access has overwhelmed even the […]

Amit Anand - March 31, 2020 - 1538 views

The global response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and local social distancing efforts has sent massive supply- and demand-side shocks to retailers, automakers, healthcare companies, and travel and hospitality purveyors. No sector is immune. In fact, banks are already feeling the downstream impact and bracing for longer-term consequences. In our discussions with banks and diversified […]

Hector Pages - December 12, 2019 - 1677 views

With all the activity in the cards and payments space in 2019, 2020 promises to be even more interesting. The last 12 months saw several new fintech market entrants and digital commerce frameworks, continued expansion of the real-time payments infrastructure, investment in open-banking capabilities and heavy M&A by large incumbents. This made 2019 something of […]

Louis Marino - September 7, 2018 - 199 views

Banks called Atom, N26, Bunq and Monzo. Insurers named Lemonade and Oscar.  In their efforts to distinguish themselves from longtime industry stalwarts, new entrants into the fields of banking and insurance are choosing playful, whimsical names that make no reference to the space they’re trying to disrupt. Previous nomenclature in these business spaces has revolved […]