Hamish Monk - Community Author: Finextra Research

How AI can be embraced by financial services

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

How AI can be embraced by financial services

While artificial intelligence (AI) is not a new concept, having been first explored by a research group in the 1950s, its widespread industrial application has only just begun. This is an excerpt from The Future of AI in Financial Services 2025 report, which was a special edition for the inaugural Finextra event, NextGen AI. Click here to read th...

10 December 2024 /ai

How to establish a correspondent banking relationship

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

How to establish a correspondent banking relationship

Correspondent banking lays the groundwork for a healthy international ecosystem of financial services. According to SWIFT data, however, the number of correspondent banking relationships has been in decline globally for the last decade. Compounding the issue has been a simultaneous rise in the volume and value of cross-border payments – suggestin...

03 December 2024 /payments

Redressing the ageing market data workforce

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

Redressing the ageing market data workforce

The talent pool in the market data industry is contracting, as the challenge of recruiting into the sector builds. At a fundamental level, this trend is being felt across the financial services sector, with news outlets lamenting a ‘brain drain’ issue for some time. More specific to the market data industry, however, is that its talent pool is ag...

28 November 2024 /people

What is customer onboarding in financial services?

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is customer onboarding in financial services?

Onboarding is the process by which a prospective customer’s information is collected, assessed and verified by a financial institution – before services are extended. The aim is not just to ensure all relevant legal and regulatory requirements are satisfied; it is to avoid customer abandonment along the way. This is both a business and a compli...

26 November 2024 /retail

What is automation in financial services?

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is automation in financial services?

In the context of financial services, automation is achieved by the deployment of numerous technologies, in various contexts, by all kinds of entities. Whether it's smart automation by start-ups for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered enterprise resource planning (ERP) tagging systems, generative AI automation for risk detection by large banks,...

12 November 2024 /ai

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

Understanding AI for personalisation

The term ‘artificial intelligence’ was coined in an August 1955 study proposal, by a group of academics and technology developers. The workshop on the subject took place one year later. In December 1955, Herbert Simon and Allen Newell developed ‘Logic Theorist’, which is today considered the first ever artificial intelligence (AI) program. Since t...

29 October 2024 /ai

Tools for banks’ continued digitalisation journeys

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

Tools for banks’ continued digitalisation journeys

This is an excerpt from the Future of Payments 2025 report. Financial institutions need to transform their entire business and operating model to achieve bespoke, modular digital solutions and improve profitability. So, how can open banking and embedded finance help with this goal? And which hurdles remain? Annalisa Ludwinski, head of corresponden...

24 October 2024 /Sibos

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

How to build a mobile banking app

Mobile banking’s fledging iteration in the 1990’s was conducted via handsets’ Short Message Service (SMS). The offering was limited and inflexible – customers could check their balance or request to be warned if they were about to become overdrawn. By 1999, the world’s first Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled mobile banking services in No...

14 October 2024 /payments

Making embedded cross-border payments in Africa work

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

Making embedded cross-border payments in Africa work

This is an excerpt from the Future of Embedded Finance in Africa 2025 report. Africa continues to pursue new technologies and innovations to facilitate cross-border payments. Embedded finance and remittances in this arena could be the next steps to streamline the process for end-users – as well as boost financial inclusion and trade. Country he...

14 October 2024 /Sibos

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is digital identity?

Digital identity is the sum of online information on an individual. This can be any form of data associated with a person’s name – be it date of birth, address, email, or even social media posts and interactions. As such, digital identity can be thought of as an online avatar, representing the spheres of one’s personal and professional life. The c...

08 October 2024 /identity

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is Open Banking?

After the financial crisis, there was a recognition that banking concentration could be disadvantageous – both in terms of competition and systemic risk. Since then, regulatory measures have sought to boost diversity in financial services, the most notable of which is Open Banking. Launched in the United Kingdom on 13th January 2018 following the ...

01 October 2024 /payments

Hamish Monk Senior Reporter at Finextra

What is core banking?

With modernisation ever at the forefront of financial professionals’ minds, core banking is the buzz phrase that just won’t go away. But what exactly do we mean by core banking? And why does it need updating? In this latest article of Finextra’s explainer series, we’ll dive deep into the history and transformation of core banking. A short history ...

24 September 2024 /retail

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