Alternative payments are the most active and complex ecosystem in financial services today. A quick look at AngelList recently showed a bewildering 1,477 payments startups. These include many familiar names like Square (m-POS) and The Currency Cloud (international payments) to newer entrants such as Coin Drive (stored value exchange), OpenCuro (secure payments), and niche players like LeaguePals (which bills itself as the “PayPal of League Bowling”). 238 of these start-ups are providing various services around cryptocurrencies, including 134 companies focused on Bitcoin. Continue reading…

The Bank of England recently published an independent report by former Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh, following his review of the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) transparency practices and procedures. The Bank also announced a series of significant transparency, accountability and governance enhancements designed to put the Bank at the forefront of international best practice and enhance its ability to fulfil its mission to promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability. Continue reading…

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU establishes cooperation arrangements between the signatory authorities regarding Central Counterparties (CCPs) that are established in Australia and have applied for recognition under EMIR. The MoU is effective as of 27 November 2014.

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The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) recently (30 November 2014) announced the results of its EU – wide Insurance Stress Test. The exercise aimed to test the overall resilience of the insurance sector and to identify its major vulnerabilities. Continue reading…

The European Payments Council (EPC), representing the European banking industry in relation to payments, today published updated versions of the SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) Rulebooks. The SCT Rulebook version 8.0, SDD Core Rulebook version 8.0 and SDD Business to Business (B2B) Rulebook version 6.0 and associated implementation guidelines will take effect on 22 November 2015. In accordance with industry best practice, payment service providers (PSPs) and their suppliers have a one-year lead time to address rulebook updates prior to them taking effect.

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Risk management is developing into a strategic function within European organisations. At the same time, risk management can contribute much more as its strategic role grows. Currently, risk managers are not satisfied with the level of mitigation for six of the top 10 risks “that keep their CEO awake at night”.
These are key findings from the 2014 Risk Management Benchmarking Survey conducted earlier this year by the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA). Now its 7th edition, the FERMA Benchmarking Survey this year received a record number of 850 responses from 21 European countries.

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In a response submitted to the European Commission on Tuesday 4 November, the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) has called for renewal of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (IBER) for (re)insurance pools.

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Insurers who adapt to the changing needs of their business clients will succeed in future over those who stick to traditional insurance approaches, Airmic has told underwriters. Paul Hopkin, the association’s technical director, challenged the market to innovate to restore relevance – but stressed that new products must address the needs of 21st century business models. Continue reading…