Our first Technology Projects of the Year awards focus on the teamwork and collaboration needed to get a technology project off the ground.
The winners show that from the smallest of start-ups to the largest of lenders, the innovative spirit is strong in the global financial markets.

From financially motivated cyber crime to politically influenced cyber warfare, the virtual threats to financial institutions are multiplying. Companies must respond by arming themselves against such attacks or else they risk losing their footing on the new digital battleground.

Brian Caplen talks to chief executive of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), Gottfried Leibbrandt, about changing technology, the impact of regulation and the society’s ‘incremental and gradual approach’ to its initiatives.

Until now, banks have managed their payment and settlement obligations based upon end-of-day forecasts, but from January 2015 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision wants to see banks monitoring their balances intraday. Frances Faulds reports on how the industry is adapting to this fundamental change to reduce operational risk.

With heavy state involvement and the occasional scandal, China’s trade finance sector may not be perfect. But significant change is under way as government policies facilitate growth and diversification in the country’s industry and financial sector. 

At Sibos 2014, finalists in the fifth Innotribe Startup Challenge will throw themselves into a sea of financial services expertise and see who can swim. Dan Barnes reports.

Kenya’s Equity Bank is determined to launch a new mobile banking product that has the potential to shake up an industry dominated by the creator of M-Pesa, Safaricom. Experts say that while Equity could present serious long-term competition for Safaricom, it has its work cut out. 

Banks are facing a digital revolution that may become rule of law if European Commission proposals on account access are passed. With new entrants on the inside track when it comes to technological advantages and banks at risk of becoming the 'dumb pipes', some lenders are rising to the challenge, while others simply do not get it. 

Computers have reached such a level of sophistication that they can now outperform their human counterparts at some tasks, a fact that has not gone unnoticed in the banking community. But, while smart machines are increasingly being utilised in customer service and data analysis capacities, advocates of these new technologies maintain that they are designed to complement rather than replace the traditional workforce.