From branch renewal to improving the customer experience, bankers have invested large sums of money in retail banking. That is to be expected because consumer banking was for some time the lone bright star in an otherwise unexciting earnings picture.

Biometric authentication has advanced considerably in recent years, and sceptical sections of the banking community should start using them as a method of identification.By Chris Skinner.

Standard Chartered’s energetic chief information officer is driving internal development by encouraging a culture of competition and innovation. Dan Barnes reports.

Dan Barnes explains how Spain’s Grupo Santander was able to confound the nay-sayers and use IT cost savings as a basis for making its purchase of the UK’s Abbey a success.

Most global players have largely ignored south-east Europe, but Alpha Bank and other Greek banks are showing the potential of cross-border retail banking in the region, says Stephen Timewell.

Tri-party collateral management can be useful for gaining systematic efficiency and cost saving in the stock lending process, and can add value to both parties’ portfolios, but implementation is not straightforward. Nick Kochan reports.

Trends suggest that banks capturing an expanding retail business catering to the mass ranks of financial-services-hungry populations in emerging countries will be tomorrow’s global giants. 

Top-tier banks must modernise their core banking systems if they are to see off non-retail competitors that are positioning themselves to appeal to customers on cost alone. Britta Schnittspahn of BearingPoint Germany explains.

It is not only top-tier banks that can take a truly holistic approach to core banking. Mid-size US bank Bremer can teach something to the behemoths, says Joshua Weinberger.

Updating a core system has been likened to fixing an aeroplane’s engine in mid-flight. Competition, regulation and the inflexibility of legacy systems are major obstacles, each of which require investment in time and infrastructure to overcome. Wendy Atkins explains.