Until now, reducing costs and improving flexibility have driven the development and change of core banking systems. However, the burden of new regulations is also putting pressure on banks to unify their customer and product data.

Core banking system replacement is risky and complex but is an increasingly likely scenario for banks. Like their smaller peers, larger institutions may need to opt for packaged solutions to keep costs and time-to-market down.

Much has been said about the need for greater consolidation in the securities industry, especially to bring together the fragmented clearing and settlement infrastructure in Europe but, as Frances Maguire finds, consolidation is not always what it is cracked up to be.

Société Générale has set up a new division, Global Securities Services for Investors, to provide full investor services on securities and listed derivatives covered by the group worldwide.

Electronic trading platform, EuroMTS last month launched what it hopes will become the main platform for trading treasury bills. To ensure the deepest possible liquidity, Euro Benchmark Treasury bills will be offered via a parallel listing on the EuroMTS Benchmark Treasury bills market and on their own MTS domestic markets.

LCH.Clearnet (LCH) has completed the migration of central counterparty services from the OM London Exchange to LCH and has begun providing clearing services for London Stock Exchange-owned EDX.

Douglas Beckett, regional head of consumer banking at Standard Chartered explains the bank’s strategy in Africa, following its recent re-entry into South Africa and Nigeria. By Parveen Bansal.
With its roots in both Asia and Africa, Standard Chartered Bank has emerged in the past 150 years as a leading financial institution in these markets. The present-day bank is the product of a 1969 merger between Standard Bank of South Africa and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, the latter being the older institution, having been founded in 1835 following the grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.

Personal customers in the Czech Republic and Poland have mixed feelings towards the foreign banks that dominate their financial services industries,a new survey shows. Michael Imeson reports.

Technologists are already developing Internet2, the super-fast web promising to deliver speeds that leave Broadband in the proverbial dust. But with many banks still grappling with today’s technology, how many will be ready for tomorrow’s? By Chris Skinner

The desire to source technology solutions from one vendor rather than several is on the rise among banks and this is helping to feed an M&A trend, believes Jim Wilson, president of the international division at Fidelity Information Services. Interview by Michael Imeson.
It is not so much an acquisition trail as a voyage of conquest. Fidelity National Financial (FNF), number 326 in the Fortune 500, has picked up five US banking technology companies in the past 12 months and is on the look out for more.