With corporates seeking to reduce costs and improve efficiency, banks must innovate or lose out. Several are now offering their customers powerful online versions of traditional letters of credit.

For many banks the prospect of an EU-wide payments system means choosing whether to spend money on the necessary technology or to outsource cross-border payments to larger players.

Europe’s mutual fund industry is costly and inefficient for fund distributors. Frances Maguire looks at how one new fund processing platform aims to improve automation and cut costs.

While the SEC ponders the industry’s response to its consultation paper on shorter settlement times, market players are keen to get straight-through processing right first. Frances Maguire reports.

Leonard H Schrank, CEO of Swift, talks to Frances Maguire about the challenges that lie ahead for his company and its member banks in growing business.

Prime brokerage was virtually unheard of until about a decade ago. It is now the hot new area for banks to build. How do they win business in this competitive environment? Natasha de Teran reports.

A recent roundtable organised by The Banker looked at issues surrounding the non-proprietary Linux operating system. A group of senior bankers took part in a group session discussing Linux adoption and prospects, chaired by The Banker’s technology columnist Chris Skinner.