The UK Faster Payments Service heralds a new epoch for payments. Although there are obvious benefits to individuals in terms of convenience and certainty of payment, the potential benefits to business and the economy are even greater. Martin Kearsley, director of strategy at VocaLink, explains how the infrastructure was designed and its potential benefits to consumers and businesses alike.

With FX volumes surging to unprecedented levels, Frances Maguire finds out if avoiding bottlenecks is just a case of scaling up operations or if more dramatic industry-wide change is needed.

Emerging markets investors are discriminating increasingly between countries, signalling a fundamental shift in approach to the asset class.

From being viewed as the rather uninteresting transfer of low-value payments by migrant workers, the remittance market has captured the attention of the world’s largest banks. 

FX banks are confronted by a series of issues regarding delivery channels, namely which platforms to support, whether they should support all clients equally on all platforms, and how to identify which clients on which platforms are disruptive and/or unprofitable. Mark Pelham explains.

FX markets are back in vogue, with investors looking to emerging markets and online trading for the best gains. 

Charging more for a cross-border payment than a domestic payment in the eurozone is forbidden – but Europe is still awaiting the infrastructure to support euro cross-border payments, in the form of a pan-European automated clearing house.

Could a single European payments area boost Europe’s economy? Wendy Atkins finds out.

Gauging the health of the world’s foreign exchange market is an awkward business, but every three years the Bank for International Settlements takes its pulse as best it can. Edward Russell-Walling reports.
The last time the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) brought out its stethoscope, in 2001, the FX heart was found to be beating rather feebly. But the bank’s latest survey shows it to be pounding. Daily turnover shot up from an average of $1200bn in 2001 to nearly $1900bn this year, according to BIS.
That represented a rise of 57% (36% at constant exchange rates), which was rather more than most anticipated. The consensus had been for closer to $1500bn. “We were all surprised,” admits Mansoor Mohi-uddin, UBS chief currency strategist. “No-one expected the jump to be this much.”

As electronic trading has cemented the commoditisation and wafer-thin margins for FX, banks have created specialist teams to advise, structure and pull down the more sophisticated and lucrative high-margin bespoke deals. Edward Russell-Walling reports.