EASDAQ, the European exchange that disappeared in the internet bust, will be resurrected in April 2007 under the name Equiduct, writes Chris Skinner. It will offer a pan-European pre- and post-trade reporting service, alongside best execution, and aims to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).

Banks have taken automation to the extreme in their bid to cut costs. Now when their customers’ problems don’t correlate to the prescribed formulae, the system breaks down – as Chris Skinner discovered recently.

Trying to maintain systems built using old programming languages can be costly for banks and rewarding for programming specialists. But what happens when the specialists retire? By Chris Skinner.

Inefficient banks used to operating in protected domestic environments are likely to suffer the heaviest casualties once the single European financial market becomes a reality in 2010.By Chris Skinner.

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.

Banks’ risk-avoiding trait of being lemmings not leaders has left the payments arena wide open for PayPal to build up its $27.5bn business. It seems unlikely that the banks will be able to catch up.By Chris Skinner.

Corporate treasurers’ group TWIST is putting pressure on banks to create a single payments standard and to stop trying to manage identities. The case is strong and SWIFT is already listening.By Chris Skinner.

The rise of China and India in economic terms has been meteoric but, while their global banking presence remains relatively minor today, global dominance in this sector, too, is inevitable.By Chris Skinner.

A recent roundtable organised by The Banker looked at the New Legal Framework (NLF) for Payments Directive, issued by the European Commission in December 2005, and the implications for the banking industry. A group of payments professionals from leading banks took part in the discussion.

With branded organisations up and down the high street offering all manner of low-cost financial services, the established players had better come up with something new to offer consumers, fast.By Chris Skinner.