Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 1 November 2017
Singapore launches industry transformation map for financial services
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released the industry transformation map (ITM) for financial services, which outlined growth strategies by business lines, programmes for upgrading skills, and an agenda for continuous innovation and technology adoption.
2 Speaking at the launch of the ITM, Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and MAS Board Member, described MAS’ vision for Singapore to be a leading global financial centre in Asia – one that connects global markets, supports Asia’s development, and serves Singapore’s economy. The ITM was drawn up by MAS in close consultation with the financial industry and the tripartite movement.
3 The ITM aims to achieve growth in financial sector real value-added of 4.3% and productivity of 2.4% annually1, faster than the overall economy. The ITM also aims to create 3,000 net jobs in financial services, and an additional 1,000 net jobs in the FinTech sector annually.
IBM Security unveils system to help banks identify fraudulent accounts
IBM Security announced a new capability from IBM Trusteer that helps banks identify fraudulent accounts before they are opened. The technology also protects consumers even if they are not a customer of the bank being targeted with the fake account.
Identity fraud continues to be a global challenge, and an expensive one for banks and financial institutions. In the past six years, $112 billion has been stolen through fraudulent means, equating to $35,600 lost every minute. These trends are likely to continue when coupled with the historic breaches of personally identifiable information like addresses, Social Security Numbers and birthdates.
ai buys SmartCentric
The ai Corporation (ai) has acquired SmartCentric Technologies International Limited (SmartCentric) for an undisclosed sum.
SmartCentric, which was established in December 2002, is a specialist solutions company, focused 100% on secure payments and transactions, particularly in the Fuel Card market.
Dublin-based SmartCentric has been delivering solutions to the fuel industry for over 15 years, across multiple countries. In the last number of years, SmartCentric has invested significantly in its product portfolio and a cloud-based SaaS card management solution, providing an online authorization system, which supports offline activity based on agreed business rules.
EMVCo updates EMV 3-D Secure specification
Technical body EMVCo has publicly released EMV 3-D Secure – Protocol and Core Functions Specification v2.1.0. The updated document follows the release of version 2.0.0 in October 2016, and includes additional functionality and enhancements to promote secure, consistent consumer e-commerce transactions across all channels and connected devices, while optimising the cardholder’s experience.
This version of the specification will be supported by an EMVCo testing programme to approve compliant solutions, to launch in 2018.
EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) is a messaging protocol that promotes frictionless consumer authentication when making card-not-present (CNP) e-commerce purchases. It enables consumers to actively authenticate themselves with their card issuers if cardholder verification is required. Consumer authentication by the exchange of 3DS data between the merchant and a card issuer can increase authorisation approval rates, as well as potentially reduce the risk of fraud.
