Opinions

The ability to browse limitless shops and purchase goods and services from almost anywhere in the world has revolutionized commerce.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including whether independent consultants should be criminally liable for misrepresentations in their reports and whether higher rates will help or hurt banks.

Financial institutions take information security concerns very seriously, but few make it a priority to keep accountholders updated on their safeguarding efforts.

While tokenization does represent progress, it is important to consider whether tokenization is, in fact, enough to secure online payments. There are some vulnerabilities, and as cyber thieves grow more sophisticated, companies will have to continue to innovate better security solutions, as well as ensure the ones that are on the market are being used as effectively as possible.

In the years ahead, look for projects that leverage the Bitcoin network to greatly expand mainstream banking infrastructure's reach into new markets — particularly those in volatile economies.

There's a classic approach behind many of the retail cyberattacks that make the news: Backoff malware, which “sniffs” the traffic that flows on a network to identify and steal credit card data passed between point of sale (POS) terminals.

In order for the financial services industry to achieve its full potential in the digital age, Silicon Valley must work together with banks and lawmakers to build technology that can modernize banking infrastructure while addressing regulatory and cybersecurity challenges.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including recommended reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Ripple Labs' efforts to work toward a decentralized payments protocol.

Financial institutions worldwide are exploring the possibilities for faster, cheaper, more transparent processing of global payments in near real time offered by distributed software solutions, including blockchains and distributed ledgers. Because this is a new field of study, these technologies are often misunderstood or mischaracterized.

Connecting disparate payment platforms is the Holy Grail of cryptocurrencies. The path to building such a system is not always clear, but must start at the core of the protocol.