Core systems

It's easy to get lost in the technological complexity of "application programming interfaces," but banks need to stay focused on improving business and customer outcomes, which is the ultimate goal.

As they look to cut costs, banks are looking across the globe for cheap spots to host parts of their operations. A new report identifies the best back-office bargains.

Technology at many banks has been assembled haphazardly over years. That makes for complex systems with lots of connections. Those points are prime targets for cybercriminals to find a way in.

In focusing on private blockchains, banks make the same mistake companies made in the nineties when they favored private information networks over the open protocols of the Internet.

Hailed as a space- and cost-saver, interactive video teller machines don't always succeed as a strategy. Many banks offer them without a clear business case to justify the investment.

Adam Draper of Boost VC talks about the rise of the blockchain, the challenges of the bitcoin world and the future of banking.

The British challenger bank Mondo raised $1.4 million in 96 seconds, it announced Thursday.

BBVA has recruited Simple co-founder Shamir Karkal to build a platform that would open the bank's application program interfaces to outside fintech companies.

Bank of Prairie Village in Kansas went through a core conversion last year. Its chairman hopes that his sons, who are set to take over the bank eventually, won't be afraid to embrace new technology since they've experienced the scariest of all bank IT projects.

Frandsen Financial took the industry's plan to allow faster payments as a call to action. It invested in automation software, which allowed employees previously bogged down with manual tasks to focus on more meaningful duties.

Asset growth drove the Pennsylvania bank to create software that helps it vet and monitor vendors, with automated tracking of contracts and deadlines and storage of supporting documents.

As community banks need to make their budgets stretch further, some are looking to vendor consolidation as a way to gain a competitive edge through fewer IT headaches and a more uniform customer experience.

There are benefits for banks in fintech collaboration via application programming interfaces, but financial institutions should not let go of customer engagement.

Fintech is a chic topic at Davos, but it's barely a blip on the radar of analysts who lock in on hard numbers during earnings calls. Yet with tech taking a bigger role in financial services, mobile banking or the blockchain might soon become as topical as efficiency ratios or net interest margins.

Calls with analysts to discuss the fourth-quarter results were dominated by questions about energy exposure, efficiency and the growing worry about when the next credit cycle may begin. Still, some banks managed to get in a few thoughts about how technology is reshaping their businesses.

Banks' core systems are like spaghetti — a mess of noodles. They need to find ways to be more structured,, says Hanspeter Wolf, CEO of onboarding software vendor Appway.

The project is likely to be mirrored at banks around the country as the automated clearing house evolves from settling payments in three to five days currently to same-day settlement in September and faster payments beyond that.

Implementing discrete changes to a core system to compete with disruptors is merely dressing up an arsenal that really should be replaced or overhauled.

The blockchain could move from testing to reality, APIs are likely to expand, and more functions will move to the cloud as banks look for ways to fend off fintechs in 2016.

Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y., has hired Fiserv as core processor and it plans to record a $1.4 million charge to cover the vendor switch.