IT and finance battle for control of cloud spending

Business man in suit looking at cloud with falling money

A tug-of-war between finance and cloud leaders is preventing enterprises from controlling their cloud spending, according to new research.

The study from Vertice, of 600 senior finance and tech leaders in the US and UK, shows cutting cloud spending is revealed as the number one cost-saving priority for over a third of finance leaders, but only nine percent of technical leaders say that managing cloud costs is a top concern.

Continue reading

Financial services companies plan to boost their AI investments

robot artificial intelligence money

A new study from Lucidworks shows that businesses across the board are planning to increase their investment in AI over the next year, with financial services companies among those leading the charge.

The survey of over 6,000 employees involved in AI technology decision-making finds 94 percent of financial services firms planning to boost generative AI investments within the year. However, the survey found differences depending on location. 100 percent of Chinese financial services employees and 97 percent of UK respondents surveyed say they plan to increase investment, compared to only 91 percent of US companies.

Continue reading

How financial services cyber regulations are hotting up for API security 

api

Financial services firms deploy an increasingly complicated mix of technologies, systems, applications, and processes to serve customers and partners and to solve organizational challenges. Focused heavily on consumer hyper-personalization, banks are evolving more and more digital assets and services to meet and exceed growing customer experience expectations. 

As a result, the modern banking environment is heavily reliant on APIs to the point that they are now indispensable. APIs allow financial banks to connect with their ecosystem, while inspiring innovative developers to create new products, improve existing services, and work more efficiently. 

Continue reading

Employee microchipping could be commonplace by 2030

Bionic microchip inside human body - cybernetics concept

You've probably had your dog or your cat microchipped, but how would you feel if your employer wanted to microchip you?

A survey of 5,000 senior decision makers in the finance sector reveals that 47 percent of leaders believe employee microchips and other human technology implants to be in workplace use by 2030.

Continue reading

Beginner's guide to investing: 7 tips for greater financial freedom

Finance worries

When you read any financial articles, most often than not they will recommend investing as one of the best ways to grow your wealth and enjoy a bit more financial freedom. While this may feel like just another to-do added to your plate, along with budgeting, paying bills, saving, and paying down debt, investing is something that you will likely find is worth your time.

Investing doesn’t have to be extremely time-consuming, or even extremely expensive. Here are 7 investing tips that may help you get started with investing.

Continue reading

60 percent of consumers prefer a fintech app to an accountant

Awkward dinner phone app

Fintech apps have simplified financial management to the point where 60 percent of people will now seek advice from personal finance tools before reaching out to financial professionals.

A new survey from Capterra makes gloomy reading for accountants as it finds 64 percent of fintech users feel that these tools have significantly reduced their reliance on financial advisors.

Continue reading

Facebook and Microsoft are the most popular phishing bait

phishing keyboard hook

A new report reveals the most impersonated brands in phishing attacks for the first half of 2023, with Facebook taking the top slot, followed by Microsoft.

The report from email security company Vade, shows Facebook accounted for 18 percent of all phishing URLs and Microsoft for 15 percent. Taken together these two accounted for more unique phishing URLs than the next top five brands combined (Crédit Agricole, SoftBank, Orange, PayPal and Apple).

Continue reading

The new challenger bank ethos: Why sustainability is fueling the next wave of disruption

Green-bank

If you were to take their marketing at face value, you’d assume that big banks were leading the finance sector’s charge regarding sustainability. And while they undoubtedly play an essential role, especially when financing major renewable energy projects and the like, the biggest disruption comes from challenger banks.

Increasingly, popular challenger banks such as Monzo and Starling, for example, are marketing themselves as more sustainable, capitalizing on a growing desire for banks to prioritize the environment. In fact, a recent report found that 67 percent of customers want their bank to be more sustainable.

Continue reading

Enterprises rush to implement FinOps but aren't yet seeing value from it

Cloud Cost Management FinOps

FinOps is increasingly being adopted, with 98 percent of respondents to a new survey from Cloudbolt either having a FinOps strategy or planning to implement one. But while 71 percent of companies have expanded funding for FinOps resources in 2023, 99.8 percent say they are still waiting to see any value from it.

In case you haven't been paying attention, FinOps is an operational framework that brings technology, finance, and business together to drive financial accountability and accelerate value through cloud transformation.

Continue reading

Financial services businesses face critical data security gap

Lock and money

New survey findings from Lookout show that 70 percent of IT leaders in the financial services sector report a significant increase in data breaches compared to previous years.

Nearly half of organizations (47 percent) are struggling with the heightened difficulty of detecting and mitigating threats, while about a fifth (18 percent) face a significant lack of control over their applications and data.

Continue reading

Selling Gen Z on Fintech

Fintech

Technology is becoming a more significant part of the world with each passing year and the newest generation of consumers is growing up with digital tools in hand. With this comes a great opportunity for selling Gen Z on fintech.

"Fintech" is a portmanteau of the term "financial technology." It refers to any digital tools financial institutions offer that make managing finances convenient. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, using fintech tools has become the preferred way consumers manage their finances.

Continue reading

Only 18 percent of staff think hybrid working has improved productivity

Home worker in pajamas

New research, from UK-based IT consultancy and services provider Doherty Associates, finds that only 18 percent of workers in two key sectors think that hybrid working has substantially improved productivity.

The survey of 889 employees working in the UK capital markets and legal industries looked to uncover how the working-from-home revolution and subsequent technological adoption have impacted productivity.

Continue reading

Signing up for an Apple Savings Account was surprisingly bad

AppleMoneyWorm

Announced last year in partnership with Goldman Sachs, the much-anticipated Apple Savings Account finally launched earlier today. Despite the long delay between announcing and launching the bank account, signing up for it was a surprisingly bad experience,

Firstly, it requires you to own an iPhone (on iOS 16.4 or higher) and be in the USA. I luckily meet this criteria, but understandably, Apple fans in other places would like to take advantage of the impressive APY (currently 4.15%). Of course, if and when the account launches in other countries, the rate is likely to vary based on location -- the percentage is unlikely to be the same regardless of country.

Continue reading

Cloud adoption leaves regulated industries open to attack

Cloud crime lock

Switching to the cloud has left organizations in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and financial services with a greater attack surface, according to a new report.

Research published today by Blancco Technology Group, based on responses from 1,800 IT professionals in healthcare and finance, shows 65 percent of respondents say that the switch has also increased the volume of redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT) data they collect.

Continue reading

Financial services is the most impersonated industry in phishing attacks

phishing hook

Threat protection company Vade has released its latest Phishers' Favorites report for 2022 which finds that financial services is the most impersonated industry, accounting for 34 percent of phishing pages as attackers continue to follow the money.

There are also seven finance brands in the top 20, with PayPal, MTB, Crédit Agricole, and La Banaque Postale all securing a spot in the top 10.

Continue reading

Load More Articles