Gilly Wright

The first round—country and subcategory winners—of Global Finance’s Best Digital Bank awards 2018 reveals that digital transformations are driving efforts by global, regional and national banks to build their corporate and consumer clientele—and cut costs while they’re at it.

Advanced technologies help banks be competitive and retain customers. Maxim Evdokimov, vice president of Russia’s Tinkoff Bank, a digital leader that took several regional awards, explains how technology and lifestyle banking will drive the industry.

The Bank of Distinction Award honors entities that are punching above their weight, using digital technology to deliver a competitive customer experience.

Tapodyuti Bose, global head of Channels and Enterprise Services, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, explains the importance of removing friction with open banking.

With the arrival of open banking, the era of real-time financial data and the end of banks’ monopoly on their clients’ account information is at hand.

Regulators are pressing for institutions to open their APIs. But first, the banks need to know their customers want what open banking can give them.

As a pathway to harmonization and platform interoperability for financial institutions, ISO 20022 is catching on. But migration to the global payments standard could be easier.

Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and JPMorgan Chase have picked a doctor to lead their health care venture.

Europe's biggest tech IPO in 2018 is a smashing success.

Campbell Soup CEO ousted as company fails to maintain sales amid consumer shift to healthy, natural, and organic foods.

By taking a different approach this year, Global Finance was able to explore a new range of innovation.

Irish government's legal and planning processes spur Apple to cancel data center construction plan.

The breakneck pace of innovation in finance shows no signs of slowing.

Tate & Lyle's new CFO expected to be pro-active on the M&A front to take advantage of growing consumer demand for health and wellness products.

Bans and regulations are encouraging novel workarounds by cryptocurrencies.

The few corporations that have embraced cryptocurrencies tend to be small or troubled. However, spinoff technologies from digital currency such as blockchain are likely to play a major role in corporate finance and international banking.

More platforms and more interfaces yield more complexity for Scandanavian treasury officers.

Ever-changing political and economic environments keep cash management professionals agile.

Providers have to deal with issues both big and small with firms both big and small.

Newer market economies face issues of smaller scale and a wider array of currencies than their western counterparts.

News-heavy year required flexibility in cash management solutions.

Vendors guide corporate clients through increasingly frictionless—though initially disorienting—new platforms.

In the wake of the US tax overhaul, corporate treasuries brace for repatriation of assets.

Speed becomes the key differentiator for treasury and cash management providers.

While we are witnessing a global race for instant payments, this momentum isn’t likely to result in a global real-time payments solution anytime soon.

What does it take to excel at trade finance on a regional or global scale?

Lisa Lansdowne-Higgins, vice president of business deposits and treasury solutions, personal and commercial banking at RBC, discusses changes in innovation and free trade. 

  GLOBAL WINNERS Best Bank for Trade Finance BNP Paribas Best Trade Finance Infrastructure Initiative CCRManager Best Bank for Commodity Finance Rabobank Best Trade Document Management  BNY Mellon Best Trade Credit Insurance Provider  Euler Hermes Best Bank for Export Finance ...

Countries like Algeria, Morocco, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Bangladesh have all issued bans—or at least begun the process—on bitcoin and other alternative currencies, in order to stamp out tax evasion and irresponsible trading.

Fintech and automation are critical to growing transaction-banking services in the era of Big Data.

South Korean shipbuilders have been under severe financial strain since 2008 and are suffering from tougher competition from Chinese rivals. 

Ford has been lagging behind competitors in emerging technologies for automobiles, including the race for driverless cars, but its appointment of Jim Hackett as CEO last May marked a change in strategy.

At our annual event in London, executives from banks, fintechs and companies focused on the opportunities, as well as risks, in the era of Big Data. 

Global Finance honored global and regional winners of its digital bank awards at a ceremony in London following its Digital Banking Conference.

Paul Cobban, chief data and transformation officer at DBS, shares ways banks can unlock and monetize customer data journeys. 

The automaker's electric-car strategy includes plug-in hybrid and conventional hybrid technologies, as well as all-electric options.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, is in talks with Tesla about the possibility of using renewable microgrids to revamp the island's electric infrastructure.

The firm says the new headquarter would be as big as the existing offices in Seattle and will come with $5 billion in investment promising jobs for 50,000 employees.

For banks that have invested in Big Data capabilities but are struggling to generate value from them, metadata can unlock meaningful insights.

Off-site storage in the Cloud boosts treasury-management solutions, offering affordability, flexibility and scalability.        

In the first round of our Best Digital Bank Awards 2017, evolving customer needs drive financial institutions’ technology innovation.

Smaller banks must rely on agility to be competitive against their larger, but slower-moving, rivals when it comes to implementing digital measures and rolling out new products

By recognizing entrepreneurial talent and encouraging employees to step forward with ideas, banks get a chance to boost innovation from within

The second phase of European Union’s 2007 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II comes into effect starting January 2018. It will not only extend the scope of financial instruments under coverage but also require extensive record keeping setting firms across the EU for a big compliance challenge. 

Newly appointed AkzoNobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker takes over the Dutch paint company at a time when it faces an ongoing battle with its biggest shareholder, Elliott Management, and several hostile takeover attempts from US rival PPG Industries.

As more companies outsource information management to the Cloud or colocation services, focus on data protection increases.

Forming partnerships can be a good way for banks to quickly add new features, as long as they don’t get distracted from their long-term vision.

The Swedish payments platform's huge customer base gives it an advantage as it expands into banking and other product lines.

Delaware has proposed amendments to new legislation that would enable corporations to use distributed ledgers for record-keeping and to keep track of stock transactions, the state’s latest effort to be a first mover when it comes to blockchain technology. 

The partnership of mobile-only bank N26 with German fintech Raisin allows the bank to offer its clients, initially in Germany but across the EU beginning next year, the chance to open savings accounts with just a few taps. As Raisin ...