The Need For Speed

Do you have five milliseconds? Innovation has been fast and furious in the foreign-exchange market in the past year. 

#7 Online Trading Platforms

The story of online trading platforms really starts May 1, 1975, when the Securities and Exchange Commission broke the Wall Street cartel and eliminated the practice of fixed brokerage commissions.

Trade Finance Getting Its E-Legs

Processes that have changed relatively little over hundreds of years in trade finance are being catapulted into the 21st century, due to significant advances in data analytics, digitization and shared ledger technology. Once a forgotten backwater of transaction banking, trade ...

#2 Mobile Payments

Starbucks generates 27% of its US sales via mobile payments, as consumers opt for contactless coffee. While there were efforts to provide banking through cell phones in the late 90s, the transition, around 2007, from cellphones to smartphones—with their expanded ...

#9 Blockchain

First developed in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto—whose identity remains a mystery—as a public ledger for all bitcoin transactions, blockchain is now outshining the cryptocurrency it underpins as it offers banks and others the benefits of a distributed ledger, i.e., an ...

Branchless Mortgages

Global Finance: What is Bidaya's business strategy? Mohamed Badat: Our business strategy involves leveraging innovation and digital infrastructure to directly reach customers in a secure, swift and seamless manner. Home finance and real estate has long been perceived as a ...

Bad Ideas

Reknowned economist James K. Galbraith, one of our expert panelists, pulls no punches in talking about the damage wrought by financial innovation

Flux Favors Innovation

It’s been another crazy year, with Brexit, the election of Donald Trump as US president, tensions building up with Russia, continued strife and displacement in Syria and rising tensions in Asia, all of which are affecting global markets.

Proving Products

Global Finance: What are the unique features of the Al Nuwair Deposit Account? And what about the Eservice Gold Account? Fahad Khaled Al-Mukhaizeem: Al-Nuwair deposit is an innovative investment deposit that promises clients with expected profit rates based on the ...

World’s Best Banks 2016

Global Finance unveils its annual lists of the best banks in the world, globally, regionally and by country. The winners outperformed their peers and provide top-notch service to clients in a challenging environment.