Technology

As pandemic response continues to reshape human behaviors and attitudes, banks are strengthening in-house innovation teams and tapping broader networks to stimulate fresh ideation in financial services.

Philip Rosedale was a digital pioneer in creating Second Life, one of the first virtual worlds and still a leading social platform for adults. Linden Lab, Second Life’s parent company, now has two decades of experience in managing an online world, including developing a virtual currency traded globally. He talks to Global Finance about what they’ve learned and larger hopes for the metaverse.

Fighting in Ukraine spurs factoring and digitalization adoption.

Banks like JPMorgan are mostly on Decentraland—a 3D virtual world run by the nonprofit—to learn.

Walmart is finalizing its push into the metaverse, according to trademark application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office at the end of 2021.

The acquisition also lets Microsoft get its foot into the metaverse’s door.

Facebook rebrands itself and reshuffles its executive suite.

The fast-rising valuations of tech companies have also motivated firms to change their employee incentive structures.

Analysts say the cryptocurrency’s spike in price has more to do with inflation fears than pent-up demand for nascent ETFs. 

The ECB moves forward with plans to create a digital Euro and digital wallets for consumers.

India backs down from its inital ban on cryptocurrencies.

Almost half of the North American organizations polled have suffered a data breach via a third party in the past 12 months.

Barring cryptocurrencies will prevent Chinese yuan from leaving China in the form of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, allowing the government to maintain control of its centralized fiscal and economic systems.

Artificial intelligence is already doing a lot for us behind the scenes, and a surge of new and better applications is on the way.

Paolo Rubano, Finance Transformation director at Italian insurance giant Generali Assicurazioni after a decade at France’s Axa, discusses the need for major multinationals to be more agile, more digital and more customer-centric.

The ability of cloud-based systems to deliver faster payments—and treasury insights—took on added importance during the pandemic.

Banking as a service is burgeoning—and with it, considerable challenges and opportunities.

Bjarne Tellmann is senior vice president and general counsel at GSK Consumer Healthcare, a joint venture that combines the consumer brands of GSK and Pfizer. He speaks to Global Finance about the intersectionality of his work.

Respondents to the survey believe that robots are necessary for activities such as approvals, budgets and forecasts, reporting, compliance and risk management.