IDC's EMEA banking predictions

Focus, transparency, and resolve will continue to be the guidelines for 2010, as banks tackle continued economic and financial strain, according to IDC Financial Insights' top 10 predictions for the European, Middle Eastern, and African (EMEA) banking industry, says Tekrati.

According to Rachel Hunt, director for EMEA banking research, "Banks that started transformation projects three years ago will be better placed to compete in the future, while small institutions need to understand that few will survive the greatest market dislocation we have ever seen, without considerable review of their operating models.

“2010 will be the year of intelligence as a competitive differentiator, as they tackle regulation, increasing audit and transparency requirements, and new competitors."

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia reported strong interim results with net profit after tax surging to $2.9 billion for the six months to the end of December - and while it's not all due to IT, the bank's CIO claimed CBA technology amounted to an “engine for growth”, reports ITWire.

Group executive and CIO Michael Harte is now halfway through a $730 million core systems revamp and has over the past three years delivered $300 million worth of cost savings for the bank. But he said the focus is now off new savings targets and on a renewed investment focus.

The group's largest single investment, the four-year Core Banking Modernisation, remains on schedule and will achieve a number of key milestones this year including migration of all deposit and transaction accounts to the new system.

Researchers from the University of Oxford have created a protocol for making electronic payments via mobile phones: The technology provides a secure channel its inventors hope will be rolled into smartphone mobile banking or other payment applications, states Dark Reading.

The idea for the technology came out of the UK Payments Council's plans to eliminate cheque payments by 2018. The goal of the Oxford project is to provide a secure channel for making peer-to-peer and person-to-person payments, says Bill Roscoe, a professor at Oxford who headed up the project.

The protocol lets the payer conduct transactions via Bluetooth, WiFi, the Internet, SMS messaging, or on a landline phone.