Financial Services

Microsoft has issued an alert over critical vulnerabilities exposed in several versions of its Windows OS, with financial institutions urged to immediately patch their systems to prevent malicious access.
 

Western Australia’s largest mutual bank, P&N Bank, has revealed it sustained a “criminal” breach of its customer relationship management (CRM) system, potentially exposing customers' personal data.
 

AusPayNet, the payments industry’s self-regulatory body, has released extensive guidelines, including five core principles, for ensuring equitable access on Point-of-Sale (POS) touchscreen terminals.
 

KPMG has launched a new cross-national ‘track and trace’ blockchain platform, giving trading partners across multiple industries, including financial services, a new pathway to share richer product and service data across their supply chains and boost data provenance processes. 
 

November saw a number of high-profile appointments and departures across the local financial services industry, with noteworthy additions to Westpac, CBA, and AIG.
 

Westpac has appointed an IBM subsidiary to undertake an independent review into the bank's technology systems and governance processes following an AUSTRAC investigation which exposed an alleged 23 million breaches of Australia’s AML/CTF Act.
 

Representatives from established financial firms have conceded neobanks and fintechs challengers will continue to capture market share from the dominant incumbents, with surveyed delegates at the Future of Financial Services, Sydney last week acknowledging the tenuous hold FSIs have over their existing customer base as well as increasing brand disloyalty among customers.
 

Tribes, by their nature, are fiercely protective of their own, and ruthless in their collective will to survive and thrive. For Bankwest, the tribe represents the supreme model for innovation, product development and delivery.
 

Claims management administrator Gallagher Bassett (GB) will double down on its automation objectives, appointing a new head of automation and applications. 
 

NSW’s public sector insurer icare has released a cache of claims performance data showing which reveal the adverse, though short-term, impact of technology implementations on claims resolution and processing times.
 

Westpac has announced a bold play to expand its digital offering, unveiling a new co-operative deal with UK-based fintech 10x to develop a standalone “banking-as-a-service" platform.  
 

October saw a number of high-profile appointments and departures across the financial services sector, with noteworthy additions to CBA, Bankwest and industry watchdog APRA.
 

The latest figures from APRA reveal a substantial drop in the presence of Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and EFTPOS terminals across Australia, with banks looking to scale back dedicated service points in favour of cost-efficient, mobile-based money transfer apps and non-branch partner services.
 

Despite customers overwhelmingly trusting major institutions to protect their data and financial assets, upwards of two-thirds of consumers fear banks “do not have their best interests at heart”, according to findings from Deloitte’s 2019 Open Banking survey.