How your bank could look in five years' time

From The Telegraph

“A technological revolution is under way in banking, with computers lined up to replace humans in branches.

Intelligent machines could replace human bank staff in high street branches within five years, the Telegraph has learnt.

Several major banks are understood to be in talks to introduce "express" branches, which would be similar to self-service checkouts in supermarkets. These smaller outlets would be almost completely devoid of human interaction.

If trials are successful, the new format is likely to be adopted across Britain, sources said, with larger branches slimmed down and staff numbers reduced in branches.

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UK Banks face massive fines and customer losses over crashing computer systems

From Financial Mail on Sunday

“Crashing computer systems at Britain’s top banks could see the industry hit with massive fines from regulators and an exodus of customers, experts warn.

Rising fears over computer failures, most conspicuously at Royal Bank of Scotland, which has suffered two system failures in the past week alone, are attracting closer scrutiny from watchdogs.

At the same time, research shows that more than one in four customers say they would consider moving banks over a system failure.

The two system failures at RBS and its subsidiary NatWest in the past week come on top of a major computer outage in 2012 that left thousands of customers unable to use their accounts – in some cases for several weeks.”

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The Looming Spectrum Shortage

From Deloitte CIO Journal

Deloitte predicts that although additional spectrum will continue to be made available in 2013 in many global markets, spectrum exhaustion will continue to exacerbate in many countries, especially in dense urban areas. End users will continue to see performance impacts as a result, primarily in the form of lower speeds, but also through inability to access networks and dropped calls or sessions. The reason is simple demand for spectrum will exceed supply. Demand for wireless bandwidth continues to grow in leaps and bounds, but supply is relatively constrained. By 2014 the US alone may suffer a 275 MHz spectral "deficit".

Discontinuation of support for Microsoft XP poses operational risks to banks - FFIEC

From Finextra

“The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has warned that plans by Microsoft to discontinue support for the XP operating system pose operational risks for banks that still use it.

Microsoft will discontinue extended support for XP in April next year, ending provision of regular security patches and technical assistance for the operating system. “

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ATM Hacking and the Art of Hole-in-the-Wall Detournment

From Suitpossum

“The Automatic Teller Machine is one the primary interfaces we have with the banking system. It's a machine of convenience, replicating what a human bank teller used to do. They're often placed next to physical bank branches, reinforcing the widespread notion that the money coming out of the wall somehow came from 'inside' the bank. Given that the majority of our money is in fact electronic, and stored in a bank's datacentre-based IT system, nowhere remotely close to the ATM, this is something of an illusion. Indeed, the ATM can echo and reinforce much of the disconnection implicit in the broader banking system.”

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