| |
| Research & Benchmarking
Study |
|
FAO
Buyer Needs in the Financial Services Industry -
Banking, Insurance & Capital Markets, 2006
|
| |
FS Outsourcing Magazine,
together with market research firm FAO Research, Inc. (www.faoresearch.com),
invite you to participate in a groundbreaking research
study about finance & accounting outsourcing (FAO)
in the Financial Services industry.
Click
here to
participate. | |
|
Top Stories of the Week
|
 |
|
Mercantile Bankshares Renews and Expands Contract with Digital Insight |
|
Mercantile Bankshares has renewed and expanded its relationship with Digital Insight for consumer Internet banking and online bill payment services for its 11 affiliated banks. Through Digital Insight, the Mercantile member banks currently offer users of Banking Twenty-Four Online access to bill payment, check imaging and a Web connect feature that enables Quicken and Microsoft Money users to seamlessly interact with their personal financial management software. Under terms of the renewed and expanded contract, users at all 11 banks will gain access to online statements, funds transfer with aggregation, check reorder and direct connect. In addition, each bank will partner with Digital Insight to provide secure online customer service with co-browse support.
More... |
|
|
|
Ennis State Bank Outsources Web Banking Support to FundsXpress |
|
Ennis State Bank, located in a suburb of Dallas, has contracted with FundsXpress for online banking support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The partnership is a recognition of the fact that a large percentage of online banking is conducted after normal business hours, and 24 hour support enables online customers to receive instant feedback to their requests anywhere, anytime. Customers calling a toll-free telephone number will connect directly to the FundsXpress customer call center in Austin, TX.
More... |
|
|
|
Reserve Bank of Fiji Taps LogicaCMG for Real-Time Gross Settlement |
|
The Reserve Bank of Fiji has selected LogicaCMG to implement its interbank settlement of high value payments. The services will be managed using LogicaCMG’s real-time gross settlement system the CAS (Central Accounting System). The commercial bank participants will take advantage of LogicaCMG’s CAS browser to connect to the central CAS system as well as use the SWIFT Network for the transmission of high-value payments.
More...
|
|
|
|
SEB Eesti Ühispank Outsources Banking Support To TietoEnator |
|
SEB Eesti Ühispank has agreed to outsource on-site support services and resources in Estonia to TietoEnator Support OÜ, a subsidiary of TietoEnator Corporation. The agreement includes services such as PC support, ATM support and PC banking services support. Seventeen members of SEB Eesti Ühispank's current on-site services staff transferred to TietoEnator Support OÜ starting June 1.
More... |
| Industry Events |
|
Editor's
Note
Customer Skittishness Will Carry A Price
It may be no surprise that customers are still uncomfortable with outsourcing. How uncomfortable?
According to a survey sponsored by global law firm White & Case and developed by independent privacy think tank Ponemon Institute, 51 percent of US adults surveyed said they did not want a US company to share their social security number or driver’s license numbers with outsourcing partners in another country; 60 percent didn’t want their credit or debit card account numbers shared with offshore partners; 64 percent did not want their employee records shared; and 73 percent opposed having their banking or home mortgage information shared. The results were based on an online survey completed by 1,294 people from across the US.
It gets more complicated. Eighty-two percent of survey respondents felt that new US regulations were needed to ensure that offshore companies had adequate security and privacy safeguards in place (despite the fact that the financial industry already has regulations protecting customers). Yet 73 percent of US adults surveyed also said they are unwilling to pay higher prices for products or services if that would ensure that their personal information would not be outsourced offshore.
What will this mean for companies who outsource offshore?
White & Case partner Steve Betensky says that it will probably cost them money.
“When customers aren’t willing to pay more for security safeguards, they automatically turn to government for relief. That leads to increased regulations, which generally leads to higher costs for companies in order to comply or risk fines,” Betensky says. “So the real message I take away from this survey is that companies better be prepared to pay more one way or the other. The best thing that companies can do is negotiate their outsourcing contracts carefully so that the offshoring entity assumes some of the risk and costs associated with privacy safeguards and takes responsibility for ensuring that those privacy safeguards are effective.”
Sincerely,
Renee Wijnen
Managing Editor, FS
Outsourcing
Email : rwijnen@fsoutsourcing.com |
|
Trends and Analysis |
Offshoring Mid-Life Crisis!
 By: Peter Lowes,
Principal - Deloitte Consulting LLP |
The practice of offshoring by financial institutions isnt young anymore; in fact, its approaching middle age. Today, it is well established and has been accepted by most as a competitive necessity. However, despite this increasing maturity, some firms still wait on the sidelines, seemingly unwilling or unable to get started with an offshoring program. For others that have been offshore for several years, fatigue is setting in, exemplified by slowing growth and drop-offs in savings levels and service quality. It sounds like offshoring is having a mid-life crisis!
More... |
| | |
