Just as we needed a way to freely share information, we needed a way to freely exchange value. Implementing a standardized payment protocol was a natural fit. But while data can live in a world where it’s easily reproduced, value inherently exists as the result of scarcity…
The Ripple protocol is a distributed exchange network that allows exchanges between any fiat currency as well digital currencies like bitcoins and ripples. Using this protocol, users in the U.S. can send dollars to places like Mexico, routing the transaction through the lowest-cost exchange path on the network, and have the payments converted into pesos and delivered into the recipient’s wallet in seconds. Platforms like Ripple and other cryptocurrency features can benefit everyday people in four primary areas: remittances, liquidity, access to cash and access to credit…
When it comes to financial inclusion, one of the central issues is identity. And while the popular image of those excluded from the global economy are of those struggling in developing or impoverished economies—say the migratory sherpa lacking a home address—the way our current system is set up means that financial exclusion can strike anyone.
Take my colleague who recently relocated to San Francisco. Despite a well-paying job and an exceptional credit history in Europe, he was unable to open a bank account or even lease an apartment because his identity was only valid in Europe.
Things clearly aren’t working when an educated expat earning a six-figure salary can’t set up a basic checking account. It’s no wonder then that 2.5 billion people in the world share the same problem.
Today, the reality is we don’t own or control our online identities. Instead, they reside in countless, redundant silos begrudgingly kept by service providers like retailers and financial institutions. Just as you can’t bring your eBay reputation to Yelp, you can’t import your credit history from Europe to the U.S.
In a recent interview with Kosta Peric, former Head of Innovation at SWIFT, he pointed to identity management as a key development challenge: “The second problem [related to online identity] is data silos… where my reputation on eBay is only valued on eBay and my Twitter followers are only relevant on Twitter. I have invested a lot of time and effort and money to build this up and now let’s say one of these companies goes away or is acquired or changes. All of that data—which I don’t call physical identity, I call it digital assets—how do I manage that for myself?”
Technology has incredible potential to address these obstacles. On the one hand, it provides opportunities for new and diverse identity platforms. Fidor, for instance, allows customers to open an account using their Facebook credentials. On the other hand, innovative solutions like decentralized identity will empower individuals to own their financial identities, while enhancing identity security.
For the financially underserved, the inability to track and control their identities precludes economic progress in many cases. With ownership of identity comes access to financial systems and opportunities that are just out of reach today.
Our chief compliance officer, Karen Gifford, is in Perth, Australia this week, discussing this very issue with some of the most forward-thinking minds in technology and economic development at events surrounding the G20 Summit.
Temenos only vendor to be named “Top global player” and “Global Power Seller” in banking platform sales by independent analyst firm
Survey from Forrester research shows that Temenos took considerable market share in 2013
The independent survey, conducted annually, assesses both the volume and the geographical spread of banking platform sales to new and existing customers. Forrester defines a banking platform as a “comprehensive, but basically modular, preintegrated set of banking applications that is designed to cover traditional areas of banking like retail and corporate banking.”[1] In 2013, Forrester evaluated more than 1,630 deals submitted by 29 vendors to arrive at its rankings for new name and extended business sales.
For the 9th consecutive year, Forrester awarded Temenos the highest status of “Global Power Seller” in its ranking of sales to new name customers. In order to be named a “Global Power Seller”, vendors must record more than 35 new name deals across more than six regions of the world. Temenos was the only vendor to achieve the status of “Global Power Seller”.
In addition, Temenos was also the only vendor to be awarded the status of “Top Global Player” in respect of sales to both new and existing customers, with 124 deals, 8% higher than in 2012. To qualify as “Top Global Player” vendors must evidence at least 75 customer sales in a minimum of six regions. This is the second year that Forrester has examined both new and existing sales and the second year that Temenos has been the sole recipient of the “Top Global Player” award. Interestingly in 2013, no vendor achieved the secondary status of “Major Global Player”, for which it must achieve more than 50 deals in three regions whereas in 2012, three vendors held this status.
During a webinar to announce the findings from the upcoming report, Jost Hoppermann, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester noted:
“Positions on the market are changing. Overall, the market grew by 4% but the top 10 vendors’ share of deals fell by 12%. The best performers were able to leverage existing good customer relationships to take market share.”
David Arnott, CEO of Temenos, commented:
“We are delighted with the findings from this study, which underline the extent to which Temenos took market share in 2013, particularly against the largest vendors. We are the clear leader in banking platform sales with also the broadest geographical reach. This success owes to a broad set of solutions able to meet the banking industry’s needs for efficiency, agility, actionable analytics and cutting-edge multi-channel capabilities as it faces up to structural change in the form of changing customer behaviour, a changing competitive landscape and new regulation. We are confident we can consolidate further our leadership in 2014.”
Number of new name core banking deals more than double nearest competitor
GENEVA, Switzerland – 6 March 2014 – Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the market-leading provider of mission-critical solutions to the financial services industry, today announces that IBS Intelligence has ranked Temenos T24, Temenos’ core banking solution, in the top position in its 2014 Sales League Table, an annual ranking of core back office systems sales to new name customers across the banking and treasury and capital markets.
T24 was by a large margin the best-selling core banking product in 2013. While T24 has held one of the top two positions in the league table for 15 consecutive years, its lead over the rest of the market is growing. According to the 2014 league table, Temenos recorded more than twice the number of deals as its nearest competitor – for the second straight year.
Temenos was one of very few vendors to see growth in a market that remained relatively subdued in 2013. According to the IBS League Table, Temenos signed 35 new name customers in 2013, a growth of 3% on the year before, whereas the overall market saw a contraction of 18% in deal volume. The decline was seen particularly at the top end of the market with T24 being the only one of the top five market products to increase its sales. T24 recorded deals across multiple banking segments such as retail, corporate, private wealth and Islamic banking, in every continent of the world and with installations both on premise as well as hosted. Significant new name wins included KBC in Ireland and Aktia Bank in Finland.
The results of the IBS Sales League Table reinforce the findings from the Forrester “Global Banking Platform Deals 2013”. This Forrester survey, conducted annually, assesses the volume and the geographical spread of banking platform sales and takes into account sales to both new and existing customers. This survey identified Temenos as the sole ‘Global Power Seller’ in respect of new name sales and the sole ‘Top Global Player’ in respect of combined sales to new and existing customers.
David Arnott, Temenos CEO, commented:
“We are delighted that Temenos has once again been ranked number one in the IBS league table. The results clearly show the enduring nature of our market leadership as well the fact that we are consolidating that leadership position, both of which owe to our business model founded on industry-leading levels of R&D spending channelled into a concentrated suite of packaged and upgradable applications. Our business model ensures that our solutions remain technologically advanced as well as extremely functionally rich which, together with our partner delivery model, enables us to deliver the highest levels of customer success in the industry. The results also demonstrate that, as Temenos has broadened its product and sales coverage into adjacent markets such as channels and payments, we have lost none of our focus on core banking and, in fact, having a rich, multi-product offering is helping to drive core banking sales and underpin our market position.”
Source: temenos.com