Here are recommendations from the Government of Canada digital Payments report released yesterday. Now the comments in the Federal Budget make sense.  The Canadian Payments Association (CPA) was designed in the days of cheques. Time to bring the bureaucracy up to date. Government must lead the change. For Canada’s payments system to substantially modernize, changes are required in multiple arenas, from consumer behaviours to accounting solutions, to the very procedures governments rely upon in delivering services. Industry has not implemented change due in part to uncertainty and lack of coordination. Therefore, the Government of Canada should lead the change by … Continue reading Canada digital payments report–intends to upgrade the Canadian Payments Association to meet needs of mobile payments

Following the budget yesterday and the reference to banking governance, it can be no co-incidence this report is released today.  (ht finextra) The opening remarks note: The Task Force for the Payments System Review has found that unless Canada develops a modern digital payments system, Canadians will be unable to fully engage in the digital economy of the 21st Century‚ leading to a lower standard of living across the country and a loss in international competitiveness. Moreover, the Task Force found that a thoroughly modernized payments system could save the Canadian economy as much as two per cent of GDP … Continue reading Moving Canada into the Digital Age | Government of Canada Report

Canada introduced their 2012 budget today.  There is an interesting reference to banking, copied here in totality.  There must be some reason for this.  It references external confusion about bank governance.  If anyone can contribute please chime in. Budget 2012 Clarifying Federal Jurisdiction Over Banking The Government will introduce a preamble into the Bank Act to clarify the intent that all banking activities throughout Canada be governed exclusively by the same high-quality federal standards that have served Canadians so well. Canadians benefit from one of the best-regulated banking sectors in the world. Canada’s banking regulatory framework rests on stringent prudential … Continue reading Government of Canada Budget 2012 seeks to clarify Federal Jurisdiction Over Banking

It is good that we remember 2008, what lead to it, and think about design for the future.  Cohrs of BofE spoke in Edinburgh yesterday and this statement certainly resonates.  Crisis and crash: lessons for regulation – speech by Michael Cohrs | BofE We have clearly moved into an environment where the notion of self-correcting markets and light touch regulation is a distant memory.  However, care must be taken to ensure that regulators don’t go too far and stifle legitimate risk taking which creates value in the real economy.  The wisdom of hindsight, from which we benefit in considering the … Continue reading Lessons for regulation | Cohrs BofE

The Banks’ loyalty to Blackberry is showing weakness for the first time.   I know of one bank where the senior executives all use ipads.  This will be driving bank IT security folks crazy because they have to consider a web based model versus the safe locked down RIM model. BlackBerry losing out to iPhone as banks re-assess approach to personal computing policies | finextra While many of the country’s bank’s and government agencies remain loyal to RIM devices, the study found the first indications of a more flexible approach at Toronto-Dominion Bank. David Codack, TD’s head of employee technology said … Continue reading Chinks show in the Blackberry armour amongst banks’

Andrew Haldane (Andrew Haldane – Executive Director for Financial Stability and member of the Financial Policy Committee) is a favourite.  His talks are rich in history and assessment of patterns that point to future solutions.  This talk earlier this month was presented at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s (SIFMA) Legal Entity Identifier Symposium in New York, and is both very good in the Haldane tradition but also a direct shot at the poor state of bank technology and how that contributed to the 2008 crisis. His overall point is lack of transparency of risk within financial services.  A … Continue reading Banking is a protected industry and that protection results in limited competition and little innovation