Love Finance: block chains, pensions jobs and biometrics

Citibank building block chains

The world of crypto-currency is not a foreign one to Citibank, as the bank recently detailed its forays into building block chains) and creating its own digital currency.

It’s fascinating to see a brand like Citibank, and more importantly, a bank, venture into the world of crypto-currency. Storing it is one thing, but creating its own opens up new discussions around the role of banks in the upcoming, increasingly digitised future of the global economy.

“Because we are a global network, a global bank, we can look for opportunities to use this technology to move money from country to country - country A to country B, across our network“, says Citi Innovation Labs boss Ken Moore.

We love that Citibank are exploring the realm of crypto-currency and the impact it can have on moving money around the globe. By creating their own solutions, they stand to gain considerable amounts of knowledge and capability, as well as their own bespoke solutions for an age-old problem.

Pensions market struggling to fill positions

Surprisingly, the job market appears to be experiencing a shortage of applicants in the realm of pensions.

As the FT Adviser reports, it appears that while the pensions market is booming, the amount of people applying for roles within it is falling well short of what is required. Finding sales and investment staff seems like a major challenge for wealth managers who are seeking to gain a share of the exciting new pensions market.

We love that this creates what we see as a major opportunity for a new generation of bright young things to capitalise on their financial services experience and start careers in pensions. While there may be a drought at present, it looks like an open door to us - it’s rare any job market is short on applicants.

Pensions auto-transfers need to get with the times

“Archaic systems“ are at fault for the pensions market seeing issues with its transfers, as they have ground to a halt in the wake of old technology.

The pension transfer process, at present, is regarded as being slow and unreliable, and the government are pushing for increased flexibility for pension customers as the freedom reforms roll out through the market. New technology will enable transfers to move quickly and smoothly. For now, it appears it lacks the instantaneous ease of similar financial transactions.

We love that the speed and convenience of pension transfers is being addressed, and that the government is pushing to solve it. It means a better pension transfer experience for customers, less complaints for pension providers, and fewer headaches for everyone in between. New technology is never a bad thing when implemented correctly and with the right goals in mind.

Mobile banking biometrics gains traction

Biometrics may start to feature far more in mobile banking, as the concept has begun to catch on with banks open to a new authentication method for their mobile customers.

Now, your body can be the key to unlocking your bank account on your mobile device. Rapid adoption of biometrics by banks means that our mobile banking services could soon be using fingerprints, voice and irises in order to unlock our money.

We love that biometrics is becoming a bigger part of mobile banking. One of the big issues with mobile banking is it needs to be very secure when you’re out and about, and by allowing people to use unique identifiers that are almost impossible to copy, mobile banking becomes that much safer.