Kenny van Ierlant

The digital transformation prompted by rapidly changing business models, as part of the chain reversal, has already turned the world upside down. Numerous companies and governments (organizations) have invested heavily in the digitization of their business processes as part of the chain reversal by automating non-automated processes in order to save heavily on the costs of labor to benefit the shareholders! The premise that this approach will lead to “agility” and lower cost-income ratios will not materialize the majority of case. This digitization also reveals a great sociological problem, namely that top management has no idea how such a transformation should be implemented. The lack of essential knowledge at the top level is a guarantee for many accidents and destruction of shareholder value.
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TRG a provider of subscription spend management software solutions, recently announced it has acquired Screen Group (“Screen”). The acquisition of Screen will further solidify TRG’s position as a global market leader in enterprise spend management. The new company will have a greater suite of complementary, innovative software solutions that will be uniquely positioned to provide the full spectrum of subscription spend management capabilities across expense management (FITS, INFOmatch), usage tracking (ResearchMonitor), enquiry management (Quest), specialist consulting services and events to many of the world’s leading financial, legal and professional services firms. Continue reading…

Rabobank, National Association (“RNA”), a California-based subsidiary of Coöperatieve Rabobank, U.A. (“Rabobank”), has taken a Q4 2017 provision of approximately EUR 310 million in anticipation of a settlement connected to previously disclosed investigations. RNA has been under investigation since 2013 by the U.S. Department of Justice and other U.S. authorities for possible violations of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and other regulations and statutes in relation to its historical AML compliance program, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (“OCC”) examination of that program in the past.  Continue reading…

Nordea has joined the we.trade consortium as founding partner. The consortium is, in conjunction with IBM, developing a platform based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that aims at making domestic and cross-border commerce easier, safer and more efficient for companies. It is the first such blockchain-based trade finance platform, marking a milestone in the practical adoption of DLT in the financial industry. In entering the we.trade initiative, Nordea joins Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Société Générale and UniCredit as a founder member of the consortium and extending its geographical coverage into the Nordic markets.
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by Alan Nance
Many transformational programs in enterprise IT are no more than shiny objects sitting on a veneer layer that masks the unsustainable, expensive legacy they depend on. Imagine your organization as an hourglass, where the business is the globe on the top, and the technology team is the globe that sits below. In an hourglass, sand flows from top to bottom until empty, and when turned around, the sand flows the other way, again passing through a small neck, that neck is the only view from each sand globe to the other. Depending on your perspective sand is either rushing towards you or speeding away from you.
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Today Nordea brings Apple Pay to customers in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Apple Pay is transforming mobile payments with an easy and secure way to pay that’s fast and convenient. With 1.7 billion card transactions per year and high mobile usage in the Nordics, delivering the benefits of digitalisation to customers is a cornerstone in Nordea’s strategy. Over the last few years, Nordea has systematically built up its mobile payment services portfolio. Continue reading…

by Bob Vanstraelen
One of the hottest topics at every industry event I’ve attended recently is the threat of FinTech disruptors. As more and more of these small, specialist firms launch – think Revolut, N26 and Seamless (SEQR) – many retail bankers seem concerned that their size and portfolio is hindering them in the battle for customers. Actually, I think it’s quite the opposite, and it’s the wide breadth of services that traditional banks offer consumers, in contrast to FinTechs’ largely single-service offerings, that will prove to be their golden ticket to customer retention and loyalty. By offering a range of services, retail banks ultimately create more opportunities to understand their customers and therefore engage and grow with them – opportunities that single service firms don’t have. 
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The Generali Group has entered into a share purchase agreement to dispose its entire shareholding (98.56%) in Generali Nederland N.V.(Generali Nederland). The transaction is part of its strategy to optimize its geographical presence, increase operational efficiency and improve capital allocation.
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Nordea expects the global economy to grow by 3.6 per cent this year, 3.7 per cent in 2018 and 3.6 per cent in 2019, in a new forecast released today. The outlook for the advanced economies looks solid amid uncertainties surrounding Donald Trump’s economic policy, the Brexit negotiations, increasing geopolitical risks and financial market reactions to the expected tightening of monetary policy. Also Emerging Markets seem to be back on a more sustainable growth trajectory, says Helge J. Pedersen, Nordea’s Group Chief Economist. The outlook for the Nordic countries has improved further, and 2017 seems to be the strongest growth year for the region since 2010. Continue reading…

By Bob Vanstraelen
Today, interactive technologies are empowering brands of all sizes and industries to deliver seamless, multi-channel customer journeys. I’m sure you’re familiar with services like Amazon Go, Nike iD and even the Starbucks ordering app and its rewards scheme. These brands are delivering new and improved omni-channel models to meet a seismic shift in customer expectation over the last few years. Our research into customer experience shows that 77% of consumers agree they now expect companies to provide a consistent experience wherever they engage. Continue reading…