It appears that financial institutions find it challenging to regularly optimise asset portfolios. For that reason, portfolio optimisation has remained a manual task guided more frequently by guesswork than empirical data. That said, Fujitsu’s Digital Annealer has been developed to process complex combinatorial problem in a span of few minutes. 

Carlos Kuchkovky, BBVA Global Head of Research and Patents, said in a statement, “The quantum technologies ecosystem is evolving very quickly and we believe that the collaboration with various partners, public and private alike, is key in order to translate the benefits of the technology into tangible progress, for the banking sector and for society at large. Although this technology is still in an early stage of development, its potential to impact the sector is already a reality. Our research is helping us identify the areas where quantum computing could represent a greater competitive advantage, once the tools have sufficiently matured. At BBVA, we believe that quantum technology will be key to solving some of the major challenges facing society this decade. Addressing these challenges dovetails with BBVA’s strategic priorities, such as fostering the more efficient use of increasingly greater volumes of data for better decision-making as well as supporting the transition to a more sustainable future.”

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The software is expected to be available from October. Currently, Japan faces a shortage of data specialists to perform credit analysis in its financial sector.

The software will use the customer’s bank and business transactions to generate their credit score. However, such information will not be collected without the customer’s consent. The Tokyo-based IT equipment and service provider is yet to decide on a price for its software.

It is very clear that the company has invested a lot in developing integrate AI into its offerings. Earlier this month, the company announced that it plans to introduce a new personnel system for employees specialising in fields such as AI and cybersecurity who will be remunerated somewhere in the bracket of $283,000 to $378,000 irrespective of their age group.

Fujitsu also announced the development of another AI-based technology that draws on mathematical models. With very limited data on rainfall and water levels, the technology will be able to predict floods caused by rivers.

In Australia, Fujitsu and its collaborating partners aim to use AI to detect and monitor brain aneurysms at a faster rate and more efficiently. The project is part of Fujitsu’s push to upgrade its AI capabilities. The project will see the creation of a commercialised product that can be distributed first in Australia and then, globally.

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The company works with thousands of organisations globally and more than 50 million people from over 200 countries and regions.  They work with a number of content management vendors, including EMC2/Documentum, HP, M-Files, Laser Fiche and scanner manufacturers such as Sharp, Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Konica Minolta, Panasonic Communications, Toshiba and Xerox.

Paul Goodenough, Head of Enterprise UK at ABBYY, spells out the technology’s core intelligence in processing data and deciphering contractual language for business proceedings, in conversation with International Finance.

How business-intuitive is the technology when interacting with data?  

The technology can detect the relationship between entities within contracts, such as who the seller or the buyer is. It uses semantic analysis to ensure a high accuracy rate of entities, facts and events, and natural language processing to help understand and identify the relationships between the three.

By extracting key facts and events from content such as email, documents, and faxes, businesses can quickly monitor for red flags or misuse. It can also be used to identify and manage commitments and obligations and to help manage risk.

How does the technology help businesses reduce turnaround time?

There are several key areas where text analytics for contracts can reduce turnaround times:

• Scanning and digitising contracts enables organisations to extract relevant metadata, contract clauses accelerate the contract review process
• Once contracts are scanned and digitised the contractual meta data and documents may be indexed and also retrieved in a timely fashion
• Using section based natural language processing, contract clauses can be identified and isolated to make legal review easier
• Improved control of all contracts throughout their entire life cycle including retention and enforcement policies, which enables staff to meet document production and preservation requirements in a timely and cost-effective way

How scalable is the technology in terms of flexible deployment and confidentiality?

The technology is a cloud-based Solution-as-a-Service solution that enables organisations to provide for resources as their requirements dictate. It can accommodate multiple projects and is both modular and scalable so that it can support multiple tasks and document volumes.  For review and analysis, companies can utilise their own personnel or service partners. For those organisations that lack internal support, ABBYY provides Text Analytics for Contracts as a complete managed service. This added resource allow organisations without sufficient legal, compliance, contracting or procurement capacity to take advantage of the technological capabilities to accelerate their time-to-value.

Since the launch, what has been your clients’ feedback?

Since the launch of ABBYY Text Analytics for Contracts in April 2018, we are involved in a number of implementations along with our partners and while we can’t share specific details, the feedback thus far has been hugely positive.  It’s also been encouraging to see and hear the positive feedback from the product demonstrations – and customers seem to really see the business value of this software.

You can read more about the technology on our digital edition.

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Recent contactless statistics suggest that around £4 billion per month is currently spent using contactless cards, representing around a third of all plastic card transactions. More than half of all transactions with a value of £30 or less are now made using contactless technologies, suggesting that consumers increasingly find them to bea convenient and easy-to-use form of payment. And with retailers increasingly eager to deploy contactless terminals, which will further drive uptake, many see contactless as the key next step in the development of the payments infrastructure.

Contactless transactions appeal because consumers want to use payment mechanisms which are fast and easy, reduce the need to source and carry cash and, increasingly,allow the rapid updating of online account information. At the same time, merchants – central to the contactless story, as they are needed to provide the payment terminals in their stores which are necessary to take payments – want payment mechanisms that are quick to use, cheap to implement and offer the potential to improve customer and transaction insight.

The success of contactless transactions has, thus far, been largely driven by three key developments. Firstly, updating the plastic cards of existing bank customers, to make them ‘contactless capable’ was a smart way to quickly build a user base of millions; secondly, by initially limiting contactless payments to £20 or less (now £30), users could gain confidence in the system without fear of significant financial loss; and, thirdly, by encouraging retailers to deploy terminals rapidly (around half a million terminals have now been rolled out), users were assured of easy access to a wide-range of outlets where contactless payments could be made.

Of course, contactless transactions do not appeal to everyone. According to Which?, the technology allows thieves to steal money too easily, while the head of the City of London Police has recently said that the transaction limit of £30 should be retained to limit fraud.

In contrast, the payments industry argues otherwise. It believes that the technology is more secure than carrying cash; that each individual payment is protected by unique cryptograms; and that transactions are limited, both by value and by the number that can be made before the user is asked to verify their identity by inserting a PIN into a payment terminal.

A further security feature of contactless cards is that transaction data is ‘pushed’, rather than ‘pulled’. ‘Pull’ payments, the system which most plastic card transactions use, permit the merchant to access the payee’s card details so that a payment can be debited from his account and credited to the merchant’s. This means that payees are trusting the merchant – and other parties in the payment cycle – not to abuse their account details. In contrast, ‘push’ payments, as used by the contactless industry, mean that the payee uses tokens to send the correct amount of money to the merchant’s account, thereby making the transaction less susceptible to fraud.

So, where is the contactless industry going from here?

Firstly, the growth in contactless transactions will continue. Two key drivers will ensure this –consumers will use this payment option more frequently (Barclaycard expects contactless transactions to grow by more than 300% over the next four years) and more retailers start to accept contactless payments (around half of all retailers have yet to adopt the technology, including some of the largest and best known such as John Lewis).

Secondly, contactless payments will be move beyond plastic cards. Already, such payments can be made using mobile ‘phones, and further options are on their way. Fitbit, the exercise tracker, has launched Fitbit Pay, with a payment chip being embedded in an exercise band. Garmin has announced a partnership with Visa, which will allow wearers of its smartwatch to make payments. And DS Automobiles, part of the Peugeot-Citroen group, is working with Barclaycard to embed a payment chip in car keys.

Thirdly, fears about security will continue, although perhaps no more than affect other parts of the financial services industry. One area of concern surrounds the payment terminals used. Industry standards currently specify a maximum magnetic-field strength for card readers of 5 cm, yet the media has reported that some have been found capable of reading cards at three or four times this distance. We fully expect the industry to continue its programme of improving and strengthening the underlying technology so as to address any areas of perceived weakness.

As bank customers – both personal and business – further recognise, and value, the ease and convenience of contactless payments, the proliferation in transaction volumes will continue. Thus, contactless payments will be an increasingly important feature in the British payments landscape. As a result, such payments are set to be increasingly entwined within our daily lives.

Anthony Duffy is Director of Retail Banking, Fujitsu UK and Ireland

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Ibercaja is one of Spain’s largest banks. Recognizing the changing needs of its three million-plus retail customers, Ibercaja’s digital strategy focuses on the evolution of branch offices and customer relationship channels. The bank aims to give its customers easier access to expert financial advisors, plus anywhere, anytime access to key everyday banking services via mobile apps and smart ATMs. In support of this goal, Fujitsu developed a solution allowing Ibercaja to seamlessly integrate ATM services with its other customer-facing channels to provide a consistent omni-channel experience, as well as a flexible technology platform that will easily adapt to future requirements.

Installed in Ibercaja’s new branch offices, Fujitsu smart ATMs will offer greater customer interaction and shorter wait times, combined with maximum security and reliability. Customers gain fast and simple access to day-to-day banking services such as cash withdrawals and deposits, and to additional convenient services such as recharging pay-as-you-go mobile phone credit or buying event tickets.

For ease of use, the ATMs are equipped with the latest touch screens and contactless technology. In addition, Ibercaja has the option to add secure biometric authentication for its customers with Fujitsu PalmSecure technology, a highly reliable system based on palm vein pattern recognition.

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But it is very hard to gauge just how successful Apple Pay has been since its launch, as Apple releases very little data about the offering. There are persistent market rumours that the offering has not been the runaway success that Apple would have hoped for.

But why are payments — and other smart phone based services — of growing importance to Apple? Because, as many people already own a handset, as their price rises and their quality continues to improve, the need to upgrade becomes optional, rather than essential. This has resulted in handset growth stalling.

In order to maintain momentum, Apple has to take a greater market share if it is to continue to expand. Clearly, this is harder for a premium-priced product than for some other handset providers. But Apple has foreseen this issue. As well as developing internationally, its strategy has always been to develop other, additional income streams that are independent of revenues generated through handset sales. And developing a sizeable payments-related business lies at the heart of this approach.

Of course, Apple is not the only mobile phone manufacturer that faces this issue. There are now three primary electronic wallets available for British customers to choose between – Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

The ability to make larger value payments may, therefore, represent clever positioning by Apple Pay, as it allows it to differentiate its solution from other wallets in the eyes of its customers – although the other features and services that an iPhone can offer are also likely to influence choice of handset.  This is why Apple continues to extend the range of services that can be undertaken via its handset, the most recent being the announcement of the launch of peer-to-peer payments. No doubt Apple remains confident that its offering – which seeks to place consumer convenience at its very core – will be able to compete with, and beat, other, similar solutions.

But, to secure further take-up success, there remains work to be done. Issues that might impede the acceptance of mobile payments include the need to educate consumers as to the advantages of new payment solutions over alternatives, and to help them break established payment behavior. Another potential issue lies in the level of friction encountered at the point-of-sale. This may sometimes be high, with common teething issues including the terminal not working and/or the sales assistant being unable to help the customer. The success of the service also depends on its availability, which is driven by merchant uptake of the solution. All too often, this is dependent upon the level of bank support and the transaction fees charged when for providing the service.

As such problems are eradicated and additional features, such as loyalty programs, are integrated into the payment offering, take-up and use can be expected to accelerate. Furthermore, drivers such as ‘in app’ payment features can also be expected to encourage further growth in usage.

But perhaps the key challenge that all providers of wallets face is that of convincing the market that these solutions offer convenience and benefits that other payment vehicles don’t. In fact, Fujitsu’s own research suggests that a fifth of us would consider using the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Apple for banking services – the challenge is, however, to get the other 80% to think about it too.

Anthony Duffy is Director, Retail Banking at Fujitsu UK & Ireland

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