In a recent Aite Group survey of large bank CIOs and bank IT executives in North America, we investigated the long-term outlook of their vendor relationships. As some large enterprise vendors increasingly move into providing financial-services-specific applications (think Oracle), we wondered whether IT executives could see their banks moving away from working with traditional bank technology vendors (think FIS, Fiserv). We found that one in four bank IT executives “strongly agree” with the following statement: “Over the next decade, I expect my organization to rely more on large IT vendors for supplying not merely horizontal technology, but also a range of … Continue Reading →

Amex is launching a new mobile payment solution that enables consumers to consolidate all of their cards onto one and choose via mobile which funding method they use at the point of sale. We view the launch as the first credible move by a major card network and issuer to build an early-stage mobile-payment wallet, independent of the telcos, in the United States. We call the solution elegant and intermediary. Intermediary because it involves getting consumers in the habit of using their mobile phones to drive their payments without being a true mobile payment solution. Elegant because it means that Amex can … Continue Reading →