IBM’s Real -Time Cloud Platform For Financial Services
IBM has announced a new service called Financial Transaction Manager which will allow commercial banks to roll out real-time payments to their customers.
With this service, banks can take advantage from the new immediate payments which are being developed across the US, Europe and Asia.
IBM claims that once the new payment networks are fully activated, consumer payments will be cleared within a matter of seconds and can speed up access to funds such as payroll and insurance claims reimbursements.
IBM plans to introduce its Financial Transaction Manager (FTM) for Immediate Payments, which will support global payment initiatives such as The Clearing House (TCH) in US and the Pan-European Instant Payment Scheme in Europe.
IBM says that the banks and Fintechs move towards immediate payments is a sign that the institutions are on the way to becoming cognitive banks. One feature of a cognitive bank is that these institutions can provide faster and safer payments, immediate counter fraud and financial crime detection.
Safer Payments is another service from IBM, which when combined with FTM can improve accuracy in fraud analysis in immediate transactions by using cognitive computing to verify payment transactions and detect suspicious patterns in real time.
By applying machine learning models to Safer Payments, analysts can detect fraudulent transactions and can quickly reduce such events.
IBM has also introduced a new service to support the upcoming European Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2).
As per this directive, banks operating in Europe will need to provide wider access to their customer data and payment processing system to registered third party providers, who include banks and app providers. Developers can try out new ideas for APIs through PSD2 API Sandbox built on IBM Bluemix without the need for any kind of set-up time or costs.
IBM will be publishing the APIs into PSD2 sandbox so that developers will not have to start from the beginning to develop new apps. It will use API Connect, which will have an integrated approach in developing, running, managing and securing APIs in hybrid deployment.
IBM banking and financial services global industry general manager Likhit Wagle said “For banks to stay relevant they must be prepared to engage in real-time where and when it’s convenient for the customer, on their device of choice, and using the latest and most accessible systems.
“With today’s announcement, IBM is helping financial institutions prepare for immediate payments and innovate with the latest APIs and mobile services while protecting the security and privacy of sensitive customer data.”
IBM aims to appeal to businesses of all sizes with Cloud
Data analytics in a cloud-based platform is also being offered by IBM after unveiling its Project DataWorks initiative.
The Watson powered platform is designed to provide a single environment for collaborating across all types of data on the IBM Cloud.
Big Blue has pitched it as an ‘industry first’ that will make it simple for business leaders and data professionals to collect, organise, govern, and secure data, all so that they gain the insights needed to become a cognitive business.
Project DataWorks will be available on Bluemix, IBM’s Cloud platform, and taps in to technologies such as Apache Spark, IBM Watson Analytics, and the IBM Data Science Experience.
What this means is that companies will be able to automate the deployment of data assets and products using cognitive-based machine learning and Apache Spark.
