A new generation of bank customers will bypass physical branches and banking via the web almost completely in favor of completing transactions and accessing services from their mobile devices.

Digital transformation has become a strategic focus area for banks – one that many experts view as critical for future success. Digital banking can mean greater cost savings and more efficiency, but it can also be a way for banks to engage with customers.

Access to innovative new payment methods is no longer confined to the developed regions of the world. Mobile devices of all kinds have transformed how people in several sub-Saharan countries conduct their lives, with homegrown fintech solutions having a particularly strong effect on the way we pay for goods and services, or transfer money to family and friends.

For over three centuries, traditional banks have enjoyed a monopoly on financial services. With the emergence of the digital age, that monopoly has extended to the curatorship of banking customers’ sensitive personal information – a commodity that is now almost as valuable as the money banks hold.

Remember the early days of Facebook? Were you an early adopter or more cautious, joining only after everyone and their cat had a profile? Those of us in the latter group eventually signed up because many of our friends reported being avid users and trusted the service.

Following a seemingly endless barrage of marketing emails asking consumers to opt-in to keep receiving communications, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on 25 May, marking the enactment of a sweeping data protection law that governs how data is collected and used in the EU’s 28 countries.

FinTech and banks have long been painted as natural enemies vying for control of the future of consumer finances – but that view is a little out of date, Entersekt CTO Gerhard Oosthuizen recently told PYMNTS.com in an interview. These days, banks and fintechs are increasingly realizing they’ll work better together than apart.

In many ways, the evolution of the card networks’ 3-D Secure protocol is a reflection of how the world of e-commerce has changed. As with any process of change, growing pains are inevitable; in the case of 3-D Secure, they’ve been there right from the start.

Today’s world is more interconnected than ever. Although this has its advantages, the increased connectivity brings with it an increased risk of theft, fraud and abuse. The more we rely on modern technology, the more vulnerable we are to cyber attacks resulting in mass data breaches, account takeover, and synthetic identity fraud.

Since one of the first known mobile viruses, Timofonica, was discovered in 2000, the mobile landscape has seen a staggering increase in both the number and the type of malware threats.