The bad news first: Insurers are required by no later than 25 May 2018 to provide their customers with more extensive information than before about the transfer of their data, even in the case of credit inquiries and as early as the application process. We recommend a one-page information sheet or – if contracts are processed digitally – a link to the required information. The same applies to the use of the Hinweis- und Informationssystem...

Not long ago I wrote about my Saturday shopping experience in relation to Amazon opening its first supermarket without check-outs. Today it is my supermarket of choice that has led me to reach for my pen – perhaps this could slowly develop into a habit. While I was quite euphoric about Amazon becoming the future of the POS retailer, today’s anecdote is on the contrary tempered with a good deal of frustration. After many years as a loyal...

For the second consecutive year, the e-commerce platform Litium conducted an e-commerce survey among Sweden’s B2B companies, i.e. those companies selling goods and services to other companies. The report is entitled “Svensk B2B-handel 2017” and it shows the continued strong growth for B2B e-commerce: Today, 67% of B2B companies are selling digitally, an increase of 57% from the previous year. And 53% of those who do not currently offer...

I’ve spent the last five years working in different positions focused on fraud prevention. I’ve become what you would probably call a “fraud prevention addict”. Knowing the different aspects, patterns, measures and risks of online behavior, I’ve felt quite comfortable with my digital life - until recently. I had never fallen victim until 2017 came along. Here’s what happened: It was one of those days when you log on to the...

I don’t know about you, but I'm one of the many people who enjoy shopping. It has become a little ritual for me to drive to the supermarket with my children on Saturdays to get our purchases for the coming week. As I stroll along the aisles, my kids put the chocolate in the shopping cart for me, which I'll pay for later, of course. What puts a damper on our shopping experience on a regular basis, is the annoying wait in line at the checkout for...

Norwegian media and entertainment companies are some of our most digitalised and innovative enterprises. Their income models were amongst the first to be put under pressure due to digitalisation, and they are often highlighted as some of the best examples of digital transformation within the industry. In other words: they deploy innovation for both defence and offence. Given this ultra-short description of the challenges within the industry,...

Over the years, Arvato Financial Solutions has been part of driving the transformation of outsourced services; from largely manual, back office operations to fully-integrated digital solutions. Of course, it’s not only the finance industry that has been transformed. The way we are informed and entertained has also changed profoundly. In the Nordic region, the time people spend watching linear, broadcast TV has fallen consistently in the last...

2017 marks the tenth year of Slush and the fourth time that I’ve attended the event, which I guess makes me a veteran, right? When I attended the very first conference it was a much smaller affair – we were only about 300 people back then. But over the years, Slush has grown to host annual conferences and events in Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo, that attract more than 40,000 attendees. Big names and bigger ideas This year’s event,...

Open banking is already here and will continue to grow in the coming years. The EU will require banks to open up their customer data to third parties in 2018. This means banking will shift even more from being sold by one-stop-shops to being available on open platforms. The result is that customers will benefit from a more "modular" approach to banking. Already in the UK alone, there are more than 60 new players applying for banking licenses....

With the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) set to come into force in the new year, much has been made of how banks will be nervously looking over their shoulders. And with good reason given that they will be forced to share their customers’ data with a host of new players looking to compete with them across a range of financial products and services. These include account information service providers and payment initiation service...