Financial Services Innovation Centre
Based on the Business Information Systems group's successful track record of working closely with financial services companies and its record of new product development and research expertise, FSIC plays a pivotal role in stimulating innovation in the financial services sector.
The Centre provides a resource for global financial services companies to participate in cutting-edge innovation and development that will have global impact. The Centre also allows participants to share information and expertise, while also keeping abreast of the latest development in the financial services software market. Innovation is unpredictable and revolutionary, the Centre aims to reduce this uncertainty and exploit the power of innovation through the development of cutting edge software solutions.
The Centre provides a collaborative environment to develop innovative solutions with a rich partnership between university staff and the financial services sector. Sustainability of the Centre is ensured through highly focused innovation and development - seeking solutions for the real IT problems faced by Financial Services institutions.
FSIC Hosts ACOI High Level Seminar on Investments and Funds Industry
The Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland (ACOI) recently held an expert panel discussion and presentation titled ““Update on Investment and Funds Industry: A Changing Regulatory Landscape”. The presentations were followed by a discussion and Q&A session which was opened up to the audience.
Seminar content included:
Introduction by Panel Chairman:
o Mr. Noel Moynihan, Chairman ACOI and Head of Compliance, Invesco.
“Promoting the Benefits of Compliance & Examining the Costs of Non Compliance”
o Mr. Kevin Allen, Head of Business Regulation and Corporate Governance Group, A&L Goodbody.
“Challenges of Compliance and Anti Money Laundering”
o Ms. Valerie Bowens, Head of Compliance, The Bank of New York Mellon.
“Recent Regulatory and Legal Developments for Internal and External Audits”
o Ms. Andrea Kelly, Assurance Partner, Investment Management Practice, PwC.
“Regulatory Changes / Update for Investment Funds”
o Mr. Graham Cashell, Investment Portfolio Manager, Eagle Star /Zurich.
FSIC Presents Innovative FP7 Project Proposal in Brussels
Dr Soha Maad and JB McCarthy recently presented an FSIC project proposal at the Information Day for the EU Framework 7 Objectives 1.2.: “Internet of Services, Software and Virtualisation” in the European Commission offices in Brussels. The FSIC project is called “Service Software Engineering for Innovative Global Infrastructure for Financial Services” (SSE-4-IGIFS)
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/cf/item-display.cfm?id=2275
The proposal addresses challenges facing “adaptable service / software engineering methods and tools”, “verification and validation”, and “open source software” at the domain level, technology convergence level, global factors level, and governance level. Domain knowledge is incorporated into the design, influenced by various factors, coupled with policy modeling in all phases of the service/software life cycle. The aim is to go beyond traditional software engineering and to adopt a new service software engineering integrative framework drawing upon knowledge/experience from a range of disciplines. The project will extrapolate its finding to vital domains such as e-government, education, global health, and t-governance.
Univirtua Ltd, FSIC and BIS collaborate on mobile solutions for the banking sector
Univirtua Ltd (www.univirtua.com), a UK and Ireland-based company, specialising in the secure dynamic delivery of fine-grained, component-based applications to resource-limited, networked mobile devices, along with the Financial Services Innovation Centre (FSIC) based in UCC are pleased to announce a collaborative research project investigating mobile solutions for the banking and other sectors.
The FSIC will support Univirtua’s research goal of developing prototype mobile solutions for banking and other applications, using Univirtua’s Majic development platform to permit secure delivery of rich mobile applications to a wide range of handheld devices. In addition, Business Information Systems (BIS), also based in UCC, will use Majic technology to develop innovative mobile technology teaching and development materials.
Enterprise Registry Solutions and FSIC Collaborate on Next Generation Product
Enterprise Registry Solutions (ERS) www.ers.ie a leading Irish provider of IT solutions and services to the company registration domain along with the Financial Services Innovation Centre based in UCC are pleased to announce the successful completion of a collaborative research project.
ERS was founded in Dublin in 2002 and is rapidly becoming the supplier of choice for Company Registries internationally by providing consulting, technology, integration and outsourcing solutions to their clients to achieve their strategic, tactical and operational objectives. The FSIC was able to support the ERS research goal of exploring new and innovative features and capabilities required for its next generation product.
Declan Geaney, General Manager of ERS said “access to the innovative approaches and thoughtful insights supplied by the FSIC were very useful to us in helping plan our next generation product”.
Money Matters: plotting the smart future for financial services
Money Matters: plotting the smart future for financial services” as published in the September 2009 edition of Technology Ireland magazine, reproduced with kind permission of Enterprise Ireland.
Minister Announces Research Collaboration between Bank of Ireland and UCC
Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Micheal Martin T.D announced a unique research partnership between Bank of Ireland and UCC’s Financial Services Innovation Centre in Cork today (18th April 2008).
As the first Innovation Partnership involving a financial services company, this collaborative research project has a 2 year funding package of €500k – 50% of which was sponsored by Bank of Ireland, and the remainder by Enterprise Ireland who fund and manage the national Innovation Partnership initiative.
Bank of Ireland have agreed a number of research streams with the Financial Services Innovation Centre which will investigate how technology can be used to improve service in these areas; the secure delivery of financial services to bank customers, integrating self-service systems in bank branches, using technology to increase operational effectiveness in branches and to manage document handling across the bank branch network.
Making the announcement Minister Martin said:
“This is an exciting development in Ireland’s research sector as it is the first Irish collaborative project involving a financial services company. Bank of Ireland will benefit from tailored, researched solutions to their specific technological challenges while the researchers in the FSIC will build up their cumulative knowledge of the needs of companies in the banking sector and bring them to bear on future projects which I am sure will arise as a result of this unique collaboration.
According to Richie Boucher, Chief Executive, Retail Financial Services Ireland, Bank of Ireland: “We believe that one of our key differentiators in the market is our unrelenting focus on constantly improving our service to customers, regardless of how they choose to do business with us. We have always had strong connections with universities in Ireland and we believe that funding for innovation research, under the auspices of the FSIC, is an exciting and important initiative for building on and improving our service to customers and to the wider financial services marketplace”.
The Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership is expected to create six new research posts at UCC’s Financial Services Innovation Centre.
Professor Ciaran Murphy, leader of the research team at the FSIC said:
“We are delighted to partner with Bank of Ireland in researching these topical areas. The financial services industry has the highest proportion of spend on IT system and process projects globally and it is important they leverage this spend to provide new and enhanced services to their customers while lowering their internal costs where possible. This joint partnership gives Bank of Ireland the opportunity to research new approaches to serving their internal and external customers better in a collaborative environment focused on delivering industry-leading solutions.”
National Payments Conference 2008
Pictured above at the National Payments Conference 2008, Charlie McCreevey European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services. The conference was presented by the Department of the Taoiseach and the Irish Payments Services Organisation.
The Financial Services Innovation Centre had an exhibition stand at the conference, which took place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Friday the 18th of April.
BIS Seminar Series 2008
Pictured at the third seminar of the BIS Seminar Series 2008 entitled “Lessons in Business Evolution from Across the Pond” (Left to Right): Brendan Tuohy, Adjunct Professor Business Information Systems, Professor Ciaran Murphy, Bank of Ireland Professor of BIS, Russell Burke, Head of Strategic Developement at IPSO and Jim Cunha, SVP Federal Reserve Bank Boston.
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Launch of Centre
The Financial Service Innovation Centre was officially launched by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin in February 2007.
