Issue 37
October 2025
Welcome to the MBA's News Digest!
Dear readers,
“Snap Out of It!” – The American Bankers Association crafts latest campaign to help consumers identify scam red flags and break free from the common psychological tactics used by scammers.
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Three economists working in the area of “innovation-driven economic growth” share the spotlight.
Swiss Bankers Association publishes leaflet on multibanking, for practice-oriented guidance on selected due diligence and disclosure duties.
Best wishes,
The MBA team
Sweden: Trio bags Nobel economics prize for demystifying innovation-driven economic growth
13 October 2025
‘Over the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has seen sustained economic growth. This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity. This year’s laureates in economic sciences, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, explain how innovation provides the impetus for further progress.’
Mauritius: Panel on the importance of PPP, ahead of 2027 ESAAMLG review
9 October 2025
On 9 October 2025, the CEO of the MBA, Mr. Daniel Essoo, participated to a panel on the importance of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as part of the Ministry of Financial Services & the European Union workshop, titled ‘How to prepare for the 2027 AML/CFT/CPF Mutual Evaluation exercise’, along with representatives from the Bank of Mauritius, the Financial Services Commission, the Mauritius Institute of Professional Accountants, Mauritius Finance, and the EU AML/CFT Global Facility.
Mauritius is gearing up. Are you?
UK: Accessibility by design, not by default: Insights from our visit to Idemia Tewkesbury
19 September 2025
‘However, this change had an unforeseen consequence: the removal of the cards’ tactile features has led to some disadvantage for people with disabilities. These features were a crucial aid for those with accessibility needs to identify and differentiate their cards, orienting them for payment, and allowing them to read their details. To address this, UK Finance alongside industry participants is developing an ‘Accessible Cards Code of Practice’ which promotes innovations for card design that seek to improve tactile, visual and functional accessibility at the outset.’
UK: Breaking the mortgage bottleneck: How AI is transforming UK lending
23 September 2025
‘The UK mortgage industry operates within a complex regulatory framework that demands rigorous verification, comprehensive risk assessment, and detailed documentation. These requirements exist for excellent reasons: protecting consumers, ensuring market stability, and maintaining trust in the financial system. But here’s the challenge: customer expectations have fundamentally shifted. Today’s borrowers manage their entire financial lives through intuitive digital interfaces. They expect the same level of convenience and transparency from their mortgage experience. The gap between expectation and reality creates friction that affects everyone: borrowers feel frustrated by lengthy processes, while lenders struggle with processing times that average 45 days.’
India: RBI To Adopt Risk-Based Deposit Insurance Premium For Banks, Ending Flat Rate Regime: What It Means
5 October 2025
The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), which is owned by the RBI, currently charges a flat premium of 12 paise per Rs 100 of deposits (0.12%), regardless of the bank’s risk profile. The Risk-Based Deposit Insurance Premium (RBDIP) will help to link the premium based on the risk profile of each bank. This means safer banks with strong capital, healthy liquidity, good governance, and better asset quality pay lower premiums, while riskier banks with weak balance sheets or high non-performing assets (NPAs) pay more, explains Narendra Bharindwal, President, Insurance Brokers Association of India (IBAI).
India: Human error mars pilot for same-day cheque clearing
7 October 2025
‘A procedural misstep marred the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ambitious upgrade to same-day cheque settlements. On October 3, the central bank commenced a test run of its same-day cheque clearance system, a significant technological shift intended to replace the long-standing overnight settlement cycle. However, the pilot, designed to showcase speed and efficiency, was undermined by an unexpected human-triggered premature start which revealed gaps in staff training and execution.’
UK: Avoid penalties: Five data-driven ways to meet global financial compliance regulations
29 September 2025
‘Step one: Ensure the collection of high-quality, verified contact data. Having quality customer data is the cornerstone of financial compliance with global regulations. Specifically access to accurate and reliable contact data for every customer. Therefore, using data quality tools that standardise, parse and validate addresses worldwide is the way forward. However, it’s not enough to simply check whether an address exists or is valid, for example. There needs to be a direct connection to a verified individual or business. Names and addresses must be linked in real-time, to identify mismatches that could be red flags for fraud or compliance failures.’
US: Sen. Scott seeks more info from FDIC on deposit insurance reform
2 October 2025
‘As lawmakers consider deposit insurance reform, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is asking the FDIC to provide additional information about the amount of uninsured deposits in the U.S. banking system and the cost to banks should the deposit insurance limit be increased. The committee last month held a hearing on deposit insurance reform during which American Bankers Association Chair Elect and First Independence Bank CEO Kenneth Kelly shared 10 policy recommendations for reform developed by an ABA task force. As a follow-up to the hearing, Scott yesterday sent a letter to FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill requesting answers to eight questions. The letter was first reported by Politico… Among the questions, Scott asked about the current proportion of uninsured deposits versus insured deposits in the U.S. banking system, what types of bank accounts have the most uninsured deposits, the costs to banks should the insurance limit be increased, and how increasing the limit would change market behavior and incentives for banks and depositors. He requested answers be provided by Oct. 20.’
US: ABA, banks relaunch fraud-fighting education campaigns
1 October 2025
‘The American Bankers Association today announced the 2025 relaunch of its award-winning consumer protection campaigns, #BanksNeverAskThat and #PracticeSafeChecks, aimed at helping consumers and small businesses recognize and avoid fraud and scams. Banks of all sizes across the nation will join ABA in promoting and amplifying the consumer protection tips included in the two campaigns. To date, more than 2,500 banks have participated in one or both of the campaigns. This year’s updated #BanksNeverAskThat campaign introduces a new theme — “Snap Out of It!” — designed to help consumers identify scam red flags and break free from the common psychological tactics that scammers use to earn trust and manipulate their victims.’
Switzerland: Multibanking for private customers: another step toward reality
29 September 2025
The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has published a new leaflet on multibanking. It provides practice-oriented guidance on selected due diligence and disclosure duties in connection with multibanking services for regulated financial intermediaries… The leaflet is intended to support member institutions in the legal classification and practical implementation of multibanking offerings. It covers aspects of the due diligence duties under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the duties to provide information to the authorities. Technical specifications for implementation are deliberately not provided.’
Mauritius: AFD country-risk economists visit MBA offices
25 September 2025
On 25 September 2025, a team of country-risk economists from Agence Française de Développement (AFD) met with Mr. Daniel Essoo, CEO of the MBA, as part of their country assessment for Mauritius.
Country assessments provide an analysis of development processes in countries in which AFD operates. They also characterize their growth trajectory, and detect economic, social, political and financial vulnerabilities associated with these trajectories.
UK: UK Finance announces live pilot phase to deliver tokenised sterling deposits
26 September 2025
‘These tokenised deposits are a digital representation of traditional sterling commercial bank money. They retain the trust and regulatory protections of conventional deposits, while offering benefits such as enhanced speed and fraud protection. Building on the successes of the UK Regulated Liability Network (RLN) project’s earlier phases, this pilot phase will position the UK as a leader in payments innovation, delivering tokenised deposits and programmable payments against three use cases: Person-to-person payments via online marketplaces: reducing fraud and enhancing buyer and seller confidence, Remortgaging processes: improving transparency, speeding up transactions, and mitigating conveyancing fraud, Digital asset settlement: connecting tokenised customer money to digital assets for seamless exchange.’
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