Perspectives on External Change
Our reflections on regulatory developments, technological shifts and market dynamics and their implications for leadership, governance and execution.
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Instant payments decouple the payments landscape – Infrastructure becomes a commodity while commercial governance emerges as the decisive competitive factor
Instant payments are becoming mandatory infrastructure. The real transformation is structural: the separation of payment infrastructure from commercial governance is now fully visible. What card schemes historically bundled, i.e. the rail and the rulebook, was carried along implicitly. With the…
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Digital Identity Solutions in Europe 2025 – Status Quo
The European digital identity landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation. With eIDAS 2.0 and the mandatory EUDI Wallet by 2026, fragmented national standalone solutions are being transformed into a harmonized ecosystem. Six EU pilot projects with over 600 partners are…
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Modernization Agenda for State and Administration
The Federal Ministry of Education, Research and Culture’s 2025 Modernization Agenda is conceptually sound, but its implementation threatens to fail due to outdated structures. Federal fragmentation, outdated IT, a lack of competencies, and weak governance are hampering progress. Success depends…
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DORA – Status Quo 2025 – From the regulatory idea to implementation in practice
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has been mandatory since January 2025. Banks, insurers, payment service providers, and FinTechs must demonstrate their resilience against IT disruptions and cyberattacks. While major players are making progress, many smaller institutions are still struggling…
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EU AI Act comes into force – What companies need to consider now
The EU AI Regulation (EU AI Act) entered into force on August 1, 2024. It regulates the use of AI according to risk levels – from minimal to unacceptable – and obliges companies to ensure transparency, documentation, risk management, and…
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PSD3 & PSR – What is new for payment transactions in Europe
At the end of June 2023, the EU presented a comprehensive package to modernize payments: the new Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the complementary Payment Services Regulation (PSR). The goal is greater security, innovation, and fair competition. Banks, fintechs, and…
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DORA – Digital Operational Resilience Act – EU Regulation on Digital Resilience in the Financial Sector
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was proposed by the European Commission in September 2020 to strengthen the digital resilience of the financial sector. Banks, insurers, payment service providers and their IT service providers will in future have to comply…
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Autonomous Driving is more than self-driving vehicles and may succeed in cooperation only
In the area of autonomous driving the German vehicle manufacturers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen are pursuing individual strategies that in terms of content are very similar. For not losing opinion leadership in this technologically complex topic in favour of technology…
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Interview about Digital Identities
The strategic importance of digital identities has come into focus in recent months. An example of this is the launch of the data and login alliances Verimi and netID, YES and providers of blockchain-based solutions such as Blockchain Helix and…
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Key Success Factors for e-Identity Systems
Digital identities are on everyone’s lips and currently there are a large number of different approaches across Europe. Based on Kim Cameron’s Laws of Identity, we present nine success factors for e-identity systems. This will be the key to establishing…