August 2024: Top five banking tech stories of the month
With the rapid rate of technological change and shifting customer demands, financial institutions across the globe have been looking to modernise their tech stacks.
Here is our pick of five of the top banking tech stories from August, featuring ABN Amro, Thought Machine, Forum Credit Union, iGTB and more.
ABN Amro goes live with CBA’s IBAS TDD software and nCino’s cloud banking platform
ABN Amro has partnered both nCino and CBA
Dutch banking group ABN Amro has gone live with technology from cloud banking tech provider nCino and Norwegian software vendor Commercial Banking Applications AS (CBA) to accelerate its digital transformation and strengthen its trade finance transaction monitoring.
The group is now using the nCino cloud banking platform to streamline its corporate lending operations and enhance its collateral management capabilities.
Offering a suite of banking solutions including loan origination, credit analysis, and portfolio management services, the vendor says the platform will enable ABN Amro to consolidate “multiple legacy systems into one platform, unifying its end-to-end lending process for both customers and employees”.
Meanwhile, ABN Amro has also gone live with CBA’s IBAS transaction due diligence software for trade finance transaction monitoring and compliance.
The IBAS Transaction Due Diligence (TDD) offering has been deployed across the bank’s global trade finance operations to monitor transactions and meet all auditing requirements.
National Bank of Fujairah digitises corporate banking operations with iGTB’s eMACH.ai
National Bank of Fujairah (NBF), a full-service corporate bank based in the UAE, has partnered with Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB) to upgrade its digital banking capabilities.
The upgrade is being led by the vendor’s open finance platform eMACH.ai, in what iGTB claims to be the first deployment of the cloud-managed service in the region.
Launched last year, the platform supports access to 329 microservices, 1,757 APIs and 535 events across cash management, payments and trade finance.
iGTB says the platform’s selection will “drive growth and create product differentiation for NBF’s corporate banking digital operations”.
Forum Credit Union selects Apiture for business banking digital enhancement
Forum Credit Union enhances business banking with Apiture
Forum Credit Union, a $2.1 billion-asset financial cooperative based in Indiana, US, has partnered with digital banking solutions provider Apiture to enhance the digital capabilities of its commercial members.
The partnership will see Forum leverage Apiture’s business banking solution to expand its commercial client base and “deliver the intuitive user experience required by smaller businesses with the sophisticated banking capabilities that more complex commercial members demand”, the vendor says.
Complete with cybersecurity, payment, forecasting and digital account opening features through a network of over 200 fintech partners, Apiture asserts that its business banking solution “prioritises client-requested enhancements without disrupting [the] product roadmap”.
At present, Forum provides approximately 162,000 members throughout central Indiana with current and savings accounts, mortgages, loans, insurance products and financial advisory services.
North Bay Credit Union taps Sharetec for web-based core banking solution
North Bay Credit Union, the oldest credit union in Sonoma County, California, has partnered with Indiana-based software vendor Sharetec to deploy its Velocity web-based core banking solution.
By utilising the solution’s open API capability, the credit union aims to connect with “growing fintech partner organisations” to quickly introduce new product offerings, enabling it to adapt to shifting customer demands and improve member experience.
With $120 million in assets, North Bay currently offers checking and savings accounts as well as a range of loan services, including agricultural, home, vehicle, private student loans and mortgages.
Speaking on the partnership, Chris Call, North Bay’s CEO, says the firm “liked Sharetec’s open platform API, which is especially critical to our business model strategy of being a sponsoring FI”.
HD Bank launches Vikki Digital Bank in Vietnam powered by Thought Machine’s Vault Core
HD Bank launches Vikki Digital Bank in Vietnam
Vietnamese commercial bank HD Bank has leveraged its existing relationship with core banking vendor Thought Machine to launch Vikki Digital Bank.
The new digital-only bank is the result of a joint venture between HD Bank and Galaxy FinX Joint Stock Company, and was first launched privately on 15 December.
Claiming to already serve over 15,000 active users across Vietnam, the digital bank currently provides current accounts and virtual debit cards supported by e-KYC verification, money transfer services and spend management features.
These capabilities are powered by Thought Machine’s Vault Core as a result of a deal first struck in February 2022.
The cloud-native banking platform “provides unique flexibility and control in the design and build of new financial products by using smart contracts”, according to the vendor’s website.
