November 2024: Top five fintech partnership stories of the month
The global fintech industry delivered a range of compelling partnerships over the month of November. Here, we’ve selected five of the top partnership stories of the month, featuring Banque de France, Zand Bank, Chainlink and more.
UAE-based Commercial Bank International to explore digital asset sustainability with Zumo
CBI partners Zumo for digital asset sustainability
Commercial Bank International (CBI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to “explore the tracking of digital asset sustainability” with UK-based digital-assets-as-a-service platform Zumo.
The Dubai-based bank will use Zumo’s turnkey API-based platform to “provide carbon footprint insights with carbon offsetting for digital assets”, according to CBI chief strategy and innovation officer Giovanni Everduin.
Everduin adds that the partnership will ensure that CBI can provide customers and institutions with “the required tools and data to ensure their sustainability goals are tracked and achieved”. The UAE’s digital assets market is currently on track to deliver $616.80 million in revenue by 2028.
This will sit alongside CBI’s current agreement with Abu Dhabi-based Fuze, whose infrastructure platform the bank has leveraged since February of this year to develop “a suite of digital asset and blockchain products”.
MAS and Banque de France trial post-quantum cryptography to secure financial communications
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has come together with the Banque de France (BdF) to trial new safeguards designed to protect financial communications and data from the potential threats posed by quantum computing.
The joint experiment combined post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms with existing encryption methods in Microsoft Outlook, using PQC plugin algorithms CRYSTALS-Dilithium and CRYSTALS-Kyber to exchange digitally signed and encrypted emails.
From their findings, the pair found that this sole application of standardising PQC cryptographic algorithms and libraries for digital signatures and encryption is “not enough” to safeguard against the potential threat posed by quantum.
They emphasise how the adoption and interoperability of PQC largely depend on the additional standardisation of application protocols and standards, such as “public key infrastructure, digital certificates, key exchanges and secure emails”.
Zand Bank partners Alibaba Cloud and Ant Digital Technologies to drive GenAI adoption in UAE
Zand partners Alibaba Cloud and Ant Digital Technologies
Zand Bank, a Dubai-based digital challenger, has come together with Alibaba Cloud and Ant Digital Technologies to “accelerate the applications of generative AI, blockchain and payment technology” among corporate, institutional and wealth clients in the UAE, according to CEO Michael Chan.
Zand highlights “GenAI use cases and fintech solutions including real world assets, e-wallet, mobile Platform-as-a-Service (mPaaS) and other services” as key focus areas for the partnership.
Alongside mPaaS, Peng says Ant Digital Technologies’ provision of “one-stop digital banking solutions” will also include the biometric authentication platform ZOLOZ and software framework SOFA.
Central Bank of Brazil to pilot CBDC trade finance solution with Chainlink, Microsoft, 7COMm and Banco Inter
The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has teamed up with Brazilian digital bank Banco Inter, blockchain platform Chainlink, Microsoft Brazil and solutions provider 7COMm to develop a trade finance solution for phase two of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot Drex.
Chainlink will provide its cross-chain interoperability protocol (CCIP) to the project, which will facilitate connectivity between BCB and an unnamed foreign central bank through the on-chain tokenisation of an Electronic Bill of Lading (eBoL).
Microsoft will support the project with cloud services, while 7COMm will provide the technical implementation delivery and Banco Inter will lead the implementation of Drex in Brazil.
According to Chainlink, phase two of Drex will “demonstrate the automated settlement of agricultural commodity transactions across borders, across platforms, and via different currencies”, with infrastructure development “to begin in the coming weeks”.
BioCatch pilots fraud intelligence network with cohort of Aussie banks
BioCatch unveils Aussie banks participating in its pilot programme
BioCatch, a New York-headquartered fintech leveraging behavioural biometrics to combat online fraud and cyber threats, has joined hands with a cohort of Australian banks to pilot “the world’s first inter-bank, behaviour- and device-based fraud and scams intelligence-sharing network” as part of the BioCatch Trust Australia initiative.
Participating banks include National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Suncorp Bank and Westpac.
These banks will use BioCatch Trust – which merges behavioural intelligence with payment, account, device, digital session, and non-monetary event data – as an additional protection layer to assess risks linked to the accounts customers direct domestic online payments to.
“If the network identifies risks associated with a receiving account, BioCatch provides this intelligence to the sending bank in real time, allowing the sending institution to review the transaction before any money leaves the sender’s account,” explains BioCatch.
