US president Joe Biden nominates former Mastercard CEO to lead World Bank
Ajay Banga has been nominated to lead the World Bank following the resignation of David Malpass.
Banking
Watch out for the core crash
There is more turmoil to come in the core banking space.
Visa and Mastercard reportedly facing multibillion-pound card fee suit
According to Sky News, the claim could be worth well over £10 billion.
Arvest Bank launches new lending product powered by Thought Machine
Arvest claims it is the first US bank to offer lending capabilities on Thought Machine’s core.
Co-operative Bank reportedly eyeing Sainsbury’s Bank’s £650m mortgage book
The Co-operative Bank is the frontrunner amid a bidding war being run by consultancy Deloitte, Sky News reports.
KCB Bank Kenya taps Sopra Banking Software for digital transformation
Sopra Banking Software will design, build and support the bank’s savings and lending products.
Decisions in the right places (or why I wrote that book of mine)
Changing habits and everyday ways of working shouldn’t be a CEO initiative. It’s everyone’s job.
Banesco USA taps AML RightSource for automated due diligence solution
Banesco will deploy AML RightSource’s Automated EDD (Enhance Due Diligence) solution.
Aussie paytech DataMesh lands $30m Series A led by NAB Ventures
Additional investors in the Series A round were Deutsche Bank and 1835i Ventures.
Mizuho International taps SymphonyAI to help fight financial crime
Mizuho will use SymphonyAI Sensa to boost AML protection within its European capital markets division.
Riyad Bank taps SunTec for e-invoicing integration with Saudi tax office
The integration allows banks to share standardised e-invoices with Saudi tax office Fatoora.
Chetwood’s SmartSave Bank partners cash deposit platform Flagstone
Under the new partnership, SmartSave’s fixed rate accounts will be made available to Flagstone clients.
National Australia Bank builds its own fintechs
A closer look at how National Australia Bank’s approach to innovation has evolved in recent years.
Indian SaaS fintech Mintoak bags $20m in Series A funding
PayPal Ventures led the funding round, with new and existing investors also participating.
First Abu Dhabi Bank hires Michel Longhini to lead global private banking
Longhini joins from Edmond de Rothschild where he was CEO of private banking.
Singapore and India link up PayNow and UPI for real-time cross-border payments
The MAS and RBI will use a scalable cloud-based infrastructure to manage future increases in remittance volumes.
Dutch challenger Bunq becomes first EU neobank to report a quarterly profit
Bunq reported a pre-tax profit of €2.3 million over Q4 2022.
Bank of Russia to launch digital ruble pilot in April
Olga Skorobogatova, first deputy chair of the central bank, announced the news.
State of play: neobanks
Neobanks as a sector are now approaching their teenage years and quickly maturing.
Interview: How Opus is leading the financial services sector forward to a more sustainable future
“The way I see it, the fintech landscape has never looked better,” says TM Praveen, CEO of Opus.
Extended deadline announced for Banking Tech Awards USA 2023 nominations
The new deadline for nominations is now Friday, 24 February 2023. Apply today!
Tesco reportedly exploring sale of banking business
According to Sky News, Tesco is launching a review of its UK banking activities.
Santander reportedly in discussions to purchase Abrdn’s private equity unit
A deal could be made in the next few months with the unit valued at around £250m, Sky News reports.
Bank of Japan to launch CBDC pilot programme in April
The pilot will test the technical feasibility of a CBDC and leverage the “skills and insights” of private industry.
Cartoon: What recession?
A new cartoon illustrating how private market valuations have been impacted in the current environment.
North America fintech funding round-up: Vexi, Comun, ModernFi & more
A round-up of the latest funding endeavours of fintech start-ups from across North America.
FinTech Futures: Top five stories of the week – 17 February 2023
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week.
Financial market data provider Quodd acquires Xignite
The combined business will serve more than 2,200 companies.
Solving the cybersecurity puzzle
FinTech Futures speaks to City University of London’s Raj Muttukrishnan and Crossword’s Stuart Jubb.
AI regtech WorkFusion names Arthur Mueller VP of financial crime
Mueller joins from Rabobank North America where he served as AML and sanctions officer for more than six years.
Demystifying digital transformation
There are a lot of parallels among the big banks in terms of why digital transformation is so complicated.
Video: Highlights from the exclusive global launch of Leda Glyptis’ book, Bankers Like Us
Take a look at the highlights from Leda Glyptis’ global book launch.
Global fintech investment drops 31% in 2022 from record 2021 high
Despite the drop, it was still the third-best year for fintech investment ever.
Zopa acquires DivideBuy in “BNPL 2.0” push
Zopa’s “BNPL 2.0” offering will allow consumers to spread the cost of purchases worth between £250 and £30,000.
Citizens Financial Group taps Paymentus for bill pay and money movement services
Through the partnership, Citizens will deploy Paymentus Bill Center and Paymentus Loan Payments.
Ecuador’s first digital bank goes live with Temenos core
Diners Club Ecuador has gone live on Temenos’ cloud-native banking platform with AWS.
Unity Small Finance Bank taps M2P for core banking upgrade
The Indian bank will deploy M2P’s Turing CBS offering.
Confronting confrontation
If you don’t like confrontation, get better at it. So you can at least only have it once and move on.
Finastra reportedly looking to sell banking business
Finastra is understood to be exploring the sale of its banking portfolio for as much as $7 billion.
Dragonfly makes C-level hires as firm expands partnerships and portfolio
Alongside the senior appointments, the firm says it has also expanded its development and product teams.
