Digital


Alipay comes to Spain with BBVA

BBVA has signed an agreement with Chinese tech giant Ant Financial to enable Chinese tourists to pay in Spanish stores using the Alipay mobile wallet. BBVA is the first Spanish financial institution to be working with Alipay.

InvestCloud brings fintech incubator to London

US-based InvestCloud is going to launch a fintech incubator and accelerator at its European headquarters in Soho, London. Dubbed InvestCloud Innovation Centre, it will enable start-ups and established firms to create wealth management solutions supported by the InvestCloud platform.

Nominate your projects for Banking Technology Award!

Banking Technology is on the lookout for all the best FinTech projects of the year! Recognising excellence, innovation and the use of IT in banking and financial services, the Banking Technology Awards will be taking place on 13 December in London. Think your achievements deserve a special recognition? Or know projects that do? Nominate today […]

Money20/20 Europe: is banking a dead cat?

What is the future of banking? Is it a giant menu from which customers (individuals and businesses) choose who is to provide what contingent upon well-informed choice and best value. Or is it a model where banks still rule from the centre, providing customers the simplicity of a range of products through a single provider. Putting aside whether or not this highly competitive state is possible, which is the future direction of banking?

Flywire Snags PayPal for Cross-Border Payments

Cross-border payments and receivables specialist Flywire has added PayPal to its platform as a funding option, enabling businesses, students and patients to fund cross-border payments via PayPal accounts. PayPal now is available as a payment method for Flywire users in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and European Union, Flywire said.

Money20/20 Europe: let AI negotiate

Are trends eclectic for artificial intelligence (AI)? Perhaps not as the fintech world is getting more imaginative and calling for the machines to negotiate on behalf of less-than-objective humans. At this morning’s (26 June) sessions at Money20/20 in Copenhagen, the themes of AI use cases in financial services and fraud were discussed.

mBank moves into fintech vendor space with new digital banking system

Poland-based mBank has started to license its mobile and online banking system to other financial institutions outside Poland. The first taker is La Banque Postale (LBP) in France. The implementation will be carried out with the help of Accenture, mBank’s “strategic partner”. Alice Holzman, director of digital at LBP and lead of the bank’s New […]

The Monday mindset: 26 June 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Banking Technology’s editor Tanya Andreasyan looks at one bank that has managed to successfully converge its digital and “brick and mortar” journeys […]

Starling Bank preps for future with new features

UK challenger bank Starling has launched a “Spending Insights” tool and an online community for its users – and it is setting out its future plans. Spending Insights is probably self-explanatory. It works in the app and the bank says it gives users ideas about where they can save money. It shows customers how much […]

ZineOne is the one for HDFC digital banking hub

India-based HDFC Bank has selected Silicon Valley start-up ZineOne to improve its digital banking offerings. The bank will deploy ZineOne’s Customer Interactions Hub (CIH), which will establish a single customer identity and “bring real-time, contextual, and omni-channel functionality” to interactions across businesses, applications and digital properties including web applications, mobile apps, digital wallets, website, kiosks […]

EBank deploys Fiorano enterprise service bus

EBank, a new bank in Namibia, has implemented Fiorano ESB, an enterprise service bus to “seamlessly integrate” the bank’s core processing software – Temenos T24 – with other third-party systems and channels, with a major focus on digital banking.

Case study: Valley National Bank – cloud atlas

Valley National Bank, a $23 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in northern New Jersey, is undertaking a widespread technology refresh to improve customer experience and profitability.

Moronic UK hacker exploits CYBG loophole to steal £100,000

A British hacker/moron has been jailed for the theft of nearly £100,000 from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group (CYBG) by exploiting a bug in its online banking system. According to the BBC, 24-year-old James Ejankowski defrauded the bank of more than £99,000 in December 2016. He spent the money on a BMW, a Range Rover […]

Fintech funding round-up: 21 June 2017

Some people have got deep pockets, because the funding fun never ends. Our latest round-up features Soldo, Atom Bank, British Business Bank, BlackRock and Scalable Capital. Multi-user spending account, Soldo, has reported a Series A funding round of $11 million, led by Accel and includes participation from Connect Ventures, InReach Ventures, U-Start and R204 Partners. […]

Colu launches local digital currency for London

Colu, a blockchain-powered platform provider, has unveiled its second currency in the UK – the “Local Pound, East London”. The firm’s idea is to provide people in East London with a digital, localised currency and so create a “closed-loop economy”. It uses Colu’s digital wallet app, and individuals can pay from a smartphone. It is […]

PayPal unveils speedier money transfers to bank accounts

PayPal users in the US will soon be able to speed up money transfers to their bank accounts via eligible debit cards linked to their PayPal account. Bill Ready, EVP, COO, PayPal, says it expects that funds “will typically be available in your bank account in a matter of minutes, although some banks may take […]

Bank to the future: five ways financial apps are changing banking

Less than half a year from now, PSD2 will revolutionise consumers’ access to their own financial information. In fintech hubs across Europe, bright young people are planning a consumer revolution. Their financial apps and tools are helping customers manage their money far more easily than they have before. Here are five important ways in which they are changing the face of banking.

Avoka wins ATB Financial’s innovation challenge

Australia-based digital banking software vendor Avoka has won ATB Financial’s Customer Onboarding Global Innovation Challenge. As reported in March, ATB joined forces with KPMG in Canada and fintech matchmaking firm Matchi to run the event. In fact, in May, KPMG acquired Matchi. The pair had worked together since 2015, so the deal “cements” their relationship. […]

Who is the greatest fintech leader of 2017?

This year’s Banking Technology Awards are taking place on 13 December in London and once again we will be recognising individuals for leading and playing an instrumental role in devising and/or delivering the technology strategy to support the key business objectives of an organisation. The Tech Leadership Award category is open to all industry participants worldwide – those […]

Executive Profile: One on One with Richard Steggall, Urban FT

Richard Steggall didn’t even set foot in the U.S. until he was approaching 30. So, what prompted the native Aussie by way of London to set up a fintech shop in New York—first as Waspit, then as Urban FT, the SaaS-based digital payments platform he now heads? It was, of course, American optimism.

Screen scraping: in or out?

Amid last month’s extensive ransomware attack, made possible after cyber criminals stole hacking tools created by the US National Security Agency, the European Banking Federation (EBF) again urged the European Commission (EC) not to dismiss recommendations about screen scraping.

Instant Payments Set to Displace Cards in Europe, Report Says

More than $809 billion is set to switch to the fledgling instant payments system in Europe by 2027, representing a significant threat to cards, according to a new report from Ovum, a London-based consultancy. Instant, or real-time, payments enable account-to-account bank transfers in seconds instead of days.

Klarna enters the big time with banking licence

Payments provider Klarna has powered up with a full banking licence from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, says it is “now one of Europe’s largest banks with 60 million customers, 70,000 merchants and working seamlessly across borders”. With the licence, Klarna states it can broaden its product portfolio for […]