Digital


Commerzbank in major job cutting spree

Commerzbank has firmed up plans to lay off nearly 5,000 people. Around 3,000 job cuts will be across the bank’s branch network at home in Germany. Another 1,900+ jobs will be eliminated outside Germany and across Commerzbank’s subsidiaries.

Payments round-up: 20 October 2016

Words cut. Time saved. A round-up of key events in the payments enclave. Azimo, the money transfer service, has launched a new version of its mobile app for Apple and Android users. On the iPhone, the app will allow users to transfer money through the voice-activated Siri system. Customers can transfer money by telling Siri […]

Payments app Circle launches in Europe

Payments services provider Circle has commenced its operations in Europe, starting with euro availability in Ireland and Spain. The expansion will enable people in the EU/EEA region to send and receive person-to-person (P2P) payments with native Euro support to friends and family within their countries and across borders instantly – with zero fees.

Interview: Kyle Ferguson, Fraedom’s CEO – on the road to Fraedom

Payments technology and expense management specialist Fraedom is on the journey to tap into the $110 trillion B2B market opportunity that remains untapped today. “If the technology is both powerful and intuitive, people will use it,” states Kyle Ferguson, Fraedom’s CEO.

Configo launches site to aggregate banks’ API portals

Fintech start-up Configo has launched a project to aggregate the API portals launched by financial players around the world. It is not commercial driven but is “just a small project to put everything in order”, says Yosi Dahan, co-founder and CEO of Configo.

Accenture acquires Allen International for digital banking push

Accenture has acquired London-based design consultancy Allen International as it looks to boost its digital banking ambitions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Accenture says Allen International has worked with more than 350 banks around the world including nine of the top 20 banks. Customers include Emirates NBD, Bank of Ireland, CIBC, Banorte, […]

US Bank finds geolocation innovation for anti-fraud

US Bank is offering a Visa-developed geolocation service, a new, opt-in technology integrated into the bank’s mobile apps that enable the location of a card transaction to be matched to the location of the user’s phone. By matching the location, US Bank says it can help ensure that transactions on customers’ cards are approved and […]

Mala Fide Intentions

Our new series of thrillers – produced and directed by CustomerXPs and Banking Technology – narrate the tales of the fight between the forces of good (the Clari5 fraud prevention software) and the forces of evil (fraudsters). Based on real events and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!

Payments round-up: 13 October 2016

Make it lean, keep them keen. A round-up of events in the payments space. Nordea is leaving the Swipp collaboration and partnering with Danske Bank’s MobilePay platform in Denmark and Norway. The shared payment solution’s plan is a reaction to “new international players” who “regularly appear in the market”. Danske says it will begin converting […]

Chinese tourism fuels Alipay and Zapper payment partnership

Alipay has partnered with Zapper, the consumer insights and marketing platform, to grab a slice of the Chinese tourism market in the UK. Zapper says the partnership will allow over 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK to pay using the Alipay app in over 1,000 locations nationwide. Rita Liu, head of Alipay EMEA, says merchants, […]

Lloyds job cuts run deeper – 1,230 to go

Lloyds has confirmed 1,230 jobs will be cut as part of its continuing restructuring plan. The jobs will go from group operations, retail, customer products and marketing, finance and risk divisions. As Banking Technology reported in April, Lloyds revealed it was to cut 625 jobs – part of its 9,000 job reductions and 200 branch […]

MasterCard and SolarisBank partner for digital banking push

MasterCard and Berlin-based SolarisBank have teamed up to bolster their digital banking ambitions. SolarisBank has got principal membership status, and will now operate at MasterCard’s “highest issuer level”, with access to its entire product portfolio. Dr. Andreas Spengel, vice-president at MasterCard, says it is “excited by the outlook of working together with a young, visionary […]

Atom Bank opens doors to all UK customers

There’s nothing better than going all the way. Challenger bank Atom is now fully open for all customers in the UK. Atom initially launched with an “invitation only” phase, but as of today (6 October) anyone can download the Atom App, both in IoS and Android, and open an account. The App is available to […]

Bank of Lithuania and Revolut team up for payments

Bank of Lithuania, the country’s central bank and regulator, has signed a memorandum of understanding with UK-based payments and fintech start-up Revolut. Revolut intends to set up a financial institution in Lithuania and obtain a banking licence. Bank of Lithuania will provide Revolut with access to its managed payment systems enabling cross-border payments in euro. […]

Idaho Central Credit Union opts for Alkami ORB platform

US-based Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) has launched on Alkami Technology’s ORB digital banking platform – integrating with ICCU’s Fiserv DNA core platform. The new platform offers features such as automated clearing house (ACH), wires, bill pay, external transfers, dual authorisations, entitlements and payment templates. Shannon Marshburn, ecommerce product manager at Idaho Central Credit Union, […]

HSBC hits $100bn mobile payments mark for corporates

There’s glee and a spending spree for HSBC as over $100 billion in mobile payments have been made by its corporate customers. The bank says the $100 billion sum was authorised globally through the HSBCnet mobile corporate banking platform since its launch in 2011. The total transaction value of mobile payments has more than doubled […]

Fidor and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank unveil digital bank

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has partnered with Fidor Bank to launch the region’s first “community-based digital bank”. Specifics are very thin on the ground as the bank will have “new services, features and [an] online community”, which will be available for existing and new customers to sign up to in the upcoming months. Can’t […]

Western Union launches mobile payments app in Canada

Western Union has unveiled its mobile platform in Canada for domestic and cross-border money transfers, available for iOS and Android. The new app allows users “instant, anytime, anywhere” access to Western Union’s physical and digital money transfer infrastructure. So people can send money face-to-face or online. “Whether on a smart phone or at a store […]

Queensland Country Credit Union in core banking overhaul

Australia’s Queensland Country Credit Union is replacing its core banking legacy systems and going digital with the help of local vendor Data Action (DA). Adelaide-based DA will be supplying its core banking and digital systems, DA CBS and DA Digital Banking respectively. At the front end, the credit union will get a new internet banking […]

ING axes 7,000 jobs in digital banking drive

Dutch bank ING is cutting 7,000 jobs as its push to digital banking goes full throttle. In its strategy update “Accelerating Think Forward”, CEO Ralph Hamers and other executives will introduce a number of initiatives – such as investing €800 million in digital transformation from 2016 to 2021. The bank says its programmes will also […]

HDFC Bank picks Backbase for digital banking revamp

India-based HDFC Bank has selected Backbase to deliver its new digital omnichannel banking platform, running both its online and mobile banking apps. The mobile banking app, digital banking portal, and web site will run on the Backbase Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform. Backbase will combine HDFC Bank’s existing core banking and back-end applications with its platform. […]

Can banking “catch” the Pokémon bug?

Pokémon Go has taken the globe by storm, capturing the hearts and minds of adults and children alike in their endeavours to “catch ‘em all” in the latest version of the popular computer game, which builds cutting edge augmented reality (AR) technology into its original gameplay. What can banks learn from it?

Loved up couples get the Simple Shared account touch

If you and your partner can never be apart or believe your love has more intensity than Romeo and Juliet, then keep holding hands and read on. US-based Simple, “a tech company, not a bank”, has launched the “Simple Shared” account. It’s a bit like a joint account, but people get two cards and one […]

Digitising Azerbaijan

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has partnered with Backbase to implement its omnichannel digital banking platform. With the platform, the bank will be able to provide its products and services to customers through multiple channels synchronously, creating a single multimodal touch point. The contract was signed yesterday onsite at Sibos at Backbone’s booth, between Jouk […]

CLS to develop payment netting service

CLS Group has started building a payment netting service, using existing message protocols and distributed ledger technology (DLT), which will be open to all FX market participants – not just CLS members –and will also enable CLS members to net some FX trades that are currently settled outside the CLS settlement service.

Sibos 2016: Innotribe Industry Challenge – results

Innotribe’s Industry Challenge – the results of which have been just unveiled – was all about blockchain and disruptive technologies. Three star-ups won the challenge to introduce blockchain to the securities sector: SmartContract, Rise and Coin Sciences.

Equiniti launches new solutions

It’s a fintech double as Equiniti has developed a digital banking platform and launched a mobile biometric authentication and identity lifecycle solution.

Digitising the transaction banking world

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, transaction banking was considered a reliable source of income for global banking groups. But nearly a decade on, multiple factors are putting pressure on transaction banks’ revenues. This year’s World Payments Report suggests banks increase their investments in digital solutions to offer more compelling propositions to their corporate treasury clients.

Research energises the modernisation journey in Canada

Canada is one of many countries around the world striving to make payments fast, frictionless and data rich. The country’s approach to payments system modernisation is rooted in collaboration and research, with an eye to the international experience and a deep dive into the needs and capabilities of the Canadian market, including an investigation into blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

ACI Worldwide and Vocalink team up for real-time payments push

ACI Worldwide and Vocalink have joined forces “to offer a complete end-to-end immediate payments solution to launch a domestic or regional immediate payments network”. The partnership will combine Vocalink’s Immediate Payments System (IPS) offering for central payment infrastructures and ACI’s UP Immediate Payments solution for banks and financial institutions.

The future of money: humans need to keep the robots in check

Udayan Goyal’s vision for the future of money revolves around seamless, instant micropayments being made continuously between autonomous apps and services all triggered by thoughts and actions of humans as they go about their daily lives.