Financial Services/Finserv


Nordea fully automates processing of Swift MT798 messaging

Nordea has announced it now can handle the Swift MT798 messaging in a fully automated manner. MT798 facilitates corporate-to-bank (C2B) and bank-to-corporate (B2C) communication for the processing of documentary credits and guarantees.

Tandem Bank calls for first customers

Digital banking start-up Tandem has started inviting its community of 10,000 “co-founders” to be its first customers. Tandem was formed in 2014 and is accessible online, via an app and through a UK call centre. It got its banking licence in November 2015 and says its focus is on helping people manage their money rather […]

No dispute with Citi mobile app innovation

Citi has unveiled a new feature to let credit card members dispute certain posted charges directly within the Citi mobile app for iPhone in the US. It says it is the only major US credit card issuer to provide this feature on mobile, and the new feature is designed to provide “increased peace of mind” […]

Four banks team up to standardise repackaging transactions

Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nomura International and Societe Generale have teamed up to produce documentation for use in listed and unlisted repackaging transactions. According to the banks, repackaged products provide the investor exposure to the underlying credit of an issuer and are specifically designed for the investor’s risk-return needs. In addition, cash flows can be […]

Payments and blockchain: Pilotville

The payments industry went just a bit blockchain bonkers at this year’s Sibos. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) was a hot topic throughout the week. This was quite astounding given there are very few examples of working blockchain or DLT use cases; most of the initiatives under way are proofs of concept.

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority calls for more finserv access

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) wants more access to financial services and for fintech to show a greater understanding of the nation’s ageing population. In its 160-page “FCA Occasional Paper”, published today (1 November), the FCA looks at “barriers to bank accounts”, digital transformation and the growing grey brigade. Christopher Woolard, director of strategy […]

Nimbrix launches blockchain consortium and platform

London-based Nimbrix has unveiled its new blockchain platform and the creation of an industry consortium with KPMG and Microsoft. The Nimbrix buy-side platform will use cloud, open API, Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) and blockchain. It will be powered by Microsoft Azure, and Nimbrix says trades can be “executed instantaneously between counterparties, thus reducing the risk of […]

Deutsche Bank opens data store to developers

Deutsche Bank is opening its data store to software developers from Germany and abroad as it looks for more digital solutions for its bank clients. Its site, developer.db.com, will from tomorrow (1 November) provide access to the bank’s proprietary development environment, allowing programmers to test their ideas for “digital services of the future”. The bank […]

Misys in five-year Deutsche Bank deal

Misys has signed a five-year enterprise license agreement with Deutsche Bank giving it “unrestricted access” to deploy Misys FusionBanking Lending and Misys FusionCapital solutions across the business. Misys’ FusionBanking Lending offering includes the Loan IQ back office platform for syndicated lending and the front-end that originates from Custom Credit Systems (CCS), a US-based provider of […]

Ex-Barclays CEO back with new firm and digital banking platform

Antony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclays, is back with a new company called 10x Future Technologies and launched a new core digital banking platform. As Banking Technology reported in June, Jenkins, who was sacked by Barclays in summer 2015 for failing to transform the bank quickly enough, set up 10X Future Technologies. At that time, […]

Top fintech stories this week – 28 October 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! HSBC Private Bank live with Avaloq Banking Suite EXCLUSIVE. It’s on in Switzerland and Luxembourg. European Association for Biometrics conference Eyes down for our event review. New challenger bank to launch in UK Hampshire Community Bank wants a […]

Bank of America to launch AI chatbot

Bank of America has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to help customers make decisions on their finances. Called Erica, a nod to the name America, it will be available inside the bank’s mobile app in 2017. Customers can do the usual AI stuff – chat via text or voice – and it’s all […]

CBA and Wells Fargo in “world-first” interbank blockchain trade transaction

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Wells Fargo and trading firm Brighann Cotton have completed the “first” global trade transaction between two banks using blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). The transaction involved a shipment of cotton from Texas to Qingdao, China, using a distributed ledger – Skuchain’s Brackets system – for all […]

European Association for Biometrics conference: exciting times ahead

European Association for Biometrics (EAB) has recently conducted a one-day seminar in London on what’s hot in the world of European banking biometrics. The seminar was supported by Banking Technology and hosted by Citi. It gathered a good haul of UK banks, including Lloyds, Santander, Virgin Money, Tesco Bank, Metro Bank and RBS and TSB.

Payments round-up: 21 October 2016

Jargon defeated. Unnecessary words deleted. A brief payments round-up. LeFinance, a division of Beijing-based tech firm LeEco, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation for cross-border payments on the latter’s blockchain network. The deal means Stellar expands into China. LeFinance will also use Stellar’s network to monitor credits for usage across their various devices and […]

Top fintech stories this week – 21 October 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Bank of Ireland in major tech revamp EXCLUSIVE. Accenture and Capgemini working on Project Omega. Trouble in the R3 paradise? Thinking about time and money. Millions at risk from India ATM hack Debit cards in danger due to […]

Société Générale unveils new innovation hub

Société Générale has launched its new innovation hub – The Dunes – a 126,000 square-metre building complex in Val-de-Fontenay, a suburb of Paris. The firm says 5,000 of its employees “working in technology” will be based there and the hub is “at the heart” of its “digital transformation”. But it’s doubtful the building will transform […]

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.

Symphony unveils open developer platform and access to API

Symphony Software Foundation has launched an open developer platform. The foundation hosts open source development, bots, apps and integrations on the Symphony platform. It will also provide community contributors and foundation member organisations with access to the Symphony API, as well as development tools. Gabriele Columbro, executive director, Symphony Software Foundation, says open source “fuelled […]

Citi’s treasury and trade goes digital with eSubmit

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions has launched electronic document submission (eSubmit) for account opening. The service is available in “select” Western European countries and allows clients to complete the account opening process by returning electronic versions of documentation rather than paper. Sabine McIntosh, global head of account services product, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, says […]

Trouble in the R3 paradise?

More than 60 of financial institutions around the world (including many top-tier banks) are involved in the R3 consortium, with considerable financial and resource commitments. The international consortium promises to build a common blockchain-based platform – called Corda – but the end-result is still a number of years away.

BNP Paribas picks Fidessa’s derivatives trading platform

BNP Paribas has selected Fidessa’s derivatives trading platform to underpin the bank’s futures and options agency trading business. The platform will support the workflow requirements across Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. It will also provide BNP Paribas with a suite of specialised derivatives algorithms, including benchmark algos and advanced synthetic order types to normalise trading […]

NatWest’s debit card payments suffer glitch

Friday’s not the best for NatWest. Today (14 October), there have been some issues with its debit card payments and its customers are unable to make purchases. The bank says it is “aware of some issues” and is “working hard to fix them”. On Twitter, customers are either confused or venting their fury. We’re aware […]

Goldman Sachs launches new online personal loan platform, Marcus

Goldman Sachs has unveiled Marcus, an online platform offering unsecured personal loans to consumers. Named after Marcus Goldman, one of the firm’s founders, the platform provides consumers with a way to “consolidate their high-interest credit card debt”. Borrowers can apply for fixed-rate, no-fee personal loans of up to $30,000 for periods of two to six […]

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 […]

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 […]

Diversity in fintech: finding the next Ada Lovelace

Niamh de Niese, a new director and head of BNY Mellon’s EMEA Innovation Centre, shares her views on diversity in fintech, Ada Lovelace (often regarded as the world’s first computer programmer) and how to encourage more women into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions.

Lloyds can hear a Pindrop with anti-fraud tech

Lloyds says it is set to become the “first” organisation in Europe to introduce new fraud prevention technology, helping protect its 30 million customers from telephone fraudsters. The patented “Phoneprinting”, developed by call centre fraud firm Pindrop, creates an “audio fingerprint” of each call by analysing 147 unique call features – such as location, background […]

Banks behaving badly in Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is withdrawing the merchant bank status of Falcon Private Bank’s Singapore branch for “serious failures” in anti-money laundering (AML) controls and “improper conduct” by senior management at the head office in Switzerland as well as the Singapore branch. MAS is also imposing financial penalties on DBS Bank and UBS’s […]

Handbag stars in Starling Bank debit card debut

“We have the licence, we have the technology, now we have the card.” New UK challenger bank Starling has got its first batch of debit cards as it continues to build its infrastructure. Like some kind of shopaholic’s symbolic frolic, the bank detailed its London shopping adventure with a blog post. This had a point […]