Innovation


RBS unleashes robo-advice service via NatWest brand

Wealthtech is coming to the UK high street as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched a robo-advice service for around five million customers under its NatWest brand. The service will be available for clients with a minimum of £500 to invest. The total cost of advice, investment and platform fees will be at 0.95%. […]

ForwardLane unveils new AI APIs

US-based ForwardLane has introduced a pair of new artificial intelligence (AI) APIs that apply natural language processing and deep learning AI for managing research data and communication, reports David Penn at Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). “The two APIs empower the world’s leading asset managers, wealth mangers, and insurers augment the capabilities of their star performers and […]

Fiorano launches PSD2 solution for banks

Fiorano Software, a specialist in integration middleware and API management, has launched Fiorano PSD2, a solution enabling banks to comply with the European Union’s PSD2 regulations.

ABN Amro joins API rush with developer portal

ABN Amro has launched the first version of its Developer Portal, with a series of commercial application programming interfaces (APIs). The bank says working more closely with external developers will help it accelerate innovation and improve its services.

Faure to fintech – what music can teach us about communicating the benefits of tech

On the surface Handel or Shostakovich seem a world away from the world of finance. Yet, strange as it may seem, the similarities are there. This is because both the mechanics behind music and the technology underpinning the digital transformation are – unless you’ve had first-hand experience of either – pretty abstract concepts to understand.

What a Swell Sibos we had

One of the more entertaining aspects of this year’s Sibos in Toronto was the continuation of the rivalry between the event’s host, Swift, and distributed ledger technology (DLT) firm Ripple.

Wanted: US-based bank for crypto-friendly fun

It wasn’t spotted on Craigslist but here’s an unusual request. If you are the owner of a small or medium-sized bank in the US and are ready to sell it completely (or partially) – you have a buyer! Vladislav (aka Slava) Solodkiy, managing partner at venture capital (VC) firm Life.Sreda, is being refreshingly direct and […]

PoC-ketful of fintech pinnacles for Kickstart Accelerator

Fintech is running like clockwork in Switzerland as over 30 proof of concepts (PoCs) and partnerships have been secured at Zurich-based Kickstart Accelerator’s tech programme. The accelerator – an initiative of digitalswitzerland and operated by Impact Hub Zurich – saw 29 start-ups as well as an intrapreneur team from AXA Winterthur and Swisscom working in […]

Veridium and Wala bring blockchain power to Africa’s unbanked

Biometrics firm Veridium has teamed with Wala, a blockchain-powered financial services platform, as they target the unbanked and underbanked population in Africa. The duo will collaborate on a pilot programme in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate their digital model offering “zero-fee banking”. This pilot is funded by a grant awarded to Veridium from the Digital Financial […]

All aboard the Amex blockchain payments express

American Express has launched blockchain-enabled, business-to-business cross-border payments with Santander using Ripple’s network. The Amex FX International Payments (FXIP) business is working with Ripple to make blockchain payments commercially available, “reducing the time and cost of settlement”. Santander UK is the selected partner to initiate this new transaction channel. Marc Gordon, EVP and CIO at […]

Microsoft doubles down on open source and analytics for developers

Microsoft’s embrace of open source software is about to get a lot bigger as the company is rolling out several new tools and services designed to help developers create applications designed for the cloud, as well as highly specialised apps for artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT), reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 16 November 2017

Coming straight after yesterday’s (15 November) action, here’s our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Features Mastercard in a patent place, ING Bank opening up, and another warning from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Let’s start with yet another patent. Mastercard has jumped on the blockchain payments bandwagon by filing “Method and System for Instantaneous Payment […]

Rainmaking Colab kicks up a storm for fintech innovation

Rainmaking Colab is looking to make its new model of innovation reign via a theme-based fintech programme that taps into mature markets. Created by the founders of Rainmaking and Startupbootcamp FinTech, they say “mature fintech markets like New York and London are starting to experience ‘accelerator fatigue’ and require a new way of thinking to […]

EyeLock docks with ViaTouch for iris-powered payments

Iris-based biometric authentication specialist EyeLock has signed an agreement with ViaTouch Media that will integrate EyeLock’s technology within ViaTouch’s smart-shelf vending solution, Vicki. David Penn at Finovate (Banking Technology‘s sister company) reports that EyeLock CEO Jim Demitrieus says the agreement was the culmination of years of working with firms from a variety of industries to bring embedded […]

Cisco’s Q1 beats Wall Street expectations

After several quarters of less-than-stellar results, Cisco managed to beat analysts’ expectations with a better-than-expected report for its first quarter of fiscal 2018, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication). For the quarter ended 28 October 2017, Cisco reported GAAP revenue of $12.1 billion, a 2% year-over-year decline. However, GAAP net income increased 3% […]

Brief: Digitizing the Bank

Read this brief to get best practices and expert advice from SEFCU, one of the 50 largest credit unions in the U.S, on how they went from their first electronic signature to fully digital workflows using DocuSign.

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 15 November 2017

Following on from yesterday’s (14 November) news, here’s our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Featuring Trustology, Accenture, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Association of Banks in Singapore, Square and London Block Exchange. Another day, another new firm. Trustology has emerged from stealth and revealed it is building a peer-to-peer network of smart contract compute services. Trusted […]

Ex-Googlers have LightStep for hybrid app performance

LightStep, founded by ex-Googlers, has come out of stealth to introduce its first product, for application performance management in environments combining microservices with legacy apps, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication). Called LightStep [x]PM, it provides application performance management that operates across all application components, including web and mobile clients, monolithic applications and […]

The Clearing House makes history with new US payments system

The Clearing House (TCH) has launched its 24×7 real-time payments (RTP) system, the first new core payments infrastructure in the US in more than 40 years. RTP was designed and built through the “collaborative effort” of TCH’s 25 owner banks and meets the objectives of the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force. RTP is open […]

When are we going to look at the human cost of AI?

Another week has passed, and another piece of research has emerged about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), but the human cost is starting to become a very big elephant, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). The research itself is from SAS and highlights businesses are becoming normalised to the idea of AI. The concept […]

Cisco creates $1bn financing programme for smart cities

Cisco is looking to expand its presence in the smart city and internet of things (IoT) markets with a $1 billion financing program that will allow communities to make investments in their infrastructure with the vendor’s financial backing, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication). The City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Programme also has backing […]

Supplement: Inside ETFs Europe Industry Report

Inside ETFs has produced a dedicated industry report for its 7th annual Inside ETFs Europe conference, Europe’s largest and most-respected exchange-traded funds (ETF) conference.

China overtakes US in latest top 500 supercomputer list

The release of the semiannual Top 500 Supercomputer List is a chance to gauge the who’s who of countries that are pushing the boundaries of high performance computing (HPC). The most recent list shows that China is now in a class by itself, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication). China now claims 202 […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 14 November 2017

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s (13 November) action, here’s our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Featuring Bitcoin Gold, OTC Exchange Network, Deloitte and Github. Bitcoin Gold (BTG), the newest fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, has officially gone live. It’s not the first to breakaway from Bitcoin, as previously in August, Bitcoin Cash (BCC) launched. […]

Rackspace and HPE offering OpenStack as private cloud service

With most of the chatter in the cloud computing market focused on the big public cloud providers, it’s easy to forget that private cloud is a viable option for many larger enterprises. Now, Rackspace and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are looking to change that, reports Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication). The two companies […]

Token and Envestnet | Yodlee team up for open banking

Open banking platform provider Token has partnered with Envestnet | Yodlee, a data analytics platform, for payments and financial data aggregation. The partnership will use Token’s operating system, TokenOS, which offers PSD2 compliant payments and gives access to banks for third-party service providers, via an API. In addition, the deal will use Envestnet | Yodlee’s […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 13 November 2017

Following Friday’s (10 November) feisty blockchain and Bitcoin action, here’s another round-up. Features CryptoCoinBits, European Commission, R3 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. With increasing fears about Bitcoin ICOs and bubbles bursting, it was inevitable someone would see a gap in the market. Enter CryptoCoinBits, which has unleashed a Bitcoin trading platform and asks: “So how can […]

ACI powers Malaysia’s real-time payments network plan

Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet), the national financial market infrastructure provider, will build Malaysia’s real-time retail payments platform (RPP) using ACI Worldwide’s UP Immediate Payments solution. RPP is an initiative to modernise the country’s infrastructure to all participants in the ecosystem, including banks, institutions, businesses, consumers and the government. PayNet resulted from the merger of Bank […]

Barclays in Flux for instant digital receipts

Barclays is trialling itemised digital receipts to its customers via a partnership with start-up Flux, a rewards and receipt platform. The upcoming trial will take place with around 10,000 users of the Barclays Launchpad app, its platform for testing new features with “real customers to learn more about how best to meet their needs”. Matty […]