BNY Mellon sets up global innovation group
BNY Mellon’s treasury services business has created a global innovation group and appointed Christopher Mager to lead it.
Worldwide
New mobile bank Pepper goes interactive with Playbuzz
Bank Leumi’s new mobile banking subsidiary, Pepper, is working with digital authoring platform Playbuzz “to enhance user experience and engagement through personalised content”. Content created with Playbuzz’s suite of interactive formats, such as polls, quizzes and flip cards, will be embedded into Pepper’s banking app (to be launched in Q1 2017).
Case study: KeyBank – treasure the moment
Treasury professionals are finally adopting mobile cash management, says Melissa Zajac, vice-president and senior product manager, Key Total Treasury, KeyBank’s corporate online channel. Slowly but steadily. So what are the best practices?
Cognizant to acquire digital agency Mirabeau
Amsterdam-based digital marketing and customer experience agency Mirabeau and its 260 staff will join Cognizant’s digital business once the acquisition is completed.
Cachet Revamps Prepaid Mobile Platform for Faster App Design, Deployment
Cachet Financial Solutions has upgraded its Pay Award-winning Select Mobile Money prepaid mobile platform with enhancements that enable program managers to design and launch branded apps more quickly, as well as provide cardholders with a new international money transfer service.
PFS Issues Prepaid Mastercard for Refugees in Greece
To improve the plight of refugees in Greece, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) has partnered with Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian international relief organization, to launch a financial aid program in which funds are being disbursed via a Mastercard-branded prepaid card. U.K.-based payments technology provider PFS is issuing the cards.
CFPB Warns Banks about Deceptive Sales Practices
Incentives that banks offer employees to increase sales can pose “significant” risks to consumers, the CFPB warned this week in a new bulletin following record fines assessed to Wells Fargo for opening millions of unauthorized consumer accounts.
Apple Wins Mobile Wallet Victory in Australia
Apple has scored a big win in Australia for the company’s mobile wallet. That country’s competition regulator has denied a request by big local banks to collectively negotiate over the introduction of Apple Pay there.
Fix8 Market Tech to provide global market connectivity to Saxo Bank
Saxo Bank has opted for Fix8 Market Tech’s Fix8Pro solution as part of its new market connectivity engine.
Fintech funding round-up: 29 November 2016
We’ve summed up the latest funding efforts and results in the fintech space – so you don’t have to! Featuring Billon Group, Stripe, figo and Finimize.
This isn’t the end of the advisor: why tech won’t cut out the middle man
Who do you trust with your money? Well, if the latest talk in personal finance is anything to go by, we’ll soon be placing our trust in an altogether less warm-blooded beast. Move over mankind: the robots are coming. But not so fast!
Avaloq in talks with private equity firms?
Avaloq is rumoured to be talking to private equity (PE) firms. Suitors reportedly include New York-based KKR.
Standard Chartered to shed corporate and institutional banking jobs
Standard Chartered is set to cut about a tenth of its global corporate and institutional banking headcount. The job cuts will start in Hong Kong and Singapore and will eventually affect all major business hubs of Standard Chartered.
Young, Connected Consumers Help Drive Shopping over Thanksgiving
Holiday buying declined slightly over the Thanksgiving weekend, but more consumers were shopping, according to the National Retail Federation. The trade group estimates that some 154 million U.S. consumers shopped over the holiday weekend, up 1.9 percent from 151 million last year, but the average shopper spent about $289.19 this year, down about 3.6 percent from $299.60 in 2015.
New funding round values Stripe at $9.2bn
San Francisco-based online and mobile payments technology provider Stripe was valued at $5 billion during its previous funding round in July 2015—meaning its valuation nearly doubled in less than a year and a half.
Prepaid International Forum Argues against European Plan for Online Authentication
The European Banking Authority in January is set to release its online transaction rules in response to the revised Payment Services Directive, or PSD2, which calls for “strong customer authentication” for online payments. Visa also opposes the measure.
Report: Fraudsters Getting into Holiday Spirit
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for fraudsters, who are expected to ramp up global online fraud attempts by 12 percent over the upcoming holiday season compared with last year, according to new data from ACI Worldwide.
It’s time to talk ATM 2.0
The ATM is one of the most recognised and trusted pieces of technology on the high-street, but as it too has come under pressure from the wave of digitalisation sweeping almost every aspect of our everyday lives. The humble ATM is no longer a single physical touch point…
More banks to opt out of R3 blockchain consortium
US Bancorp, Macquarie and JP Morgan are understood to be in the “leave” camp as they have opted out of the upcoming fundraising effort of the R3 blockchain consortium.
Top fintech stories this week – 25 November 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Fintech funding round-up: 24 November 2016
Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. Money seekers are PayKey, Euklid and Flender.
APIs: open for business
No longer are the mid-tier banks doomed to be extinct! The arrival of open application programming interfaces (APIs) will enable them not just to survive but to prosper, states Chris Truce, director of platform development at Saxo Bank.
Paysafe Pulls Prepaid Product from 100 Countries
Paysafe Group reportedly is pulling the plug on its Neteller and Skrill prepaid Mastercard cards in 100 countries on Friday. The move, which affects a product popular with online gamblers, apparently does not apply to North America or the 34 countries that are part of the Single European Payments Area.
FDIC Recordkeeping Rule Includes Alternative for Prepaid Accounts
The FDIC’s final rule establishing recordkeeping requirements for large financial institutions offers some relief for banks that hold prepaid accounts insured under pass-through coverage, but there’s still a lot of heavy lifting to be done for covered institutions.
Visa Changes EMV Debit Card Routing Process amid Federal and Merchant Pressure
Visa has modified and clarified debit network routing rules, following recent FAQ guidance issued from the Federal Reserve and to address a Federal Trade Commission inquiry.
NRF: Gift Card Spending to Bounce Back
The holiday season is upon us and many shoppers plan to give gift cards this season, according to a consumer trends survey by the National Retail Federation. What’s more, spending on gift cards this year is expected to outpace spending in 2015.
People on the Move: Nasir Zubairi, Luxembourg House of Financial Technology
Nasir Zubairi has been named CEO of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), a new public-private initiative aimed at advancing Luxembourg’s fintech and financial services industry.
People on the Move: Tapan Bhat, NerdWallet
San Francisco-based personal finance company NerdWallet has named Tapan Bhat as its first chief product officer.
People on the Move: Matthias Setzer, PayU
Online payment service provider PayU has appointed Matthias Setzer as its global chief commercial officer.
Company on the Move: Prepaid International Forum Benefactors, Mastercard, Neopay
The Prepaid International Forum (PIF) has announced that Mastercard and Neopay have become benefactors of the 10-year-old prepaid financial services trade association.
People on the Move: Ulrica Falkenberg, Trustly
Stockholm-based payments provider Trustly has hired Ulrica Falkenberg as head of people operations, where she will be tasked with supporting the company’s growth and doubling the staff from 130 to 250 in the next year.
Infographics: the fintech landscape
It’s infographics time! A great compilation of fintech companies, showing how we’ve gone from graph paper to personal data algorithms – and everything in between.
Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank to leave R3?
Morgan Stanley and National Australia Bank (NAB) are understood not to be renewing their membership with the R3 blockchain consortium.
CFPB Fights Court’s Ruling that Its Structure Is Unconstitutional
The CFPB has filed a motion for a rehearing before the entire appellate court after a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sent shockwaves in October when it determined the structure of the bureau is unconstitutional because it’s led by a single director who can only be removed by the president for just cause.
Visa Criticizes European Move toward Stronger Online Authentication
A European plan for new online transaction authentications has come under fire from Visa, which says the proposal will make online checkout needlessly complicated for consumers.
Survey: Small Business Like Mobile Wallets, But Fear System Upgrades
Small business might want to accept payments via mobile wallets, but most of those merchants worry about the cost of upgrading their systems to do so, according to new survey from Samsung Electronics America.
Ubiquity, Market Size Push Alipay to Top Spot in E-Commerce Payments
Alibaba’s Alipay has taken the crown of the world’s most popular online payment method, accounting for 44 percent of global e-commerce spending and projected to grow to 60 percent by 2020, according to a new report from U.K.-based payments processor Worldpay.
Fundinfo launches Digital Advisor, intelligent fund selector
Fundinfo says its new cloud-based fund selection system, Digital Advisor, considers “investor’s emotional preferences” in addition to analysing active and passive funds.
Ancoa’s surveillance platform helps Dinosaur Merchant Bank to comply with MAR
Dinosaur Merchant Bank, a UK-based investment management, brokerage and advisory firm, has deployed Ancoa’s surveillance platform to monitor its equity trading activity for instances of market abuse and to meet their obligations under Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).
R3 blockchain consortium loses another member, Santander
Santander has decided to leave the R3 blockchain consortium, which it joined last December. Meanwhile, R3 has slashed its fundraising target to $150 million from the original $200 million.
