Fintech tour Hong Kong: Spirit levels and start-ups
Hong Kong is telling its citizens and the world that fintech start-ups are welcome to do business and capitalise on the nation’s entrepreneurial spirit.
BankingTech
Smooth Commerce and Visa first in Canada for Visa Developer Programme
Smooth Commerce and Visa have completed the first integration of Visa’s Developer Programme in Canada and brought to market “a first of its kind innovation” in the mobile commerce space.
BNP Paribas Securities Services and Calypso team for post-trade services outsourcing
BNP Paribas Securities Services has teamed up with Calypso Technology to bring to market “a full, end-to-end post-trade services offering across asset classes” for investment banks.
Money rolls
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 analytics and anti-fraud software) and the forces of evil. Based on real events and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat!
First Oklahoma FCU in core banking and digital software revamp with Fiserv
First Oklahoma Federal Credit Union, the oldest credit union in the state, has embarked on a major tech overhaul. It will implement Fiserv’s Portico core processing system and a suite of digital solutions.
Automic Software now on Temenos Marketplace
Business automation software vendor Automic Software has inked a deal with Temenos to make its Automic Workload Automation available on the Temenos MarketPlace store.
Fintech funding round-up: 17 January 2017
They said it. We read it. We edited. A round-up of the latest funding efforts in the fintech and payments space. Featuring Kasisto, BillGO, Gumption Labs and Fraugster.
Video: Banking Technology Awards 2016
Our dazzling event gathered together over 260 banking and financial technology specialists from all over the world – recognising the excellence and innovation in the use of IT in financial services, and of course the people that make it happen! Join us at the 2017 awards, which will be held at a 5-star venue in London in Q4 this year.
RosEvroBank builds blockchain platform for remote customer identification
RosEvroBank, a top-50 bank in Russia, has created a prototype of a blockchain-based system that enables remote verification of customers for other financial institutions. The decentralised system is built on the Microsoft’s Ethereum Consortium Blockchain infrastructure.
Five Degrees and SEI provide tech to new digital investment service, Munnypot
Munnypot, a new robo-advice and investment service in the UK, has fully launched with tech support from a number of partners.
RBI investigates blockchain for financial applications in India
The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has recently issued a whitepaper, “Applications of Blockchain Technology to Banking and Financial Sector in India”. We summarise the report and highlight the key findings.
Private equity firms to buy German payments provider Concardis from local banks
Advent International and Bain Capital Private Equity have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Concardis, a German payment services provider currently owned by local banks. It is understood the price tag is around €700 million.
The White House unveils fintech framework for US
The National Economic Council (NEC) of the US, part of the Office of White House Policy, has published a whitepaper, “A Framework for Fintech”.
One in four UK card payments now contactless
According to the UK Cards Association, a trade body for the country’s card payments industry, a quarter of all card transactions are now made via contactless in the UK. 325 million purchases, altogether worth £2.9 billion, were made using contactless debit and credit cards in November 2016.
Seven European banks join forces for blockchain platform for SMEs
Seven European banks – Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, KBC, Rabobank, Société Générale and UniCredit – have agreed in principle to develop a blockchain-based shared platform for domestic and international commerce for SMEs.
BNP Paribas Wealth Management goes for digital client experience and “pizza” teams
BNP Paribas Wealth Management has unveiled its new Client Experience venture co-created with customers and fintech firms. The initiative focuses on digital solutions as the bank is keen to “create a new wealth management experience”.
Deutsche Bank bans texting and messaging apps on work phones
No more texting or using messaging apps such as WhatsApp on company issued phones, Deutsche Bank tells its employees. According to a memo issued by COO Kim Hammonds and chief regulatory officer Sylvie Matherat, the functionality will be switched off this quarter.
Yes Bank opens fintech accelerator programme for start-ups
India’s Yes Bank is inviting fintech start-ups to take part in its Yes Fintech Accelerator Programme. The application process is open until 2nd February 2017.
Fintechs making strides in PSD2
In November last year, German fintech firm figo completed a financing round that totalled €6.8 million. Figo has developed a banking application programming interface (API) and various products and services related to the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). It is just one of the many fintech firms that are poised to grab the considerable opportunities that PSD2 opens.
Wearable technology in investment banking: watch your money on your watch
How can wearable technology be made popular in investment/wealth management services? We suggest a number of features that can create value and relevance to individual traders and wealth managers, if made available on smartwatch trading apps.
US core banking software projects: win for DCI, go-live for Symitar
Kansas-based banking software developer, Data Centre Inc (DCI), has signed a new client, The First National Bank in Falfurrias, Texas. Jack Henry’s Symitar division has completed a core conversion at Sun East Federal Credit Union in Pennsylvania.
Europe a pushover for machine takeover
In another example of glacial bureaucracy, a committee from the European Parliament has written a report which recommends a meeting about robots and artificial intelligence (AI).
Blockchain incubator Adel unveils P2P retail banking network
Blockchain incubator Adel has unveiled its project framework for people to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) network in retail banking. The firm says it will work in the “same way as Airbnb and Uber revolutionised the hospitality and taxi industries”. “Anyone with a car can be a taxi. Anyone with accommodations can be a hotel. Anyone […]
Top fintech stories this week – 13 January 2017
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Airtel Payments Bank launches in India
Airtel Payments Bank, India’s “first” payments bank, has started national operations with services now live across the country. As Banking Technology reported in July 2016, telecoms giant Airtel was planning its own bank. It says it is a “fully digital and paperless” bank, and from today (12 January), over 250,000 neighbourhood Airtel retail stores across […]
New name in the UK challenger bank space – ClearBank
The bustling UK challenger bank scene has grown by another addition, ClearBank. It is a brainchild of Nick Ogden, founder and former CEO of WorldPay.
Can you marry an app Monzo?
Mobile-only challenger bank Monzo has revealed some witty conversations between its banking customer support team and customers. In an amusing blog post, the bank says its customer support team of around 17 people manage hundreds of queries on a daily basis in as “close to real-time as possible”. Some of these conversations struck a chord […]
“Humanoid” Ira to assist customers in HDFC Bank branches
India-based HDFC Bank is about to introduce its first “humanoid” branch assistant – Ira. The human-sized robot was built together with artificial intelligence (AI) company Asimov Robotics.
Commerzbank unveils first digital platform for German SMEs
Commerzbank has developed the first digitalisation platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Called “#openspace”, and located in Berlin-Schöneberg, it offers long-term co-operation between SMEs, “innovation partners”, and start-ups with the objective of “tackling the challenges posed by the digital future together”. Holger Werner, CEO and founder of #openspace, says “digitalisation dominates the media, sciences, […]
New digital bank, SunTrust, runs on ICS Banks core platform
SunTrust Bank in Nigeria has renewed the contract with banking software vendor ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) for its ICS Banks core banking system.
PSD2: Who wins?
I was recently asked who the biggest winner would be to emerge post-PSD2, the banks or the fintech firms. If we ignore for a moment that the biggest winners are clearly you and I, the end consumer of these services, it did reveal an interesting thought process and dynamic at play.
Municipal Credit Union revamps digital payments with Payveris
Municipal Credit Union (MCU), a $2.5 billion credit union in New York, is implementing a new digital payments platform supplied by Payveris.
D+H unveils simulated tests for real-time payments
DH Corporation (D+H) is now offering banks a cloud-based testing environment to simulate connectivity to The Clearing House’s (TCH) real-time payments system. D+H says it is the first payments hub vendor to provide banks in the US “easy and low-risk” access and with “minimal investment”. It offers an optional open API layer, where banks can […]
Capital One joins forces with fintechs Gusto and Bill.com
Capital One Spark Business has announced “strategic partnerships” with two fintech companies, Bill.com and Gusto. The aim is “to build and deliver better financial management, HR and cash flow tools designed for small businesses”, Capital One says.
Industrial CU live with new core banking system, Keystone
Washington-based Industrial Credit Union has converted to a new core banking system, Keystone from Corelation.
New app aims to provide ‘Clarity’ to personal finances
Data analytics and artificial intelligence are on nearly everyone’s 2017 trend-watch lists, but US-based Clarity Money wants to put those same tools directly into consumers hands with an app it says will improve financial well-being and increase users’ financial literacy, reports Paybefore. “Clarity fills in the role of an advocate with a personal finance management […]
Mystery surrounds Postfinance online banking outage
Postfinance, the fifth largest retail financial institution in Switzerland, has suffered a 24-hour outage on its online banking service – and doesn’t know the exact cause. About 1.7 million customers were affected by a total loss of electronic banking on Sunday and Monday morning (8/9 January). On Monday afternoon, things were back to normal as […]
MIT’s trade finance platform debuts in Luxembourg
Bank GPB International, a member of the Gazprombank group, has selected MIT’s (Micro-Informatique & Technologies) trade finance platform to support its business from Luxembourg. The MIT platform chosen by the bank comprises Credoc, the Swiss firm’s flagship back-end trade finance solution, and TRAC, its middle/front collateral management system, which provide support for transactional commodity finance […]
DTCC selects IBM, Axoni and R3 to develop blockchain for derivatives
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has chosen IBM, in partnership with Axoni and R3, to provide a blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) framework to drive improvements in derivatives post-trade lifecycle events. The firms will work on DTCC’s Trade Information Warehouse (TIW), building a derivatives distributed ledger solution for post-trade processing. The TIW service currently […]
Izola Bank selects Finex Solutions for digital banking revamp
Malta’s Izola Bank has chosen Munich-based Finex Solutions to overhaul its digital banking services for retail and corporate customers. The bank will use the Finex Excellence Digital Banking solution, which supports internet, tablet and mobile banking. Andrew Mifsud, CEO of Izola Bank, says it has already “successfully implemented a mobile token solution provided by Finex” […]
