Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Anita Liu Harvey, VP for strategy and innovation at Barclaycard, fires us in the direction of “the magic bullets of future retail”. […]
Payments provider Klarna has powered up with a full banking licence from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, says it is “now one of Europe’s largest banks with 60 million customers, 70,000 merchants and working seamlessly across borders”. With the licence, Klarna states it can broaden its product portfolio for […]
Natixis Asset Management has started testing the FundsDLT blockchain-powered platform for fund managers. The FundsDLT concept, announced last December in Luxembourg, is a collaboration between Fundsquare, IT firm InTech and KPMG Luxembourg. The platform will enable asset managers to sell funds through a new distribution channel, while doing all the other usual blockchain stuff – […]
HSBC has launched a £10 billion lending fund for SMEs in the UK as it looks to tap into this lively market. The bank says it continues to be open to lending, having approved 91% of small business lending applications in the last year. Ian Stuart, UK CEO, HSBC, says: “We want to put SMEs […]
European banks are placing strategic bets in areas ranging from wealth management, lending, payments, regulatory technology, software, and blockchain. Which banks were the most active and what did they invest in?
Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank is partnering with Bottomline Technologies to unleash a brand spanking new online and mobile banking platform for its commercial and business banking clients. The new digital banking platform offers a suite of cash management and payment services. The application features simplified transactions; integrated payment workflows; user personalisation with self-service capabilities; and […]
Openbank, a subsidiary of Spain’s banking giant Santander, has undergone an enterprise-wide overhaul, from products and services, to technology, to corporate culture, to new branding.
American International Group (AIG), IBM and Standard Chartered have piloted the “first” multinational, smart contract based insurance policy using blockchain. The trio converted a controlled master policy written in the UK, and three local policies in the US, Singapore and Kenya, into a smart contract that provides a shared view of policy data and documentation […]
If there is any doubt in which direction the technology world will head next, its being brushed aside by Amazon Web Services (AWS); voice is the natural progression. Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports. Speaking at TechXLR8 in London, David Low, “principal evangelist” at Amazon Alexa EU, highlighted that the voice user interface will be […]
Mobile-only bank Monese has unveiled direct debit functionality for its customers – a move designed to offer services closer to that of a traditional high street bank account. Alongside this, it has also gained access to Faster Payments, so customers can send funds to accounts outside or within the UK with a “quicker transfer”. In […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
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Minnesota-based Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union has selected Fiserv’s Architect platform for a digital banking overhaul. The credit union will use Architect to help its online and mobile customers in branches, over the phone, and through digital channels. Dave Larson, president and CEO, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, says Fiserv has “the size and expertise […]
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) is fining International Card Services (ICS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABN Amro, for excessive credit limits. In March 2017, ICS says it took the initiative itself and prepared a compensation plan for the clients concerned. ICS will pay the €2.4 million fine imposed by the AFM. Which […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled the second wave of firms that have made it into its regulatory sandbox. As reported in 2015, the sandbox allows businesses to test out new products and services without “incurring the normal regulatory consequences”. The move is part of the FCA’s Project Innovate, which aims to boost […]
Payments services provider Circle is offering its customers in the US, UK and Europe the ability to send and receive money across borders with no fees and no mark-up on foreign exchange (FX) rates. The firm says it is “just like sending email or sharing photos” – meaning it’s “free and instant”. There will be […]
Private equity (PE) firm Warburg Pincus has acquired a 35% shareholding in Avaloq from existing shareholders – with the deal a first step towards a potential public listing. The transaction values Avaloq in excess of CHF 1 billion ($1 billion). Detailed financial terms are not being disclosed, but Francisco Fernandez, CEO at Avaloq, retains a […]
If security is too big a question for us to answer, maybe it’s time to hand the responsibility over to the machines, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). During a panel at “AI and Machine Learning World”, part of tech event TechXLR8 in London, artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed. What might seem quite a controversial […]
Consult Hyperion is forecasting that European financial institutions could face fines totalling €4.7 billion in the first three years under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The report, “GDPR: Banks, Breaches and Billion Euro Fines”, which was commissioned by security firm AllClear ID, is a “conservative” forecast and excludes compensation claims, costs associated with […]
Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDiX) has teamed with Kynetix and Everledger to trial the “first-ever” blockchain verification and record-keeping service for diamond trading. SDiX, Kynetix, a physical commodity digitisation firm, and Everledger, a supplier of blockchain and distributed ledger (DLT) infrastructure, have completed the first part of their proof of concept. The technology is designed […]
Fintech titan Finastra is turning to IBM to power its banking operations with cloud and cognitive technologies. As reported yesterday (14 June), Misys and DH Corporation (D+H) joined forces to create Finastra, the third largest financial services technology company in the world. With Finastra now officially alive and kicking, it’s wasted no time in showing […]
Our tour of the UK fintech scene concludes in this third instalment of the report. We started from the south of the country, then travelled west and are now travelling through the northern England and Scotland.
When it comes to payments, the Netherlands, like its Scandinavian neighbours, is certainly one of the most advanced countries in the world. Banks and retailers have been working together for many years in an effort to decrease the amount of cash in circulation, working instead towards a “cleaner” and “safer” cashless environment.
Mobile payments switch TerraPay has partnered with Yes Bank to enable real-time international money transfers to bank accounts in India – with the Indian migrant market firmly in their sights. TerraPay provides its clearing and settlement service, and via a “Rupee Drawing Arrangement”, its network partners can make the transfers to bank accounts in the […]
Responding to the European Union (EU) consultation on fintech, the European Banking Federation (EBF) wants the creation of an inclusive ecosystem and asks for people to get on with it. Earlier this year, the EC called for feedback and said it wanted to prise open national barriers as only 7% of consumers currently buy financial […]
SWIFT has a new instant payments messaging solution for the European market, offering a single gateway to multiple systems. The service will be available by November 2018.
The career of an elderly billionaire lies in tatters after he decided that a meeting to address sexism in the fintech industry was the right time to wolf whistle at the crowd and boast about his sexual exploits. David Blooperman, CEO and founder of identity and internet of things service provider ID-IOT, was invited to […]
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has announced new regulations to create a regulatory sandbox for fintech start-ups and firms to test and experiment their banking ideas and solutions. The framework provides a “virtual space” and it is open to existing CBB licensees and other local and foreign firms. The testing duration is nine months, […]
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have signed a co-operation agreement for financial innovation. Both parties play up their “already close ties” and the Australia-Hong Kong trade and investment relationship “more broadly”. ASIC says Hong Kong is Australia’s seventh most important destination for services exports, valued […]
Swift has launched an instant payments messaging solution for the European market, offering a single gateway to multiple systems, and available by November 2018. According to Swift, this latest development builds on its earlier deal in Australia. In 2015, it was awarded the contract to deliver the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia’s new payments platform, […]
Misys and DH Corporation (D+H) have joined forces to create Finastra, the third largest financial services technology company in the world. As reported in March, D+H was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $3.6 billion. The venture capital firm, which owns UK-based banking software vendor Misys, beat rival Advent International to acquire D+H. Finastra will […]
Ghana-based Premium Bank has selected NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution FraudGuardian. FraudGuardian uses a “patented big data model to correlate and analyse human behaviours across the entire bank system including eBanking, service channels, IT systems and financial transactions”. The firm says it can help banks prevent fraud in a proactive manner. FraudGuardian will integrate with the Temenos […]
USAA, a banking and insurance provider that focuses on the US military personnel and their families, has made a “strategic investment” in machine intelligence software vendor CognitiveScale.
Avaloq has hit back at Temenos’ claims that it is “trapped in a relatively small geography” by pointing to its revenue rise and innovation drive as reasons for something to be cheerful about.
Florida-based Surety Bank is embarking on a core banking software overhaul with Nymbus. The bank will implement Nymbus’ flagship SmartCore system. The solution will be delivered in a private cloud.
Appian, a US-based provider of low-code application platform, says it has been enlisted by Vontobel Bank “to execute its digital transformation strategy across all business divisions”.
Swiss core banking software vendor Avaloq is prepared to tap into the potential of blockchain and Bitcoin over the next 12 months as it seeks to experiment and innovate more in these areas.
US tech giant Fiserv has offered to buy Monitise, a UK-based mobile payments software and solutions provider. The cash offer to acquire is at 2.90 pence per share – valuing Monitise at approximately £70 million.
UK-based payments start-up Revolut has unveiled its new business service across Europe for multi-currency accounts, transferring money and corporate cards. Called Revolut for Business, it will enable companies to hold, exchange and transfer in 25 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, issue employees with corporate cards for “global fee-free spending” and manage their transactional activity […]
As in-memory computing (IMC) gains momentum across a wide range of applications, from fintech and ecommerce to telecommunications and internet of things (IoT), many companies are looking to IMC solutions to help them process and analyse large amounts of data in real time.
