Amicus Finance, a UK financial services group, has submitted a banking licence application to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It hopes to get the banking licence in 2017. In advance of authorisation, Amicus will convert £30 million of the debt currently used to fund its lending activities into equity […]
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.
Yes Bank, India’s fifth largest in the private sector, has partnered with Lastmile.mobi to introduce the IRIS EMV POS solution. The device allows biometric authentication through iris scanning, and can act as a POS terminal as well as an ATM. Lastmile.mobi provides a cloud-based platform accessible by a biometric enabled mobile device. The solution integrates […]
Vermilion Software, a UK-based supplier of client reporting and communications software, has been selected by active equity specialist Martin Currie. Edinburgh-based Martin Currie has chosen its client reporting suite and pitchbook facility as a means of “consolidating” its reporting and marketing materials. In addition to adopting Vermilion’s V4.0 reporting technology, Martin Currie has also purchased […]
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 […]
Acorn Financial Partners (AFP) has submitted a banking licence application to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). On authorisation, AFP will be called Redwood Bank, a new UK-based SME challenger bank, and it anticipates receiving its licence early in 2017 and opening to customers later the same year. AFP’s majority […]
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has signed for a “cloud-ready single platform” from its long-standing software supplier Misys to support its corporate banking operations outside Australia.
DZ Bank’s group treasury division has implemented its collateral management operations with the help of Sapient Global Markets. DZ Bank, Germany’s third largest bank by asset size, worked with Sapient to “optimise and automate the collateral allocation process”. This project began with a proof of concept, using anonymised production data, to create a system assessment […]
Provident Credit Union in California and MountainOne Bank in Massachusetts have gone live with new core banking software – PhoenixEFE from D+H Corporation.
UAE-based Islamic Finance House (IFH) has upgraded its core banking system to Temenos’ T24 R14 platform. IFH has been using T24 since its inception in 2004, and says the latest enhancement “has given way to resource optimisation, scalability management and shortened approval processes”.
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 […]
Bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain.info has been the victim of a hack attack on its DNS servers. It experienced an outage for several hours while under attack, and Peter Smith, the CEO and co-founder, says its internal systems “alerted our infrastructure team who immediately began to assess the attack” but it “became clear the attackers gained […]
Alibaba has revealed a new payment service that lets virtual reality (VR) shoppers pay just by nodding their heads. Called VR Pay, it’s been developed by Ant Financial’s (Alibaba’s financial arm) incubator F Lab, and it’s another innovation in the lively and overcrowded payments arena. With the tech, shoppers (bovine at the best of times) […]
Validata, a specialist in enterprise software testing and release automation and Temenos’ partner, has announced a number of client wins and go-lives.
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 […]
Indian firm Aditya Birla has chosen the Infosys Finacle core banking system for its upcoming joint venture (JV), Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank. Aditya Birla has got in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India and plans to set up the new payments bank by the end of its financial year (2016-17). Aditya Birla will […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! MasterCard to buy French payment firm Stet? EXCLUSIVE. Payments processor could be a target. Brooks Macdonald puts IT revamp with Third Financial on hold EXCLUSIVE. All freeze for wealth management firm. Banks behaving badly in Singapore Monetary Authority […]
Tehran-based Informatics Services Corporation (ISC) is inviting bids for the installation and implementation of an international card payment switch in Iran. ISC says it is considering the procurement of a national merchant management system, card management system, ACS (access control server) and FRM (fraud / risk management) to manage international card payments’ usage within Iran’s […]
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 […]
San Francisco-based start-up lender Affirm has got a $100 million credit line from Morgan Stanley as it looks to boost its business, according to The Wall Street Journal. The firm is “adding debt” as it “seeks to grow its loans for tickets, trips, and other big online purchases as an alternative to paying with credit […]
TransferWise has “successfully” integrated into the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) using ACI Worldwide’s tech at the back-end. As Banking Technology reported in August, TransferWise became the “first” tech firm to get direct access to FPS as technical partner to Raphaels Bank. Prior to that, ACI partnered with the same bank, opening up access to […]
Silicon Valley Bank and MasterCard have selected six start-ups to participate in Class 5 of Commerce.Innovated, a virtual accelerator designed to help commerce, payments and fintech start-ups grow their businesses. The six US start-ups will go through the four-month virtual programme and are in various stages of funding and development: Domuso, a payment financing platform […]
This paper looks at the current state of high-frequency trading – why it’s popular and what types of strategies and technologies are being used. It then explores how in-memory computing can meet the technological challenges and increase trading profits. As competition intensifies in the field of high-frequency trading, financial services firms need a new level […]
Why limit getting in debt quickly only to the Arcadia Group shoppers? Payments provider Klarna onboards a raft of partners for its retail financing solution. These include Shopify, Worldpay, BigCommerce and CyberSource.
The International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) Europe and the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis) are to jointly define technical standards for blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Fintech funding without the tub-thumping. A realistic and brief round-up of key events. ComplyAdvantage, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help firms manage compliance, has revealed an $8.2 million Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital. The funding will allow the regtech firm to do the usual stuff – growth and […]
Alain Raes, CEO EMEA and Asia Pacific, Swift, discusses the main payment trends in Europe, including real-time and the Global Payments Innovation Initiative.
Bruno Prigent, Head of Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) and Mathieu Maurier, Global Head of Sales and Relationship Management discuss the global securities industry and SGSS’s plans for the future.
SIBOS Interview: Gerry Gaetz, President and Chief Executive Officer, Payments Canada discusses the modernisation of Canada’s payments system with Tanya Andreasyan, editor of Banking Technology.
ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD say they have successfully executed the “first” banking transactions using blockchain in international trade finance in India and the UAE respectively. The development saw the exchange and authentication of remittance transaction messages as well as original international trade documents related to purchase orders, invoices, shipping and insurance, among others, electronically […]
MasterCard is believed to be mulling the acquisition of French payments processor Stet. MasterCard told Banking Technology it “does not comment on rumours or speculation”. Stet responded saying that “these are unfounded rumours” and that it “has no discussions of this type with MasterCard.” Stet was set up in 2004 and is currently owned by […]
Alipay has partnered with Zapper, the consumer insights and marketing platform, to grab a slice of the Chinese tourism market in the UK. Zapper says the partnership will allow over 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK to pay using the Alipay app in over 1,000 locations nationwide. Rita Liu, head of Alipay EMEA, says merchants, […]
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 […]
German insurance firm Talanx and fintech developer FinLeap have founded a joint venture to provide a digital platform for independent asset managers and private banks. Under the name Elinvar, the start-up offers a white-label platform – so asset managers can offer their own brand and corporate design. The solution includes new client onboarding, automatic creation […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Sonali Bank UK £3.25 million for “serious” anti-money laundering (AML) systems failings. It has imposed a restriction, preventing it from accepting deposits from new customers for 168 days, and fined the bank’s former money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), Steven Smith, £17,900 and prohibited him from performing the […]
Pascal Augé, Head of Global Transaction and Payment Services, Societe Generale Global Transaction Services discusses the prospects for real-time payments in the eurozone.
Finland-based Aurora Exchange, a consumer loans exchange, has teamed with two firms for its P2P lending platform launch. Maiden Life, based in Sweden, brings its payment protection insurance to cover “all loans” against borrower’s death, permanent and temporary disability with lenders as beneficiaries. Mangopay will act as Aurora Exchange’s custodian and payments technology provider. Mangopay […]
Blockchain has the potential to greatly benefit the entire capital markets ecosystem. But the industry should learn to walk – when it comes this emerging technology – before it can run.
LendingWell, a single-platform P2P lending partner, is the winner of the first PitchIt @ LendIt Europe, a competition aiming to find a future star within the online lending and fintech space. LendingWell provides access for retail investors and independent financial advisors to the broader P2P lending market. Co-founded with Liberum Alternative Finance, it provides customers […]
Symantec has found evidence that the Odinaff group has mounted attacks on Swift users, using malware to hide customers’ own records of Swift messages relating to fraudulent transactions. The tools used are designed to monitor customers’ local message logs for keywords relating to certain transactions. They will then move these logs out of customers’ local […]
