FinTech


Visa Europe adopts BT’s managed network

Visa Europe’s decision to place its internal and external communications networks into the hands of BT will help the firm to realise economies of scale and offer a more efficient service to customers, according to Chris Pickles, Head of industry initiatives at BT.

More collaboration ahead, says Swift’s Leibbrandt

Front and centre of the agenda that Swift set out at the beginning of this week’s Sibos is the concept of collaboration and cooperation – a perennial theme for Swift, but Leibbrandt told Daily News at Sibos there is a change in the air.

MyBank E-Mandate pilot ready to go live

EBA Clearing has signed five financial institutions, 11 European service providers and two corporates for its MyBank E-Mandate pilot, which will begin in October and will test the firm’s solution for Sepa core direct debits for reliability, security and usability.

Retail banking: underwriting the revolution

New technologies are transforming the consumer experience in retailing and in banking. For banks to remain relevant, they need to work with innovators, writes Paul Skeldon

Barclays builds on Pingit head start

Barclays is making a determined effort to capitalise on the two-year lead it has built up with its Pingit mobile payments application with two new applications intended to allow retailers to integrate mobile payments into their services.

Standard Chartered backs mobile wallets

Standard Chartered has launched a mobile wallet service targeted at corporate clients in Kenya. The service has been developed in partnership with Safaricom, which operates the mobile money transfer service M-Pesa. The bank hopes the deal will herald the start of a major drive to open up financial inclusion in emerging markets.

Yorkshire paves a path in shared services with HP alliance

The UK’s second largest building society is being moved to a modern delivery platform managed by HP, with the establishment of a Shared Services Alliance with HP Enterprise Services UK to offer the platform to a wider range of UK financial services institutions.

Cyberspace: beyond the rule of law?

Cover story: It’s not just the criminals who are trying to get into your systems – banks need to look at the bigger picture to create an effective cyber defence Also in this issue: Where worlds collide:  In Turkey’s dynamic financial services markets minarets mix with mobile  masts and ATMs with ancient monuments . Swift […]

Zapp zeroes in on UK banks as mobile banking competition builds

Mobile payments specialist Zapp is expecting to sign up five of the six major UK banks within the next few weeks, following a deal with acquirer WorldPay, announced this week. However, the platform still has a long way to go to catch-up with rival Barclay’s Pingit, which has a significant head-start, having launched in February 2012.

Bricks or clicks? The choice isn’t yours

The challenging ongoing economic climate and the resulting shrinking markets have created an environment of greatly increased competition. In order to deal with the pressures of recession, retail banks are increasingly being forced into a strategic transformation of business structure, culture and practice. How they interact with customers is a prime focus during these transformations, writes Mike Davies, Regional Vice President Sales EMEA North at GMC Software Technology.

UK mobile payments held back by security and complexity

With only one in five UK consumers using their mobile to make payments, new research suggests that the technology is being held back by consumer fears over security, lengthy sign-up processes and problems making payments outside of individual schemes.

Life beyond legacy: exploring the options

The payment industry has never seen so much change or opportunity. It continues to be reshaped by shifts in the economic landscape, new technologies and customer needs and this is set to continue.

YellowPepper spices up Latin American mobile payments

A new mobile payments network called YellowPepper has launched in Colombia, marking the beginning of a massive project to bank the unbanked and sweep away the dominance of cash across the Spanish-speaking Americas.

Demystifying m-commerce

Payments made via mobile devices are fast becoming de rigueur as tablet sales are expected to overtake personal computers by 2017. Shane Fitzpatrick  addresses five common myths about m-commerce and how to capture online revenues. Smartphones are already more popular globally than desktop PCs and of the 1.875 billion phones to be sold in 2013, […]

Stand by for light speed: high performance computing in financial services

Most debates about High Performance Computing in financial services quickly turn into conversations about high frequency trading, but there are many more reasons for getting the best of out of systems. Electronics and computer technology have always been pushing the boundaries of smaller, faster, cheaper (or at least, ‘more affordable’) and financial services firms have always been quick to take advantage of the latest advances.

Interactive Data launches mobile data app

A new trading app has been launched by Interactive Data subsidiary eSignal, which promises to help traders use the iPad to obtain information and market data on the move. A subsidiary of Interactive Data, eSignal is based in California. The firm’s technology is targeted at making it easier for traders to get access to real-time […]

Canada’s Desjardins financial cooperative pushes NFC offering

Canada is seeing a fresh push to promote near field communication (NFC) services after Canadian cooperative financial group Desjardin signed a deal with mobile money solutions provider Monitise and a joint venture with the nation’s three largest mobile operators.

One American in three uses mobile banking

One in three US adults now uses mobile banking in their day to day lives– a rise of almost double since 2011, according to new research from the US Pew Research Centre.

Orange sets out Botswana mobile payments deal with Visa

Telecoms firm Orange is planning to launch a set of mobile payment services in Botswana and other countries in Africa and the Middle East, which it says will easy access to funds around the clock and bring new point of sale, online and ATM transaction options to customers.

Western Union debuts Nigerian mobile money transfer

Western Union has launched a mobile money service in Nigeria, which it says will help boost financial inclusion and provide new methods of money transfer for people sending and receiving money to Africa.

T+2: Moscow’s “biggest move in 20 years”

As the Moscow Exchange launches a new liquidity incentive promotion, Sergey Sinkevich, head of DMA at Russian broker Otkritie, argues that Russia’s move to adopt T+2 settlement is the most important development in the last 20 years for the country’s capital markets.

Digital money, mobile wallets & Latin America

In our world of 100%+ mobile penetration, companies in Latin America will soon need to think like their next wave of prospective customers, most of whom are unbanked. This means understanding their lifestyles, habits and needs in order to decide how to best generate value.

Orange uses Total network to extend money service

Orange and oil and gas group Total have forged a partnership in Africa and the Middle East, providing access to Orange Money services at all Total service stations in the regions, spanning a total of 13 countries to date.

Kalixa NFC mobile wallet targets Europe

A mobile wallet offering built by Kalixa Group claims to be able to turn just about any phone – including the iPhone – into an NFC payment device. The toolkit has launched in the UK, marking the first step in the firm’s plans for Europe-wide NFC mobile payments.

India’s ICICI takes aim at Indian mobile payments

India’s ICICI Bank is to launch a mobile payments service built by Movida, the Indian joint venture between Visa and mobile money specialist firm Monitise, that will draw on the potential to reach unbanked customers in the country.

Roundtable: the Future of Standards

Predicting the future is never easy, but trying to anticipate likely developments in a particular area is essential in order to take timely action. With that caveat, Stephen Lindsay, head of standards at SWIFT, sets a boundary on a discussion on the Future of Standards: “What we are trying to do is extrapolate a little bit from where we are now to where we might be in a few years’ time,” he says.

Stand by for light speed

Cover story: high frequency trading isn’t the only reason to deploy faster technology … Also in this issue: A road to nowhere? The UK’s plans to improve competition in retail banking are not without critics. The lure of the East: opportunities and challenges in the Middle East markets A watching brief: regulators are beefing up their […]

Slovakia shapes up as centre of excellence for mobile payments

The on-going turf wars that have held back the adoption of using mobile phones as a payment device at the point-of-sale will soon be a thing of the past if the progress made in Bratislava over the past year is any indication. The success of a project involving Visa Europe, Tatra Bank, Telefónica Slovakia’s O2 operation and a substantial number of retailers makes the Slovakian capital a showcase market for contactless technology.

Reducing threats to availability in the banking sector

The financial services sector’s growing interdependence between internet-accessible clearing and transaction processing infrastructure means that a successful DDoS attack can have far reaching consequences, such as customer dissatisfaction and loss of trust, brand damage, increased operating costs and lost revenue to name just a few.