Airfox targets Brazil’s unbanked with Android app launch
Start-up’s platform is built on blockchain and it plans to offer microloans.
unbanked
Fintech funding round-up: 27 February 2018
From the US to Brazil – stars Pagaya Investments, C2FO and RecargaPay.
Softtek and Mambu unveil banking Platform-as-a-Service
SaaS-y engine provider partners with Mexican system integrator.
Mission to Mars: or how I manage to make everything about fintech
We don’t directly do good in our fintech-verse, but we push the world towards something better.
Fintech funding round-up: 13 February 2018
From India via Israel to Finland – starring MoneyOnMobile, Tipalti and Zervant.
NCR overhauls ATM network at BankDhofar, expands ATM access in India
The breadth of NCR’s work with financial institutions and underbanked populations around the world.
Veridium to power biometrics for Nordea
Bank will use VeridiumID to replace tokens with biometric authentication for access to data.
Growth, wealth and modernisation drive fintech innovation in MENA region
An interesting place to be a bank or a fintech!
Fintech funding round-up: 23 January 2018
From London to Asia. Stars Anorak Technologies, Funding Societies and Mekar.
Interview: Sidd Gandhi, KyePot – dreams and savings schemes
Co-founder and CEO shares his plans for India’s chit fund (savings scheme) industry.
Top ten fintech start-up stories in 2017
A busy year for fintech start-ups, but take a trip down memory lane with Banking Technology’s top ten.
Huawei teams with Xpress Money for mobile payments in Africa
The duo are targeting Africa’s unbanked population.
Q&A with Bob Raffo, FirstView Financial
Joining FirstView Financial in July 2017 as president and CEO, Bob Raffo has quickly become a proponent of developing the paytech segment, the opportunities it presents to serve larger consumer and B2B bases and accelerate payment processes.
Veridium and Wala bring blockchain power to Africa’s unbanked
Biometrics firm Veridium has teamed with Wala, a blockchain-powered financial services platform, as they target the unbanked and underbanked population in Africa. The duo will collaborate on a pilot programme in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate their digital model offering “zero-fee banking”. This pilot is funded by a grant awarded to Veridium from the Digital Financial […]
Financial innovation in LatAm calls for open collaboration with start-ups
Fintech is upending the way we understand the financial sector in Latin America; financial services are experiencing deep transformations as a result of start-ups’ love for change driven by new technologies.
Mastercard, Bank Asia and a2i team for financial inclusion in Bangladesh
Access to Information (a2i, an innovation lab supported by the Bangladeshi government), Bank Asia and Mastercard have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate financial inclusion in Bangladesh by making digital payment services accessible countrywide through the Union Digital Centres (UDCs).
Mastercard, Bank Asia and a2i team for financial inclusion in Bangladesh
Access to Information (a2i, an innovation lab supported by the Bangladeshi government), Bank Asia and Mastercard have signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate financial inclusion in Bangladesh by making digital payment services accessible countrywide through the Union Digital Centres (UDCs).
Top fintech stories this week – 27 October 2017
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Fintech start-up Ualá targets Argentina’s unbanked with new mobile banking service
Argentina-based fintech start-up Ualá has launched a mobile banking service app to champion financial inclusion in the country.
Fintech funding round-up: 19 October 2017
Three of the latest stories in one for a fast fintech funding round-up. Features Paykey, Digital Asset, Santander InnoVentures and ePesos.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch underbanked service with Dwolla, Ripple and others
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a new service created with in partnership with Dwolla, along with collaboration with Ripple, Crosslake Technologies, ModusBox, and Software Group.
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank goes live with Intellect’s core banking system
Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, a microfinance institution in India, has rolled out Intellect Design Arena’s core banking system. The bank received its licence last year, and according to Intellect, one of the key requirements for Utkarsh was to have a joint liability group solution that would enable it to provide group loans to the microfinance […]
Q&A with Michael Parlotto, InComm
Michael Parlotto, VP, Emerging Technologies, InComm, gives the lowdown to Paybefore on the evolution of prepaid and what the future might hold for the industry.
Univision Mastercard Prepaid Card Hits Walmart Shelves
Univision Mastercard Prepaid Card is now available in approximately 300 Walmart stores in California, Texas and Florida. The move is part of the brand’s continued expansion into retail spaces in prominently Hispanic regions.
AU Small Finance Bank in GST tech project with SunTec
A new bank in India, AU Small Finance Bank, is working with SunTec to automate the goods and services tax (GST) functionality with the vendor’s Xelerate revenue management system.
Interview: Aleksey Chubar, VTB – leading a fintech revolution in Russia
If you’ve got preconceptions about what fintech looks like and where it’s happening, then Aleksey Chubar, head of digital transformation at VTB, has news for you. Russia is becoming a hotbed of fintech innovation – not just domestically, but internationally too. More than that, the rapid pace of technological change in the country means you’ll soon wonder how you got left behind.
Fintech: beware the fake news
In every aspect of life, sentiment overshoots. We overbuy and oversell securities. The political pendulum swings from left to right. Shops run out of ultra-fashionable goods only to heavily discount excess stock a couple months later. Ben Robinson, chief strategy officer at Temenos, explains how this is not a new phenomenon, but has got worse […]
Why I believe the US State Department is wrong about mobile money in Africa
The US Department of State recently released a report that identified mobile money services as particularly susceptible to money laundering in Africa. It cites services like M-PESA and M-Shwari as “services [that] remain vulnerable to money laundering activities”.
Where top US banks are investing in fintech – CB Insights
Since 2012, the top ten US banks (by assets under management) have participated in 72 rounds totaling $3.6 billion to 56 fintech companies, according to CB Insights. While investment activity dropped on a quarterly basis in Q1 2017, four of the last five quarters have seen over $1 billion invested into fintech start-ups in the US backed by venture capital firms.
Abu Dhabi and Kenya form fintech bridge
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Kenya have signed a co-operation agreement for fintech innovation. The agreement provides a framework for information sharing; and keeping abreast of regulatory and relevant economic or commercial developments in the respective markets. They will also support fintech […]
Three Under-Tapped Markets and Use Cases for Prepaid Cards
Prepaid issuers should look to certain banked consumers, P2P and mobile wallet users to gain top-of-wallet status with a whole new set of customers.
Absa targets African millennials with Hello Soda partnership
Absa Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Africa, has partnered with multilingual text analytics and big data firm, Hello Soda, as it looks to tap into the millennial market. The bank says it wants to make sense of unstructured social data to better understand its consumer base. According to Absa, Hello Soda provides new ways for […]
Vote for the Best Challenger Banks
Vote for the challenger banks (licensed or not) that should make Paybefore’s top 5 Best Challenger Banks list. Share your opinions through Aug. 1. The top 5 vote-getters will be profiled on Paybefore.com.
Money20/20 Europe: a finale for financial inclusion
For the finale of the final day of Money20/20 Europe, financial inclusion was discussed with resolute optimism for a bright future.
Q&A with Andrew Buckley, Mastercard
When the self-described skeptic took over as global head of prepaid for Mastercard earlier this year, Andrew Buckley wasn’t quite convinced that the opportunities ahead were worthy of all the hype. Five months later and he’s among the converted, preaching the gospel of democratization—not just of payments but of innovation.
Six Startupbootcamp stars secure sweet deals in India
Six graduating start-ups from Startupbootcamp FinTech Mumbai have secured pilots with banks and corporates such as RBL Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India (SBI). At Startupbootcamp’s demo day at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, 11 start-ups showcased technologies in financial services to more than 400 guests. Propositions included SME banking, blockchain, digital […]
Fintech funding round-up: 2 June 2017
The money’s rolling in for fintech – as this round-up follows hot on the heels from 30 May. This latest report features Zopa, RateSetter and Niyogin Fintech. The plans of peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Zopa to launch a new digital-only bank in the UK are going well as it has completed a £32 million funding round […]
Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 24 May 2017
Cut to the chase with this brief blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Features Waves Platform, Everex and Bitcoin’s price surge. Moscow-based Waves has launched its Euro gateway, which will allow users of the platform to deposit and withdraw Euros directly from within the lite client, holding and trading them directly from their Waves accounts as WEUR […]
Middle East and Africa the world’s fastest growing payment cards region
The Middle East and Africa (MEA) is the payment cards region increasing the quickest across the globe, according to research by Retail Banking Research (RBR). According to RBR’s Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021, the number of cards in issue in MEA increased by 13% to 611 million in 2015, making it the […]
PayNearMe Expands Bill-Pay Service with CVS Deal
With 27 percent of U.S. households unbanked or underbanked, according to the most recent FDIC report on the subject, PayNearMe continues in its efforts to make it easier for such consumers, as well as those who prefer not to use plastic or checks, to pay bills using cash.
