News


Geezeo puts your reputation on the online

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” The acidic words of American writer Dorothy Parker. But sharp tongues will now come under the scrutiny of a new digital reputation management service. Be nice everyone and form a giant group hug. Geezeo Interactive, the marketing arm of […]

Centralway Numbrs unveils B2B banking platform

Centralway Numbrs is launching a B2B portal, enabling banks to integrate their financial products into its Numbrs Store in Germany digitally and free of charge. The firm says its store is Germany’s first financial products distribution platform, run independently of a bank. The store is part of its Numbrs app, which has got 1.5 million […]

Survey: the first CRS transmittals take place in 22 days time

In a matter of days, financial institutions in the UK will make their first Common Reporting Standard (CRS) transmittal to HMRC. It promises to be a significant event and we’re keen to hear from the industry how its preparations are going and what its predictions are. So we’ve teamed up with compliance solution provider Sovos […]

Switzerland’s Hypothekarbank Lenzburg goes open banking

Switzerland’s Hypothekarbank Lenzburg is opening up its Finstar core banking system to fintech firms with the use of APIs. The bank has signed an agreement with German software firm NDGIT, which supplies the APIs, and the implementation at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg will be completed by the end of May. Once implemented, its data and services will […]

WorldFirst launches international payments platform for SMEs

WorldFirst has unveiled World Account, an international payments platform for SMEs and online sellers. The company states the account offers international banking functionality on one platform. It says “many businesses waste time and money” trying to open up bank accounts in new currencies. These accounts are also often held in the UK resulting in “additional […]

Intellect turns corner in profit quest

The loss problems for India’s Intellect Design Arena have abated as it has revealed a profit after tax of INR 106 million ($1.65 million) in its Q4 results. As Banking Technology reported last year, Intellect’s lack of profit worsened as it disclosed a loss after tax of INR 138 million ($2 million) for the quarter […]

Flender the lender seeks splendour with UK launch

Peer-to-peer lending start-up Flender is seeking to get €1 million in funding and is targeting a UK launch after getting full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority. As Banking Technology reported last year, Flender launched its crowdfunding campaign on 21 November 2016, to raise £500,000 in exchange for 10% equity in the firm. The firm […]

Deutsche Bank leads charge for pan-industry e-identity platform

Deutsche Bank and a variety of German and European companies have teamed up to establish a joint, pan-industry platform for online registration, e-identity and data services. The initiative was set up by the bank, Allianz, Axel Springer, Daimler, Postbank, technology think tank Core, and location services provider Here Technologies. Their aim is to “make online […]

Square Cash Gets Physical with Companion Prepaid Card

Square Inc. has begun rolling out a physical plastic card for use with the company’s Square Cash P2P money transfer service—a move that could help differentiate the service from its P2P competitors by making it easier for users to instantly spend funds they receive via transfer.

Barclays backs British fraud fightback

Barclays has unveiled its new £10 million digital safety drive in the UK as it wants to increase the public’s awareness of financial fraud risks. As part of its plan, it will offer new debit card choices to let customers turn on and off remote spending and change ATM limits. It has revealed a new […]

Starling Bank unveils real-time mobile payments

UK challenger bank Starling is staying busy with the launch of its real-time mobile offering, Starling Payment Services. The service, which it calls a new division of the bank, will offer sponsorship access to the UK’s major payment schemes, allowing other banks, payment service providers, and fintech companies to use real-time payments from the summer. […]

Starling Bank Unveils Real-Time Mobile Payments

U.K. challenger bank Starling is staying busy with the launch of its real-time mobile offering, Starling Payment Services. The new division of the bank will offer sponsorship access to the U.K.’s major payment schemes, enabling other banks, payment service providers and fintech companies to use real-time payments from the summer.

The Monday mindset: 8 May 2017

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, Soumik Roy asks – will Paytm become India’s WeChat? Ever since demonetisation, electronic payments in India have been all the rage. In […]

Acorns Australia goes live with Moneythor for personal finance

Micro-investing service Acorns Australia has chosen Moneythor’s machine-learning solution to help it analyse customers’ spending patterns and offer insights into savings. The new “My Finances” features of the Acorns app were developed with Moneythor’s engine. The solution’s predictive analytics and data classification techniques are also used to provide customers with an estimate of their future […]

Research: Decline and fall in correspondent banking relationships

Correspondent banking relationships have reduced globally by 25%, despite the fact that global GDP per capita grew during the same period, following the 2008 financial crisis, according to research by Accuity. Henry Balani, global head of strategic affairs at Accuity, says: “The irony is that regulation designed to protect the global financial system is, in […]

Time running out for CRA rollback of US final prepaid rule

The clock is winding down for US Congressional lawmakers to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final prepaid accounts rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), reports Paybefore (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). Under that law, Congress has until 9 May – 60 legislative days after the law was published in the Federal Register – to repeal […]

Nordea innovation homes in on Stockholm

Nordea Bank has teamed up with the Stockholm Fintech Hub (SFH) for innovation ambitions and to connect with start-ups, financial institutions and regulators. The bank says a number of people from Nordea will move into the space, so it can talk and work with start-ups, bigger companies, other banks and “new players” like IBM and […]

Fintechs blast banks over PSD2 direct access angst

A group of fintech companies and associations are asking for changes to the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) due to fears it will force them to become technologically dependent on banks. The coalition of 60 European Union (EU) based entities have signed a seven-page manifesto seeking the European Commission (EC) to make changes to the […]

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 […]

Travelex preps new challenger bank Ditto for launch

New banks are appearing at the double – and Ditto, a France-based mobile-driven multi-currency bank, is the latest one getting ready to launch. Ditto, which is backed by foreign exchange company Travelex, has been built from scratch over the last two years and is “managed as a separate entity” from Travelex. Ditto is based on […]

The Bancorp Sells European Prepaid Operations

The Bancorp Inc. has closed the sale of its European prepaid properties to Neptune International Ltd. The news comes amid a strong quarter for the financial holding company, which reported a net income of $8 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared with a $10.9 million net loss for the same period last year.

Banks banking on APIs for payments and beyond

Facing increased competition from financial services upstarts and tech firms, banks are doubling down on application programming interfaces (APIs) as a competitive tool, a new report shows. Paybefore (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports that an Aite Group study canvassed product and digital channel managers at Asia-Pacific, European and North American banks, and found that those […]

OpenFin tech for capital markets goes open source

New York-based OpenFin has open sourced its core technology and is giving application developers free access to its operating layer for financial desktop web applications via its OpenFin Community Edition. The firm, which is a provider of HTML5 runtime technology, says the open source project, called Hadouken, will run under an Apache 2.0 licence. It […]

Infographics: UK’s fintech job market

Time for some simpler infographics. According to meta search engine Joblift, there has been an average monthly growth of 5% in the number of fintech jobs posted in the UK in the past year, this is in comparison with a growth of 1% in the UK job market as a whole. Joblift found that London […]

Time Running Out for CRA Rollback of Final Prepaid Rule

The clock is winding down for Congressional lawmakers to repeal the CFPB’s final prepaid accounts rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Under that law, Congress has until May 9—60 legislative days after the law was published in the Federal Register—to repeal the prepaid rule by simple majority vote in the Senate. But with lawmakers currently in the midst of negotiations over a revised health care bill and Democratic opposition to the rollback likely to be strong, proponents of a repeal could run out of time.

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.

Results Are In for Top Payments Consultants

In spirited voting, the payments industry has chosen the top five consultants who help their businesses thrive by providing perspective, research and strategic planning. Surprisingly, write-in candidates played a key role in shaping the top five list—one of them received nearly 6,500 votes.

Idea’s express bank branch hits the tracks

Poland’s Idea Bank has launched the first bank branch on rail tracks and the first co-working space for travellers. Called the Idea Hub Express carriage, the bank selected Poland’s PKP intercity trains, and the hub will be for passengers traveling on the Warsaw-Poznan-Warsaw, Warsaw-Krakow-Warsaw and Warsaw-Wrocław-Warsaw routes. Selected trains linking the cities will have a […]