BBVA has become an official member of the Linux Foundation’s open-source collaborative blockchain project Hyperledger. The bank joins American Express, the Bank of England, SAP, Wells Fargo and Thomson Reuters. BBVA is already a member of R3, which is also participating in Hyperledger, and of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, which supports the creation of blockchain […]
Blackhawk Network has given its incentives business a new identity, renaming it Hawk Incentives, which includes products and services formerly part of Blackhawk Engagement Solutions and the prepaid and payments company’s B2B digital incentive teams, according to a March 28 announcement.
A federal judge has dismissed an unfair practices lawsuit filed by the CFPB against a North Dakota-based payment processor. The federal agency had accused Intercept Corp. of permitting unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by its clients.
Members of a Danish banking collective, Bokis, have become the first in the country to offer mobile payments using Dankort, the national debit and credit card. Bokis includes 62 banks that form the small to mid-sized banks segment of Lokale Pengeinstitutter (the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Co-operative Banks in Denmark), together with […]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has signed agreements with France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) to enhance fintech co-operation between both countries. ACPR is responsible for supervising the banking and insurance sectors in France, while AMF is an independent public authority responsible for ensuring […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has chosen Cognizant for an overhaul of its core IT applications and quality assurance processes related to the agency’s market surveillance, supervisory analysis, reporting and risk management functions. This three-year agreement builds on the FCA’s ongoing relationship with Cognizant which began in 2011, when it was selected as one […]
San Francisco-based payments specialist Square has landed in the UK. This is the fifth market for Square, following the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.
Enjoy a word-lite delight with our brief fintech funding round-up. Features Clarity Money, The Glue and OOjiBO. US-based Clarity Money, a personal finance app, has announced a $11 million Series B funding round led by RRE Ventures and Citi Ventures. This financing comes three months after Clarity Money launched its product and eight months after […]
Barclays has chosen smart document management provider ClauseMatch for handling policies and standards in one place with a new online editor. London-based ClauseMatch, a 2014 graduate of the inaugural Barclays accelerator programme, will provide its editor to the bank. This tool turns a “fragmented workflow” of Word documents, PDFs and e-mails and replaces them with […]
Pakistan-based Khushhali Microfinance Bank is to overhaul its technology with Temenos. The project will be delivered by National Data Consultants (NDC), Temenos’ partner and integrator in the region.
Data Centre Inc (DCI), a Kansas-based banking software developer, signed five new takers for its flagship iCore360 core banking system in Q1 this year.
Path Solutions and its iMAL core banking system have beaten Temenos and Oracle FSS to a core banking software deal at Trustbank in Suriname.
CFPB has taken action against Experian over allegations that the company made false claims about the uses of credit scores it sold to consumers.
In last week’s Paybefore Spotlight Webinar, attendees representing markets from across the globe said the No. 1 challenge to growing their prepaid businesses is differentiation. Find out what experts from Celent’s banking practice and global processor i2c had to say about creating dynamic prepaid products to compete in the changing payments landscape.
Hoping to bring “digital cash to everyone,” Samsung has introduced a chip platform that can enable contactless payments in watches, wristbands, key fobs and perhaps even clothing.
It’s good to do good but it’s even better to do good and make a profit was my takeaway from a lively discussion around financial inclusion at the recent Citi Digital Money Symposium held in London.
It’s infographics time! This nifty infographics, created by Mastercard, outlines some interesting facts and figures about the new £1 coin, compared to the old one (introduced back in 1983).
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, Kate Bolton, head of PR and communications at Temenos, explains “Collaboration for Good” – the world’s first banking industry charity challenge. Collaboration, it […]
Supply chain finance firm Tradeshift has unveiled Ada – an artificial intelligence (AI) layer on its commerce platform. Ada will learn from user interactions, “improve business processes”, and offer contextual information. It is available to third-party developers and interacts with users platform-wide as a conversational interface. Christian Lanng, CEO and co-founder of Tradeshift, says Ada […]
A greenfield bank in Iraq, International Islamic Bank (IIB), has signed for the ICS Banks core banking system from ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS).
KfW, a German government-owned development bank, which gained publicity for erroneously transferring more than €300 million to Lehman Brothers the day it filed for bankruptcy, has done it again, according to Bloomberg. KfW mistakenly transferred more than €5 billion to four banks because of a technical glitch that repeated single payments multiple times, according to […]
UK Export Finance, the country’s export credit agency and a government department, is looking to recruit a new head of IT.
Ukrainian fintech start-up Attic Lab has signed its second deal to implement SmartMoney, a blockchain-based digital money system, at a local bank. This is with Bank Alliance.
Raiffeisen Bank Romania, a subsidiary of Austria’s Raiffeisen Group, is modernising its channels delivery with Backbase.
The House of Lords Financial Exclusion Committee is calling for the UK Government, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banks to give greater priority to tackling financial exclusion. In its new report, “Tackling financial exclusion: A country that works for everyone?”, the Lords want an end to the “scandal of the poorest being excluded from […]
Samsung, Smartlink and Ingenico have unveiled their “contactless companion platform” (CCP) to let people pay for things using anything they’re wearing — such as a watch or a wedding ring. It has been built with a dual interface smart card chip for multiple applications and form factors. Users tap the wearable on an NFC card […]
The global blockchain market will experience massive growth during the next five years – powered by the activities of “key vendors” Accenture, IBM and Microsoft. According to Research and Markets’ report, “Global Blockchain Technology Market 2017-2021”, the market will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.59%. One trend in the market is […]
SIX Securities Services, Switzerland’s post-trade market infrastructure, will use IBM Watson for its new cognitive security operations centre (SOC). The new facility will be housed at SIX’s offices in Switzerland to provide localised cybersecurity services “tailored to the needs of the region”. Robert Bornträger, division CEO SIX global IT, says IBM is a “logical partner” […]
At yesterday’s Citi Digital Money Symposium, the question of a strategic response to fintech and the broader innovation challenge was posed to speakers from a number of large incumbent firms in the financial services sector.
Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX risk and management information systems (MIS) reporting solutions will be implemented at Nordea Bank Russia (NBR). The MIS solution is part of the firm’s business analytics offering. OneSumX is designed to manage finance, risk and compliance and “improve organisational efficiency and profitability”. NBR will specifically use OneSumX risk management for asset and […]
Accenture will acquire First Annapolis, a privately held payments consulting and advisory firm. Alan McIntyre, senior managing director, and head of Accenture’s Banking practice, says the acquisition “will enhance our capabilities in the payments sector”. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
UnionBank of the Philippines (UnionBank) has launched the New EON, a new digital banking platform (a revamped version of the original EON, launched at the start of the millennium). The mobile biometric authentication tech is provided by Daon.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dashed the hopes of internet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who were hoping to create an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the virtual currency Bitcoin.
Fintech funding news comes thick and fast, so here are four stories in one to save you time. Featuring Revolut, Jirnexu, Airpay and Quantexa. UK-based payments start-up Revolut has launched its 2017 funding round. The latest bout takes place almost a year after it raised £1 million with 10,000 investors registering, pledging in excess of […]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is closing 30 of its own branches and 128 of its subsidiary, NatWest, putting 470 people out of work. The bank says this decision is a result of the changing consumer behaviour, which has now shifted to digital banking.
A man walks into an ATM. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, and well it could be as Comic Relief, one of the UK’s biggest charity fundraisers, is getting help via interactive comedy on cash machines. ATM marketing firm i-design and Cardtronics UK are donating advertising space on cash machine screens to promote […]
The European Commission (EC) has unveiled its action plan for consumers and is asking for feedback on its fintech ambitions. The EC wants to prise open national barriers as only 7% of consumers currently buy financial services from another EU member state. Valdis Dombrovskis, vice-president responsible for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, […]
Criminals have deepened their focus on U.S. online transactions since the country’s October 2015 EMV liability shift, with card-not-present fraud expected to hit $6.4 billion in 2018, according to a new report from the U.S. Payments Forum. The expected total would represent a 23 percent increase from fraud losses in 2017, and a 68 percent increase from 2016.
While the Indian government works toward a digital economy, the Reserve Bank of India is soliciting feedback through March 31 on guidelines for prepaid payment instruments that could adversely affect issuers of prepaid products, including mobile wallets.
