Fraud and fintech partnerships; big data and blockchain—all are among the hottest topics in payments—and will continue to be major forces shaping the industry in 2017, according to a new report from Vantiv Inc. The first installment of the payment processor and technology solutions provider’s Trends to Watch in 2017—focused on financial institutions—tabbed those four areas as especially important points of emphasis for banks in the New Year.
While digital payments providers have enjoyed significant boosts in transaction volume—some as much as triple-digits—since the government banned two popular currency notes, the uptick in digital payments also has led to online traffic jams and fraud, according to several news outlets.
Because you’ve all been so good this year, here’s a fintech funding round-up to save you time… so you can eat and drink more over Christmas. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and a group of other financial institutions including ICAP’s venture arm are finalising an investment in blockchain start-up Axoni, according to Reuters. New York-based […]
Jargon Bank has launched in the UK offering “compelling and innovative” products that have left journalists diving for cover… usually to the nearest pubs. In a press release, that ideally shouldn’t have been sent, the hipster-friendly bank decided that wishy-washy and generic statements would somehow garner the respect of fintech publications across the world. Serial […]
Arab Bank (Switzerland), a private bank in Geneva, has signed a long-term deal with Avaloq for the vendor’s complete business process outsourcing (BPO) services.
Credit card firm MBNA is to be taken over by Lloyds. The firm’s current owner, Bank of America, has agreed to sell it for £1.9 billion. The deal is expected to close in H1 2017.
Central securities depositary Euroclear and blockchain firm Paxos have completed the first pilot for Euroclear Bankchain, a new blockchain settlement service for London bullion due to go live in 2017. Over 600 OTC test bullion trades were settled on the Euroclear Bankchain platform over the course of the two-week pilot. Angus Scott, director, product strategy […]
Pay @ Pump is a self-service beer pump that you can pay for contactlessly with your phone, enabling punters to get drunk more quickly than ever before, reports Scott Bicheno at Telecoms.com. The innovation was inspired by Barclaycard’s empathy for UK boozers who often have to wait for minutes for their next fix of lovely, […]
Emirates Islamic Bank, a Shari’ah-compliant banking subsidiary of Emirates NBD, has migrated to a new core banking platform, Infosys’ Finacle.
Money transfer firms WorldRemit and Xpress Money have partnered to unveil a remittance service to Pakistan. Through Xpress Money’s agent partner network, WorldRemit customers will be able to make instant money transfers to be collected at over 9,500 cash pick-up locations all over the country – including major banks, Al Habib Bank, Bank Alfalah, Bank […]
Get straight to the core of US core banking systems projects with this brief round-up. Oklahoma-based Green Country Federal Credit Union has selected Fiserv’s Portico core account processing platform for digital and mobile banking, and functionality for commercial lending. Green Country is transferring its technology from an array of providers to Fiserv, and the latter […]
Mastercard and Visa have joined forces in a bid to help fast-track the adoption of tokenization for mobile and online payments—and, eventually, payments via connected devices within the Internet of Things (IoT). A new partnership between the rival networks enables tokenized Mastercard payment credentials to be provisioned into Visa Checkout, and, in turn, tokenized Visa credentials to be provisioned into Masterpass.
MetaBank has finalised its purchase of a tax refund loan company.
A plethora of mobile wallets and payment apps are expected to flood the market in the next two years, and the sheer number of choices are likely to “confuse” many consumers, who ultimately might look to their financial institutions to be their mobile wallet provider, according to a recent report by Javelin Strategy & Research.
Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider, and digital bank Fidor have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for digital payments. The MoU will see Token’s software made available within Fidor OS, its digital banking and open community middleware solution. Steve Kirsch, founder and CEO of Token, says its software enables banks to “call the […]
You can design your Website to be mobile-friendly, engage the right search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to attract eyeballs and create compelling content to engage consumers. But if your checkout process has inefficiencies, you could lose sales from customers who abandon their shopping carts—an outcome that is more common than one may think, and for reasons that could easily be avoidable.
ICAP, a UK-based financial services firm, is jumping on the bandwagon and getting ready to process foreign exchange (FX) trades on blockchain, according to the Financial Times. As Banking Technology reported earlier this year, ICAP’s post trade risk and information division completed a proof of technology test case for blockchain – so its interest is […]
Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Bank has launched a pilot to explore how its blockchain application Torch can be used in real estate transactions to record and exchange information. The bank says real estate transactions involve numerous parties, such as buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords, appraisers, notaries, banks, the Land Registry Office, the Chamber of Commerce and regulators. […]
Temenos has gone on the record about its core banking software deal with US-based Commerce Bank. As reported exclusively by Banking Technology in June, Temenos was heading towards a contract with Commerce Bank – competing with Fiserv and its DNA offering.
Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia, the “first” incubator and accelerator in Spain, is calling for start-ups to submit applications. Spanish bank Bankia and Valencia-based fintech firm Innsomnia have teamed up, and are looking for five ideas, start-ups or spin-offs of consolidated companies to develop their activities in almost every area of the fintech industry. Jose Ignacio […]
The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has started a co-ordinated industry-wide effort to tackle payment scams. The regulator today (16 December) published its response to a super-complaint issued by consumer watchdog Which?, about protection for people making authorised “push” payments. In its response the PSR outlines an approach that “will see regulators and industry commit […]
Drooms, a provider of virtual data rooms, has agreed a deal to acquire DealMarket with effect from 1 January 2017 to boost its service portfolio for the entire asset lifecycle. Zurich-based DealMarket has developed a cloud-based software package for private equity investors, family offices and corporate finance experts, allowing them to manage the deal flow […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Citi and FIS have formed separate agreements with PayPal for Citi cardmembers and FIS linking payment cards. For Citi, its customers will be able to use their Citi Cards with PayPal – online, in-app and in store – in 2017. Terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. With this agreement, Citi says it is […]
Amsterdam-based banking software vendor Ohpen has signed a long-term outsourcing agreement with Dutch state-owned bank SNS to deliver its business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions to support the investment propositions of ASN Bank, BLG Wonen, RegioBank and SNS. The services, underpinned by Ohpen’s Microsoft.Net-based core banking platform, will start by the end of 2017. Ohpen CCO […]
Five months after Department of Education rules regulating financial aid disbursements went into effect, the CFPB released a report on Dec. 14 claiming that marketing deals between banks and colleges often promote financial products that lead to high overdraft and other fees. Meanwhile, industry observers note that overdraft—when permitted—requires students to opt-in and there are other ways to avoid fees.
After reaching deals earlier this year with Mastercard and Visa to stop steering users away from paying with cards in favor of ACH, PayPal Inc. has struck pacts with Citi and FIS that will enable U.S. consumers to pay with bank-issued cards and accounts within the PayPal app for in-store and mobile purchases.
Atlanta-based prepaid product and transaction services company InComm is expanding its partnership with Target Australia from offering gift cards at Target’s online gift card store to launching point-of-sale technology in all 306 Target stores in the country.
The expanded capability enables U.S. consumers and small businesses with OPEN cards, to add American Express card and billing information to their Facebook accounts. Once the information is added, cardholders can make in-game purchases and shop on business’ Facebook pages.
A recent study from VocaLink polled more than 5,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 35 on their payments behavior and preferences. And while the survey found that cash has lost ground to cards for most types of payments, it’s stubbornly clinging to the No. 1 spot when it comes to P2P.
Ghana-based Beige Capital Savings and Loans (BCSL) is in the final stages of rolling out Temenos’ T24 core banking system. The T24 project formally kicked off in February this year, after the November 2015 launch of BCSL’s new technology centre in Accra. During that same period consultants from Temenos and London-based systems integrator Jethro were […]
Innovation Down Under gets jazzed up. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released class waivers to allow eligible fintech firms to test certain specified services without holding an Australian financial services (AFS) or credit licence. ASIC commissioner John Price says its fintech licensing exemption is “unique” and “no other major jurisdiction has implemented […]
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Fintech start-up Taplend has launched in the UK offering a combination of peer-to-peer (P2P) and payday lending. Viktor Ihnatiuk, CEO and co-founder of Taplend, says: “This was a very long, hard and interesting year. We made three iterations of the product, tried to enter the US market twice and failed. We didn’t give up, switched […]
JN Fund Managers (JNFM) has chosen Objectway’s Conectus solution for digital communication and reporting on clients’ investments. JNFM, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), will use interactive collaboration tools such as chat, video call and screen-sharing. Investors will also be able to make requests digitally and place trade orders. Sharon Whitelocke, […]
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a new availability zone in London which indicates all is not well in the UK following Brexit, reports Jamie Davies at Telecoms.com. The new data centre creates the 16th availability zone worldwide for the public cloud leader, and is the first available in the UK. To date, customers in the […]
Microsoft has teamed with AMIS and the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI) to form Asia’s “first” consortium blockchain network on Azure. They will use AMIS’s blockchain solutions with Azure as the cloud platform – “the only platform with BaaS” (Banking-as-a-Service). Azure will provide public, private and hybrid cloud models; and business and technical […]
US-based Charles Schwab has launched its Schwab Intelligent Advisory, a hybrid advisory service that combines people and a robo-advisor. Schwab Intelligent Advisory will provide investors with a financial plan, guidance from “certified financial planner professionals”, and a fully automated portfolio using algorithm driven technology. The service is expected to launch in the first half of […]
Tokyo-based IT provider NEC Corporation is conducting trials for cashless payment services using NEC facial recognition technology in co-operation with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Card. The SMBC trials will continue to 30 January 2017, involving around 1,000 employees at the dining facilities of SMBC’s head office. […]
UK-based International Property Securities Exchange (IPSX) is waiting for approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and has signed for new trading tech from Cinnober. IPSX describes itself as “the world’s first regulated stock exchange dedicated to trading of commercial property securities”. It needs a recognised investment exchange (RIE) licence from FCA to be able […]
