News


Visa Pushes Mobile Biometrics for Authentication

Visa hopes to spread the use of biometrics authentication by developing a mobile app that enables the use of multiple biometrics markers. The idea behind the technology, which Visa says it’s creating with BioConnect, is that if a consumer’s default biometric fails to work for some reason, the app will allow that person to use another such marker. For instance, a person’s fingers might be too damp to allow fingerprint access into a device, so the app might then enable voice recognition.

Samsung Pay Launches Rewards Program

Heeding the advice of many payments experts who say mobile wallets need to do more than enable payments, Samsung has launched a points-based rewards program for Samsung Pay. Consumers using the mobile wallet for purchases can earn points from those transactions and then use those points to buy Samsung products and vouchers, along with gift cards and value that can be transferred to the Samsung Rewards Visa prepaid card.

New Text-Based Service Could Help Nigerian E-Payments Push

A group of financial services and telecom providers has banded together to launch a new mobile payment service to help increase electronic payments in Nigeria. Known as mCASH, the platform is a joint venture of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, numerous Nigerian deposit banks and the country’s four main telecom providers: Etisalat, MTN, Airtel and Globacom.

Stellar offers sponsorship for fintech start-ups

Stellar Development Foundation is offering sponsorships for fintech start-ups, and those who educate developers or represent an NGO. Sponsorship is available in the forms of “lumens” – Stellar’s unit of digital currency, similar to a Bitcoin. The firm says its goal is to support new products and ideas, and for those enabling that goal via […]

Fujitsu teams with fintech five to launch new customer onboarding tech

Fujitsu has launched its customer onboarding technology, Smart Origination, developed in partnership with ImageWare Systems, InAuth, Intelligent Environments, Mitek and Trunomi. The tech enables financial institutions to collect, process and verify documents and the identity of new applicants in “less than five minutes”. Gary Fegan, head of digital financial services solutions at Fujitsu, says Smart […]

IBM and KYCK! go blockchain for KYC

IBM has unveiled a blockchain-powered Know Your Customer (KYC) project with Singapore start-up KYCK! to help financial services providers onboard customers quicker and cheaper. Using the open source Hyperledger Project Fabric, IBM says immutability, traceability and privacy of the information is provided on a permissioned distributed ledger which is “critical” in a highly regulated environment. […]

Metro Bank, SETL and Deloitte explore blockchain for consumer payments

SETL, Deloitte and Metro Bank say they have completed “a series of firsts”. SETL provided a contactless smartcard for digitised payments (based on blockchain), Deloitte applied its Smart Identity blockchain ID system, and Metro Bank hosted a connected client account.

OCBC first in Southeast Asia for interbank blockchain payments

OCBC says it is the first bank in Southeast Asia to use blockchain for local and cross-border interbank fund transfers. A successful pilot payment transaction was carried out between the bank and its subsidiaries, OCBC Malaysia and Bank of Singapore, using a payment blockchain solution designed by OCBC and local payments firm BCS Information Systems […]

Cash back after Bangladesh Bank cyber hack

Bangladesh’s central bank is hoping to get back $30 million more of the $81 million stolen from its account at the New York Federal Reserve in February, according to Reuters. As Banking Technology reported earlier this year, Bangladesh Bank said a total of $101 million was “wrongly transmitted”, of which $20 million went to a […]

More Positive Signs for Holiday Gift Card Sales

Indications continue to be positive for gift card sales this holiday season, with a recent report coming from Mercator Advisory Group predicting a bounce-back year from 2015, and research from the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association highlighting the popularity of digital gift cards, regardless of season.

NetSpend Squares Off with FTC over Prepaid Card Access

The Federal Trade Commission has charged NetSpend with deceiving cardholders and denying or delaying their access to funds, but the prepaid provider says any delays stem from federal regulations and that consumers are not being deceived.

Vantiv Will Buy U.S. Subsidiary of Moneris

Vantiv, which sells payment processing services and technology, said that it will pay $425 million to buy U.S.-based merchant acquirer Moneris Solutions Inc. from Moneris Solutions Corp., which is headquartered in Canada.

V-Key teams with Ant Financial for mobile payments

V-Key, a Singapore-based digital security firm, and Ant Financial have teamed up for mobile payments. Under the partnership, V-Key will provide its virtual software solution, V-OS, for Ant Financial to help secure transactions on AliExpress, one of Alibaba Group’s retail ecommerce platforms. (Ant Financial is an affiliate company of Alibaba Group). V-Key will also provide […]

DBS unveils Singapore innovation lab

DBS has launched its Singapore innovation lab – DBS Asia X (or DAX) – as it looks to speed up change in its organisation. Neal Cross, chief innovation officer at DBS Bank, says the bank is “not known for taking huge risks or making massive pivots” but now it wants to “inculcate start-up mindsets”. DAX […]

ANZ launches innovation lab in Singapore

Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, has launched an innovation lab, called ANZ BlueSpace, in Singapore as it looks to work with fintech participants from industry, academia and government. ANZ will tap into Singapore’s “thriving fintech community” and develop capabilities for its institutional customers. David Green, ANZ CEO Singapore and head of South East […]

Copenhagen Fintech opens doors

Copenhagen Fintech, a collaborative venture between the Danish Bankers Association, Financial Services Union Denmark, and the City of Copenhagen, has officially opened for business.

31 banks and credit unions in Australia to get Apple Pay

Cuscal, a major payments provider to Australia’s credit unions and smaller banks, has signed a deal with Apple to bring Apple Pay to its customers. The service will be available to nearly four million Australians that bank with 31 entities (which work with Cuscal).

R3 and ten member banks develop KYC service proof-of-concept

The R3 consortium and ten of its member banks have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a know your customer (KYC) registry “that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying KYC requirements and allows identities to be managed by their owners”.

Fintech start-ups in Europe to get up to €1.6bn in funding from EIF

The European Commission (EC) has pledged up to €400 million to the European Investment Fund’s (EIF) new fund-of-funds – for the money to be spent on start-ups in Europe, including in the fintech space. The EC will also look for three times more investment from institutional investors to make up to €1.6 billion available.

Citi Pay on Way as Bank Is Latest to M-Wallet Fray

The recent surge of bank-backed mobile wallets continues, with Citi the latest financial institution to announce it’s getting into the game. The bank on Nov. 10 unveiled its Citi Pay app, which will enable customers to make online and mobile purchases using their Citi card accounts via Mastercard’s Masterpass digital payments service.

Nordea fully automates processing of Swift MT798 messaging

Nordea has announced it now can handle the Swift MT798 messaging in a fully automated manner. MT798 facilitates corporate-to-bank (C2B) and bank-to-corporate (B2C) communication for the processing of documentary credits and guarantees.

People on the Move: Jay Arbabha, CPI Card Group

Card fulfillment and manufacturing specialist CPI Card Group has appointed Jay Arbabha as chief technology officer, responsible for leading the development of CPI’s technology strategy and IT operations.

Company on the Move: Locke Lord LLP, Chambers UK Rankings 

The recently published Chambers UK 2017 legal ratings recognized several Locke Lord LLP lawyers as leading practitioners in their respective practice areas and recognized two of the firm’s U.K. practice areas for excellence.