News


People on the Move: Julienne Loh, Felix Marx, Mastercard

Mastercard has restructured its global products and solutions team in Asia Pacific, promoting Julienne Loh to the role of executive vice president, global products and marketing, and Felix Marx to executive vice president of services for the region.

Driving traffic to online banking sites: top keywords

Online search is a vital source of traffic generating around 14% of traffic to global banking sites, according to digital market intelligence agency SimilarWeb. So what are the most searched keywords in the global online banking industry and who is winning this important traffic?

Siri gives N26 payments a voice

Digital bank N26 (formerly Number26) is now offering voice-powered payments via Siri – the “first” bank in Germany to do so. Users can transfer money by talking to Siri; and can also request money from their N26 contacts using Apple’s instant messaging service iMessage. Valentin Stalf, founder and CEO of N26, says: “Our customers can […]

Finovate: innovation, collaboration and ten-year anniversary

Finovate – now ten years old (or young) – has celebrated its anniversary with over 1,600 attendees at its New York show. Banking Technology was a media partner, and FinTech Futures Series, Banking Technology’s sister company, took part in the event.

Bank of Bhutan goes live on TCS Bancs’ core banking system

Bank of Bhutan, the country’s oldest and largest bank, has ditched Oracle FSS’s Flexcube and gone live on TCS Financial Services’ Bancs core banking system. TCS says all existing customers, accounts, lending and internet banking subscribers were migrated from Flexcube (which was originally installed at the bank in 2008) to TCS Bancs. The bank selected […]

Tramonex teams with Saxo Payments for cross-border transfers

Finserv provider Tramonex is partnering with Saxo Payments for segregated client accounts in 25 currencies, and foreign exchange (FX) liquidity. Tramonex has joined the Saxo Payments Banking Circle, and says it is now able to offer its clients individual, physical and virtual accounts with their own unique International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs). Tramonex previously offered […]

Goldman Sachs goes blockchain for FX sake

All aboard the blockchain bandwagon – Goldman Sachs has filed a new patent application to use it on the foreign exchange (FX) market. The latest development follows on from late last year when Goldman Sachs made a patent application for a new virtual currency, dubbed “SETLcoin”, for “nearly instantaneous execution and settlement” of trades involving […]

CIBC completes phase one of transaction banking tech revamp

Intellect iGTB, the global transaction banking software business of Intellect Design Arena, has implemented its products at CIBC. The project is part of a multi-stage transaction banking and payments tech overhaul at the Canadian banking group.

PayU acquires India’s Citrus Pay for $130m

PayU has bought Citrus Pay for $130 million – the “largest ever M&A cash deal” in India’s fintech space. The deal is part of PayU’s growth plans and it claims its number of customers in India will grow to more than 30 million, processing a forecasted 150 million transactions in 2016 worth a combined $4.2 […]

New NAB mobile banking app feast for control freaks

National Australia Bank (NAB) will launch a new mobile banking app later this year – which promises to give customers more control over how, when and where they use their cards. The new app will include card transaction controls to self-manage personal Visa debit and credit cards through a mobile device. And, in an “Australian […]

Evangelische Bank finds Profidata’s Xentis heavenly

Germany-based Evangelische Bank has implemented Profidata’s Xentis as its central platform for portfolio management and for performing depositary functions; and Xpass for automating all order and trade management processes. Swiss firm Profidata says the bank has seen an increase in its number of clients and order volume, so decided on a new portfolio management system […]

Android Pay gets four UK OKs

Natwest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank have all launched on Android Pay in the UK today (13 September), with TSB “coming soon”. The development follows hot on the heels from last week, when US-based Chase Bank customers were able to add their eligible Chase Visa cards to Android Pay. The cards include […]

Facebook Messenger Enables Payments by Chat Bot

Facebook Messenger platform updates announced Sept. 12 have enabled chat bots to accept payments, meaning Messenger users now can make payments within Messenger threads and not have to leave the app. Facebook says it has 1 billion users in 200 countries who use Messenger monthly, and developers and businesses have built more than 30,000 bots for the app.

Apple Warns of Gift Card Scam

Apple is warning consumers that fraudsters are using iTunes gift cards in a scam to trick victims into making payments over the phone. In a notice posted on its Website, Apple said the scam involves victims being called and then being pressured to transfer money over the phone to pay for a bogus claim of an unpaid bill or debt, or a relative who needs to be bailed out of jail.

Mastercard Hit with U.K. Interchange Damage Claim

Mastercard faces a £14 billion claim ($18.6 billion) in the U.K. over interchange fees in a case filed with the country’s Competition Appeal Tribunal. The claim comes two years after the European Union labeled the interchange charged by the payment card network as unfair. European interchange caps went into effect in December of 2015.

FFEIC Updates its Information Security Guides

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has revised the “Information Security” booklet of the agency’s FFIEC Information Technology Examination Handbook.

Visa Rolls Out Red Carpet for Payments Innovation

Visa is offering a glimpse into the future of commerce during the Toronto International Film Festival, running until Sept. 18. In its 20th year sponsoring the festival, Visa is offering festival-goers access to a first-of-its-kind Connected Screen, powered by Ingenico, along with an “immersive virtual shopping experience” that enables them to virtually try on and purchase clothing from a film’s wardrobe department.

GFT and Fidor join forces for mobile banking app development

Following a joint project with O2 to create Germany’s first mobile-only, full-service bank account, GFT Technologies and Fidor have entered a broader “strategic innovation partnership”. The focus is on developing mobile financial and banking apps, and marketing/selling Fidor’s proprietary technology, Fidor Operating Systems (fOS).

Facebook Messenger v1.2 enables native payments in chatbots

Facebook has announced its Messenger bots can now accept payments natively, without redirecting users to external sites. The announcement was made by David Marcus, head of Facebook Messenger, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, as he unveiled the launch of the Messenger platform v1.2.

UnifyID launches “holistic implicit authentication” platform, the first of its kind

UnifyID, a California-based fintech start-up, has brought to market its flagship identity and authentication platform. The proposition is “holistic implicit authentication”, i.e. it leverages the individual’s uniqueness to identify and authenticate the person by combining a number of biometric authentication features, analysing the patterns and utilising the machine learning technology.

Singapore and Switzerland strengthen fintech co-operation

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) have signed an agreement to foster more fintech co-operation. The plan is to share information, support financial innovators, smooth out regulations, and offer more dialogue and secondments. To provide more evidence, FINMA says it is “consistently removing unnecessary regulatory hurdles” – […]

Dodd-Frank Overhaul Plan Goes before Financial Services Committee

The House Financial Services Committee will meet Sept. 13 to mark up a bill that would overturn major provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Initially proposed in June by Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the Financial CHOICE Act would strip significant authority away from the CFPB, renaming it the Consumer Financial Opportunity Commission and tasking the agency with the dual mission of protecting consumers and ensuring competitive markets.

PCI Council Updates Payment Device Standard to Keep Up with Criminals

In an effort to thwart advanced attacks by criminals, the PCI Security Standards Council has released updated specifications to protect cardholder data stored on mag stripe and EMV chip cards when used at ATMs, in-store and unattended payment terminals and mobile devices.

Allevo’s FinTP gets SEPA compliant for EximBank

Allevo’s open source application, FinTP, is now SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) compliant for EximBank (Export-Import Bank of Romania). The FinTP collaboration between state-owned EximBank and Allevo started one year ago, when the bank chose to implement the solution for low-value Euro payment instructions. EximBank now takes the partnership “one step further with the implementation of […]

SKG Bank launches digital-only lending and consumer credit service

SKG Bank, the consumer finance arm of Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB), has unveiled a digital-only lending and consumer credit service. In co-operation with Munich-based FinTecSystems, DKB says in the future loans can be arranged without submitting documents such as bank statements. Thomas Teuber, director of SKG Bank, says its customers “can close more quickly and completely […]