Amex Patent Seeks to Improve Reward Redemption
American Express could be exploring a way to enable its cardholders to pay with loyalty points on e-commerce sites or mobile wallets, according to a recently released patent application.
News
Refresh continues at Lombard Risk: new product, brand and website launched
A long-standing regulatory reporting software vendor, Lombard Risk, is undergoing a shake-up, with new identity, website and product offering unveiled. This follows on from the recent management overhaul, including the arrival of new CEO, Alastair Brown (he moved from RBS) and new global head of product, Tina Wilkinson (she moved from FIS/Sungard), and the resignation […]
Equiniti acquires Risk Factor and KYCnet
Equiniti Group has completed the purchase of Risk Factor and KYCnet. The acquisitions are part of Equiniti’s strategy of buying specialist technology platforms to provide regulation driven services for its clients. Last year it bought Transglobal Payment Solutions, while back in 2012 it acquired investment system supplier Peterevans. It also purchased a UK-based lending software […]
Standard Chartered brings “Bank on an iPad” to new markets
Standard Chartered has launched its “Bank on an iPad” sales and service tool in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Called Retail Workbench, it is a digital tablet-based sales-and-service tool that “brings the bank” to clients. It is integrated with the bank’s back-end infrastructure, and will allow sales staff to open an account for a […]
Tuxedo launches world’s first “live load” payments platform
UK payments provider Tuxedo has launched a “live load” payments technology platform, which removes the need to prepay. The vendor says it is the world’s first. The platform is based upon a single, partner-issued Visa or MasterCard, which is linked to customers’ existing payment sources via Tuxedo’s own platform. The platform is PCIDSS (Payment Card […]
Finnish SME banking specialist, Holvi, acquired by BBVA
BBVA has acquired Finnish online-only payments and banking services provider Holvi, as it seeks to expand its portfolio of digital businesses. Holvi will continue to be run as a standalone business, and Spain-based BBVA says there will be a “two-way flow of knowledge, ideas and support” between both parties. Teppo Paavola, chief development officer and […]
US to move to shorter T+2 settlement cycle by September 2017
Make a note, 5th September 2017 has been unveiled as the industry target for the US to move from a T+3 to a T+2 settlement cycle. The decision on this has been reached by the US T+2 Industry Steering Committee (T+2 ISC), organised by The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and co-chaired by the […]
Ulster Bank and KPMG launch start-up hub in Northern Ireland
Ulster Bank and KPMG have launched the “world’s largest free business accelerator” for entrepreneurs – Entrepreneurial Spark – in Belfast in Northern Ireland. The new hub, or “Hatchery”, can host up to 80 businesses and early stage entrepreneurs. Also involved in the launch were Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest (all three are part […]
Harvest Doubles Down on Call for Change at Green Dot
Harvest Capital Strategies has escalated its criticism of Green Dot Corp. and reiterated its call for the ouster of Green Dot CEO Steve Streit. In a letter sent to Green Dot’s board of directors last week, Harvest blasted what it called Green Dot’s failure to respond adequately a previous letter Harvest sent the company in January, in which the hedge fund manager outlined concerns with Green Dot’s performance and called for the removal of Streit and other two board members.
Fed: Small Banks Not Feeling the Hurt from Debit Interchange Limits
Despite some claims from the banking industry that small banks may be at a competitive disadvantage in a post-Durbin Amendment interchange environment, a new Philadelphia Fed report suggests that banks with less than $10 billion in assets have not suffered from the Durbin Amendment, which capped debit card interchange for larger financial institutions.
Google Tests ‘Hands-Free’ Shopping Via Digital Photos
Google’s new Hands Free shopping test enables consumers to pay with smartphones but make purchases via digital photos of their faces. It represents the newest frontier for mobile payments.
suretap Wallet Discontinues Prepaid Card, Keeps Loyalty
Canada’s first mobile wallet suretap has announced its discontinuing its prepaid MasterCard program effective at the end of April. What’s staying is the wallet’s capability of loading credit and gift cards for payment and a loyalty program, which enables consumers to integrate more than 20 loyalty programs with the wallet.
NCR brings first bill payment kiosk to Taiwan
NCR Corporation (NCR) has customised the first ever financial kiosk solution in Taiwan for E.Sun Bank. Called E.Sun iPayment Kiosk, it includes bill payment, statement printing and notes exchange. The bank also selected NCR Aptra Connections software to run on the kiosk and purchased NCR SelfServ ATMs to provide personalised ATM transactions. The E.Sun iPayment […]
Infographics: the state of fintech industry as we know it
Who, what, where, when of the fintech industry today – this excellent infographics pulls together plenty of useful data, from top specialists, unicorns and start-ups to geographies and M&As. Created by Savvy Beaver and Call Levels.
MasterCard mulls VocaLink acquisition
MasterCard could be buying the UK’s payments infrastructure, VocaLink, in a £1-billion acquisition, according to Sky News. Following the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) telling banks last month that they should sell their stake in VocaLink to “help increase innovation and competition”, MasterCard is reportedly in talk with those banks. According to David Bannister, financial services […]
AnaCap buys more NPLs in Italy; plans digital bank in the UK
AnaCap Financial Partners, a private equity firm based in the UK, has acquired non-performing loans (NPLs) of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and GE Capital Real Estate in Italy. It is also understood to be crystallising a strategy to launch a new digital bank in the UK. The acquisitive PE firm has gained over €2 […]
Lloyds launches digital analytics innovation team
Lloyds Banking Group has created an in-house digital analytics team in the UK. This was in “partnership” with ASI (Advanced Skills Institute) and Google. However, the Lloyds’ team does not include any staff from Google. The bank tested Google’s big data platform technologies and analytics on non-personal behavioural data using a “secure” Lloyds account on […]
Swift India goes live
Swift India Domestic Services (Swift India) has gone live as the nation seeks to improve its digital economy. Swift India is a joint venture created by Swift, the global banking co-operative, and nine partner banks to “address domestic market needs” of the Indian financial services industry. After receiving formal approval from the Reserve Bank of […]
Dwolla docked dollars for its data security
US payments start-up Dwolla has been fined $100,000 by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for its data security. Data security issues included: “Use appropriate measures to identify reasonably foreseeable security risks; ensure that employees who have access to or handle consumer information received adequate training and guidance about security risks; use encryption technologies to […]
Top fintech stories this week – 4 March 2016
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! D+H Corporation bullish on payments software business Do you hear it? That’s the sound of optimistic noises. ICE pours cold water on Deutsche Börse and LSE merger bid ICE ICE maybe, ICE ICE maybe. Out of Africa for […]
Jyske Bank live with new reporting system from Vermilion Software
Vermilion Software, a UK-based supplier of client reporting and communications software, has completed a project at Jyske Bank in Denmark. Jyske Bank, which holds the third largest market share in Denmark and specialises in private banking, embarked on the IT revamp last summer. On the way out was the in-house built system. Jacob Jensen, head […]
Family Bank deploys new bancassurance system, JMR Infotech’s Avenir
Kenya-based Family Bank is implementing a new insurance platform, based on JMR Infotech’s Avenir offering. Avenir – an integrated bancassurance portal – will support Family Bank’s fresh entry into the insurance business. Just a couple of months back, the bank unveiled a new subsidiary, Family Bank Insurance Agency, to target “the lucrative but highly under-served […]
Google pilots “Hands Free” payment app
Google has built a pilot app, allowing payments in stores “completely hands-free”. The app, wait for it, is called Hands Free. Pali Bhat, senior director, product management at Google, says in a blog post: “Imagine if you could rush through a drive-thru without reaching for your wallet, or pick up a hot dog at the […]
R3 ends “first of its kind” blockchain trial with 40 banks
New York-based R3 CEV has finished its trial of five distinct blockchain technologies in parallel in the “first test of its kind”. The trial represented the trading of fixed income assets between 40 of the world’s “largest” banks across the blockchains, using cloud technology providers within R3’s Global Collaborative Lab. The banks, including Barclays, Deutsche […]
Nasdaq to support ASX in post-trade technology overhaul
Nasdaq will replace Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) existing equities and equity options clearing technology platforms. ASX says it wants to consolidate its number of post-trade platforms and this latest deal forms a “significant element” of its tech revamp programme outlined in February 2015. Tim Thurman, CIO at ASX, says: “While we have announced that ASX […]
Baymarkets takes over SIX x-clear’s Clara clearing solution
Sweden’s Baymarkets has taken over the support, maintenance and development of SIX x-clear’s Clara clearing system. Baymarkets says the addition of Clara to its product set will “complement” its integrated Edge platform, and creates a complete end-to-end solution. The Swedish company adds that the current team, who were developing and maintaining Clara to date, will […]
Bottomline launches Direct FPS Service for payments
Bottomline Technologies has launched a new payments gateway solution, Direct FPS Service. The company says the service aims to help challenger banks gain access to the UK payments market, as well as enable any organisation wishing to make “quick” payments to their customers or suppliers. It works under the New Access Model, designed to allow […]
Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait selects Infosys’ Finacle for tech revamp
Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) has picked Infosys’ Finacle suite to replace Misys’ products as part of its technology revamp. The bank will deploy the complete suite of Finacle solutions, including core banking, trade finance, wealth management, CRM, e-banking, payments, treasury, alerts, SMS banking, liquidity management, retail and corporate loan origination. Abdulla Alsumait, deputy […]
CFPB Makes First Data Security Enforcement against Dwolla
The CFPB has hit online payments provider Dwolla with an enforcement action over what the agency describes as misleading claims the company made about customers’ data security and the risks of using Dwolla’s online system. The action is the CFPB’s first enforcement related to a data security issue, the agency said.
Wirecard on a Tear: New Prepaid Card, Two Acquisitions
Wirecard Technologies GmbH has been busy, launching a new Visa-branded prepaid/credit product in Germany today, following recent acquisitions in Romania and Brazil. Today the company released mycard2go prepaid card, which is the first Visa Simply One combined card that enables acceptance at merchants that take Visa credit and V PAY debit cards.
Square Opens up Cash Drawer
Square Inc. has added a new feature to its Square Cash P2P money transfer service that enables users to store funds within their Square Cash accounts—a move that means the service can fulfill some of the functions of a mobile wallet.
Turkish Man Pleads Guilty in $55 Million Global ATM Heist Scheme
A Turkish man pled guilty Tuesday in a federal court in Brooklyn to planning and leading cyber-attacks that swiped $55 million from ATMs around the world.
NYSE Group’s trading tech platform completes key rollout phase
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Group says Pillar, its integrated trading technology platform, completed a “key phase” in its rollout and is on track in the testing stage. Pillar will allow connection to all equities and options markets using a single specification, and NYSE Group says it has been “designed to reduce complexity”. It says […]
Korean stock exchange plans blockchain-powered platform
Korea Exchange (KRX), the securities exchange operator in South Korea, plans to launch a platform powered by blockchain to liven up the off-board trading market. According to The Korean Times, KRX has started “preliminary steps” to introduce the new platform connecting sellers and buyers to trade securities directly. “Though many steps remain before the system’s […]
ABN Amro teams with First Data for payments
Dutch state-owned bank, ABN Amro, is partnering with US-based First Data for payments and will offer services through its joint venture European Merchant Services (EMS). EMS has been processing credit card and debit card payments for businesses for over 25 years, and ABN Amro says entrepreneurs and small business owners will be able to add […]
Robots to rule as Mizuho Bank modernises with IBM Research platform
Mizuho Bank plans to use a new robotics platform developed by IBM Research-Tokyo for the bank’s customer service-oriented robots. IBM says its researchers are developing new technologies that will “benefit” Mizuho’s Robotics platform by tapping into Watson’s (IBM’s cognitive technology) language and other capabilities to provide a “smoother human/robot interaction and to enable collaboration between […]
D+H Corporation bullish on payments software business
North American software provider, D+H Corporation, has made optimistic noises over its Global Transaction Banking Solution (GTBS) unit in its latest financial results. The vendor claims to have “won a majority of payment hub RFPs” as well as “surpassed the Fundtech [now GTBS] backlog record” in generating revenue from the existing projects. Gerrard Schmid, CEO […]
Mobile, IoT, P2P payments will rule the future
Be mobile, be fast and be ready for the demise of paper currency.
CFPB’s Latest Complaint Report Spotlights Prepaid
The CFPB’s latest consumer complaint report is out, and this month the agency took a closer look at prepaid-related complaints. Even though the agency says prepaid complaints “spiked in recent months,” such complaints continue to comprise a small fraction of the issues brought to the bureau’s attention.
Sen. Rounds Calls on CFPB for Cost-Benefit Analysis for Benefits Cards
As the CFPB prepares to release its final rule on prepaid accounts—expected this month—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) is urging the agency to conduct a cost-benefit analysis on how the rule would affect government benefits cards and potentially increase taxpayer costs.
