Banking


Symphony and Markit join forces to promote Collaboration-Platform-as-a-Service

Symphony, a new instant messaging service, and Markit have partnered to promote the adoption of a Collaboration-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS), “to enable richer workflow and collaboration throughout the financial industry and other sectors”. As part of the agreement, Markit will develop hosted applications and data delivery services, which will be made available via the Symphony service. Brad […]

TCS to deliver cloud-based post-trade processing platform to Sernova Financial

Sernova Financial, a UK-based provider of turnkey post-trade services, has recruited TCS to deliver a new cloud-based derivatives post trade processing service. The software underpinning this service is supplied by Calypso. TCS says this tie-up “combines Sernova’s capital markets expertise, Calypso platform’s capability and TCS’s bouquet of capital markets solutions”. Venkat Ramasamy, executive chairman of […]

ING deploys ThetaRay’s analytics solution for fraud detection in SME lending

Israel-based specialist vendor ThetaRay has implemented its Advanced Analytics Solution at ING Netherlands for fraud detection. The vendor says that combining its tech with ING’s standing risk engine will enable the bank to detect new instances of SME lending fraud hidden within massive amounts of transactional and organisational data – in real-time and with industry-low false […]

Will AI make active managers prove their worth?

Research released late last year suggested that almost two thirds (62%) of a survey of 90 German institutional investors predict greater usage of artificial intelligence (AI) for short-term decision-making, and 17% for medium-term investment decisions. Universal Investments, the asset manager behind the research, said that “the industry’s future thus certainly appears to be closely linked […]

Evolution, not revolution – Robeco’s take on blockchain

Asset management firm Robeco has released its findings and views on the much-discussed subject of blockchain. The overall theme is to be sensible, study the facts and not fall for the hype when it comes to this emerging technology. The report, “Distributed ledger technology for the financial industry. Blockchain administration 3.0”, has been created by […]

SCT Inst scheme: instant payments Europe-wide – have your say!

Flexibility and transparency are key to the first pan-European instant payments scheme, states Javier Santamaria, chairman of the European Payments Council (EPC). Currently, instant payments in Europe operate only within the borders of individual countries or among customers of the same payment service providers (PSPs). To move away from this fragmentation, the EPC was invited […]

Top fintech stories this week – 17 June 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! UniCredit and Open Bank Project launch fintech start-up competition Top prize is €50,000 and a contract to work with UniCredit. BBA to merge with three trade associations to create major industry body British Bankers Association (BBA), Council of […]

uTrade unveils blockchain tech solution, GMEX the first taker

India-based uTrade Solutions has launched uClear, a blockchain tech solution for real-time clearing and settlement for financial markets. The first taker is Global Markets Exchange (GMEX) Group. It will integrate uClear next month through its GMEX Technologies subsidiary and with the support of its development partner, Forum Trading Solutions. Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group […]

Wells Fargo invests in Alpha Payments Cloud

Alpha Payments Cloud, a provider of the AlphaHub Payments-as-a-Service platform, has received investment from Wells Fargo. Through its Startup Accelerator programme, for the next six months Wells Fargo will collaborate with Alpha Payments Cloud on its global payments network technologies for merchants. The company says its valuation now stands at $100 million. Wells Fargo’s Startup […]

SDC and Signicat bring cross-border digital signing to 120 Scandinavian banks

SDC has signed a deal with Signicat for the latter’s cloud-based eID digital signing solution to be rolled out by SDC’s banking clients in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands. SDC supplies financial technology and data processing services to 120+ banks in Scandinavia. Signicat, the first and largest identity assurance provider in the world, […]

Micro is the biggest thing

Call it “innovation”, “transformation” or just “business”, banks are spending time and money in the pursuit of the gear shift that will protect margins and grow revenue in the digital era. The time for big, bold moves is upon us, yet it appears that the biggest move of all is tiny: the trend towards the […]

Morgan Stanley in $1bn cost-cutting exercise, Project Streamline

Morgan Stanley is going through a major cost-cutting initiative – Project Streamline – in an attempt to shed $1 billion in annual costs. James Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s chairman and CEO, outlined the Project Streamline components at a recent conference the bank hosted. Non-client travel expenses is a big part, he said, and this is already […]

Corezoid takes digital core process engine to Amazon Web Services cloud

Corezoid, a US-based provider of a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution to banks, has announced that its product can now be delivered on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. Corezoid’s offering is a process engine for banks to create a digital core. It “allows banks to rethink all of their operations as a set of states and […]

Broadridge to acquire DST Systems’ North American Customer Communications for $410m

DST Systems, a provider of business data services to the financial services and healthcare markets, is selling its North American Customer Communications (NACC) unit to Broadridge Financial Solutions. The deal is valued at $410 million in cash and is expected to close in July. The NACC business generated $1.1 billion in revenue in 2015, or 40% […]

Mambu launches fintech start-up programme

Banking software vendor Mambu has joined forces with a number of accelerators and incubators to launch a new fintech start-up programme. Partners comprise Startupbootcamp FinTech, 500 Startups, Ynext Incubator by Envestnet/Yodlee, Techstars and Citi Accelerator – and those start-ups that are part of these accelerators and incubators are invited to participate in Mambu’s new venture and […]

Broadridge acquires 4sight Financial Software

Broadridge Financial Solutions has taken over fellow vendor 4sight Financial Software, a provider of securities finance and collateral management systems to financial institutions worldwide. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Quayle Munro Limited acted as 4sight’s financial advisor in this transaction. UK-based 4sight was founded in 2003 and grew to acquire a client base […]

Travelex partners with Wirecard to launch new card and mobile product, Supercard

Travelex has launched Supercard, a MasterCard and mobile app combo for UK travellers to avoid debit/credit card roaming fees and charges when spending abroad. Supercard will be chip and PIN protected. The security aspect will be taken care of by a payments firm Wirecard. Following a successful pilot, Supercard is now offered to the UK […]

Neema and MasterCard team up for debit card for migrant workers in Asia

Fintech start-up Neema has issued the MasterCard debit card for migrant workers from the Philippines, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka – which promises to drastically reduce the cost migrant workers pay to send money home. Neema says there are no transfer or foreign currency exchange fees. “One of the biggest expenses for migrant workers is […]

The future of the bank-fintech start-up relationship

As technology continues to proliferate in the world around us, banks are no exception. Digitalisation is revolutionising the way consumers interact with everything – companies such as Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Netflix and Uber have transformed customer expectations and created a ripple effect across all industries. We cannot ignore the forces at work today. Across demographics, banking […]

Myanmar Oriental Bank in banking software revamp

Myanmar Oriental Bank (MOB Bank) is looking to modernise its core banking software. Banking Technology understands that the new system of choice is Temenos’ T24. Temenos provided a “no comment” response. MOB Bank was set up in 1993 and is privately owned. It has 26 branches and offers savings, remittances and SME financing. The bank […]

The regulatory fintech sandboxes: are they really useful?

This truly has been the time of regulators announcing fintech sandboxes – what better thing to write about on my first fintech column here, than the ways regulators and fintechs can work together! There were three announcements in the past couple of weeks around regulatory sandboxes – the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced […]

UniCredit and Open Bank Project launch fintech start-up competition

UniCredit and Open Bank Project, an open source API and app store for banks, invite fintech developers and start-ups to take part in its Appathon competition. The 2016 Appathon is driven by the Open Bank Project API, developed by the Berlin-based Tesobe Ltd/Open Bank Project. Ten companies will be selected to demo their products in […]

Accelerators: bridging the gap in fintech

Since 2015 the fintech market has changed dramatically but even bigger changes are yet to come in 2016 affecting financial services big time, believes Francisco Lorca, MD of a London-based fintech accelerator programme, Startupbootcamp. Tech is coming for banking as more fintech start-ups are springing up. There still huge gap between the collaboration of these two but […]

FIX Trading Community releases standards for MiFID II transaction and trade reporting

FIX Trading Community, the non-profit standards body for the global financial trading industry, has unveiled the FIX Protocol for use for transmitting MiFID II Transaction Reports to Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs). Under MiFID II, all investment firms (including certain buy-side institutions) executing transactions in financial instruments are required to report details of their transactions to […]

Say goodbye to traditional customer segmentation

To stay afloat in a sea of consolidation, financial organisations, including community banks and credit unions, must recognise that their customers are individuals with unique needs. Michael Boukadakis, founder and CEO of Enacomm, explains how technology can help achieve this. Algorithms have advanced, and other industries – from retail to transportation – have raised the bar […]

Point of view: how UK banks can deliver better service to customers

The banks know they need to do better for their millions of UK customers, but the pressing question is how? One answer is to form partnerships with some of the fintech companies that are now gathering momentum as powerful players in the market. Can these potential competitors be the banks new best friends? Jurgen Hutter, […]

Visa Europe unveils augmented reality payment tech

Visa Europe and its innovation hub, Visa Europe Collab, have teamed up with visual discovery and augmented reality app Blippar to bring augmented reality to payments. The new e-commerce solution, unveiled at a recent fashion show in London, enables designer garments to be instantly purchased straight off the backs of models. The pilot fashion brand […]

Top fintech stories this week – 10 June 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Goldman Sachs to underpin new digital bank with Infosys tech It’ll be the e-Finacle digital banking platform, Banking Technology understands. Infographics: The Euro 2016 guide to e-commerce In the spirit of that football tournament that starts today, we’ve got an e-commerce […]

American Express and HSBC part of $75m investment in Tradeshift

Business network Tradeshift says new and existing investors have joined its $75 million series D funding, including HSBC and American Express Ventures. Other investors comprise venture capital firm Data Collective (DCVC), Notion Capital, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, managed by CreditEase, and Pavilion Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Matt Ocko, co-managing partner and co-founder of […]

The banking balance: technology and informed risk decision making

As our society moves to a world propelled by automation, where technology has given way to artificial intelligence, machine learning, driverless cars and delivery drones, it’s not leap of faith for technologists to consider how technological advances can play a role in banking. In fact, given the proliferation of risks and controls that banks and […]

Infographics: FATCA and CRS – how ready are you?

As we enter a new era in global tax reporting with increasing regulations around tax transparency, Banking Technology and Thomson Reuters have gathered industry views from across the globe to piece together a full picture on the financial market’s readiness for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and continued approach to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance […]

ACI Worldwide teams with Raphaels Bank for Faster Payments Scheme access

ACI Worldwide is partnering with UK-based Raphaels Bank, opening up access to the Faster Payments Scheme in the UK for financial institutions (FIs), including challenger banks and payment service providers (PSPs). ACI says its relationship with the bank means FIs and PSPs can use ACI as a “technical aggregator” providing real-time access to Faster Payments […]

Ex-Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins sets up new fintech start-up

Former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has set up a fintech firm called 10X Future Technologies. Jenkins, who was sacked by Barclays in summer 2015 for failing to transform the bank quickly enough, has appointed himself as the sole director of 10X Future Technologies. He has refused to comment on what he plans to do with […]

Volante launches a “plug and play” Ripple integration solution

Volante Technologies has launched a new solution – as part of its VolPay Foundation payments platform – for integration with Ripple’s distributed ledger technology. Volante’s software has been Ripple-ready since last autumn, says the vendor, and following “close engagement with Ripple” it has now brought to market an “integration solution wholly designed to simplify the […]

Real-time payments in the US: right said Fed

Will everyone really benefit from the real-time payments coming to the US? Can the US regulator mandate the banking sector to adopt it? And what are the chances of this new faster payments system becoming ubiquitous? Banking Technology digs deeper, past the hype. It’s a pretty safe bet that the roll-out of faster payments in […]

How to keep mobile app users engaged

With two thirds of people now owning a smartphone in the UK, demand is high amongst consumers to have connectivity at their fingertips. Add to this the fact that 39% of adults have at least one banking-based app, and it presents a real opportunity for banks to serve engaging content to the many consumers who are […]

Temenos eyes Iran’s core banking software market

Temenos is closing in on a core and digital banking software deal in Iran, Banking Technology understands. The vendor is believed to be in talks with Ayandeh Bank (Future Bank). The bank offers retail and commercial banking services. The systems on offer are the T24 core banking platform and Temenos Connect for digital channels. No […]

Digital currency & payments: heads together on the blockchain

It’s difficult to avoid writing about distributed ledger technologies, so we won’t. Last month Australian Craig Wright claimed to be the elusive inventor of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Displaying uncharacteristic scepticism, many mainstream media outlets doubted his claims. Whether it’s true or not, the story attracted great interest. Distributed ledger, blockchain (some argue the two are […]

With the acceleration of time, will we run out of cash?

“Youth is wasted on the young,” so said George Bernard Shaw. Only recently I read that this wasn’t exactly the quote he gave. To the question of what is the most beautiful thing, the Irishman responded: “Youth is the most beautiful thing in this world—and what a pity that it has to be wasted on […]

Visa Inc gets green light to take over Visa Europe

The European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Visa Europe by Visa Inc. This concludes all regulatory approvals required for this deal to go ahead, as the Jersey and the Turkish competition authorities have already given their stamps of approval. The transaction is expected to close in Visa Inc’s fiscal Q3 2016. The takeover […]