Banking


A whistle-stop tour of the regulatory calendar

As financial institutions across the board gear up for 2016, the year ahead poses some notably regulatory challenges. Not least among these is the impending Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) from the European Commission; there will also be further progress on MiFID II. On 3 July this year, an event will take place which will mark […]

Number26 and TransferWise partner for international money transfers

German digital bank Number26 and TransferWise, a UK-based international money transfer platform, have teamed up to provide Number26 customers with direct “in­-app” access to TransferWise’s service. Number26 co-­founder and CEO Valentin Stalf says the company wants banking products to be “accessible to customers with one tap, creating a fintech hub inside the Number26 app”. The […]

Crealogix’s Elaxy to roll out consulting platform for Bankhaus August Lenz

Crealogix’s subsidiary Elaxy Financial Software & Solutions will roll out a hybrid consulting platform at Bankhaus August Lenz in Germany. The solution, developed in nine months, is ready for MiFID II (markets in financial instruments directive) and PRIIP (packaged retail and insurance-based investment products) regulations. It is also integrated into the bank’s online banking system […]

Distributed ledger identity: misplaced trust

Distributed ledgers have a role to play in identity verifications, but there are potential pitfalls, state Professor Michael Mainelli and Vinay Gupta. They are increasingly touted as the answer to the identity problems plaguing finance and government. They may well be part of the answer, but more important is recognising they are only tools to help […]

Sopra Steria plans Cassiopae tie-up

Paris-based Sopra Steria plans a tie-up with Cassiopae, a developer of specialised finance management software. Sopra Steria plans to acquire, through its subsidiary Sopra Banking Software, about 75% of KSEOP, Cassiopae’s holding company. The founder and his family, and certain managers including the current chairman of Cassiopae, Emmanuel Gillet, will retain about 25% of the […]

Retail banking: the power of the personal

In 2016, retail banks are facing up to their biggest challenge. A combination of new market disrupters, increased regulation and the continuing pace of technology change is set to transform the industry, shifting power firmly to the consumer. Natalie McLellan, director of financial services at consultancy firm Egremont, offers her insight. Many commentators argue that […]

New digital bank powered by Temenos’ front-to-back office platform

EQ Bank, a new pure-play digital bank in Canada, has opened its virtual doors. It is underpinned by the front-to-back office software from Temenos. The bank is using Temenos’ T24 core banking system at the back-end and Temenos Connect for digital channels at the front-end. It is also using Insight BI for business intelligence and […]

Avaloq migrates KBL Switzerland to BIL Suisse’s BPO solution

Avaloq Sourcing Switzerland, Avaloq’s business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary (previously B-Source), has migrated KBL Switzerland to the BPO platform of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL Suisse). The BPO solution is based on the vendor’s flagship core banking platform, Avaloq Banking Suite, and the migration took five months. BIL Suisse acquired the Swiss subsidiary of KBL […]

Genesis Investment Management extends partnership with Simcorp

UK-based Genesis Investment Management, a long-standing customer of Simcorp, has implemented the vendor’s client communication and reporting solution, Coric. The system has been deployed on an outsourced basis, hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud. According to Simcorp, the project was completed in four months. As the result, the client reporting efficiency has improved by more than […]

Veridian Credit Union revamps digital channels with Alkami Technology’s ORB platform

Veridian Credit Union, a $2.95 billion credit union in Iowa, is implementing Alkami Technology’s ORB platform for digital channels. The new solution will replace a legacy set-up, which includes a mobile banking offering from another US provider, Clairmail (now part of Monitise). Clairmail was selected by Veridian back in 2009. In 2012, the vendor was […]

Broadridge allies with AMA for corporate governance

Broadridge Financial Solutions has taken a minority stake and entered into an exclusive distribution and marketing alliance with Netherlands-based management consulting firm AMA Partners. AMA provides DirectorInsight, a platform offering data and analytical tools for the evaluation of corporate governance and executive compensation. Broadridge says the deal expands its data capabilities for corporations and institutional […]

Barclays and BlackBerry bringing BBM to Pingit mobile payments

Barclays and BlackBerry are bringing BBM, the mobile instant messaging service, to Pingit money transfers in the UK. BBM users can now make mobile payments to each other using Barclays’ mobile payment app Pingit. Matthew Talbot, SVP, BBM at BlackBerry, says to “exchange money was a logical extension” of BBM’s functions. Once a user has […]

Commerzbank reports digital growth as profits boom

Commerzbank has reported a quadrupling of profits on the back of digital growth, as European banks are balancing their investment in digital services with cost cutting initiatives. Stephan Engels, chief financial officer at Commerzbank, said that adoption of digital technology is proving invaluable in an earnings call with analysts on 12 February. He observed, “Due to […]

Banking Tech celebrates the start of a new era

Banking Technology is delighted to announce the appointment of Tanya Andreasyan as Editor and Antony Peyton as Deputy Editor. Andreasyan brings a wealth of experience to the role having been working in the banking/financial services technology industry for ten years. She had previously worked at IBS Intelligence, a UK-based publishing house and analyst/consultancy firm focused on […]

Temenos’ earnings up 23% in FY 2015

Temenos’ earnings have risen by 23% for the full year (FY) 2015 on the back of 52% growth in total software licensing. Along with FY 2015, the vendor reported good results for the fourth quarter of 2015 – its IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) revenue was $168.4 million, up from $133.1 million in Q4 2014. […]

Goldman Sachs new electronic market-making unit for FICC

Goldman Sachs has launched a new FICC Systematic Market Making (SMM) unit. SMM will consolidate its e-trading assets and capabilities across FICC. The move was reported in an internal memo as reflecting changes in market structure and client needs. The memo, signed by several executives including group chief information officer Martin Chavez, says, “Our ability to […]

RAI Stone Analytics adopted by Americana Community Bank

Americana Community Bank (ACB) is working with RAI Stone Group, the provider of the RAI Stone Analytics platform to supports its small-to-medium business (SMB) teams, which focus on organisations employing between one and 100 people. “Using this service is adding significant, measurable return-on-investment (ROI) that might have happened over time, sure. But we didn’t see […]

‘Smart’ CRM sees investment from HSBC

Cognitive computing specialist CustomerMatrix, a co-founder of forum Cognitive Computing Consortium, has closed US$10.5 million in Series-B funding. The investment, one in a series of investments in artificial intelligence-like technologies in 2016, was led by HSBC, with participation from Aster Capital, and existing investors Newfund and True Global Ventures. CustomerMatrix, which offers a predictive engine called […]

Swift payments innovation initiative gains ground as 45 banks sign up

A total of 45 banks including Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank and many others have signed up to a new payments innovation initiative headed by Swift, which is due to launch early next year. Announced in December, the initiative aims to dramatically improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments.

HP Enterprise wins RBS cheque imaging contract

RBS has awarded a contract to Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the implementation of a new image-based cheque clearing service in response to UK regulatory changes that require all cheques to be processed digitally by 2017, under HM Treasury’s Future Clearing Model.

No cloud please, we’re bankers

Despite predictions over the last few years that banks were just a heartbeat away from adopting cloud technology, only 1% of banks are actually running core processing in the cloud today, according to a new report by Temenos.

Standard Chartered focuses IT on retail and risk as Winter’s axe falls

Standard Chartered is to invest $3 billion in “strategic opportunities” and its technology infrastructure as part of a wholesale reorganisation of the bank in the wake of a $139 million third-quarter loss. The restructuring will see 15,000 jobs – 17% of its workforce – go over the next three years.

Deutsche axes 15,000 in technology and ops overhaul

Deutsche Bank is to shed 9,000 full-time staff and 6,000 external contractor jobs in its global technology and operations infrastructure as it sets out to “modernise its outdated and fragmented IT architecture” and improve control systems.

Cashfac adds analytics capabilities for corporates and banks

Cashfac Technologies, a specialist market leader in bank-to-corporate cash management solutions has launched Cashfac Analytics, a real-time data analysis and reporting module that enables banks and corporates to better understand their cash movements.

UK banking jobs move out of London

Banks in the UK are increasingly shifting jobs away from London, with the result that while the overall number of banking jobs fell 0.5% between 2013-14, 77 local authorities in the UK saw the number of banking jobs grow faster than in London.

The instant catalyst

Immediate payments are acting as a catalyst for banks to add value and develop holistic payment solutions. In this extract from World Payments Report 2015, the impact of immediate payments on banks’ offerings is examined

Chips off the old blockchain

The distributed ledger is one of the hottest topics in financial services. Born out of the crypto-currency bitcoin, the blockchain concept has gone mainstream and the first area to feel the impact is likely to be payments.

Deutsche creates FX index based on Autbahn data

Deutsche Bank’s Research unit is launching a new set of proprietary foreign exchange positioning indices based on data from its Autobahn FX trading platform. Called Corax – Categorised ORderflow from Autobahn FX – the indices will be published every Wednesday in the Corax Positioning Report.

Goldmans, JPM and Morgan Stanley plan reference data utility

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are building a reference data utility with SmartStream, which they say will provide data normalisation and validation for all asset classes. The project aims to reduce costs for consumers of data in capital markets by economies of scale.

Fintech for corporates: partnering for success

With global investment into the fintech arena growing at an astonishing rate, it is only a matter of time before the corporate sector begins to feel its true force. Fred DiCocco, head of market management, BNY Mellon Treasury Services, discusses how banks are adapting. Fintech is triggering a monumental shift in the payments space, with […]

Top-tier banks rally round R3 distributed ledger project

Nine major global investment banks have formed a partnership to explore the potential of distributed ledger technology in financial markets. The project, led by financial technology company R3, aims to create early standards for the emerging technology that will make it easier and more efficient as it grows.