Innovation


Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 1 February 2017

The world moves fast, so you need a fast read. A round-up of key events to save you time. PayCommerce, an open cross-border payments network, has completed its real-time, cross-border payment, clearing and settlement testing. It is the first phase of its multi-country global roll out strategy and was done between the US and India. […]

Varo Money joins forces with Envestnet | Yodlee to drive fintech innovation

California based technology companies Varo Money and Envestnet | Yodlee have teamed up to drive fintech innovation. Varo Money, a mobile-only banking start-up hopes to leverage Envestnet | Yodlee’s data analytics and aggregation platform to provide customers with a more customised mobile banking experience, and better insights into their financial well-being.

Capgemini calls for start-ups with InnovatorsRace50

Tech consultancy firm Capgemini is calling for start-up applicants for its InnovatorsRace50 competition – with the chance to win equity-free funding of $50,000. To celebrate 50 years since its launch, Capgemini’s InnovatorsRace50 wants entrepreneurs and “disruptive early-stage start-ups” to apply. The top five businesses, one from each theme, will win equity-free funding of $50,000 each. […]

DFS Innovation Lab launches fintech bootcamp

Powered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Digital Financial Services (DFS) Innovation Lab has launched a new high-intensity fintech bootcamp for companies in Sub-Saharan Africa and and South Asia.

Bank Central Asia sets up fintech focused VC company

Bank Central Asia (BCA), an Indonesian bank with over 1,100 branches and 17,000 ATMs, has established a venture capital company, Central Capital Ventura (CCV). CCV has a paid-up capital of IDR 200 billion ($15 million).

BNP Paribas Securities Services invests in fintech start-up Fortia

BNP Paribas Securities Services has acquired a minority stake in an Fortia Financial Solutions. This deal helps Fortia, a start-up that provides compliance software to the financial services industry, cement the relationship it formed with the bank during the inaugural session of the fintech accelerator by L’Atelier BNP Paribas.

IBM: AI needs more than just technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) on its own isn’t enough to compete – companies need industry-specific solutions to business problems. So said Martin Schroeter, IBM’s senior vice-president and chief financial officer, on the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Schroders in digital drive with Capriza

Global asset manager Schroders has selected Capriza’s enterprise mobility platform “to power its drive to digitisation”, according to the vendor.

HSBC to capitalise on tech innovation with technology advisory board

HSBC has appointed a technology advisory board of top-level specialists from around the globe as the banking giant is keen to capitalise on opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), biometrics, blockchain and data science, combat cybercrime and leverage its global infrastructure.

Fintech funding round-up: 17 January 2017

They said it. We read it. We edited. A round-up of the latest funding efforts in the fintech and payments space. Featuring Kasisto, BillGO, Gumption Labs and Fraugster.

Video: Banking Technology Awards 2016

Our dazzling event gathered together over 260 banking and financial technology specialists from all over the world – recognising the excellence and innovation in the use of IT in financial services, and of course the people that make it happen! Join us at the 2017 awards, which will be held at a 5-star venue in London in Q4 this year.

Blockchain incubator Adel unveils P2P retail banking network

Blockchain incubator Adel has unveiled its project framework for people to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) network in retail banking. The firm says it will work in the “same way as Airbnb and Uber revolutionised the hospitality and taxi industries”. “Anyone with a car can be a taxi. Anyone with accommodations can be a hotel. Anyone […]

Microsoft and Qualcomm invest in Israeli cybersecurity firm Team8

Microsoft and Qualcomm have invested in Team8, an Israel-based cybersecurity company. Team8 also revealed a strategic partnership with Citi to assist with developing its products, and says this latest investment brings the total raised to more than $92 million. Team8 was founded by Nadav Zafrir, Israel Grimberg and Liran Grinberg, all former members of the […]

DTCC selects IBM, Axoni and R3 to develop blockchain for derivatives

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has chosen IBM, in partnership with Axoni and R3, to provide a blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) framework to drive improvements in derivatives post-trade lifecycle events. The firms will work on DTCC’s Trade Information Warehouse (TIW), building a derivatives distributed ledger solution for post-trade processing. The TIW service currently […]

Putting trust in chatbots

Artificial intelligence (AI) interfaces and chatbots could be revolutionary for financial institutions – but only if they strike the right balance between human and machine interaction.

Top fintech stories this week – 6 January 2017

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! The first weekly news round-up of 2017. Happy 2017! Let it be a year of discovery and success.

Top five jargon winners in 2016

For some people in the world of fintech, they find comfort in the language of jargon. Pity these poor souls! Lost, confused and unable to communicate clearly and normally. Here are our top five jargon winners of 2016. You can avoid being on this list next year – just use English!  CIBC ends phase one […]

E-magazine: Compensation management automation

Managing incentive compensation can be a challenge. Typical management systems are done manually – taking too much time and effort. They also fail to provide precise tracking for compensation-related regulations. This e-magazine introduces IBM Incentive Compensation Management, a unified solution that integrates data, calculations, workflow management and reporting. The solution automates complex tasks – reducing […]

Top ten blockchain stories in 2016

It felt like there was a blockchain story every day in 2016, but we look back at some of the bigger stories with Banking Technology’s top ten! Microsoft and AMIS launch Asia’s first blockchain consortium Microsoft says it is also in “collaboration” with banks such as Ubon Financial, Cathay Financial Holdings and MegaBank to further […]

Varo Money to launch bot and money coach, Val

Mobile banking app Varo Money is brining to market a chatbot and “money coach”, Val. Val is powered by Kasisto’s KAI Banking bot and “delivers insights into spending, savings, borrowing and helps people set goals as well as offer updates and encouragement about their progress”.