Partnerships


JP Morgan Chase invests in InvestCloud for digital wealth management

JP Morgan Chase and InvestCloud, a California-based fintech firm, are partnering to develop digital capabilities for individual investors at both the JP Morgan and Chase franchises. JP Morgan has also made an equity investment in InvestCloud, but hasn’t revealed the figures. This investment is just one part of JP Morgan’s three-year $300 million digital strategy […]

New banking platform for MFIs in Nepal

34 microfinance entities in Nepal have joined forces to set up a fintech company – Nepal Finsoft – to build and maintain a shared core banking platform.

Deutsche Bank has an Axel Springer in its step for start-ups

Deutsche Bank is partnering with start-up accelerator Axel Springer Plug and Play to select, develop and finance up-and-coming firms from sectors such as banking and insurance. Deutsche Bank will be an exclusive Axel Springer Plug and Play partner – the latter a joint venture between the media company Axel Springer and California-based Plug and Play […]

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 […]

Harmonising high-value payments

While it sounds like something for which you’d need to visit a doctor, Swift’s HVPS+ will likely be a talking point during the payments industry panels at this month’s Sibos. Announced in mid-August, the high-value payments system task force is an important component of Swift’s ISO 20022 harmonisation initiative. A number of central banks, market infrastructures and banks from around the world are members of the task force.

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).

Fintechs and banks, collaborate to succeed!

Banks and fintech companies need to collaborate to succeed, argue Saxo Bank’s global COO, Søren Kyhl, and Stig Tørnes, head of business management. And that requires a change of mindset on both sides, the sooner the better. Fintech has become the buzzword for a diverse group of companies whose ambition is to bring efficiency to financial […]

LendIt and Capital One launch fintech start-up competition

Lend me your ears… and eyes. LendIt and Capital One are to co-host PitchIt @ LendIt, a competition to “find a future star of the fintech world”. The competition is aimed at firms innovating within the online lending and fintech space. It provides a showcase for eight firms to pitch their business case to a […]

Banking on collaboration

The disruptive forces of technology and legislation are forcing banks to become open and collaborative, things which they historically found challenging. A friend who owns a small business recently went through what I call a “connected and choreographed” experience to get a loan. iWoka, a digital lending company, simply asked him to log on to […]

BTL teams with Visa Europe Collab for blockchain settlement project

BTL Group is partnering with Visa Europe Collab to investigate potential applications for blockchain settlement in financial services. The project will use BTL’s cross-border settlement platform Interbit to explore the ways in which blockchain-based settlements can “reduce the friction” of domestic and cross border transfers between banks. A small number of European banks have been […]

Finacle core banking system available on Huawei FusionCloud

Infosys has partnered with Huawei to bring the Finacle core banking system to the Huawei FusionCloud. The two companies carried out a benchmarking activity under the observation of consultancy firm EY. The test was simulated on a Finacle database size of almost 1 TB, with 6,000+ branches, 33 million+ customers, 61 million+ accounts and 20,000+ […]

Payments round-up: 1 September 2016

Brevity is the goal of this. Here’s a round-up of events in the payments space to save you time. Let’s start off small… as in Small World FS. The London-based payment service provider reached a milestone with 50 million transactions processed on behalf of its customers. The firm’s been around for ten tears and says […]

Backbase and Entersekt partner for digital banking authentication

Digital banking software specialist Backbase has teamed with Entersekt to use its authentication capabilities on the Backbase Open Banking Marketplace. Backbase will offer banks push-based authentication and transaction signing integrated in its omni-channel digital banking platform. Its clients can select the authentication solution that “best meets their needs”. Dewald Nolte, Entersekt’s SVP partners and alliances, […]

Innotribe and Innovate Finance launch global hub federation

Innotribe, Swift’s innovation arm, and membership organisation Innovate Finance have launched a Global FinTech Hubs Federation (GFHF) to help foster innovation. To date, more than 20 countries – including Canada, China, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, and the UK – are participating in the GFHF, with more countries expected to join in the coming months. Lawrence Wintermeyer, […]

Famous five unsettle Bitcoin with utility settlement coin

BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander have joined UBS and Clearmatics to advance their utility settlement coin (USC) concept, and plan tests in a real-market environment. USC is a digital cash model for payments and settlement. It will run on blockchain and be another rival to Bitcoin. The group plan to build on the […]

Swift forms task force for ISO 20022 harmonisation

Swift has formed a global market practice task force of markets infrastructures and banks to assist its ISO 20022 Harmonisation Charter. Sponsored by the Payments Market Practice Group (PMPG), the task force aims to address the evolving ISO 20022 standards requirements of high value payments systems (HVPS) providers. Swift says it is a “key component” […]

Amazon and Facebook power Mizuho innovation

Mizuho Bank has carried out testing for new banking services through the Facebook bot and Amazon Echo. The tests took place in Silicon Valley, California, in partnership with two other Japanese firms – Information Services International – Dentsu and Nomura Research Institute. The companies are looking to use CUI (conversational user interfaces) to develop platforms […]

Kyc.com and Dow Jones team up for compliance drive

Kyc.com is partnering with Dow Jones, Exiger and Regulatory DataCorp (RDC) to drive standardisation and compliance for Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The alliance plans to deliver an end-to-end KYC process integrating compliance, onboarding, sanctions, screening, negative media searches and client risk assessment across regulatory regimes and multiple jurisdictions. Joel Lange, managing director of Dow […]

R3 blockchain consortium gets smart on trade finance

R3 and over 15 of its blockchain consortium member banks have “successfully” completed two prototypes using distributed ledger technology for smart contracts. The banks designed and used self-executing transaction agreements – aka smart contracts – on R3’s Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions, aka invoice financing or factoring, and letter […]

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC team up for blockchain-based trade finance innovation

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have teamed up to develop a blockchain prototype for trade finance innovation. The consortium uses the distributed ledger framework provided by Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project; and the proof of concept has reduced manual processing in letter of credit transactions. […]

Tullett Prebon teams with GMEX for trading platform launch

Inter-dealer money broker Tullett Prebon has partnered with GMEX Group to develop a hybrid voice and electronic trading platform for FX Options. The new FX Options trading solution will integrate GMEX’s request for quote (RFQ) technology with Tullett Prebon’s existing central limit order book (CLOB) capability. GMEX Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GMEX Group, supported […]

OpenFin joins Symphony Software Foundation to “drive fintech standardisation”

New York-based OpenFin, a provider of HTML5 runtime technology for the financial industry, has joined Symphony Software Foundation. The foundation, described as “a non-profit organisation fostering open innovation around the Symphony secure messaging platform”, already has powerful members on its list, including BNY Mellon, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and […]

Earthport teams with Aftab Currency Exchange Limited for payments growth

Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, is partnering with Aftab Currency Exchange Limited (ACEL) for payments growth. ACEL wants to expand its bank-to-bank capability and will initially use Earthport’s capabilities to “strengthen” its EU offering with a view to further expansion globally over the coming months. Aftab Ashraf, founder director, ACEL, says Earthport brings it […]

Elliptic and LexisNexis team up for Bitcoin risk management

Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic and LexisNexis Risk Solutions have partnered for the “first” use of “bank-grade” risk management for Bitcoin. Elliptic has integrated LexisNexis’s anti-money laundering (AML) risk management data into its Bitcoin transaction monitoring and compliance products. The two firms have built a proof-of-concept that uses financial intelligence data from LexisNexis and presents it […]

Thomson Reuters joins R3 blockchain consortium

Thomson Reuters has joined R3’s partnership to design and apply distributed and shared ledger-inspired tech to global financial markets. Thomson Reuters will contribute insights from its work with customers to “drive product innovation and transformation in the financial sector using distributed ledger technologies”. David Rutter, CEO of R3, says the deal is “another significant milestone”. […]

MasterCard and PayPal mull strategic alliance

Years of friction could be over as PayPal is talking to MasterCard on a potential strategic alliance, according to the Financial Times. PayPal, with its network of 188 million active users, has been expanding at MasterCard’s and Visa’s expense. One example was its recent partnership with Mexican telecommunications giant América Móvil for growth in Latin […]

Santander InnoVentures gets another $100m for fintech investment

Santander InnoVentures, the fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, has secured a further $100 million in funding from the group’s balance sheet. Launched in 2014, Santander says the fund is now set to deploy a total of $200 million (up from the $100m originally allocated) in minority stakes in fintech start-ups. Santander says this […]

Fintech innovation: staying on fringes or time to become core?

In the face of an ever rising digital agenda in Europe, banks are jumping on the fintech bandwagon, hoping to jumpstart innovation. Technology stands today as a catalyst for change in established banking institutions, write Astrid Froidure, digital transformation lead at Open Reply, and Fausto Jori, owner of E-finance Reply. The spark comes in a […]

Thomson Reuters and CME Group team up to integrate instant messaging networks

Thomson Reuters and CME Group have reached an agreement to implement connectivity between their instant messaging networks, Thomson Reuters Eikon Messenger and CME Pivot Instant Messaging. The combined service will be available late Q3 2016; and will allow over 300,000 current market participants using the respective messenger services to communicate “seamlessly” across platforms. Shaun Sibley, […]

EMVCo and FIDO Alliance team up for mobile payment authentication

EMVCo, the global payment specification body, and the FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium developing open, interoperable authentication standards, are to collaborate and review how FIDO can support EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) payment use cases. A “key aim” of the initiative is to investigate mobile payments using on-device authenticators, such as biometrics, as they seek […]

Neptune sponsors set up company to run the open standard utility

Neptune, the open standards network for pre-trade indications in bond markets, has set up a new company, Neptune Networks Ltd, to run the utility. Neptune was formulated by Etrading Software and a group of 40+ banks and asset managers in H2 2014. The pilot production network went live in August 2015. Its supporters include Barclays […]

Amex teams with Facebook for Messenger bot

American Express is partnering with Facebook to provide an Amex bot for its card members in Messenger. The concept will allow Amex card members to sign up to receive real-time notifications about their purchases, and information about card benefits and services related to those purchases. For example, if a member purchases an airline ticket, the […]

Openfunds launches global standard for fund data interchange

Zurich-based non-profit organisation, openfunds, has created a global standard for the characterisation of investment funds. The goal of the new standard is to improve efficiency, transparency and reliability by eliminating potential sources of error and ambiguity during fund data interchange. Openfunds is now calling for a global adoption of the standard. The standard is published […]

Wirecard and Verifone join forces to grow payments business in Asia

The five-year agreement combines Wirecard software and Verifone devices, with Indonesia as the first target market. The strategic alliance will see the Indonesian subsidiary of Wirecard, PT Prima Vista Solusi, collaborating with the local operations of Verifone. Steve Aliferis, president of Verifone Asia Pacific, says that the company is now establishing “a local team and […]

Industry players unite for MiFID II implementation with Project Sentinel

Project Sentinel, a collaborative initiative by a group of banks to mutualise the cost of MiFID II implementation in the OTC front office, has announced the creation of a normalised regulatory data model that assists investment firms to meet their MiFID II OTC sales and trading requirements. Etrading Software, which has the project management office […]

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 […]