Payments provider Klarna has powered up with a full banking licence from Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, says it is “now one of Europe’s largest banks with 60 million customers, 70,000 merchants and working seamlessly across borders”. With the licence, Klarna states it can broaden its product portfolio for […]
Swiss wealth manager Vontobel has become the first taker of SIX Securities Services’ Advanced Settlement offering.
Natixis Asset Management has started testing the FundsDLT blockchain-powered platform for fund managers. The FundsDLT concept, announced last December in Luxembourg, is a collaboration between Fundsquare, IT firm InTech and KPMG Luxembourg. The platform will enable asset managers to sell funds through a new distribution channel, while doing all the other usual blockchain stuff – […]
HSBC has launched a £10 billion lending fund for SMEs in the UK as it looks to tap into this lively market. The bank says it continues to be open to lending, having approved 91% of small business lending applications in the last year. Ian Stuart, UK CEO, HSBC, says: “We want to put SMEs […]
European banks are placing strategic bets in areas ranging from wealth management, lending, payments, regulatory technology, software, and blockchain. Which banks were the most active and what did they invest in?
Openbank, a subsidiary of Spain’s banking giant Santander, has undergone an enterprise-wide overhaul, from products and services, to technology, to corporate culture, to new branding.
The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces 72-hour breach notification requirements along with severe regulatory fines and consumers and affected third parties now have the right to sue organisations responsible for data breaches.
Mobile-only bank Monese has unveiled direct debit functionality for its customers – a move designed to offer services closer to that of a traditional high street bank account. Alongside this, it has also gained access to Faster Payments, so customers can send funds to accounts outside or within the UK with a “quicker transfer”. In […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) is fining International Card Services (ICS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABN Amro, for excessive credit limits. In March 2017, ICS says it took the initiative itself and prepared a compensation plan for the clients concerned. ICS will pay the €2.4 million fine imposed by the AFM. Which […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled the second wave of firms that have made it into its regulatory sandbox. As reported in 2015, the sandbox allows businesses to test out new products and services without “incurring the normal regulatory consequences”. The move is part of the FCA’s Project Innovate, which aims to boost […]
Payments services provider Circle is offering its customers in the US, UK and Europe the ability to send and receive money across borders with no fees and no mark-up on foreign exchange (FX) rates. The firm says it is “just like sending email or sharing photos” – meaning it’s “free and instant”. There will be […]
Private equity (PE) firm Warburg Pincus has acquired a 35% shareholding in Avaloq from existing shareholders – with the deal a first step towards a potential public listing. The transaction values Avaloq in excess of CHF 1 billion ($1 billion). Detailed financial terms are not being disclosed, but Francisco Fernandez, CEO at Avaloq, retains a […]
If security is too big a question for us to answer, maybe it’s time to hand the responsibility over to the machines, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). During a panel at “AI and Machine Learning World”, part of tech event TechXLR8 in London, artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed. What might seem quite a controversial […]
Consult Hyperion is forecasting that European financial institutions could face fines totalling €4.7 billion in the first three years under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The report, “GDPR: Banks, Breaches and Billion Euro Fines”, which was commissioned by security firm AllClear ID, is a “conservative” forecast and excludes compensation claims, costs associated with […]
An online survey carried out amongst our readers in the run up to the UK’s first Common Reporting Standard (CRS) submission has found respondents largely optimistic about how their first transmittal would go; were appreciative of the support given to them by their IT departments and thought that HMRC and OECD had done a good job in communicating with them. Their primary concerns were their ability to pull data from their internal systems and keeping up with compliance.
Our tour of the UK fintech scene concludes in this third instalment of the report. We started from the south of the country, then travelled west and are now travelling through the northern England and Scotland.
When it comes to payments, the Netherlands, like its Scandinavian neighbours, is certainly one of the most advanced countries in the world. Banks and retailers have been working together for many years in an effort to decrease the amount of cash in circulation, working instead towards a “cleaner” and “safer” cashless environment.
Responding to the European Union (EU) consultation on fintech, the European Banking Federation (EBF) wants the creation of an inclusive ecosystem and asks for people to get on with it. Earlier this year, the EC called for feedback and said it wanted to prise open national barriers as only 7% of consumers currently buy financial […]
The career of an elderly billionaire lies in tatters after he decided that a meeting to address sexism in the fintech industry was the right time to wolf whistle at the crowd and boast about his sexual exploits. David Blooperman, CEO and founder of identity and internet of things service provider ID-IOT, was invited to […]
Swift has launched an instant payments messaging solution for the European market, offering a single gateway to multiple systems, and available by November 2018. According to Swift, this latest development builds on its earlier deal in Australia. In 2015, it was awarded the contract to deliver the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia’s new payments platform, […]
Appian, a US-based provider of low-code application platform, says it has been enlisted by Vontobel Bank “to execute its digital transformation strategy across all business divisions”.
UK-based payments start-up Revolut has unveiled its new business service across Europe for multi-currency accounts, transferring money and corporate cards. Called Revolut for Business, it will enable companies to hold, exchange and transfer in 25 currencies with the interbank exchange rate, issue employees with corporate cards for “global fee-free spending” and manage their transactional activity […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Antony Peyton, Banking Technology’s deputy editor, with the help of many “expert comments” (bless you for those), briefly mulls over the aftermath […]
In today’s seemingly financially connected world, where we can send money to one another via our smartphones, and manage our spending habits via apps, it’s pretty hard to believe that financial exclusion is still a reality in the UK. Yet, a shocking 1.7 million adults in the UK still don’t have access to financial services.
A bank-wide replacement of its main business applications is ambitious enough but it is just the starting point for Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), as it seeks to harness new technologies, adopt a new culture and digitise its business.
An inevitable consequence of the recent spate of terrorist incidents has been calls for greater access to private data and now the European Commission has joined in, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). According to a Reuters report the European Union (EU) wants to make it easier for authorities to get hold of private data […]
French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa has chosen Moneythor’s analytical engine to be at the heart of “Max”, a personal finance assistant app for its new start-up Nouvelle Vague. Max is a mobile-only initiative of Nouvelle Vague, which operates in several cities in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Brest, Rennes etc). It will be available on 1 September […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
German payment service provider Concardis is bringing Chinese mobile payment solution Alipay to Austria and Switzerland. Clothing brand Gössl will be the first merchant in Austria to let Chinese citizens pay via smartphone and the Alipay app. The roll-out in the Swiss market is planned for October this year. In Germany, Concardis says it has […]
With just under 12 months to go until the European Union (EU) imposes new data protection regulations, there seems to be a growing sense of unpreparedness throughout the industry, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). Perhaps it’s because of the timeframes which were involved for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or a misunderstanding of […]
San-Francisco based RocketSpace, with the support of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest, has opened its campus in London for fintech and tech start-ups. Housed in NatWest’s (a subsidiary of RBS) Regents House in London, the campus is the “first of its kind” in the capital and RocketSpace’s only international location. The campus occupies […]
London-based Bank of Lambeth is getting ready to enter the UK’s highly competitive challenger bank arena. The community bank is the brainchild of Duncan Law at Transition Town Brixton. The latter is an initiative that looks to new ways of dealing with climate change, and energy and financial issues. In a report in the Brixton […]
German fintech incubator FinLeap’s digital insurance platform Element is partnering with financial services group Signal Iduna for new products and services. Element is currently in the process of applying for a life insurance licence under Germany’s Insurance Supervision Act, and plans to offer services in property, accident and liability, and cybersecurity. It will provide “Insurance-as-a-Platform” […]
After 18 months of development, UK-based online saving and investing service Moola has launched. The firm says there are 5.4 million “mass affluent people in the UK who have no access to financial advice, but disposable income and a desire to save and invest”. It wants to tap into that market by doing the “hard […]
The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has opted for release management software from cloud technology start-up Cutover. The deal means London-based Cutover will be the “first completely cloud-based tool with no footprint within Nationwide’s infrastructure”. Cutover’s software lets teams plan, rehearse and execute events. It also offers real-time status visualisation and communications across SMS, voice and […]
The Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) says it is making progress with its Model Credit Union initiative, to modernise the tech and operations of its members. Three credit unions are now live with new core and mobile banking software.
Towarowa Gielda Energii (TGE – Polish Power Exchange) has launched a new trading system provided by Nasdaq. Nasdaq has partnered with TGE since 2008 and the new technology allows TGE to expand future activities, including adding commodity and derivative instruments to its business offering. The trading platform features multi-market model support, a range of order […]
From Russian banks to Greek lawyers. Our latest blockchain and Bitcoin report rounds up the news into a quick and easy read. Russian news agency TASS reports that Bank of Russia, the nation’s central bank, will develop a national cryptocurrency. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017, the regulator’s deputy chairperson Olga Skorobogatova says: […]
It’s not only the end of the working week but the end of the line for Edinburgh-based payments firm Helixion. The company has gone into liquidation and intellectual property (IP) firm Metis Partners has been appointed to support the marketing and sale of its assets. On Metis’ website, it says the deadline for offers has […]
