Mastercard has teamed with Verifone to roll out a new instalment pay application at retailers across the UK. Called Mastercard Instalments, it is designed for shopping online or in-store, and cardholders can choose their instalment option upon checking out. For example, when purchasing a new TV or flight, customers could repay it in fixed instalments. […]
Customers of Valartis Bank in Liechtenstein are being held to ransom by hackers, according to German tabloid Bild. The blackmailers are demanding 10% of their account balances in Bitcoin or the customers face their personal details being sent to the media and financial watchdogs. An unusual threat but the hackers might feel the bank’s customers, […]
The UK’s Royal Mint will issue Royal Mint Gold (RMG) in mid-2017, a blockchain based digital record of ownership for gold stored at its bullion vault storage facility. CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, will develop, implement and operate the product’s digital trading platform which will see gold traded on an exchange using blockchain. The Royal […]
The European Payments Council (EPC) has unveiled its Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme. European payment service providers (PSPs) now have one year to get ready to process the first SCT Inst transactions in November 2017. Javier Santamaría, chair of the EPC, says the launch is a “new era in […]
Virgin Money has signed a long-term deal with TSYS for debit card processing in the UK. The bank is already using the payments vendor’s TS2 solution for its credit card operations.
Stockholm Fintech Hub – an independent not-for-profit innovation hub – will open its doors in Q1 2017. Its aim is to promote and accelerate the development of fintech, insurtech and regtech start-ups.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has failed a Bank of England (BoE) stress test on how it would cope with another financial crisis. Two other banks – Barclays and Standard Chartered – also failed on some measures but do not have to submit revised capital raising plans. The tests were put in place by BoE […]
Payments Strategy Forum, the first industry-wide initiative of its kind in the UK, has unveiled a new strategy for the country’s payments industry. The Forum was created by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in March 2015 and is tasked with planning the future of the payments sector. Last year, the current UK payment systems […]
ING is pulling a plug on its peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments app, Twyp, in the Netherlands due to the lack of customer uptake. However, the app will continue to function in Spain.
Germany’s central bank Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutsche Börse have unveiled a functional prototype for the blockchain technology-based settlement of securities. It is, however, “purely a conceptual study” and “is far from being market-ready”.
New UK retail challenger bank, Masthaven, has launched – offering savings and lending products. As Banking Technology reported in April, Masthaven got its UK banking licence and implemented a new core system. A domestic vendor, DPR Consulting, is providing its front-to-back office retail banking platform. The software itself is a new development, with Masthaven being […]
EY Switzerland says it will become the first consulting firm to accept Bitcoin for its services. The company says from January 2017 it will be possible to pay invoices from EY Switzerland in Bitcoin. Employees will receive a digital wallet; and a Bitcoin ATM will be put into operation in its main building in Zurich […]
Barclays has unveiled a new online direct investing service to let its customers view their investments, savings and current accounts in one place through a single log-in. The bank says it has introduced a new fee structure, which is “free from hidden charges”. There is one fee and one transaction charge – and common charges […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is calling for the second group of applicants to its regulatory sandbox. As Banking Technology reported last year, 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 competition […]
The wealth management industry needs to shake off its “cottage industry” mentality of the past and realise that it is “do or die” in the push to digital. This was one of the key messages from yesterday’s (24 November) Objectway International Customer Conference in Amsterdam – a one-day event of presentations and insight from the […]
Macif Group is revamping its investment administration and accounting tech, and has selected NeoXam to assist with the project. It will help implement the new software and will also host it.
The UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced a plan to invest £400 million of venture capital funds into the British Business Bank, a government vehicle to lend money to British businesses. The idea is to support the home-grown business sector – including fintech firms – and to prevent them from being snapped up by international companies.
Startupbootcamp FinTech London will host its Demo Day on 1 December for the third year with ten firms lined up for action. The ten companies taking the stage will showcase their fintech, ranging from SME banking, regtech, chatbots, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. Francisco Lorca, MD of Startupbootcamp FinTech London, says the variety of the […]
German start-up Cookies crumbled, but Swedish payments provider Klarna has rumbled into action to take on its tech assets and employees. As Banking Technology reported this month, Cookies ended its short life as a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app and applied for insolvency. At that time, Cookies co-founder Lamine Cheloufi said the other co-founder, Garry Krugljakow, […]
Barclays is launching the UK’s “first” contactless mobile cash service. Customers can withdraw up to £100 in-branch, with a tap of their Android smartphone or contactless debit card. Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK, says its customers “now expect to be able to use their smartphone to make their everyday purchases” and “we want taking […]
Android Pay is now live in Poland – the first country on continental Europe to launch the service.
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of business and financial data provider Mergent. The Mergent business will form part of LSE’s information services division, which includes FTSE Russell, a provider of indexes, and real-time and reference data products. Mark Makepeace, group director of information services and CEO of […]
HSBC business customers in the UK can now use Touch ID fingerprint technology to access their account and balance information through the HSBCnet mobile app. The feature uses a recognised fingerprint instead of passwords. It is now available for UK businesses using the app, before the service is expanded to include business internet banking mobile […]
SIX Payment Services, Bank of China and UnionPay International have joined forces for a new credit card, targeting Chinese travellers in Europe. The “Europe Card” card is aimed at Chinese consumers traveling to Europe for business or leisure purposes. SIX says as an incentive during the launch phase, cardholders are eligible for up to 5% […]
Italy’s ICCREA Banca has gone public on its project to modernise its trading business ops with Misys. Misys is providing its FusionCapital Kondor and Summit treasury and capital markets (TCM) solutions to the bank. The Summit system has been running at ICCREA for over a decade. Kondor was selected by the bank in 2013, Banking […]
Metro Bank has launched a new online banking platform for its commercial banking customers. It is based on the Backbase Onmichannel Banking Platform.
UK-based high street bank NatWest (part of the RBS group) has trialled the BioCatch behavioural biometrics technology for business customers and is planning to pilot the solution for retail clients next year.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says there is weak price competition in a number of areas of the asset management industry. The FCA launched the market study in November 2015 to assess whether competition is working effectively. The UK’s asset management industry is the second largest in the world, managing almost £7 trillion of […]
Société Générale and Oberthur Technologies (OT) have teamed up to launch a new form of three-digital codes for improved card security. Following “successful” testing among more than 500 people, the solution – called OT Motion Code – replaces the three-digit security code usually printed on the back of the card with a mini-screen displaying a […]
ISITC Europe, a voluntary, non-profit organisation promoting operational efficiency, harmonisation and education in the capital markets space, will turn 25 years old on 26th January 2017.
The Payment Services Directive (PSD2) still leaves some in the payments industry confused as to where the risks and opportunities lie. This was one of the opinions from Payments International in London – a four-day conference of panel debates, polls and Q&A – that runs 15-18 November. At yesterday’s (16 November) sessions, Banking Technology’s first […]
The European Commission (EC) has set up a fintech task force as it looks to boost innovation in the region. Called the Financial Technology Task Force (FTTF), it brings together services responsible for financial regulation and for the “digital single market”, along with others dealing with competition and consumer protection policy. FTTF will be co-chaired […]
The “world’s first” peer-to-peer lender Zopa plans to launch a new digital-only bank in the UK. The application for a banking licence will be made to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The firm says the regulatory application process should take about 15-24 months. Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa, says […]
Banks need to show courage and radically change their traditional mindsets about payments if they are to deal with start-ups threatening to snatch a share of the spoils. This was one of the messages from Payments International in London – a four-day conference of panel debates, Q&A and presentations – that runs 15-18 November. It’s […]
OP Bank, Nordea and Danske Bank have launched a new real-time, multibank mobile payments platform in Finland. The platform was built by Tieto and Automatia (the latter operates the three banks’ shared ATM network).
ClauseMatch and JWG have teamed up at the recent TechSprint event organised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to develop a new regulatory reporting solution.
FNZ, an investment management software specialist, is working on a major technology revamp at the UK-based private bank and wealth manager Kleinwort Benson, Banking Technology understands.
F10, a Swiss incubator and accelerator, is offering two six-month programmes for up to 20 start-ups to turn their prototypes into sellable products. Participation for the selected start-ups is free. After opening its “prototype to product” (P2) programme’s winter session on 7 November, F10 now wants applications for its next round in 2017. Markus Graf, […]
SETL, Deloitte and Metro Bank say they have completed “a series of firsts”. SETL provided a contactless smartcard for digitised payments (based on blockchain), Deloitte applied its Smart Identity blockchain ID system, and Metro Bank hosted a connected client account.
We take a look at the new EU reporting requirements for managing exposure to shadow banking. There are plenty of challenges ahead, not least for the systems that will need to be updated to ensure that firms are able to adequately cope with the new guidelines.
