Commerzbank and BNP Paribas have ended their Munich-based lending joint venture (JV), Commerz Finanz. The German bank says it has reached an agreement with BNP Paribas Personal Finance on the split-off of the business division holding the instalment loans brokered by Commerzbank from Commerz Finanz. Michael Mandel, member of the board of managing directors of […]
Germany-based Deposit Solutions has acquired fellow fintech Savedo. With the acquisition of Savedo, Deposit Solutions gains 18,000+ clients, 13 partner banks and new regions – thus “further expanding its B2C capabilities”.
Commerzbank is pushing hard on its mortgage lending business ambitions with the launch of a digital financing app. The app is free and users can carry out house and apartment purchases on their smartphones. Included in the app are a budget calculation tool and access to over 200,000 properties in Germany. “We are the first […]
German fintech firm figo’s technology is the backbone for the launch of Consorsbank’s open-minded MultiBanking service. The bank, which is part of BNP Paribas Germany, says its customers can now use accounts and deposits they have with other banks after logging into their online banking. Figo says it brings the technical foundation via its business […]
Berlin-based mobile bank N26 has teamed up with credit marketplace Auxmoney to offer loans in Germany. The deal builds on N26’s current range of consumer loans – and with this new partnership, N26 says it will soon be able to offer loans to those such as students, the self-employed or freelancers. The bank already offers […]
The Berlin-based duo of peer-to-peer lending provider Lendico and fintech firm SolarisBank are working together on a long-term collaboration for financing SME loans. To begin with, SolarisBank is providing an “eight-digit sum” for financing loans via Lendico – with unspecified plans to expand this commitment in the medium-term. Dr. Clemens Paschke, co-founder and managing director […]
SIX Payment Services is buying the Frankfurt-based girocard network operations business from VÖB-ZVD Processing, a subsidiary of Deutsche Postbank, reports Paybefore, Banking Technology‘s sister publication. The agreement provides for the customer relationships, employees and assets of the network operations business being transferred in full to SIX Payment Services as part of the acquisition. The terms of […]
Germany-based National Bank has selected Atos for a five and a half year contract to revamp its IT infrastructure. The contract includes data centre, server, mainframe, database and storage services. Atos will deliver the operation and maintenance of the internet and application servers; and be responsible for creating customised security solutions. Thomas Stephan, head of […]
German fintech incubator FinLeap has a spring in its step with new capital, new partners and a new HQ. The company has raised around €39 million from several investors, including the German Insurer Signal Iduna, SBI Group from Japan and the Dutch NIBC bank. Furthermore, the reinsurer Hannover Re, as a “big institutional investor”, raised […]
As part of its massive job cutting spree, Commerzbank has agreed an outline reconciliation of interests and social plan with the employee representative committees in Germany. As reported last year, Commerzbank firmed up plans to lay off nearly 5,000 people. According to a letter by German labour union Verdi, the majority of these job cuts […]
Commerzbank and the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund have teamed up to research and develop the digitisation of trade finance using blockchain. The bank says by using blockchain or distributed ledger technologies (DLT), it will build a decentralised database for internet of things (ioT) applications and smart contracts. This will offer […]
Clark, a German insurance robo-advisor, has inked a deal with mobile bank N26. Clark says its Bancassurance-API will help customers of N26 “to better understand their current tariffs and improve their insurance situation”.
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” […]
Misys has announced the availability of its solutions for German retail banks in the cloud. Diebold Nixdorf will deliver infrastructure services out of its certified data centres in Germany.
Centralway Numbrs is launching a B2B portal, enabling banks to integrate their financial products into its Numbrs Store in Germany digitally and free of charge. The firm says its store is Germany’s first financial products distribution platform, run independently of a bank. The store is part of its Numbrs app, which has got 1.5 million […]
Deutsche Bank and a variety of German and European companies have teamed up to establish a joint, pan-industry platform for online registration, e-identity and data services. The initiative was set up by the bank, Allianz, Axel Springer, Daimler, Postbank, technology think tank Core, and location services provider Here Technologies. Their aim is to “make online […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa), Germany’s largest savings bank, is modernising its front-to-back office technology with Finanz Informatik and Diebold Nixdorf.
Hufsy, a Denmark-based fintech start-up focused on SMEs, is expanding into Germany. Its banking partner in Germany is SolarisBank.
Dr Andreas Dombret, member of the executive board of Deutsche Bundesbank, ponders why fintech innovation is such a hot topic now, of all times, what exactly innovation in banking means, and whether banks are even capable of being innovative.
Deutsche Bank has launched a new mobile payment app for Android devices.
Berlin-based fintech SolarisBank has raised €26.3 million from Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, German media company Bertelsmann, Italian banking group Unicredit, plus other investors.
Two Berlin-based fintech firms, Penta and SolarisBank, have joined forces to provide German businesses with “fast access to bank accounts”.
Digital-only banking start-up, bunq, has expanded beyond its native Dutch market to Austria and Germany with the launch of its open API.
Accenture will acquire German digital agency SinnerSchrader to boost its Accenture Interactive services in the country. Also, the company plans to launch ten new innovation hubs in the US in the next three years. Accenture has agreed to purchase a 62% majority of SinnerSchrader shares from co-founder and CEO Matthias Schrader, CFO Thomas Dyckhoff, and […]
Sweden-based payments provider Klarna has acquired a fellow payments company in Germany, BillPay. The deal is understood to be worth £60 million.
FinTecSystems, Fidor Bank and credit comparison site Smava have teamed up to offer the “first fully” automatic credit system with an “immediate payout” in Germany. Called Kredit2Go, the entire process of requesting, processing and disbursement is digital, and the payment is made immediately after the digital signature. FinTecSystems provides the “building blocks” for the credit assessment […]
Deutsche Börse has developed a concept for the “riskless” transfer of commercial bank money via an infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (DLT)/blockchain. By combining blockchain with its post-trade infrastructure, Deutsche Börse says the same as everyone else – such as it will “achieve efficiencies” and will investigate “possible new business opportunities”. Via collateralisation at […]
Private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners is taking over a controlling stake in Heidelpay, an online payment service provider (PSP) in Germany. Heidelpay’s co-founders and existing management will retain a minority stake in the business.
Advent International and Bain Capital Private Equity have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Concardis, a German payment services provider currently owned by local banks. It is understood the price tag is around €700 million.
Commerzbank has developed the first digitalisation platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Called “#openspace”, and located in Berlin-Schöneberg, it offers long-term co-operation between SMEs, “innovation partners”, and start-ups with the objective of “tackling the challenges posed by the digital future together”. Holger Werner, CEO and founder of #openspace, says “digitalisation dominates the media, sciences, […]
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”.
Berlin-based payments start-up Cookies has ended its short life and applied for insolvency. As Banking Technology reported in August, Cookies launched its peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app in Germany. The app was in beta phase and in invite-only mode. However, in a statement, Cookies co-founder Lamine Cheloufi says the other co-founder, Garry Krugljakow, has been dismissed. […]
Vocalink has unveiled its comprehensive research into the habits and perceptions of millennials when it comes to mobile payments. Turns out, this group is still waiting for the “Uber moment” of payments.
New retail banking apps are released onto the market daily – from traditional banks entering the app era to new disruptive payments services. What does each one of these apps have in common? The need to perform. When Consorsbank, part of BNP Paribas Germany, launched its retail app, it knew performance mattered. The bank shares how it delivered an app that consumers wanted.
Commerzbank has firmed up plans to lay off nearly 5,000 people. Around 3,000 job cuts will be across the bank’s branch network at home in Germany. Another 1,900+ jobs will be eliminated outside Germany and across Commerzbank’s subsidiaries.
Commerzbank has processed its first transaction settled by a bank payment obligation (BPO) between Germany and China. The BPO covers the export of chemicals between Commerzbank’s customer (the buyer), Trigon Chemie in Germany. The seller is an unnamed customer of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Beijing. Trade business between the two was previously […]
Germany-based Evangelische Bank has implemented Profidata’s Xentis as its central platform for portfolio management and for performing depositary functions; and Xpass for automating all order and trade management processes. Swiss firm Profidata says the bank has seen an increase in its number of clients and order volume, so decided on a new portfolio management system […]
SKG Bank, the consumer finance arm of Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB), has unveiled a digital-only lending and consumer credit service. In co-operation with Munich-based FinTecSystems, DKB says in the future loans can be arranged without submitting documents such as bank statements. Thomas Teuber, director of SKG Bank, says its customers “can close more quickly and completely […]
NCR Corporation has introduced “a completely new concept” – NCR Innovation Experience Room – an “experimental playground” for financial institutions to “build digital literacy among employees and customers”. Germany-based Volksbank eG Schwarzwald Baar Hegau has become the first taker. It has introduced an experiential room where customers and employees can discover and experience new technologies. […]
