North America


UBS invests in digital tech firm SigFig, develops new platform for advisors

UBS Wealth Management Americas (WMA) and tech company SigFig has formed a “strategic alliance” to develop digital technology for UBS WMA, its financial advisors and their clients. San Francisco-based SigFig specialises in wealth management software. It will create and customise digital tools and services for UBS WMA’s 7,000 advisors. UBS WMA’s remit is domestic US and […]

Coast Capital Savings Credit Union looks for Temenos T24 software developer

One of Canada’s largest credit unions, Coast Capital Savings CU, is looking for a full-time software developer experienced in Temenos’ T24 core banking system. What’s the job? Writing code, developing and customising the credit union’s core processing platform, T24. “That sounds pretty simple but working on the software platform that powers our core banking operations […]

Apple Pay Expands in Canada

The mobile payment service, once confined to American Express cardholders, now is available to MasterCard, Visa and Interac customers. Apple has signed deals with four banks for Apple Pay.

Dwolla offers FiSync platform to US Fed’s faster payments plan

US payments start-up Dwolla has submitted its FiSync platform as part of its faster payments proposal to the Federal Reserve-chartered Faster Payment Task Force. The Fed-chartered initiative, comprised of over 500 Faster and Secure Payments Task Force members, has been tasked with representing, addressing, and assessing “improved” payments systems. Dwolla is offering FiSync, a communication […]

Fiserv revenue rises in Q1 2016

Fiserv has reported adjusted revenue of $1.25 billion in the first quarter of 2016 compared with $1.19 billion in Q1 2015, an increase of 5%. Its financial results reveal nothing specific about the word “profit”, but a Fiserv spokesperson says: “We do disclose our profit in our earning results. We reported adjusted earnings per share […]

NCR and Huntington Technology Finance team up for ATM lease financing

NCR Corporation (NCR) has signed a strategic alliance agreement with US-based Huntington Technology Finance to provide lease financing for NCR ATMs, including “ATM-as-a-Service” type options, for financial institutions (FIs). The new relationship gives FIs a single, monthly (or quarterly) payment for their NCR equipment, deployment, service, administration and software. Gordon Fraser, remote services management director, […]

FIS revenue rises in Q1 2016

FIS has revealed its first quarter revenue in 2016 increased to $2.2 billion from $1.6 billion in Q1 2015. Organic revenue growth was 4.2% in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $637 million in Q1 2016, from $589 million adjusted combined EBITDA in the prior year’s quarter, while the adjusted EBITDA margin was 28.2%. Gary […]

Nissan Motor automates floorplanning with Sword Apak’s WFS

Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (NMAC) will install a new leasing solution, Wholesale Floorplan Finance System (WFS), supplied by specialist vendor Sword Apak. It will be delivered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis. NMAC was looking for a new solution “that would provide an outstanding level of service to dealers”, says Sword Apak. The company is also […]

PNC Financial Services automates reg reporting with AxiomSL

AxiomSL is implementing its flagship regulatory reporting platform at US-based PNC Financial Services. PNC, one of the largest banks in the US, will use the solution for its reg reporting needs in the domestic market, plus Canada and the Bahamas. Alex Tsigutkin, CEO at AxiomSL, says the vendor is “proud to have been chosen by […]

Canadian Payments Association moves to ISO 20022

The Canadian Payments Association (CPA) has adopted ISO 20022, as it looks to modernise Canada’s payment system. Gerry Gaetz, president and CEO of the CPA, says ISO 20022 will “enable the Canadian financial community to provide better service, both domestically and across borders, to their customers”. The CPA says recent research indicates that cost savings […]

Cisco partners with Fiserv for communications and infrastructure

Cisco has teamed with Fiserv and its Sentry Performance Solutions to provide hosted communications and infrastructure solutions. Sentry Performance Solutions include network, hosting and network security services; hardware and software life cycle management; and unified communications services. Fiserv says its clients now have access to the Cisco workforce experience and branch solutions. The workforce experience […]

National Bank Holdings calculates core software overhaul at $3.7 million

National Bank Holdings (NBH), a US-based holding company of a group of local community banks, has gone through a major technology overhaul with FIS. The group, which comprises three banks, has implemented FIS’s core banking system, IBS, online and mobile banking applications and a cheque imaging system, Check Image. In its latest quarterly results, NBH […]

Fidelity Bank completes latest acquisition; IT conversion to follow

US-based Fidelity Bank will move its latest acquisition, American Enterprise Bank of Florida, onto its core banking system, Fiserv’s DNA, from FIS’s Horizon. American Enterprise Bank added $209 million in assets, $147 million in loans and $182 million in deposits to Fidelity Bank. It also brought two branches in Florida. The bank’s Horizon core banking […]

Corelation’s Keystone core system reaches 50 users

US-based software vendor, Corelation, has onboarded 50 credit unions for its flagship Keystone core system. Keystone is a much newer system than most of its rivals, having hit the market just seven years ago. Corelation has also recently moved to a new head office in San Diego, California, to an office space four times bigger […]

Citizens Bank plans core banking revamp with FIS

US-based Citizens Bank is planning a core banking modernisation. The bank is looking for a programme director, to be based in Rhode Island, for the upgrade of its core banking platform and to implement a new mobile platform and middleware layer. Citizens, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK’s RBS from 1998 to […]

Jack Henry offloads Alogent product line to Battery Ventures

US-based banking software vendor, Jack Henry & Associates, is shedding its deposit automation business, Goldleaf Enterprise Payments (formerly Alogent Corporation). The buyer is Battery Ventures, a US/Israeli venture capital and private equity firm. The company is regaining is former name – Alogent. Alogent’s back office software focuses on electronically capturing, processing and analysing cheque data […]

FIS and The Clearing House to debut US real-time payments system

FIS and The Clearing House (TCH) are preparing to launch a pilot for a “first-of-its-kind” real-time payments system in the US. The pilot will initially focus on the bill payment use case, using FIS technology and operating via the TCH real-time payments platform. Already under development, the pilot will go live in the first quarter […]

Scotiabank invests millions of dollars in digitalisation; simplifies operating models

Canada’s Scotiabank named key components of its technology and operations strategy at the recent annual meeting of shareholders. These (unsurprisingly) focus on digital transformation, technology investment and the simplification of its organisational and operating models, as the nature of work and roles change. Brian Porter, president and CEO of Scotiabank, said that “a comprehensive change […]

Three US credit unions live with Fiserv’s DNA core processing platform

Three credit unions in the US have converted to the DNA core account processing platform provided by Fiserv. The projects were a couple of years in the making. Texas Dow Employees Credit Union The largest of the three is Texas Dow Employees Credit Union, with $2.7 billion in assets. The DNA platform supports all main […]

KeyCorp and First Niagara merger – software revamp on the cards?

As US-based KeyCorp prepares to take over its rival First Niagara to create the country’s 13th largest bank, Banking Technology muses what this might mean for the fintech market. A major system selection perhaps, as both banks are currently using dated systems? KeyCorp and its banking subsidiary, KeyBank, hope to finish acquiring First Niagara by […]

Old left cold by US mobile banking

Only 18% of consumers aged 60 or over in the US use mobile banking, according to a study from the US Federal Reserve. In its 86-page report “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2016”, the Federal Reserve reported its findings from a survey which focused on consumers’ use of mobile technology to “access financial services and […]

Dovetail delivers BMO Harris Bank payments upgrade

Payment systems specialist Dovetail has helped US-based BMO Harris Bank with the upgrade phase of its wire platform replacement project. Dovetail’s solution provides “modular, out-of-the-box” payments processing capability that enables the bank to “improve in the short term while working towards an ultimate goal of full legacy replacement”, comments Martin Coen, CEO of Dovetail. Dovetail […]

Vibrant Community Credit Union completes core software overhaul

US-based Vibrant Community Credit Union (formerly DHCU) has completed its tech overhaul, with Fiserv’s DNA now supporting its core operations and Alkami’s ORB supporting digital banking activity at the front-end. The project was over a year in the making, and coincided with the brand overhaul at the credit union. It was formerly known as DHCU […]

USAA teams with Coinbase for Bitcoin

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA), a financial services group, has partnered with Coinbase to give Bitcoin usage a timely boost. Late last year, USAA launched a Coinbase pilot program, which allowed select USAA employees and members to view their Coinbase accounts on the USAA website and mobile app. Following the successful pilot, all account […]

Rise of the megabanks

A great visual of how four US-based conglomerates – JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) – have grown to be the megabanks we know today. Source: American Banker

D+H Corporation joins US real-time payments rush

US-based banking and payments software vendor D+H has joined its rivals FIS and Jack Henry in partnering with The Clearing House (TCH) for real-time payments. D+H will provide US banks and financial institutions with access to TCH’s domestic instant payments system. The system is currently being built, with the “plumbing” provided by VocaLink. The vendor’s […]

Payoneer acquires Armor Payments to create global alternative to LCs

US-based Payoneer has acquired Armor Payments as it looks to create a “global alternative” to letters of credit (LCs). Armor Payments, co-founded by former PayPal Director, Scott Reynolds, is the “only licensed B2B payments provider offering Escrow-as-a-Service (EaaS)”. Through the acquisition, the new integrated Armor Payments Payoneer Escrow solution will allow B2B buyers and suppliers […]

AribaPay launches in Canada

SAP Ariba and Discover Financial Services have rolled out their B2B payments service, AribaPay, in Canada. Last month AribaPay was launched in the US (also with the help of Discover). And earlier this year, SAP partnered with First Data for a rollout across Europe and Latin America. SAP Ariba says Canadian businesses and consumers pass […]

Virtus Partners live with new lending platform from Misys

Texas-based asset administrator, Virtus Partners, has gone live with new back office lending system, FusionBanking LoanIQ, supplied by Misys. The new platform supports full-service agency administration and bank portfolio loan administration. It covers SME, commercial and syndicated lending. The contract was signed in November last year. The implementation work took around three months and came […]

Jack Henry partners with The Clearing House for real-time payments drive

JHA Payment Solutions, a division of Jack Henry & Associates, has teamed up with The Clearing House (TCH) as they seek to bring immediate payments to the US. TCH is currently working to build a new real-time payment system, which it will own and operate. In partnering with JHA Payment Solutions, TCH says it will […]

Fiserv fine tunes Unified Wealth Platform

Fiserv has added new advisor portfolio management and trading technology to its Unified Wealth Platform. The single platform is used for portfolio management, trading, accounting and reporting for managed accounts. The company says over 5,000 advisors and users supporting rep as portfolio manager (RPM) or rep as advisor (RPA) programmes have migrated to the “enhanced” […]

ExxonMobil launches Speedpass+ mobile payment app with Apple Pay

ExxonMobil is now the “first major” fuel retailer to accept mobile payments at the pump, including Apple Pay, throughout the majority of its US network. The app enables customers to authorise a pump for payment via the cloud. Customers have the option to select Apple Pay as a default form of payment from within the […]

Big US banks to fight for instant payments market

Some of the major US banks are planning to tap into the instant payments market via their digital network, according to Reuters. Banks including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp will use their jointly-owned network, clearXchange, to let their customers transfer money. “What we are doing now is delivering payments […]

US to move to shorter T+2 settlement cycle by September 2017

Make a note, 5th September 2017 has been unveiled as the industry target for the US to move from a T+3 to a T+2 settlement cycle. The decision on this has been reached by the US T+2 Industry Steering Committee (T+2 ISC), organised by The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and co-chaired by the […]

R3 ends “first of its kind” blockchain trial with 40 banks

New York-based R3 CEV has finished its trial of five distinct blockchain technologies in parallel in the “first test of its kind”. The trial represented the trading of fixed income assets between 40 of the world’s “largest” banks across the blockchains, using cloud technology providers within R3’s Global Collaborative Lab. The banks, including Barclays, Deutsche […]

NYSE Group’s trading tech platform completes key rollout phase

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Group says Pillar, its integrated trading technology platform, completed a “key phase” in its rollout and is on track in the testing stage. Pillar will allow connection to all equities and options markets using a single specification, and NYSE Group says it has been “designed to reduce complexity”. It says […]

New digital bank powered by Temenos’ front-to-back office platform

EQ Bank, a new pure-play digital bank in Canada, has opened its virtual doors. It is underpinned by the front-to-back office software from Temenos. The bank is using Temenos’ T24 core banking system at the back-end and Temenos Connect for digital channels at the front-end. It is also using Insight BI for business intelligence and […]