Worldwide


Infographics: the evolution of credit

This nifty infographics, courtesy of MBNA, is a whistle-stop tour of credit wonder and woe over the last 4,000 years – from ancient Babylon to modern Britain – and what people had to do to get a little credit.

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 […]

Markit acquires specialist vendor Prism Valuation

Markit, an international provider of financial information services, is buying Prism Valuation, a specialist in independent valuation and risk analysis of derivatives and structured products. Markit says this acquisition will complement its portfolio valuations service, as it will provide enhanced coverage of complex OTC derivatives and structured OTC products. It will also expand Markit’s customer […]

Banks step closer to commercial production of Ripple’s cross-border payments platform

A host of major banks have adopted Ripple to improve their cross-border payments, the vendor says, and many have completed trial blockchain projects. The latest banks to join Ripple’s network are Santander, UniCredit, UBS, ReiseBank, CIBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and ATB Financial. Ripple says its network now includes 12 of the top […]

People on the Move: Eugene Licker, Ballard Spahr LLP

Eugene Licker, a well-known litigator who focuses on consumer finance cases, securities litigation and enforcement, and white-collar defense, has joined Ballard Spahr LLP’s New York office as of counsel in the firm’s litigation department.

New breed of execs can bring true digital innovation to banking

Digital technology is increasingly seen as the key to transforming banking into a customer-focused industry befitting the modern age, and a new role of chief digital officer (CDO) has evolved to help implement this change. However, although many banks have used IT to build more customer-friendly interfaces on apps and websites, there is scope to […]

SIA and UBI Banca trial person-to-business Jiffy mobile payments

Jiffy – the instant mobile payments service developed by SIA – is coming to Italian stores. The person-to-business (P2B) project is piloted in Milan and Bergamo, allowing customers to pay via app at participating retail outlets authorised by UBI Banca. SIA says that “other major Italian banks have expressed interest in offering P2B the service […]

CME Group granted EU clearing house recognition by ESMA

European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), a pan-European financial regulatory body, has finally approved CME Group’s application to offer central counterparty (CCP) services in the EU. The temporary approval was granted last autumn, but it is only now that ESMA has added CME to its list of recognised CCPs for Europe on a permanent basis. […]

Report: A Boon for Banking, Payment Apps as Mobile Attachment Grows

Americans are more reliant than ever on mobile devices to manage their finances, presenting a major opportunity for providers of emerging payments services like mobile wallets and P2P, according to a new study from Bank of America. The bank’s third annual Trends in Consumer Mobility Report collected and analyzed data from more than 1,300 U.S. adults over the age of 18 who have a bank account and own a smartphone.

Chase Expands Mobile P2P Payments

Chase has expanded its P2P QuickPay service, so its customers can send and receive money in real time with one another as well as customers of Bank of America and U.S. Bank. Later this month, customers with smartphones can use the Chase mobile app to enroll in QuickPay and add payment recipients from their contact lists.

Computer Maker Acer Reports Online Data Breach

Hackers have apparently hit the online store operated by Taiwan-based computer maker Acer, potentially making off with customers’ card numbers, expiration dates and security codes.

Deutsche Börse to invest in fintech start-ups via new venture capital platform

DB1 Ventures is Deutche Börse’s new dedicated corporate venture capital platform, set up as part of the group’s “Accelerate” growth strategy. The DB1 Ventures team will be primarily based in Frankfurt and will undertake new investments and also manage Deutsche Börse’s existing minority shareholdings. “DB1 Ventures will invest only in areas that are strategic to Deutsche […]

Seamless and Secure: Navigating the Future of Commerce

Two large-scale trends are coming to a head with merchants at the crux: the digitization of payments and increasing card-not-present fraud. Merchants need the right tools, including data analytics and fraud-prevention systems, to help them meet customer demand for a frictionless experience, while keeping fraudsters at bay.

Visa Inc completes acquisition of Visa Europe, appoints new board member    

Visa Inc and Visa Europe are united again. The combined company provides digital payment products, services and processing to about 17,100 financial institution clients and partners, 40+ million merchant outlets, and three billion Visa accounts worldwide. The company says its branded cards and payment products amount to approximately $6.8 trillion in global payments volume annually. […]

Nominate Your Favorite Payments Tech Guru

You weighed in on Women Driving Payments Change, Top 10 Payments Lawyers and the Smartest People in Payments. Now we want to know which chief technology officers deserve the title of Top Payments Tech Guru. Enter your picks by July 1. We’ll tally the top vote-getters and have final voting from the short list next month. The Top Payments Tech Gurus will be featured in our Spring issue of Pay Magazine.

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 […]

Regtech: from regulatory compliance to competitive advantage

Subas Roy, director in EY’s financial services practice, explains how regtech can help and how to avoid the pitfalls. Most of the business leaders that I interact with these days often use two terms, “digital innovation” and “regulatory compliance”. I wonder if they are intrinsically linked? Indeed, successfully addressing multitude of regulatory risks can be […]

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 […]

Okla. Delays Hwy Patrol Plan to Use Card Readers; FinCEN May Have other Ideas

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin says state law enforcement will delay using devices that read the magnetic stripes on payment cards, following outcries from lawmakers and consumer groups about privacy and legal concerns. But mention of a supplemental proposed rulemaking suggests FinCEN may be looking to revisit card readers at the border.

InComm: Nearly 70 Percent of Vacationers Use Prepaid Cards for Convenience

As consumers pack up their cars or board their planes for summer getaways, prepaid cards will be just as important as sunblock or a comfortable pair of walking shoes. Many travelers plan to bring prepaid cards because of convenience, security and budgeting, according to an InComm consumer survey.

CFSI Awards Fledging Fintech Firms at its Emerge Conference

Nine fledgling fintech companies have won $250,000 each from the Center for Financial Services Innovation, or CFSI. At least week’s Emerge Conference in New Orleans, CFSI announced the FinLab winners from more than 300 applicants.

Class Action Takes Aim at CPI

CPI Card Group has been targeted in a new class action lawsuit over claims the card manufacturing and fulfillment specialist failed to disclose important information to shareholders in the run-up to its IPO last year.

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 […]

ING deploys ThetaRay’s analytics solution for fraud detection in SME lending

Israel-based specialist vendor ThetaRay has implemented its Advanced Analytics Solution at ING Netherlands for fraud detection. The vendor says that combining its tech with ING’s standing risk engine will enable the bank to detect new instances of SME lending fraud hidden within massive amounts of transactional and organisational data – in real-time and with industry-low false […]

Will AI make active managers prove their worth?

Research released late last year suggested that almost two thirds (62%) of a survey of 90 German institutional investors predict greater usage of artificial intelligence (AI) for short-term decision-making, and 17% for medium-term investment decisions. Universal Investments, the asset manager behind the research, said that “the industry’s future thus certainly appears to be closely linked […]

Evolution, not revolution – Robeco’s take on blockchain

Asset management firm Robeco has released its findings and views on the much-discussed subject of blockchain. The overall theme is to be sensible, study the facts and not fall for the hype when it comes to this emerging technology. The report, “Distributed ledger technology for the financial industry. Blockchain administration 3.0”, has been created by […]

SCT Inst scheme: instant payments Europe-wide – have your say!

Flexibility and transparency are key to the first pan-European instant payments scheme, states Javier Santamaria, chairman of the European Payments Council (EPC). Currently, instant payments in Europe operate only within the borders of individual countries or among customers of the same payment service providers (PSPs). To move away from this fragmentation, the EPC was invited […]

Top fintech stories this week – 17 June 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! UniCredit and Open Bank Project launch fintech start-up competition Top prize is €50,000 and a contract to work with UniCredit. BBA to merge with three trade associations to create major industry body British Bankers Association (BBA), Council of […]

Emerge: Google Defends Ban on Payday Loan Ads

Nope, it’s not censorship, nor restraint of trade. Rather, Google’s recently announced ban on online payday loan ads shows that the search engine giant wants to do good by consumers. That’s what Vijay Padmanabhan, a policy adviser at Google, said this week in New Orleans at the Emerge: Consumer Health Financial Forum.

uTrade unveils blockchain tech solution, GMEX the first taker

India-based uTrade Solutions has launched uClear, a blockchain tech solution for real-time clearing and settlement for financial markets. The first taker is Global Markets Exchange (GMEX) Group. It will integrate uClear next month through its GMEX Technologies subsidiary and with the support of its development partner, Forum Trading Solutions. Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group […]