BankingTech


Top fintech stories this week – 29 April 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Bank of Ireland ponders major IT overhaul Irish eyes are smiling… or at least weighing up their options. MSB and FDH Bank to merge on Temenos’ T24 core system The die has been cast. Neptune’s Rubikon crossed out. […]

Instant Payments Framework launched by Icon Solutions

The new framework – available worldwide – is set to open up access to real-time payments for banks. UK-based Icon Solutions, an IT payment consultancy and specialist technology provider, describes its Instant Payments Framework (IPF) as “an agile yet robust software product that expedites financial institutions’ transition to instant payments”. The vendor emphasises that “IPF […]

New multilateral trading facility, Elixium, to launch in May

Tradition, the interdealer brooking arm of Compagnie Financière Tradition, is poised to launch a new EU-regulated multilateral trading facility (MTF) for collateral and secured deposits. Dubbed Elixium, it will open for business in May this year. “Elixium has been developed to address the growing need for a transparent, open to all, peer-to-peer, regulated marketplace,” says Tradition. […]

Swissquote signs with NetGuardians for data confidentiality solution

Swiss banking technology vendor NetGuardians has signed Swissquote Bank for its RiskGuardian solution. It will ensure data confidentiality compliance. RiskGuardian includes the NGScreener enterprise software platform along with predefined controls for specific regulations, such as the FINMA 2008/21 Appendix III regulation related to client confidentiality. Like with many of NetGuardians’ clients, Swissquote is a Tememos’ […]

Calastone gets new live site for settlement service, Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown, a financial service company based in Bristol, UK, has gone live with Calastone’s funds settlement system, Calastone Settlements. Danny Cox, head of communications at Hargreaves Lansdown comments that “automatic matching of trades and the netting of settlement positions early in the day will improve the efficiency of our operational and treasury teams”. He […]

Get off our patch – no room for fintech fakery

A search for fintech now returns nearly ten million results – astounding, when you consider the first searches were recorded in 2005. But how many of those results focus on, or indeed are sourced from fintech innovators in the truest sense of the word, asks Philippe Gelis, CEO and co-founder Kantox. The reality is that fintech is […]

EdgeVerve launches blockchain framework for financial services

EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, has launched a blockchain framework targeted at the financial services sector. Called EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework, it is a permissioned ledger that allows banks to deploy blockchain-based services for “varied” business areas. EdgeVerve says it can “scale to the levels needed to support international, cross-border transactional business”; and therefore […]

Infosys Finacle teams with Onegini for digital banking

Infosys Finacle and software firm Onegini are partnering to integrate Onegini’s mobile security platform with Finacle banking solutions. Using this solution, Infosys says banks can offer customers an option to select “advanced” authentication methods, including fingerprint, facial, eye and voice recognition as well as multi-factor authentication for “added security” as they transact on devices. The […]

Reporting under Basel III: avoiding past mistakes

In a world where prudential regulatory rules are interlinked the old temptation to explore one regulatory development at a time is damaging. Regulatory reporting, and the technological systems behind it, need to adapt if we are to avoid past mistakes, writes Selwyn Blair-Ford, head of global regulatory policy at Wolters Kluwer. Here’s a scenario that […]

Swedbank sweet on virtual Nina

Swedbank has gone live with Nuance Nina, a virtual assistant that delivers a human-like, conversational customer service. The system, provided by US-based Nuance Communications, sits on the Swedbank website and the bank’s customers can type their questions to the virtual assistant. Swedbank customer service agents are also using the system to source information for customers. […]

Infographics: seizing the mPOS opportunity

Mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) is revolutionising the POS terminal industry. In two years, the market is estimated to be worth $43 billion. By 2019, 46% of all POS terminals in 2019 are expected to be mPOS. Over the next four years, the market is poised to grow by 400%. This nifty infographics – courtesy of FIME – […]

Nasdaq launches new quality assurance platform, Nasdaq Validator

Nasdaq has launched Nasdaq Validator to provide quality assurance (QA) for exchanges, clearing houses and central securities depositories (CSDs). Nasdaq Validator is an API-independent testing platform offering manual and automated test tools for the capital markets industry. It interfaces with Nasdaq’s matching, clearing and CSD systems, in addition to systems by other providers. It is […]

Misys unveils Misys FinCloud

Misys today is launching Misys FinCloud, a range of cloud solutions and “global cloud environment” for its clients. It is supported by “selected global and local infrastructure providers, systems integrators and solution partners”, including Rackspace and NTT Communications, Misys says. With Misys FinCloud “clients gain faster access to innovation through shorter and more predictable on-boarding […]

Morgan Stanley cools blockchain buzz

Morgan Stanley has brought blockchain back to earth, calling it a “double-edged sword” because while it helps banks reduce clutter, profits could fall or shift to new players. In its 31-page report, “Global Insight: Blockchain in Banking: Disruptive Threat or Tool?”, the company predicts blockchain’s “widespread potential to disrupt financial intermediaries” but says there are […]

Biometrics: the road less travelled on the customer journey

Biometric security in the financial services sector has finally reached the tipping point many have been anticipating since Apple launched its fingerprint recognition technology one whole iPhone generation ago. We recently saw the first of the major banks to announce that both fingerprint and voice recognition technology will be viable account login options for millions […]

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 […]

Top fintech stories this week – 22 April 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Corelation’s Keystone core system reaches 50 users All aboard for US-based credit unions. Citizens Bank plans core banking revamp with FIS Bank is also looking at a new mobile platform and middleware layer. Scotiabank invests millions of dollars […]

Temenos’ Q1 2016 software licensing revenue up 51%

Temenos has revealed IFRS (international financial reporting standards) total software licensing revenue of $38.9 million in Q1 2016; and non-IFRS total software licensing revenue of $39.2 million – up 51% from Q1 2015 on a reported basis and 53% in constant currencies. Temenos CEO David Arnott says this shows financial institutions “continue to embark on […]

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 […]

When banks leave the front door open

Cyber attacks against the banking industry have soared in the last few years. And financial institutions now face 300% more attacks than any other industry. Comparatively with other industries, the financial services industry isn’t shy where it comes to cyber security investment and generally has a superior level of protection. But this attracts a more […]

Infosys’ Finacle core banking system gains first taker in Myanmar

Asia Green Development (AGD) Bank, one of the first commercially owned banks in Myanmar, is automating its ops with Infosys’ Finacle core banking system. This is Infosys’ first core banking system client in Myanmar. The system will support all main operations of the bank, front-to-back office, including online and mobile banking. Finacle will oust a […]

Bermuda Commercial Bank goes live with new core banking system, Temenos’ T24

Bermuda Commercial Bank (BCB) has gone live with Temenos’ T24 core banking system (R13). The bank has also implemented Temenos’ business intelligence and analytics tool, Insight, and an AML solution. Sofgen, a Switzerland-based specialist IT consultancy and integration firm (now part of Tech Mahindra), carried out the implementation. The project was 18 months in the […]

Swift Business Forum London 2016: Blockchain – a reconciliation revolution

Blockchain is a revolution in reconciliation but not in payments, is one of the messages coming out of the Swift Business Forum London 2016. For the sixth edition of the show, more than 1,300 delegates were rammed and jammed into Tobacco Dock, London. This morning’s (20 April) sessions were dominated by warm-up speeches that praised […]

Payments UK launches new support service, signs Faster Payments as the first taker

Payments UK’s new service – Standards Collaboration Framework – offers institutions support in the implementation of industry standards. The first taker has already been onboarded. This is Faster Payments Scheme Limited (FPSL). Payments UK says the customer “will use the central, well-maintained ‘library’ to simplify how its industry stakeholders access and receive notifications about updated […]

ISO 20022 message guidelines approved and published

ISO 20022 Registration Management Group, the senior global registration body, has approved the ISO 20022 message guidelines – they have now been published. The new guidelines were developed by the ISO Real-Time Payments Group (RTPG) and facilitated by Payments UK, the representative of the country’s payments industry. Payments UK describes this development as “an important […]

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 […]

Two blockchain start-ups become one as Digital Asset Holdings and Elevence merge

Distributed ledger specialist Digital Asset Holdings has acquired a small Swiss start-up, Elevence Digital Finance. Elevence’s niche is a modelling language for determining rights and obligations in blockchain collaboration agreements. Its takeover provides Digital Asset with a new, verifiable way for parties involved in a transaction to independently prove updates to a distributed ledger while […]

Swift to launch new cloud-based learning platform, SwiftSmart

The new e-learning platform will administrate, document, track, report and deliver a broad catalogue of digital courses and social learning. It is an interactive, cloud-based service. To start with, SwiftSmart will support a subset of Swift’s existing training portfolio, which consists of 100+ courses. The full portfolio will be available by 2017. The initiative is […]

Bridgepoint and Summit Partners to buy Calypso Technology

Calypso Technology, a provider of treasury and capital markets (TCM) software, is to be acquired by European private equity fund Bridgepoint and global growth equity investor Summit Partners. Pascal Xatart, president of Calypso, says the deal means the “arrival of a new investor base” which will support its “growth ambitions”. The vendor has been owned […]

Maybank Private Wealth goes live on Avaloq Banking Suite

Singapore-based Maybank Private Wealth has gone live on Avaloq’s core banking platform, Avaloq Banking Suite. The project dates back to autumn 2014, when the deal between the two parties was signed. Alvin Lee Han Eng, head of private banking at Maybank Private Wealth, is complimentary of the project team, describing it as “professional and competent […]

Testing times: solving the cost conundrum in a disrupted market

Doing more with less is an important goal for any business. In the world of banking, an increasingly complex market is driving firms to uncover new ways to deliver cost efficiencies, writes Peter Gould, associate partner at Orbium. Growing competition from specialist providers continues to disrupt the traditional banking model. These firms are using new […]

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 […]

CIMB Group unifies core banking operations on One Platform

CIMB Group is celebrating the completion of a major core banking project – to unify its regional operation on a single platform, One Platform (1P). The project spans four countries: Malaysia (where the group’s headquarters are based), Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Silverlake Axis, Accenture, IDS Scheer and IBM were the main technology partners. Silverlake’s core […]

Robotic automation software vendor OpenSpan acquired by Pegasystems

US-based developer of CRM and BPM software, Pegasystems, has acquired OpenSpan. The acquisition, says Pegasystems, “brings robotics, analytics and case management together to enable more productive employees and better customer experience”. OpenSpan, based in the US state of Georgia, specialises in robotics process automation and workforce analytics software. The company says it is currently running […]

Backbase’s omnichannel platform gains new live site in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank has launched a new digital banking subsidiary, Altyn-i, underpinned by the Backbase omnichannel solution. Backbase interfaces to Altyn-i’s core banking system, CBS, from Colvir Software Solutions. The new bank aims to offer a full range of financial services. At present, it offers account opening, debit cards and payment services. Consumer loans, mortgages […]

Xceed and Reach Credit Unions to unite on Fiserv’s DNA core platform

California-based credit union, Xceed Financial, is merging with fellow Reach Federal Credit Union. The two entities will use Fiserv’s DNA core processing system as their centralised platform. It will be provided on a hosted basis. Xceed is already on the DNA platform, but has been using it in an in-house environment rather than outsourced. Reach […]

Top fintech stories this week – 15 April 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! EPC launches public consultation on SEPA instant payments scheme You’ve got until 10th July to submit your views. What do corporates want from their banks? Simplicity, standardisaion and automation. New core banking system selection in the Netherlands Amsterdam Trade […]