FinTech


FinovateEurope 2017: designing good finance

Last week’s FinovateEurope was full of the broad range of exciting and innovative companies that we have come to expect at the show. Although the 72 companies showcasing their solutions operated right across the fintech landscape, they all sing from a common hymn sheet of improving the customer experience.

Trade finance and blockchain: the right time

Financial institutions and technology companies have tinkered with trade finance for years, but progress has been slow. Despite automation advances in many areas of financial services, trade finance remains a largely paper-based, manual process. But it could be one area where blockchain technology will be successfully applied.

Top fintech stories this week – 10 February 2017

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Temenos cuts jobs in US; eyes D+H payments business EXCLUSIVE. US layoffs cited as around 60 by some sources. Ziraat Bank London to replace legacy core banking tech EXCLUSIVE. Misys Fusionbanking moves in. Banks and UN launch sustainable […]

Viewpoint: What Openness Means for Payments, Fintech Future

With regulators opening up the payments infrastructure and consumers and business clients demanding á la carte but interoperable financial services from a variety of players, the industry and its would-be disruptors must adapt.

Accenture debuts blockchain security for large-scale enterprise IT

Accenture has unveiled a patent-pending solution for blockchain to integrate with industrial-grade security systems that support sectors including financial services. The solution creates an interface between emerging blockchain platforms and “widely used” hardware security technology. It uses Hyperledger Fabric; and Accenture worked with French firm Thales — whose hardware is used by banks to secure […]

Ancoa delivers AWS hosted market surveillance platform to Convergex

US-based brokerage services provider Convergex has implemented Ancoa’s market surveillance platform to monitor all trading activity across its domestic and international cash equities and options businesses. It also monitors trading activity of “all lit and dark venues” including Millennium, Convergex’s proprietary applicant tracking system (ATS). The cloud-based deployment is running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), […]

PayPal’s new pal is its first payments bot

PayPal has a new pal – namely its first bot that lets users move and manage their money in a conversational and casual style. It is built on the Slack messaging platform, which has five million daily active users and lets teams centralise conversations. With the bot, people can send money between PayPal accounts without […]

Modern payments and banking APIs

Modern banking is not limited to banks anymore. It’s not only about online or mobile banking, it’s about all the things you would do in your banking system, but now you can do in apps or other solutions provided by third parties, not banks. Payments are one of such functionalities.

Banks and UN launch sustainable investment framework

United Nations, together with 19 banks and investors worldwide, have launched “a global framework aimed at channelling the money they manage towards clean, low carbon and inclusive projects”. The framework – The Principles for Positive Impact Finance – is a first of its kind set of criteria for investments to be considered sustainable, says the UN.

The “entrefunereal” spirit takes hold at Rainmaking Summit

Game-changing innovations, paradigm shift and synergy… Buzzwords no more! The Rainmaking Summit tapped a frustration with the kind of language that obfuscates more than it clarifies, initiatives that pay lip service to innovation while skirting around the edges, and the cultural, organisational, and technological blockers to change that define many large corporates.

Glance and trade: Swissquote introduces VR trading

Swiss online bank Swissquote has developed a virtual reality (VR) trading application that enables users make trades with a glance. The VR headset creates a 360° trading wall for users to monitor the markets.

Irish Funds and Deloitte power blockchain for regulatory reporting

Irish Funds is working with Deloitte and others to develop a blockchain proof of concept (PoC) for regulatory reporting. The project will focus on the Resident Investment Fund Returns (Money Market and Investment Funds Returns Reporting – MMIF) regulation and will use blockchain and smart contract technology to create a platform for regulatory reporting accessible […]

Barclaycard teams with VocaLink for mobile payments

Barclaycard is partnering with VocaLink to enable its merchants to accept mobile payments through Pay by Bank app. Pay by Bank app, created by VocaLink’s payment innovation team Zapp, will allow shoppers to pay for goods and services on a mobile device, without the need to enter credit or debit card details. Rajiv Garodia, managing […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 1 February 2017

The world moves fast, so you need a fast read. A round-up of key events to save you time. PayCommerce, an open cross-border payments network, has completed its real-time, cross-border payment, clearing and settlement testing. It is the first phase of its multi-country global roll out strategy and was done between the US and India. […]

Varo Money joins forces with Envestnet | Yodlee to drive fintech innovation

California based technology companies Varo Money and Envestnet | Yodlee have teamed up to drive fintech innovation. Varo Money, a mobile-only banking start-up hopes to leverage Envestnet | Yodlee’s data analytics and aggregation platform to provide customers with a more customised mobile banking experience, and better insights into their financial well-being.

Capgemini calls for start-ups with InnovatorsRace50

Tech consultancy firm Capgemini is calling for start-up applicants for its InnovatorsRace50 competition – with the chance to win equity-free funding of $50,000. To celebrate 50 years since its launch, Capgemini’s InnovatorsRace50 wants entrepreneurs and “disruptive early-stage start-ups” to apply. The top five businesses, one from each theme, will win equity-free funding of $50,000 each. […]

Mastercard growing faster than Visa in Americas

Mastercard saw faster growth than Visa in the Americas in 2015 but, with 43%, Visa still has significantly the largest market share, according to research by Retail Banking Research (RBR). According to RBR’s Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021 study, the number of Mastercard cards grew by 6% in the Americas in 2015, […]

DFS Innovation Lab launches fintech bootcamp

Powered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Digital Financial Services (DFS) Innovation Lab has launched a new high-intensity fintech bootcamp for companies in Sub-Saharan Africa and and South Asia.

Bank Central Asia sets up fintech focused VC company

Bank Central Asia (BCA), an Indonesian bank with over 1,100 branches and 17,000 ATMs, has established a venture capital company, Central Capital Ventura (CCV). CCV has a paid-up capital of IDR 200 billion ($15 million).

Wipro teams with Tradeshift for source-to-pay processes

India’s IT giant Wipro has teamed with and invested in supply chain finance platform Tradeshift to offer a cloud-based source-to-pay (S2P) business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) solution. The partnership will provide digitalisation and automation in procurement, finance and accounting functions; and combines Tradeshift’s platform with Wipro’s integrated S2P services. Along with the partnership Wipro Ventures, the strategic investment […]

BNP Paribas Securities Services invests in fintech start-up Fortia

BNP Paribas Securities Services has acquired a minority stake in an Fortia Financial Solutions. This deal helps Fortia, a start-up that provides compliance software to the financial services industry, cement the relationship it formed with the bank during the inaugural session of the fintech accelerator by L’Atelier BNP Paribas.

The Monday mindset: 30 January 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! Welcome to the third in a new series of brief reports. Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week we welcome the views of guest writer Soumik Roy. Last week, […]

Five mistakes to avoid when starting a fintech company

Francisco Lorca, MD of Startupbootcamp FinTech London, a UK-based accelerator, highlights the pitfalls of starting a fintech firm, drawing on his extensive 17-year experience in finance and entrepreneurship.

Cyren sounds siren over Bitcoin siphon scam

US-based internet security firm Cyren has discovered an outbreak of malware which is stealing passwords as well as Bitcoin from cryptocurrency wallets on PCs. Avi Turiel, director of threat research at Cyren, says in a blog post this “versatile” keylogger malware is being delivered as an attachment to phony bank transfer emails, which inform the […]

Linedata adds a touch of Gravitas

Investment management software firm Linedata has acquired Gravitas Technology Services, a provider of middle office and technology services to the asset management industry. Gravitas is based mainly in New York and Mumbai, and the deal is part of Linedata’s ambitions in North America. It follows last year’s purchase of fellow investment management software provider, Derivation. […]

Ant Financial buys MoneyGram for $880 million

Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial is splashing out $880 million for money transfer operator MoneyGram International. This is Ant Financial’s first acquisition of a US-listed company.

Fintech funding round-up: 23 January 2017

Want to save some time but be in the know of the latest funding initiatives in the fintech space? Then read on. Featuring Habito, Dwolla and H2 Ventures.

The Monday mindset: 23 January 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! Welcome to the second in a new series of brief reports. Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. Anything goes, so here goes. Last week I was in Hong Kong, but […]

DeVere Group launches private bank

Financial adviser firm DeVere Group has unveiled its own private bank, DeVere Group Bank St Lucia. The company says the launch “has been facilitated” by the acquisition of St Lucia-based Arton Bank for an undisclosed sum. Arton Bank was set up and licensed in 2014 under the Offshore Banking Act 1996. Founder and CEO of […]