FinTech


R3 and ten member banks develop KYC service proof-of-concept

The R3 consortium and ten of its member banks have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a know your customer (KYC) registry “that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying KYC requirements and allows identities to be managed by their owners”.

Mobile-only bank Pepper gears up for launch in Israel

Israel’s Bank Leumi is gearing up for the launch of its new digital banking subsidiary, Pepper. It is expected to open its virtual doors for business before the end of 2016. The tech is provided by Temenos.

White paper: Achieving Real-Time Financial Regulatory Compliance with In-Memory Computing

Stringent regulations and client protection initiatives enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown are causing unprecedented and growing technical challenges. Banks and other financial institutions must monitor, collect, and analyze vast amounts of data from multiple, disparate sources in real-time. This new white paper provides an overview of the current economic and regulatory […]

Blockchain is not just for banking… insurance wants it too

There has been a tremendous amount of excitement and discussion about the potential of blockchain technology to transform the financial services industry and beyond. But the only thing that is clear at the moment is that there is still a lot of work to be done to implement wide scale use cases, clear up any regulatory uncertainly or barriers and educate institutions and employees about the technology and its potential.

Fintech funding round-up: 4 November 2016

Let’s put the fun in funding by keeping it mercifully brief. A round-up of some key events. KEEN Venture Partners, a new venture capital firm operating from London and Amsterdam, has announced €90 million first close of its inaugural fund. It will use the money to provide early growth capital for tech firms with a […]

Top fintech stories this week – 4 November 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Weatherbys Bank live with new core banking system EXCLUSIVE. Oracle FSS’s Flexcube flexes its muscles. Mobile payments and European millennials Vocalink reveals millennials’ habits and perceptions. Japan rises to blockchain challenge with new consortium Launches with 42 member […]

Dysrupt Labs launches world’s first SaaS collective forecasting platform

Dysrupt Labs has launched Percypt, the “first” Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) collective forecasting platform. The firm says Percypt is designed to give organisations insight on questions; and by tapping into the combined insight of its teams and networks, it says collective forecasts are 30-80% more accurate. Dysrupt Labs CEO Karl Mattingly says surveys, polls and traditional management […]

UK challenger Pockit reaches 100,000 customer mark

UK challenger “neo-bank” Pockit says it now has 100,000 customers, “nearly twice as many” as three of its rivals – Monzo, Atom and Tandem – “combined”. On its website, Pockit says it is a “prepaid MasterCard, not a bank”, so the term “neo-bank” may be worth scrapping or explaining. It’s been around for a while, […]

Four banks team up to standardise repackaging transactions

Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nomura International and Societe Generale have teamed up to produce documentation for use in listed and unlisted repackaging transactions. According to the banks, repackaged products provide the investor exposure to the underlying credit of an issuer and are specifically designed for the investor’s risk-return needs. In addition, cash flows can be […]

Payments and blockchain: Pilotville

The payments industry went just a bit blockchain bonkers at this year’s Sibos. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) was a hot topic throughout the week. This was quite astounding given there are very few examples of working blockchain or DLT use cases; most of the initiatives under way are proofs of concept.

MasterCard unveils new blockchain

MasterCard has unveiled its own blockchain as it reacts to arch-rival Visa’s partnership with Chain and seeks to use the technology in payments and trade finance. Its version is currently at the testing stage and offers the usual things in this corner of the fintech world. These include smart contracts – scriptable transactions that automate […]

Deutsche Bank opens data store to developers

Deutsche Bank is opening its data store to software developers from Germany and abroad as it looks for more digital solutions for its bank clients. Its site, developer.db.com, will from tomorrow (1 November) provide access to the bank’s proprietary development environment, allowing programmers to test their ideas for “digital services of the future”. The bank […]

DBS to acquire ANZ retail and wealth business in Asia

Singapore-based DBS Bank is buying the retail and wealth business of Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia for about SGD 110 million ($79 million) “above book value”. The exact figure has not been disclosed, but the portfolio represents total deposits of SGD 17 billion ($12.2 billion), […]

Misys in five-year Deutsche Bank deal

Misys has signed a five-year enterprise license agreement with Deutsche Bank giving it “unrestricted access” to deploy Misys FusionBanking Lending and Misys FusionCapital solutions across the business. Misys’ FusionBanking Lending offering includes the Loan IQ back office platform for syndicated lending and the front-end that originates from Custom Credit Systems (CCS), a US-based provider of […]

Next-generation virtual data room launched by Drooms

No more drowning in tons of paper and receiving eye-watering bills from lawyers – Drooms introduces a brand new virtual data room, Drooms NXG. The work is a result of a two-year development, says Jan Hoffmeister, managing director and co-founder of Drooms, and features self-learning software and automatic translation from core European languages to English. […]

Ex-Barclays CEO back with new firm and digital banking platform

Antony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclays, is back with a new company called 10x Future Technologies and launched a new core digital banking platform. As Banking Technology reported in June, Jenkins, who was sacked by Barclays in summer 2015 for failing to transform the bank quickly enough, set up 10X Future Technologies. At that time, […]

Brave new Bitcoin for Tullett Prebon

Tullett Prebon Information (TPI), a provider of real-time price information from the global OTC financial and commodity markets, has signed a deal with Brave New Coin (BNC) to distribute its digital currency data. TPI says this is the “first time such a comprehensive view of the entire digital currency landscape has been made available to […]

Earthport revenue and payment volume take off

Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, has revealed its revenues increased 18% to £22.8 million for the full year (FY) 2016 – powered by the rise in payment volume and transaction numbers. For the year ended 30 June 2016, it says payment volume increased to more than $11 billion, a 64% increase prior to the […]

“Outstanding sales” boost Fiserv revenue

Fiserv’s GAAP revenue increased 5% in the third quarter to $1.38 billion, with 8% growth in its payments segment and 2% growth in the financial segment, compared to Q3 2015. The firm also released figures for the first nine months of 2016, with GAAP revenue rising 5% to $4.07 billion, with 8% growth in the […]

Is customer loyalty dead in banking?

In an age of increasingly high consumer expectations, driven by ever increasing customer choice, the term “customer experience” has become more than a simple buzzword. Used as a key brand differentiator for all types of industries, it has emerged as a crucial tool in driving customer loyalty in the long-term. Irrespective of whether you are […]

The changing co-branded credit card landscape

As retailers across the country need to bring innovative customisation and convenience factors to their customers, credit cards are becoming an essential part of delivering value. Co-branded cards continue to play an important role in the retail landscape and can offer a unique point of distinction for retailers in today’s competitive environment.

Co-op turns cop in ATM crime coup

The UK-based Co-op has teamed up with forensic technology company SmartWater to roll-out a new deterrent linking criminals back to the scene of an ATM crime. In a “first of its kind”, SmartWater have adapted their dispersal technology to ensure that both the criminals and the stolen cash are marked, regardless of how the ATM […]

SETL blockchain powers Cobalt’s FX post trade

London-based blockchain firm SETL and Cobalt DL, a private peer-to-peer network, have teamed up to use SETL’s OpenCSD within the Cobalt FX post trade platform. The service is set to launch in 2017, with 15 institutional FX participants “already committed” to the service. Earlier this year, SETL unveiled the OpenCSD platform, its first commercial offering, […]

BBVA favours Amazon Web Services for cloud drive

BBVA has reached a global agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as it looks to cloud computing to boost its digital banking services. The agreement, which is part of a series of accords that the group is making with providers, turns AWS into its “preferred” cloud infrastructure services provider. AWS will execute the migration of […]

Bank of America to launch AI chatbot

Bank of America has unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to help customers make decisions on their finances. Called Erica, a nod to the name America, it will be available inside the bank’s mobile app in 2017. Customers can do the usual AI stuff – chat via text or voice – and it’s all […]

Chinese tourism powers Verifone and Alipay payment partnership

Verifone is partnering with Alipay to enable retailers in North America and Europe to accept payments from Chinese tourists. According to Verifone, nearly 100 million Chinese consumers annually travel abroad and use Alipay to make purchases. This latest partnership follows quickly on Alipay’s deals with Zapper and Ingenico – both for the same reason as […]

CBA and Wells Fargo in “world-first” interbank blockchain trade transaction

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Wells Fargo and trading firm Brighann Cotton have completed the “first” global trade transaction between two banks using blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). The transaction involved a shipment of cotton from Texas to Qingdao, China, using a distributed ledger – Skuchain’s Brackets system – for all […]

Dassault Systemes unveils seven finalists for KYC/AML start-up challenge

French software firm Dassault Systemes has named the seven finalists for its “3D FinTech Challenge” 2016 to address anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) issues. This is its fourth annual accelerator programme in collaboration with senior finance executives, regulators and “influencers”. As Banking Technology reported in August, Dassault Systemes invited start-ups to apply. […]

Envestnet Yodlee extends tie-up with Backbase, unveils updates

Envestnet Yodlee has extended its partnership with omnichannel banking specialist Backbase. The two companies have been collaborating for some time. With the new agreement, Backbase will be providing its customers with integrations to the Envestnet Yodlee data aggregation platform.

R3 blockchain code goes open source

R3 has made its blockchain platform’s code publicly available as it seeks to make it an industry standard. The Corda platform has been developed by R3’s consortium, which comprises more than 60 financial institutions around the world (the latest addition is Synchrony Financial – the first credit card company to join the consortium). “We want […]

Is your mobile banking app causing more harm than good?

Without the right digital strategy, small and midsize banks risk ceding built-in advantages to larger competitors. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to successfully move into the digital realm and retain customer engagement (and sales). Mobile banking has become an imperative for retail bankers looking to keep pace with the industry and satisfy customers’ needs. It […]

Payments round-up: 21 October 2016

Jargon defeated. Unnecessary words deleted. A brief payments round-up. LeFinance, a division of Beijing-based tech firm LeEco, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation for cross-border payments on the latter’s blockchain network. The deal means Stellar expands into China. LeFinance will also use Stellar’s network to monitor credits for usage across their various devices and […]

Wipro to buy cloud firm Appirio

IT services integrator Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Appirio, a cloud services company, for $500 million. With the acquisition, Wipro will get Topcoder, a crowdsourcing marketplace for designers, developers and data scientists; and expand its cloud offerings. Abidali Neemuchwala, CEO and member of the board at Wipro, says it will “consolidate” […]

Top fintech stories this week – 21 October 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Bank of Ireland in major tech revamp EXCLUSIVE. Accenture and Capgemini working on Project Omega. Trouble in the R3 paradise? Thinking about time and money. Millions at risk from India ATM hack Debit cards in danger due to […]