News


Mastercard Buys in to AI with Brighterion

Mastercard has entered into an agreement to acquire Brighterion Inc., a software company specializing in artificial intelligence. This acquisition follows Masterdard’s March acquisition of NuData Security and will further expand Mastercard’s capabilities to “deliver an enhanced customer experience and security.”

AI will be ubiquitous in 2020 but overhyped in 2017 – Gartner

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be baked into nearly every new software product and service by 2020, but the rush to claim AI integration today is causing confusion, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner. Light Reading (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that while virtually every company across industry verticals is busy today figuring out […]

Nesta names 20 fintechs fired up for £5m SME innovation fund

UK-based innovation foundation Nesta has revealed the 20 fintech firms who will participate in its Open Up Challenge as it looks for services, apps and tools for SMEs – with a £5 million prize fund on offer. As reported in March, Nesta launched its challenge – open to entries from anywhere in the world that […]

M-Wallet Roundup: Apple Pay, ANZ, CaixaBank, Starling, Samsung

It’s been a busy week for mobile wallet partnerships. Several companies announced deals to offer mobile wallets to their customers in the U.K., Australia and Europe. Challenger bank Starling says it’s the first in the U.K. to offer in-app provisioning.

Fintech funding round-up: 18 July 2017

You’ve come to the right section for cash injection. Today’s fintech funding round-up features Contego, Privitar, Form3 and Barclays. Maven Capital Partners, a UK private equity house, has led the £3.5 million investment in Contego Fraud Solutions to support its growth plans. Maven is putting in £1.8 million, NVM Private Equity is investing £1.5 million, […]

Be at the heart of the biggest fintech event of the year – Sibos 2017

Daily News at Sibos, the highest profile news publication at Sibos 2017, is written and produced by Banking Technology for the duration of the event.  A flagship Sibos publication does not only bring the most important news and happenings of the day, but is also a great way for companies to showcase thought leadership, breaking news, feature articles or exclusive interviews with […]

Blend launches native mobile app for lending

Blend, a start-up that helps lenders make mortgage lending decisions, has unveiled a native mobile app, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The San Francisco-based company’s launch of Blend Mobile aims to let loan officers manage borrower requests and applications on their mobile device in order to facilitate communication between the two parties. Founded in 2012, […]

Worldline buys Digital River World Payments

France-based payments technology provider Worldline is expanding its global footprint with a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the share capital of Digital River World Payments (DRWP), an online global payment service provider from Digital River Inc. Banking Technology‘s sister publication Paybefore reports that the acquisition, which is expected to close in the third quarter […]

PayPal Teams with Samsung Pay

The partnerships keep coming for PayPal. Following recent news that the company is partnering with Apple for payments on iTunes and in the App Store, the company announced July 17 that it’s expanding its partnership with Samsung to enable PayPal as a payment method in any channel Samsung Pay is accepted.

Congressman Calls for Hearing on Amazon’s Whole Foods Bid

On this heels of its record-breaking Prime Day, during which sales were up more than 60 percent over last year, Amazon is facing antitrust concerns from the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline (R.I.) is calling for a hearing on the e-commerce giant’s $13.7 billion bid to acquire brick-and-mortar specialty grocery chain Whole Foods.

mVisa Takes on M-PESA with Free Domestic Mobile Money Transfers

Move over M-PESA, customers of a Visa-led bank partnership in Kenya will be able to send money to each other domestically without paying transaction fees using mVisa, and the payments network has added additional in-store merchant acceptance for the QR-code-based payment method.

IBM unveils data protection engine for cloud era

IBM has unveiled IBM Z, a new transaction system, capable of running more than 12 billion encrypted transactions per day and designed for use in the cloud. The firm is looking to address data breaches, which it reckons are a major factor in the $2 trillion cybercrime impact on the global economy by 2019. IBM […]

The Monday mindset: 17 July 2017

Fintech zeitgeist! 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, David Siegel, CEO of Twenty Thirty, a Swiss-based blockchain company, offers up “Ten Simple Rules for Crypto-Investing”. 1. Put a small amount […]

People on the Move: John D. Orr, FutureVault

FutureVault, a personal and business information management company based in Toronto, has named banking executive, lawyer, entrepreneur and investment professional John D. Orr as CEO. Orr also has made a significant personal investment in the company for a material ownership position.

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 14 July 2017

From a mystery to a European duet. Our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up features the secretive SafeToken, China’s Asset Collection Chain, Swissquote and Bitstamp. A former (and anonymous) Goldman Sachs employee has launched the first “anti-bubble” derivative for Bitcoin. They didn’t reveal their name in their email or on the website. A search around hasn’t […]

Congressional Republicans Look to Dismantle CFPB’s Arbitration Rule

It didn’t take long for Congressional Republicans to pounce on the CFPB’s final rule on arbitration agreements, which the agency released on July 10. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling said he would support use of the Congressional Review Act to dismantle the rule, while Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) already has drafted a CRA resolution and is working with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (Idaho) to introduce it “soon.”

EML Goes Global with Next-Gen Mall Cards, Gaming Payouts

More than a year into the merger with Australia-based EMerchants Limited, former Store Financial CEO Eric Mettemeyer, who now leads EML’s North America division, spoke with Paybefore about the company’s global efforts to expand beyond single-load gift and the greenfield in payout cards, gaming and more.

Turnkey Lender raises $2m in Series A funding

In a round led by Vertex Ventures, the venture capital wing of Temasek Holdings, Turnkey Lender has picked up $2 million in funding, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The Singapore-based company specialises in loan management technology, delivered over the cloud, that automates all stages of the lending life cycle – from application processing to collections […]

New partnership turns PayPal into Apple App Store payment option

One small step for consumer choice in e-commerce. One giant leap in PayPal’s quest to be the payment option of choice for shoppers online, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). This week the company announced a partnership with Apple to allow shoppers pay for their purchases at the App Store using PayPal. The feature will be available for users […]

Top fintech stories this week – 14 July 2017

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Aktia Bank finally live with Temenos T24 core banking system “Some system repairs will be carried out during the following weeks.” HSBC and Barclays pilot banking without borders Testing use of a citizen’s national digital identity. ANZ, Westpac […]

Vote for the Best Challenger Banks

Vote for the challenger banks (licensed or not) that should make Paybefore’s top 5 Best Challenger Banks list. Share your opinions through Aug. 1. The top 5 vote-getters will be profiled on Paybefore.com. 

Apple Deal Puts PayPal One Step Closer to Ubiquity

One small step for consumer choice in e-commerce, one giant leap in PayPal’s quest for ubiquity. The company announced a partnership with Apple to enable shoppers to pay for their purchases in the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music and iBooks using PayPal.

Amex Taps Virtual Cards for Business Travel Expenses

American Express is the latest payments company to recognize the benefits of enabling virtual account numbers for business travel. The addition of virtual account numbers enables businesses to set usage dates and pre-authorize spending limits at the time of booking, helping reduce fraud and encourage compliance with company travel policies, Amex said.

Altice puts squeeze on Orange with bank move

In a copycat move that will come as a blow to Orange, rival Altice plans to launch its own online bank by early 2019 in the countries in its network footprint, according to a report from Reuters that cites a source close to the matter. Light Reading (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that the launch of […]

People on the Move: David Baker, Enacomm

Enacomm Inc., which provides customer authentication and customer service technology, has hired David Baker as vice president of sales, financial services.

LCH SwapAgent opts for Murex capital markets platform

LCH SwapAgent has selected Murex’s MX.3 capital markets platform for trade processing, valuation, margining and member reporting. LCH SwapAgent was launched last year by LCH, a central counterparty clearing house, as a new centralised service for the non-cleared derivatives market. In this latest deal with Murex, LCH SwapAgent “aims to improve efficiencies” in the bilateral […]

Allfunds unveils API platform for wealth management

Allfunds Bank Group is all for APIs with the launch of a new platform targetting the wealth management industry. The platform offers a “fully digitised way” of accessing Allfunds services by providing access to third party applications using standardised APIs which it says comply with emerging regulatory norms such as MiFiD II. Like many other […]

Fintech funding round-up: 13 July 2017

And the money keeps rolling in for fintech! Features Revolut, Curve, Pixoneye and Gridspace. Banking Technology’s sister publication Paybefore reports. UK challenger bank Revolut announced a $66 million investment from Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Ribbit Capital, which the company will use to introduce new features and expand globally, starting with Asia and North America. […]

Debit Cards Knock off Cash as No. 1 Payment Method in U.K.

Cash is no longer king in the U.K., according to the British Retail Consortium’s annual Payments Survey, which found that debit card transactions accounted for almost 43 percent of all retail transactions in 2016, overtaking cash, which accounted for 42 percent of all retail transactions, for the first time.

Google extends long arm of influence further into AI

Google has launched a new initiative, Gradient Ventures, its own VC arm to seek out artificial intelligence (AI) talent and invest in start-ups, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). The initiative itself is a simple one. Google will provide funds and access to experienced engineers to help the start-ups develop to the next level. AI […]

Fintech Funding Roundup: Revolut, Curve, Pixoneye, Gridspace

And the money keeps rolling in for fintech. U.K. challenger bank Revolut announced a $66 million investment it will use to introduce new features and expand globally, starting with Asia and North America. Meanwhile, Santander InnoVentures, the bank’s fintech venture capital fund, has added U.K.-based Pixoneye and Curve and U.S.-based Gridspace to its portfolio.

R3 brings the Intel to Corda DLT platform

Enterprise software firm R3 is working with Intel to beef up its data privacy and security for Corda, its distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. R3, which used to call itself a blockchain consortium, says Corda only sends data to those who have a “need to know”. According to the company, this feature emerged from the […]

Finicity and JP Morgan Chase pair for data share

Data aggregation provider Finicity has signed an agreement with JP Morgan Chase to let the bank’s customers choose data to share with apps. The companies will use a direct API to allow Chase customers to share information with the apps and services that Finicity supports. According to the firms, this tokenised access will eliminate the […]

Broadridge buys data and intelligence firm Spence Johnson

Broadridge Financial Solutions will acquire Spence Johnson, a provider of institutional data and intelligence, for its asset management market ambitions. With the purchase, Broadridge says its Global Market Intelligence, a platform for retail cross-border fund data and analytics, will be able to use Spence Johnson’s Money in Motion dataset that provides analytics on assets, flows […]

Santander and Tradeshift partner for supply chain finance

Santander is partnering with business commerce platform Tradeshift, for a digital capital solution, the first of which will be supply chain finance (SCF). As reported last year, Tradeshift got an investment from Santander InnoVentures. At that time, Mariano Belinky, managing partner at Santander InnoVentures, said the company “is at the forefront of tackling a very […]