Banking


Defining fintech as an opportunity, not as a threat

“Silicon Valley is coming,” warned Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s boss, in a recent letter to shareholders. It’s a sentiment echoed across much of the banking world at the moment. The idea that fintech is a threat to the financial services sector is bubbling – a 2015 PwC survey found 83% of financial services professionals were […]

Virtual bank accounts: forget what you thought you knew

Virtual bank accounts (VBAs) are a hot topic among the treasury community today. While you may have heard of VBAs before, their usage is rapidly evolving – and their benefits for treasurers continue to grow. Dick Oskam, global head of sales for transaction services at ING Bank, explains what VBAs are all about. In an increasingly […]

Bancolombia’s Nequi first in Colombia to deploy mobile biometrics

Nequi, a financial mobile banking service from Bancolombia, has become the first in Colombia to deploy mobile biometrics for authentication. The technology – the IdentityX platform – is supplied by US fintech specialist Daon. Users will be asked to provide their biometrics when signing up for Nequi. They will be able to authenticate with a […]

Commerzbank and UniCredit complete first BPO live transaction in UK

Commerzbank London and UniCredit have “successfully” processed the first UK Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) live transaction. The banks say with the backing of the ICC Banking Commission and Swift, there has been a “growing demand for, and an increasing number of”, BPO transactions, as a “proven” digital settlement tool. Raphael Barisaac, global head of trade […]

Backbase and Entersekt partner for digital banking authentication

Digital banking software specialist Backbase has teamed with Entersekt to use its authentication capabilities on the Backbase Open Banking Marketplace. Backbase will offer banks push-based authentication and transaction signing integrated in its omni-channel digital banking platform. Its clients can select the authentication solution that “best meets their needs”. Dewald Nolte, Entersekt’s SVP partners and alliances, […]

B1NK bot brings payments “first” to Kazakhstan

Digital-only B1NK, part of Capital Bank Kazakhstan, has unveiled the region’s “first” chat and payments bot – using Telegram Messenger. The bank says its customers can send money to friends and manage their cards all via the messenger service. Gani Uzbekov, CEO, Capital Bank Kazakhstan (B1NK), says: “Today only a couple of tier-2 banks in […]

Windsor Family Credit Union launches Eva banking solution

Canada-based Windsor Family Credit Union (WFCU) has unveiled its new line of everyday accounts – Eva – for “unlimited” daily banking. WFCU says Eva provides “unlimited” deposits, withdrawals, transfers, electronic and cheque debits, point-of-sale transactions, ATM transactions worldwide and “unlimited” bill payments online, by phone, in-branch or at an ATM. Account access through online, mobile […]

Who will win the battle for millennials – Zelle or Venmo?

As a Gen Xer, I have always had difficulty relating to the obsessive appeal social media has to millennials. Tweeting and Facebook posting of mundane daily events seemed like over-sharing and just a little narcissistic to me. This is not an intellectual problem of understanding the concepts or technologies, but a kind of generational disparity […]

Randolph Savings Bank in early contract renewal with Fiserv

Massachusetts-based community bank, Randolph Savings Bank, has renewed its long-term contract with Fiserv for a host of back and front office solutions. The renewal was spurred on by the bank’s IPO. Randolph Savings Bank floated its shares in July. It also completed the integration of its earlier acquisition – First Eastern Bankshares Corporation and its […]

Investments for real-time payment systems and migration to ISO 20022

Traditionally there weren’t any obligations for financial institutions to provide complete information on all parties in a payment process. Today, it is quite a different story. The initiator and receiver are responsible for reporting account numbers, names and addresses of remitters. There are even cases now where regulators may prevent banks from processing transactions when […]

Hinduja Bank replaces ERI’s Olympic core system with Avaloq Banking Suite

Hinduja Bank in Switzerland has moved to a new core banking system, supplied by Avaloq, Banking Technology understands. Avaloq Banking Suite replaced the legacy Olympic system from rival vendor ERI. Avaloq declined to comment on the story. Hinduja Bank – part of an India-based conglomerate, Hinduja Group – was set up in the late 1970s […]

Playing games with Mondo’s name change

Changing your name from Mondo to Monzo does not warrant a news story –  unless a rival challenger bank makes some fun out of it. A trademark dispute with another Mondo entailed the new moniker and much unnecessary fanfare. While Monzo revelled in its new name and ignored media queries, Starling Bank decided to do […]

Fintech funding round-up: 26 August 2016

They said it. We read it. We edit. A round-up of some key events in funding. Singapore-based MC Payment has raised SGD $6 million ($4.5 million) in a Series B round. The funds will be used to “drive market expansion” into Australia and in southeast Asia, as well as “enhance” its product offerings, including Xaavan, […]

Top ten lending sites in the US – July 2016

Who is leading the digital way among the lending companies in the US? We have put together some nifty stats for the US top ten online lending sites for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). We’ll be publishing regular updates on a monthly basis, to track the changes, developments and trends – to bring you a fuller […]

How agency banking can empower emerging markets

Extending the reach of financial services in emerging markets is an ongoing challenge and opportunity for traditional banks. Telcos have led the relatively recent development of mobile money products with great success; achieved primarily through the use of innovative technology and agents on the ground. GMSA reports that 37 mobile money markets have ten times […]

GMEX tech to underpin new swap execution facility, Seed SEF

Chicago-based swap execution facility, Seed SEF, has been granted full registration by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It is underpinned by the GMEX Technologies’ trading and surveillance software. GMEX is also a stakeholder in Seed SEF. SEFs are trading facilities that operate under the CFTC’s regulatory oversight for trading and processing swaps. They […]

Nordea and DNB to unite banking ops in Baltics

Nordea and DNB will bring together their operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to create a new bank. The two banks say their Baltic operations are “a great match”, with Nordea’s strength being in the large corporate segment, while DNB’s is in the SME segment. Both banks also have significant presence in the retail space. […]

Microcred to become fully-fledged bank; Temenos to provide core banking tech

International microfinance entity Microcred plans to become a fully-fledged retail bank and grow its presence from nine to 17 countries by 2020. It has opted to keep its long-standing technology provider, Temenos, and upgrade to a single instance of the vendor’s flagship system, T24. It will be operated from Dakar, Senegal. Microcred has recently signed […]

Top ten lending sites in the UK – July 2016

With digital financial services sharply on the rise in the UK, who is leading among the UK lenders? We have put together some nifty stats for the top ten online lending sites in the UK for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). We’ll be publishing regular updates on a monthly basis, to track the changes, […]

ING makes cross-border virtual cash management a reality

ING Wholesale Banking has launched Virtual Cash Management (VCM), a digital solution for corporates to centralise treasury functions. The firm says VCM enables treasurers to rationalise and simplify account structures and to set-up or “enhance” in-house bank structures with capabilities including invoice matching, reconciliation, internal transfers, and an intercompany loan administration. Dick Oskam, global head […]

Famous five unsettle Bitcoin with utility settlement coin

BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander have joined UBS and Clearmatics to advance their utility settlement coin (USC) concept, and plan tests in a real-market environment. USC is a digital cash model for payments and settlement. It will run on blockchain and be another rival to Bitcoin. The group plan to build on the […]

SAB lands first core banking software deal in UAE, with Reem Finance

UAE-based Reem Finance has overhauled its core software with French vendor SAB and its flagship core banking system, SAB AT. This is the first taker of the system in the UAE, to Banking Technology’s knowledge. Banking Technology understands that on the way out is the Ethix system from regional vendor International Turnkey Systems (ITS). It […]

Top ten lending sites in India – July 2016

Who is leading the digital way among the lending companies in India? We have put together some nifty stats for India’s top ten online lending sites for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). We’ll be publishing regular updates on a monthly basis, to track the changes, developments and trends – to bring you a fuller picture […]

Thousands and thousand of times: a tale of an insider data breach

Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, RedOwl field data scientist, ponders the curious case of Galen Marsh, who stole masses of data from his former employee, Morgan Stanley, by using a very simple hack of the client data management system. In a climactic conclusion to an insider threat story that has been developing since 2015, Morgan Stanley agreed to […]

Top ten retail banking sites in India – July 2016

Who is leading the digital way among the retail banks in India? We have put together some nifty stats for India’s top ten online banking sites for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). We’ll be publishing regular updates on a monthly basis, to track the changes, developments and trends – to bring you a fuller picture of […]

IoT and the banking revolution

It’s no secret that the financial services industry has tended to lag behind when it comes to adopting digital technology. Far from being leaders of innovation, banks are often stifled by lumbering IT systems and an inherent sense of caution when it comes to challenging the status-quo. With growing investment in the internet of things […]

Nordea has every idea for start-ups worldwide

Nordea’s Oslo office will welcome 35 start-ups as the bank prepares to assist the firms in fintech innovation. During the week, the best projects (around 20 teams) will be selected to take part in Nordea’s Accelerator programme, which kicks off in the autumn in Stockholm and Helsinki. In total, over 200 companies applied to the […]

Parity Treasury Management System business sold to Eurobase

Eurobase International has acquired the Parity Treasury Management Software from Manex Treasury Systems, its flagship product. Parity clients and Manex staff will move to Eurobase as part of the deal. Parity users will continue to be supported but will be encouraged to move to Eurobase’s own offering, Siena. Manex is a long-standing software supplier to the […]

SEB in Norway live with ERI’s Olympic core banking system

Private banking software vendor ERI has completed the implementation of its flagship core system, Olympic, at SEB in Norway. This is the vendor’s first site in the country. Olympic manages SEB’s onshore private banking business and associated transaction processing for Norway. The project commenced in 2013. SEB – already a long-standing Olympic user in Luxembourg, […]

CustomerXPs releases real-time intraday liquidity monitoring solution for UAE banks

Banking analytics vendor CustomerXPs has unveiled its new Clari5 Intraday Liquidity Monitoring Solution. This “real-time, packaged and ready-to-deploy” solution aims to help banks in the UAE to comply with BCBS 248 requirements for intraday liquidity risk management, says CustomerXPs. The deadline for compliance with the BCBS 248 regulations is January 2017. CustomerXPs’ offering promises data […]

Temenos and BACB go public on core banking software project

Temenos has officially confirmed it is implementing its software at British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB). As reported by Banking Technology back in February, BACB opted to replace its legacy core system, Misys’ Midas, with T24. Temenos is also supplying its digital channels (Temenos Connect) and analytics (Insight BI) products to the London-based corporate bank. Temenos […]

Top ten retail banking sites in the US – July 2016

Who is leading the digital way among the US retail banks? We have put together some nifty stats for the top ten online banking sites in the US for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). We’ll be publishing regular updates on a monthly basis, to track the changes, developments and trends – to bring you a fuller […]

Top ten retail banking sites in the UK – July 2016

With digital banking sharply on the rise in the UK – according to the latest figures released by the British Bankers Association – who is leading among the UK retail banks? We have put together some nifty stats for the top ten online banking sites in the UK for the past month (data courtesy of SimilarWeb). […]

Octopus Investments launches Octopus Labs for fintech start-ups

A UK-based investment firm, Octopus Investments, is looking to onboard fintech start-ups for its 12-week accelerator programme with Octopus Labs. “We’re rebuilding financial services,” states Octopus Labs. “The financial services sector is broken. We’re on a mission to rebuild it.” The programme will provide mentoring, office space in central London, plus potential access to Octopus […]

Infographics: real-time payments – the odyssey

Banking Technology, ACI Worldwide and Nets have joined forces to survey the global market about the highs and lows of its current journey towards real-time payments. From individual institutions’ readiness to key market drivers, obstacles and fraud concerns, and everything in between – survey participants from across the globe share their views.

Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka in tech overhaul with Fiserv

Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL) has signed for Fiserv’s Signature back office system and the Teller front-end solution. MBSL has around 100,000 customer accounts and 49 branches. Last year, it merged with its two subsidiaries, MBSL Financial Services and MBSL Savings Bank. Fiserv says the bank needed new technology that was “flexible, scalable and […]

Misys appoints advisers for £5.5 billion IPO

Banking technology vendor Misys – currently residing in the hands of US-based Vista Equity Partners – is understood to be gearing up for an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. According to City AM, Misys is planning a £5.5 billion float and has appointed investment advisory firm Moelis to oversee it. In its current form, […]

Digital games banks got to play – part 2

Today, most banks want to be digital leaders because that is where the customers are! This has brought in a change in the attitude of many traditional banks. Arun S. Padaki, a seasoned corporate banker, credit risk and business process management consultant, explores what it takes to become a digital leader and who is already […]