WeChat is on the move again. The China-based social messaging and mobile wallet platform plans to expand its presence in Europe and the U.S., efforts that could bring it better relationships with advertisers, brands and payment providers.
Facing increased competition from mobile P2P services, money transfer giant Western Union has made a move to bolster its own mobile offerings. U.S.-based users of Western Union’s mobile app now can use Apple Pay to send money from within the app domestically, or to more than 200 countries and territories.
The agreement between Alipay and UniCredit has now entered the operational stage. Technological infrastructure for this has been provided by SIA.
Cachet Financial Solutions is working with Central Bank of Kansas City (CBKC) to bring mobile-optimised prepaid programmes to community banks. The two companies have also teamed with Rebar Interactive to provide Select Mobile Money-Express, a platform that includes a Mastercard-branded prepaid card.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly looking to get into mobile payments and has picked India as the best place to start.
Deutsche Bank has launched a new mobile payment app for Android devices.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) consortium R3, together with five of its members and financial resource management specialist HQLAX have built a collateral lending solution for liquidity transfers. The solution is based on R3’s flagship platform, Corda, and is “an operating model for a digital collateral receipt (DCR) lending marketplace”.
OP Financial Group has partnered with Token, a Silicon Valley-based crypto-payment software provider. Token says the agreement will enable the Finnish bank “to innovate in the European open banking market and generate new revenue streams via future payment solutions”.
A new report from the International Bar Association has outlined the risks and rewards of artificial intelligence (AI), which while bordering on scaremongering also makes some good points.
In an interview with Lisa Moyle, portfolio director of InsurTech Rising, we dive into the importance of partnerships and investments with insurtechs.
BNP Paribas is buying a 95% stake in Financière des Paiements Électroniques (FPE), which provides the digital-only bank Compte-Nickel. BNP Paribas wants to tap into Compte-Nickel’s growth – citing its 540,000 accounts opened over the past three years and that a new account is being opened in France every 30 seconds. Compte-Nickel also offers real-time […]
Not only is Lloyds cutting branches across the UK, it is now making them smaller in size. With the well-known rise in digital banking, the bank has plans to introduce micro-branches. This means no counters, and two members of staff with mobile tablets to help customers who dare walk into a branch. A spokesperson for […]
Ukrainian start-up Attic Lab has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Polybius Foundation to provide the blockchain backbone for a new digital bank. As Banking Technology reported in September last year, Attic Lab unveiled its open source blockchain platform and has been gaining some traction with banks in Europe. It will implement SmartMoney, a […]
Meezan Bank in Pakistan is partnering with 1LINK Guarantee, an interbank payment network service, to issue PayPak branded debit cards across the nation. PayPak is Pakistan’s “first” domestic payment scheme that aims to provide an “indigenous alternative to international payment schemes”. Ariful Islam, deputy CEO of Meezan Bank, says it “will, inshallah [God willing], develop […]
Another day, another cryptocurrency. A concise round-up of blockchain and Bitcoin events. Features Japan, Lykke, ChronoBank and London’s Imperial College Business School. It’s the land of the rising sums, as Bitcoin is now a legal payment method in Japan. As a result, Bitcoin trades rose today – at 11am (UK time) it was up 2.8% […]
Consorsbank, part of BNP Paribas Germany, has implemented fintech incubator FinLeap’s digital account exchange service, FinReach. Bank users who want to move accounts to Consorsbank can do so in “a matter of minutes” and it is all done completely online. Customers will be shown all the credit transferees – and can choose who is to […]
Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ, has announced it will be the first Australian bank to introduce voice biometrics on mobile devices to allow higher value transactions. From the middle of this year, customers transferring more than $1,000 through ANZ’s mobile apps will be able to use their voice to automatically authorise high value […]
Accenture Security has completed its acquisition of Arismore, a privately held company in France that specialises in security services including identity and access management. The acquisition was first announced in December last year, and Accenture will take on 270 people from Arismore. Kelly Bissell, managing director of Accenture Security, says the deal “immediately amplifies our […]
Grab, a ride-hailing and mobile payments platform in Southeast Asia, will acquire Indonesia-based O2O (online to offline) ecommerce platform Kudo. The Kudo team and platform will be integrated with Grab’s proprietary mobile payments platform, GrabPay. According to Grab, Kudo’s O2O platform allows Indonesia’s unbanked consumers to shop online by connecting them with merchants and service […]
With the growth of “mobile working” and an increasing number of business applications migrating to the cloud, the corporate perimeter has become more porous and vulnerable, driving demand for solutions that manage access and user identities securely and efficiently. This is where identity access management (IAM) technologies come into play. ING’s Sicco Boomsma explores.
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Lighter and brighter – catch up with fintech funding news in our brief round-up. Features Monzo, Quint and Lidya. Mobile-only challenger bank Monzo has raised another £2.5 million from more than 6,000 investors – the highest-ever number of any Crowdcube campaign. This follows its crowdfunding record of £1 million round last year, which closed in […]
Apple Pay has emerged victorious in its long-running feud with four domestic banks over their permission to collectively bargain with Apple and boycott Apple Pay. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued a determination denying authorisation to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac, National Australia Bank (NAB), and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank […]
Impersonation and deceptive double-dealing play their mischievous part in creating massive amounts of financial fraud in the UK. According to figures from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £768.8 million in 2016, an increase of 2% on the previous year. Katy Worobec, director of FFA UK, […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI) and Mastercard have released a guide on banking and payment products for minors. The “Safer Payment Products for Minors” guide offers recommended practices on how financial service providers (FSPs) can develop age-appropriate payment products for minors; promoting responsible spending and financial decision-making. Walt Macnee, vice-chairman Mastercard, says: “Today’s minors […]
CaixaBank, Global Payments, Visa, Samsung and BNP Paribas’ subsidiary Arval have joined forces to set up Spain’s “first” payment innovation hub. The objective behind the hub is to “present society with the best possible user experiences in purchases and commerce, both online and offline”. The centre, which will be located in Barcelona, will specialise in […]
Iroquois Federal Savings & Loan Association, a $580 million entity in the US state of Illinois, is modernising its front-to-back office technology with Fiserv.
Valley National Bank, a $23 billion financial institution in New Jersey, is implementing nCino’s Bank Operating System for commercial lending.
The UK’s Current Account Switch Service (CASS) says it meets one of the commitments set out in response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) final report into retail banking. As Banking Technology reported in January, the CMA accepted undertakings from the Bacs payment scheme, which owns and manages CASS, that commit it to delivering […]
HSBC and business commerce firm Tradeshift have partnered to offer a supply chain and working capital management platform – usable from any device. The platform will let buyers automate and digitise “paper-heavy” processes from all their suppliers and organise financing in one place. This “game-changing” (sounds familiar) solution will combine electronic ordering and invoices, document […]
GarantiBank International (GBI) has gone live with Five Degrees’ Matrix solution for retail savings and deposits in the Netherlands.
Finantix, a specialist provider of sales and advisory software to financial institutions, is implementing its digital suite at Rothschild Bank.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has launched a live video service to let its clients connect in real time with its advisors. Called MyAdvisor, it uses an online advice platform to digitally connect a client to an advisor, where both can view and adjust a dashboard showing the client’s savings and investment goals and establish […]
Mastercard will acquire Vancouver-based biometrics firm NuData Security as it looks to make something out of the internet of things (IoT). NuData provides online and mobile anti-fraud solutions using session and biometric indicators. Mastercard will integrate NuData to its suite of fraud management and security products. Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security for […]
VocaLink’s Pay by Bank mobile payment app will soon be available to customers of HSBC and its subsidiary, First Direct. Pay by Bank app, created by VocaLink’s payment innovation team Zapp, enables people to make “digital debit” payments for goods and services via their banking app, with payment made directly from a current account. HSBC […]
Wisconsin-based mutual savings bank PyraMax has chosen Fiserv to modernise its retail banking operations. The bank will move to the DNA account processing platform and add integrated mobile, online and branch banking solutions, including palm-vein biometric authentication. The software will be supplied on an outsourced basis, from a Fiserv data centre. Richard Hurd, CEO and president, […]
Members of a Danish banking collective, Bokis, have become the first in the country to offer mobile payments using Dankort, the national debit and credit card. Bokis includes 62 banks that form the small to mid-sized banks segment of Lokale Pengeinstitutter (the Association of Local Banks, Savings Banks and Co-operative Banks in Denmark), together with […]
San Francisco-based payments specialist Square has landed in the UK. This is the fifth market for Square, following the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.
Enjoy a word-lite delight with our brief fintech funding round-up. Features Clarity Money, The Glue and OOjiBO. US-based Clarity Money, a personal finance app, has announced a $11 million Series B funding round led by RRE Ventures and Citi Ventures. This financing comes three months after Clarity Money launched its product and eight months after […]
