Financial Services/Finserv


Wells Fargo teams with Intuit for data exchange

Wells Fargo has signed an agreement with financial software firm Intuit to help customers import their bank account data to financial management tools such as QuickBooks Online, Mint and TurboTax Online, via their application programming interface (API). Data imported via these APIs is intended to help customers save time and avoid potential data-entry errors. Brett […]

UK watchdog driving open banking revolution

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says its banking “final order” is giving people greater control over their money and reckons the open banking revolution is getting closer. As Banking Technology reported in August, the CMA unveiled its plans to make banks “work harder for customers” and ensure the “benefits of new technology are […]

Become a banking “curator” says ANZ

The future of commercial banking may well lie in being “curators”, according to Australia and New Zealand-based banking group, ANZ. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Mark Hand, managing director, corporate and commercial banking at ANZ says commercial bankers will “morph into ‘curators’ for their business clients by linking customers with reputable, external […]

India Post Payments Bank launches pilot services

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has launched and is rolling out pilot services in Raipur and Ranchi. IPPB is the third payments bank to be authorised in India, and follows on the heels of Paytm (launched last year) and Airtel (opened for business this year). IPPB’s chief executive officer, A P Singh, says: “The idea […]

SoFi buys mobile banking start-up Zenbanx for $100m

US-based personal finance firm SoFi (Social Finance) has acquired mobile banking start-up Zenbanx as it looks to stretch out in the world of financial services. SoFi is paying about $100 million in stock for Zenbanx’s technology, according to Bloomberg and “a person familiar with the agreement”. Zenbanx offers a mobile account in the US and […]

Vontobel selects SimCorp Coric for fund reporting

Swiss-based Vontobel Asset Management has chosen SimCorp Coric to automate its client communications and fund reporting processes. Vontobel will deploy SimCorp Coric as a hosted solution via Microsoft Azure and the agreement will see the Coric solution replace in-house manual processes as well as an existing incumbent third-party solution. Stuart Keeler, managing director of SimCorp […]

Trend Watch 2017: Payments Year in Review

Paybefore’s first-ever payments year-in-review report, sponsored by The Bancorp, is available now. Offering an in-depth look at key trends and the Top 10 payments stories from 2016 that will continue to shape the industry in 2017 and beyond, this must-have resource examines everything influencing the industry from the CFPB and Uber to Brexit and Trump and much more.

Brunei’s central bank selects Vizor for financial data revamp

Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (AMBD), the central bank of Brunei, has partnered with regulatory fintech vendor, Vizor Software. AMBD will use Vizor’s solution to collect financial data from external entities via a single portal, to generate reports and insights. AMBD says this is a key step to building a sound and dynamic financial system. The […]

Deutsche Bank fined record £163m for AML control fails

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Deutsche Bank £163 million for failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) control framework during the period between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015. This is the largest financial penalty for AML controls failings ever imposed by the FCA, or its predecessor the Financial Services […]

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.

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, […]

Barclaycard trials contactless donations to tap into £80m shortfall

Barclaycard is trialling contactless donations as it says charities may be missing out on more than £80 million each year by only accepting cash donations. According to its research, four in ten (42%) Brits say they carry less cash now than they did three years ago. While, one in seven (15%) people admit to walking […]

Finance Disrupted: Who will take London’s fintech crown?

Like a charming European fairy tale, questions over who shall inherit a crown and become the new ruler were raised. At the Economist’s Finance Disrupted conference, “Collaborate or die”, held yesterday (25 January) in London, the city’s pre-eminence in the fintech field fell under scrutiny. Initial discussions looked at why this metropolis is such a […]

Citi analyses VC investments in fintech for fresh insights

Citi’s global perspectives and solutions team has issued a 100-page report on digital disruption in the fintech industry. It has analysed venture capital (VC) investments in the fintech industry between 2010 and 2016, as well as the emerging technologies across the globe.

Job cuts loom as HSBC closes 62 UK branches

HSBC plans the closure of 62 of its UK branches in 2017, with the loss of up to 180 jobs. This will bring the number of branches it has in the country to 625 by the end of 2017. It says it has no intention to close any further branches in 2017 and this marks […]

UK Post Office becomes a bunch of bankers

The UK’s Post Office has entered the banking market as a new industry-wide agreement with the nation’s banks comes into effect. From today (24 January), 99% of UK personal bank customers and over 75% of business customers can do their day-to-day banking at the Post Office – described as the “biggest expansion in face-to-face banking […]

Equifax Canada unveils new financial data platform

Equifax Canada has launched the first phase of a new multi-million dollar technology platform to provide financial data. The company organises, assimilates and analyses data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses across the globe. The first phase of its new platform is designed to provide predictive insights about consumer […]

Ohpen sesame says UK’s Financial Conduct Authority

Amsterdam-based banking software vendor Ohpen has gained approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out its regulated activities under its new British company, Ohpen Operations UK. Angelique Schouten, Ohpen UK’s CEO, says the approval means it can “deliver an alternative for financial services companies to digitalise and outsource their entire investments and […]

Lloyds, Halifax and TSB hit with online banking outages

Customers of Lloyds, Halifax and TSB are unable to access their online accounts after a major outage. Based on Twitter feeds and the website monitoring service, Down Detector, there are problems across the UK. Many Twitter users, no strangers to tedious whinging at the best of times, are saying they can’t access accounts online or […]

Starling Bank First Digital Challenger to Join Faster Payments

U.K.-based Starling Bank has become the “first of the digital-only challengers” to join Faster Payments this week. The 13th direct participant of the Faster Payments Scheme, Starling says its customers will be able to see where their money is flowing and when in real-time, 24/7.

Fifth Third Bank teams with QED Investors for fintech innovation

Fifth Third Bank is partnering with venture capital (VC) firm QED Investors to bring new products and services to their banking customers. The VC firm will advise the Ohio-based bank and support its NorthStar strategy to “enhance offerings through technology”. Tim Spence, executive vice-president and chief strategy officer for Fifth Third Bank says the partnership […]

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 […]

UBS extends agreement with EPAM Systems worth $300m

The world’s largest wealth manager UBS has extended its long-standing agreement with EPAM Systems, a provider of product development and software engineering solutions. The agreement – worth over $300 million – “supports the bank’s strategic cost reduction programme”, according to EPAM.

HSBC to capitalise on tech innovation with technology advisory board

HSBC has appointed a technology advisory board of top-level specialists from around the globe as the banking giant is keen to capitalise on opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), biometrics, blockchain and data science, combat cybercrime and leverage its global infrastructure.

Deutsche Bank bans texting and messaging apps on work phones

No more texting or using messaging apps such as WhatsApp on company issued phones, Deutsche Bank tells its employees. According to a memo issued by COO Kim Hammonds and chief regulatory officer Sylvie Matherat, the functionality will be switched off this quarter.

Transatlantic trio gets tough on financial crime

A three-way alliance of legal firms is helping Europeans call out financial wrongdoing and benefit from US whistleblower laws. New York-based Meissner & Associates is collaborating with Stuttgart/Berlin-based Naegele and London-based Brahams Dutt Badrick French (BDBF) to create the new transatlantic initiative, the “first of its kind”. The plan is to help employees, suppliers and […]

Deloitte opens blockchain lab in New York

Deloitte has launched a blockchain lab in New York’s Wall Street. 2017 could be its “make-or-break year” for blockchain, says Eric Piscini, principal with Deloitte Consulting. Joe Guastella, another principal with Deloitte Consulting, says its “ecosystem for education, ideation [we missed you jargon], strategy, application prototyping and development is there to support Deloitte’s clients and […]

HSBC targets Hong Kong millennials with new social payment app

HSBC will unveil a new payment app in Hong Kong in early 2017 aimed at millennials and offering a social aspect in addition to just payments. Called PayMe, it is “available to everyone in Hong Kong”, regardless which local bank the customer uses. However, the small print says it is only eligible to users with […]

BMW Financial Services in major tech overhaul with Sword Apak

BMW Group Financial Services (BMW FS) has selected UK-based fintech vendor Sword Apak to support the planned harmonisation of its European core operating systems. Called the Ideal Programme (integrated delivery of a European application landscape), it was launched in November 2016. It is designed to integrate three key modules: commercial finance, dealer front-end and the […]

Dubai gets first fintech accelerator

FinTech Hive, to be housed at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in Dubai’s Central Business District (CBD), is set to launch this quarter. Accenture runs fintech innovation labs in New York, London, and Hong Kong; and has been tasked with setting up and operating the accelerator. Aimed at providing better financial services technology to […]