Payment provider Worldline and Luxembourg-based start-up SnapSwap have signed a partnership agreement for the latter’s mobile payment application Gloneta. Gloneta combines a mobile messenger (chat) with cross-currency transactions using blockchain. Worldline says it will “provide” secure card payments services to the new app Gloneta. Denis Kiselev, founder and CEO of SnapSwap, says: “Worldline’s expertise in […]
Neptune, the open standards network for pre-trade indications in bond markets, has set up a new company, Neptune Networks Ltd, to run the utility. Neptune was formulated by Etrading Software and a group of 40+ banks and asset managers in H2 2014. The pilot production network went live in August 2015. Its supporters include Barclays […]
ING and Belgian bank KBC have joined forces to launch a new, integrated mobile payments and loyalty platform in Belgium. This will combine ING’s payment app Payconiq with loyalty platforms Qustomer and KBC’s CityLife. Rik Vandenberghe, CEO ING Belgium, says the customer feedback it received about Payconiq and Qustomer “strengthens our conviction that as a […]
The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has set up a blockchain research consortium with several privately-owned Russian banks. The development follows Banking Technology reporting recently that Russian payment platform Qiwi was planning to create such an entity. The central bank’s deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova says: “We developed a technical prototype for message transmission […]
IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa have completed their first blockchain project to “improve” the French bank’s ability to verify customer identity. The result of the pilot is an operational permissioned blockchain network that provides a view of customer identity to enable compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. “Blockchain is a transformative agent in our […]
American Express is partnering with Facebook to provide an Amex bot for its card members in Messenger. The concept will allow Amex card members to sign up to receive real-time notifications about their purchases, and information about card benefits and services related to those purchases. For example, if a member purchases an airline ticket, the […]
Zurich-based non-profit organisation, openfunds, has created a global standard for the characterisation of investment funds. The goal of the new standard is to improve efficiency, transparency and reliability by eliminating potential sources of error and ambiguity during fund data interchange. Openfunds is now calling for a global adoption of the standard. The standard is published […]
The five-year agreement combines Wirecard software and Verifone devices, with Indonesia as the first target market. The strategic alliance will see the Indonesian subsidiary of Wirecard, PT Prima Vista Solusi, collaborating with the local operations of Verifone. Steve Aliferis, president of Verifone Asia Pacific, says that the company is now establishing “a local team and […]
The participants are BNP Paribas Securities Services, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM, Société Générale and Paris Europlace. They have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to study and develop a post-trade blockchain infrastructure for SMEs in Europe. The agreement is open to other interested parties. The aim is “to improve SME’s access to capital […]
Project Sentinel, a collaborative initiative by a group of banks to mutualise the cost of MiFID II implementation in the OTC front office, has announced the creation of a normalised regulatory data model that assists investment firms to meet their MiFID II OTC sales and trading requirements. Etrading Software, which has the project management office […]
Symphony, a new instant messaging service, and Markit have partnered to promote the adoption of a Collaboration-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS), “to enable richer workflow and collaboration throughout the financial industry and other sectors”. As part of the agreement, Markit will develop hosted applications and data delivery services, which will be made available via the Symphony service. Brad […]
US-based Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and MasterCard are calling on US start-ups to apply for their Commerce.Innovated accelerator programme. The application process closes on 10th July, and the programme will run September to December. Commerce.Innovated is a four-month, bi-annual virtual accelerator, and this will be the fifth time it is held. Its organisers say it […]
Sernova Financial, a UK-based provider of turnkey post-trade services, has recruited TCS to deliver a new cloud-based derivatives post trade processing service. The software underpinning this service is supplied by Calypso. TCS says this tie-up “combines Sernova’s capital markets expertise, Calypso platform’s capability and TCS’s bouquet of capital markets solutions”. Venkat Ramasamy, executive chairman of […]
A new alliance of US community banks, credit unions and other financial institutions – Golden Contract Coalition (GCC) – launches to stand up to IT providers. GCC’s aim is to ensure fair market deals from the technology suppliers to its members. “GCC is the first alliance of its kind where a group of like-minded institutions […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! UniCredit and Open Bank Project launch fintech start-up competition Top prize is €50,000 and a contract to work with UniCredit. BBA to merge with three trade associations to create major industry body British Bankers Association (BBA), Council of […]
Alpha Payments Cloud, a provider of the AlphaHub Payments-as-a-Service platform, has received investment from Wells Fargo. Through its Startup Accelerator programme, for the next six months Wells Fargo will collaborate with Alpha Payments Cloud on its global payments network technologies for merchants. The company says its valuation now stands at $100 million. Wells Fargo’s Startup […]
Banking software vendor Mambu has joined forces with a number of accelerators and incubators to launch a new fintech start-up programme. Partners comprise Startupbootcamp FinTech, 500 Startups, Ynext Incubator by Envestnet/Yodlee, Techstars and Citi Accelerator – and those start-ups that are part of these accelerators and incubators are invited to participate in Mambu’s new venture and […]
As technology continues to proliferate in the world around us, banks are no exception. Digitalisation is revolutionising the way consumers interact with everything – companies such as Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, Netflix and Uber have transformed customer expectations and created a ripple effect across all industries. We cannot ignore the forces at work today. Across demographics, banking […]
This truly has been the time of regulators announcing fintech sandboxes – what better thing to write about on my first fintech column here, than the ways regulators and fintechs can work together! There were three announcements in the past couple of weeks around regulatory sandboxes – the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced […]
UniCredit and Open Bank Project, an open source API and app store for banks, invite fintech developers and start-ups to take part in its Appathon competition. The 2016 Appathon is driven by the Open Bank Project API, developed by the Berlin-based Tesobe Ltd/Open Bank Project. Ten companies will be selected to demo their products in […]
Since 2015 the fintech market has changed dramatically but even bigger changes are yet to come in 2016 affecting financial services big time, believes Francisco Lorca, MD of a London-based fintech accelerator programme, Startupbootcamp. Tech is coming for banking as more fintech start-ups are springing up. There still huge gap between the collaboration of these two but […]
Earthport, a cross-border payments service provider, has inked a deal with Commercial Bank of Ceylon to provide local payment capability into Sri Lanka. The deal is part of Earthport’s Asian expansion strategy, with similar money transfer partnerships already secured in Pakistan and India. Sajeev Viswanathan, president, global strategy at Earthport, says the tie-up with Commercial […]
The banks know they need to do better for their millions of UK customers, but the pressing question is how? One answer is to form partnerships with some of the fintech companies that are now gathering momentum as powerful players in the market. Can these potential competitors be the banks new best friends? Jurgen Hutter, […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Goldman Sachs to underpin new digital bank with Infosys tech It’ll be the e-Finacle digital banking platform, Banking Technology understands. Infographics: The Euro 2016 guide to e-commerce In the spirit of that football tournament that starts today, we’ve got an e-commerce […]
Business network Tradeshift says new and existing investors have joined its $75 million series D funding, including HSBC and American Express Ventures. Other investors comprise venture capital firm Data Collective (DCVC), Notion Capital, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, managed by CreditEase, and Pavilion Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. Matt Ocko, co-managing partner and co-founder of […]
Four of the UK’s biggest high street banks have signed up to launch Zapp’s “Pay by Bank app” mobile payment service. Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax and Lloyds Bank are working with Zapp, VocaLink’s payments innovation team, to deliver the service. David Yates, CEO VocaLink, says the gang of four join a “growing number of […]
ACI Worldwide is partnering with UK-based Raphaels Bank, opening up access to the Faster Payments Scheme in the UK for financial institutions (FIs), including challenger banks and payment service providers (PSPs). ACI says its relationship with the bank means FIs and PSPs can use ACI as a “technical aggregator” providing real-time access to Faster Payments […]
London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Boat Services have launched Tradecho, a combination of the two companies’ existing and “complimentary” trade reporting services. LSE says by early Q1 2017, Tradecho will provide a single trade reporting venue and “complement” its T+1 MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) and EMIR (European Market Infrastructure Regulation) transaction reporting services, […]
Volante Technologies has launched a new solution – as part of its VolPay Foundation payments platform – for integration with Ripple’s distributed ledger technology. Volante’s software has been Ripple-ready since last autumn, says the vendor, and following “close engagement with Ripple” it has now brought to market an “integration solution wholly designed to simplify the […]
Nets and Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI) have joined forces to launch an instant payments solution in Italy. The new offering is set to go live in Q1 next year. It will be based on Nets’ RealTime24/7 platform and will serve the Italian payment service providers (PSPs). “We will provide to the Italian […]
Nymbus, a US-based core banking software vendor, has acquired fellow supplier R. C. Olmstead (RCO), to gain a foothold in the Midwest credit union market. RCO comes with 46 customers, all in the low-tier segment. These include Wilkes-Barre City Employees CU, Dover-Phila FCU, McDonald Community FCU, Toledo Metro FCU and Yorkville Community FCU. RCO has […]
National Australia Bank (NAB) and telco firm Telstra have partnered for an SME digital marketplace called Proquo. Proquo will offer more than two million Australian small businesses an online platform to network, trade or swap services with each other. Leigh O’Neill, NAB executive general manager micro and small business, says: “Small business is the backbone […]
The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), a not-for-profit fintech industry body, has added three new members to its global network. These are Misys, First Horizon and Al Rajhi Bank, the world’s largest Islamic bank. The total count of BIAN members now stands at 64, comprising banks, software and service providers, and academic partners. Hans Tesselaar, […]
National Australia Bank (NAB) and technology consulting firm Lab49 are piloting the starXchange trading platform. The e-trading platform has been released to the market and offers automation for pre-trade, execution and post-trade activity. Clients can trade through the platform itself or through major multi-bank platforms. NAB partnered with Lab49, a “specialist in capital markets technology”, […]
ING Belgium has acquired the rights to rebrand Finnish fintech start-up Zervant’s invoicing software across Europe. The software will be marketed as ING invoice solutions and will be sold via its own channels to SMEs and entrepreneurs. During the first phase, ING Belgium will have the rights to sell the tool in Belgium, with a […]
Microsoft is collaborating with Blockstack Labs and ConsenSys, and developers across the globe on an open source, self-sovereign, blockchain-based identity system. The announcement by Microsoft follows its participation at the United Nations’ ID2020 Summit on Identity. Yorke Rhodes, blockchain business strategist, Microsoft, says: “Without legal identification, children and people are invisible to society which makes […]
Intel has teamed with The Floor, a fintech hub located at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, to create its own fintech innovation centre in Israel. This is Intel’s first move into the fintech sector as it looks to capitalise on the demand for bitcoin and blockchain solutions in banking and finance. It may also be […]
CIMB Bank, in partnership with MasterCard, has launched its Corporate Card Solutions in Malaysia, a new addition to its suite of cash management products. The solutions include the corporate card and purchasing card which offer automated processes and real-time reporting; and a new virtual card solution for supply chain requirements. Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz, […]
Ipreo, a fintech firm headquartered in New York, and Misys have signed an agreement to integrate Debtdomain and Misys FusionBanking LoanIQ for syndicated loan arrangers and agents. Mutual clients of Debtdomain and FusionBanking LoanIQ have previously integrated the products, but this deal will be the “first” that is jointly developed and supported by both Ipreo […]
UK start-up Ormsby Street has launched its credit-checking tool CreditHQ in Germany, as part of a new partnership with Deutsche Bank. CreditHQ allows a small business to check the financial health and credit status of any customer or partner and will be available to small business customers of Deutsche Bank. Its German launch is the […]
