Nationwide Building Society has “successfully” tested UK start-up Cutover’s release management software during digital banking maintenance releases this month. Cutover’s software provides a platform for teams to plan, rehearse and execute events and gives real-time communications to those involved. Matt Cox, head of insight and innovation, Nationwide Building Society, says Cutover’s prototype “clearly demonstrated the […]
Four start-ups will enter ING’s Innovation Studio in September to see whether they can make the big time – the launch of a viable commercial business. Axyon AI, Gekko, Startup Insight and Surance will take part in the bank’s accelerator programme, the third of its type, since it began in July 2015. ING selected the […]
UK-based challenger bank Mondo has got its banking licence. The bank kindly passed the news to the Financial Times first rather than informing anybody else. It then issued a tweet saying it’s an “exciting day” which caused some confusion to its followers. According to the Financial Times, Mondo’s founder Tom Blomfield (formerly chief technology officer […]
Australian bank Westpac has doubled its investment in venture capital firm Reinventure – with $50 million for start-ups. This is the second fund to be managed by Reinventure. Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, the co-founders and managers of the first fund, are seeking to add another venture partner and some new staff to identify and […]
BBVA has revealed the 56 finalists for the 8th edition of its Open Talent contest to compete in three separate finals in Mexico, London and New York in September. The start-ups come from 17 different countries, and BBVA says “one of the most noteworthy points” of its 8th edition is the “high number” of finalists […]
UK-based challenger bank Mondo has reached the £20 million mark for money spent through its service. Since its last spending announcement, published at the end of April, the bank has gone from around £80,000 spent daily to over £200,000. Of the £20 million spent, around a quarter has been spent abroad, with its customers (called […]
Danish blockchain payment service provider Coinify has raised $4 million in series A investment round from SEB Venture Capital, an entity within the SEB Group and SEED Capital Denmark. Mark Højgaard, co-founder and CEO of Coinify, says it plans to use the investment to sustain its position in Europe and “expand” its blockchain payment and […]
A new challenger is coming to the burgeoning UK banking market – Copernicus Bank. It is founded and backed by Danela Ventures Partners Limited, a London-based advisory firm set up in 2010 by Aidan Brady and Michael Rossman. Danela Ventures Partners “focuses on financial services innovation”, according to Brady’s LinkedIn profile. It is “currently building […]
Innovation accelerator Startupbootcamp FinTech has announced the nine finalists selected to join its London programme. The firms come from across Europe, America and Asia-Pacific, and are Enterprise Bot – offering an AI-customer relationship tool; EuropeOne – a pan-European mobile bank; Kyolab – providing mobile compliance for regulated institutions; MoBILLity – designed to let customers switch […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Abcul slow on tech modernisation project Exclusive: First credit unions to go live before year-end. New mobile banking for SMEs readies for UK launch Tide will offer a “nimble small business current account”. Top ten retail banking sites […]
UK-based start-up Monizo is planning to launch the “first” banking service targeted solely at freelancers. In an exclusive interview with Banking Technology, CEO and co-founder Samuel O’Connor says the firm caters for the particular needs of freelancers across the UK. He says: “The rules are getting more onerous for freelancers and by the end of […]
UK-based Tide will offer a “nimble small business current account”, with a swift set-up and no monthly fees. It claims to be among the “world’s first” mobile-first banking services for SMEs. Tide’s CEO George Bevis says the company will open its virtual doors for business in autumn this year. Tide is currently in the “private alpha […]
It has been a couple of weeks of important announcements in the challenger banking space, with some interesting long-term trends emerging in the sector. Two new challenger banks have received their banking licences in the past week. Berlin-based Number26 renamed itself N26 and received its full banking licence from the European Central Bank and German […]
German digital bank Number26 becomes N26 and has received its banking licence, 1.5 years after launching. After applying for the licence nine months ago; Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the European Central Bank gave the bank regulatory approval to conduct operations across Europe. “This banking licence is an important additional step for us […]
OakNorth has become the first challenger bank to launch Facebook at Work as the platform prepares for its global launch later this year. Facebook at Work is the professional version of the social network, enabling individuals to set up an account that is separate from their personal Facebook but works in almost the exact same […]
Santander InnoVentures, the fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, has secured a further $100 million in funding from the group’s balance sheet. Launched in 2014, Santander says the fund is now set to deploy a total of $200 million (up from the $100m originally allocated) in minority stakes in fintech start-ups. Santander says this […]
Lloyds Banking Group has launched a new mentoring scheme giving fintech start-ups access to its workforce’s expertise. The support offered includes refining concepts to strengthening business models within a flexible timeframe determined between the mentor and the start-up. The mentors will come from all areas of Lloyds and will be matched with start-ups according to […]
German mobile payments start-up Cringle is working with SolarisBank to launch a peer-to-peer (P2P) payments platform for the Eurozone. Berlin-based Cringle will use SolarisBank’s banking licence and Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) access API to roll out its wallet-less mobile payment solution. Cringle says the SEPA-based approach allows it (with SolarisBank’s help) to “move and […]
Brazilian online bank Neon has launched – offering accounts only accessed through a smartphone. The bank, founded by 24-year-old entrepreneur Pedro Conrade, is targeting the millennial crowd and its goal is to reach 100,000 active customers in its first year of operation. Neon says it will be the first bank in Brazil to use biometric […]
With news on blockchain and Bitcoin appearing thick and fast, here’s a round-up of key events to save you time. Bitcoin has got some love in Russia when the centre-right Party of Growth says it is open to accepting donations in the digital currency. Boris Titov, head of the party, who also acts as an […]
New challenger bank Starling has received its UK banking licence and adopted Faster Payments. Starling Bank says the licence comes with unspecified “restrictions” from the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. The bank aims to launch to customers by January 2017. Anne Boden, CEO, Starling Bank, says: “For the past year, our team […]
UK-based start-up Thought Machine has emerged from two years in stealth mode with a new cloud-based core banking software, VaultOS. The company was founded by a core of ex-Googlers, and VaultOS was built from the ground up. The system was created with private blockchain-style technology and has cryptographic ledgers for “watertight” security. Paul Taylor, CEO […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Brexit: keep calm and carry on We assemble a panel of fintech and law specialists to discuss – with cool heads – the challenges and opportunities. Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up A round-up of key developments to save you […]
Finnish fintech start-up Holvi has launched a debit card, Holvi Business MasterCard. It is available to customers in Germany, Austria and Finland. This follows on from the launch of a mobile banking app for iOS and Android last summer. Holvi, which was founded in 2011, provides entrepreneurs and SMEs with a range of financial and […]
As first reported by Banking Technology in early May, Phoebus Software has gained a new customer – UK challenger bank Atom. The five-year deal will see Phoebus’ lending software supporting Atom’s secured business lending and account servicing for Atom’s residential lending. The new platform will be used by the bank’s team to originate loans for […]
Bitso, Quotanda and Destacame have won the first Innotribe Start-up Challenge for Latin America – and a handy prize of $10,000 each. The event was held in Mexico City in partnership with Swift’s Latin America Regional Conference (LARC). Based in Mexico, Bitso connects the nation’s “traditional” banking infrastructure to bitcoin and blockchain for international cross-border […]
The Dutch government is to open a new campus for the development of blockchain to attract banks and financial institutions. At a media briefing by Holland Fintech and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the first official “Fintech Ambassador of the Netherlands”, Willem Vermeend (also a professor in economics and former minister of social affairs and employment), […]
JP Morgan has launched In-Residence, a new programme for fintech start-ups to use its facilities, systems and expertise. The company says it is inviting start-ups to sit “side by side” with its businesses to develop innovations that could “revolutionise” the sector. Sanoke Viswanathan, chief administrative officer of JP Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank, says this […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Brexit threat to UK jobs at Visa Should I stay or should I go? Swift hackers steal $10m from Ukraine bank Massive attack. New challenger bank readies for launch in UK Atten-shun! UK military personnel, veterans and their […]
The Services Family bank will cater for the UK military personnel, veterans and their families. Sopra Steria’s technology will underpin its operations. The digital bank is being created by The Services Family Ltd (TSFL), a financial services firm set up two years ago by two military veterans. It is going through a process of obtaining […]
India’s third largest private sector bank, Axis Bank, has launched a new innovation lab, becoming the first domestic bank to do so in India. Dubbed “Thought Factory”, the lab is aimed at accelerating the development of innovative technology solutions for the banking sector and is expected to work closely with the start-up community. Thought Factory […]
CTO Mark Hipperson, who was also the bank’s co-founder, has recently left Starling. Prior to moving to Starling, Hipperson was a long-standing GM at a UK-based IT consultancy firm, BJSS. Earlier in his career, he was head of technology at Barclays’ corporate banking division (1992-2000). According to FT, this was his comment on his departure: […]
IBM has opened a new Bluemix Garage in New York, to offer the city’s developers, entrepreneurs, and fintech firms the use of blockchain on the cloud. The garage will be located at Galvanize’s (a network of campuses) newly launched New York campus. IBM says this location in “this tech learning community for students, start-ups and […]
Challenger banks have turned their attention to artificial intelligence (AI) as they seek to provide a more personalised approach to banking. German digital bank Number26 has launched Pulse26, a new app that uses AI to provide updates based on the customer’s personal banking history. Number26 says the more a customer uses their account, the “more […]
Banco CTT, a new bank recently launched by CTT Correios de Portugal, the Portuguese post office, has developed a new customer onboarding platform. The platform promises to complete the opening of a new account at Banco CTT in just 20 minutes online. It has been developed together with a local software specialist, Novabase. It is […]
During the two-day MoneyConf event in Madrid, there was an exclusive Banking Technology interview with Matteo Cassina, member of the global executive committee at Saxo Bank. Deputy editor Antony Peyton spoke to him about his opinions on the show and the industry. In terms of MoneyConf 2016, Cassina says: “I do believe there are a […]
Data science and data mining provider, Grace Systems, won MoneyConf’s best start-up in the Pitch competition in Madrid. Around 1,850 people enjoyed the two-day event at the elegant venue of La Nave. Part one of our review of the show looked at wealth management, part two examined biometrics and Santander’s plans, part three was a […]
Love for London’s fintech and awry Brexit predictions – were two of the discussion points from MoneyConf 2016 in Madrid. More than 1,800 people attended the two-day event at the cool venue of La Nave. Part one of our review of the show looked at wealth management, part two perused biometrics and Santander’s plans, while […]
Start-ups should first be focused on domestic markets over global ambitions, was one of the messages amidst the hurly-burly of Madrid-based MoneyConf 2016. More than 1,800 people were on hand for the two-day event held at the pleasant venue of La Nave. Part one of our review of the show was on wealth management, while […]
DB1 Ventures is Deutche Börse’s new dedicated corporate venture capital platform, set up as part of the group’s “Accelerate” growth strategy. The DB1 Ventures team will be primarily based in Frankfurt and will undertake new investments and also manage Deutsche Börse’s existing minority shareholdings. “DB1 Ventures will invest only in areas that are strategic to Deutsche […]
