Amid last month’s extensive ransomware attack, made possible after cyber criminals stole hacking tools created by the US National Security Agency, the European Banking Federation (EBF) again urged the European Commission (EC) not to dismiss recommendations about screen scraping.
Don’t let the blocks cause you too much mental blockage. Our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up keeps it ultra-brief. Featuring Ayondo, XBT Provider, Xapo and the European Commission. Financial services firm Ayondo has expanded its product portfolio with the launch of Bitcoin trading, offering access to price movement without the need to open an e-wallet […]
Responding to the European Union (EU) consultation on fintech, the European Banking Federation (EBF) wants the creation of an inclusive ecosystem and asks for people to get on with it. Earlier this year, the EC called for feedback and said it wanted to prise open national barriers as only 7% of consumers currently buy financial […]
An inevitable consequence of the recent spate of terrorist incidents has been calls for greater access to private data and now the European Commission has joined in, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). According to a Reuters report the European Union (EU) wants to make it easier for authorities to get hold of private data […]
With just under 12 months to go until the European Union (EU) imposes new data protection regulations, there seems to be a growing sense of unpreparedness throughout the industry, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). Perhaps it’s because of the timeframes which were involved for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or a misunderstanding of […]
Article 50, triggered just nine months after Brexit was officially announced, will give the UK exactly two years to strike a deal with the EU concerning its departure from the economic and trading bloc. What will be the impact of the referendum on the square mile? Will it cease to be the major financial hub this side of the Atlantic?
The European Banking Federation’s (EBF) call for the European Commission (EC) to help on a screen scraping ban is not going well. As reported last week, the EBF wants the ban due to concerns over the privacy of client data, cybersecurity and innovation. It wants the EC not to dismiss a key recommendation made by […]
A little after noon in Brussels March 29, a British ambassador delivered a letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk that set the wheels into motion for the U.K.’s exit from the EU. Today’s announcement makes official the results of the historic vote June 23, when 52 percent of voters in the U.K. stunned many around the world when they opted to leave, or “Brexit,” as it’s commonly called.
This nifty infographics, created by the European Payments Council (EPC), explains all you need to know about PSD2, from what it will change and its key components (such as APIs) to who the new players are.
Five European central securities depositories (CSDs) have migrated their respective communities to live operations on the Target2-Securities (T2S) platform using Swift’s value added network (VAN) solution. OeKB CSD (Austria), Clearstream Banking (Germany), LuxCSD (Luxembourg), Centrálny depozitár cenných papierov SR (CDCP) (Slovakia) and KDD – Centralna klirinško depotna družba (Slovenia) all migrated over. These five quickly […]
Clearstream Banking Frankfurt and LuxCSD have migrated to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Target2-Securities (T2S) platform. “The first business day is already in process and runs smoothly,” Clearstream states.
Private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners is taking over a controlling stake in Heidelpay, an online payment service provider (PSP) in Germany. Heidelpay’s co-founders and existing management will retain a minority stake in the business.
The PSD2 directive will let third parties use the information stored in financial institutions and the only path to achieve this leads through an open API. The API is now being discussed and developed, but it’s not clear when it will be finalised, released and deployed.
Bank of Lithuania, the country’s central bank and regulator, promises to provide preliminary answers to financial institution licence enquiries within one week, “the fastest turnaround in the EU”.
We take a look at the new EU reporting requirements for managing exposure to shadow banking. There are plenty of challenges ahead, not least for the systems that will need to be updated to ensure that firms are able to adequately cope with the new guidelines.
The single euro payments area is up and running and has proved to be a catalyst for change in the payments industry. We look at the story so far.
Deutsche Bank says it is building a new “state of the art” payments platform for its global transaction banking (GTB) business. It will be rolled out across the bank’s operations worldwide, supporting trade finance, securities and cash management businesses. The software is supplied by a specialist payments provider – Banking Technology understands this is Dovetail. […]
UniCredit will launch “Buddybank”, a bank project exclusively designed for smartphones, in early 2017 in Italy. Buddybank will offer current accounts, credit/debit cards and “contextual” and instant personal loans, as well as a 24/7 concierge service, accessible via chat and phone, that “can help with everyday tasks such as restaurant reservations, taxi booking and travel […]
Germany-based Evangelische Bank has implemented Profidata’s Xentis as its central platform for portfolio management and for performing depositary functions; and Xpass for automating all order and trade management processes. Swiss firm Profidata says the bank has seen an increase in its number of clients and order volume, so decided on a new portfolio management system […]
The Brexit unrest aside, Europe is taking initiatives to make a sounder, more user-friendly economic landscape. By using technology solutions and digital innovation, the European Union (EU) is encouraging greater transparency, usability and higher standards of security for all manner of web-based banking and financial transactions. Irrespective of any governmental re-organisation, and the trickled-down impact […]
Luxembourg-based start-up SnapSwap, which offers blockchain-based payments, has received authorisation to operate as an electronic money institution (EMI). The firm says the EMI licence, provided by the Ministry of Finance of Luxembourg, allows it to issue debit cards and other payment instruments linked to Gloneta accounts. The latter combines a mobile messenger (chat) with cross-currency […]
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 […]
It’s hard to believe that it’s been just under two weeks since the UK narrowly voted in favour of Brexit. The pace of breaking news across the political and economic spheres has been brisk. In and amongst what is a great deal of uncertainty about the UK’s future relationship with the European Union, FinTech Futures, […]
On Friday 24th June Britons woke up to the game-changing news that UK voters had voted to exit the EU. As the politicians look at how to commence divorce proceedings, the financial sector faces a number of challenges and questions around existing regulatory structures, currency and market valuations, and the wider macro impact. In this […]
Hundreds of UK-based jobs at Visa are in danger following the fallout from Brexit, according to Sky News. Sky News says it “has learnt that an agreement in the recent £17.5 billion takeover of Visa’s European operations by its American sister company included a stipulation that data from Visa card transactions should not leave Europe”. […]
By a slender majority of 51.9% to 48.1% the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. The move will have ramifications for banking and financial services internationally as the country renegotiates its relationship with the EU and could topple London’s standing as a leading global financial centre. Nothing will change immediately, but in […]
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 […]
Financial systems vendor Infosys has been awarded a five-year contract with Commerzbank to remodel its investment banking IT architecture. Along with the remodel, Infosys will improve IT processes and evaluate a potential post-trade processing utility. The later would then “focus on the clustering of trade processing platforms across various product types”. Stephan Müller, group CIO, […]
Financial services and technology company Wirecard has reported consolidated revenues of €210.5 million in the first quarter of 2016, a rise of 32% on €159.4 million in Q1 2015. For the period ending 31 March 2016, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 34.6% to €62 million. For the same period last […]
There’s a devilish amount of detail in the Payment Services Directive II (PSD II) and those responsible for implementing its requirements at financial institutions are only just now beginning to realise it. At last month’s Swift business forum in London, Emily Reid, partner at law firm Hogan Lovells, joked that payments regulation was a “growth […]
Banque de France and Banco de España are running late with their implementation of a new treasury and capital markets (TCM) system, Banking Technology understands. The two banks jointly opted for a new solution in 2013/14. It is understood that Calypso was chosen to replace a host of legacy technology, including Wallstreet Suite from Wall […]
Frankfurt-based DZ Bank has acquired a 25% share interest in the Hamburg receivables auction platform TrustBills. This is the bank’s first strategic investment in fintech within the corporate customer business. The amount invested has not been disclosed. TrustBills, a start-up founded in 2015, is an electronic marketplace for selling international receivables of companies to institutional […]
Bank of Ireland, one of Ireland’s “big four” banking players, is looking to modernise its legacy software, Banking Technology understands. The bank’s current set-up is outsourced to Accenture, which manages its group technology and change division. The deal was signed in 2014, and around 200 staff transferred to Accenture from Bank of Ireland as a […]
Denmark-based Nets and JCB have teamed up for Nets to use J/Speedy, JCB’s contactless technology, for Dankort payments with smartphones. Nets will launch Dankort on the mobile in autumn 2016, and JCB is also aiming to accelerate its mobile payment implementation globally using host card emulation (HCE) technology. Jeppe Juul-Andersen, SVP at Nets with the […]
The European Commission (EC) wants to update the fourth Anti-Money Laundering directive so that it also covers virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin. In the UK, the Treasury has followed suit by announcing plans to subject virtual currency exchanges to the same regulations as banks. This isn’t surprising. Gunnar Nordseth, CEO and co-founder of Signicat, muses over the possible […]
Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a European subsidiary of Russia’s Alfa Group, is looking for a new core banking system, Banking Technology understands. The bank is a long-standing user of Misys’ software, including Equation for core processing, Trade Innovation (TI) for trade finance, and Opics for treasury and capital markets. In 2010, Misys announced ATB’s successful […]
Virtual account management (VAM) holds great promise for corporates to centralise and reduce bank accounts. Banking Technology‘s payments expert, Heather McKenzie, explains. One of the promises of the single euro payments area (SEPA) was that it would enable more efficient cash management infrastructures for the euro. In a 2014 study, Economic analysis of SEPA, PWC predicted a […]
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, is looking to develop an internal blockchain prototype called “DNBCoin”. In its recently published annual report for 2015, DNB says this year it will aim to use blockchain to improve its business and mentions DNBCoin as an experiment with its own digital currency. The bank doesn’t go […]
MiFID II is delayed yet again as the European Commission (EC) asks the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for a “rethink”. ESMA has received a letter from EC concerning certain parts of the regulation draft. EC wants a rewrite of three technical standards that govern trading on commodities, exemptions for companies providing support market […]
Deutsche Bank is cutting its retail outlets in Germany from 700 to 500 as it looks to lower costs and adapt to digital banking. Christian Sewing, head of private, wealth and commercial clients and member of management board, Deutsche Bank, says the cuts are “necessary as the retail bank’s profitability has decreased over the last […]
