FinTech


State Street unveils Quantextual Idea Lab for investment research

State Street has launched its Quantextual Idea Lab, a hybrid of machine learning and human knowledge, for improved investment research. According to the firm, investment professionals are inundated with research reports from the sell side, the buy side and academia. It reckons financial research teams can produce enough content to consume 24 reams or 12,000 […]

Innovators’ Spotlight: SPENT Money

Rather than being top of wallet, SPENT Money wants to help consumers manage and earn rewards from what’s already there—at least for now.

Fintech funding round-up: 21 September 2017

Following swiftly on from the fintech funding round-up on 19 September, here’s more concise, cash-coated action. Features CivilisedBank, HighRadius, Swirlds and Luno. UK challenger CivilisedBank, which got its banking licence in May, has agreed terms for a further round of funding from current investor Warwick Capital Partners. No more details on that but the bank […]

Swift gives final wave to four more CSDs on T2S

Swift has announced the migration of Iberclear (Spain) and the Baltic central securities depositories (CSDs) of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and their respective communities to live operations on Target2 Securities (T2S) using its value added network (VAN) solution. The migration marks the end of the T2S migration plan, which started back in June 2015. Since […]

South Africa Bettr get ready for new mobile banking service

South African start-up Bettr Finance is preparing to launch its mobile banking service – with the offer of no monthly account fees and no bricks and mortar branches. It’s early days at the moment, so timelines and specific details are not available. But on its website its alpha phase is limited to 10,000 users. The […]

Bankart and Nets to deliver new payments infrastructure to Slovenian banking sector

Bankart and Nordic payments processor Nets will provide the Slovenian banking sector with a new payments central infrastructure to handle both SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT) non-urgent and SCT instant credit transfers. The duo has signed an agreement where Nets will deploy and operate an instant payments solution for Bankart via Nets’ RealTime24/7 solution. The latter […]

Game, FactSet and match for Banco Santander Totta’s new online broker

FactSet, a US-based provider of financial information and analytics software to the investment management industry, has developed a new online broker offering for Banco Santander Totta in Portugal. The broker portal comes with an embedded trading functionality and a portfolio application. According to FactSet, the bank’s new web presence offers a “clear design with intuitive […]

Are you data breach fatigued?

Data breaches are nothing new – quite the contrary – in fact their very frequency makes it likely that we’re fatigued to the point of indifference by the number of leaks which are surfacing, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). Knowing the value of money is a lesson parents have been teaching children for years, […]

Report: Fintech outside London

Reading the UK news you might think fintech innovation only comes from limelight-hogging London, but that isn’t the case. There are obviously other rival global centres of innovation like Berlin or Stockholm, but many other regional UK fintech hubs exist too. The Fintech outside London report looks at UK fintech firms working outside of the so-called […]

European Commission plans reform to get fintech to perform

The European Commission (EC) is proposing reforms to pave the way for further financial integration and a full capital markets union – with a handy boost to fintech included. President Jean-Claude Juncker, in his State of the Union Address, underlined the importance of the capital markets union and the EC’s plan to “promote jobs, growth […]

Ex-Barclays CEO’s start-up gets backing from China’s Ping An

10X Future Technologies, the start-up founded by ex-Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins last year, will announce this week that it has raised more than £30 million in funding from ‎Ping An Insurance and management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, according to Sky News. The deal will speed up 10X’s expansion, and is good news for Jenkins’ ambitions. […]

Sun Life looks for life with fintech start-ups

With the unveiling of its new corporate headquarters at One York Street in Toronto, Sun Life Financial has made it loud and clear it’s on the prowl for fintech start-ups. The super-shiny, 35-storey, 800,000 square foot office tower, is a mighty site/sight and will offer connection to Toronto’s Union (railway) Station and PATH network (i.e. […]

Gulf Coast Bank & Trust turns to nCino for cloud-based lending

Louisiana’s Gulf Coast Bank & Trust has gone live with nCino’s cloud-based Bank Operating System, “increasing the efficiency and speed” of the commercial loan process. According to nCino, Gulf Coast Bank & Trust, a 113-year-old bank with branches throughout southeastern Louisiana, identified the need to replace numerous siloed systems with a solution that would automate […]

Hitachi creates IoT focused big data company Vantara

When we hear Hitachi two things come to mind; 80s style radio and construction vehicles. This might be a perception the team will want to address as Hitachi enters the internet of things (IoT) world, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). Combining the capabilities of three separate brands, Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and […]

It looks like no-one cares about data protection regulations

It doesn’t matter if they were given more than two years to get ready, with six months to go until the EU GDPR deadline, it’s going to be a sprint finish for a worryingly large number of companies, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). That’s the view of law firm Blake Morgan. After conducting a […]

SEI and Coinfirm concur for blockchain-powered asset transfers

Wealth management firm SEI is partnering with London-based blockchain company Coinfirm as they plan to tap into the UK’s asset transfer market. Coinfirm and the SEI Wealth Platform will use digital ledger technology (DLT) – and as with 99.9% of comments on any blockchain project, SEI says its solution will reduce costs and risks. Brett […]

The rise of regtech down under

Could Australia give the UK a run for its money? Wayne Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Encompass Corporation, explores.

Raisin chasing UK deposit marketplace with first acquisition

Berlin-based deposit marketplace Raisin has acquired UK-based fintech specialist PBF Solutions to offer end-to-end deposit raising for UK banks and other providers. The acquisition is the first in Raisin’s history. If you’re not sick of Brexit yet, then Raisin states that “despite current market volatility and Brexit discussions, Raisin remains committed to the UK and […]

Kenya leads Africa in financial inclusion innovation

Kenya is leading the way when it comes to digital innovation for financial inclusion in Africa, according to research by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). Earlier this year, CGAP says it invited firms and organisations to submit proposals for digital innovations they believe have the most potential to advance financial inclusion in […]

Interview: Aleksey Chubar, VTB – leading a fintech revolution in Russia

If you’ve got preconceptions about what fintech looks like and where it’s happening, then Aleksey Chubar, head of digital transformation at VTB, has news for you. Russia is becoming a hotbed of fintech innovation – not just domestically, but internationally too. More than that, the rapid pace of technological change in the country means you’ll soon wonder how you got left behind.

JP Morgan Chase goes in for the Bill for digital payments platform

JP Morgan Chase has teamed with Bill.com, the largest digital business-to-business (B2B) payments network in the US, for its new paytech platform. This B2B solution, to be rolled out next year, will be integrated into Chase’s digital platform for businesses, used for online and mobile solutions. Andrew Kresse, CEO of business banking at JP Morgan […]

Atom Bank teams with Reevoo for content customer crusade

UK challenger bank Atom has partnered with user-generated content platform Reevoo to improve customer engagement and offer better purchase decisions. Using Reevoo’s platform, Atom says it collects reviews for its fixed saver account and mortgage products. These reviews are then displayed on Atom’s website, and have been included in various customer communications including newsletters and […]

Avoid a regtech downfall with The Bunker’s new sandbox service

The Bunker, a UK-based data storage and managed services provider, has launched a new sandbox service for start-ups seeking to develop applications for the financial services market and cope with regulations. It’s got some backing for its plans as innovation network Barclays Rise “will also play a supportive role in helping to identify early stage […]

Can money buy friends? Intel is hoping so

Intel has shown its defensive side with a humble-brag that it has invested $1 billion in artificial intelligence (AI). We didn’t realise Intel had to use money to make friends, but each to their own, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). In an editorial piece by CEO Brian Krzanich, Intel has decided to shout at […]

NatWest launches UK’s first paperless mortgage

NatWest says it is to become the first UK bank to offer a paperless mortgage – as customers can now apply for a completely digital mortgage and share and verify documents online. The new proposition means customers don’t need to send signed paperwork or personal and private information through the post. Lloyd Cochrane, director of […]

Fintech funding round-up: 19 September 2017

Four stories in one for a fast fintech funding round-up. Features Ellevest, iZettle, GoCardless and MarketInvoice. New York-based fintech Ellevest, led by former Merrill Lynch CEO Sallie Krawcheck, has got itself $34.6 million funding. Ellevest is a bit different from the rest as it was founded to provide an investing experience to “help women meet […]

Doreming brings it for Lien Viet Post Bank retail banking ambitions

Doreming, a Japanese financial inclusion firm, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lien Viet Post Bank to build a solution for managing and paying wages to workers in Vietnam through the bank’s Vien Viet non-physical card. Doreming provides businesses with an HR platform that enables workers to receive pro-rata payments, “easing cash flow […]

EU-US Privacy Shield faces its moment of truth

While you were tucking into your ham sarnie European Commission Věra Jourová touched down in the US to start the first annual review of the EU-US Privacy Shield, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). It’s the reason why the internet giants of Silicon Valley can do business in the European bloc, or at least the reason […]

EDI challenges NYSE corporate actions monopoly

Exchange Data International (EDI) says it has broken the NYSE corporate actions monopoly with its launch of a “like-for-like service at less than 50% of the redistribution costs charged by NYSE”.