Indian firm Aditya Birla has chosen the Infosys Finacle core banking system for its upcoming joint venture (JV), Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank. Aditya Birla has got in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India and plans to set up the new payments bank by the end of its financial year (2016-17). Aditya Birla will […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! MasterCard to buy French payment firm Stet? EXCLUSIVE. Payments processor could be a target. Brooks Macdonald puts IT revamp with Third Financial on hold EXCLUSIVE. All freeze for wealth management firm. Banks behaving badly in Singapore Monetary Authority […]
Tehran-based Informatics Services Corporation (ISC) is inviting bids for the installation and implementation of an international card payment switch in Iran. ISC says it is considering the procurement of a national merchant management system, card management system, ACS (access control server) and FRM (fraud / risk management) to manage international card payments’ usage within Iran’s […]
The CFPB has announced three leadership changes within the agency.
Make it lean, keep them keen. A round-up of events in the payments space. Nordea is leaving the Swipp collaboration and partnering with Danske Bank’s MobilePay platform in Denmark and Norway. The shared payment solution’s plan is a reaction to “new international players” who “regularly appear in the market”. Danske says it will begin converting […]
San Francisco-based start-up lender Affirm has got a $100 million credit line from Morgan Stanley as it looks to boost its business, according to The Wall Street Journal. The firm is “adding debt” as it “seeks to grow its loans for tickets, trips, and other big online purchases as an alternative to paying with credit […]
TransferWise has “successfully” integrated into the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) using ACI Worldwide’s tech at the back-end. As Banking Technology reported in August, TransferWise became the “first” tech firm to get direct access to FPS as technical partner to Raphaels Bank. Prior to that, ACI partnered with the same bank, opening up access to […]
Silicon Valley Bank and MasterCard have selected six start-ups to participate in Class 5 of Commerce.Innovated, a virtual accelerator designed to help commerce, payments and fintech start-ups grow their businesses. The six US start-ups will go through the four-month virtual programme and are in various stages of funding and development: Domuso, a payment financing platform […]
Why limit getting in debt quickly only to the Arcadia Group shoppers? Payments provider Klarna onboards a raft of partners for its retail financing solution. These include Shopify, Worldpay, BigCommerce and CyberSource.
The International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) Europe and the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis) are to jointly define technical standards for blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Aziz Bank in Afghanistan has selected JMR Infotech to help it implement a new core banking system, Oracle FSS’s Flexcube. Azizi signed for Flexcube two years ago, but the work is only starting now, following a tender to find a system integrator.
Fintech funding without the tub-thumping. A realistic and brief round-up of key events. ComplyAdvantage, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help firms manage compliance, has revealed an $8.2 million Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital. The funding will allow the regtech firm to do the usual stuff – growth and […]
ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD say they have successfully executed the “first” banking transactions using blockchain in international trade finance in India and the UAE respectively. The development saw the exchange and authentication of remittance transaction messages as well as original international trade documents related to purchase orders, invoices, shipping and insurance, among others, electronically […]
MasterCard is believed to be mulling the acquisition of French payments processor Stet. MasterCard told Banking Technology it “does not comment on rumours or speculation”. Stet responded saying that “these are unfounded rumours” and that it “has no discussions of this type with MasterCard.” Stet was set up in 2004 and is currently owned by […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Oct. 11 deemed the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unconstitutional because of it being led by a single director, calling the bureau a “gross departure from settled historical practice” in which independent agencies are led by commissioners or board members, according to the court’s decision.
The CFPB has fined Navy Federal Credit Union $28.5 million for improper debt collection action. That breaks down to $23 million going to victims and a $5.5 million civil penalty, the federal consumer agency said.
Alipay has partnered with Zapper, the consumer insights and marketing platform, to grab a slice of the Chinese tourism market in the UK. Zapper says the partnership will allow over 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK to pay using the Alipay app in over 1,000 locations nationwide. Rita Liu, head of Alipay EMEA, says merchants, […]
Lloyds has confirmed 1,230 jobs will be cut as part of its continuing restructuring plan. The jobs will go from group operations, retail, customer products and marketing, finance and risk divisions. As Banking Technology reported in April, Lloyds revealed it was to cut 625 jobs – part of its 9,000 job reductions and 200 branch […]
Virtual reality (VR) has been grabbing headlines this year with major players across several industries entering the market. But there is evidence to show that augmented reality (AR) may be a more valuable platform in the years ahead. So what exactly is AR and what are the potential applications that could help take it from a small niche to a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years?
German insurance firm Talanx and fintech developer FinLeap have founded a joint venture to provide a digital platform for independent asset managers and private banks. Under the name Elinvar, the start-up offers a white-label platform – so asset managers can offer their own brand and corporate design. The solution includes new client onboarding, automatic creation […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Sonali Bank UK £3.25 million for “serious” anti-money laundering (AML) systems failings. It has imposed a restriction, preventing it from accepting deposits from new customers for 168 days, and fined the bank’s former money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), Steven Smith, £17,900 and prohibited him from performing the […]
Finland-based Aurora Exchange, a consumer loans exchange, has teamed with two firms for its P2P lending platform launch. Maiden Life, based in Sweden, brings its payment protection insurance to cover “all loans” against borrower’s death, permanent and temporary disability with lenders as beneficiaries. Mangopay will act as Aurora Exchange’s custodian and payments technology provider. Mangopay […]
Ant Financial Services Group, the online and mobile financial services affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has appointed current president Eric Jing as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective Oct. 16.
Bink, a soon-to-launch loyalty app that links consumer card payments to loyalty programs, has appointed Bob Wigley as chairman of its board and Steve Perry as a non-executive board director.
Blackhawk Network has named David Tate as senior vice president of the company’s U.S. retail business.
Mastercard has named Safdar Khan to the role of division president for Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Khan will be based in Jakarta and be responsible for leading the implementation of the company’s digital payment technologies in those markets.
PayPal Inc. has named Bill Ready Chief Operating Officer, the first time that position has been filled since PayPal became an independent company in July 2015.
India-based online commerce platform Paytm has appointed Madhur Deora as its Chief Financial Officer and senior vice president.
LendingWell, a single-platform P2P lending partner, is the winner of the first PitchIt @ LendIt Europe, a competition aiming to find a future star within the online lending and fintech space. LendingWell provides access for retail investors and independent financial advisors to the broader P2P lending market. Co-founded with Liberum Alternative Finance, it provides customers […]
Symantec has found evidence that the Odinaff group has mounted attacks on Swift users, using malware to hide customers’ own records of Swift messages relating to fraudulent transactions. The tools used are designed to monitor customers’ local message logs for keywords relating to certain transactions. They will then move these logs out of customers’ local […]
Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) has used Bolero’s ePresentation solution for its first-ever electronic back-to-back documentary credit, reducing the time required to help a large iron ore shipment from Australia to China. The transaction was arranged jointly with NAB (National Australia Bank) and China Guangfa Bank.
The CFPB might have taken two years to release its final rules on prepaid accounts, but it took little time for payments industry players and observers to weigh in on them. Within a day of the rules’ release, which go into effect Oct. 1, 2017, prepaid services giant Green Dot Corp., the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the Consumers Union and the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) all had issued official comments, covering the spectrum of support for the new mandates.
A new European prepaid product from Wirecard will help truck drivers pay for repairs and fuel. The program, launched in Germany, involves Europe Net, a subsidiary of ADAC Truck Service. Its European Net Service Card also enables fleet mangers to add value to the card so that drivers can make emergency payments.
Vodafone customers in the U.K. now can make NFC payments funded from their PayPal accounts via Android smartphones. A new deal between Vodafone and PayPal enables PayPal to be used as a funding source for transactions made with Vodafone Pay.
A shareholder of ID verification startup Jumio Inc. has sued company officials over alleged mismanagement and misrepresentation of the firm, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2016. In a lawsuit filed in Delaware, Bloso Investments Ltd., alleges that Jumio directors, including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, made deliberately misleading statements about the company’s prospects, duping Bloso into investing $5 million in Jumio.
Lloyds says it is set to become the “first” organisation in Europe to introduce new fraud prevention technology, helping protect its 30 million customers from telephone fraudsters. The patented “Phoneprinting”, developed by call centre fraud firm Pindrop, creates an “audio fingerprint” of each call by analysing 147 unique call features – such as location, background […]
MasterCard and Berlin-based SolarisBank have teamed up to bolster their digital banking ambitions. SolarisBank has got principal membership status, and will now operate at MasterCard’s “highest issuer level”, with access to its entire product portfolio. Dr. Andreas Spengel, vice-president at MasterCard, says it is “excited by the outlook of working together with a young, visionary […]
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is withdrawing the merchant bank status of Falcon Private Bank’s Singapore branch for “serious failures” in anti-money laundering (AML) controls and “improper conduct” by senior management at the head office in Switzerland as well as the Singapore branch. MAS is also imposing financial penalties on DBS Bank and UBS’s […]
Swiss software start-up LzLabs will acquire the intellectual property (IP) and technology assets from compatriot Eranea. The tech, that specifically enables the conversion of Cobol to Java, has been acquired as LzLabs looks to boost the growth of its software-defined mainframe. Banking Technology reported on the mainframe’s launch in March and LzLabs’ partnership with Cobol-IT. […]
Digital banking software vendor Backbase has teamed up with Mitek, a mobile capture and identity verification specialist. Mitek’s OCR and document validation capabilities are now available through the Backbase Open Banking Marketplace.
