News


ING Belgium teams with Finnish start-up for invoicing software sales

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 unveils blockchain-based identity system

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 […]

European Central Bank goes to tender for new treasury management system

The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched a procurement tender for a new treasury management system (TMS). The ECB’s current TMS platform is Wallstreet Suite, supplied by Wall Street Systems (now part of Ion Trading). The bank has been using it for many years, Banking Technology understands. According to the ECB, its TMS supports […]

PayPal files Bitcoin payment patent

PayPal has filed a US patent application for a modular payment module that accepts Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The application names Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin; and sets out the physical characteristics of the module. It says: “The module includes a chassis which has a modular device connector. A payment database in the chassis stores […]

Intel moves into fintech as PC sales slump

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 […]

Linedata gains new asset management client in the US, Friess Associates

US-based Friess Associates, which manages around $1 billion for institutional and private investors, is automating its ops with Linedata Longview. The new investment management platform will support portfolio management, trading and compliance at Friess Associates. Linedata highlights asset-specific workflows of its offering, an interface that can be tailored to the various roles of disparate users, […]

Experian unveils CrossCore platform for fraud and identity services

Experian, the information services company, has launched its CrossCore platform for fraud and identity services. CrossCore has “plug-and-play” capability and lets companies connect any new or existing tools and systems in one place, whether they are Experian, internal or third-party partner solutions. Steve Platt, global EVP, fraud and identity, Experian, says: “New fraud threats, updates […]

SETL launches blockchain-powered OpenCSD platform

SETL, the institutional payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain, has launched its OpenCSD platform. The blockchain-powered platform, SETL’s first commercial offering, enables any market participant to commission and run a permissioned registry service for payments, settlement and clearing of cash and other “financial instruments”. It has been benchmarked to “settle billions of transactions a […]

Licence rejection sees PayPal quit Turkey

PayPal is suspending business in Turkey from 6 June as it has failed to get a new licence for its services. The US company says the decision will affect “tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of consumers”. PayPal did issue two separate statements to TechCrunch. The first was very similar to the […]

UK BPO and fintech provider Target Group acquired by Tech Mahindra

India-based IT heavyweight Tech Mahindra is spending £112 million on Target Group, a UK-based business process outsourcing (BPO) and software vendor. Target focuses on the lending, investment and insurance sectors, claiming around 50 financial institutions in the UK as customers. Among them are Yorkshire Building Society, Shawbrook Bank, Central Trust and Masthaven. It also works […]

Wirecard Makes Scandinavia Play with Paygoo Pact

Wirecard’s flurry of activity continues as the German payment services and technology firm joins with Norway-based program manager Paygoo to launch a reloadable prepaid MasterCard, to be distributed through one of Europe’s largest convenience store chains, Reitan Convenience.

Student Loans Company puts IT contract with HCL under review

Student Loans Company (SLC), a large government-owned lender in the UK, is believed to have halted its IT renovation project as it puts the contract with the supplier under review. SLC embarked on this massive project in early 2014 – awarding the contract to HCL. HCL bid jointly with Deloitte and Misys. HCL would be […]

Oman Arab Bank opts for BPC’s SmartVista for payments

Oman Arab Bank (OAB) has selected BPC Banking Technologies’ SmartVista suite for its payment business. SmartVista will replace the existing legacy platform, ACI Worldwide’s Open2. BPC says following a review and bid process, OAB selected its suite over ACI Worldwide and HPS. Fahd Amjad, GM retail banking at Oman Arab Bank, says the partnership with […]

Bank Hapoalim searches for new core banking system

Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, is believed to be in system selection mode. The bank is looking for a new core banking system, Banking Technology understands. It is believed that Temenos with its T24 offering, SAP with SAP for Banking and TCS Financial Solution with Bancs are among the contenders. TCS has recently made inroads […]

Bitcoin firm KnCMiner declares bankruptcy

Swedish bitcoin firm KnCMiner has filed for bankruptcy due to impending taxes and market uncertainty. Sam Cole, CEO at KnCMiner, says 44% of its income goes to energy taxes and there have been doubts about the future of the bitcoin mining market. In an interview with Swedish website Breakit.se, Cole says: “We knew there were […]

CIMB Bank and MasterCard launch corporate cards in Malaysia

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, […]

Standard Chartered unveils mobile and online banking in Africa

Standard Chartered is bringing its mobile and online banking platform to eight countries in Africa. After the roll-out to Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the first half of 2016, the bank will launch fingerprint recognition technology in these markets later in the year. Karen Fawcett, Standard Chartered’s CEO for retail […]

Swedbank launches digital banking unit

Swedbank has restructured its management team and launched a digital banking group. The new “Group Function Digital Banking” will be responsible for digital sales support, development and innovation. The bank is looking for a permanent head of digital banking. Birgitte Bonnesen, president and CEO of Swedbank, says the changes are a “natural step” and meet […]

IT overhaul at Somalia’s central bank with Sofgen, Temenos and Oracle FSS

Central Bank of Somalia is embarking on a major tech overhaul, with sponsorship from the World Bank. The bank will implement a new core banking system, Temenos’ T24, and a new ERP system from Oracle FSS. Swiss IT consultancy firm Sofgen has been recruited to deliver the project. The first phase is estimated to cost […]

Visa Europe contactless transactions pass 3 billion mark

Visa Europe says three billion contactless transactions were made across Europe on Visa cards and payment-enabled devices in the year to 30 April. This leap nearly triples that of the same period in the previous year. Tristan Kirchner, executive director, product management at Visa Europe, says it’s “extraordinary growth” and it’s due to the work […]

Absa launches ChatBanking for Twitter

South African banking heavyweight Absa has launched ChatBanking, the “first” service in Africa offering day-to-day banking from a Twitter account. As part of the “initial offering”, ChatBanking provides “actual and available” balance on a transactional account; ability to buy airtime or data for a cellphone registered to their account; and get a mini-statement showing most […]

Reserve Bank of India pushes for ATM revamp

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans an overhaul of the country’s ATMs to enable the processing of EMV chip and PIN cards by 2017. The RBI says while India’s POS infrastructure accepts and processes EMV chip and PIN cards, the ATM infrastructure, “on the whole”, continues to process card transactions based on data from […]

Ipreo and Misys team up for syndicated loan solutions

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 […]

Top fintech stories this week – 27 May 2016

Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place! Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack A fast moving chain of events. High five for Apple Pay in Singapore Big banks onboard include OCBC and Standard Chartered. NYSE launches new trading tech platform, NYSE Pillar The […]

Profidata acquires German software fintech firm Abraxas

Swiss firm Profidata has acquired the “entire shares” of Abraxas, a German software and service provider for the financial industry. With the deal going ahead, Profidata will get FundLine, used for processing mutual fund orders and calculating trailer commissions; and RiskLine, for consolidation and quality assurance of financial market data, automated checking of market conformity […]

Sungard out, Path Solutions in at Amãna Bank

Sri Lanka-based Amãna Bank has gone live with new treasury and asset management software, supplied by Path Solutions. The new products, iMAL Islamic Treasury and iMAL AssetManagement, replaced a legacy treasury and equity management platform at Amãna. Banking Technology understands that this was Sungard’s Ambit Treasury Management. The new software interfaces to Swift and supports […]

Santander UK pilots blockchain app for payments

Santander says it is the “first” UK bank to introduce blockchain for international payments through a new app. It is currently being rolled out as a staff pilot, with the intention to expand the technology “at a later date”. Sigga Sigurdardottir, head of customer and innovation at Santander, says: “The need for finance has evolved […]

Swift hacks sees 12 more banks under attack

Investigators are looking at more potential computer breaches following the three hacking incidents on Swift’s payment network, according to Bloomberg. The three attacks comprised a $101 million cyber heist in Bangladesh – the biggest cyber heist in history; Vietnam’s Tien Phong Bank stopping an attempted wire fraud; and Ecuador’s Banco del Austro losing around $9 […]

Green Dot Issues Mea Culpa, Still Working out Final Kinks

Green Dot has taken to social media to apologize for service issues that go beyond its initial reporting that balance inquiries temporarily were unavailable in certain channels, following the third wave of its processing conversion to MasterCard Payment Transaction Services.

Wells Fargo Joins the Mobile Wallet Race

Wells Fargo will launch its mobile wallet this summer, giving consumers using Android devices a new way to pay with their Wells Fargo debit and credit cards.

Payments Vets Launch ‘Innovation’ Platform for Issuers

The multibillion-dollar fintech boom often garners headlines for consumer-facing innovation. Three payments veterans—John Mitchell, Futeh Kao and Chermaine Hu—decided it was time to create some issuer-facing innovation. With their new company Episode Six, the team has launched a payments software platform that integrates with issuers’ existing processing infrastructure to enable customized new products, Mitchell tells Paybefore.

“Major changes” lead to losses for Lombard Risk

Regulatory reporting software vendor, Lombard Risk, has revealed a loss before tax of £2.2 million in its fiscal year 2015/2016. The loss, for the period ended 31 March 2016, is a contrast to last year’s profit of £2.3 million. As a result of the loss it has suspended its final dividend payment. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings […]

OakNorth Bank heads to the cloud with Amazon

OakNorth says it has become the “first cloud-based bank” in the UK, eight months after launching. The bank, which provides loans of between £1 million to £15 million to “entrepreneurs and fast-growth” businesses, has been working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for six months on policies related to […]

UK start-up Ormsby Street launches in Germany with Deutsche Bank

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 […]

Wirecard Singapore and NETS team for terminal payment solution

Wirecard Singapore, part of Wirecard Group, and NETS (Network for Electronic Transfers {Singapore}) have partnered to provide a single terminal payment solution for Singapore government agencies. The move will enable users to use their CEPAS (Contactless e-Purse Application) cards such as NETS FlashPay, EZ-Link and concession cards on one single device. Wirecard says CEPAS cards […]

Nasdaq launches Financial Framework

Nasdaq has launched the Nasdaq Financial Framework for financial infrastructure providers. The framework is “immediately” available to more than 100 market operator clients globally, including traditional exchanges, inter-broker dealers and alternative trading venues, clearing houses and central securities depositories (CSDs). Adena Friedman, president and COO, Nasdaq, says the framework is the result of “significant R&D […]