BGFI Bank, a financial services group in Central Africa, is upgrading its core banking software group-wide. The bank is rolling out a new version of Sopra Banking Software’s Amplitude system, Amplitude Up.
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 […]
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 […]
Sudan Financial Services Company (SFSC) has signed to implement the iMAL solution from Path Solutions for its investment activities.
Atlas Finance, a microfinance lender in South Africa, has signed for Nucleus Lending Analytics from India-based lendtech vendor Nucleus Software.
Zambia-based Zazu is readying for launch – as it targets being “Africa’s first digital-only bank” and offering a “more personalised solution” than a traditional bank. In November, it will launch with 1,500 prepaid debit cards. It wants to give these out to people who regularly use cards to make payments, so it can improve and develop […]
Dar Al-Amane, a participative finance window of Société Générale Maroc, is live with a new core banking system, Ethix, from International Turnkey Systems (ITS).
ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) has implemented its flagship core banking platform, ICS Banks, at Providus Bank in Nigeria.
Banque Burundaise pour le Commerce et l’Investissement (BBCI) has selected ERI’s Olympic core banking system.
National Bank of Kenya says it has upgraded to “the fifth and latest version” of its core banking platform, Fusionbanking Essense, supplied by Finastra (formerly Misys).
The US Department of State recently released a report that identified mobile money services as particularly susceptible to money laundering in Africa. It cites services like M-PESA and M-Shwari as “services [that] remain vulnerable to money laundering activities”.
Mobile payments switch TerraPay and money transfer company Instant Cash have teamed up to enable real-time cross border money transfers for migrants that want to send money back to Africa to recipients’ mobile wallets. Powered by TerraPay’s global clearing and settlement service for mobile wallets, the partnership “will make cross-border money transfer faster and convenient […]
Uganda-based DFCU Bank is also upgrading its core banking software to the tune of $20 million. DFCU is moving from version 7 of its Infosys’ Finacle core banking platform to version 10.
Nigeria-based Skye Bank has launched a new digital banking platform, SkyeXperience, built on the Oracle FSS tech. The bank plans to enrol over two million clients on the new solution by the end of next year.
Sudan-based Faisal Islamic Bank is modernising its core banking software with Path Solution’s iMAL. Path’s competitor for the deal was ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) with its ICS Banks offering.
Nigeria-based Haggai Mortgage Bank has gone live with new core banking software, Finedge. The system is supplied by local tech company CWG.
Crane Bank, a failed bank in Uganda, spent millions of dollars on IT services and software that was never supplied, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) into the bank’s mismanagement.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Barclays Africa will collaborate with nine firms to explore new technology-based solutions to improve its banking services. The nifty nine are not just fintech but include Abe.ai and Kapitalwise from the US; FOMO Group and Byte Money from South Africa; and FlexPay, Spatialedge, Sun Exchange and Avenews-GT. Details below if you want the full show. […]
South African heavyweight Absa Bank has unveiled its own artificial intelligence (AI)-powered online investment platform, Virtual Investor. The self-service platform uses AI and computer algorithms to recommend a product for customers based on their financial attitudes to risk. Armien Tyer, head of Absa Investments, says: “Individuals can either invest a once-off lump sum amount or […]
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Kenya have signed a co-operation agreement for fintech innovation. The agreement provides a framework for information sharing; and keeping abreast of regulatory and relevant economic or commercial developments in the respective markets. They will also support fintech […]
Inlaks, a banking software provider in Nigeria and West Africa, has built a core banking solution together with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the country’s microfinance sector.
Absa Bank, a subsidiary of Barclays Africa, has partnered with multilingual text analytics and big data firm, Hello Soda, as it looks to tap into the millennial market. The bank says it wants to make sense of unstructured social data to better understand its consumer base. According to Absa, Hello Soda provides new ways for […]
Ethiopia-based Oromia International Bank (OIB) has opted for the ICS Banks core banking system, supplied by ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS), to underpin OIB’s Islamic banking operations.
EBank, a new bank in Namibia, has implemented Fiorano ESB, an enterprise service bus to “seamlessly integrate” the bank’s core processing software – Temenos T24 – with other third-party systems and channels, with a major focus on digital banking.
The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) has launched a new competition to find financial products and services that improve the lives of poor people in rural areas of Africa. The 2017 competition will follow a rolling format and will be open throughout the year with applications submitted and evaluated periodically. The first submission […]
Ghana-based Premium Bank has selected NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution FraudGuardian. FraudGuardian uses a “patented big data model to correlate and analyse human behaviours across the entire bank system including eBanking, service channels, IT systems and financial transactions”. The firm says it can help banks prevent fraud in a proactive manner. FraudGuardian will integrate with the Temenos […]
Crédit du Maroc (CDM), a Morocco-based subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole group, has signed for Path Solutions’ iMAL core banking system to support its newly launched participative banking window.
US-based InvestCloud has a spring(bok) in its step as it has been appointed by South Africa’s Anchor Private Clients to provide digital client communication and client reporting solutions. Johannesburg-headquartered Anchor Private Clients, the private client division of Anchor Group, specialises in investment management and advice for private clients across South Africa and internationally. Its parent […]
ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) has signed a core banking software deal with National Bank of Yemen, and has gone live at BOND Savings and Loans in Ghana.
Innotribe, Swift’s innovation arm, has revealed the three winners of its third 2017 Startup Challenge for Africa in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Each start-up receives a €10,000 cash prize and will share their insights about innovation in Africa at Sibos in Toronto. The trio are: IroFit Technologies – offers small businesses processing for in-store mobile/card payments […]
Samsung Pay has officially launched in the UK, continuing the evolution of the digital economy, but does this technology have the potential to disrupt the global pecking order?
South Africa-based Mercantile Bank has implemented a new digital channels platform, TCS Bancs Digital, supplied by TCS Financial Solutions.
The Middle East and Africa (MEA) is the payment cards region increasing the quickest across the globe, according to research by Retail Banking Research (RBR). According to RBR’s Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2021, the number of cards in issue in MEA increased by 13% to 611 million in 2015, making it the […]
Innotribe, Swift’s innovation arm, has named the ten firms who will compete in its Start-up Challenge Africa. The start-ups will pitch their products in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 17 May 2017 during Swift’s African Regional Conference. Innotribe evaluated close to 100 applications received for the third edition of the Startup Challenge in Africa. The applications […]
Kenya-based mortgage lender Housing Finance (HF Group) has gone live with a new core banking system, Profits, supplied by Intrasoft International.
While the maturity of blockchain discussions and advances are at different stages of development around the world, blockchain is said to be at the height of the Gartner hype cycle. This implies that 2017 will be the year where disillusionment with the technology begins. However, 2017 may also see some real breakthroughs with its application and the emergence of pockets of the first concrete results.
The Central Bank of Lesotho has gone live on Intellect Design Arena’s Quantum Central Banking Solution (QCBS). According to India-based Intellect, the “key highlight was an accelerated implementation with zero errors during migration despite complex integration with multiple external interfaces”. Mothetsi Sekoati, head of business solution at Central Bank of Lesotho, says the project is […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Banking Technology’s deputy editor Antony Peyton briefly reflects on last week’s visit to Morocco for HPS Worldwide’s PowerCARD Users Meeting 2017. At […]
Morocco-based payments firm HPS Worldwide is setting its sights on growth through the use of APIs and extensive collaboration with start-ups. At its PowerCARD Users Meeting 2017, held 5-7 April, in the lively city of Marrakesh – about 400 people from over 50 countries listened to presentations from the company and its partners. The message […]
