Turkey’s largest bank Isbank and its tech partner Monitise have launched a money transfer service via Apple’s iMessage – a first in the republic. Using Isbank’s new mobile banking app, IsCep, users are now able to request and send money through iMessage. As Banking Technology reported in January, IsCep also allows “for the first time” […]
Pakistan-based Askari Bank has gone live with Autosoft’s Islamic treasury management system, Adams Islamic, and its RTGS STP utility (real-time gross settlement system straight-through processing), AutoRTGS. The bank can manage its Islamic treasury operations using Adams Islamic as well as process funds transfers between banks using AutoRTGS. Adams Islamic is also integrated with the bank’s […]
The Indian city of Visakhapatnam, the commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, has launched five start-up challenges in its quest to become a national and global hub for fintech. The big plan is to build an ecosystem including start-up entrepreneurs, innovators, incubators, investors and academia. Several start-ups including Paytm, Blocktrust, Knolskape, Transaction Analyst, GMS, ValueLabs have […]
Several Indian Bitcoin start-ups have formed the Blockchain and Virtual Currency Association of India as they look to quell investors’ virtual currency fears becoming a reality. Coinsecure, Searchtrade, Unocoin and Zebpay have banded together in response to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) recent circular warning people that it has not authorised dealings in or […]
Digital money transfer service WorldRemit is now available in Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, expanding its partnership with the Russian “Contact” payment system. The development follows WorldRemit’s recent service launch across Russia in collaboration with Contact. The firm’s users can now send money to be collected as cash pick up at more than 3,000 locations […]
Fintech zeitgeist! Welcome to the third in a new series of brief reports. 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 we welcome the views of guest writer Soumik Roy on India’s latest budget and its implications for e-payments and digital economy.
Amid India’s recent boom in m-wallet transaction volume following a government discontinuation of two popular currency notes, the government now is considering developing an insurance framework for mobile wallet and electronic transactions. Government officials from the IT Ministry already have begun discussions with m-wallet providers and insurance companies on how to insure money in the wallet apps, according to The Financial Express.
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has launched and is rolling out pilot services in Raipur and Ranchi. IPPB is the third payments bank to be authorised in India, and follows on the heels of Paytm (launched last year) and Airtel (opened for business this year). IPPB’s chief executive officer, A P Singh, says: “The idea […]
Turkey’s largest bank Isbank has launched a new P2P money transfer service, called “social account”, available for the “first time” in the republic. The launch quickly follows on from the release of its new app, IsCep, to allow “for the first time” banking and stock exchange transactions through one application with real-time data. With the […]
DCB Bank, a private sector bank in India, plans to allow customer transactions and account opening through iris scans for Aadhaar authentication. The Aadhaar infrastructure, created by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), onboards customers and provide them with online services. UIDAI collects the biometric and demographic data of residents, stores them in a […]
Turkey’s largest bank Isbank has unveiled its new app, IsCep, to allow “for the first time” banking and stock exchange transactions through one application with real-time data. The bank says IsCep has been integrated into its Mobil Borsa (mobile stock market) and is also available for all foreign customers in Turkey. Isbank deputy chief executive […]
Pakistan-based Samba Bank has signed for BenchMatrix’s retail loan origination system, RiskNucleus LOS. The solution will automate the bank’s consumer lending processes across its entire network of 37 branches and facilitate “moving towards a fully paperless environment”, BenchMatrix says.
The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has recently issued a whitepaper, “Applications of Blockchain Technology to Banking and Financial Sector in India”. We summarise the report and highlight the key findings.
Fintech zeitgeist! Welcome to the first in a new series of brief reports. 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. Anything goes, so here goes. Rome versus Carthage. Britain versus France. History shows […]
India’s Yes Bank is inviting fintech start-ups to take part in its Yes Fintech Accelerator Programme. The application process is open until 2nd February 2017.
Airtel Payments Bank, India’s “first” payments bank, has started national operations with services now live across the country. As Banking Technology reported in July 2016, telecoms giant Airtel was planning its own bank. It says it is a “fully digital and paperless” bank, and from today (12 January), over 250,000 neighbourhood Airtel retail stores across […]
India-based HDFC Bank is about to introduce its first “humanoid” branch assistant – Ira. The human-sized robot was built together with artificial intelligence (AI) company Asimov Robotics.
Axis Bank has become the first bank in India to use Ripple’s blockchain network for cross-border payments. The bank, the third largest in the private sector, will use the network for real-time settlement as it targets future growth. Amit Sethi, president and CIO at Axis Bank, says: “We will come out with solutions for our […]
A group of senior executives in India’s digital sector are looking to create a group of chief digital officers (CDOs) or equivalent in the country.
State Bank of India (SBI) is working on its own digital bank – SBI Digi Bank – which it plans to launch in the next three to six months.
Pakistan-based Samba Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group, has gone live with new core banking software, Temenos’ T24 (R15).
ICICI Bank goes for Twitter, while HDFC Bank banks on Facebook Messenger.
Look back at some of the major payments projects in 2016, with Banking Technology’s top ten.
Money transfer firms WorldRemit and Xpress Money have partnered to unveil a remittance service to Pakistan. Through Xpress Money’s agent partner network, WorldRemit customers will be able to make instant money transfers to be collected at over 9,500 cash pick-up locations all over the country – including major banks, Al Habib Bank, Bank Alfalah, Bank […]
India-based National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) has launched NextGen – a new trading and surveillance system developed by MillenniumIT (a trading tech subsidiary of London Stock Exchange).
Société Générale is partnering with Smartkarma, a curated online platform, for investment insight focused on the Asian markets. Under this global agreement, Société Générale will provide its institutional clients access to a “new form” of equity research based on “demand driven and customised content”. Société Générale says it is the first global investment bank to […]
Rising cybercrime in India is no secret. According to a report by Symantec, India now ranks third in the world, after the US and China, as a source of malicious activity. In fact, the National Crime Records Bureau data reveals that in the three years up to 2013, registered cases of cyber crime were up 350%, from 966 to 4356. Dubious distinctions both, and give banks and the financial sector in India cause for worry.
India’s second largest bank, Bank of Baroda, is calling on fintech start-ups to solve the challenge of paying blue-collar workers.
Where is India with the adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) so far, and what is the outlook for the future?
Bangladesh’s central bank is hoping to get back $30 million more of the $81 million stolen from its account at the New York Federal Reserve in February, according to Reuters. As Banking Technology reported earlier this year, Bangladesh Bank said a total of $101 million was “wrongly transmitted”, of which $20 million went to a […]
City Union Bank (CUB) has become the first bank in India to introduce a robot to deal with customer queries. Called Lakshmi, the robot is based on the IBM Watson artificial intelligence (AI) engine.
India-based A.P. Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank is looking to upgrade or replace its legacy core software technology provided by domestic vendor Infrasoft Technologies.
Intellect Design Arena’s lack of profit has worsened as it reveals a loss after tax of INR 138 million ($2 million) for the quarter ended 30 September 2016. As Banking Technology reported for its previous quarter results, it had a loss after tax of INR 55.2 million ($826,690) for the quarter ended 30 June 2016. […]
India-based Five-Star Business Finance is modernising its lending operations with a new platform, FinnOne Neo, provided by local specialist vendor Nucleus Software. The solution will be delivered in the cloud. Five-Star is a non-banking finance company, and provides small business and small housing loans to “underbanked customers”. It chose FinnOne Neo to “help scale [its] […]
Mahindra Finance has launched a global SME challenge with KPMG and fintech matchmaking service Matchi. Companies are invited to respond with a solution that fits any of the SME-focused categories listed below. Balaji Rangachari, head of SME finance at Mahindra Finance, says the challenge is a “step towards finding existing solutions which we can adapt […]
Nucleus Software’s consolidated revenue has moved up for the second quarter of FY 2017 – standing at IND 956 million ($14.8 million) compared to IND 847 million ($12.6 million) in Q2 of the previous year. For the quarter ended 30 September 2016, EBIDTA was IND 141 million ($2.1 million) in comparison to IND 17 million […]
ATMs at some of India’s biggest banks have suffered a malware attack, with around 3.2 million debit cards now at risk. Most of the affected cards belong to HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI) and Yes Bank. The malware potentially means unauthorised individuals can get access to the data on debit cards […]
India-based microfinance entity Ujjivan Financial Services is converting into a small finance bank (SFB), and has signed for Financial Software and Systems’ (FSS) end-to-end payments solution.
Yes Bank, India’s fifth largest in the private sector, has partnered with Lastmile.mobi to introduce the IRIS EMV POS solution. The device allows biometric authentication through iris scanning, and can act as a POS terminal as well as an ATM. Lastmile.mobi provides a cloud-based platform accessible by a biometric enabled mobile device. The solution integrates […]
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 […]
