Amsterdam-based banking software vendor Ohpen has signed a long-term outsourcing agreement with Dutch state-owned bank SNS to deliver its business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions to support the investment propositions of ASN Bank, BLG Wonen, RegioBank and SNS. The services, underpinned by Ohpen’s Microsoft.Net-based core banking platform, will start by the end of 2017. Ohpen CCO […]
Fintech start-up Taplend has launched in the UK offering a combination of peer-to-peer (P2P) and payday lending. Viktor Ihnatiuk, CEO and co-founder of Taplend, says: “This was a very long, hard and interesting year. We made three iterations of the product, tried to enter the US market twice and failed. We didn’t give up, switched […]
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a new availability zone in London which indicates all is not well in the UK following Brexit, reports Jamie Davies at Telecoms.com. The new data centre creates the 16th availability zone worldwide for the public cloud leader, and is the first available in the UK. To date, customers in the […]
UK-based International Property Securities Exchange (IPSX) is waiting for approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and has signed for new trading tech from Cinnober. IPSX describes itself as “the world’s first regulated stock exchange dedicated to trading of commercial property securities”. It needs a recognised investment exchange (RIE) licence from FCA to be able […]
ACI Worldwide has been named by EBA Clearing as one of the “frontrunner service providers” for the pan-European EBA SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme (SCT Inst), due to go live in November 2017. The scheme will enable consumers and businesses to make euro credit transfers in real-time between accounts across an international area that will […]
Italy’s largest bank UniCredit plans to raise €13 billion and axe 14,000 jobs over the next two years as it looks to get its finances in order. Along with the job cuts, which amount to about 11% of its workforce, UniCredit will shut down about 25% of its 3,800 branches. It also aims to use […]
Innovate Finance, a UK-based fintech membership association, has unveiled its first ever start-up competition, Pitch360. Open to applicants from around the world, Pitch360 offers a 360-second (six minute) pitch of a new business and product in front of a live audience of influencers, investors and media professionals as well as access to Innovate Finance’s member […]
UK-based challenger bank Metro Bank has moved its IT infrastructure to a Rackspace managed cloud solution. Rackspace says this has reduced the bank’s close-of-business processing time by 50% and report production time by two-thirds.
Wyelands Bank (formerly Tungsten Bank) is relaunching in 2017 with a new core banking system.
Cater Allen, a London-based private bank and a subsidiary of Santander, has completed “the discovery phase” of the project with Temenos to overhaul its core banking software.
Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) is implementing Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX regulatory reporting software for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 reporting.
AnaCap Financial Partners, a UK-based private equity firm, is set to acquire Barclays’ French retail banking business, life insurance business, wealth and investment management and brokerage operations.
Banque de France’s banking services department has embarked on a major technology overhaul programme. It will work with a domestic software provider on this project, Sopra Banking Software, which is part of the Sopra Steria group.
UK-based Coventry Building Society is believed to have embarked on a tech modernisation project and is looking for a new core system.
India-based core banking tech provider TCS Financial Solutions has gained its third live site among the UK credit unions for its Bancs core banking system, London Mutual Credit Union.
Private & Commercial Finance Group (PCFG) has received its banking licence from the UK regulators. It is now authorised with restrictions as a bank and enters into a mobilisation period of up to 12 months.
Germany-based mobile bank N26 is taking its business fully across 17 European countries, including Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Slovakia. Until now, some of these locations were in the “soft launch” phase.
A UK-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, Folk2Folk, has received full authorisation from Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
UK-based Metro Bank says it has become the first high street bank to join the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) since its launch.
Bank of Lithuania, the country’s central bank and regulator, promises to provide preliminary answers to financial institution licence enquiries within one week, “the fastest turnaround in the EU”.
Alipay, one of the world’s largest online and mobile payment platforms, has inked deals with BNP Paribas, Barclays, UniCredit, and SIX Payment Services to drive the European expansion.
LandlordInvest, a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform for buy-to-let and bridging loans, has gained full authorisation from the UK regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Hackers have stolen RUB 2 billion ($31.4 million) from correspondent bank accounts at Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Mastercard has teamed with Verifone to roll out a new instalment pay application at retailers across the UK. Called Mastercard Instalments, it is designed for shopping online or in-store, and cardholders can choose their instalment option upon checking out. For example, when purchasing a new TV or flight, customers could repay it in fixed instalments. […]
Customers of Valartis Bank in Liechtenstein are being held to ransom by hackers, according to German tabloid Bild. The blackmailers are demanding 10% of their account balances in Bitcoin or the customers face their personal details being sent to the media and financial watchdogs. An unusual threat but the hackers might feel the bank’s customers, […]
The UK’s Royal Mint will issue Royal Mint Gold (RMG) in mid-2017, a blockchain based digital record of ownership for gold stored at its bullion vault storage facility. CME Group, a derivatives marketplace, will develop, implement and operate the product’s digital trading platform which will see gold traded on an exchange using blockchain. The Royal […]
The European Payments Council (EPC) has unveiled its Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme. European payment service providers (PSPs) now have one year to get ready to process the first SCT Inst transactions in November 2017. Javier Santamaría, chair of the EPC, says the launch is a “new era in […]
Virgin Money has signed a long-term deal with TSYS for debit card processing in the UK. The bank is already using the payments vendor’s TS2 solution for its credit card operations.
Stockholm Fintech Hub – an independent not-for-profit innovation hub – will open its doors in Q1 2017. Its aim is to promote and accelerate the development of fintech, insurtech and regtech start-ups.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has failed a Bank of England (BoE) stress test on how it would cope with another financial crisis. Two other banks – Barclays and Standard Chartered – also failed on some measures but do not have to submit revised capital raising plans. The tests were put in place by BoE […]
Payments Strategy Forum, the first industry-wide initiative of its kind in the UK, has unveiled a new strategy for the country’s payments industry. The Forum was created by the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in March 2015 and is tasked with planning the future of the payments sector. Last year, the current UK payment systems […]
ING is pulling a plug on its peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments app, Twyp, in the Netherlands due to the lack of customer uptake. However, the app will continue to function in Spain.
Germany’s central bank Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutsche Börse have unveiled a functional prototype for the blockchain technology-based settlement of securities. It is, however, “purely a conceptual study” and “is far from being market-ready”.
New UK retail challenger bank, Masthaven, has launched – offering savings and lending products. As Banking Technology reported in April, Masthaven got its UK banking licence and implemented a new core system. A domestic vendor, DPR Consulting, is providing its front-to-back office retail banking platform. The software itself is a new development, with Masthaven being […]
EY Switzerland says it will become the first consulting firm to accept Bitcoin for its services. The company says from January 2017 it will be possible to pay invoices from EY Switzerland in Bitcoin. Employees will receive a digital wallet; and a Bitcoin ATM will be put into operation in its main building in Zurich […]
Barclays has unveiled a new online direct investing service to let its customers view their investments, savings and current accounts in one place through a single log-in. The bank says it has introduced a new fee structure, which is “free from hidden charges”. There is one fee and one transaction charge – and common charges […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is calling for the second group of applicants to its regulatory sandbox. As Banking Technology reported last year, the sandbox allows businesses to test out new products and services without “incurring the normal regulatory consequences”. The move is part of the FCA’s Project Innovate, which aims to boost competition […]
The wealth management industry needs to shake off its “cottage industry” mentality of the past and realise that it is “do or die” in the push to digital. This was one of the key messages from yesterday’s (24 November) Objectway International Customer Conference in Amsterdam – a one-day event of presentations and insight from the […]
Macif Group is revamping its investment administration and accounting tech, and has selected NeoXam to assist with the project. It will help implement the new software and will also host it.
