BankingTech


People on the Move: Jeff Hibbard, Fidor

Fidor, a digital banking solutions provider, has appointed Jeff Hibbard chief product officer. Hibbard’s focus is on driving product innovation for Fidor’s operating system.

Legacy IT is the least of a bank’s problems

A recent Reuters article explored how companies like Cobol Cowboys make a fortune helping banks who struggle to keep their legacy systems running. But in fact, the real problem is not legacy IT, that’s just a symptom of the root problem in banks… the decision makers.

HSBC plots to stop rise of the technophobe

A lack of understanding and trust in technology is stalling mainstream adoption of innovative new fintech services, according to HSBC’s research. The bank’s report, “Trust in Technology”, shows that technologies such as fingerprint recognition, voice recognition and robo-advice “hold enormous potential” for uses from bank security to mobile payments and investment advice. John Flint, global […]

Bank for International Settlements unveils code for special FX

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has unveiled its FX Global Code, a set of global principles promoting good practice in the foreign exchange (FX) market. The code has been developed by a partnership of central banks and market participants from 16 jurisdictions for “integrity and effective functioning”. Many organisations are welcoming the code, such […]

Travelex kills off Supercard

Supercard, a new card and mobile product launched by Travelex and Wirecard last June, is now being sunsetted.

R3 hits jackpot with $107m investment for DLT

Blockchain consortium R3 has completed the first two of three tranches in its Series A fundraising round, securing $107 million in the “world’s largest distributed ledger technology (DLT) investment to date”. The consortia contest is heating up as this handy cash injection follows on from yesterday’s (22 May) announcement from the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) […]

Euronext to acquire FastMatch for FX sake

Pan-European exchange Euronext will acquire about 90% of FastMatch for $153 million as part of its expansion plans in the $5.1 trillion daily foreign exchange (FX) market. FastMatch’s management will retain about 10% interest, with minority rights. Closing is subject to regulatory and anti-trust approvals, and is expected to occur in Q3 2017. Stéphane Boujnah, […]

Swift unveils “first ever” cross-border payments tracker

Corporate treasurers have a moment to treasure as Swift has unveiled its new cross-border payments “Tracker” for real-time tracing. Swift says Tracker is the “cornerstone” of its global payments innovation (gpi) initiative – which went live in February – with the aim to deliver greater speed, transparency and end to end tracking. Tracker provides a […]

Will robotic process automation herald a new digital era in regulatory compliance in banks?

Exploring how the robotic process automation (RPA) powered digital workforce looks to disrupt the manual effort intensive regulatory compliance landscape in BFS, what edge it has over its human counterpart, the roadmap towards RPA driven compliance, challenges in this digitisation journey and success mantras, and innovations that are underway towards building intelligent RPA to replicate human decision-making.

R3 rival Enterprise Ethereum Alliance expands in size

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) has seen a surge of interest in its plans to drive Ethereum blockchain technology best practices with the arrival of 86 new members. New faces include Broadridge, DTCC, Deloitte, Infosys, ​MUFG, National Bank of Canada, Rabobank and Samsung SDS. As Banking Technology reported in March, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Intel, […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 19 May 2017

It was only two days ago since the last blockchain and Bitcoin round-up, but here’s more news to keep you in the loop. Features Ripple, BitGo, Abu Dhabi Global Market, R3 and Corion. Ripple has enjoyed a good start to the year with ten more financial institutions recently jumping onboard its blockchain network; and deals […]

Knowledge economy in financial services: from curator to conductor

Once upon a time, not so long ago, companies tried to generate new business by sending marketing messages to prospective clients by post. Direct or “junk” mail – sending a leaflet or letter to anyone for whom the firm had a job title, street address or postcode – was pretty unsophisticated, often derided as a “scattergun” approach.

Equifax forms new alliance to develop open banking products

Equifax, credit information provider Castlight and Oakbrook Finance, the owners of consumer loan brand Likely Loans, have teamed up to develop new products for the 2018 open banking initiative. Under open banking, Equifax says bank transaction data will play a crucial role in lending decisions. Lenders will have access to real-time and historic account and […]

Sweet sixteen keen on CCRManager’s trade finance platform

Sixteen financial institutions (FIs) are onboard for CCRManager’s new electronic platform, developed for the distribution of trade finance, supply chain finance and working capital assets. Bank of China, DBS Bank, ICICI Bank, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and UniCredit have signed up as members of the platform to support their trade risk distribution businesses. In addition, […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 17 May 2017

The world moves fast, so you need a fast read. A round-up of key events in the blockchain and Bitcoin arena. Featuring Coinsilium Group, SatoshiPay, Aragon, ShapeShift and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Blockchain accelerator Coinsilium Group reveals that SatoshiPay, a “nano-payments” company in which Coinsilium has a 12.08% equity interest, has added PayPal as a new […]

SAP fires up Leonardo platform for digital innovation

SAP has made a raft of announcements (and promises) at its annual Sapphire conference in Orlando, Florida. Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, says the company continues to be committed to its “empathy” strategy unveiled last year and the time is now for “the urgency of action”. The vendor has unveiled its new SAP Leonardo platform […]

White paper: value of commercial cards for banks and their clients

This free white paper provides a structured framework for measuring performance of commercial card programmes across multiple industry sectors, suggests a range of norms for card penetration and usage, and describes the key data points for measurement. It also describes the actions that card issuers could take to maximise value from the programmes they have running: retaining business that is already fruitful, and nurturing business which could be more abundantly fruitful.

HSBC’s virtual platform for business borrowers goes global

HSBC is rolling out its virtual platform for business customers, LinkScreen, across its operations worldwide. The platform is already available in the UK, US and Mexico, with Canada, France and Hong Kong to follow in the coming months.

White paper: beyond data grids – the advantages of in-memory platforms

With the cost of system memory dropping 30% every 12 months, in-memory computing has become the first choice for a variety of workloads within the financial services industry. In-memory computing can provide a lower TCO for data processing systems while providing an unparalleled performance advantage.

Fintech funding round-up: 10 May 2017

Whether it’s blockchain, lending or core banking – everyone likes a bit of cash. Our latest funding round-up – featuring Coinsilium Group, Coindash, Kreditech, PayU and Finxact. Blockchain accelerator Coinsilium Group has completed its investment of $75,000 in Coindash, which is developing a social trading platform for cryptocurrency investors. Coinsilium will also receive an entitlement […]

Will augmented reality transform banking?

There has been a lot of rumour and speculation recently, focused around the news that Apple is working on augmented reality (AR) as its next major product. Last year, we saw how fast the take up of AR could be with the introduction of Pokémon Go that became a massive international cultural phenomenon almost overnight. Banks need to prepare sooner rather than later if they are going to take advantage of AR and not be left behind.

Geezeo puts your reputation on the online

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” The acidic words of American writer Dorothy Parker. But sharp tongues will now come under the scrutiny of a new digital reputation management service. Be nice everyone and form a giant group hug. Geezeo Interactive, the marketing arm of […]

Banks banking on APIs for payments and beyond

Facing increased competition from financial services upstarts and tech firms, banks are doubling down on application programming interfaces (APIs) as a competitive tool, a new report shows. Paybefore (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports that an Aite Group study canvassed product and digital channel managers at Asia-Pacific, European and North American banks, and found that those […]

OpenFin tech for capital markets goes open source

New York-based OpenFin has open sourced its core technology and is giving application developers free access to its operating layer for financial desktop web applications via its OpenFin Community Edition. The firm, which is a provider of HTML5 runtime technology, says the open source project, called Hadouken, will run under an Apache 2.0 licence. It […]

Banking Technology May 2017 issue out now

The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.