One of the first rules of basic economics is that incentives matter. Blockchain solutions company Ripple must be privy to this rule as it has unveiled a new accelerator programme and marketing incentives to promote bank interest.
Ohio-based Sutton Bank says it has “married old-fashioned wisdom with cutting-edge fintech” for US businesses and their employees. The resulting product is particularly relevant in today’s “gig economy”.
Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union (NEFCU), a 200,000-member institution in Long Island, US, has launched its Google Home Action and Google Assistant app. The solution is based on the Conversation.one platform.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a guide to assessments of fintech credit institution licence applications.
Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have teamed up to launch an open-source, deep learning library called Gluon which will make machine learning (ML) more accessible to a wider range of developers, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). That will be the key to winning the machine learning race. Not making the most complex and […]
I have had it with the stream of articles about what artificial intelligence (AI) can do. Yes, machine learning works. It is possible to analyse key words, correlate them with other key words, do a massive amount of statistics, and find out some stuff. People cannot do that and computers can. Is this AI?
The State Bank of Mauritius, SBM Group and SALT, creator of a blockchain-backed loan platform, have entered into an exploratory relationship to use blockchain assets as collateral for lending services. SALT, which stands for Secured Automated Lending Technology, says it offers risk mitigation software which allows financial entities, like SBM, to participate in this new […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Colorado-based P2Binvestor (P2Bi), a marketplace lending platform, has unveiled its bank partnership programme to let organisations access capital. Krista Morgan, CEO of P2Binvestor, says it’s “enabling banks to lend to businesses they otherwise wouldn’t be able to due to strict lending standards”. P2Bi’s strategy is to “build a lending relationship with banks at an earlier […]
Whether it’s prepaid card time or financial crime, the world of blockchain and Bitcoin is a lively one. This latest round-up features BitFlyer, Visa, Accuity, R3 and SIA. Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange BitFlyer has unveiled a Visa prepaid card that can be charged with Bitcoin in yen and used throughout Japan. It can be charged via […]
Fintech start-ups are being invited to apply to Accenture’s sixth FinTech Innovation Lab London, a three-month programme offering mentoring and the chance to accelerate business development. Accenture says this year’s lab has introduced a new stream to help regtech start-ups, because banks are “being compelled to open up their customer data and ensure this data […]
Wunderbar! Deutsche Bank has completed internal proofs of concepts (PoCs) with IBM for the deployment of an artificial intelligence (AI) powered Watson cognitive system in the German language. The system will be used in the bank’s Artificial Intelligence Client Communication Centre (AI-C³), and Deutsche Bank says it will use Watson for the development of a […]
Eyes right. US start-up ShiftLeft has emerged from stealth and wants to shift enterprise cloud security strategy from reactive to preventative. Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology‘s sister publication) reports that ShiftLeft is an alternative to finding vulnerabilities and attacks as they crop up and defending against them. Instead, ShiftLeft’s service scans application and microservices source […]
How do you try and become one of the biggest and most influential technology companies in the world? Just move the $15 billion you have stashed away into the R&D business.
Innovative technologies are increasingly sparking enhancements to trade processes. BNY Mellon Treasury Services’ Dominic Broom, global head of trade business development, and Joon Kim, head of global trade product, discuss how the industry – with banks at the helm – can drive forward new capabilities and help to support trade growth through digitalisation.
Fintech firm Ovamba says it is working with Microsoft to create “the first African language driven chatbot designed to serve the millions of African SMEs who face exclusion from financial services due to the challenges of functional and business literacy”.
Salesforce is stepping up its internet of things (IoT) game, launching a low-code service to help enterprises get started using IoT to improve customer relationships.
Linux Foundation, along with its Hyperledger Project, are looking to increase the use of blockchain within the enterprise with the introduction of a training course and certification programme designed for those who want to use the technology.
Dell Technologies is looking to leverage the various parts of the company into a new internet of things (IoT) strategy that focuses on the edge of the network, hyperconverged infrastructure at the middle, cloud computing in the data centre, as well as the end points picking up all the data.
“We’re opening up the Lemonade platform to the world!” says Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade, a US-based insurtech firm.
Microsoft Ventures has partnered with Madrona Venture Group to launch their Innovate.AI global start-up competition as they seek out machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) firms. Madrona says the convergence of cloud computing, specialised chips for machine learning and new advances in algorithms has created a “unique opportunity for start-ups to build high value intelligent […]
IBM is looking to offer big data number crunchers and data scientists a way to add more machine learning and deep learning technology into the analytics process by combining two of the company’s platforms developed specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific research. Enterprise Cloud News (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that two IBM executives, […]
Payment services are all the rage this week, here’s a rundown with this week’s round-up. Featuring Paynear, GoSwiff, BBVA, Omnia Pay and Huawei.
Payments services provider has introduced Centre, an open source project built on blockchain and designed to connect multiple digital wallets to process money transactions.
Luxembourg-headquartered start-up Peer Mountain has unveiled a peer-to-peer self-sovereign identity, compliance and commerce delivery solution as it seeks to exploit the Equifax data breach episode. The firm says it gives users control of their data across blockchain. Consumers can choose who can access the data without the need for third party involvement. Peer Mountain says […]
Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE) has launched a fintech foundation course – Around Fintech in 8 Hours – “designed to give professionals working in the finance industry a solid understanding of how technology is redefining the provision of financial services”.
Mastercard has partnered with the Andhra Pradesh government in India to bring its digital payments into the Fintech Valley Vizag’s smart city plan. Under the agreement, Mastercard will help Andhra Pradesh in its ambitions to be a cashless society and develop the city concept. Mastercard president and CEO Ajay Banga says it can do this […]
Fujitsu will work with Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to conduct a joint field trial of a person-to-person (P2P) money transfer service using blockchain. The trial will begin in January 2018 and last for about three months. Fujitsu says it has already initiated development of the […]
It’s been over a year since I first blogged on the subject of open banking and it is fair to say, mainly driven through the regulatory pressures of PSD2 and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) led UK Open Banking initiative, that across Europe, much progress has been made in moving the banking industry to adopt APIs.
Much of the focus for correspondent bankers at this year’s Sibos will again be Swift’s global payments innovation (gpi) initiative. More than 110 transactions banks from Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Americas have signed up to the initiative, which opened for live payments in January 2017.
Innovate Finance, a UK-based fintech membership association, is seeking start-ups for its latest Pitch360 competition. The contest is open to any start-up in the following sectors: Distributed ledger technology (DLT) Financial inclusion Cybersecurity Cross-border payments Peer-to-peer and alternative funding Regtech Personal finance management and robo-advice Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning Sandboxes The winner will […]
It is true, but might be a bit mean to single out the iLeader, as researchers have put various artificial intelligence (AI) programmes to the test, figuring out what the IQ of each one is. Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports that Liu Feng of Beijing Jiaotong University, Yong Shi from the Chinese Academy of […]
The European Commission (EC) has confirmed its officials carried out unannounced inspections in “a few member states” concerning online access to bank account information by competing service providers. The EC doesn’t name the countries involved, but “according to people familiar with the matter” that spoke to the Financial Times, Poland and the Netherlands are among […]
The UK’s Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) is asking for expressions of interest for the renewal and management of its infrastructure – the services that enable the nation’s 24/7 real-time payment service. This is the first of a three-phase competition for the infrastructure for up to ten years. The renewal will migrate the Faster Payments Service […]
Blockchain funding, Pubcoin blockchain rewards programme, network and technology sharing and platform test launching. Our latest blockchain and Bitcoin round-up features Anryze, Leanpub, MicroMoney, Karma and Zilliqa.
The Bank of England’s (BoE) fintech accelerator has unleashed four new initiatives in the fields of distributed ledger technology (DLT), data storage and analysis, machine learning and cybersecurity. As reported in July, BoE revealed the third stage – such as its work with machine learning Mindbridge AI, DLT darling Ripple, and regtech bouncer Enforcd. Now […]
New technology has been billed as a means to make us more efficient in the work place, but we are actually becoming less productive. So what’s missing from the equation? Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication) reports. The point was made by Joshua Meltzer from the Brookings Institute at the “Nordic Digital Business Summit” in Helsinki. […]
Technology breakthroughs are great things; they present the opportunity for ideas, creativity and innovation. But there is always the risk of enthusiasm running away with itself, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). That was certainly evident at this year’s “Nordic Digital Business Summit”, where internet of things (IoT) was at the top of the agenda. […]
Nacha, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data in the US, and its Payments Innovation Alliance (PIA), have named the first five APIs for their big payments push. The API Standardization Industry Group, created in spring 2017 and sponsored by Nacha’s PIA, is working to further efforts to standardise the use of […]
What countries among the 20 largest economies are adapting quickest to using cashless systems like phones and contactless cards? New research (and nifty infographics) from global trading site Forex Bonuses reveals that Canada takes the top spot, narrowly edging out Sweden for the top position.
