Santander says it is the “first” UK bank to introduce blockchain for international payments through a new app. It is currently being rolled out as a staff pilot, with the intention to expand the technology “at a later date”. Sigga Sigurdardottir, head of customer and innovation at Santander, says: “The need for finance has evolved […]
Regulatory reporting software vendor, Lombard Risk, has revealed a loss before tax of £2.2 million in its fiscal year 2015/2016. The loss, for the period ended 31 March 2016, is a contrast to last year’s profit of £2.3 million. As a result of the loss it has suspended its final dividend payment. Adjusted EBITDA (earnings […]
OakNorth says it has become the “first cloud-based bank” in the UK, eight months after launching. The bank, which provides loans of between £1 million to £15 million to “entrepreneurs and fast-growth” businesses, has been working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for six months on policies related to […]
UK start-up Ormsby Street has launched its credit-checking tool CreditHQ in Germany, as part of a new partnership with Deutsche Bank. CreditHQ allows a small business to check the financial health and credit status of any customer or partner and will be available to small business customers of Deutsche Bank. Its German launch is the […]
Poland-based subsidiary of the BNP Paribas group, Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas, is automating its risk management ops with Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX solution. OneSumX will support asset and liability management (ALM), liquidity risk management and funds transfer pricing (FTP) at Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas. The parties already have a long-standing relationship – BNP Paribas has been […]
Financial systems vendor Infosys has been awarded a five-year contract with Commerzbank to remodel its investment banking IT architecture. Along with the remodel, Infosys will improve IT processes and evaluate a potential post-trade processing utility. The later would then “focus on the clustering of trade processing platforms across various product types”. Stephan Müller, group CIO, […]
Advanced Payment Solutions (trading as APS Financial) has secured a credit licence from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This development allows APS to carry out consumer credit lending (including high-cost short-term credit lending) to its customer base of micro SMEs, sole traders and consumers. Rich Wagner, CEO and founder, APS Financial, says: “This credit […]
Anadolubank Nederland, a subsidiary of Anadolubank Turkey, has chosen AxiomSL’s XBRL solution to submit a range of regulatory reports to country’s central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). The project follows the DNB’s decision to align with other European central banks by mandating the use of XBRL for European Banking Authority (EBA) regulatory submissions. Anadolubank Nederland […]
Financial services and technology company Wirecard has reported consolidated revenues of €210.5 million in the first quarter of 2016, a rise of 32% on €159.4 million in Q1 2015. For the period ending 31 March 2016, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 34.6% to €62 million. For the same period last […]
Germany-based subsidiary of Turkey’s banking group, Isbank, has migrated to a new core banking system, Avaloq Banking Suite. The system supplier, Avaloq, is known as a private banking and wealth management specialist, but the Isbank project is the first for the vendor in the retail/corporate banking space outside its home market of Switzerland. Isbank selected […]
Android Pay is now available in the UK, and more countries are on the way. Banking Technology first reported on this initiative in March this year. UK consumers can now pay for goods and services with their Android smartphones. Retailers like Boots, Waitrose and Starbucks are already onboard, and so is Transport for London (underground, […]
Russia’s banking giant, Sberbank, has unveiled a new digital product, Sberbank Messenger – a communication platform for users to interact with friends and colleagues as well as with services providers, shops and businesses. It can be a person-to-person communication or by using artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The solution will be in beta testing later this […]
HSBC is to cut 850 information technology jobs in the UK today (16 May), the first stage of its restructuring plan that will see 8,000 British jobs terminated by the end of 2017. The employees are based in London, Sheffield, Leeds and Birmingham and all the jobs will disappear by the end of this year, […]
With so many new banks trying to muscle into the UK banking sector, spurred on by the reduced barriers to entry and calls for competition, Banking Technology wonders: will this boom be followed by a bust? In the meantime, make hay whilst the sun shines! Here is our guide to who’s who in the UK […]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is planning to cut around 200 more jobs at its UK retail bank, according to sources close to the development. The latest round of job cuts follows the announcement last month that 600 jobs were to go in the UK. Rob MacGregor, national officer at the Unite trade union, says: […]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is powering its new Open Experience centre with Red Hat technologies, including the Red Hat Mobile Application Platform and OpenShift Enterprise, Red Hat’s web-scale container application platform. Open Experience was launched by RBS in February at its HQ in Edinburgh (UK) to pursue “innovative new technologies for the bank and […]
Barclays is providing £1 million in funding to UK-based AccessPay to support its growth and further develop their relationship. Access Systems (trading as AccessPay) provides a cloud-based connectivity layer between a business’s finance systems, their banks and “all of the major” UK and international payment networks such as BACS, Swift, SEPA, Faster Payments and Direct […]
Nordea says it will be the “first” bank in Finland to offer its customers an equity-based crowdfunding service. It has developed an online crowdfunding platform that will match entrepreneurs seeking financing with investors; and will be linked to a book-entry system. The service will be launched in the next few months. The bank says the […]
There’s a devilish amount of detail in the Payment Services Directive II (PSD II) and those responsible for implementing its requirements at financial institutions are only just now beginning to realise it. At last month’s Swift business forum in London, Emily Reid, partner at law firm Hogan Lovells, joked that payments regulation was a “growth […]
UK-based Metro Bank will roll out Glory Global Solutions’ Vertera 6G teller cash recyclers (TCRs) across the bank’s new locations as well as replace older technology in existing outlets. Metro Bank will set up a number of new branches in the course of 2016 and 2017. The bank, which opened for business in 2010, currently has […]
Banque de France and Banco de España are running late with their implementation of a new treasury and capital markets (TCM) system, Banking Technology understands. The two banks jointly opted for a new solution in 2013/14. It is understood that Calypso was chosen to replace a host of legacy technology, including Wallstreet Suite from Wall […]
Coventry Building Society is working with a credit risk analytics firm, Jaywing, to meet the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 9 modelling requirements. The UK-based building society has recruited Jaywing ahead of the 1 January 2018 deadline to meet the new guidelines. Initial work is already underway, says Jaywing, and a prototype model for one […]
San-Francisco based RocketSpace, with the support of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), plans to open a campus in London, designed specifically for “high-growth” tech start-ups. The campus, located near Angel tube station, will initially hold up to 1,500 members at its opening in early 2017. Duncan Logan, RocketSpace’s founder and CEO, says: “Creating a physical […]
UK-based financial services vendor Perception is building a new comprehensive platform for credit unions, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), loan companies and start-up banks. The solution aims to cover loans, savings, mortgages and current account business lines, front-to-back office. Be different, make a difference Perception has identified the gap in the market that it feels […]
First Global Trust Bank (FGTB) is a new name on the UK banking scene. The bank has recently been granted an “authorisation with restriction” licence to take deposits by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The London-based company was originally set up under the name of Llamabrook in 2011. It became FGTB in March this year […]
Frankfurt-based DZ Bank has acquired a 25% share interest in the Hamburg receivables auction platform TrustBills. This is the bank’s first strategic investment in fintech within the corporate customer business. The amount invested has not been disclosed. TrustBills, a start-up founded in 2015, is an electronic marketplace for selling international receivables of companies to institutional […]
UK challenger bank, Atom Bank, has added another solution to its burgeoning IT architecture. This is a lending system from domestic specialist provider Phoebus Software, Banking Technology understands. The bank has just launched, but is yet to launch a fully-fledged mobile app. The app is yet to be available on Android. Meanwhile, the iOS app […]
London-based Persia International Bank is replacing its legacy trade finance system, supplied by Surecomp. The new system is Eximbills, provided by Surecomp’s rival, China Systems. Surecomp’s product, IBSNet, has been running at the bank’s London and Dubai locations for over 15 years. It is integrated with the bank’s long-standing core banking platform, Misys’ Bankmaster. It […]
The new core banking platform, Aurius, supplied by UK-based fintech vendor Sword Apak, has ousted Misys’ Bankmaster at Julian Hodge Bank. Aurius is now fully live at this privately-owned bank in Cardiff, Banking Technology understands. The implementation started in spring 2014 and was initially expected to last 12 months. However, in reality the project took twice as […]
Deloitte UK’s blockchain team has launched a “smart identity” prototype at the Consensus blockchain conference in New York. The solution will allow users to create a universal digital identity powered by blockchain. It is at the proof of concept stage and Deloitte wants to work with other businesses (in all sectors) to develop it further. […]
Lloyds Commercial Finance (LCF) has implemented 3i Infotech‘s Kastle Onboarding Solution, a credit approval application. The software has been rolled out at LCF’s 12 regional centres across the UK as it looks to “maintain and grow its market share” in the commercial finance segment. India-based 3i Infotech calls the deal a “breakthrough win” in the […]
VocaLink, the payment systems provider, has signed a five-year deal to provide “exclusive” processing for the LINK ATM network. The deal is the UK’s largest ever ATM processing deal and is expected to deliver over 16 billion transactions. Under the five-year contract with LINK Scheme and its 38 members, VocaLink will provide ATM switching and […]
UK-based Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank – which together form CYBG – have launched a new digital banking platform, as CYBG gets ready to become a standalone challenger bank. The new platform is called “B” and CYBG teamed up with proposition design consultancy Market Gravity to design and launch the new service. Debbie Crosbie, COO […]
With the takeover of BSI by rival EFG International, Switzerland will see the creation of the country’s fifth largest private bank. Banking Technology looks at the IT implications, and the winners and losers of the deal. EFG is buying BSI from Brazil’s troubled Grupo BTG Pactual for CHF 1.33 billion ($1.38 billion). In its turn, […]
C Hoare & Co, Britain’s oldest bank (and the fourth oldest in the world), is modernising its front-end operations with Backbase, a specialist provider of omnichannel banking software. London-based C Hoare was founded in 1672 by Sir Richard Hoare and remains family-owned and run today. It focuses on private banking and investment management. It employs around […]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is likely to miss the set deadline to spin off its Williams & Glyn’s (W&G) subsidiary – and the technology issues are to blame. W&G has been dormant for a few decades (RBS absorbed it in the mid-1980s). It was originally set to be revived and re-launched in 2015 by […]
A new mobile banking service in Denmark, Lunar Way, is gearing up for launch as it has secured a local partner, Københavns Andelskasse (Copenhagen Cooperative Bank). Lunar Way is itself not a bank, but is a provider of digital financial services, similar to Simple or Moven. Its model is to partner with established banks (that have […]
Russia-based Sberbank has implemented Wolters Kluwer’s risk management solution, OneSumX, to streamline its treasury operations. OneSumX will enable the bank to perform dynamic simulation, market risk analysis and liquidity risk analysis, says the vendor. There was an extensive system selection, says Wolters Kluwer, with around 30 providers on the long list. Andrey Prudnikov, treasury director […]
UK-based Liontrust Asset Management has gone live on Eze Software Group’s OMS (order management system) and portfolio accounting solutions, implementing a front-to-back office workflow to replace its in-house systems. Eze Software Group says its investment software suite was chosen after a “rigorous and lengthy” selection process involving a number of unnamed vendors. Liontrust, which has […]
UK-based CRM solutions provider Wealth Dynamix has launched WDX ONE, a cloud-based framework for wealth and investment managers. WDX ONE is targeted at small to mid-market firms, and Wealth Dynamix says it cuts implementation costs by over 60%. Groupe Financiere Hottinger (GFH), a London-based portfolio management and financial advisory service, is one of the first […]
