Dynamics’ battery-powered cards hit Japan
Move comes via a partnership with GMO Aozora Net Bank in Tokyo.
Japan
SoftBank mulls stake in insurtech wefox
Bank’s Vision Fund on the prowl again.
Zilliqa and Infoteria pair up to push blockchain DApps
APAC plan to promote adoption of decentralised applications.
SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Paytm make mobile payments mammoth
Smartphone payment service called PayPay. Genius!
Hitachi and KDDI trial biometric payments on blockchain
They aren’t KDDI-ing with their coupon settlement system experiment.
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank goes live with DTCC’s Alert
Becomes the first Japanese global custodian on the database.
Japan revamps regulator for fintech action
The Strategy Development and Management Bureau is born.
Japanese post-pay outfit Paidy picks up $55m funding
Investment led by ITOCHU Corporation, with participation from Goldman Sachs.
AEON and Fujitsu trial biometric payments
Will start in September 2018 in Japan.
Fujitsu fires up five-day blockchain production framework
For customers seeking or refining projects based on DLT.
Tokyo fintech business camp calls for start-ups
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government wants you.
MUFG and Akamai plan new blockchain payments service
Aim to offer new network from fiscal year 2019.
IBM’s quantum computing crusade calls on Japan
Working with MUFG, Mizuho and more.
JCB pilots Japan’s first fingerprint authentication chip card
Teams with Idemia for biometrics and contactless innovation.
Mizuho and IBM develop new AI tech for financial market forecasting
Will use Dynamic Boltzmann Machine to help forecast market trends and volatility.
MUFG wanders over to ExaWizards for magical AI alliance
Plan to conduct development studies of online finance products.
Nomura goes quantum in asset management space
Launches joint research project with Tohoku University in Sendai.
Japan Exchange Group goes live on Cinnober’s clearing and risk solutions
Launches new clearing system for exchange traded derivatives, based on Cinnober’s tech.
Moven lands investment from SBI, ponders bank acquisition
SBI and Moven to set up a joint venture to bring the latter’s tech to Asia and Asia Pacific.
Softbank seeks to steal PayPal’s plunder
A rival digital payments system?
Hackers steal $534m from Coincheck cryptocurrency exchange
But it will compensate more than $423 million to 260,000 users who lost out.
NTT-AT to distribute Trusona ID tech in Japan
Will offer Trusona’s password-less login solution to its enterprise customers across the nation.
JCB tests multipurpose biometric authentication
in collaboration with Universal Robot and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
Cryptocurrency start-up Telcoin courts mobile finance firms
Looking to ride the wave of interest in cryptocurrencies, Telcoin is also hoping to raise funds from an ICO.
Fujitsu and Sensory are the face of biometrics for Mizuho
Fujitsu has teamed with Silicon Valley-based Sensory to provide face biometric authentication for Mizuho’s mobile banking. Mizuho is the first customer of the Fujitsu and Sensory partnership and it will be using TrulySecure. This solution’s features include the option to fuse voice and face biometrics recognition together; and it works with Android, iOS, Linux and […]
Fujitsu to trial blockchain payments with three Japanese banks
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 […]
Saxo Bank Securities in Japan warms to Torstone’s Inferno for regulatory reporting
Japan-based Saxo Bank Securities has selected Torstone Technology’s Inferno to replace its legal ledger and comply with regulatory reporting requirements. It will initially use Inferno to improve its post-trade reporting processes and is looking to add additional features in future unspecified phases. Torstone says Inferno is a modular solution, giving organisations the “opportunity to incrementally […]
Top fintech stories this week – 29 September 2017
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
Japanese banks to launch new national digital currency
A consortium of Japanese banks has confirmed they are to launch a new national digital currency in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. As Banking Technology reported last week, there was talk about plans to establish this currency by 2020. At that time, the name was mooted to be J-Coin. Now, and according to the […]
Japanese regulator and banks plan shared ID system on blockchain
The Financial Services Agency of Japan and some of the nation’s banks are planning to develop a shared identification system on blockchain. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, consumers will be able to open accounts at multiple banks and financial houses without having to re-enter personal information. The first step will see an administrative body […]
Japan embraces fintech’s hard-boiled wonderland
Banks and politicians in Japan are getting ever more energetic for fintech with grand plans for APIs, artificial intelligence (AI), digital currencies, blockchain, funding for start-ups and an easing of regulations. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) will launch a website on Monday (25 September) for makers of smartphone […]
Hitachi creates IoT focused big data company Vantara
When we hear Hitachi two things come to mind; 80s style radio and construction vehicles. This might be a perception the team will want to address as Hitachi enters the internet of things (IoT) world, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology’s sister publication). Combining the capabilities of three separate brands, Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and […]
BitFlyer competes for Japanese Bankers Association’s blockchain experiment attention
Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange BitFlyer has been selected as a partner vendor to provide an experimental environment for the Japanese Bankers Association’s “collaborative blockchain platform”. BitFlyer’s proprietary blockchain technology – Miyabi – will be used and the platform is scheduled to begin operation in October. Miyabi is a private blockchain “exclusively” for enterprise users. The experiment […]
Japanese start-ups fire up in force
The land of the rising sun is seeing a rising number of start-ups power up as they hunt for fintech glory. According to Nikkei Asian Review, 46 tech companies have gone public in Japan so far in 2017, with the full-year total seen reaching 80 to 90. The highest tally in the last decade was […]
Mizuho primes for financial crime with IBM Watson time
Mizuho is testing out new ways of risk management and dealing with financial crime by using IBM Watson’s cognitive technology. The plan is to use the Watson-powered software, which runs on the IBM Cloud, to analyse a range of data sources, including retrieving news sources and extracting data using screening technologies, that were previously done […]
Flywire expands operations in Japan, forms partnership with Volvo
Cross-border payments and receivables platform Flywire (formerly peerTransfer) is marking international growth.
Fujitsu in blockchain-powered payments breakthrough
Fujitsu Laboratories says it has accelerated transaction processing for Hyperledger Fabric, one of the Hyperledger blockchain frameworks hosted by the Linux Foundation. In its latest development, Fujitsu says the processing of communications between applications and the blockchain platform, which had been the source of bottlenecks, is now “more efficient”. In a trial where this technology […]
Softbank gets hard for data-powered AI
“Those who rule chips will rule the entire world. Those who rule data will rule the entire world. That’s what people of the future will say.” The words of Softbank’s founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, who was bigging up his company at a presentation in Tokyo and laying down some future plans that artificial intelligence […]
Payments firm Episode Six expands to Tokyo
Payments software technology provider, Episode Six, is opening an office in Tokyo to meet “the growing demand” for fintech solutions in Asia. The company also announced that payments and finance industry veteran, Oko Okamoto, will oversee Episode Six’s new Tokyo office as general manager. Episode Six, which launched in 2016, offers payments software platform technology […]
Mizuho trials Australia-Japan trade transaction on blockchain
Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, trading and investment firm Marubeni Corporation, and Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance have completed a trade transaction between Australia and Japan using blockchain. The participants say all trade-related processes, from issuing the letter of credit to delivering documents, were completed entirely via a digital platform in this project. (See image below […]
