Latest Instant Messaging News: Finextra Research

More banks pay multi-million dollar penalties over WhatsApp use

Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas are among the latest banks to be hit with multi-million dollar penalties by US regulators over employee use of unofficial communication tools like WhatsApp and iMessage.

08 August 2023

News/regulation

Communications surveillance outfit VoxSmart raises $12m

London-based communications surveillance group VoxSmart has raised $12 million in funding from existing investors, including ToscaFund.

14 April 2023

News/regulation

SEC WhatsApp crackdown expands to hedge funds

The Securities and Exchange Commission is widening its probe into Wall Street's use of WhatsApp for conducting business to include major hedge funds, according to Bloomberg.

06 February 2023

News/identity

Barclays and Maven invest in Manchester-based fintech startup Nivo

Nivo Solutions, a Manchester-based fintech startup founded by former Barclays' executives, has secured a £1 million investment from Maven Equity Finance, with support from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and Barclays Bank.

22 December 2022

News/regulation

Banks to pay $1bn over traders' use of WhatsApp

A handful of Wall Street banks are preparing to pay up to $200m each to settle a case with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the use of WhatsApp messages.

22 August 2022

News/cloud

Symphony buys voice trading tech supplier Cloud9

Financial communication platform Symphony has acquired New York-based voice trading software supplier Cloud9 Technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

24 June 2021

News/payments

Twitter Tip Jar users cite PayPal privacy concerns hours after rollout

Hours after Twitter announced the new money transfer feature Tip Jar, early testers took to the social media platform to air their concerns over addresses being included in PayPal receipts.

07 May 2021

News/regulation

WhatsApp payment service gets go-ahead for Brazil relaunch

Brazil's central bank has given Facebook-owned WhatsApp the greenlight to relaunch P2P payments in the country - nine months after suspending the service.

01 April 2021

News/startups

Zelf raises $2m for messenger-based neobank

Zelf, a messenger-based neobank targeting Generation Z, has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by 3VC.

25 February 2021

News/regulation

Gleif plans digital service

The body responsible for managing the implementation of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) has announced plans to develop a digital version that can be rolled out across multiple sectors beyond the financial services market.

10 December 2020

News/payments

Real-time payments - seize the momentum at EBAday 2020

Mastercard and ACI Worldwide announced they were partnering to provide a range of global real-time payments solution, aiming to offer “best in class central infrastructure” to banks and other financial solutions.

02 October 2020

News/regulation

Deutsche Bank taps Symphony for WhatsApp client chats

Deutsche Bank is using the Symphony messaging platform to enable staff to securely and compliantly communicate with clients via WhatsApp.

25 June 2020

News/payments

Brazil Central Bank ices Facebook's WhatsApp payment service

The central bank of Brazil has suspended Facebook's WhatsApp payment service within ten days of its roll out, citing competition issues in the mobile payment space.

24 June 2020

News/wholesale

Covid-19 remote working leads to more productive tech teams - survey

Financial services technology teams have increased their productivity while working from home during the Covid-19 lockdown, largely because they have fewer interruptions, suggests a new survey from Digiterre.

18 June 2020

News/payments

Sibos 2019: The new standard for rich, quality payments data

At Sibos 2019, experts from the Bank of England, The Clearing House, European Central Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and BNY Mellon gathered to discuss the transition from MT messages to ISO 20022 by the deadline of November 2021 and how to prepare for the adoption of a common payments and reporting language.

23 September 2019

News/Instant Messaging

Venmo rolls out instant transfers to bank accounts

Hot on the heels of the US Federal Reserve’s real-time payment and settlement system announcement, Venmo has launched a feature that supports instant transfers to US bank accounts.

13 August 2019

News/Instant Messaging

Facebook reveals digital wallet plan

Social media platform Facebook has unveiled further details of its much-anticipated digital currency offering, which it hopes will transform financial services.

18 June 2019

News/Instant Messaging

Wall Street messaging firm Symphony raises $165m

Financial communication platform Symphony has set its sights on an aggressive global expansion after raising $165 million in a funding round joined by Standard Chartered and MUFG Innovation Partners.

13 June 2019

News/Instant Messaging

Innovation driving digital acceleration in Latin America

Swift's Latin American Regional Conference (LARC) explored how banks in the region are looking to increase digitisation, while managing cyber and compliance challenges.

29 May 2019

News/payments

The platform ecology model: A deep dive

Eating the dust of Barclaycard’s partnership with Alipay, Finextra reports on the dominance of Ant Financial and Tencent in China and the emergence of the platform ecology business model in South East Asia, which will be dissected in detail at Money20/20 in Singapore this week.

15 March 2019