Latest Innovation News: Finextra Research

Xapo launches bitcoin debit card

Bitcoin startup Xapo has unveiled plans for a debit card that lets users pay with the crypto-currency wherever plastic is accepted.

25 April 2014

News/Innovation

US exchange rows back on commitment to help regulate bitcoin trading platform

The National Stock Exchange (NSX) has moved to play down its relationship with Atlas ATS, insisting that it has not agreed to regulate the bitcoin trading platform.

24 April 2014

News/Innovation

PayPal boss Marcus softens stance on NFC but insists BLE will win out

PayPal chief David Marcus says that the rise of host card emulation has forced him to reevaluate his long-held scepticism about mobile NFC payments, but he still feels bluetooth low energy will be the technology the revolutionises the way we pay.

23 April 2014

News/Innovation

Brits wary of crypto-currency; Nakomoto outed?; bitcoin goes to pot

Despite the hype, the vast majority of Brits have no interest in using bitcoin to shop online, with a lack of trust cited as the main barrier to uptake.

17 April 2014

News/Innovation

Qapital takes PFM to the next phase with proprietary account integration

Swedish financial management start-up Qapital is preparing to launch in the US with a service that enables users to track their spending, set savings goals, and transfer cash to a savings account held by an FDIC-insured banking partner.

17 April 2014

News/Innovation

Pay-by-sleeve: Heritage Bank unveils contactless payments suit

Forget watches and glasses, Aussie bank Heritage thinks it has found the cutting edge of wearable tech - a suit that lets customers make contactless payments through the flick of a sleeve.

17 April 2014

News/Innovation

ANZ chief Smith puts social media at the heart of the bank's future strategy

ANZ chief executive Mike Smith has committed to making social media engagement and digital services a "key business priority" for the Australian bank over the next three years.

16 April 2014

News/Innovation

Twitter acquires social media sentiment tracker Gnip

Twitter has acquired Gnip a provider of aggregated social media content which is used by hedge funds, banks and signal providers to assess market sentiment and conduct analytics.

16 April 2014

News/Innovation

Citi launches block pricing tool on Bloomberg app portal

Citi has become the first broker to use the Bloomberg App Portal to deploy an application to clients around the world.

15 April 2014

News/Innovation

Digital challenger Atom Bank hires chief innovation officer

Atom Bank, the UK-based digital financial services start-up, has hired a chief innovation officer and a deputy director from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

15 April 2014

News/Innovation

Westpac tests fingerprint scanning for mobile banking login

Westpac New Zealand customers will soon be able to log into their mobile banking app using fingerprint scanning.

14 April 2014

News/Innovation

Start-up support seen as critical to future of London fintech scene

The UK must do more to encourage investment in the start-up community if London is to maintain its dominance as a global hub for financial services, according to panelists at an event organised by fintech accelerator Startupbootcamp.

11 April 2014

News/Innovation

Khosla leads all-star investment in small business finance start-up Fundbox

Fundbox, a San Francisco-based start-up that helps business owners fix their cash flow by transferring the amount of outstanding invoices to their bank accounts, has secured a $17.5 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures and featuring an all-star team of private investors, including former Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit, ex-Reuters head Tom Glocer, ISE chairman David Krell, and Jay Mandelbaum, one-time head of strategy and e-commerce at JPMorgan Chase.

10 April 2014

News/Innovation

Innotribe Start-up Challenge semi-finalists to go on display at Finextra Future Money

Fifteen fintech start-ups will pitch their business ideas to an audience of bankers and VCs at the European semi-final of Swift's Innotribe Start-up Challenge, which is taking place at the Finextra Future Money show in Canary Wharf later this month.

10 April 2014

News/Innovation

Birdback launches card-linked offers platform

UK start-up Birdback says hundreds of UK retailers can now link discounts, cashback and loyalty programmes directly to customers' payment cards for offline spending on the high street.

10 April 2014

News/Innovation

Metro Bank founder to launch digital bank; recruits first direct's Mullen

Metro Bank founder Anthony Thomson has recruited first direct chief Mark Mullen to head a new UK digital bank.

09 April 2014

News/Innovation

Royal Canadian Mint ditches MintChip digital currency project

The Royal Canadian Mint has pulled the plug on its MintChip cloud-based digital currency and is looking to offload the business.

07 April 2014

News/Innovation

UK mobile banking transactions double in one year

The UK is in the midst of a technology-led banking revolution as Brits shun branches in favour of their mobile phones, figures from the British Bankers Association show.

31 March 2014

News/Innovation

BBVA and Google launch biz app development competition

BBVA and Google are calling on developers to enter a competition to develop business productivity applications for SMEs and entrepreneurs in Spain and Latin America.

28 March 2014

News/Innovation

Jumio builds bitcoin ID verification system; Stripe tests bitcoin support

Jumio has signed up several bitcoin-related businesses to a scheme which lets users validate their identities by holding up paper ID to the cameras of Web-connected devices.

28 March 2014