Latest Innovation News: Finextra Research

Sbanken opens developer portal and invites customers to build their own digital bank

Norway's Sbanken has opened a developer portal through which customers can use a host of open APIs to build their own digital banking platforms, with the best efforts winning cash prizes.

19 January 2018

News/Innovation

Citi Ventures taps into student talent though universities programme

Citi has launched a programme that embeds students from leading universities into its innovation efforts, enabling participants to earn course credit for work with the bank on emerging technologies such as machine learning and big data analytics.

18 January 2018

News/Innovation

Westpac and NAB connect with Amazon Alexa

Westpac and NAB have joined the voice commerce goldrush, enabling customers to connect their Internet baking accounts to Amazon's Alexa, which has finally gotten its first outing in Australia.

18 January 2018

News/Innovation

BB&T creates $50 million fintech investment fund

US bank holding company BB&T is to set aside $50 million to invest in and acquire emerging digital technology companies in an effort to raise its competitive profile and drive down costs.

17 January 2018

News/Innovation

Standard Chartered establishes fintech innovation and investment unit

Standard Chartered has created a new business unit, SC Ventures, to invest in promising fintech startups and accelerate innovation initiatives across the group.

17 January 2018

News/Innovation

BofA leads on blockchain patents

Bank of America has filed for or received more blockchain-related patents in the US than any other firm, beating out Mastercard and IBM for the top spot, according to research from law firm EnvisionIP.

17 January 2018

News/Innovation

Swift recruits CSDs for DLT post trade plans

Banking cooperative Swift has signed an MoU with seven central securities depositaries (CSDs) to explore how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can be used to improve post-trade processes such as corporate actions, proxy voting and trade processing.

16 January 2018

News/Innovation

China regulator says fintech must serve real economy

One of China's senior financial regulators has stated that the government will only support fintechs that serve the real economy, casting further doubt on the future of virtual currencies and related technologies within China.

16 January 2018

News/Innovation

Erste Group brings PSD2-ready digital platform to Slovakia

Having racked up nearly two million users in Austria and the Czech Republic, Erste Group is rolling out its PSD2-ready digital banking platform, George, in Slovakia.

15 January 2018

News/Innovation

Europe begins Open Banking era in subdued style

The EU's second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) took effect on Saturday 13 January, bringing with it the start of Open Banking, however the prospect of a sudden revolution is likely to be thwarted by unresolved technical and regulatory issues and a lukewarm reception from consumers.

15 January 2018

News/Innovation

Russia bids for blockchain success with latest banking launch

The largest commercial bank in Russia, Alfa Bank, is developing a new digital cash service where all transactions will be transmitted and cleared via the blockchain.

15 January 2018

News/Innovation

Wells Fargo to close 900 branches

As it books a $3.25 billion fourth quarter pre-tax charge related to the misselling scandal, Wells Fargo says it plans to make savings by closing around 900 branches by 2020.

12 January 2018

News/Innovation

FinTech Scotland appoints new CEO

The industry body set up to promote the fintech sector in Scotland has named Stephen Ingledew as its first chief executive.

12 January 2018

News/Innovation

Crypto mining threatened by power capacity concerns

The craze for cryptocurrency mining is putting increasing strain on electrical grids, raising concerns about capacity around the world and the prospect of a migration of coin mining operators to new jurisdictions.

12 January 2018

News/Innovation

MoneyGram trials Ripple's XRP digital currency

Shares in MoneyGram gained on Thursday on news that the old-school money transfer player has teamed up with Ripple to pilot the blockchain startup's XRP digital currency in its payments flows.

11 January 2018

News/Innovation

Exchanges call for global fintech standards

As new technologies such as AI and DLT transform the capital markets landscape, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) has called on regulators to hold new fintech entrants to the same standards as established players.

11 January 2018

News/Innovation

Buffett rubbishes cryptocurrencies; South Korea preps exchange crackdown

Warren Buffett, arguably the world's most successful and respected investor, has issued a scathing assessment of cryptocurrencies and predicted a "bad ending" for the current bitcoin boom.

11 January 2018

News/Innovation

SETL goes live with blockchain funds platform

SETL, a blockchain-based settlement system for the investment funds industry, has gone live with its pan-European funds record keeping platform IZNES having successfully processed its first transactions.

11 January 2018

News/Innovation

TD Bank buys Toronto AI outfit Layer 6

Toronto-Dominion Bank has acquired Canadian Artificial Intelligence startup Layer 6 in a deal reportedly worth more than US$100 million.

10 January 2018

News/Innovation

Kodak announces blockchain plan, share price soars

Photo firm Kodak has announced plans to develop its own cryptocurrency, KodakCoin, which it says will help photographers to control their image rights via a distributed ledger.

10 January 2018