Latest Innovation News: Finextra Research

Big banks join coalition to promote Ethereum uptake

A new Alliance to promote the uptake of Ethereum as the foundation for running smart contracts in Fortune 500 enterprises is set to host its inaugural meeting in New York next week.

21 February 2017

News/Innovation

Visa opens London innovation centre

Visa has opened its largest innovation centre to date in London, with the aim of hosting partners and clients from across Europe to collaborate on new ways to pay.

21 February 2017

News/Innovation

Russian banks co-operate on fintech accelerator

Four Russian banks are working in collaboration with MasterCard and Accenture to run a fintech lab and accelerator to engage with local startups and foster a co-operative spirit in the development of new banking products and services.

21 February 2017

News/Innovation

RBS to become fintech fund and high street outlet for challenger banks under HMT remedy

The UK Government is proposing a package of measures worth £750 million which would transform state-owned RBS into a gateway for challenger bank access to the high street and small and medium-sized business market.

20 February 2017

News/Innovation

QR code-based payment initiative rolls out in India

A government sponsored quick response(QR)code-based payment service, IndiaQR, has launched today in India, heralding the next major step in its ambition to be a cashless society.

20 February 2017

News/Innovation

Asia catching US in value of fintech deals

Venture capital investment in Asia-based fintech start-ups reached $5.4 billion in 2016 just shy of the $5.5 billion invested in the US.

20 February 2017

News/Innovation

DBS launches hackathon to identify top coding talent

Singapore's DBS is to run a coding challenge and hackathon to identify fresh talent and fill 100 new developer jobs.

20 February 2017

News/Innovation

Robo-advisor 'Chloe' launches in Japan

Hong Kong-based social trading startup 8 Securities has launched a mobile-only robo-adisory service targeting the millennial generation that constructs portfolios with exchange traded funds (ETFs) listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

17 February 2017

News/Innovation

Suits you sir: Contactless mirrors come to the fitting room

Shoppers will soon be able to pay for items directly from the fitting room by tapping their NFC-equipped mobile phones at a virtual checkout located on a contactless mirror developed by San Francisco innovation outfit Oak Labs.

17 February 2017

News/Innovation

Registration opens for EBAday 2017

Registration has opened for EBAday 2017, Europe's pre-eminent payments conference and exhibition, which will be staged this year in Dublin.

17 February 2017

News/Innovation

IBM and Visa join forces to turn billions of connected devices into points of sale

IBM has struck a deal with Visa which will give all of Big Blue's Watson IoT platform customers access to the card giant's payment services, potentially turning billions of cars, fridges, sneakers and other connected devices into points of sale.

16 February 2017

News/Innovation

ING sets up transformation 'war room'

Dutch bank ING has set up a transformation 'war room' to speed up communication and decision-making and provide a global overview of its progress to becoming a digital bank.

16 February 2017

News/Innovation

Kevin the bot uses blockchain to offer insurance for P2P transactions

Madrid-based online reputation startup Traity has launched a chatbot that uses an "open blockchain balance sheet" to provide micro-insurance for people carrying out P2P transactions

16 February 2017

News/Innovation

Nesta launches £5 million Open API challenge

UK innovation agency Nesta has launched a £5 million prize fund to inspire the creation of new products and services using Open Banking APIs.

15 February 2017

News/Innovation

Jaguar embeds payments into digital dashboard

New Jaguar owners can now use their car’s touchscreen to pay for fuel at Shell service stations in the UK using PayPal or Apple Pay.

15 February 2017

News/Innovation

Exclusive: SolarisBank eyes EUR30m in Series B funding round

German Banking-as-a-Platform (BaaP) startup solarisBank is in the process of raising EUR30 million in a Series B funding round as it gears up to go live with a host of fintech firm partners, Finextra understands.

15 February 2017

News/Innovation

The fintech effect: Banks buy in to benefits of boosting financial well-being

Fintech startups are setting new standards for customer control and experience, forcing high street banks to up their game, says UK charity the Fairbanking Foundation.

15 February 2017

News/Innovation

BBVA seeks new model for low interest rate banking

BBVA is offering a €10,000 cash incentive to participants in a contest to discover a new model for banking in a low interest rate environment.

14 February 2017

News/Innovation

Financial services firms warming to DevOps

Financial services organisations are adopting DevOps approaches faster and with more decisiveness than other industries as they bid to head off competition from an encroaching army of nimble startups, according to research from Vanson Bourne.

14 February 2017

News/Innovation

TrueLayer unveils API platform to connect banks and developers

Promising to bridge the divide between financial institutions and developers, UK startup TrueLayer has launched the private beta of its API platform for accessing bank data.

14 February 2017