Latest Innovation News: Finextra Research

Fintech funds move to collaborators as NY$ overtakes Silicon Valley

New York topped Silicon Valley for fintech venture funding for the first time in Q1 2016, raking in $690 million in investment flows compared to $511 million from the San Francisco Bay area.

23 June 2016

News/Innovation

ABN Amro taps WhatsApp for payments

ABN Amro is using popular messaging service WhatsApp as a payments request channel, providing a direct link between customer mobile payment apps and WhatsApp contact lists.

23 June 2016

News/Innovation

Circle comes to China on back of $60 million funding round

Social payments app Circle has scored $60 million in financing from a syndicate of major Chinese investors and formed a new Beijing-based company, Circle China.

23 June 2016

News/Innovation

You can now get a fintech MBA at NYU Stern

Aspiring entrepreneurs looking to gain an edge in the digital banking jobs market can now enroll in a fintech MBA course at New York University Stern School of Business.

23 June 2016

News/Innovation

Marketplace lending and distributed ledgers pose threats to financial stability - FSOC

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has zoned in on marketplace lending and distributed ledger technology as emerging threats to the safe operation of financial markets.

22 June 2016

News/Innovation

Santander investment fund buys stake in digital ID firm Socure

Santander InnoVentures, the fintech venture capital fund of the Spanish banking group, has taken an undisclosed stake in New York-based digital identity startup Socure, growing its portfolio of fintech partnerships to nine companies since launch in 2014.

22 June 2016

News/Innovation

Capital One UK hires Silicon Valley veteran as head of design

Capital One UK is following in the footsteps of its US office by appointing a Silicon Valley veteran to a newly-created position as head of design.

22 June 2016

News/Innovation

BNP Paribas apoints custody and clearing head to lead new innovation lab

BNP Paribas Securities Services has set up a 20-person innovation and digital lab (I&D Lab) staffed by industry veterans to focus on the use of big data and distributed ledger technologies and potential investment oppotunities in the fintech sector.

22 June 2016

News/Innovation

Euroclear explores use of blockchain in London gold markets

Euroclear is exploring the potential of using blockchain technology to create a next generation settlement service for the London gold market.

22 June 2016

News/Innovation

French firms to build post-trade blockchain infrastructure for SMEs

BNP Paribas Securities Services, Euronext and Société Générale are among the members of a seven-strong consortium that has banded together to investigate the development of a post-trade blockchain infrastructure for SMEs in Europe.

21 June 2016

News/Innovation

Brexit fears haunt UK fintech

If Britain votes to leave the European Union on Thursday the consequences for the country's thriving fintech sector will be "catastrophic", prompting an exodus of companies and costing the economy some $5 billion over the course of the next five years, claims a report from consultancy William Garrity Associates.

21 June 2016

News/Innovation

Loot targets millennial segment with £1.5 million fund raise

Loot, a UK startup that offers a pre-paid card and smart budgeting app to University students, is opening the service to millennials more generally, after scooping £1.5 million in funding from Speedinvest and Global Founders Capital.

21 June 2016

News/Innovation

Deutsche Bourse sets up fintech venture fund

Deutsche Bourse is to set up a dedicated fintech venture fund, DB1, to invest in early to growth stage companies operating in the capital markets arena.

21 June 2016

News/Innovation

Brits expect cashless society within 20 years

More than two thirds of Brits and three quarters of Londoners think that cash will be a thing of the past in just 20 years, according to a survey.

21 June 2016

News/Innovation

iZettle makes cashless payments childs play

Swedish mPOS firm iZettle is teaching the entrepreneurs of tomorrow how to run a cashless business by connecting its Chip and PIN card reader to a toy Ikea cash register.

20 June 2016

News/Innovation

Bank IT spending in mature Asian markets to hit $22 billion

IT spending by banking and securities firms in the mature Asia/Pacific region will reach $22 billion dollars in 2016, a 0.47 percent increase from 2015, according to Gartner.

20 June 2016

News/Innovation

Maher Arar bids to bring charitable giving to millennials

Before he became famous as a victim of extraordinary rendition and torture, Maher Arar was an entrepreneur. Now, informed by both experiences, the dual Canadian-Syrian citizen is aiming to bring charitable giving to millennials and into the 21st century.

20 June 2016

News/Innovation

ZayZoon bids to upend payday lending market

ZayZoon, a Canadian startup promising to take on the payday lending industry through an app that lets workers borrow money and then have it automatically paid back through their paycheques, has won the Fintech Cup and $20,000 at the Payments Panorama conference.

20 June 2016

News/Innovation

Clamour for open access to UK payment systems grows louder

The provision of open access to UK payments systems is seen as a critical enabler for innovation in the financial services sector, but challenges over funding and the achievement of consensus among competing industry participants may stymie progress, says Payments UK in a new report.

17 June 2016

News/Innovation

Singaporean and Australian watchdogs sign fintech pact

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and Australia's Securities and Investment Commission have signed a reciprocal agreement to help speed the licensing process for fintech startups looking to enter each territory.

17 June 2016