Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

UK Budget puts fintech front and centre

The UK Government is to undertake a review of the country's booming fintech scene, promising increased funding and support for the sector in today's Budget statement.

11 March 2020

Company update/devops

Philippines student team wins Finastra’s global hackathon

Finastra has crowned Team ‘WonderTech’ the grand prize winner of its largest ever global fintech hackathon on its open development platform, FusionFabric.cloud.

11 March 2020

Company update/Innovation

MatchMove opens Fintech Academy

MatchMove, Singapore’s-leading digital native Application Programming Interface (API) led ‘Banking-as-a-service’ platform provider, today announced the set-up of the MatchMove FinTech Academy, to offer specialized training programs to students, professionals as well as the silver generation.

11 March 2020

Finextra TV/retail

Facing the challenges around risk regulation and compliance

Paul Adams, International Payments Director, Barclaycard speaks to Hannah Wallace, FinextraTV at Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2020 in Berlin about the importance of driving a common strategy within a business, how to adapt to the increasingly demanding needs of banking customers and the main challenges today around governance, risk and ensuring compliance with internal and external rules, regulations and legislations.

10 March 2020

Company update/Innovation

AIB innovation events go digital in face of Coronavirus epidemic

AIB will now conduct elements of its Future Sparks Festival event online following recent warnings over COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

10 March 2020

News/regulation

Spanish government passes sandbox bill

The Spanish government has approved draft legislation aimed at encouraging the digital transformation of the financial system through the establishment of a regulatory sandbox, where businesses can trial cutting-edge projects with real customers.

10 March 2020

News/inclusion

Quona closes $203m financial inclusion fintech fund

Quona Capital, a venture firm focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets, has closed its second fintech fund with $203 million in commitments, led by anchor investor Accion International.

09 March 2020

Finextra TV/regulation

The challenges of regulation & standards for merchants

Andrew Cregan, Policy Adviser – Payments & Consumer Credit, British Retail Consortium Boris Griesinger, Head of Payment & Finance Projects, HUGO BOSS, speak to FinextraTV's Hannah Wallace at Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2020 in Berlin about the challenges merchants are facing in the payments and retail space today, whether after MIF regulation on interchanges, we need a scheme fee regulation and what the next round of merchant payments innovation will be and where it will come from.

05 March 2020

Company update/startups

OTP Bank collaborating with startups in five countries for third annual programme

OTP Bank’s third Startup Program holds several records, as it is the banking group’s most comprehensive startup collaboration initiative in terms of the number of applying startups, the number of startups selected for pilot projects, and the number of group members participating in the initiative.

04 March 2020

News/Innovation

Pope weighs in on AI ethics debate

The Pontiff is the latest public figure to offer an opinion on the ethics of using artificial intelligence (AI), issuing a set of principles on the use of new technology.

28 February 2020

News/sustainable

The Redsand Group to launch sustainable fintech fund

Founder and managing partner of The Redsand Group, Nicole Anderson, announced in a recent interview with Finextra TV that the group will launch a fund to work with the venture community to support fintech aimed at tackling sustainability across financial services through tools such as blockchain and tokenisation.

27 February 2020

Finextra TV/startups

Thinking Strategically about Innovation

Ad van der Poel, Co-Head of Product GTS, EMEA, Bank of America, speaks to Hannah Wallace, FinextraTV at Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2020 in Berlin about the trends and innovations we are seeing across Europe, from Open Banking and real-time payments to data and regulation. We question at what point the cost of compliance may outweigh the value of innovation, how Bank of America is innovating their payments business and the strategic advice they are giving their customers following these innovations.

26 February 2020

News/Innovation

JPMorgan to pursue M&A strategy in face of Big Tech competition

JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon says the bank will pursue an aggressive M&A strategy to see off the threats posed to its business by Big Tech giants and smaller fintechs.

26 February 2020

Company update/Innovation

Tokyo Stock Exchange starts proof-of-concept testing of Symphony bot

Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. (TSE) uses TDnet to distribute timely disclosure releases from listed companies.

26 February 2020

Finextra TV/payments

The Evolution of Open Banking beyond Europe

Jim Wadsworth, SVP Open Banking at Mastercard spoke to Hannah Wallace, FinextraTV at Merchant Payments Ecosystem 2020 in Berlin about how things have moved on with Open Banking and the part regulation has played moving European intervention along. We learn about the impact innovation and collaboration has had on the merchants payments industry, areas where we are seeing the greatest growth such as India and what progress we are making in areas where cash-based transactions still reign.

26 February 2020

Company update/startups

Rabo Frontier Ventures commits to Speedinvest 3

Rabo Frontier Ventures (“RFV") has committed to Speedinvest’s new fund (Si3). With its latest fund Speedinvest aims to build a portfolio of 80 to 100 investments in European technology startups.

25 February 2020

News/Innovation

Mastercard to recruit 1500 tech staff for new Dublin campus

Mastercard is to create over 1500 jobs in Dublin over the next three-to-five years, with the opening of a new tech campus in Leopardstown.

24 February 2020

Finextra TV/sustainable

The art of Wardley Mapping Sustainable business goals

Mapping Sustainable business goals to a technology strategy is as much art as it is computer science. Matthew Adams Founder at Endjin the brains behind the Ocean Mind story, sat down with Richard Peers to discuss how they help organisations do just that using Wardley Mapping. The two then dive into the detail of the role of data which is so crucial to Sustainable Finance.

20 February 2020

Finextra TV/sustainable

Sound advice on Sustainable Investing

William Armitage, Head of Business Development at Route2, sat down with Richard Peers to discuss Route2’s role advising both corporates and investors. If Sustainable Investing is about understanding the data that informs the value of the underlying asset, then Route2’s 'Total Capital Accounting' approach for evaluating and understanding societal impact and its connection to value creation and value erosion, has to be an approach worth greater consideration. Will talks through one of Route2’s corporate case studies The Crown Estate, and offers fascinating insight into how the many sources of data they consume are advancing their Investor Analytics solution.

20 February 2020

Finextra TV/sustainable

Tipping point to a low carbon world via Sustainable Finance

Nicole Anderson, Founder, Managing Partner of The Redsand Group speaks with Richard Peers about the new fund she is launching, expanding on the green and impact FinTech use cases and ventures she has built over the last 8 years. Nicole expands upon how we are on the tipping point of the most significant innovation imperative facing financial services in its own transition to be the enabler of a low carbon world via Sustainable Finance.

20 February 2020