Market News

IBM spinoff Senzing has launched an instant and affordable crime fighting application for Fintech based on artificial intelligence. The artificial intelligence (AI) software vendor claims its new eponymously named Senzing system is ‘plug and play’ and can be quickly installed in a data store and will immediately begin to spot false identities and networks. Though its product is complex, being a self-learning and self-correcting algorithm with human reasoning skills,...Read More

London based Pipster claims it will be the world’s first bitcoin trading app with a target market of millennials when it launches in August. The artificially intelligent system was built in 2017 by Finatext UK, a subsidiary of Japanese parent Finatext Ltd, one of Japan’s largest and most successful fintech companies. Pipster is working in collaboration with Z.com Trade, part of Japan’s online brokerage giant, GMO Click Securities. The...Read More

Security experts are predicting that cryptocurrencies could soon deteriorate into curruptocurrencies, thanks to the lack of standards, compliance and security disciplines. Even the name of the electronic currency is a misnomer, according to Ofer Israeli financial cybersecurity expert and CEO of Illusive Networks. The word crypt, from the latin orLatin, refers to something hidden and secretive. The world’s cryptocurrencies are wide open, according to Israeli. “It’s no wonder that cryptocurrency...Read More

A new cryptocurrency called Dash is being introduced to Venezuela in a bid to avert the crippling effects of its stagnating economy. Oil-rich Venezuela is suffering one of the world’s worst economic depressions. Since 2008, Venezuela has experienced spiralling recession with skyrocketing hyperinflation rates averaging over 13,000%. Venezuelan citizens cannot rely on the national currency for a stable store of value, and a majority are unbanked or underbanked. Many...Read More

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are being used to alleviate poverty in countries blighted by conflict and famine. Cryptocurrency publisher Bancor is to launch a blockchain service in Kenya in a bid to create a financial system that could stimulate economic growth among the unbanked. This follows the World Bank’s 2018 Findex report, which suggests that over 3 billion people worldwide are underbanked. Humanitarian organisations such as the United Nations Human...Read More

Two Finnish fintechs have pioneered a system that allows you to make contactless payments with your phone as if it was a credit card – with the added bonus that an electronic receipt is stored on your phone. Mobile wallet pioneer Op Financial Group and payments processor Nets have conspired to create this new type of mobile payment system which is to be piloted in their native Finland. In-store...Read More

Alfa-Bank Belarus has completed its migration onto OpenWay’s WAY4 platform, utilising an on-premises solution which it hopes will “cut operational expenses and time-to-market” as well as “promote innovation”. OpenWay’s “flexible approach” to project implementation was a key factor in the migration, according to Rafal Juszczak, CEO at Alfa-Bank Belarus. One of (more…)This content is restricted to site members. If you are an existing user, please log in. New users may...Read More

Western countries have received more than $1.5 trillion in remittances since 2007, according to analysis from money transfer firm Xpress Money. Over the past ten years, France ($229 billion), Germany ($149 billion), Belgium ($106 billion), Spain ($99 billion), the US ($62 billion) and the UK ($50 billion) have all received “a substantial economic boost”. Europe also receives one in every four dollars sent in remittances. Sudhesh Giriyan, COO of Xpress...Read More

Dash has partnered global payments processor AloGateway in a deal which will give merchants “across the world” the ability to send, receive and hold Dash, as well as other major cyptocurrencies. AloGateway offers a payment solution for China UnionPay (CUP), an association for China’s banking card industry operating under the approval of the People’s Bank of China. AloGateway is also a fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant Internet Payment...Read More

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has appointed Link Asset Services as the debt servicer for its new SME Alternative Financing platform. The platform, currently operational in the UK, will invest through direct loans to finance ambitious projects for SME companies, complementing lending by domestic commercial banks to finance their growth. “As institutions search for yield, this platform provides them with an opportunity both to deliver excellent returns and play...Read More

Singapore-based White Oak Capital Partners has gone live with Eze Software’s Investment Suite system, following a five-week implementation process. White Oak focuses on Indian listed equities using a “fundamental bottom-up approach”. The firm aimed to unify operations on one platform, and chose Eze Investment Suite “to maximize efficiencies and position for global growth”. According to the company, having unified data flow on a single platform will support its “commitment...Read More

Banks can’t teach old apps new tricks, says a report on Fintech systems failure. Worse than that, new Agile development systems are making banks even more fragile, it says. The new Software Intelligence Report was compiled by Cast Software to find out why the likes of Virgin Money and TSB are continuing to have reputation shredding IT failures. Cast’s study analysed over 700 million lines of code and 2,000...Read More

Fintech startups are rushing headlong into legal problems in their anxiety to be first to market, warns a top compliance expert. Maximum growth with minimum governance will be a disaster for many in the Fintech industry, according to Jamie Cooke, CEO at financial services compliance consultancy fscom. Ignorance of compliance could see Fintech start ups die through either prosecutions or the withdrawal of their banking partners. Too many start-up...Read More

In a joint operation between the banking industry, Europol and police forces in 28 countries, a total of 95 arrests have been made for online fraud from June 4th-15th. Suspects are to be interrogated over 20,000 fraudulent transactions using compromised credit cards, with an estimated value exceeding EUR 8 million (£7 million). UK operations were led by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), which executed on nine...Read More

Banking security start-up AimBrain has launched a range of services to make biometric authentication affordable to fintech start ups and challenger banks. The services include a free API and an audio and Lip synchronisation invention that uses artificial intelligence to identify the user. AimBrain is a BIDaaS (Biometric Identity as-a-Service) platform that uses voice, facial and behavioural biometrics. The service uses proprietary deep learning to building an increasingly accurate profile of...Read More