Fintech startups impress big banks
Big banking groups are increasingly collaborating with exciting fintech startups to reshape the industry. Spain’s Bankia group announced this week the names of the young companies selected to join its inaugural international programme, which was launched late last year. The standard of applicants to the ‘Bankia Fintech by Innsomnia‘ platform was so impressive eight were picked, three more than initially planned. The plan is to collaborate with the new starts to build a a client-supplier relationship that can harness the potential of the services being developed by the startups drawn from Australia, France, Israel, the UK and America. They will join the accelerator, based at the Port of Valencia, in […]
Japan lender Mizuho to launch fintech venture
Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will start a venture next month to create new businesses using “fintech,” an executive said, joining a global race in financial technology that threatens to unsettle traditional players. Japan’s second-largest lender by assets said there were already 20 projects in the pipeline for the venture, utilizing blockchain technology and artificial intelligence programs in areas such as farming and travel. Daisuke Yamada, Mizuho’s chief digital innovation officer, said the challenges were cultural as well as technological, as truly new business models required a break from Japanese banks’ conservative, overly risk-averse attitudes. For that reason, he said the bank would limit its stake in the yet-to-be named venture […]
Three regional fintech winners unveiled at Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge in Dublin
Citi has unveiled three winners from its regional Tech for Integrity Challenge (T4I) Demo Day held in Dublin last week, garlanding Aid:Tech, Paycode and Pole Star with the T4I Award for innovation. The global program aims to promote accountability and transparency in the public sector and beyond by supporting the effective use of financial technology (fintech) solutions and monitoring technology. It is run by Citi’s internal fintech team, treasury and trade unit, and Citi Ventures, its technology accelerator, investment and collaboration arm. Facebook, IBM, MasterCard, Microsoft and PwC are some of the other partners involved in judging the competition. The idea is to support small start-up companies’ applications on beneficiary […]
Skandiabanken allows Norwegians to handle Bitcoin through Internet Banking
Norwegian Skandiabanken now enables customers to handle cryptocurrencies over its internet banking application.Increasing demand for Bitcoin and other altcoins can no longer be ignored. The cryptocurrencies have already made inroads to the conventional financial system, both directly as well as indirectly. As banking institutions continue to adopt blockchain technology, a Norwegian online bank — Skandiabanken has gone a step further to recognize Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies as an investment class. In order to facilitate the use of cryptocurrency among its customers, Skandiabanken has recently announced a new feature that enables users to buy and store Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether on its online banking platform. The bank is offering the […]
Fintech’s coming to trounce India’s Banks
In the match for India’s financial services future, fintech just scored twice while banks are still struggling to retrieve the ball they scuffed into their own net. It’s just the start of what looks like a bruising battle for traditional lenders. India’s banks, which still dominate the country’s financial landscape, appear to have hardly a kick left in them. Stressed assets without any loan-loss cover now exceed $96 billion, McKinsey & Co. said last week. An overwhelming 91 percent, or $87 billion, of the provisioning gap is at state-run lenders, whose net worth would be wiped out if they took the hit on their capital. Capital Punishment Fully providing for […]
Lendy hits £300m investment mark
The slowdown in bank lending prompted by the Brexit vote has helped Lendy hit the £300m investment mark in April, having channelled £50m to property borrowers in the last 100 days alone. With new loans on the peer-to-peer platform often up to five times oversubscribed, the firm was able to add three larger-size loans over the last three months, it told Peer2Peer Finance News. It directed £7.5m to the purchase and redevelopment of a commercial building in Marylebone, £5.7m to the development of a major residential building on Liverpool’s waterfront and £2.4m to the development of a major student accommodation complex in Huddersfield. The firm said it was able to […]
MarketInvoice secures £45m from Banco BNI Europa
UK-based MarketInvoice has signed an agreement with Banco BNI Europa (BNI), which will now provide £45 million annually to fund working capital for SMEs on the platform. MarketInvoice is now the world’s largest peer-to-peer online invoice finance marketplace, having funded over 70,000 invoices worth more than £1.2 billion since its launch in 2011. Today, the UK business has signed an agreement with Banco BNI Europa (BNI), which will now provide £45 million in funding annually on the marketplace to fund working capital for MarketInvoice customers. BNI trialled an investment last year of £28.3 million, which went into funding SMEs on the platform seeking invoice finance. After the success of that […]
Mobile wallets to disrupt UAE payments sector
Get ready for it. The use of mobile wallets as a means of payment will perhaps be the biggest disruption the financial sector in the UAE has ever seen. But old habits die hard. According to UAE Central Bank figures, about 75 per cent of transactions in the country are made in cash. In fact, the UAE has about Dh65.4 billion in cash circulating outside the banking system. “That represents about 7 per cent of the economy,” says Maki Vekinis, CEO of Emirates Digital Wallet, a unique platform established by 16 of the UAE’s leading banks, formally launched at the Seamless Middle East conference in Dubai earlier this month. Developed […]
