NCR research highlights consumer desire for innovative banking services in the UK — NCR — “Nearly half of respondents (47%) with personal bank accounts would only feel comfortable with banks collecting the bare minimum of data required to run their accounts… 49% were interested in banking loyalty programs in partnership with retailers requiring third-party data sharing. 46% were open to financial advice services that keep track of their spending information to help save money.”
Archive: The Neobanker
US consumers ready to share purchasing data with financial services AIs
NTT Data study finds Alexa and Siri will drive the digital customer experience of the future for financial services firms — NTT Data — “Consumers are comfortable providing FSIs [Financial Services Institutions] with access to a wide range of data if it enables them to provide advice on spending, insurance products or coverages, or targeted financing options to meet their financial goals. 68% would share online retail purchase information, 61% would share geolocation information, 49% would share Uber, Lyft and OpenTable information, 42% would share Facebook and Twitter information.”
Paytm CEO sets out plans to become the world’s largest digital bank
Alibaba-backed Paytm aims to become world’s largest digital bank — Bloomberg — “Paytm Payments Bank aims to create the world’s largest digital bank with 500m accounts, envisioning an online financial services provider of everything from wealth management to credit cards and stock market trading… The bank grew out of Paytm’s digital wallet, which amassed over a hundred million customers after India took high-denomination bills — or nearly 90% of the value of cash — out of circulation last November.”
Starling Bank integrates third party rewards into open banking platform
Starling and Yoyo Wallet: Enabling loyalty with open banking — Starling Bank — “With any other bank, in order to collect loyalty points you would have to manually pay using the Yoyo app using a QR code scanner. However we have created an experience together with Yoyo, using our APIs, which means you don’t need to use any separate apps to pay. You just need to securely connect your Yoyo account to your Starling account from the Yoyo app and allow Yoyo to view your Starling account transactions. You will then be able to collect loyalty points whenever you use your Starling card, Apple Pay or Fitbit Pay at a merchant partner.”
Sberbank to build ID platform that supports face, voice and retina biometrics
Sberbank and VisionLabs to build biometric identification platform — Sberbank — “Sberbank announces the signing of a deal to acquire a block of shares in VisionLabs, a global leader of the facial recognition market… The investment in VisionLabs is a major first step by Sberbank to build a biometrics platform of Sberbank’s ecosystem, involving face, voice and retina identification, as well as other biometric factors… This will allow the creation of a unique biometric identifier that will let Sberbank clients access any service.”
UK government expands open banking project to credit cards, e-wallets and prepaid cards
UK’s Open Banking project expanded — Open Banking — “The OBIE [Open Banking Implementation Entity] has now been asked by the CMA9 and Her Majesty’s Treasury to create open banking standards for all payment account types covered by the European Union’s second Payments Services Directive (PSD2). This means customers using credit cards, e-wallets and prepaid cards will also be able to take advantage of open banking services.”
UK challenger bank Monzo lets account holders save funds in flexible pots
Launching Pots! — Monzo — “To help you save for specific things, we’ve created Pots: a simple way to set money aside within your main Monzo account. Whether you’re planning a trip around the world, looking to buy a new laptop, or simply saving for a rainy day, pots can help you work towards your modest goals and grandest plans… Creating a pot takes seconds, simply give it a name and add an image… You can set up multiple pots for different purposes, and see an overview of all your money under the Account tab in your app.”
PayPal tops US survey of most trusted financial services brands
Landor Pulse: PayPal leads as most trusted financial services brand — Landor — “Approximately 30% of consumers rank PayPal as trustworthy, compared with 25% for Visa, 23% for Mastercard, and 17% for American Express… Apple Pay and Google Wallet are trusted by only 13% of consumers… Just 17% think Capital One and Chase are trustworthy, with Bank of America one point below at 16%… Bitcoin has the lowest rating of all, with only 6% of consumers believing it to be trustworthy.”
US to open up banking market to non-banks?
US regulator says time to review mixing banking with other businesses — Reuters — “US regulations that bar companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc from providing banking services need to be reviewed as they reduce competition thereby concentrating more risk among a smaller number of banks, a US banking regulator said… Noreika on Wednesday said that allowing non-financial companies to run banks could strengthen the banking system by boosting competition and increasing diversity. The OCC is exploring providing a charter specifically for financial technology providers such as payment processor Square Inc.”
DBS launches developer platform that gives access to 155 banking APIs
Reimagining banking, DBS launches world’s largest banking API developer platform — DBS Bank — “With 155 APIs at launch for Singapore across more than 20 categories such as funds transfers, rewards, PayLah! and real-time payments, the platform will offer the world’s largest number of, and most relevant, banking APIs… More than 50 companies including household names such as AIG, McDonald’s, MSIG, PropertyGuru, as well as start-ups like Activpass, FoodPanda, Homage, and soCash have already hopped onto the platform.”
Wells Fargo to offer mobile-first bank accounts
Wells Fargo announces a mobile-first banking experience to encourage financial health — Wells Fargo — “Combining personal finance management tools with Wells Fargo banking, the Greenhouse experience will help consumers pay bills on time, spend confidently, and start to build a savings cushion — all while providing personalized insights through artificial intelligence to help them stay on track. Greenhouse, a standalone mobile app, will be available in a limited, national pilot in the first quarter of 2018 and will launch for Apple iPhone users during the first half of 2018.”
Commbank adds Face ID to mobile banking app
The new face of banking — Commonwealth Bank of Australia — “From today, iPhone X users will be able to use Face ID to securely log in to the CommBank app. ‘Our customers use secure fingerprint logins on the CommBank app about 30m times a month,’ said Pete Steel, Commonwealth Bank executive general manager of digital. ‘Extending that functionality to Face ID is part of our ongoing work to provide a better banking experience to our customers through simple, easy and secure features.'”
Mobile-only Orange Bank goes live in France
Orange is now also a bank — Orange — “Orange is launching its new banking offer in mainland France today. This 100% mobile-based offer is provided by Orange Bank and will be the only French bank to offer for free a service that provides real-time balances, mobile payment, innovative uses and a virtual adviser that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Capital One rolls out Eno chatbot to credit card and banking customers
What we learned about what our chatbot learned — Capital One — “In March at SXSW 2017, Capital One launched an invite-only pilot of Eno, the first natural language SMS chatbot from a US bank. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Eno has emerged from the pilot and is now available to text with millions of Capital One US credit card and bank customers.”
Canadian bank lets customers use learning AI to transact in Facebook Messenger
ATB Financial rolls out world’s first full-featured virtual banking assistant on Facebook Messenger — ATB Financial — “What makes ATB’s virtual assistant unique? Far beyond a Q&A chatbot, its sophisticated banking transaction abilities offer robust personal financial management tools tailored to fit the needs of each individual customer. Customers can seamlessly pay bills, view account balances, send Interac e-Transfers or transfer money between accounts, as well as perform cross-currency money movement all from within their Messenger platform… The virtual assistant is always learning. The more customers engage with it, the more it will be able to do.”
Chase lets customers use their mobile phone to open a bank account
JPMorgan reaches beyond its branches with new mobile account app — Reuters — “The app, named Finn by Chase, allows people to use a phone to open a bank account, make deposits, issue checks, track spending and set up savings plans, bank officials told Reuters last week. Finn debit cards will come by mail for access to cash from 29,000 ATMs.”
Poland’s Bank Zachodni WBK adds ticket purchasing to mobile app
A bank will give you entertainment through its banking app — Finanteq — “Today the bank officially launched a new functionality in its mobile banking application — Cultural Events. From now on, if customers would like to go to a concert, cabaret show, theatrical performance or festival all they have to do is open the application and buy a ticket for the selected event. The funds for the payment are transferred directly from customer’s current account.”
TD Bank to add AI to mobile banking app
TD announces conversational AI platform agreement with Kasisto — Kasisto — “Through the AI-powered interactive chat interface, TD app users will be able to check account information, review transaction histories and monitor spending levels. In addition, customers will also be able to get instant answers about specific spending-related questions including how much they spent on a recent weekend getaway, what their largest transaction was last week, or what they spent on categories like groceries or coffee last month.”
EU regulators raid banks over fintech access concerns
Antitrust: Commission confirms unannounced inspections concerning access to bank account information by competing services — European Commission — “The European Commission can confirm that on 3 October 2017 its officials carried out unannounced inspections in a few Member States concerning online access to bank account information by competing service providers… These alleged anti-competitive practices are aimed at excluding non-bank owned providers of financial services by preventing them from gaining access to bank customers’ account data, despite the fact that the respective customers have given their consent to such access.”
Asian banks develop blockchain-based customer identity platform
OCBC Bank, HSBC, MUFG, IMDA complete proof-of-concept KYC blockchain — Digital News Asia — “The KYC [Know Your Customer] blockchain – running on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform which enables structured information to be recorded, accessed and shared across a distributed network using advanced cryptography – allows banks to collect, validate and share customer information – with the customer’s consent – accurately, efficiently and in a secured manner.”