The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announce 4^th April 2019 as the ‘go-live’ date for the new initiative to start linking International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) for the global financial industry.

Klarna, a leading global payments provider, today announced the launch of its global authentication platform — an aggregator with multiple global and local authentication solutions. The platform allows multinational businesses, including merchants and other banks, to provide a simple, secure and personalised customer authentication experience irrespective of market, through a one-time integration.

CBA has seen contactless payment transactions linked to a debit or credit Mastercard almost triple, since the introduction of Apple Pay earlier this year.

An advice gap exists in the UK – and it’s leaving savers stumbling into poor financial decisions, without the right advice. The gap started in the wake of the 2013 retail distribution review (RDR), which resulted in advisers making their charges transparent for consumers – and putting people with low wealth off seeking advice.

The addition of biometric features further enhances the security of strong customer security, which is of crucial importance in a world that is becoming more and more digital. This multi-factor authentication solution allows financial institutions to comply with the Regulatory Technical Standards of PSD2. The updated solution, with biometric technology is also FIDO (Fast Identity Online) compliant.

Payment industry experts have joined forces with SWIFT to step up the drive to move cross-border transactions to the ISO 20022 standard. 
 
In light of multiple planned migrations to ISO 20022 by high-value and instant payments infrastructures, the SWIFT community has agreed to create a common end-to-end implementation that will deliver increased efficiencies, support end-to-end STP, facilitate improved regulatory compliance, enhance the party identification process and enable new business opportunities.  
 

KBC, CBC and KBC Brussels customers who have a Fitbit smartwatch or activity tracker can now use it to pay in shops that accept Maestro and have contactless payment available. The initiative makes KBC the first financial institution in Belgium to offer Fitbit Pay, a fast, secure, free and convenient contactless payment option for customers who lead an active life. 

The launch adds to KBC’s commitment to pioneering new payment methods and follows the bank’s introduction of Google Pay and Garmin Pay. 

Calastone, the largest global funds transaction network, today announces the appointment of David Zwirn as Managing Director, Head of UK & Ireland Sales and Relationship Management.

Continuing my blog series looking at Accenture’s 2019 banking trends, this time I’m exploring how improved adoption of cloud and data analytics will enable banks to raise the bar in the way they deliver retail financial advice.

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that three Finnish banks contract wins – Savings Banks Group, Oma Savings Bank Plc and POP Bank Group – they have selected Temenos T24 Transact and Temenos Payments Hub (TPH) to underpin their digital transformations.