From today, the registration for Santander’s hackathon: Building Banking Your Way, is open for applicants. The event will take place in Shoreditch, London, over two days in March. The activity aims to offer all start-ups, students, tech enthusiasts and creative minds in the FinTech industry, the opportunity to develop innovative software solutions that will help people and businesses prosper.

Participants will access a sandbox of emulated data to bring their ideas to life and will choose one of four core challenge tracks to build a solution around:

1. Santander care: When ‘life happens’, Santander is there for you. How could Santander help vulnerable people better manage their money during key life events?

2. Santander everywhere: “No App is the Future App!” How will customers interact with Santander services via their favourite App, Service, Hardware or AI?

3. Santander secure: Security everywhere. How can we help reassure Santander customers that their money and data is secure whichever channel they use?

4. MyScore and MyHome: Take back control of your creditworthiness. How could Santander help both identify and support UK tenants looking to make the jump to home ownership?

Mentors skilled in design and API integration will provide guidance and help participants in creating a minimum viable product over the two days. Santander is partnering with Open Bank Project, experts in managing hackathon sprints and delivering this activity.

Stephen Dury, Head of Customer and Innovation at Santander, said: “By launching a hackathon, we hope to see the future of open banking come to life through participants’ fresh ideas, creative new use cases and industry-changing solutions.

“Participants will be supported throughout the two days, by industry leading experts and mentors, encouraged to push boundaries of what can be built. I can’t wait to see the working prototypes and am really excited to see what participants can invent on our platform to help business and people prosper.”

Simon Redfern, CEO – TESOBE / Open Bank Project, said, “We are thrilled to be working with Santander on their hackathon in London this March. It's at a particularly exciting time due to the open banking regulations coming into force. A hackathon is a great way of gathering and focusing fresh perspectives - and we're excited to meet and support the up and coming innovators who have the vision, passion and capability to rapidly deliver compelling Fintech Apps and services using Open Banking APIs.”

The event will take place at the Huckletree in Shoreditch, London and run from March 16 – 18. Prizes will be awarded to the submissions that surprise, delight, and engage users in a way that has never been done before.

If you’re interested in participating in the hackathon, visit: santanderhackathon.co.uk

The Tech Partnership and Lloyds Banking Group have announced they are leading a consultation that will improve the way that the UK measures the Basic Digital Skills required for adults to thrive in a digital world. The final framework created will be used to shape the Government’s Digital Skills Entitlement programme, which will make training in basic digital skills free for adults in the UK lacking relevant qualifications. 

Anne Milton, Minister of State for Skills and Apprenticeships said, “I welcome this consultation. The ‘Get Digital’ Basic Skills framework has brought consensus on the digital skills adults need for life and work, and will form the foundation of our new basic digital skills standards.”

Increasing the digital skills of adults across the country will help more people access the numerous benefits of being online. Research from the Lloyds Bank Consumer Digital Index highlights that having Basic Digital Skills can save individuals an average of £744 a year, and provide them with easier access to work and education.

The consultation invites everyone with an interest in this important agenda to give their thoughts on the level of digital skills needed for today and the future. It is an update of a framework initially developed by Go ON UK, remodeled to reflect the significant changes in technology that have taken place since it was created.

The Tech Partnership and Lloyds Banking Group have convened a steering group featuring a wide range of organisations, to ensure that all sectors of industry, academia, government and education are shaping the outputs to transform the UK’s digital skills capabilities.

You can participate in the survey here

Karen Price OBE, Chief Executive of The Tech Partnership said, “We are thrilled to be co-chairing this consultation process. Together, we have convened a formidable leadership group of employers, government officials, training providers and industry experts to develop and review this new framework and to ultimately ensure that all individuals in the UK can safely participate in and contribute to the digital world of today and the future, at both home and work.”

Leigh Smyth who leads Group Transformation Culture and Capability at Lloyds Banking Group, said, “With 11.5 million UK adults currently without basic digital skills, it is imperative that we build a single view of UK capability so all partners and practitioners can work together to provide consistent support to help people with the right skills and understanding. This new framework, developed in collaboration with cross sector organisations in tandem with insight, face to face local support and training will enable essential progress at a national and local level”.

EMVCo, the global technical body that manages the EMV® Specifications, has announced its tenth annual EMV User Meeting will be held in San Diego, USA on 20-21 June, 2018. The two-day event, which takes place at Marriott San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, provides a forum for payment industry stakeholders to gain insight into EMVCo’s mission, structure and current technical activities, as well as directly engage with the technical body’s subject matter experts. 

Jack Pan, EMVCo Executive Committee Chair, comments: “In recent years, the payments ecosystem has expanded to incorporate new technologies across both the face-to-face and remote payment environments. EMVCo is committed to evolving the EMV Specifications to promote global interoperability and enhance security, as demonstrated by recent activities spanning EMV Payment Tokenisation, EMV 3-D Secure, EMV Secure Remote Commerce and EMV QR Code payments. In parallel to these latest initiatives, EMVCo is continuing to advance the EMV Chip Specifications, providing a secure foundation for face-to-face payments.”

EMVCo encourages all EMV Specification users to attend the meeting to receive the latest updates on current work priorities and technological developments. The meeting will be of interest to all payments ecosystem participants, including payment card issuers, acquirers, merchants, processors, card and terminal vendors, networks, and their respective associations.

To join the proceedings, participants must be an EMVCo Associate or Subscriber. An early bird rate for EMVCo Subscriber registrations confirmed before 15 April 2018 is USD $295. After this date, the meeting registration fee will be USD $495. EMVCo Business Associates and EMVCo Technical Associates are entitled to complimentary meeting registration for one and three passes, respectively.

Keychoice, the insurance distribution business owned by SSP, has partnered with Plum Underwriting to enable its broking community to meet the needs of policyholders with non-standard homes.

The partnership makes it easier for Keychoice members to process non-standard risks that they might otherwise have not been able to place. This includes houses that are built from non-standard materials, affected by subsidence or flooding, or unoccupied for extended periods, as well as cases where the owner has criminal convictions, has been declared bankrupt or has an adverse claims history.

As Plum Underwriting has focused on the specialist home insurance market for 15 years, Keychoice brokers can benefit from a highly experienced team of underwriters with extensive knowledge of the risks involved, backed by the security and strength of Lloyd's capacity.

By joining Keychoice, Plum Underwriting has greater access to regional brokers – a key distribution channel in the UK insurance market.

With all of Keychoice's members working from a single technology platform, Plum Underwriting has a continuous view of how its non-standard home insurance product is performing. As a result, the underwriting agency can fine tune the product's performance with existing members, which will drive greater adoption amongst brokers and generate greater volumes of data for further fine-tuning.

To complement this, Plum Underwriting has access to the utilisation team within SSP, who visit brokers on a regular basis. This will ensure its non-standard home insurance product is being used as frequently and effectively as possible.

Ron Atkinson, Distribution Director at SSP said: "I am delighted to be working with Plum Underwriting, which has once again been rated one of the UK's top 5 personal lines insurers in the Insurance Times Broker Service Survey.

"The partnership enables our members to offer cover for a range of non-standard properties that mainstream insurers often lack the specialist knowledge to effectively quote for, while benefitting from exclusive discounted rates."

Simon Lewer, Business Development Director at Plum Underwriting said: "Joining Keychoice enables us to work with the traditional high street brokers that we wouldn't otherwise have access to, and efficiently allows us to trade with up to 500 brokers through a single partner.

"Given the proven track record of Keychoice members in writing highly profitable business for insurers, this is a fantastic opportunity for us."

Signicat, the first and largest identity assurance provider in the world, has secured phase two funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, the framework for funding research and innovation. The funding will be used to further develop Signicat’s IDAaaS (Identity Assurance as a Service) toolbox for use across Europe—helping to create a single digital identity market for Europe, one of the European Commission’s priorities for the latter half of the decade.

Signicat’s IDAaaS service will enable financial service providers and other businesses across Europe to verify the identity of a new customer—either an individual or an organisation—using electronic identity (eID) and digital verification of paper ID, as well as other technologies including registry lookup, facial recognition, and other innovations. This means businesses can comply with complex KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements, while still offering simple, digital on-boarding to their customers.

The grant follows the completion of phase one, undertaken by Signicat and funded by Horizon 2020 in December 2016. This analysed the need for and applicability of digital on-boarding in selected countries. Working with Innopay, Signicat discovered that on average, European eID schemes provide 69% of the information that financial institutions need in order to on-board a customer wholly digitally, and identified the gaps where Signicat could offer IDAaaS. This new project builds on this work.

“A single digital ID market in Europe is vital so that financial service providers can easily offer their services across borders without the customer struggling to assert their identity. Cross-border digital ID creates greater choice and convenience for the customer, and opens up new markets for financial institutions” said Gunnar Nordseth, CEO, Signicat. “While eIDAS is a step in the right direction, it does not yet go far enough. Our vision is to integrate eIDs across Europe, making on-boarding customers simple for financial institutions and their customers, while still meeting KYC regulations.”

The EU’s eIDAS regulations aim to help financial services across Europe meet KYC requirements through digital IDs. While eIDAS provides a standard regulatory environment with different levels of assurance for different levels of risk, it is up to member states to define the tools needed for each level of assurance. This has created a fractured ecosystem lacking consistency across borders.

Signicat is the first IDAaaS provider in the world and will develop its IDAaaS toolbox to meet the requirements in more countries, integrating identity assurance across Europe. As well as creating new business opportunities for Signicat in new markets, this will help the Financial Services industry develop as a single digital market.

Horizon 2020 is part of the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.

Temenos, the software specialist for banking and finance, today announces that Finabank, the fourth largest commercial bank in Suriname, has signed for Temenos T24 Core Banking, Channels, Business Intelligence and Financial Crime Mitigation. This combination will help propel Finabank’s efforts in business, retail and platinum banking, as part of Finabank’s objective to lead the financial services industry in Suriname. 

Finabank is undergoing rapid expansion, tripling its assets within a three-year span. Finabank has opted to migrate to Temenos’ technology to support the bank’s continued growth and to provide enhanced services to its customers. The implementation will provide the bank with enhanced ease-of-use, such as an intuitive user interaction design, multi-lingual capabilities for its Dutch and English-speaking base, insight into customer data and a flexible architecture that allows for customization and integration. Key security features such as role-based authorization and the use of biometrics for customer and user identification ensure that the bank’s data will remain safe as it continues to innovate and modernize its approach. Paired with Temenos' Financial Crime product family, the bank will have access to a range of fully automated, highly efficient and effective analytical modules, to quickly identify the likelihood that a financial crime has occurred and protect its customers. The project will be implemented over 18-24 months.

Eblein Frangie, CEO, Finabank, commented: “At Finabank we seek to provide tailored financial solutions fully aligned with our customers’ needs. During our selection process, Temenos demonstrated a clear understanding of our business objectives, and how to achieve these with its proven technology. With the flexibility of the new platform, we will be able to respond to market needs and create new value-added products and services as we grow. Our customers will gain a modern front-end experience, with greater accessibility across channels, while receiving the value that comes from a secure, streamlined technology foundation on the back-end. We look forward to offering a cutting-edge digital experience to our customers with Temenos’ technology.”

Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Chief Revenue Officer, Temenos, stated: “We are delighted to welcome Finabank to the Temenos family. Our extensive experience in the Latin America region, combined with the strength of our innovative and upgradeable packaged software, will help the bank execute its growth plans and deliver on its digital strategy. With Temenos core banking platform, Finabank will now offer unparalleled experiences to its clients and tailored products and services at the speed of their demands.”

Ashok Sharma, Director – Americas, Sofgen, added: “Sofgen has been a key facet of this project from the start, offering input during the core banking system analysis and evaluation, leading to the selection of Temenos. This back-to-front renovation project will result in a truly digital bank, greater access for the bank’s 

Integral, the financial technology partner trusted by leading banks, brokers, and investment managers to design, deliver and grow their FX businesses, announced today that it has received a U.S. patent, number 9,836,789, titled “Method and System for Generating and Operating Hybrid Markets and User Defined Marketplaces.”

“Integral has a long history of innovation to solve some of the most difficult problems in financial markets,” said Harpal Sandhu, Integral founder and CEO.  “We are delighted to receive approval for the patent in the U.S. that addresses the fundamental problem of creating a hybrid market that combines liquidity from multiple market micro-structures. We look forward to working with market participants who would like to benefit from this innovation.” 

Among other benefits, the patent covers the ability to combine liquidity from multiple market types including OTC and designated contracts.  It accomplishes this by automatically activating a central limit order book (CLOB) to create a hybrid market in a given instrument.

As a result of the invention, market participants can combine liquidity from OTC Request for Quote (RFQ) markets with resting orders liquidity in CLOBs, leading to deeper, richer liquidity in previously illiquid markets.

SupplyOn, the Global Supply Chain Collaboration Platform, has chosen CloudTrade’s patented PDF to e-invoice technology to boost e-invoicing adoption among its customers. 

SupplyOn is the leading supply chain collaboration platform for the global manufacturing sector. Its best of breed online platform enables users to manage business processes with suppliers and service providers across continents in a structured, transparent and secure manner.

SupplyOn has established a company network in the manufacturing industry – with a focus on the automotive, aerospace, railway and engineering – connecting businesses across 70 countries.

Among SupplyOn’s 60,000 customers are international brands including Airbus, BMW Group, BorgWarner, Bosch, Continental, DEUTZ, Kautex Textron, Liebherr, Safran, Schaeffler, Schindler, Siemens, Thales, and ZF.

CloudTrade is one of the world’s fastest growing e-invoice and e-document networks, connecting hundreds of global organisations to thousands of their trading partners electronically across numerous sectors and regions.

CloudTrade’s PDF to e-invoicing solution integrates seamlessly with SupplyOn’s platform and will help drive supplier adoption rates of e-invoicing of over 80-90%. CloudTrade’s solution ensures 100% accurate data is uploaded within minutes of a supplier submitting a PDF invoice. Ensuring users see back office savings in the region of 60%.

Richard Manson, CloudTrade’s co-founder and Commercial Director, says: “When you’re doing business internationally and interacting with thousands of suppliers every day, your P2P process and ERP systems rely on accurate data to be highly efficient, easy to use and most importantly, operate on a global scale. Our solution encourages as many suppliers as possible to move away from paper and onto electronic document submission methods and because CloudTrade is incredibly cost effective and easy to use, we enable SupplyOn users to maximise efficiencies and transform their back-office functions.”

Mahindra Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility solutions, received nomination in two categories at the prestigious Global Mobile Awards 2018. The nominations were received in the categories “Best Mobile Innovation for Payment” and “Best Mobile Innovation for Women in Emerging Markets”. The winners will be announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress scheduled for February 26 - March 1 in Barcelona.      

The nomination in the “Best Mobile Innovation for Payment” was received for Airtel Money Tanzania, powered by Comviva’s mobiquity® Money. Launched in 2009, Airtel Money in Tanzania has gone beyond simple P2P transfers, recharges, and bill payments and is now an ecosystem enabler for micro loans, transit payments, merchant payments, crop insurance, cross border payments, savings groups, helping Tanzania move from a cash heavy society to a digitally inclusive society.

The nomination in the “Best Mobile Innovation for Women in Emerging Markets” was given for EcoCash Savings Club powered by mobiquity® Money. Launched in May 2015, EcoCash Saving Club digitizes informal savings club in Zimbabwe, called “Mukando” or “Maround, providing inclusive, secure, transparent and convenient platform for Zimbabwean women to pool their money and use it for emergencies.

"The GLOMOs offer organisations and individuals from across the world an opportunity to showcase how mobile technology continues to inspire new levels of ingenuity, innovation and achievement,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “As always, the calibre of entries is extremely high, so to be shortlisted for the GLOMOs today is quite an achievement in itself. We wish the very best of luck to all nominees and look forward to unveiling the winners at Mobile World Congress next month.”

Manoranjan Mohapatra, CEO, Mahindra Comviva said, “We are very happy at receiving the nominations at the prestigious GLOMO Awards 2018 as it validate our ability to innovate and rise to the occasion in challenging conditions in any part of the world. We believe that the intersection of business and technology opens new opportunities for digital transformation, while doing social good. We are very pleased that our mobiquity® Money is leading the way in digitizing societies and impacting lives of millions.” 

mobiquity® Money delivers a host of mobile money services that transforms the way consumers save, borrow, transfer and spend money. It is designed to seamlessly integrate consumer touch points with a wide ecosystem of banks, billers, merchants and third-party payment systems, creating a convergence powered by interoperability. Apart from delivering convenience to consumers, the solution enables financial service providers to acquire new customers, create long-term loyalty with existing ones, and seize new revenue opportunities to increase their footprint in the market. mobiquity® Money empowers financial service providers to be agile in their markets, with complete focus on the customers. mobiquity® Money has clocked over 60 deployments in more than 45 countries. It powers three of the top 10 deployments globally and processes more than 3 billion transactions every year amounting to over $60 billion annually.