Finastra today announced the appointment of Mike Stawchansky to the role of Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Innovation Officer. Mike is working in the Office of the CEO and is responsible for Finastra’s customer technology and innovation initiatives.

Mike said, “I am so excited to be part of Finastra and I’m truly inspired by the passion and excitement that I see here around delivering innovative and modern technology solutions to our customers. In addition, it is an honor to head up such an advanced generative AI (Gen AI) team. Finastra is ahead of the curve when it comes to educating its workforce on how to use this technology and I can’t wait to build on that, bringing more customer-facing solutions to market which encapsulate Gen AI benefits.”

Reporting to Finastra CEO, Simon Paris, Mike oversees the customer technology senior leadership team, championing operational excellence in this space. He will drive the company’s customer technology and Gen AI innovation initiatives.

Simon said, “Mike brings a wealth of expertise in building modern tech stacks and cloud transformations. His knowledge will be invaluable as we continue to bring our customers open technology solutions which drive business growth and efficiencies, and ultimately empower financial institutions with our relentless commitment to innovation.”

Mike joins Finastra from Collibra, a privately held data intelligence platform, where he was SVP of Platform and Production Engineering. His career spans more than 25 years and also includes senior roles at Salesforce and WebMD.

Deutsche Bahn (DB), the national railway company of Germany, and Tink, a market-leading payment services and data enrichment platform, have partnered up for direct debit setups. DB enables customers using its modern mobility sharing systems, run by the subsidiary DB Connect, to seamlessly connect their bank accounts for easier account onboarding. This includes using Tink’s Account Check for ‘Flinkster’, Germany’s largest car-sharing network, and ‘Call a Bike’, one of the biggest bike-sharing systems in the country – helping people to cut their carbon emissions and travel more sustainably.

Account Check helps to enhance direct debit setups, increases conversion and ensures the correct account will be charged every time a car or bike is used.

Tink’s Account Check works by instantly verifying account details using real-time data straight from a user’s bank account, with explicit consent. Verifying account details reduces the risk of fraud since the information is coming directly from the user’s bank, making the set-up instant, easy, and secure.

By removing the need for manual entry in setting up direct debits, Account Check also minimizes user error, and significantly streamlines the user experience. With instant and frictionless verification, Tink’s product boosts efficiency and enables payments to be taken securely with speed and accuracy.

Clemens Rath, Head of Product Management Bike Sharing at DB Connect commented: “Since we introduced Account Check, only valid direct debit mandates have been generated. Fraudulent direct debit mandates are prevented by validating the data directly with the customer’s bank. This underlines our commitment to the highest security standards and enables us to guarantee the integrity of our service.”

Thomas Gmelch, Director of Payments Sales (DACH) at Tink added: “Teaming up with DB Connect is a great example of how we can help businesses provide the best possible onboarding experience, while also supporting DB in helping consumers to minimise carbon emissions. Account verification can be completed in an instant. And with just a few clicks. It reduces failed payments, helps protect against fraud and boosts efficiency – adding value for both businesses and consumers.  By making the process faster and more accurate, we can reduce costs and enhance the customer experience.”

NTT DATA, a global business and IT services leader, today announces the launch of a corporate Center of Excellence (CoE), based in Iberia, focused on using cloud-native technology from Tuum to ease deployments and reduce time-to-market for banks looking to replace core systems.

This alliance between NTT DATA and Tuum will strengthen both companies’ ability to deliver superior customer success. It combines Tuum’s rich functionality, which extends across multiple business lines including accounts, lending, cards, and payments, underscored by its microservices architecture and API-first approach, with NTT DATA’s extensive suite of professional services.

The strategic partnership is designed to integrate Tuum’s smart migration techniques with NTT DATA’s broad spectrum of professional services and successful migration experience to deliver cost-effective, scalable banking solutions worldwide. This enhances the value proposition of NTT DATA’s portfolio, offering robust, full-service capabilities that address the multifaceted needs of today’s financial institutions.

This relationship allows Tuum to focus on what it does best — developing and innovating its platform — while NTT DATA delivers professional services excellence. It is this strategic focus that enables Tuum to maintain the lean capital structure of a product-focused, SaaS company and scale effectively, a point where many fast growth companies stumble.

Center dedicated to core banking modernization

Made up of highly qualified teams, NTT DATA’s CoE operates with consultants specialized in banking with extensive experience of developing digital transformation projects, particularly core banking modernization programs. These involve the adoption of cloud native solutions that are more flexible, and secure, with easier and better integration to break through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.

A recent NTT DATA research study with 650 global banking decision makers validates that AI and cloud are dual drivers for innovation and growth. In summary, NTT DATA is relentlessly advancing its expertise and resources to help clients navigate and surmount the complexities of digital transformation, ensuring their systems are modernized and primed for the future of finance.

Investment geared towards international projects

The launch of this center was motivated by NTT DATA’s desire to invest in Portugal, but also to take advantage of existing talent to deliver banking modernization solutions for other markets where the company is present. This showcases the company’s global capabilities to drive, develop and integrate end-to-end projects, as well as the expertise that the company holds for years in the banking sector, one of its strongest worldwide.

José Manuel Pérez Bajo, Partner and Head of Banking Modernization at NTT DATA, says ‘We are delighted to partner with Tuum to enhance our Banking Modernization value proposition. At NTT DATA we are convinced that moving business processes and applications to Next Generation Core Banking Platforms is a must in every modernization program within the sector. From our Centers of Excellence in Spain and Portugal we can deliver specialized services, accelerators, and experience to any of our clients in the region.’

Jean Souto, VP Global Partnerships at Tuum, says ‘This alliance with NTT DATA is a milestone for Tuum, marking a significant step in our journey to redefine core banking globally. Through this partnership, we are excited to amplify the impact of our next generation banking platform, driving innovation and efficiency for financial institutions. Our collaborative efforts with NTT DATA’s CoE will ensure that our clients not only keep pace but lead in a rapidly evolving financial landscape, leveraging our agile and adaptive banking solutions tailored for the future.’

Currencycloud, a Visa solution and expert in simplifying business in a multi-currency world, has obtained an In-Principle Approval (IPA) for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence holder from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The licence will allow Currencycloud to provide a full suite of intra-regional and international services to Singapore businesses.

Currencycloud now offers customers based in Asia Pacific the ability to collect, convert, hold, send, and spend multiple currencies simultaneously across 180 countries and territories. With the Singapore MPI licence, if granted, Currencycloud will gain additional capabilities for a broader suite of services to process intra-Asia and east-to-west payments more quickly, efficiently, and seamlessly.

For businesses in Singapore, customers can make conversions and payouts in their respective time zones and local currencies. By tapping into its global and local networks and multi-currency account infrastructure, Currencycloud can help enterprises launch new financial services quickly, while supporting banks with speedier go-to-market service innovations.

The granting of the IPA of the Singapore MPI licence comes after Currencycloud was awarded an Australia Financial Services Licence that allows the provision of services for the Australian market.

Rohit Narang, Managing Director of APAC, Currencycloud said, “The IPA for a Major Payment Institution Licence is testament to the strength of the Currencycloud brand. Having the license would allow us to integrate with the robust financial network in Singapore and collaborate with valuable industry players. The payments opportunity in Asia-Pacific is significant, and Singapore's excellent infrastructure, world-class regulatory system, and strategic geographical location serve as an ideal base for accelerating future payments innovation across the region.”

Zvi Appel, Co-founder of OPAL, a Currencycloud client in Singapore, explained that Currencycloud is a valuable partner for its business: “They provided us with the ease of use, speed and transparency demanded by our customers today. With new services to be offered, Currencycloud can help us stay competitive while we grow our lines of business within the region and beyond.”

Currencycloud expects to successively roll out its new services in the coming months, to complement its suite of offerings aimed at cutting friction in traditional cross-border money movement.

Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, has today expanded its in-person payment options by enabling businesses in the UK to accept Tap to Pay on iPhone. 

From farmers selling at markets, to plumbers doing home repairs, and beauticians in salons, businesses on Stripe can now seamlessly and securely accept in-person payments with Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone technology—no additional hardware or payment terminal needed. 

“Tap to Pay on iPhone means millions of UK businesses can now accept contactless payments with a device that many of us already have in our back pockets”, said Ruhi Dang, EMEA product manager at Stripe. “For a small business, this easy-to-deploy technology means they can accept contactless payments from more customers in more places, and scale quickly.”

Start with an iPhone and Stripe Terminal 

Tap to Pay on iPhone provides more flexibility for UK businesses to accept all types of in-person contactless payments using only an iPhone and the Stripe Terminal SDK.

At checkout, the merchant will simply prompt the customer to hold their contactless credit or debit card, iPhone or Apple Watch, or other digital wallet near the merchant’s iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using NFC technology. Tap to Pay on iPhone also supports PIN entry, which includes accessibility options. 

Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone technology uses the built-in features of iPhone to keep the business and customer data private and secure. When a payment is processed, Apple doesn’t store card numbers on the device or on Apple servers.

Flexible payments to grow your revenue  

The UK’s largest digital bank, Monzo, is partnering with Stripe to allow its hundreds of thousands of business banking customers to accept contactless payments on their iPhone, wherever they are. 

“Getting paid is a pain point for so many businesses and we hear from our customers just how important it is to make this process easy and quick,” said Jordan Shwide, head of business banking at Monzo. “That's why we’re offering Tap to Pay on iPhone, to make accepting payments on the move simpler and to make sure our business customers can focus more on doing what they love.” 

Payment platform Lopay offers Tap to Pay on iPhone capabilities to its business customers, who range from electricians to pet groomers. By using Stripe’s financial infrastructure to accept payments, issue cards, and manage payouts, Lopay ensures its customers get their earnings instantly. 

“It takes a few minutes for a small business owner to start accepting payments on their iPhone, and those who also have a Lopay card can access their earnings instantly,” commented Ollie Mahoney, co-founder and CTO of Lopay. “A taxi driver can collect a fare on their iPhone, drive to the nearest petrol station, and use that money to fill up the tank. Getting set up and having quick access to funds makes a real difference to the cash flow of a small business.”

This technology is also transforming the charitable sector. UK-based social fundraising platform givestar uses Stripe to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to hundreds of thousands of fundraisers across the UK, from the teams at Save the Children and the Red Cross, to corporate charity, and individual fundraisers. 

“The impact Tap to Pay on iPhone is having on charitable fundraising through givestar is huge and is greatly needed given the decline of cash,” explained givestar co-founder Alex Coleridge. “Being able to collect a donation on your iPhone makes it far easier to raise money, whether that be at the pub, the office or even a marathon start-line. This technology is already opening up fundraising to a younger audience and that’s critical for the future of the charity sector.”

A new way to enable unified commerce

Stripe customers can now use Tap to Pay on iPhone to implement a unified commerce solution that does not rely on stationary hardware. With unified commerce, systems and data are consolidated into a single platform, enabling businesses to unify their reporting, understand customer behaviour better, personalise experiences and recommendations, and reward loyalty. 

“Larger businesses have been using Stripe to create cohesive customer experiences across their different sales channels for years. Tap to Pay on iPhone offers a new way to build an efficient and cost-effective unified commerce model,” added Ruhi Dang, EMEA product manager at Stripe.

Banking Circle’s latest enhancement to its Agency Banking solution provides Financial Institutions (FI’s) and Payment Service Providers (PSP’s) with a faster and cheaper access point to local payment schemes to expand into further markets. The solution delivers indirect access to EURO local clearing via SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and GBP via Faster Payments Service (FPS). FI’s and PSP’s can access local payment schemes without the development and administrative costs linked to direct participation with the clearing houses (ACH) or integration with multiple banks.

“The key with our efficient and convenient Agency Banking solution is to give clients faster ‘go to market’ accessibility,” explained Michael Boel, Head of Clearing and Product Execution at Banking Circle. “Utilising our local clearing and settlement connections, we are providing our clients with indirect access to SEPA SCT, SEPA Instant and FPS. There’s no need to connect directly to a clearing house or hold a central bank settlement account. Banking Circle has done the ‘heavy lifting’ of connecting with the clearing houses and establishing central bank accounts, reducing costs and integration complexities for our clients.”

Through Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution, indirect participants can issue accounts, using their own Bank Identifier Codes (BICs) and International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) to send and receive payments. The account/IBAN will be in the localised country format, which the FI or PSP is regulated, including their own branch code, which is obtained from their regulator or in the case of the UK issued by a Pay.UK member, such as Banking Circle.  

Using their own BIC and IBANs for payments presents the FI or PSP as the ordering party and their customer as the sender. This provides full payment transparency while keeping the client in control of their end-customer relationships. Access to Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution is provided through a single integration via API or SWIFT for all payment and collections needs. To be eligible, FI’s and PSP’s, will need to be regulated in the SEPA zone or UK to become indirect participants.

In a press release published on the 7th February 2024, by the European Parliament, a regulation was passed mandating instant payment options to send and receive payments for consumers and businesses in the SEPA zone.  Banking Circle’s Agency Banking solution aligns with this regulation, by enabling FI’s and PSP’s, ‘speed to market’ to instant payment schemes and closing the accessibility gap to become indirect participants in EURO and GBP payment schemes.

“Our Agency Banking solution is further evidence of Banking Circle’s commitment to improve payments for the global banking economy”, continued Michael. “Becoming a direct participant of Faster Payments ourselves in 2022 was an essential step to enable us to offer real-time payments across a growing number of currencies. Incorporating this into our Agency Banking solution means we are helping clients to remove another barrier to cost-effective and timely payments.”

“Alongside our existing industry-leading cross-border payment capabilities, our Agency Banking solution makes Banking Circle a vital partner for expanding FI’s and PSP’s in the increasingly globalisation of payment requirements.”

The 20th anniversary edition of the Capgemini Research Institute’s World Retail Banking Report, published today, reveals 80% of retail bank executives believe that generative AI represents a significant leap in advancing AI technology. However, only 6% of retail banks are ready with a roadmap for enterprise-wide AI-driven transformation at scale.

As a result of macroeconomic uncertainty, many retail banks are being forced to make strategic decisions to navigate challenges to their existing business models. Productivity and efficiency dominated the priority list of the bank leaders surveyed. When it comes to technology, 70% of bank CXOs plan to increase investment in digital transformation by up to 10% in 2024. Yet, the report finds that banks are not ready to embrace and scale intelligent transformation, which involves the strategic application of advanced technologies like AI, machine learning and gen AI to drive innovation and efficiencies.

Banks must act quickly to avoid “generative AI silent failure”

For this report, Capgemini evaluated 250 retail banks across diverse business and technology parameters to understand their infrastructure data maturity and commitment to artificial intelligence. It found most banks are ill-prepared to thrive in an intelligent banking future. Globally, only 4% of retail banks achieved a high score on business commitment and technology capabilities, while 41% scored average, indicating a widespread lack of readiness to embrace and effectively implement intelligent transformation. Regional disparities further underscore this issue. In North America, 27% of banks displayed low readiness, followed by Europe with 31%, and Asia-Pacific (APAC) exhibiting a significant lag, with 48% of banks scoring low.

Focusing on intelligent solutions, that are embedded with AI-driven capabilities, will allow banks to navigate ongoing structural challenges, ultimately ensuring sustainable growth. However, success must be measurable: among those surveyed, just 6% of banks have established key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure AI impact and continuous monitoring. More than 60% of banks are still identifying and developing KPIs, while 26% of banks that have already setup some KPIs are not measuring them.

According to the report banks risk succumbing to “generative AI silent failure” due to the delayed realization of suboptimal results and outcomes from their experiments with the technology. For instance, just 2% of executives indicate they are regularly tracking the business impact KPIs of their generative AI performance. In addition, 39% of executives express dissatisfaction with the outcomes of their AI use cases further reinforcing this disconnect. To combat this, the study suggests banks set up an AI observatory to track, monitor, and report AI and generative AI real impact, when implemented at scale.

“One year after generative AI cemented itself as a core boardroom conversation, we’re seeing how banks risk becoming technological laggards if they aren’t rapidly adopting solutions and preparing to take advantage of its capabilities,” said Nilesh Vaidya, Global Industry Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at Capgemini. “Generative AI can have a lighthouse effect when used responsibly and wisely across operations. There is also a need for increased efforts on making gen AI explainable and appropriately transparent. The time to act is now to establish practices that build much-needed trust and customer intimacy. Success will come down to developing a roadmap that balances hype with a pragmatic, traceable and measurable approach.”

Bank employees welcome generative AI copilots

Generative AI holds massive potential to elevate efficiency and customer experience across the retail banking value chain. Over two-in-three (70%) bank employees are focused on operational activities, rising to 91% for those employees on customer onboarding teams, leaving little time for customer interactions. Over 80% of bank employees give a “moderate” rating to the effectiveness of automation across their functions (onboarding, lending, marketing, contact center), identifying a significant gap between the bank’s aspirations and reality.

Bank employees reported to be most enthusiastic about generative AI copilots’ potential to automate fraud detection, data visualization and analytics, as well as drafting and sending personalized content to customers. The report determines that banks could optimize up to 66% of the time spent on operations, documentation, compliance, and other onboarding-related activities through AI-powered intelligent transformation and generative AI copilots.

Conversational AI could alleviate customer call abandonment

The pandemic shifted customer service offers across to digital channels as self-service tools like chatbots became the norm. Despite this change, customers express dissatisfaction. Nearly two-in-three (61%) bank customers contacted agents because they were unhappy with chatbot resolutions, while 17% simply distrusted chatbots and preferred human agents.

Traditional rule-based chatbots lack the flexibility and adaptability of advanced AI-driven systems due to their inability to handle complex or unanticipated queries. More than 60% of customers rated their experience with chatbots as only average. These conditions mean that call abandonment is on the rise, reaching 12% for Tier I banks and nearly 18% for Tier II banks globally. According to the report, banks should create intelligent contact centers that leverage chatbots with conversational AI capabilities and intelligent copilots to assist agents in their day-to-day tasks.

Report Methodology  

The World Retail Banking Report 2024 cites regional statistics in Capgemini's proprietary market-sizing model, as well as interviews with Capgemini’s partners including Microsoft, Salesforce and Temenos. For this report, the Capgemini Research Institute surveyed more than 250 retail banking executives, 1,500 banking employees and 4,500 banking customers. The report focused on 14 markets – the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, China, India, and Australia.

Kodex AI has joined the NayaOne Tech Marketplace. With a proprietary LLM developed for the financial industry, the enterprise-built generative AI platform helps financial institutions reclaim valuable time, simplify processes, and elevate client interactions.

Financial institutions go to great lengths to recruit the world’s top talent. Yet, many of these highly intelligent financial professionals are slowed down by routine operational tasks. In fact, research shows as much as 75% of a finance professional’s time is spent on manual tasks.

Kodex AI aims to minimise this time. It takes care of the busy work and enables client-facing financial professionals to complete analyses in minutes rather than days. With it, they can find information, analyse data and/or draft reports instantly to free up time for higher-value pursuits: prioritise client connections.

The key benefits and features that Kodex AI’s clients can enjoy are:

Delivering Client Responses Faster: Kodex AI finds and analyses thousands of documents to generate responses to complex financial questions.

Staying Compliant and Preventing Conflicts: Kodex AI helps FIs remain up to date with the ever-changing regulatory requirements while maintaining ethical decision-making without having to sift through various documents.

Reducing and Automating Manual Work: With Kodex AI, users can redirect focus towards more impactful work such as portfolio growth, client retention, and new client wins while Kodex AI takes care of rote tedious tasks.

Creating Compliant Reports in Minutes: Kodex AI automates data gathering and compliance checks, ensuring that suitability reports meet regulatory standards. This modern approach not only enhances efficiency but also guarantees accuracy and precision.

Personalised Investment Recommendations: Kodex AI utilises machine learning to analyse extensive financial data and provide personalised investment recommendations aligned with clients’ unique objectives and preferences.

Boosting Efficiency to Increase Profitability: With Kodex AI, banks and financial institutions can easily attract and onboard new clients. Automated processes for DDQs and KYC checks simplify client acquisition, freeing up valuable time to cultivate relationships and deliver bespoke services, ensuring client retention and long-term profitability.

Kodex AI Helps a Global German Bank Achieve Significant Time Savings on Back-Office Tasks with Higher Service Quality

Kodex AI partnered with one of Germany’s largest banks to achieve:

•  90% time savings for report drafts
• 25% faster client replies
•  40% higher quality output for clients

The collaboration between Kodex AI and NayaOne will further foster innovation in the financial sector and advance financial technologies. By being listed on the NayaOne Tech Marketplace, Kodex AI will be able to strategically position their generative AI technologies to be more accessible to a wide array of financial institutions.

Kodex AI is working closely with NayaOne to ensure that their AI solutions can be customised to meet the specific needs of NayaOne’s diverse client base. This bespoke approach ensures that every financial institution, regardless of size or scope, can leverage AI to its fullest potential, enhancing accuracy, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. In addition, FIs will be able to leverage NayaOne’s Sandbox-as-a- Service platform to build proofs-of-concept, thus determining whether Kodex AI is a good choice for their organisation.

By collaborating with NayaOne, Kodex AI expects to significantly expand its market reach. NayaOne’s established presence and credibility in the financial sector provides it with a unique opportunity to showcase its AI solutions to a global audience. This expansion is not just geographical but also sectoral, allowing Kodex AI to penetrate deeper into niche markets within the finance industry.

"We are thrilled to announce our partnership with NayaOne, a move that represents a significant milestone for Kodex AI. By having our generative AI products featured on NayaOne’s marketplace, we are not only expanding our reach but also providing banks and financial institutions with unparalleled access to cutting-edge AI solutions. This collaboration is a testament to our commitment to innovation and our belief in the transformative power of AI in the financial sector. We are excited to see how our products will empower organisations to drive efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and navigate the complexities of today’s financial landscape. Together with NayaOne, we are setting a new standard for AI in finance."

Thomas Kaiser
CEO and Co-Founder, Kodex AI

"We’re excited to welcome Kodex AI to the NayaOne Tech Marketplace. Kodex AI promises to help banks harness the transformative power of Generative AI, saving costs and resources, improving user experience and satisfaction, and streamlining internal operations, while remaining compliant in a highly regulated industry."

Varun Resh
Marketplace Manager, NayaOne

Mastercard has announced a partnership with ALEXBANK, a bank of the Intesa Sanpaolo group. This collaboration builds on both entities’ shared vision to foster growth, accelerate digitization, and promoting financial inclusion. The partnership leverages Mastercard’s technologies to advance the bank’s payment solutions strategy and enhance the financial services landscape.

With a specific focus on growing ALEXBANK’s exclusive credit card base and acquiring business, Mastercard’s support will enable the bank to grow across various segments. Additionally, Mastercard and ALEXBANK will modernize cardholders’ payment experience by extending new digital offerings across the range of products, with a primary focus on rolling out personalized payment benefits based on the cardholders’ spending behavior.

Additionally, through this partnership, ALEXBANK will leverage Mastercard’s advanced fraud detection tools and cybersecurity solutions, reinforcing payment safety to the bank’s clients. This strategic alliance underscores ALEXBANK and Mastercard’s shared commitment to consumer safety, secure payments, and inclusive growth initiatives.

“We are delighted to strengthen our alliance with Mastercard to empower our client-base in Egypt. Through our continued partnership, we aim to enable our users to experience the full benefits of innovative payment solutions through Mastercard’s multi-rail expertise and expanding suite of programs and services,” said Mr. Tarek Salah, ALEXBANK’s Head of Retail and SME.

“Our longstanding relationship with ALEXBANK in Egypt drives our collective ambition to advance the digital transformation of financial services in Egypt, providing greater access to tools that benefit all stakeholders. By strengthening our partnership, we are poised to deliver innovative payment technologies and digital products, in alignment with the Central Bank’s Financial Inclusion strategy,” said Ms. Inji Borai, Vice President and Country Manager, Egypt, Mastercard.