EWise, a leading international provider of Personal Financial Management (PFM) and account aggregation solutions, has been serving some of the world’s most innovative banks and financial institutions including HSBC, Westpac, and FirstDirect. Launched in 2000, eWise’s flagship product, labeled Money Manager, basically brings into one single platform all your financial data. The solution includes Account Aggregation and Personal Financial Management tools, allowing users to understand and manage their money better, while providing banks with tools to enhance engagement and expand relationships. Money Manager uses the eWise “Personal Data Vault” (PDV), a feature that stores users’ credentials securely and privately on a chosen device.…

WORLDWEBFORUM/Fintech is just a few days ahead and will bring together some of world’s leading fintech entrepreneurs and experts to discuss the future of finance. On January 29th, senior executives from top fintech startups, banks, as well as governmental representatives, will gather at WORLDWEBFORUM/Fintech in Zurich in cooperation with Leonteq, an event sponsored by the likes of Helvetia, Ernst & Young, Cornèr Bank, to discuss all things in fintech. WORLDWEBFORUM/FinTech, which intends to be an “open and neutral platform to discuss the vast and dynamic potential of financial technology,” will host a set of keynotes and panel discussions entirely dedicated to…

Fintech Switzerland Infographic 2016:In this Infographic you will find facts about Fintech and Switzerland, such as information about the population, Mobile Penetration, Mobile-Demographics, upcoming Fintech Events in Q1 and about Swiss Fintech Startups. Please share. Infographic Fintech Switzerland 2016

Die FinTech-App FinanceFox, die Versicherer, Vermittler und ihre Kunden zusammenbringt, hat eine Finanzierungsrunde über 5,5 Millionen US-Dollar abgeschlossen. Angeführt wird die Finanzierung von Salesforce Ventures, auf deren Plattform die App zudem basiert. Weitere Investoren der App sind AngelList, Idinvest, Seedcamp und Speedinvest. Mit dem Kapital wird FinanceFox das Marketing und den Vertrieb in der Schweiz und in Deutschland ausbauen sowie weitere Märkte erschliessen. Die Digitalisierung des Versicherungsmarkts eröffnet allen Beteiligten vollkommen neue Möglichkeiten bei Service und Transparenz. Die daraus resultierenden Mehrwerte integriert FinanceFox in sein hybrides Geschäftsmodell aus moderner App-Technologie und persönlicher Beratung auf Basis des traditionellen Versicherungsgeschäfts. Damit werden…

Robinhood, a major American brokerage known for being the first company to offer zero trading commissions for US listed stocks as well as zero account minimums, is planning to launch in Europe as the company seeks for a “Chief Executive to lead and operate [its] planned UK/EU expansion,” according to a new job listing. In May 2015, the company triggered its global expansion following a US$50 million round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), announcing Australia as its first international market. Robinhood has since been waiting for its regulatory approval. Launched in 2013, the Robinhood app lets users…

As the New Year beckons, it’s time to speculate about what 2016 holds. Here are nine predictions from Ben Robinson, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Temenos. 1. Talent management will be a much bigger issue. In Temenos’ annual banking survey, double the number of bankers compared to last year told us that attracting and retaining the right talent was their biggest priority. And it is in technology that the issue is most acute. Banking has become a relatively less attractive place to work at the same time as facing increased competition with all industries for the same kinds of scarce…

Global investment in financial technology ventures, or fintechs, tripled to US$12.21 billion in 2014, according to Accenture, a clear indication that the financial sector is poised to be disrupted by new entrants. Global fintech investment jumped 201% between 2013 and 2014 with Europe experiencing the highest level of growth with a year-on-year increase of 215%. But who exactly are betting on the European fintech sector? Today, we compile a list of some of the biggest investors in financial technology. We excluded the Accelerators.  You can check out with the following link our separate list of the Top 10 Fintech Accelerators in Europe.…

Microsoft has launched in the US a new feature that allows Windows 10 users who are Sprint customers to add their phone number to the Windows Store and make purchases on all kinds of devices, including mobiles and desktops. Next stop will be Switzerland, according to reports from Forbes. Microsoft, which announced plans to integrate direct carrier billing back in April 2015, has moved forward with its plans, launching earlier this month the new feature in the US thanks to a partnership with Boku. Boku, a 155-employee firm based in San Francisco, is a leading direct carrier billing mobile payments company…

Top 9 Fintech Podcasts: Podcasts use an audio file to share information through computers or portable music devices. When they are well conceived, they become an effective, portable, convenient and intimate way to deliver and produce content. Since the past few years, podcasting has been taking off and you can literally find all sorts of podcasts online. But today, let’s focus on fintech shows with our nine favorite fintech podcasts. Have fun and listen to the best fintech podcasts when driving, at home or during running. If you like reading more: Check the list of the Top 10 Fintech Books  and of the Top 10…

Swiss watchmaker Swatch is partnering with Visa Europe to enable cardholders to “tap and pay” with the firm’s freshly announced NFC-enabled analog watch the Swatch Bellamy. Announced at the landmark Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, the new Swatch Bellamy is set to launch in Switzerland, the US, Brazil and China in early 2016 and represent the company’s answer to smartwatches. “We want to stay away from that connectivity to the cloud and the Internet, because we don’t want you to lose control of your data,” Nick Hayek, co-founder and CEO of the Swatch Group, told the Wall Street Journal.…

It requires grounding to become realistic, reshape your personal or environmental development and make progress. A highly exaggerating press and a ton of only cheering coverage led to my conviction about writing this article. Dennis Just, Founder and CEO of Knip FinTech is hot. InsurTech is hotter. And Knip is one of the frontrunners in Europe serving tens of-thousands of customers and convincing backers to invest more than CHF 17 million in total funding so far. I would like to reflect on the hype and concerns from the perspective of a CEO and Founder who is trying to break new ground in one of the…

The founder and former chairman of Canadian foreign exchange company OANDA, Richard Olsen, has unveiled his most recent venture: a global marketplace for multiple assets and financial instrument built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Dubbed Lykke, the company launched in late-September and seeks to provide every person on the planet with market access as well as the ability to issues his or her currencies. Qualifying distributed ledger technology as “one of the greatest innovations in recent history,” Olsen said his company will use the Bitcoin blockchain as a global notary service to record and settle all types of transactions. Lykke, a…

Banks and fintech startups have more business interests in common than issues that divide them, according to a new report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The document, entitled ‘The Disruption Of Banking,’ is based on surveys of more than 100 senior bankers and 100 fintech executives and seeks to determine their respective views on the impact of financial technologies. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of both banks and these new players and the likely outcome of the phenomena for the retail banking industry over the next five years. Findings suggest that 33% of bankers predict the upcoming retail banking…

Known in the UK as the “cheapest online broker,” iDealing is now further expanding in Europe, launching an aggressive commercial policy and removing brokerage commission for stocks listed on the Dutch, French or Belgian Euronext markets. Last week, London-based European online securities brokerage iDealing became the first broker in the continent to provide its clients with commission-free trading, a news that broke simultaneously with the announcement that the company has launched in the Netherlands and Belgium. According to Lee Foster Bowman, the founder and managing director of iDealing and a former banker at major banks and financial institutions including Barclays,…

Fintech startups are “cannibalizing banks,” attacking every single service typically provided by financial institutions ranging from lending to wealth management among many other areas. Their key strengths: they understand much better the real consumers’ needs and “excel” in meeting those needs, according to IT consulting firm OCTO Technology. In a white paper called ‘Fintech is Cannibalizing Banks,’ the France-headquartered consulting firm argues that in a world that is changing at the pace of technology, the digital era will not spare any industry, and especially not the financial and banking industry. Since the subprime crisis, governments have been calling for more…

Bank boardrooms dramatically lack technology expertise with only 6% of board directors and 3% of CEO of the world’s biggest banks having expertise in the field, according to a report from Accenture. At the time when banks’ major challenges are “intimately connected with technology,” banks need to re-think their boardroom culture and start including at least one or two technology experts in their board, the consulting firm said. “It’s not sufficient for banks to just realize that their businesses are under threat and that innovation is critical to prevent them from being disrupted,” Richard Lumb, group chief executive of Financial…

Identity and access management is no exception to the digitization of everything. The use of biometric features, behavioral aspects and physiological technologies is just around the corner, bringing new authentication and authorization methods to the market. Another wave of technology disruption or an actual business need? by Maurice Bollag*, Senior Manager Ernst&Young Era of digitalization and disruptive technology The unprecedented explosion of technology disruption and innovation, the velocity of change and the tremendous impact on businesses are ultimately forcing a large number of industries to increase the pace at which they do business and transform technology. At the same time, the need…

Die in Zürich ansässige Fintech-Plattform Nexussquared hat den Setup und Zeitplan für ihr virtuelles Blockchain Startup-Programm Nexuslab bekanntgegeben. Nexuslab verfolgt bei der Unterstützung von Startups einen neuartigen Ansatz und bietet ein Programm, das die Blockchain-Paradigmen Dezentralisation, Vertrauen und Effizienz wiederspiegelt. Durch eine Zusammenarbeit mit Startupbootcamp Fintech erweitert Nexuslab das eigene Mentorennetzwerk und vertieft das vorhandene Expertenwissen. Anfang 2016 wird Nexuslab den ersten Durchgang seines dreimonatigen Programms starten, welches primär auf einem virtuellen Setup aufbaut. Gestützt auf eine sichere Kollaborationsplattform wird Nexuslab den Teilnehmern massgeschneidertes Coaching und On-Demand Training anbieten. Drei an verschiedenen Wochenenden stattfindende „Hangout Sessions“ in Europäischen Metropolen geben…

Each week, a tremendous amount of news stories related to bitcoin and blockchain technology are being published. At Fintechnews alone, not one week passes by without at least two or three new articles on the matter. Surely, Bitcoin is hot topic and all major news organizations, blogs and firms are talking about its disruptive potential in all sorts of industries, either it is in the financial services sector or for other use cases such as personal identification and document certification. For those you arrived late to the party and kind of missed the boat, Diana Biggs, Founder of Global Fintech…

The blockchain has the potential to do much more than just support cryptocurrencies; in fact, Capgemini expects that the technology will “revolutionize the financial services sector… [by providing] unprecedented transaction security through cryptography.” In a new report called ‘Blockchain: A Fundamental Shift for Financial Services Institutions,’ French multinational management consulting corporation Capgemini, looks at blockchain technology and explores how the technology can transform banks financial institutions. “Beginning from a ‘standing start’ 7 years ago, we are now witnessing the first tentative steps of blockchain technology adoption quicken as interest widens and investment accelerates,” Capgemini said, indicating that startups, corporations and…