Temenos Acquires Explainable AI Platform Logical Glue

Temenos Acquires Explainable AI Platform Logical Glue

Explainable AI – which enables human analysts who aren’t data scientists to understand how artificial intelligence-based solutions reach their conclusions – is at the center of the prize that is Temenos’ acquisition of explainable AI innovator Logical Glue. Temenos announced today that it will integrate the Logical Glue XAI platform into its cloud-native, cloud-agnostic banking solution, and will be available with all Temenos products.

Many view Explainable AI as a critical component in making artificial intelligence work in heavily-regulated industries like banking and finance. Temenos CEO Max Chuard called the technology “a game changer” for customers, adding: “It will give them greater transparency and explainability of AI automated decisions and recommendations helping them harness AI technology to create seamless customer journeys and automate manual processes while meeting the growing regulatory demands.”

Logical Glue provides a purpose-built, Machine Learning as a Service platform that does the work of data scientists at speed and scale. The company’s technology, demonstrated live at FinovateEurope 2016, enables users to leverage raw data to build highly accurate predictive models, see how those models can be applied to real-world business challenges, and then apply those models to the new data in real-time.

“With our patented, cutting-edge XAI platform and our highly experienced machine learning experts, we are helping financial institutions harness the explosive power of XAI and helping them master AI decision-making,” said Logical Glue co-founder and Chief Science Officer Hani Hagras.

Founded in 2012, Logical Glue is headquartered in London, U.K. In May, Logical Glue announced a partnership with managing digital agent Azur to help the company improve its risk analysis. Two years ago, Logical Glue secured an investment from U.K. entrepreneur Tom Singh, founder of fashion retailer New Look. “Logical Glue provides a straightforward and accessible machine learning platform for lenders and insurance providers,” Singh said in a statement when the investment was announced. “(The technology delivers) faster and more accurate decisions that will underpin increased productivity and profitability.”

Temenos demonstrated its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015. The company is also an alum of our developers conference, presenting its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015. Based in Geneva, Switzerland and founded in 1993, Temenos notes that more than 3,000 firms around the world – including 41 of the top 50 banks – are daily users of its banking, payments, fund, and wealth management solutions.

Settle Launches Mobile App in Croatia; Sr. Pago Partners with American Express

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • RISQ Teams Up with Aion Digital to Boost SME Lending in MENA.
  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Egyptian Banks Company, which will leverage ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution.
  • The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has begun issuing digital banking licenses.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Bangalore-based neobank for workers NiYO raises $35 million in new funding.
  • WebMoney Transfer goes live with its WMY wallet in Uzbekistan.
  • India’s Recko, a company that provides AI-powered digital transaction reconciliation, picks up $1 million in seed capital.
  • Swiss payments technology company BPC opens offices in Pakistan.
  • Nikkei Asian Review highlights Vymo and its entrance to the Japanese market.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Jumio to power digital identity for Brazil-based BTG Pactual.
  • Mexico’s Sr.Pago announces partnership with American Express.
  • Mastercard Brazil partners with Airfox and banQi to bring lower-cost banking options to Brazilian customers.

Asia-Pacific

  • Bank of Thailand implements SimCorp Dimension to manage its reserve management and monetary policy operations.
  • Vietnam’s central bank warns against fraud in the P2P lending market.
  • Regulators in the Philippines introduce new rules governing crowdfunding.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Temenos to power digital transformation for Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali. The company will also replace core and front office legacy systems for South African microfinancier Barko
  • Ghana to launch universal QR code payment method later this year.
  • Mobile payments startup OPay raises $50 million in funding in round led by Sequoia China, IDG Capital, and Source Code Capital.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Settle launches its mobile payments app in Croatia.
  • Czech-based fintech developer Turing Technology closes second round of funding.
  • Slovenia’s Telekom Slovenije introduces its mobile wallet.

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Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • InComm Makes Third Acquisition this Year with Purchase of Meridian Loyalty.
  • Email Security Specialist GreatHorn Locks in $13 Million Investment.

Around the web

  • Monzo partners with Xero and Free Agent.
  • Temenos to power digital transformation for Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali.
  • BuiltIn features HooYu in its look at how AI is changing the banking industry.
  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Egyptian Banks Company, which will leverage ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution.
  • Entrepreneur magazine names Lendio Franchising as a Top 100 Franchise for Less Than $50,000 in 2019 and as the Best Financial Services Franchise Brand for the second year in a row.
  • Yseop recognized as a representative vendor in Gartner’s first Market Guide for Natural Language Generation Platforms.
  • Saga selects FIS to deploy its Integrity SaaS solution.
  • iSignthis launches third European office in Gzira, Malta.
  • In June Personal Capital surpasses $10 billion in assets under management, an increase of more than $2 billion since Q4 2018.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

How Facebook’s Libra Looks from Latin America; Indian Neobank Raises $30 Million

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Capetown, South Africa-based digital lender Lulalend raises $6.5 million in Series A.
  • Techpoint Africa looks at how fintechs are “democratizing investment opportunities” for Nigerians across the income spectrum.
  • The Catalyst Fund announces that three Africa-based fintechs – Turaco, Chipper Cash, and Salutat – will join its accelerator program.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Estonia’s Tallinn Business Bank (TBB) partners with Icefire and Token to deliver PSD2 compliance.
  • Cointelegraph profiles Warsaw, Poland’s Alior Bank leverages Ethereum blockchain to authenticate client documents.
  • Polish Netflix subscribers will soon be able to pay for their viewing via the country’s Blik payment system.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Bahrain’s Bank ABC partners with Jumio, making it the first bank in the MENA region to offer biometric-based, digital KYC.
  • Egypt’s Banque du Caire to deploy omni-channel banking technology from Temenos.
  • Wamda interviews Elie Nasr founder of Lebanese fintech startup FOO.

Central and Southern Asia

  • The Bank of Mongolia will implement Intellect Design Arena’s Quantum Central Banking Solution as part of its digital transformation.
  • Indian SME-based neobank Open raises $30 million in Series B funding.
  • India’s Wizely introduces a new mobile savings account.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Contxto looks at the current fintech landscape of Mexico.
  • How will Facebook’s Libra project impact Latin America?
  • BBVA announces major changes to mortgage portfolio, including a rate reduction.

Asia-Pacific

  • U.K. regtech firm ClauseMatch teams up with Singapore-based consultancy Ingenia, the company’s first client in the country.
  • Axinan to work with PT Sompo Insurance to provide on-demand insurance options to Indonesian millennials.
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore to issue as many as five new digital bank licenses.

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ABN Amro Teams Up with Temenos

ABN Amro Teams Up with Temenos

ABN Amro has gone live with Temenos WealthSuite in a first site as it seeks to roll out the digital platform for its international wealth and corporate banking, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The project marks a shift by the Dutch bank to a single platform, with the aim of reducing IT operational costs and achieving an improved cost/income ratio.

The first international branch to go live with the system will be in Belgium, with another two countries lined up for implementation in the next multi-year phase. Temenos’ long-standing partner, Cognizant, is providing consulting and system integration services for the project.

ABN Amro is a long-term customer of Temenos. The T24 core banking platform was taken for its corporate banking activities in 2009 and is now live in nine countries. The bank was also a pioneer for Temenos’ Payments solution. It also selected the Temenos Continuous Deployment product to speed up its software delivery and rapidly launch new innovations.

Friso Westra, head of IT development core banking international at ABN Amro, said: “We selected Temenos as our technology partner to future-proof the ongoing growth of our private bank”.

Westra has been working closely with Temenos and their implementation partner, Cognizant. “We experienced a smooth go-live with Temenos WealthSuite [and] we are confident of achieving our ambition in offering the most innovative wealth management products and services in the industry,” added Westra.

Temenos WealthSuite provides multi-channel, 24/7 real-time capability to support wealth managers in delivering client services, while automating compliance and back office functions. Temenos claims WealthSuite currently helps advisors manage $12 trillion assets under management.

Temenos demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2015, presenting its Connect Mobile Banking solution. The company also participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, later that year, discussing its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace. Founded in 1993, Temenos is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

ACI Invests in Indian Payments; Brazilian Fintech Picks Up $200M from Japan

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Central and Southern Asia

  • ACI Worldwide invests in Mumbai, India-based payments innovator, Mindgate Solutions.
  • Pakistan’s Bank of Khyber to deploy new core banking system from Temenos.
  • Infosys earns recognition as a ‘leader’ in the IDC MarketSpace: Worldwide IT Service Management (ITSM) Implementation Services 2019 Vendor Assessment.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian fintech Creditas picks up $200 million investment from Japan’s Softbank, boosting the company’s valuation to $700 million.
  • Crowdfund Insider reveals the 3 Biggest Fintech Trends Shaping Latin America.
  • Amero-Isatek to open its first brick and mortar cryptocurrency exchange in Mexico’s Nuevo Leon, Monterrey.

Asia-Pacific

  • Splitit partners with EFTPay to bring installment payments to merchants in Hong Kong and Macau.
  • Vietnam’s MSB (Maritime Bank) picks SunTec for its customer centricity system.
  • Morocco-based BMCE Bank of Africa to leverage technology from Temenos to drive new corporate banking and trade finance operation in China.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Global Finance investigates the rise of Africa’s entrepreneurial class in the private banking industry.
  • Finextra looks at three reasons why fintech is driving change in Africa.
  • Standard Bank introduces new Mastercard-powered ditital trade solution, SimplyBlu, for SMEs in South Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Wallet, the PFM app from Prague-based fintech BudgetBakers, earns license from Czech National Bank to join the bank’s APIs.
  • New lending platform for “multi-credit” services, Omnicredit, goes live in Romania.
  • Global Finance interviews Alexey Krgulov, Acting Director of Digital Business Platform with Sberbank.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Turkey’s Isbank partners with Russian PSP Yandex.Checkout to support e-commerce between the two companies.
  • Disrupt Africa features MerQ, an Egyptian startup that leverages AI to promote financial literacy.
  • AMEinfo publishes its report on banking and fintech in the Middle East and Africa.

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Temenos Teams Up with Eurobank, Bank of Khyber

Temenos Teams Up with Eurobank, Bank of Khyber

Eurobank Group is to overhaul its core and digital banking with Temenos’ T24 Transact and T24 Infinity, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The project will cover the group’s international operations. It will start in Cyprus, with the intention of swiftly moving on to Eurobank Private Bank Luxemburg, with Eurobank Bulgaria AD (Postbank) and Eurobank AD Beograd (Serbia) also on the roadmap.

The project comprises a full IT renovation program. The bank has also taken Temenos’ WealthSuite for Cyprus and Luxembourg, with the aim of reducing time-to-market for new products and services and improving automation of its private banking operations.

Also in the mix is Temenos Analytics to support Eurobank’s marketing campaigns. Development tools, which will use the T24 APIs, are intended to speed up building and deploying applications around the core.

In terms of the initial project in Cyprus, Stavros Ioannou, deputy CEO and group COO, Eurobank, said: “We look forward to this cooperation, as this is the first stage in the wider implementation of Temenos banking software across the group.” He described the project as supporting the bank’s “vital digital transformation journey” which is intended to shape “advanced relationships” and provide customers with “high quality service and a vast variety of innovative and tailor made products.”

The bank currently uses a range of legacy international and Greek packages, including Oracle FSS’s Flexcube in Serbia and CSoft’s VCSBank++ in Bulgaria, FinTech Futures understands. The holding group is Greece-based EFG Eurobank Ergasias.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, in 2015. The company is also an alum of our Finovate conferences, demonstrating its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope – also in 2015.

In other Temenos news, the company announced a partnership with Pakistan-based Bank of Khyber, which will also deploy Temenos’ T24 Transact and Infinity solutions.

National Data Consultants (NDC), Temenos’ partner in the region, was selected as the system integrator for the project.

Government-owned Bank of Khyber embarked on new core banking software search in 2018, as reported by FinTech Futures, looking for new tech to support its network of 166 domestic branches (including 84 Islamic banking branches).

Temenos and NDC were selected “after a thorough due diligence process,” according to Muhammad Azfar Latif, CIO, Bank of Khyber.

“We hope to turn this bank as a model for other industry players locally and internationally,” he said.

Saif Ul Islam, MD and CEO, Bank of Khyber, believes the new technology will enable the bank “to have a strong footing on the digital platforms.” It also meets “the bank’s strategic long-term plans in increasing operational efficiency,” he added.

Jean-Paul Mergeai, MD, Temenos Middle East and Africa, said Bank of Khyber has become the thirteenth bank in Pakistan to join the vendor’s client list. Other T24 Transact users in the country include Khushhali Bank, State Bank of Pakistan, Silkbank, Soneri Bank, and Meezan Bank.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • BeSmartee Unveils New Mortgage TPO Platform.

Around the web

  • Identitii is now a ‘Co-Sell Ready’ partner for Microsoft.
  • Feedzai launches tools to help banks offer account opening solutions with fraud prevention.
  • Bankingblocks leverages Five Degrees’ Matrix solution as its digital core banking platform.
  • Eurobank Group selects TemenosT24 Transact for its subsidiaries.
  • Insuritas Launches Tucson Federal Insurance Agency for Tucson FCU.
  • Former Mastercard executive David Yates joins Yoyo as chairman.
  • AlphaPoint names co-founder Igor Telyatnikov as its new CEO.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Qatar Backs SoFi; Ripple Powers Cross-Border Payments in Brazil

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • SoFi announces $500 million investment led by Qatar.
  • Emirates NBD to leverage technology from Amazon Web Services to build an AI-enabled “bank of the future”.
  • New partnership between Turkey’s Isbank and Yandex.Checkout to support transactions in rubles for Russians shopping online in Turkey.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Strands strikes digital banking deal with India’s Tech Mahindra.
  • BankBazaar to offer financing options for customers of furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry.
  • Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, a premier think tank of the Indian government, sees a $31 billion Indian fintech market by 2020.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian exchange brokerage, Frente Corretora de Cambio, goes live with cross-border remittance solution powered by Ripple technology.
  • World Finance features Sao Paulo among its Top 5 Emerging Fintech Hubs.
  • IMFBlog looks at how fintech can lower remittance costs in Latin America.

Asia-Pacific

  • The central bank of Indonesia, Bank Indonesia, unveils its Quick Response Indonesia Standard (QRIS), a new QR code system.
  • Mastercard and UOB partner to introduce the UOB Retail Business Metal Card designed for APAC SMEs.
  • B2B cross border payments company TransferMate picks up payment license in Singapore.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Ghana’s ARB Apex Bank reups with Temenos.
  • Titan Trust Bank of Nigeria chooses Oracle FSS for its core and digital banking technology.
  • CNBCAfrica profiles South African payments and merchant acquiring solutions provider Crossfin.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Lithuania fintech Paysera goes live in Romania.
  • Polish “credit of fintech-as-a-service” innovator Symmetrical.ai raises $1.5 million (€1.3m) in funding.
  • Billon Solutions and Microsoft announce partnership with the University of Warsaw to develop academic use cases for DLT technology.

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Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Dashlane Raises $110 Million for Password Security.
  • Strands Strikes Digital Banking Deal with Tech Mahindra.

Around the web

  • Paysend to launch crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.com.
  • Ghana’s ARB Apex Bank reups with Temenos.
  • Exate Technologies joins OpenFin’s fintech ecosystem.
  • Forbes: PayPal’s Latest Milestone: $10 Billion In Small Business Loans.
  • Atlanta Small Business Network looks at how Fiserv delivers fraud prevention across the globe.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Brazil-Mexico Fintech Bromance Continues; Iran to Build Blockchain Network

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • FintechOS of Romania raises $1.23 million (€1.1 million) in post-seed funding.
  • Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of Russia, talks about the state of Russian fintech.
  • Lithuania’s Evarest to launch a stock trading app in the second half of the year.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • B.R. Shetty’s BRS Ventures Investment backs Dubai-based NewBridge Fintech Solutions.
  • A partnership between Alipay and Turkish payment platform ininal will help Chinese shoppers transact with Turkish merchants.
  • Iran to develop national blockchain network based on IBM Hyperledger Fabric.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian B2B payments firm PayMate announces plans to expand to the Middle East
  • Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal, bans Chinese digital wallet Alipay and WeChat Pay over foreign currency earnings concerns.
  • Myanmar’s Global Treasure Bank (GTB) implements Infosys Finacle’s core banking solution.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • The fintech relationship between Mexico and Brazil grows stronger as Startup Mexico opens its first overseas campus in Sao Paulo.
  • The Association of Fintech Companies of Chile (FinteChile) reports on the “four pillars” of Chilean fintech: Talent, Capital, Regulation, and Demand.
  • The Financial Times looks at Brazil’s Nubank and its efforts to grow in the Mexican market.

Asia-Pacific

  • Temenos partners with UBX to bring digital banking to underserved communities in the Philippines.
  • Singapore-based cross-border payments firm Instarem teams up with Thailand’s KBank.
  • Bank of Shanghai and OCBC deepen strategic partnership.
  • Boku integrates with digital payments solution Grab in order to expand payment options in Southeast Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Equities.com features Flutterwave, the company that designed the payments platform for newly-public African e-commerce startup Jumia.
  • Nigeria’s OPay Mobile Money solution reaches 20,000 agents.
  • Safaricom teams up with Vodacom to acquire intellectual property rights to M-Pesa’s mobile financial service platform.

Top image designed by Freepik

UBX and Temenos to Deliver Inclusive Digital Banking to Philippines

UBX and Temenos to Deliver Inclusive Digital Banking to Philippines

Banking technology vendor Temenos is partnering with UBX to deliver digital banking to millions of unbanked and underserved customers in the Philippines, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.

The fintech subsidiary of UnionBank of the Philippines, UBX has developed a range of plug-and-play services to help rural banks reach customers in remote communities.

These include the blockchain-based i2i turnkey solution, which connects rural banks to each other and to the Philippines’ main financial networks.

Having partnered with Temenos, UBX can now offer core banking software to its partner financial institutions, through Temenos T24 Transact.

Temenos says its cloud-native, cloud-agnostic, API-first banking software will provide greater levels of agility and scalability for rural banks, cooperatives and microfinance institutions.

“At UBX, our mission is to build platforms that bring businesses and people together,” says John Januszczak, CEO of UBX. “As part of that, we provide access to needed technology and services while connecting communities.

“The rural banking community in the Philippines has been championing financial inclusion for decades. Temenos will help us provide the most tailored, innovative and advanced core banking solution to our rural banking customers.”

The partnership aims to deliver digital banking to millions of people over the next five years.

Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. With clients in 145+ countries, Temenos employs more than 4,600 people in 63 offices. The company has a market capitalization of $12.5 billion.