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
- Tinkoff Bank launches its Tinkoff Mortgage mobile application for its mortgage customers and partners.
- Emerging Europe looks at the growth potential of the Romanian fintech market.
- Government of Ukraine announces plans to legalize cryptocurrencies within three years.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Emirates NBD launches its API sandbox.
- Arab Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade (Al Masraf) licenses Temenos‘ Learning Community Engine.
- Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB) signs up for merchant acquiring solutions from Arab Financial Services (AFS).
- Alejma’s Alarabi Bank (AAB) of Libya picks Temenos’ T24 core banking system as part of infrastructure renovation.
Central and South Asia
- State Bank of India (SBI) to build card acceptance and digital payments platform as part of collaboration with Hitachi Payments.
- Tajikistan’s first Islamic bank, Sohibkorbank, to deploy Ethix core banking system from International Turnkey Systems.
- Open Financial Technologies and ICICI Bank of India partner to offer payments platform for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Fiserv powers digital banking platform for Bogota Savings Bank.
- BioCatch partners with 7 tier-one Latin American banks.
- Visa makes its first investment in Brazil, announcing a minority stake in payment processing platform, Conductor.
Asia-Pacific
- Temenos partners with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) to launch innovation lab.
- StashAway, a roboadvisor based in Singapore, expands to Malaysia.
- Australian neobank, Xinja, hires Moven founder Brett King as a permanent advisor.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- New challenger mutual bank in South Africa, Bank Zero, announces trial run.
- Core banking software technology startup, Riby, picks up investment from Nigerian firm, Microtraction.
- First Bank of Nigeria goes live with chat banking on WhatsApp courtesy of partnership with Clickatell.
- Absa Group collaborates with MTN to support POS payments via mobile wallet in Ghana.