IBM Study: Gen AI Will Elevate Financial Performance of Banks in 2025
Weekly news up to Monday, 10th of February 2025
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
FinTech company P2P partnered with FinTech and embedded finance firm Mbanq to launch a digital finance platform for Brazilians in the United States.
The P2P app helps users handle their finances in the U.S. and send money to family in Brazil, the companies said in a Thursday (Feb. 6) press release.
📰ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🔦 DIGITAL BANKING HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Vantage Bank chooses Finzly to modernize payment operations through unified payment hub.
⭐️ IBM Study: Gen AI will elevate financial performance of banks in 2025.
⭐️ UK’s Aldermore Bank selects Temenos to launch new small business savings notice accounts.
⭐️ Deutsche Bank & Yonyou help Chinese enterprises to go global.
Explore Latin America’s FinTech growth. Join my weekly newsletter to stay informed—don’t miss a beat!
🌎 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
UK 🇬🇧
Would a UK exit help make sense of Santander’s sprawling empire? The bank is exploring a number of strategic options for its UK business, one of which is potentially exiting the British retail market where it has had a presence since 2004. Continue reading
HSBC considers CEO pay overhaul as UK banks dump bonus caps. The bank could hand its new CEO Georges Elhedery a package worth as much as £15 million under a fresh plan that is being discussed, a person familiar with the matter said. Continue reading
EUROPE 🇪🇺
Viva.com merges e-money and banking licenses across Europe. The company will provide businesses a single value-driven platform for payments acceptance, card issuing, and banking that will accelerate the adoption of the latest technology, with unmatched convenience and efficiency.
JPMorgan Chase’s $𝟵𝟭𝟳 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 investment in a Greek FinTech company. JPMorgan bought Viva.com to boost an international expansion that aimed to create a tech hub in Greece but went so wrong that the bank last year offered to sell back half of its stake at a valuation of $𝟭𝟳𝟱 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻.
N26 is about to launch a bank account for businesses. The bank already offers consumer accounts and business accounts for freelancers. Now, it is stepping up and getting ready to compete with other neobanks that have already been offering these business accounts.
Revolut Business has announced a record-breaking growth in the Italian travel sector, which reported a 74% increase in new customer acquisitions in 2024. Among Travel and Hospitality companies 57% faced disruptions due to payment processing issues with traditional banks. 79% noted that FinTech providers helped reduce administrative tasks.
USA 🇺🇸
Telcoin received approval for its Digital Asset Depository Bank Charter. This approval marks a significant milestone in the integration of digital assets into the traditional banking framework. It will issue US dollar-backed stablecoins to facilitate its safekeeping and seamless integration into mainstream financial systems using independent node verification networks.
Ripple Partners with Revolut and Zero Hash. Through the strategic partnership, Ripple Labs’ RLUSD will be listed for seamless trading in different markets. Both Revolut and Zero Hash customers can now access RLUSD on both XRPL and Ethereum (ETH) networks.
MongoDB collaborates with Lombard Odier. They work together to create customizable generative AI tooling, including scripts and prompts tailored for the bank's unique tech stack, which accelerated the modernization process by automating integration testing and code generation for seamless deployment.
US banks raise equity to jumpstart deals and bolster balance sheets. The volume of banks' equity raises increased after the election, as investors became more optimistic that regulators will allow more mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry, said Morgan Stanley's global Co-Head of Financial Institutions.
LATAM
Revolut is finalizing the details of its official entry into Peru. The neobank has already hired an executive to lead its expansion and is now fine-tuning legal details to comply with regulatory requirements, including the formal application for an operating license from the Superintendency of Banking, Insurance, and AFP.
Ualá announced its conversational AI platform, aimed at transforming customer service powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. According to the company, this technology not only understands user inquiries but also proactively offers personalized solutions, significantly improving the customer experience.
ASIA
Netbank to deliver blockchain-based business financing to Jia Finance. By leveraging Netbank’s advanced banking infrastructure, Jia will scale its invoice financing solutions, bringing unprecedented access to capital for SMEs in the Philippines.
ZA Bank partners with TransUnion to offer the TransUnion Credit Alert Service. Users can access the service through the ZA Bank app for free. The service will notify them of changes to their credit report. This includes new credit report enquiries for loan and credit card applications, new credit accounts opened under their name, and changes to addresses or phone numbers.
AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
CommBank and AWS expand collaboration to deliver global best cloud and AI capabilities. By rearchitecting a significant percentage of its workloads onto AWS, and using cloud native designs, Commbank is further simplifying the bank’s technology environment.
AFRICA
FirstRand Group selects Fiserv to accelerate growth and innovation. It will also power its digital transformation and support the broader innovation initiative and growth objectives of its customer franchises FNB (Retail and commercial banking) and RMB (Corporate and investment banking).