Participants have until 1 September to build their app, using Finastra’s US Banking APIs, accessible for free on the FusionFabric.cloud platform. Apps should focus on areas such as saving and spending controls, personal finance management, engagement channels, payments, and notifications.

A panel will pick a shortlist of 10 entrants, which will get their efforts promoted to retail banks. A final three apps will then be presented to the audience at Finastra Universe - Community Markets in Chicago, where a winner will be picked.

Vincent Pugliese, GM, US retail and lending solutions, Finastra, says: "Finastra works with more than 4000 community banks and credit unions in North America, all of which are eager to deliver new and innovative products and services to their customers. FusionFabric.cloud makes this possible by blasting open the doors for collaboration between financial institutions, Fintechs, developers, students and others."

The appathon follows a recent successful 48-hour hackathon in London, which saw over 100 developers from fintech and tech firms code around the clock. The winner, 15-year-old student Scott Hiett, built Hyber, an AI-based foreign exchange app that allows users to grow holiday money ahead of their trip.

The additional investment in Grab takes Invesco’s overall total to US$703 million and re-affirms its belief in Grab’s vision and plan for the region. Earlier this year, Invesco successfully completed its acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, which first invested US$403 million in Grab in July 2018. Invesco’s acquisition of OppenheimerFunds brought Invesco’s total assets under management to $1.2 trillion, making it the sixth-largest US retail investment manager and the thirteenth-largest global investment manager.

Speaking on the investment, Justin Leverenz, Team Leader and Senior Portfolio Manager (Invesco Emerging Markets), Invesco, said, “We are very excited to increase our stake in Grab and support their endeavour of bringing more everyday services, greater accessibility and convenience to users in Southeast Asia. We have been closely watching Southeast Asia and have every confidence in Grab’s ability to unlock new opportunities across on-demand mobility, delivery and financial services in the region. Grab is well-positioned, as a super app that is second-to-none in the region, to spearhead the evolution of user-driven technologies that will accelerate progress in Southeast Asia.”

This latest show of confidence from a leading investor comes amid Grab’s rapid growth this year, powered by investments from key strategic partners, including US$1.46 billion from the SoftBank Vision Fund earlier this year.

Ming Maa, President, Grab, added, “As a global investment powerhouse, Invesco is one of the smartest investors in developing markets. We are grateful for Invesco’s continued support and conviction in our business strategy and market position. We remain laser focused on expanding our financial services and mobility-enabled services businesses. The continued support from top-notch strategic partners attest to Grab’s ability to execute with precision and a hyperlocal focus to deliver first-to-market innovations.”

“The new strategic agenda acknowledges the trends towards globalisation and regionalisation of payment services. Our vision encapsulates a payments system that continues to inspire trust and confidence and to support the economy in this dynamic, global context”, said Robert Milliner, Chairman of the APC.

The APC’s 2015 Australian Payments Plan outlined a future in which digital payments would become integrated and, ultimately, embedded into our everyday lives. Over the last three years, the Plan has guided industry thinking in areas such as the changing payments mix, open data and digital identity.

“Our strategic agenda builds on that work, and also represents a step change in our approach to ensuring the resilience, efficiency, accessibility and adaptability of the payments system as our world becomes increasingly globalised, digitalised and inter-connected”, said Mr Milliner.

The strategic agenda sets five key focus areas for the APC’s work:
• Systemic resilience: The APC will lead a programme of work designed to identify, manage and mitigate risks to payments system resilience.
• Combatting financial crime: The APC will develop a two-pronged approach based on prevention and detection and customer protection.
• Financial inclusion and accessibility: The APC will develop guiding principles for financial inclusion and technology impact assessment guidelines.
• Interoperability: The APC will deliver a vision and roadmap for increasing payments interoperability and reducing friction.
• Sustainable innovation:
The APC will ensure there are clear guidelines for innovation and auditable processes that allow a wide range of service providers to identify and appropriately manage risk.

The strategic agenda was developed following extensive engagement with stakeholders from across the community and the APC public consultation, conducted between January and March 2019.

“We thank everyone who has contributed and encourage continued involvement as we progress our strategic agenda starting with a sectoral assessment later this year”, said Mr Milliner.

The initiative will be launched in the last quarter of 2019 and will entail an initial investment of EUR5 million over the next three years. Once the space is fully operational, it is expected to be able to accommodate approximately thirty companies.

Startups selected for the programme will obtain funding and access to a physical space to develop their projects, and a team of expert mentors that will provide customised training and advice. Additionally, DayOne, CaixaBank's division providing specialised services to startup businesses, will offer tailored financing.

With the support package spanning anywhere between six months to two years, Caixa Bank, Global Payments and Ingenico will have first dibs at incorporating successful outcomes into their commercial programmes.

Juan Antonio Alcaraz, CaixaBank's chief business officer, says: "CaixaBank currently benefits from the collaboration of startups in the development of its innovation, but we believe that the time has come to go one step further and become truly involved in the process of developing new business projects for the sector. We will provide these recently established companies with the optimal environment to test their idea's potential for success."

It's not the first time the Spanish bank has teamed up withe a network of multi-sectoral partners to sniff out innovation opportunities. In March 2017, CaixaBank, Global Payments, Samsung, Visa and BNP Paribas-owned Arval jointly invested EUR5 million in a Barcelona-based Payment Innovation Hub to confront new frontiers for payments in e-commerce and the Internet of Things.

Launching today on the iOS App Store in the UK and EEA, TokenCard allows you to live your life on Ethereum by letting you store, send, and receive assets in a secure, decentralised Contract Wallet, and pay for everyday purchases with the TokenCard Visa card.

What’s more: the first 1,000 people who sign up to use the card will get $15 worth of DAI — the Ethereum-powered stablecoin — credited to their account. The perfect decentralised starter pack.

Unique

TokenCard is a non-custodial, fully decentralised, self-sovereign banking alternative powered by Ethereum.

That means you’re in control.

Using it you can securely send, receive, and hold your ETH and ERC-20 tokens in a fully decentralised Contract Wallet.
Plus, you can use the TokenCard app to convert tokens to fiat and preload your TokenCard Visa Debit card to spend anywhere that Visa is accepted, globally.

Need to pay a bill? You can pay with blockchain tokens. Buying cinema tickets? Pay with blockchain tokens. Sending money to a friend? Pay with blockchain tokens, all thanks to TokenCard’s unique system.

A new way

Mel Gelderman, CEO of TokenCard, says launching on the iOS App Store is the first step towards displacing the centralised economy of old with a smarter, more agile system that gives its users full control over their money.

“This is an opportunity for early adopters and crypto enthusiasts who want to make living a ‘tokenised’ life away from big banks and corporations a reality,” he said.

“Compared to other crypto card or wallet providers TokenCard makes daily token spending and storing really easy, accessible and secure without compromising on decentralisation. TokenCard will never touch user assets, they are theirs and theirs alone.”

TokenCard is not forgetting its first batch of users. Alongside the launch of the app, people who already signed up and who were actively using their card during the TokenCard alpha, have been rewarded with 50 TKN — TokenCard’s native cryptocurrency.