Citi seeks global payments exec, NAB fined over fees

Citi's looking for global instant B2B payments exec

Citigroup plans to hire a high-level executive to develop a global strategy for instant payments in its treasury and trade solutions division, covering more than 60 countries. Citi's job posting says the executive will supervise real-time payment development for corporations, banks, nonbank financial institutions, payment companies, e-commerce marketplaces and public sector organizations. Responsibilities will include producing a five-year plan to build products that deploy instant settlement for specific uses, as well as managing a technology budget that will fund a migration from older batch processing platforms to systems designed to accommodate faster processing. The job has a salary of up to $300,000 and the bank is looking for someone with at least 12 years experience in transaction banking, including a track record of developing new payment products. Real-time payments have existed for nearly a decade, but the introduction of FedNow in the U.S. is expected to expand adoption of instant payments, as well as push banks to build connections to support international transactions. —John Adams

Fujitsu tests advanced machine learning for banks

Japanese technology firm Fujitsu has partnered with Hokuhoku Financial Group to pilot generative artificial intelligence, or a newer form of AI that can produce original content. HFG will use Fujitsu's generative AI platform to respond to questions from staff, aid in product development, verify business and perform other security tasks. Fujitsu, which is also running generative AI tests with Japanese bank Mizuho, is trying to determine potential uses in payments and other financial services. Banks are experimenting with generative AI programs such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, mostly for internal uses such as IT help desks. Other uses include shopping recommendations and customer service. The technology has also faced challenges such as accuracy problems, and some banks have restricted its use. —John Adams

Generative AI also finds a taker in NatWest

More than 5,700 miles away from Japan, NatWest has launched a project in collaboration with Amazon Web Services to build new financial services uses at the AWS Generative AI development hub. The initial focus will be on analyzing customer behavior to spot payments fraud earlier, and products that help consumers track and manage their financial health. Generative AI is often associated with OpenAI's ChatGPT program, which has expanded quickly since its launch in late 2022, catching the attention of banks and other industries. Amazon earlier this week announced it would invest up to $4 billion in AI firm Anthropic, which will use Amazon Web Service to speed development of new AI-powered products both inside and outside of Amazon. —John Adams

National Australia Bank fined for illegal customer fees

The Australian Federal Court has fined NAB about AU$2.1 million for knowingly overcharging payment fees. The court found NAB illegally charged more than 2,800 consumer banking and 500 business banking customers between January 2017 and July 2018. The bank's "inability" to manage its own computer systems and its unwillingness to remedy the problem caused the overcharging, according to the court. "NAB continued to charge fees when it knew it lacked any entitlement to do so and did not notify its customers of that wrongful charging. It took NAB over two years to stop charging these incorrect fees, which was clearly unacceptable," said Court Deputy Chair Sarah Court, in a release. The bank has also paid about AU$8 million back to its customers stemming from the illegal fees. —John Adams

U.K. regulators push for more diversity in finance

The Financial Conduct Authority has published proposals to broaden bank staff recruitment with a goal of making teams more diverse, improving corporate culture and making business ideas more amenable to different ideas. The proposals also include rules to further crack down on bullying and sexual harassment, providing guidance on investigations and actions against employees who commit violations. By increasing diversity and inclusion, financial services firms can also improve governance, decision making and risk management by reaching more people with different perspectives, the FCA said. "'For U.K. financial services to be competitive and for the companies in it to be well run with healthy work environments, it is vital they attract, retain and promote the best talent. The data suggests this isn't happening. Our proposals will encourage the largest firms to put in place plans and report against their delivery," said Nikhil Rathi, FCA's chief executive, in a release. —John Adams

Europe's Mastercard/Visa rival names its e-wallet

The European Payments Initiative will call its upcoming digital wallet "wero," or a combination of "We" and "Euro." The EPI is an effort from European Union-based banks to create a local payments network to counter Visa, Mastercard and other growing non-European payment services such as Alipay. The EPI's wallet is scheduled to launch in 2024 in France, Germany and Belgium. The banks backing the broader EPI project include ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, ING, Rabobank, Credit Agricole and payment firms that sell technology to banks including Worldline and Nexi. EPI's services will include cards, a P2P app and the wero wallet. EPI has an uphill fight since Visa and Mastercard control about 80% of the EU's card payment market. —John Adams

Standard Chartered taps open banking for treasury management

Standard Chartered has partnered with Singapore fintech Starfish Digital to develop a multibank connectivity service designed for Standard Chartered's corporate clients to access relationships with other institutions. Standard Chartered is deploying open banking technology, which uses application programming interfaces to enable clients to use a single account to access financial and nonfinancial services from other companies. Standard Chartered's services at launch include payments, balance monitoring, payment reconciliation and data management in near-real time. The bank's multinational corporate clients have demanded a "seamless solution that digitizes all of their banking relationships, to give them a more complete picture of their cash positions and forecast cash flows with better accuracy," said Janet Thomas, global head of strategic platform partnerships for Standard Chartered, in a release. —John Adams

Kraken obtains payment license in Ireland

The Central Bank of Ireland has granted an e-money license to the crypto platform Kraken, which can use the license to expand digital payments in the European Economic Area and the European Union. Kraken also recently registered with regulators in Spain to provide cryptocurrency exchange and custodial wallet services to Spanish residents. The San Francisco-based Kraken said it has made European expansion a priority. "We see a firm foundation for crypto in Europe, which has forward-looking regulation that enables us to grow with confidence," said Curtis Ting, vice president of global operations for Kraken, in a release. Kraken additionally added an NFT marketplace over the past year. —John Adams

Bank of Mauritius says work on digital rupee at advanced stage

The Bank of Mauritius said plans to launch a central bank digital currency are making strides and it will begin a pilot project in the next couple of months. "Work is already at an advanced stage," Governor Harvesh Seegolam told the Bloomberg Financial Forum in Port Louis on Wednesday. "We have now entered the experimentation phase."

The Indian Ocean island nation originally announced its ambitions to pursue a digital rupee in 2019 and has since taken steps to embrace financial technology including amending the law to allow the central bank to grant digital banking licenses. The island also plans to promote itself as a hub for multinationals to set up their treasury headquarters in the region on the basis of its modern financial services sector, he said. —Kamlesh Bhuckory, Bloomberg News