NatWest Group Plc has agreed to acquire J Sainsbury Plc’s banking business as the British lender looks to seize more market share in retail banking. Britain’s second-largest grocer agreed to pay NatWest £125 million ($159 million) as part of the transaction, the companies said in a statement on Thursday. The deal will give NatWest a…

Morgan Stanley’s Jeff McMillan, head of firmwide artificial intelligence, is focused on developing and deploying AI throughout the operations of the $212 billion financial institution.  The New York-based FI  appointed McMillan to the newly created position March 14, he told Bank Automation News. McMillan previously served as chief data and analytics officer for eight years…

The UK has an election in July. The likely winner is the left-of-centre Labour Party, after 14 years of the righter wing Conservative Party. The new leader will be Sir Kier Starmer, a guy described as a “political robot”. Nevertheless, his party has created a burning platform to win votes. No, it’s not “stop the boats”……

I hadn’t heard of a mouse jiggler until today. What’s one of those? Well, it turns out they are a simple USB dongle or software download that makes it look like you’re using your computer because the mouse is constantly moving and clicking. Amazon recommends  this one … … and it costs just $5! So what?……

As the financial services industry is integrating AI in its offerings, consumers are becoming more accepting of the technology in day-to-day banking.  “AI has been around in financial services and banking for 20 years,” Scott Hofmann, chief revenue officer at GFT Americas, told Bank Automation News. “What’s changed the conversation is generative AI, which allows…

Managing cash flow, tapping into data-driven insights and accessing capital: Small businesses are looking to their bank partners to provide digital solutions to streamline access to data, insights and cash.  This has been “the No. 1 issue that small businesses have faced,” Matt Baker, board adviser at Uplinq, told Bank Automation News. Uplinq is a…

Things we’re reading today include … Cryptocurrency Industry is Targeted Most in Deepfake Frauds (asisonline.org) Synapse bankruptcy puts bank-fintech partnerships on notice | American Banker JPMorgan’s Latest Fintech Fight Highlights the Pain of Sellers’ Remorse – Bloomberg National Australia Bank builds ‘customer brain’ using Pega to make digital banking more human (diginomica.com) Four-day week easier……

Whilst I was in South Africa, they couldn’t help talking about Rugby  (could they?). You may remember that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup last year* for the second time in a row – a rare feat – and are the top-ranked world rugby team right now. So, it’s not surprising they would talk about……

Citizens Bank is looking to add new digital banking solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses to its new Cash Flow Forecasting platform.  To keep up with SMB demand for insights and tools, the Providence, R.I.-based bank will add an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool to its Cash Flow Forecasting platform later this year, Mark Valentino,…

The inaugural Bank Automation Summit Europe 2024 will be held Oct. 7-8 at the Hilton Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, providing attendees with global insights regarding automation, AI and emerging technologies in the financial industry.   This bank technology event brings together C-suite executives and industry experts to discuss approaches to technology, the latest in banking…