Author Archives: Tom Groenfeldt

About Tom Groenfeldt

I write - mostly about finance and technology, sometimes about art, occasionally about politics and the intersection of politics and economics. My work appears on Forbes.com and and occasionally in The American Banker and Banking Technology in London.

RIP Simple, the innovative banking site

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Tom Groenfeldt

I was sorry to have to write about BBVA shutting down Simple, and Azlo. Josh Reich, a co-founder, said he was amazed at how complex American banking was compared to his native Australia, and it seemed designed to confuse users … Continue reading →

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Trulioo Makes The World Economic Forum Pioneers And CNBC Disruptor 50 Lists

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Tom Groenfeldt

Trulioo, a global identity verification company, has been selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers and was also named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list for the second time. Trulioo’s mission is to provide verifiable identities for … Continue reading →

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Banking And Walter Bagehot — Smart Lessons From A Leading Victorian

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Tom Groenfeldt

Bagehot — The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian. By James Grant. 334 pages. $29.95 What a match-up: James Grant, financial journalist and in modern terminology a public intellectual, writing on Walter Bagehot, who might qualify for that nomenclature … Continue reading →

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Low-Code Can Compensate For Shortage Of Programmers In Financial Services

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

The financial services industry needs to use low code development because it doesn’t have the time or the people to create services the old fashioned way, says Omar Arab, vice president of business development at Veritran. The company provides a … Continue reading →

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Volante Offers SWIFT Message Validation on AWS

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

– Volante Technologies, a global provider of messaging and payments technology both in-prem and in teh cloud, today announced it has launched financial message validation on the cloud, available as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on the AWS Marketplace. Like … Continue reading →

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Helping Employees Avoid Late Fees, Bounced Checks And Pay Day Lending With Their Own Money

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

PayActiv gives workers access to the money they have earned without requiring them to wait two weeks for their paycheck, said Safwan Shah, the company’s CEO. It advances the money and then is reimbursed by the employer when checks or … Continue reading →

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DHS Updates U.S. Critical Infrastructures Including Payments And Securities Settlement

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week released an update to its list of 16 critical infrastructures, which included financial services such as payments and clearing and settlement of securities. “The Financial Services Sector-Specific Plan details how the National … Continue reading →

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Technisys – Ready With A Digital Banking Core For North & South America

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

North America has a newcomer in core banking — Technisys, originally from Argentina. It is implementing a digital first system at Alberta’s ATB in a new subsidiary bank called Brightside, and it recently raised a $50 million Series C investment … Continue reading →

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Z/Yen Group Designs New Index Linking Finance and Tech

Posted on May 25, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

London’s Z/Yen group has developed a Smart Centres Index, designed to track the development of commercial and financial centres across the world in their support for and readiness for new technology applications.  Smart centres are cities across the world which encourage … Continue reading →

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Ohpen Gets New Investment, Adds More Bank Clients

Posted on May 18, 2019 by Tom Groenfeldt

Ohpen, a banking tech firm in the Netherlands that was the world’s first cloud native core banking provider, has announced that its first and long time investor, the investment management firm Amerborgh, has sold part of its shareholding to NPM … Continue reading →

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