By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 12th, 2024
Both companies strive to benefit in the fintech industry with own initiatives.
Hitachi, Ltd. opens Financial Innovation Laboratory in the Silicon Valley office of Hitachi’s Global Center for Social Innovation – North America in Santa Clara, California. The Laboratory is a fintech research institution that will deal with research and development of blockchain technology. It will cooperate with Center for Social Innovation – North America and other financial institutions. Considering blockchain as a “core technology” of the fintech industry, the new organization will enable “collaborative creation” with existing financial institutions.
The Center for Social Innovation was launched by Hitachi in April 2015. Hitachi seized the fintech industry with multiple initiatives. One of them, the “Hitachi Mobile Cash Card Service”, was launched in December 2015 in Japan. It allows to use smartphones as cash cards for financial transactions.
Hitachi also joined the Hyperledger Project, an open source project offered by Digital Asset Holdings. Masayoshi Ogawa, president of the financial information systems division at Hitachi, says: “Hitachi would continuously invest our resources and actively support the HyperLedger project. With numerous global organizations backing the effort, we believe blockchain will quickly mature and spread to more industries.”
The launch of the Financial Innovation Laboratory in the Silicon Valley will allow Hitachi to significantly contribute to the study and development of the blockchain technology, collaborative creation with customers, and development of solutions to support business innovation in financial institutions.
Today fintech can impress with one more promising piece of news. EPAM Systems has signed a sponsorship deal with Swiss Finance + Technology Association (SFTA), as part of its plan to join the FinTech community and its leader Switzerland as a chief center for fintech innovation. There are already 150 members in SFTA, including entrepreneurs, industry professionals, investors, media, and policy makers.
According to the agreement, EPAM will take part in several programs of SFTA which will be soon announced. One of the programs, “Partner Program”, aims at promoting fintech industry in Switzerland. More companies can be launched if supported by partner organizations and offered lower cost access to essential technology and services. EPAM will also participate in the Association’s event schedule and digital magazine at www.swissfinte.ch.
John Hucker, CFA, President of Swiss Finance + Technology, commented: “We are delighted that EPAM saw value in our activities, not only for their own business, but as a way to pay-it-forward with the local startup community, which needs more support in order to reach its full potential. This is a win-win relationship for both organizations and will offer our members access to a world-class partner for the development of innovative technology-based solutions in financial services. We thank Peter for his vision and leadership to engage with a young and growing association like SFTA.”
Peter is Peter Cronin, a business development leader at EPAM’s Zurich office. He says about the agreemetn: “With technology disrupting processes across the globe in the financial services industry, the opportunity to provide solutions is immense. We are pleased to enter into this corporate sponsorship of the Swiss Finance + Technology Association and believe that supporting true innovation through Fintech shows our commitment to the financial sector in Switzerland.”