NEC Corp. said Monday it will acquire Swiss financial software vendor Avaloq Group AG for 2.05 billion Swiss francs (¥236 billion) by April to strengthen its global financial services reach. The information technology giant hopes to add Avaloq's leading digital banking solutions to its own advanced biometric and artificial intelligence technologies to expand its offering to clients. Competition among fintech firms is intensifying due to the ongoing digitalization of the financial sector, boosted by cashless payment services and the possibility of central banks establishing digital currencies. The Swiss firm has a strong track record of developing software for financial institutions and currently does business with more than 150 customers in 30 countries, according to NEC. NEC "aims to create new solutions that combine Avaloq's software with NEC's cutting-edge technologies" through its broad sales channels, NEC President and CEO Takashi Niino said in a statement.

Avaloq and Personetics are entering into a strategic partnership to connect Avaloq's global banking clients with Personetic's AI-powered personalized engagement solutions. Personetics, a global provider of data-driven and personalized engagement solutions for bank customers, is joining the Avaloq.one This partnership gives Avaloq's banking clients access to Personetics Engage, a business solution that offers deep analysis of customers' financial data in real-time, understands their financial behaviour, anticipates their needs and acts accordingly on their behalf. Personetics Engage provides data-driven day-to-day personalized insights, financial advice and wellness programmes, tailored to mass market, affluent as well as small business customers. Personetics Engage is supported by a rich set of tools used to help banks create Personalization IP for market differentiation while delivering significant business impact.

Personetics, the leading global provider of data-driven and personalized engagement solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for bank customers, is joining the Avaloq.one This partnership gives Avaloq's banking clients access to Personetics Engage, a business solution that offers deep analysis of customers' financial data in real-time, understands their financial behaviour, anticipates their needs and acts accordingly on their behalf. Personetics Engage provides data-driven day-to-day personalized insights, financial advice and wellness programmes, tailored to mass market, affluent as well as small business customers. Personetics Engage is supported by a rich set of tools used to help banks create Personalization IP for market differentiation while delivering significant business impact. This is the latest international addition to the growing list of selected fintechs on Avaloq.one, a platform that helps banks and wealth managers to connect to a suite of pre-screened, pre-integrated fintech solutions and to third-party services that complement their existing core banking solutions and help drive new customer experiences.

Nearly 55% of banking and wealth management professionals believe artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation will shape the future of the global financial services industry. According to research by Avaloq, nearly 34% cited the increasing use of more open and collaborative platforms and 26% cited the rise of distributed ledger technologies and cryptocurrencies. The research also found that three of the top current areas digital infrastructures are delivering significant improvements in performance include: ensuring compliance under changing regulations, improved customer experiences and better cyber security. Superior customer experience was singled out as the most competitive advantage for institutions to have in five years' time. Nearly 41% of respondents cited this as their preferred competitive advantage and 19% for'operational efficiency'.

Most people have never heard of a Swiss man called Francisco Fernandez, but tens of millions of us rely on him to look after our money. An unassuming 53-year-old who likes playing the piano in his spare time, he is responsible for the security of $4tn (£3.2tn) of bank deposits around the world. Mr Fernandez is the founder and boss of a company that is as little known as he is - Avaloq. The Swiss business and its 2,500 employees may fly under the radar, but it is one of the world's largest providers of banking software. Its systems are used by more than 450 banks around the world, including the UK's Barclays, HSBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland, plus Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, UBS and Nomura.