The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest international fintech stories. Dubai launches initiative to become cashless society, while Worldline and Nets have become shareholders in the European Payments Initiative.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Global analytics firm FICO has partnered with Linktera, a digital solutions provider specialising in risk management. By joining forces, the pair say they can help organisations operationalise the best data with unparalleled predictive analytics and applied AI.
Meanwhile, AllianceBlock has announced a strategic partnership with Ocean Protocol, a developer of Web3 apps for the emerging data economy. The AllianceBlock protocol is a decentralised, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that automates the process of converting any digital or crypto asset into a bankable product. AllianceBlock will build a data pipeline on top of Ocean where user data, such as KYC/AML/KYB, will be stored.
Fintech cloud solutions provider Quotevine has unveiled a partnership with analytics firm AccountScore. They say together they will reduce brokers’ administrative burden, while ensuring that lenders can make better open banking decisions.
Customer onboarding specialist HooYu has joined forces with Paylink Solutions to help accelerate digital transformation in the lending originations journey. The Embark and HooYu integration will give lenders the control of the know your customer (KYC) tools that they want to see used for each application.
Next-gen core banking platform Modularbank is working with European payment company Nets. The partnership allows Modularbank to extend the offering of its core banking platform with Nets’ card issuing and processing solution.
KashFlow has teamed up with enterprise connectivity platform Yapily to support SMEs with digital bookkeeping and cash flow management. The partnership will enable KashFlow customers to gain real-time insight into their cash flow and provide them with a frictionless end-to-end bookkeeping service.
Advanzia Bank and digital banking platform Backbase are hooking up to accelerate digital transformation, including the launch of three new mobile apps. The apps have gone live for Advanzia’s credit card customers in France (carte ZERO), Austria (free Mastercard Gold) and Spain (Tarjeta YOU).
Finally, Acendo Banco, the Mexican challenger bank, has expanded its capabilities in international payments and remittances through a partnership with fintech infrastructure platform Nium. Accendo’s customers will be able to send funds overseas to major corridors in Europe and Asia via an app.
Fintech appointments
Digital investment service Wealthify has appointed Ben Luckett as chairman. Luckett is is a former strategy director for Aviva’s UK General Insurance business. He has also served on Wealthify’s board since 2019.
Tim Porter is the new chief risk officer for credit score builder LOQBOX. He joins following four years as an independent consultant working with PwC, HSBC and Acuris Risk Intelligence.
New SME bank Recognise has unveiled a new London team. Jackie Skelt is appointed regional director for London and the Midlands, while Shami Sharma and Dave Bronsdon will be business development managers for London. Recognise’s aim is to focus on the SME community that has ‘been so overlooked and neglected by mainstream banking’.
Regtech software provider Encompass Corporation has named Robert Jessurun as head of banking sales. Jessurun will be responsible for leading the banking sales teams covering EMEA, while the company continues to target global financial institutions.
Fintech recruiter Storm2 has named Phaidon International founder Adam Buck as chairman. Victoria Maloney, previously global operations director for SThree PLC, also joins the board as a non-executive director.
While, Cape – the Australian BNPL business credit card, has appointed Gerry Hoare as its first non-executive director. Founded eight weeks ago, Cape is initially planning to tackle the $103billion working capital gap in Australia. Hoare joins from Satago where he has been advising and building out its 3-in-1 cash management platform.
Finally, Canadian digital asset trading platform Coinsquare has added Nicholas Thadaney and Wendy Rudd to its board of directors. Additionally, Stacey Hoisak is Coinsquare’s new CEO, Lawrence Truong is chief compliance officer and Eric Richmond is now chief operating officer.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Global payments firm InComm Payments has acquired Todo Cartões, one of Brazil’s main closed-loop gift card processors. The gift and prepaid cards market in Brazil has been growing at a double-digit rate annually. Next up will be a ‘one-stop-shop for retailers on all things gift card and incentives related’.
Investments and Funding
Regtech Detected closes £600,000 seed round led by Hong Kong based EmergeVest within 72 hours. In addition, Stephen Garland, chief technology and product officer at Trustpilot, joins Detected’s advisory board. Detected launches its agnostic business verification AI-powered platform in early December.
Indian digital payments company Cashfree raises $35million in series B round led by investor Apis Growth Fund II. It says the fresh capital will be used to further scale Cashfree’s payments offering, develop new product verticals and strategic investment.
New solutions and launches
Cloud banking platform Mambu is to power DigiBankASIA’s new digital bank UNO. DigiBankASIA has selected the Philippines for its initial rollout of the new South East Asia focused bank. It is currently working with regulators to obtain licensing. The pair say they share a focus on AI, composability and cloud-native services.
MENAT bank Emirates NBD has unveiled its next-generation global corporate banking platform, businessONLINE. The platform delivers a full suite of cash management, trade finance and liquidity management solutions to the bank’s clients.
Nordic challenger bank Lunar chooses a solution from FIS to optimise liquidity and risk management. Lunar will implement the cloud-based Ambit Quantum treasury and risk management solution on the FIS private cloud under a managed services contract.
Konsentus has launched an international infrastructure platform with the ability to accelerate a country’s implementation of open banking. The Konsentus Open Banking Hub (OB Hub) is a SaaS based solution that runs in a national cloud infrastructure.
Industry updates
Trusted payment service provider Paynetics AD has joined the Mastercard Accelerate programme in order to support its ‘ambitious growth plans’. The initiative aims to equip next-generation technology partners with the expertise and resources they need to scale more quickly. This month, Paynetics has also featured as a global success story in Mastercard’s 2020 European Evolution of Banking study.
The Government of Dubai has created the ‘Cashless Dubai Working Group’ in order to develop plans to make the city cashless. The group will launch a series of ambitious initiatives targeting all segments of the community to create the infrastructure and favourable conditions for the transition towards a cashless society.
Challenger bank Aldermore Bank is now an associate member of the All Party Group on Challenger Banks and Building Societies. The cross-party group of MPs and peers seeks to inform parliamentarians about the issues facing the challenger banks and building societies sector, as well as promoting diversity.
Ethereum’s (ETH) next version will launch in a multi-stage rollout on 1 December after deposit contract reached the threshold in terms of ETH deposits. The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract, released in early November, has accrued more than 540,000 ETH (worth more than $325million).
The 2020 Poppy Appeal received 20 times the number of online donations received last year, while receiving 13,500 online donations an hour on Remembrance Sunday alone. This year, supporters could also donate via QR codes on the charity’s posters that linked directly to goDonate.
Worldline and Nets have become shareholders in the European Payments Initiative, a bank-backed joint venture. EPI aims to create a unified, innovative pan-European payment solution leveraging instant payment and instant credit transfer.
The post This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 26/11 appeared first on The Fintech Times.
Comments