The Paypers, Posted September 15, 2023

NEC Corporation has introduced three modern digital finance solutions that aim to enable the financial industry in Thailand to cope with fintech challenges.

The offering comprises Wealth Management Solutions, a Sales Engagement Module, and a Universal Lending Platform. Collaborating with Avaloq, a subsidiary of NEC specialising in wealth management technology, and BlackRock, a fintech provider, NEC created a dashboard that enhances asset management efficiency. This dashboard includes risk level assessments, empowering customers to make well-informed portfolio decisions based on return estimates.

A direct result of this collaboration, the concept of ‘Embedded Finance’ will be introduced to allow consumers to access various kinds of financial services such as payments, loans, insurance, and investments without having to leave the platform or application they are using. This model offers consumers a seamless and convenient way to manage their financial activities through a Financial-Service-as-a-Platform, which is powered by blockchain technology.

#Fintech

The Paypers, Posted September 14, 2023

Philippines-based fintech Salmon has rolled out Salmon Credit, a credit line product with built-in QR Ph payment options.

Salmon Credit grants customers easy and flexible access to credit, funding their daily spending needs without requiring a separate loan application for each purchase. Customers will see their initially awarded credit limit increase as they make more purchases and repayments with Salmon Credit, subject to certain conditions being met. This new product will initially be available exclusively to existing Salmon customers and will later become open to the general public as well.

Salmon Credit customers will be able to either instruct Salmon to disburse their available limit to any Instapay-enabled bank account or e-wallet, or make payments at locations accepting QR Ph, including those of GCash, PayMaya and many others, which are widely used by millions of Filipinos.

Officials from Salmon said the launch of Salmon Credit marks a significant milestone. The Salmon App now offers many interactive features to make it simpler for existing customers to get, use and repay credit. This product has integrated QR Ph payment functionality and can be accessed via the Salmon App. Salmon Credit is particularly well suited for the Philippines, where merchants enabled to process QR Ph purchases outnumber those with Visa/Mastercard terminals by a factor of 10:1.

#Fintech

Fintech Futures, Posted September 21, 2023

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s fintech investment arm, has launched Audax Financial Technology, its new Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering.

Standard Chartered says Audax has been designed to help banks and financial institutions accelerate their digital transformation, pursue new digital business models, serve new customer segments and generate new revenue streams. It plans to do that by catering to banks in two use-cases – digital banking and BaaS.

Audax offers an end-to-end digital banking platform that caters to the entire customer lifecycle and can “efficiently handle millions of customer data concurrently”, SC Ventures claims. The platform can handle client and staff interfaces, deposits and lending products, client servicing and data reporting.

Additionally, the platform is “infrastructure-agnostic”, meaning it can complement banks’ core systems without the need for “costly and time-consuming” migration or in-house development.

#Fintech

Finextra, Posted September 19, 2023

Revolut Business has launched its instant and free payments ecosystem ‘RevTag’, which aims to challenge Swift in cross-border payments.

Users of Revolut Business can make transactions by entering the RevTag of an individual or business in the Revolut Business app, without using IBANs or additional beneficiary details. The feature is free and provides businesses with the ability to pay employees and contractors in over 150 countries and regions around the world.

The RevTags feature will be immediately available to Revolut Business customers worldwide. Revolut reports customers will be able to send and receive instant zero-fee cross-border payments in over 29 currencies within the Revolut network, which includes more than 30 million retail users and thousands of businesses around the world.

#Revolut

Finextra, Posted September 21, 2023

Revolut is looking to hire global candidates to enhance mortgage products for their customers in Europe.

The fintech giant wants to expand its team with mortgage product managers, mortgage credit managers, business compliance managers, software engineers, technical product managers, and more.

Revolut is aiming to expand their market to home financing and build on their mortgage offering for primary account users.

The Revolut Careers page is currently hiring globally, looking for candidates with experience working in mortgage financing and looking to work innovatively and collaboratively to improve the company product base.

Joe Heneghan, partner and CEO of Revolut Europe, stated: “We’re focused on enhancing our offering to provide our customers with frictionless, accessible products and services. As a next step in our journey we’re exploring the option of adding mortgages to our global financial super app, joining our suite of credit products available within the EEA, including Loans, Credit Cards, and Pay Later. We’re looking for talented people to join our team of more than 6,000 employees around the world.”

#Revolut

Finextra, Posted September 21, 2023

Amazon has announced they will be giving their virtual assistant ‘Alexa’ an injection of a new generative AI model as the AI race between tech giants continues.

The company states its Large Language Model (LLM) is designed to hold a more conversational style, with a more natural or human voice with an adjustable tone. The new feature is called “let’s chat”, and an early preview will be rolled out to existing Echo owners in the next few weeks.

David Limp, SVP of devices and services at Amazon, presented these updates to the press at its HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

Limp said: “Our latest model has been specifically optimised for voice and the things we know our customers love — like having access to real-time information, efficiently controlling their smart home, and getting the most out of their home entertainment.”

CNBC reports that there were some “hiccups” during the presentation of the device, including Alexa lagging and questions being repeated.

#Amazon

Altfi, Posted September 22, 2023

The rise of digital ETF distribution in Europe has been a key trend over the past two years, with the integration of ETFs into major fintech apps central to this discussion, however, this shift could prove a fatal blow to conventional robo-advisers.

The latest development in the space came last week as household name Monzo announced plans to launch its first direct-to-consumer investment service based on BlackRock’s MyMap fund range.

Some products in the funds-of-funds suite are up to 45 per cent reliant on ETFs targeting fixed income and even the cult favourite $4.3bn iShares Global Clean Energy UCITS ETF (INRG).

Monzo CEO TS Anil said the move was “an important next step” as the firm puts its “stamp on another corner of finance” perceived as “complex and inaccessible”.

“Millions of people in the UK feel investing is not for them — it is now,” he said.

#Fintech

Romania’s Libra Internet Bank taps Temenos to modernise payments

Fintech Futures, Posted September 19, 2023

Romania’s Libra Internet Bank has partnered up with Temenos to modernise its payments services and facilitate cross-border payments.

By utilising Temenos Payments, Libra Internet Bank aims to facilitate ISO 20022 cross-border payments and reporting (Swift CBPR+) on the Swift network. It also plans to leverage Temenos’ platform to add other payment rails in time and combine them onto one single platform, in a bid to support its growth plans and double payment volumes over the next five years.

Libra Internet Bank is an existing Temenos customer, utilising its core banking technology. With the addition of Temenos Payments, the bank looks to “simplify and standardise” its payment operations as well as improve its sanctions screening processes, for which it uses the Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation solution.

Commenting on the extended partnership, Cristina Mahika-Voiconi, general manager at Libra Internet Bank, says Temenos has helped the bank modernise its operations and remain competitive in the Romanian banking industry.

#Payments

Fintech SumUp Introduces 7AM Payouts in the UK

Crowdfund insider, Posted September 22, 2023

Global fintech SumUp has launched 7AM payouts in the UK, a feature giving merchants near-instant access to their money.

As the UK cost of living crisis persists, SumUp has responded by “working with merchants to ensure they get their money faster, to help manage cash flow and keep up with expenses.”

SumUp continually seeks input from merchants “on areas for improvement and ways of enhancing their ever evolving product suite, to make business as simple as possible for merchants.”

Receiving even faster payouts has been “a regularly requested service by merchants, as it offers optimal flexibility for their finance management.”

#Visa

---

USA

---

Citi sells SMB lending platform to Foro Holdings

Altfi, Posted September 13, 2023

American bank Citi announced the acquisition of its SMB lending platform to Foro Holdings, Inc. a Charlotte-based commercial lending services provider. In handing off its platform to the lending firm, it became an investor in the North Carolina firm to further support its growth. TTV Capital, US Bank, and Correlation Ventures signed on as additional investors in the product housed at Foro. 

“We developed Bridge to simplify and modernize the lending process for both borrowers and lenders. Our goal is to democratize access to capital for SMBs by providing a digital tool to connect with a range of lenders..” Bridge co-founder Rohit Mathur said, “with the support of Foro, Bridge will continue to grow and provide innovative solutions for the lending market.”

Bridge, marketed as Bridge built by Citi, was an internal product created in 2021 to connect small and medium-sized businesses with lenders across the United States. Since its inception, the platform has grown from 18 to over available 75 lenders, according to the company. 

#Citi

Uber, PayPal Expand Relationship, Focused on Global Card Processing

Crowdfund insider, Posted September 18, 2023

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER), announced an extension of their multi-year relationship, furthering PayPal’s role as a key operational partner in Uber’s continued growth in both its core and new lines of business in markets all over the world.

As part of the agreement, PayPal and Uber will continue “to build upon their substantive relationship for global card processing powered by PayPal Braintree.”

In addition to conventional card processing, Uber will “leverage the PayPal Braintree platform to expand its use of domestic debit network routing in several markets, including in the U.S.”

Uber will also leverage PayPal value-added services “including PayPal Payouts and several others that support in creating seamless, high-performance payments experiences for Uber’s customers.”

#PayPal 

Unstable Financial Markets Have US Consumers Keeping Close Eye on Retirement Accounts via Fintech Apps – Report

Crowdfund insider, Posted September 18, 2023

The unstable financial markets in the United States during the past few years have people keeping a wary eye on their retirement accounts and, increasingly, they are doing so via mobile apps, the team at J.D. Power notes.

According to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Retirement Plan Digital Experience Study, improved market performance has “helped lift overall satisfaction with retirement plan digital tools.”

However, for those firms that want “to differentiate and increase customer satisfaction in good markets and bad, more work needs to be done on digital, especially when it comes to mobile apps.”

Craig Martin, managing director and global head of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power, said:

“The good news is that overall satisfaction with the retirement plan digital experience is up considerably this year, but … it’s clear that retirement plans still have a lot of opportunities to improve their digital offerings.” 

#Fintech

JPMorgan Chase to offer digital payroll processing

The Paypers, Posted September 14, 2023

JPMorgan has announced it is introducing digital payroll processing, aiming to cater more to small business customers.

The bank has chosen a US-based fintech company, Gusto, to supply the underlying technology for this offering. This is expected to enable JPMorgan’s customers to access payroll processing from the same platform they use for banking, with a streamlined experience and unified login credentials.

JPMorgan has previously introduced fintech features such as a Square-like credit card reader for small businesses, however, the bank has decided to partner with Gusto for payroll services rather than develop its own solution. Payroll service can be complex as it varies between states or cities, making it a challenging sector to navigate and implement.

A fintech partner like Gusto is better able to manage the complexity of offering payroll services nationally. Partnering with Gusto will help the bank accelerate the launch of this service, as it is set to go live by the end of 2024. The service will handle salary disbursements, generate tax documents and pay stubs, and file to local and national agencies.

#Fintech

Sibos 2023: Visa and Swift team up to boost global B2B money movement

Finextra, Posted September 19, 2023

Swift and Visa have moved to strengthen the connectivity between their networks in a move designed to streamline international B2B payments.

Unveiled at Sibos in Toronto, the partnership sees Visa deploy Swift Pre-validation for upfront checks of its B2B Connect payments, catching potential errors before payments are even initiated.

The networks also plan to work together to increase end-to-end transaction visibility by using high-speed Swift gpi capabilities and tracking data.

By teaming up, the two giants say that financial institutions on both networks will have more routing options for their business customers, with real-time status and updates.

Chris Newkirk, global head, commercial and money movement solutions, Visa, says: “Many businesses continue to face complexities while making cross-border payments that hurt their bottom lines. By working with Swift, Visa will help enhance our financial institution clients’ offerings to their corporate customers.”

#Swift and Visa

Mastercard and Saxo Bank team up for open banking account feature

Finextra, Posted September 19, 2023

Mastercard and Saxo Bank have announced a partnership to facilitate open banking payments into customer’s investment accounts.

The partnership will allow users of Saxo Bank’s investment platform to transfer funds into their accounts using Mastercard’s open banking technology. The new feature no longer requires customers to log into a separate bank account to manually transfer funds into their investment accounts.

The feature is already live in Denmark, having already improved customer experience with 20% new funds pouring in when customers make transactions to their investment accounts through open banking. The next step is to launch the open banking service in European markets. Camilla Dahl Hansen, global chief experience officer at Saxo Bank stated: “We’re thrilled to already see positive impact on our customers’ experience as a result of our partnership with Mastercard and we’re eager to explore more opportunities to innovate financial services experiences that can have a real impact for our growing client base and make it easier for them to become invested.”

#Mastercard

Paysend and Visa bolster global payments partnership

Finextra, Posted September 15, 2023

Paysend and Visa today announced a five-year extension to their existing global money movement arrangement through Visa Direct.

Under the partnership, Paysend and Visa will expand the scope of its earlier CurrencyCloud (now part of Visa Cross-Border Solutions) card to card partnership with the company beyond its present domestic and international scope. The firms’ expansion efforts will include a number of joint marketing initiatives in key expansion areas, such as the US-LATAM marketplace.

Under the Visa Direct program, the card processing leader uses its VisaNet global network to support payments in 170 countries and territories. Paysend services seven million customers, primarily consumers, through its global relationships with banks and top card providers, though it has placed additional focus on solving the payment woes of small to medium business customers (SMEs) – as exemplified by another partnership with Mastercard.

#Paysend and Visa

Crowdfund insider, Posted September 21, 2023

Cross-border payments company bridge21 announced its partnership with Bitso, the Financial Company powered by Crypto in Latin America, in order “to expand their support for local payments from the US, throughout Latin America.”

According to a report, the overall cross-border payment market “stood at $176.5 billion in 2021 and should reach $238.9 billion by 2027.”

As the world becomes more global and technologies like blockchain make it possible to move money between countries “in a faster, more accessible and transparent way, companies of all sizes can take advantage of this to develop and grow at an accelerated pace that was previously not possible by the traditional mechanisms.”

#Fintech

Brazilian Payments Platform EBANX Expands into Africa and Two Additional Caribbean Countries

The Paypers, Posted September 20, 2023

International payments Fintech EBANX has expanded its operations into Africa and two additional Caribbean countries.

According to a statement by the company, EBNAX now offers services in Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.  At the same time, EBANX is now available in the Bahamas and Jamaica. The expansion was announced during the firms’ payment summit in Sao Paolo.

In total, EBANX is now operating in 29 countries worldwide with the potential to connect a billion consumers.

#Payments

Nubank launches new FGTS-backed loan

The Paypers, Posted September 14, 2023

Financial services platform Nubank has announced the launch of its FGTS-backed loan, a new type of secured loan for its Brazil-based clients.

The new product launch was designed to align with the company’s aim to expand its secure credit capabilities and offerings in 2023, as it is gradually being made available to users who live in the region of Brazil.

The FGTS (Severance Pay Fund for Length of Service) was developed as a mandatory savings fund, in which the employees who are eligible need to deposit a certain percentage of their monthly salary. The funds can be withdrawn only during the birthday month of each of the individuals, or on specific occasions, such as making a down payment on a property, or in the cases of job loss. The interest rate will start at 1.3% per month, depending on the individual analysis that each eligible client gets on their profile. 

#Fintech

Credolab partners with Circulo de Credito for credit-scoring solutions

Finextra, Posted September 14, 2023

Credolab has partnered with Circulo de Credito to bring more financial inclusion in Mexico by providing credit, risk, and fraud scoring solutions.

 Credolab uses machine learning algorithms to detect more than 10 million behavioural patterns, such as battery usage and the most frequently downloaded app category. So far, this has made credit and financial institutions accessible to over 20 million Mexicans, to make 200 million credit decisions. The company’s toolkit is already in use for over 200 corporate clients across 9 verticals in 38 markets, who have seen results like a 22% drop in fraud costs and up to a 32% increase in approval rate.

Circulo de Credito will exclusively offer credolab’s Digital Behaviour Analysis Solution through its API marketplace. This solution includes behavioural insights about risk and fraud, available for over 3,500 B2B clients, including banks, retailers, and fintechs. With credolab’s SDK, Circulo de Credito can deliver to their B2B clients stronger predictive power, improving the risk and fraud assessment of any borrower’s likelihood to default, even thin-files, gig-economy workers, millennials, small businesses and unbanked.

#Fintech