Thales announces today that it has completed the acquisition of Imperva, earlier than expected (previously foreseen at the beginning of 2024). This is a key milestone for Thales, creating a global leader in cybersecurity, with more than 5,800 cybersecurity experts across 68 countries and €2.4bn in cybersecurity revenue expected in 2024, including civil and defence activities, with double-digit growth expected thereafter.

AMLYZE, a leading RegTech specializing in anti-financial crime solutions for FinTechs, banks and crypto businesses, will provide money-laundering prevention and compliance solutions to the first and largest Lithuania’s specialized online payment platform "Viena Saskaita".

Two-thirds of merchants intend to consolidate their PSPs, some in the next 12 months, as the tough economic climate has created a growing need to crunch costs and become more strategically focused. 

So, how can you survive the great SaaS consolidation?

Based on responses from over 1,250 merchants and 250 Payment Service Providers across the UK, US, France, Germany and the Netherlands, GoCardless’s new report provides a view of:

• What criteria merchants are using to judge PSPs against

From Black Friday through Cyber Monday (BFCM), Stripe processed more than 300 million transactions with a total payment volume of more than $18.6 billion. It was the largest ever four-day period on Stripe. A Stripe public microsite tracked these and a dozen other BFCM metrics in real-time, including the uptime of the Stripe API. During this period of intense activity, the Stripe API maintained availability greater than 99.999%, with a peak of 27,395 requests per second.

Dynamic Yield by Mastercard today announced Shopping Muse, an advanced generative AI tool that revolutionizes how consumers search for and discover products in a retailer’s digital catalog.   

Shawbrook Bank, expert providers of personal loans, residential and commercial mortgages, SME finance, and savings products, has implemented SAS® Viya® on Microsoft Azure to enhance its application of analytics, mitigate risk and better meet customers’ evolving needs.

OakNorth, the neobank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has provided a £3m loan to Mayfair Group Investment, a leading developer, investor, and manager of healthcare, commercial, and residential property.

Brightside AI, a pioneering firm in the cybersecurity landscape, has recently marked a significant milestone by securing $1m in funding.

The company has successfully secured a substantial investment of $1 million from Social Links, a key player in OSINT infrastructure.

Rich Data Co (RDC), an AI-based credit risk decisioning firm based in Sydney, Australia, has raised AUD 28 million ($17.5 million) in a Series B funding round, powering its plans for a North American expansion.

The round was led by Australian heavyweight bank Westpac and cloud-based financial services platform nCino.

With the rise of ChatGPT, the topics of fraud and deepfakes entered the zeitgeist in 2023. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, there’s little sign of these developments slowing down. But what else will be important in the world of digital identity and identity verification in 2024?

1. The continuing rise and threat of generative AI