VALK, the London and Zurich-based creators of a market-leading digital platform designed to enable users to capitalise on a global surge in private trading activity has secured a prestigious place in the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory sandbox.

Few businesses are more old-school than organisations that have historically operated in the financial services sector, although many today are making moves to prove otherwise.

Significant developments are afoot in the retail and payments industry, with vendors needing to prepare for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). It’s set to be the most significant change to how people pay for things, not only online but also for card-present retailers across Europe.

ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services, today announced that it has become a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

EBANX, the leading cross-border commerce platform in Latin America connecting global merchants with local consumers, today announced an investment of US$400 million from Advent International and an additional commitment of US$30 million to the company's planned IPO in the U.S. Advent is one of the largest private equity firms in the world and one of the most successful investors in the Payments industry, having made investments in Vantiv, Worldpay, Nets, Nexi, Planet, Xplor Technologies, Prisma, Concardis, Monext, and Stone.

Monneo, a virtual IBAN and corporate bank account provider, is proving a hit with yachting and marine businesses.

Unlike traditional banks, Monneo simplifies the management of corporate banking for companies with unique financial needs.

Having a multi-tiered structure provided by Monneo, allows companies better visibility and control of funds as they can decide how much money to transfer to each yacht and its crew’s sub-accounts.

nexo standards, which offers the payment community a unified, ISO-based solution for payment acceptance, has expanded its scope beyond card-based transactions to support changes in the ways consumers are paying for goods and services; for example using mobile wallets, instant payments, request-to-pay and QR codes; and new payment scenarios such as open-loop transport payments. 

United Fintech has announced its Advisory Board, with the appointment of six world-class experts who will play a key role in the global expansion of the fast-growth firm launched by Christian Frahm to help banks, hedge funds and asset managers to accelerate their transition to a digital world through access to fintechs specialising in capital markets.

The members of the Advisory Board are:

Reach, the global payment localization provider has announced the appointment of two members of senior management, with Sarah Hermary joining as Head of Human Resources, and Lohrasp Seify as Head of Data. The new hires will support Reach’s impressive and rapid expansion plans, following a successful start to 2021. 

Volante Technologies, the global leader in cloud payments and financial messaging, and SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures, controlled by CDP Equity, have signed a partnership agreement to enable banks, financial institutions and payment service providers to access instant payments, speeding up the adoption of digital payments in Europe.