Neil Kadagathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Creditspring, comments: “Ever since payday loans have been driven out of the mainstream, BNPL has been viewed as the new wild west of the borrowing industry.

“Regulation is welcome but the misconceptions amongst borrowers, that BNPL is risk-free or isn’t a form of borrowing that can lead to debt, are a much bigger issue. Regulation won’t go far enough - lenders need to ensure they develop awareness amongst borrowers of the risks that BNPL poses.

“Borrowers must be protected – currently, they are in real danger of falling into another credit trap as they continue to rely on BNPL as a crutch to struggle through until payday. Worst-case scenario is that borrowers can end up receiving a knock on the door from a debt collector, but currently the vast majority are completely unaware this is even a possibility.”

GoCardless has appointed Paul Stoddard, a former Mastercard executive, as president. 

Stoddart is an accomplished individual. He became president of Mastercard's New Payment Platforms following the acquisition of Vocalink, where he built and grew a business unit focused on expanding the card scheme's position in payments beyond cards to account-to-account payments. He previously co-led Barclaycard's Corporate Finance division. He worked for NatWest for ten years, most recently in their merchant acquisition and e-commerce division, Worldpay. 

GoCardless will leverage Stoddart's experience to accelerate the development of its account-to-account payment capabilities in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. 

This year will be a watershed year for GoCardless, as we expand beyond recurring payments to support a broader range of client categories and payment use cases. It is critical that we are led by the right individuals as we expand our business, develop open banking products and services, and expand into new markets. Paul offers a wealth of experience in both card and non-card payments and will assist us in identifying opportunities that will position GoCardless as a force in the payments space. 

Stoddart's hire comes less than a year after GoCardless raised $312 million in funding. Meanwhile, the company released Verified Mandates in the United Kingdom and Success+ in the United States, a 'payment intelligence' tool that uses machine learning to forecast the optimal day to recover lost payments. 

In the future months, VRPs will be available in both sweeping and non-sweeping configurations. By mid-2020, GoCardless will integrate PayTo as part of its global bank payment infrastructure.

Global Processing Services (GPS), a leading global payment technology platform, has today announced the appointment of Simon Stanford as Chief Revenue Officer. Based in London, Stanford sits on GPS’ global executive committee and leads the company’s global commercial, partnerships and customer relationship management, and marketing teams with a focus on developing GPS’ global partnerships ecosystem, marketing and brand strategy, and driving revenue growth worldwide.

Simon joins GPS from global online payments platform Worldpay where he was Senior Vice President Group Executive for the EMEA region and led a commercial team of over 450 people. He has more than 20 years of commercial experience, predominantly gained at global technology and telecommunications businesses including Samsung Electronics and O2 (Telefónica UK).

Joanne Dewar, Chief Executive Officer, GPS, said: “We are delighted to welcome him to our senior leadership team. Simon joins GPS at the most exciting chapter in our history to date as we prepare to embark on a rapid global expansion. Simon brings to GPS a stellar track record of success in building and leading high-performing global commercial teams and will be a pivotal player in our accelerated growth strategy for 2022 and beyond.”

Simon Stanford, Chief Revenue Officer, GPS, added: “In meeting Joanne and GPS’ new board I was impressed by the scale of their global ambition to transform the payments industry and their drive to help fintechs and entrepreneurs all over the world accelerate the digital revolution. GPS has built an impressive and diverse customer base, providing the issuer processing firepower for some of the most disruptive and fast-growing fintechs in the world. I am delighted to join the team and look forward to being part of GPS’ international growth journey.”

In January 2022, GPS announced a significant capital injection of over US$400 million, providing GPS with a bench of experienced global growth investors including Advent International – through Advent Tech and affiliate Sunley House Capital – Viking Global Investors; Temasek the global investment company headquartered in Singapore; and MissionOG, a US-based growth equity firm. In March 2022, GPS announced Mastercard had also made a strategic investment into the company.

GPS is investing strongly in its award-winning API-first payment technology platform, upgrading its infrastructure and diversifying its capabilities, with an eye on new and fast-growing verticals where adoption continues to rise, including digital banks, crypto, BNPL, open banking and cross border payments, and is expanding its international footprint worldwide.

Fintech Without Frontiers, an industry led-initiative created by Ozone API to support displaced fintech talent, has called upon businesses in the UK to take part in its drive to connect Ukrainian refugees with career opportunities.

Ukraine is a centre of excellence and expertise in tech innovation, meaning that many refugees have skills which will be useful to fast-growing businesses. Fintech Without Frontiers will help people who have fled their homes to find work in the sector.

The initiative aims to support growth at participating fintechs as well as giving career opportunities to those who have been forced to leave Ukraine. Fintech is a sector that is experiencing huge growth, with UK investment reaching $37.3 billion in 2021, up from $5.2 billion in 2020. The industry is hungry for talent, with many career opportunities available to people with the right skills.

Companies that wish to support Fintech Without Frontiers can sign its manifesto and provide work opportunities that can be carried out remotely or with visa support.

The manifesto includes pledges to provide fair compensation, undertake an appropriate recruitment process, and work sensitively with candidates who may be interviewing in a second language or have endured trauma during the invasion.

Fintech Without Frontiers is an industry collective made up of companies including Ozone API, Moneyhub, RegAlytics, Allica Bank, Monese, Acin, Muse Finance, Ordo, Bloom Money, The Payments Association, Open Banking Excellence (OBE), and Innovate Finance.

Huw Davies, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Ozone API, said: “It's heartbreaking to see the situation unfolding in Ukraine. We wanted to do something but we aren't able to write big cheques like major corporations can. What we can do though is hire talent. There are many more businesses like us in the fintech sector, so we felt we could do something positive by creating a collective and working together to expose all of the growth opportunities in the industry to the displaced talent when they start to rebuild their lives.”

Moneyhub, the market-leading Open Data and payments platform, was one of the first supporters of Fintech Without Frontiers.

Samantha Seaton, CEO, said: “We have all watched in horror and disbelief at the events unfolding in Ukraine. It’s heartbreaking, and we’ve been looking for ways in which we can help those displaced in practical and immediate ways. The answer lies in collaboration.

“It’s touching to see the sector come together to create Fintech Without Frontiers so that those feeling conflict have a real opportunity to find employment in an exceptionally high-growth industry. Displaced individuals need to be able to rebuild their lives and careers for a more stable future, and there is a huge opportunity for the fintech sector to help them do just that and have a positive impact.”

Helen Child, founder of Open Banking Excellence (OBE), said: “What words are left to describe the war in Ukraine? Horrific devastation doesn’t even come close. Some of the stories on the news have reduced me to tears and maybe you too. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the war. Overwhelmingly there is a desire to help. So how can we channel this sentiment to make a real difference?

“At Open Banking Excellence (OBE) we believe in the true power of community and see the collective good collaboration brings. We are proud to be working with Fintech Without Frontiers. A remarkable idea brought to life by some truly dedicated people behind the scenes across fintech, all pulling together with a common purpose.

“It is a wonderful demonstration of how when you get great people together amazing things happen. It’s a privilege to be able to play a part in sharing more about Fintech Without Frontiers with our community. Fintech thrives on talent, creating so many opportunities that can be resourced by Ukrainian refugees and providing new perspectives for employers, hope and opportunity for the brave hearted Ukrainians, who have already taught us so much.”

Cryptocurrency awareness and ownership has continued to increase over the last six months, according to the latest findings from Coinbase, a global platform.

Its latest bi-annual analysis of UK consumers, carried out by Qualtrics on behalf of Coinbase, found that the proportion of people who own, or have previously owned, cryptocurrency has risen four percentage points over the last six months, meaning one in three (33%) have now purchased these assets. 

According to the pan-european research, consumer crypto ownership levels in the UK are second only to the Netherlands (47%) in Europe; ahead of Spain (26%), Italy (25%), Germany (24%) and France (17%).

British crypto investors have clear views about what they plan to do with their portfolios. Among those who already own cryptocurrency, 61% expect to increase their holdings over the next 12 months, compared to 54% in October 2021.

Almost two thirds (64%) plan to increase their holdings by buying more of the currencies they already own and 23% will expand by diversifying into new currencies. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) remain the most commonly owned cryptocurrencies at 75% and 52%, respectively. This is followed by DOGE (34%) and Binance Coin (33%).

A two-track dynamic: asset understanding 

There has traditionally been a knowledge gap between retail investors in crypto and more traditional assets, due to the market being in its infancy. As part of its analysis, Coinbase asked consumers about their perceived understanding of different types of investment assets.

Interestingly, a similar proportion of people ‘strongly agreed’ with the idea that they had a good understanding of traditional investment assets (13%) - such as property or stocks and shares - as those who believed they had a good understanding of cryptocurrencies, beyond Bitcoin alone (11%). This indicates a cohort of expert investors who have moved beyond traditional investments and have added crypto assets to their portfolios.

A Coinbase spokesperson said: “The UK continues to be a leading European hub of crypto investment with a growing proportion of people engaging with these assets. Recent survey work suggests that the adoption trend may continue, with many sharing ambitions to expand the size and diversification of their portfolios. 

“However, it is clear that there is more work to be done around boosting understanding and awareness of these assets.”

“Cryptocurrencies provide a way for investors to diversify their portfolios and earn yield. However, to support the growth of this market, more must be done to help support these individuals to make the right decisions.”

“Coinbase is committed to supporting growth in this area but so too must be other leading crypto players, regulators and Government.”

ION Markets, a global provider of trading platforms, analytics, and risk management solutions for capital markets, is pleased to announce that its JANUS Suite (by LIST, an ION company) won Best Risk Management Product at the Markets Choice Awards 2022. The annual awards, presented in New York yesterday, recognize important sectors of institutional trading and technology, namely, buy-side traders, sell-side execution desks, exchanges and trading platforms, incumbent technology providers, and emerging fintech firms.

LIST’s JANUS Suite comprises advanced products designed to support financial institutions in monitoring and controlling risk in real-time, across multiple assets and markets. It has two core products:

• JANUS Risk Manager (JRM) - a multi-asset, currency and market, real-time risk management and order validation system for exchange-traded financial instruments. JRM meets the industry’s urgent need to monitor all trading activity and margin exposures in real time, without complex and burdensome limitations in configuring and receiving alerts.
• JANUS Central Limit (JCL) – a multi-market and multi-platform limit management system. JCL brings together risk and limit controls from disparate trading systems in a single dashboard, and monitors unauthorized or incorrect setting changes.

Together, JRM and JCL provide a proven combination of real-time monitoring and accurate and matched trading system controls management. Indeed, JANUS is recognized as a market leader in the risk management space, being the first and unrivaled true ‘intraday consolidated dashboard’ for risk managers. What’s more, the solution can scale to meet the needs of even the largest and most complex businesses.

LIST submitted the JANUS Suite for consideration in an open category in the Markets Choice Award 2022. Receiving the Best Risk Management Solution award provides further independent acknowledgment of the products’ versatility. JRM and JCL solve multiple problems across multiple jurisdictions, with a strong focus on credit and market risk as well as electronic execution supervision. Users can tailor the functionality and rules to fit both the regulations and the firm’s risk and compliance regimes.

Commenting on the award, Luca Papaleo, JANUS Product Manager, LIST, said “A technology provider that delivers solutions for trading and trading compliance, LIST knows the importance of risk management, and the role of effective controls. Our JANUS Suite aggregates trade and order flows across back-offices, trading platforms and clearing systems; monitors user-defined risk measures; generates alerts on limit breaches; stores risk indicators and limit breaches to support client behavior analysis. It also replicates margins as calculated by CCPs across 60+ exchanges globally.”

Presented by Markets Media, the Markets Choice Awards marked the 10th anniversary of the program this year. The methodology used to select the nominees and winners keeps the focus on the most important opinions: those of market participants. The Markets Media community, whose industry opinion is highly valued, adjudicate the awards through online voting.

Temenos, the cloud banking platform, today announced that more than 1,500 leaders from the world’s leading banks, fintechs, BaaS providers and Temenos partner ecosystem will come together at the Temenos Community Forum 2022 at the London Excel May 17-19. Registration is open, and an invitation can be requested here.

The Temenos Community Forum (TCF) is the flagship event for the banking industry, and is being held in person this May for the first time in three years. The conference features expert speakers from Temenos alongside senior executives from ABN AMRO, Allied Irish Bank, Commerce Bank, EQ Bank, Flowe Bank, Mastercard and many more, together with the newest entrants in the banking landscape, such as Silicon Valley’s Mbanq.

Everyone’s Banking Platform is the theme for TCF 2022, and attendees will discover how Temenos’ new open platform for composable banking can power new growth opportunities, drive efficiencies at scale, and deliver the ultimate customer experience.

Attendees will also hear from Temenos partners, including Platinum Sponsors Amazon Web Services and Capgemini, Gold Sponsors LTI Syncordis, ITSS, Red Hat, Deloitte, Microsoft, DXC and Tech Mahindra and more than a dozen Temenos Exchange Solution Providers such as Wise.

Martin Häring, Chief Marketing Officer, Temenos, said: “Banking doesn’t just happen in a bank anymore, it can happen anywhere. At Temenos, our purpose is to power a world of banking that creates opportunities for everyone. Whether you are an incumbent bank reimagining the customer experience, a neo bank challenging the status quo, or a rising star in fintech providing niche offerings to meet everyday needs, Temenos is everyone’s banking platform. Join us at TCF 2022, and open your world up to new opportunities.”

Over the two-day event, TCF guests will experience more than 25 live demos and 35 interactive sessions, and learn from more than 40 expert speakers. Whether an incumbent bank, a disruptor, a retailer with eyes on embedded finance, a software developer or a systems integrator, TCF 2022 is an opportunity to:

• Gain insights into the latest research and trends, including open finance and collaborative business models like BaaS, the transformative power of the cloud and the increasing importance of ESG.​
• Experience Temenos’ open, cloud-native, intelligent banking platform where smart banking products and services can be composed and extended to offer unprecedented speed, scale and innovation. ​
• Discover the latest breakthrough technology and solutions, and hear ​​directly from thought leaders such as Ivan Mazzoleni (CEO at Flowe Bank) in ‘Walking the Talk - ESG Reality Check in Banking’, and Jeff Wright (CCO at Canadian Western Bank) in ‘Engage: Optimizing the Customer Experience’.
• Engage with peers from other banks and the broader ecosystem to share ideas and best ​practices.

For more information and to register, visit the TCF 2022 events website.

The Fair Trust, an ecosystem building a new-age financial platform, today announced the launch of the presale of The Fair Trust Token (TFT) through a Private Seed Round. The opportunity will be open for private investors and early TFT community members till the end of May 2022. Investors who wish to join The Fair Trust community can go to The Fair Trust website and make the investment. The company aims to raise $2 million through this round. The Fair Trust aims to provide liquidity to its community members and distribute the rewards to those investing in the projects.

The goal of The Fair Trust is to build a financial platform that gives profit back to its stakeholders by providing them passive income and helping them secure their future. Investors who participate in the Private Seed Round have the choice to either sell some or all of their tokens on the BSC exchange or stake TFT in The Fair Investment to earn passive income in the form of daily returns, monthly bonuses, and guaranteed quarterly dividends. They also have the option to deposit TFT in The Fair Loan vaults, the world’s first interest paying loan, and get an instant BUSD loan of 50% of the TFT value and in addition, earn interest on the TFT deposited.

With the funds collected through the Private Seed Round, the platform aims to build a treasury backed by the community to fund the next generations of revolutionary blockchain projects spanning across various sectors including New-Age Banking, Artist Launchpad, Real Estate, Digital Marketplace, & Gaming to name a few. These projects will be used to give back to the stakeholders in the form of rewards and will help to fund The Fair Investment and The Fair Loan.

The Fair Trust will kick start with three projects. The first project, The Fair Game will be the world’s first gaming platform where opponents can wager NFTs from various blockchains over skill-based games. The second project, The Fair Fund, is a platform where high worth value NFTs will be tokenized into smaller parts to make it more affordable for individual investors and build the largest tokenized NFT exchange. Lastly, The Fair Studio, is an NFT Launchpad for artists from various genres – physical and digital art, photography, music, and videography.

Micky P., Co-founder & CTO, The Fair Trust said, “We are thrilled to announce the launch of our Presale through Private Seed Round. Pre-sale is a very crucial step for every startup as it helps to bootstrap the vision of the founding team and make it a reality. Decentralized finance (DeFi) is one of the fastest-growing areas within the crypto space and is here to stay. Keeping stakeholders at the center, we are working towards building a new-age financial platform that gives profit back to its stakeholders. With the funds collected through the Private Seed Round, we will be building a highly inclusive community of new-age investors who wish to be a part of revolutionary blockchain projects and benefit from it”.

ZestMoney, India’s leading and fastest-growing EMI financing and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) network, today kicked off India’s biggest travel fest – #ZestTravelFest, a month-long event to power customers with convenience while planning their vacation. The fest is live on all major travel portals including MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Goibibo, EaseMyTrip, and many others, and customers can maximize their finances using ZestMoney. 

From instant discounts to cashback to splitting the bills at zero interest and no hidden costs, it will be raining deals all day every day at #ZestTravelFest until the  end of May. Customers can avail of discounts of up to 25%* to save up to Rs 20,000* using ZestMoney. This is in addition to the flexibility of splitting their bills over three months at zero percent interest and no additional costs.

Top Offers:

·  Make my Trip :- Flat 10% Instant Discount (Up to INR 2500) - Domestic Flights | Flat 10% Instant Discount (Up to INR 10,000) - International Flights|Flat 20% Instant Discount (Up to INR 5000) - Domestic Hotels | Flat 20% Instant Discount (Up to INR 20,000) - International Hotels

·  Yatra :- Flat 15% OFF (max. Rs.2,500) - Domestic | Flat 15% OFF (max Rs.15,000) - International Flights | Flat 20% OFF (max. Rs.5,000) on Hotels 

·  Ease my Trip :-Flat 15% up to INR 2,500 - Domestic | Flat 15% up to INR 5,000 - International Flights | Flat 20% up to INR 5,000 on hotels 

·  GoIbibo:- Flat 15% instant discount (up to Rs. 2,500)  - Domestic | Flat 10% instant discount (up to Rs. 10,000)  - International Flat 20% instant discount (up to Rs. 5,000)  - Domestic | Flat 20% instant discount (up to Rs. 20,000)  - International

·  GoStops hostels:- Get flat 10% cashback Up to INR. 1,000 

The fest is also live on travel portals including GoSTOPS, MyChoize, HappyFares, BloomHotels and many others. 

According to a pan-India survey conducted by ZestMoney in April to understand Indians’ travel plans for the season, 70% of respondents stated that they plan to travel during the summer. About 60% said they would travel domestically, while about 40% said they were most likely to travel internationally. While the majority of respondents said budget-friendly travel would be their top priority, a large number of people indicated that they don’t mind spending more for the best travel experience.

Keeping customers’ preferences in mind and in line with the increasing demand for travel, ZestMoney has come up with the #ZestTravelFest as a part of its larger brand campaign #GameNeverOver.  

Not our customer yet? Become one right away. It is simple, swift and seamless. Just download the ZestMoney app.