Fable Fintech, a leading global banking infrastructure company enabling SaaS-powered platforms for cross-border, corporate, trade, and FX transactions, today announced its strategic partnership with XeOPAR, a one-touch cross-border payments and remittances startup for all. Fable Growth Suite (Retail) platform chosen by XeOPAR serves both inward and outward remittances. In addition, it helps payments providers grow revenue from existing and new customers, and improve profitability.

“Financial services companies are in a constant race to make remittances cheaper, more transparent, and quicker – as close to instant transfers as possible. For their customers, these efforts spell clarity and peace of mind. Our Growth Suite helps XeOPAR achieve this ground-up, furthering their inspired vision of making low-value remittances affordable,” says Naushad Contractor, CEO of Fable Fintech.

Fable prides itself on making white-labeled, highly configurable platforms that other fintechs and banking partners can use out-of-the-box. In XeOPAR’s case, the platform allows them to choose exchange rates, transfer fees, tax limits, volume and velocity limits, as well as transaction purposes for the Full-Fledged Money Changer to service. XeOPAR is set to make the most of Fable Growth Suite (Retail) as it sets up its first P2P remittances corridor from the United Kingdom to India, among others in South East Asia, West Africa, and East Africa in addition to Europe, Singapore, the United States of America, and the Middle East. Fable’s well-established network of integrations, intermediaries, and license and collection partners will allow XeOPAR to take the settlement time-sensitive remittances industry on a competent note.

“XeOPAR is out to shift remittances from being exclusive to high-income earners abroad or high net-worth individuals. We wish to serve the near 30% of the remittance customers who transact in volumes such as USD 500 per month or below. This is a largely under-serviced segment that amounts to USD 240 Billion in remittances. Our vision is to create a reasonably-priced remittance service for them so they can send funds as often as they, without waiting for a large sum to accumulate,” says Arvind Gupta, CEO of XeOPAR. 

Fable Fintech is proud to enter a strategic partnership with XeOPAR to power its resolve of serving remittance providers and their customers. The shared vision between the two companies creates a partnership that aims to strengthen the industry as a whole. Fable Fintech is a global banking infrastructure and financial technology company offering SaaS platforms for cross-border, corporate, trade, and FX transactions. XeOPAR's association with Fable Fintech brings a new focus on affordable, customer-friendly small-value transactions, starting with corridors in the United Kingdom.

Since its inception in 2017, Fable has already executed projects for 40+ banks and money transfer operators across 12 countries; and successfully processed transactions worth $11 billion in the process. But it goes beyond. Besides providing technology-powered domain expertise in payments, Fable Fintech also believes in championing causes that add practical, sustainable benefits to customers. With robust, mature, well-established platforms and pre-integrated networks, Fable is uniquely positioned to support others in the payments space and transform their visions into reality. XeOPAR is a case in point.

Recently, Fable also announced its foray into five key regions including the US, UK, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific through dedicated offices and leadership teams. By 2024, the company expects its global process flows to around $40 billion in wake of the cross-border banking infrastructure business opportunity. Fable is also strengthened its team presence across the new markets by inducting marquee talent with decades of country experience, and successful careers at global financial institutions.

Organisations across the globe today use between an average of four and six different tools or platforms as part of their overall fraud and risk strategy, according to new research* from Darwinium – a next generation digital risk management platform.  Whilst this approach has become necessary to defend against the ever-evolving plethora of online threats and adversaries, it seems that the lack of a common and singular view is creating significant challenges to customer experience and authentication processes. 

Fraudsters continue to move faster than business

Online criminals are building adversarial AI tools to disrupt risk models, automating attacks to test millions of stolen or synthetic identities in seconds, and emulating devices or mimicking user behavior.  However, according to Darwinium’s Evolution Survey of fraud and risk professionals, 68% of businesses face the challenge that adversaries are adapting faster than their current fraud solutions.  

The latest data found that an enormous 81% of businesses believe that their fraud controls are impacting customer friction, yet solutions are still ‘customer blind’.  A separate independent report also presented data that showed global losses from fraud now represent 6.4% of GDP, equating to $5.38 trillion (£4.37 trillion). Alongside this, globally recognised ecommerce analysts** have recently stated that the average online transaction in 2021 had the value of approx. £100 or £76 – meaning potentially billions in lost revenue for any organisations with an online commerce function.

Alisdair Faulkner, co-founder and CEO at Darwinium, commented: “Digital risk protection is about continuously analysing the customer journey and behaviour, rather than a point-in-time evaluation. It requires a joined-up system that allows decision control for multiple internal stakeholders via one common view, giving them the power to adapt faster than adversaries. That could be security teams managing attacks, fraud and risk teams looking at transactional threats but also user experience teams monitoring customer experience or where cart abandonment happens.”

“We’re seeing a lot of focus in the industry on security orchestration, to integrate and connect different tools, but orchestration isn’t possible without decision control – it’s tantamount to operating dumb pipes.” 

 He continued: “Fraudsters are capitalizing on new technology to adapt attack surfaces in minutes. Outdated fraud and risk models or those businesses operating in silos not only risk being attacked, but they also risk deterring good customers, missing the opportunity to capture valuable intelligence across the customer journey due to lack of simple integration.”

PIMFA, the trade association for the wealth management, investment services and the investment and financial advice industry, is pleased to announce the launch of PIMFA WealthTech.

PIMFA WealthTech has been created as a next generation digital marketplace and industry network to drive innovation and enhance collaboration between WealthTechs and wealth management and advice companies, fulfilling one of the key objectives set out in PIMFA’s manifesto to enable digital business transformation through the development and adoption of market-leading technology.

The platform has been developed in response to several drivers of digital transformation, including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on advice models, shifting demographics and market and legislative changes. All of these are reshaping business and operating models and accelerating the need for wealth management and advice firms to focus on the use of technology-based solutions and new digital architecture to enhance the products and services they offer.

The opportunities for WealthTechs to work with wealth management and advice firms are vast, with the industry recognising the need to offer enhanced customer engagement and relationship management. Many wealth management and advice firms are also acknowledging that their future success and ability to operate at pace and scale, will depend on better use of customer data and technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud-based Infrastructure and Social & Mobile technologies, in real-time to deliver more relevant content, products and services.

PIMFA WealthTech will act as a primary source for market intelligence and insights on the latest technologies and trends impacting the industry, providing fast-track market research, expert forums and Tech Sprints. Through structured Tech Sprints (1) PIMFA WealthTech will examine industry pressure points to deliver tech-based solutions to wealth management and advice firms keen to digitise many of their back-office operations or enhance front-office services for their clients.

PIMFA WealthTech will draw on the expertise and resources of digital service providers and is working with Morningstar as its principal strategic partner to support this industry-wide digital transformation.

The platform will focus on key issues impacting the sector from how tech is being applied across the industry, to customer acquisition and onboarding, product structuring and development, investment management and execution, portfolio management, account administration and after sales client reporting and servicing.

The new initiative will also address the role of technology in supporting industry trends such as the growth in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investments and the emergence of Open Wealth.

A practitioner-led Advisory Board, comprising of leading wealth management and financial advisory companies to be announced shortly, will help shape the new initiative and determine priority areas that will make a positive change for the industry.

Liz Field, Chief Executive of PIMFA, commented: “The way in which wealth management and advice firms engage with their customers, the amount of data required to serve those customers, and the challenges of operating in an increasingly digitised environment mean that all firms recognise the need to enhance their proposition through better technology. Digital transformation and technology was reconfirmed as a key strategic priority with our Board and Advisory Council at its February meeting.”

“Enhancing existing technology is a challenge as well as identifying the right solutions to enhance existing capabilities and some firms find starting the process daunting, being unsure of what technology they need or which providers to speak to. PIMFA WealthTech will help solve many of these problems and I’m delighted that PIMFA, with the support of Morningstar, is able to offer a platform for WealthTechs and wealth management and advice firms to come together to collaborate and work effectively, to enhance the products and services our industry has to offer our clients and ensure our place as a world-leading wealth management sector.”

Anastasia Georgiou, Head of Adviser Solutions, EMEA at Morningstar, commented: “As a fintech company, Morningstar is excited to support the PIMFA WealthTech Platform. Digital transformation and innovation put the customer centre stage. In a world where we have a proliferation of data, changing consumer preferences, the growth of sustainable investing, and increased regulation, wealth firms need support – the PIMFA WealthTech Platform is a hugely important initiative doing just that.”

corfinancial, a leading provider of specialist software and services to the financial services sector, announces that Archer, a leading technology enabled service provider for investment managers, has extended their use of corfinancial’s  Salerio® Post-Trade Execution solution to commence trade processing for their retail services.

Headquartered in the Philadelphia region, Archer provides a robust ecosystem of technology and services to the asset management industry. An early adopter of Robotic Processing Automation, Archer continues to deploy advanced technology like Salerio to streamline processes for investment manager clients and their brokers.

“As more investment managers launch new products specifically for retail investors, we’re continuing to invest in technology that creates powerful operational efficiencies for our clients,” said Bob Lage, EVP, Global Head of Product and Technology at Archer. “At Archer, we’re always looking to upgrade our tools in ways that allow our clients to grow their businesses. By integrating Salerio into our trade settlement process, we are adding automation that creates significant efficiencies in matching trades across our clients’ counterparties.”

Archer used Salerio to migrate its institutional clients away from DTCC’s OASYS^TM utility in December 2021 and began moving its retail clients in March 2022. This latest move with the retail application of the technology enables asset managers to match trades more rapidly through a centralized service. Specifically, Salerio facilitates enhanced connectivity to banks and brokers via DTCC’s CTM^TM utility, including SWIFT messaging – all highly automated and fully integrated into the Archer IBOR, dashboards and reporting.

David Veal, Senior Executive for Client Solutions at corfinancial added: “Archer’s confidence in our Salerio solution is well-received and this recent change reflects the flexibility of our product to adapt to different operational processes, creating a comprehensive, centralized solution that can scale as our clients’ businesses grow.”

Transact365, a UK-based global payments platform powering merchants in emerging markets, has today appointed David Lambert as its new CEO. 

An original co-founder and former Commercial Director at Transact365, Lambert will oversee the fintech’s expanding merchant customer base and card schemes. He will also work closely with the rest of the senior management team to expand the business into new markets and take advantage of new opportunities in the fast-evolving payments landscape. 

Transact365 is a global payments platform powering merchants across the world in leading industries. With offices in the UK and Singapore, Transact365 now works with over 800 merchants to access e-commerce opportunities in five continents through local payment processing solutions. 

Lambert’s appointment comes following an exciting period of market expansion. In 2022, Transact365 launched its payment services in India and Latin America, effectively complementing its presence in Asia, Europe and Australia. 

Lambert co-founded Transact365 in 2017 in the UK alongside current CFO Sophie Flynn, CTO Jurijs Borovojs, COO Liam Fernandez, and former CEO Dan Fernandez. As part of Lambert’s appointment, Dan Fernandez will focus on new business opportunities. 

Speaking on his appointment, David said: “2022 has been a strong year for us so far, and we have more exciting announcements to come. We’re witnessing increasing demand from merchants for our services and we are continuously expanding as a result.

“The payments industry is competitive. Since our inception five years ago, our team has worked hard to build a platform that is industry leading in supporting our merchants while delivering a seamless solution. 

“I’m proud to take on the role of CEO and work alongside the management team to achieve our growth objectives for this year and beyond.”

Health, education, retail, and manufacturing sectors continue to be particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks and data breaches, according to analysis of recently released 2021 ICO data by cyber security awareness and data analytics company, CybSafe. 

CybSafe analysed data from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) – the UK’s independent body upholding information rights – following its previous analysis of ICO data for the first half of 2021 to discover the details behind the UK’s cyber security breaches throughout the entire calendar year. 

While health and education remain particularly vulnerable to data breaches, the retail and manufacturing sector suffered twice as many cyber attacks as either sector, accounting for 20 percent of attacks overall in H2 of 2021. 

Statistics within the retail and manufacturing industry also highlight a more general trend. The sector saw an increase in ransomware attacks, accounting for 27 percent of all attacks in 2021, up from 23 percent in 2020. In contrast, phishing attacks declined, falling from 31 percent in 2020 to 26 percent in 2021. This marks the first-time ransomware attacks have superseded phishing within the sector. Throughout 2021, ransomware saw a notable rise, accounting for 30 percent of attacks between July and December, up from 24 percent between January and June.

While the ICO data highlights phishing as the most common form of attack at just under 30 percent, ransomware continues to be an increasing threat to every sector. 

As sectors adapt to life post-pandemic, the education sector is a prime example of how the cyber security landscape has changed for good. ICO 2021 data shows ransomware attacks increased to 22 percent (up from 19 percent), suggesting the trend is not subsiding despite children returning to the classroom. The sector saw a steep rise in ransomware attacks mid-way through 2020. They accounted for 26 percent of attacks in the first half of 2021 compared to just 11 percent in the previous year.

Oz Alashe, CEO of CybSafe, said: “The ICO data tells a clear story. The pandemic saw a steep rise in ransomware attacks. With important sectors such as education and healthcare seeing a sustained level of cyber threats throughout the last year, we need to go beyond standard security training practices."

“To embody a security-first culture, the human aspect of cyber security shouldn't be underestimated. If we want to invoke genuine behaviour change, the first step is to appreciate individuals responding differently to threats, and personalisation is crucial to building an authentic security-first culture.  "

“Appreciating differences in teams means you can deliver tailored security initiatives. The result is greater employee confidence, changes in security behaviour, and ultimately a defence against such malicious threats that will only grow in importance over the coming years,” Alashe concluded. "

Paycast, the marketplace payment engine and second venture of UK based fintech group SPG, has announced the appointment of Katrina Gordon as Head of Customer Success.

The addition of Katrina to the Paycast team further develops the company’s focus on delivering the best outcomes for customers as part of its overarching customer-first strategy. In her role, Katrina will work with Paycast’s growing customer base to ensure they are receiving the delivery functions and support they need to achieve their business priorities, as well as developing the Paycast offering in line with customer desires.

With over 30 years’ experience in delivery and customer success Katrina brings a wealth of knowledge to the role and joins the business from data-sharing platform SICCAR where, as Head of Customer Success and Digital Transformation, she was responsible for all project delivery, from large-scale private to public clients. She has also held previous similar roles with Revenue Scotland, as their Head of IT & Change, and as the Customer Success Director at P2P software provider Compleat Software.

Harnessing her background in building customer success across the public sector, oil & gas, finance and retail industries, Katrina is well-placed to assist Paycast in delivering experiences for a wide range of sellers and help them grow without limitation. 

Katrina Gordon, Head of Customer Success, comments:

“It’s an exciting time to be joining the Paycast team and I’m delighted to be a part of Paycast’s journey to facilitate a new era of trust online. My expertise lies in advocating for customers and Paycast’s customer-centric ethos really goes above and beyond to ensure that every development, update and business decision is aimed at producing the best outcomes for users of our engine.

“I look forward to assisting Paycast in achieving their ambitions in the months and years to come, and helping sellers provide a seamless payment process, with greater trust and without an undue regulatory and administrative burden.”

Claire Van Der Zant, Managing Director at Paycast adds:

“Katrina has a commendable track record in both project delivery and customer success  across a range of sectors. We’re so pleased to have welcomed her to the team and have no doubt that she will hit the ground running, drawing up on her sizeable experience and knowledge of customer success as we continue our plans to level the playing field for marketplaces and their sellers.” 

SEBA Bank, a fully integrated, FINMA licensed digital assets banking platform, today announced that it had partnered with LGT Bank, an international financial services provider with a focus on private banking and asset management, to provide digital asset custody and brokerage services. 

LGT Bank is part of LGT Group, a leading international private banking and asset management group with over CHF 280 billion in assets under management. LGT Bank is leveraging SEBA Bank’s fully regulated banking platform and institutional-grade digital asset custody capabilities, to launch digital asset custody and trading services for clients.  

LGT Bank will initially offer investment services for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Digital asset investment services will be fully-integrated with traditional assets, enabling clients to seamlessly incorporate crypto into their existing portfolio. 

Franz Bergmüller, CEO at SEBA Bank, said, “As a licensed and FINMA regulated Swiss bank with a core competence in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, we enable banks and their clients to handle traditional and digital assets securely. We have the knowledge, established processes, and above all, a custody solution that is ISAE 3402 certified and established by independent bodies. The range of services combined with the highest security standards makes SEBA Bank's service offering unique and we are very pleased to be able to support LGT with our expertise in expanding its services around digital assets."

A highly-successful and trusted counterparty in the digital assets industry, SEBA Bank supports a range of investment services including: trading in over 14 cryptocurrencies, a comprehensive crypto yield offering, SEBA Earn, and the SEBA Gold Token, an innovative digital token backed by physical Swiss gold. SEBA Bank's ISAE 3402 certified hot and cold storage custody solutions will enable LGT and its clients to benefit from the highest security standards in the safekeeping of their digital assets and private keys. 

"The demand for cryptocurrencies has also increased among our clients in recent years" says Roland Matt, CEO of LGT Bank, Liechtenstein, "we are very pleased that we can now offer our clients easy access to this asset class. When developing our new offering, we paid particular attention to security while focusing on clear, reliable processes and procedures. They are central for dealing with this dynamic and still quite young asset class. Thanks to our cooperation with SEBA Bank, our clients' digital assets are held in the custody of a professional and certified provider with extensive experience in this area".

LGT Bank’s digital asset investment solutions will initially be available to selected client groups of LGT Bank, Liechtenstein. Clients must be domiciled in Liechtenstein or Switzerland and be classified as professional clients or be managed by an external asset manager in order to access services.

Kingswood Holdings Limited, the international, fully integrated wealth and investment management group, is today pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher Calvocoressi as Technology Transformation Lead.

In his role, Christopher will be responsible for leading Kingswood’s technology transformation agenda and will also head up the further development of Kingswood Go, a recently launched online portal which allows clients to access their investments and hold all of their financial information online and in one place.

Prior to joining Kingswood, Christopher was a Programme Manager focussing on technology transformation at Schroders Personal Wealth. Before this, he was part of the Wealth and Asset Management Advisory team at EY for nearly a decade, working across a range of consulting and transaction advisory engagements.

Over the past few years, Kingswood has evolved into a growing international vertically integrated wealth and investment management group with £9.1 billion of Assets under Advice and Management and over 19,300 clients.

So far this year, the firm has made four acquisitions in the UK, acquiring Allotts Financial Services Limited, a high quality, long established financial advisory firm based in Rotherham; D.J. Cooke (Life & Pensions) Limited based in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire; Joseph R Lamb Independent Financial Advisers, an advisory business based in Essex, and Aim Independent Limited, an independent financial advice business serving clients throughout Hampshire. The firm also acquired Metnor, the holding company for IBOSS Asset Management Limited and Novus Financial Services Limited, late last year.

Christopher’s appointment also follows a buy recommendation for Kingswood Holdings from finnCap, the financial services advisory firm, which believes that the firm has the potential to deliver c£20.0m EBITDA and should hold a target share price of 39p. KWG has recently seen its share price rise by around 7% this year alone.

David Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer of Kingswood Holdings Limited., said: “Christopher’s extensive skills and knowledge of leading best-in-class technology initiatives will help us to build propositions that help more people access financial advice and to enhance their experience, particularly in an increasingly digitised world. We’re delighted to have him on board.

“As a firm, Kingswood has completely transformed itself within the space of just a few years creating a highly successful, fast growing international vertically integrated wealth and investment management group. The UK business has significantly increased its acquisition activity, coupled with a strong integration capability, organic growth credentials and focussed investment in client centricity. There is a significant pipeline of further acquisition opportunities with four transactions in exclusive due diligence fuelling the ambition to grow UK AUM to over £10bn.”

Harriet Griffin, Chief Operating Officer at Kingswood, said: “Technology continues to significantly transform the wealth management industry, both on the advisory and client side. Christopher’s background experience in developing and leading a technological offering in wealth management makes him a real asset to the team.  We very much look forward to working with him on delivering our strategy and fully embracing the digital age.”

Commenting on his appointment, Christopher Calvocoressi, said: “Kingswood is without doubt a thriving business with high aspirations. I’m very excited to be joining the firm at this exciting time and to lead a skilled, inspired and diverse team in providing our clients with access to financial advice via the very best technology initiatives.”