Fast-moving Crypto Startup Acquires a Charitable Crypto Project and Announces the "WeGro…WeGive" Program

WeGro, a groundbreaking cryptocurrency project, announces the acquisition of ChariT, adding to the ever-growing WeGro ecosystem, alongside the first of many charitable gestures with a $5,000 donation to the HOFFA Foundation.  

The founder of ChariT, Joe Braun, will now oversee the charitable giving program for WeGro. 

Braun, who has over 20 years of charitable giving experience in the non-profit world, will guide the upcoming "WeGro…WeGive" program. 

"WeGro has developed a structure that will benefit its holders and grow their investments," said Braun. "WeGro has a passion for passing profits from its cryptocurrency token onto those in need. The 'WeGro…WeGive' program's purpose is to offer charitable grants to nonprofit organizations and local communities that are near to the holders of WeGro. The program affords WeGro the opportunity to have an impact at a grassroots level."

Prestigious international awards program recognizes outstanding financial technology products and companies

CEX.IO, a global ecosystem of products and services that connects people and businesses to the cryptocurrency economy and decentralized finance, today announced that it has been named “Best Overall DeFi Platform” in the sixth annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards. The program is conducted by FinTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global FinTech market today. 

CEX.IO is one of the first and longest-tenured crypto platforms, with comprehensive service offerings that include crypto trading, staking, savings and lending. Each element of the CEX.IO ecosystem works as a standalone offering, while also remaining strategically interconnected with the rest of the portfolio. Regardless of a market participant’s level of financial or crypto sophistication, the company has offerings commensurate with their needs and goals. 

CEX.IO was the first decentralized finance ecosystem to allow customers to purchase crypto with a credit or debit card, creating new opportunities for financial access and inclusion. Rather than two distinct, time-consuming steps - depositing fiat and acquiring crypto - the company turned it into one quick experience. With Instant Buy, a consumer need not be deterred by a minimal understanding of cryptocurrency. For many customers, CEX.IO is the very first introduction to digital assets.

“Crypto, through its revolutionary blockchain technology, set out to even the financial playing field. However, not everyone has been able to get in the game by making purchases, trading or lending,” said James Johnson, Managing Director, FinTech Breakthrough. “CEX.IO has empowered investors of all experience levels - from the ‘crypto curious’ beginner, to the ‘crypto serious’ professional trader. Additionally, by choosing a regulated path their diligence in this respect has become a competitive advantage. Congratulations to CEX.IO for being our choice for 'Best Overall DeFi Platform.’”

Central to the tenets of CEX.IO is collaboration with regulators. The company is constantly working to maintain compliance with evolving regulatory requirements and financial industry standards. CEX.IO is proud to be an industry leader with regard to mandatory KYC. Lastly, though cryptocurrency has to pass a thorough verification to be listed, CEX.IO is regularly expanding their list of cryptocurrencies.

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards is the premier awards program founded to recognize the FinTech innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the world in a range of categories, including Digital Banking, Personal Finance, Lending, Payments, Investments, RegTech, InsurTech and many more. The 2022 FinTech Breakthrough Award program attracted more than 3,950 nominations from across the globe.

“We are honored to receive this important recognition from FinTech Breakthrough. The crypto industry has earned a disruptive reputation, perhaps intentionally fostering an image of revolt against the traditional financial system. But at CEX.IO, we’ve always understood that for crypto to achieve mainstream adoption, the same rules must apply to the industry as they do to other payment instruments,” said Oleksandr Lutskevych, CEX.IO Founder and CEO. “As a company building at the intersection of the fiat and crypto worlds, we immediately grasped the importance of working with regulators, setting and following rules that also align with our company values. We’ve dedicated years to earning trust and demonstrating continuous reliability.” 

The Company also supports the institutional sector with solutions like their Prime Liquidity platform, launched in February 2021 and processing billions in volume in less than a year. The institutional liquidity solution serves asset managers, family offices, hedge funds, OTC desks and banks.

Leading fintech BPC  today announced the launch of a new report that focuses on the regional market environment of Sub-Saharan Africa and relevant implications for key digital banking players. The detailed analysis provides a unique overview of the region's economic and cultural dynamics and considers the fragmented banking infrastructure and arising technological advancements. 

While there have been positive developments in recent years, a significant proportion of the Sub-Saharan African Market population remains unbanked. The report shares that 57 percent of Africans do not hold any kind of bank account, including mobile money accounts. 

This analysis outlines the current market environment and characteristics of successful newcomers in the present competitive landscape. It is informed by various interviews with leading experts on the Sub-Saharan African banking market and leverages existing specialist research and analysis performed by BPC and Fincog.

As digital-only banks have rapidly emerged over the last decade, there are now more than 450 digital banks worldwide growing in number and size, often with the vision of providing  more accessible and equitable banking services. 

“This report is a groundbreaking analysis of the enormous potential waiting to be unlocked in the region,” said Frank Molla, Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at BPC. “We are proud to outline some carefully assessed opportunities as well as actionable advice on success factors for new players entering the Sub-Saharan African banking market. 

With a population of more than 1.1 billion people, Sub-Saharan Africa makes up a significant share of the global population and also represents the world’s youngest overall population, with a median age of under 19 years. 

The pandemic has caused the economy of Sub-Saharan Africa to contract by two per cent in 2020, one of the worst recessions in recent decades. However, real GDP is estimated to increase by 3.4 per cent this year, reopening the region’s innovation frontiers in the second-fastest-growing banking market in the world. 

BPC has been active across Africa for over 15 years, serving banks, neobanks, rural banks and transport operators, contributing to better financial inclusion using next-generation technology. The company has built a strong reputation for understanding and mastering local banking and payment context and behaviour.

It is often selected due to its unparalleled capability to support ambitious growth in terms of customers and expected transaction volume. While launching a new bank in an existing economy could have taken years from licensing to deployment, new economy players are looking for partners that can match their ambition to deploy quickly and efficiently while ensuring a sustainable business model. 

 Bybit, the fastest growing cryptocurrency exchange, is now a member of VerifyVASP Alliance. With this integration, Bybit streamlines compliance with the Travel Rule requirements as the exchange brings cryptocurrency transactions on its platform to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s guidance.

VerifyVASP has proven to be the go-to Travel Rule compliance solution among leading virtual asset service providers (VASPs), enabling them to keep up with Travel Rule requirements in a manner that also complies with personal data protection requirements.

In a move to embrace regulatory obligations and strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) effectiveness, Bybit says it is enhancing compliance standards at the infrastructure level to accord better protection to its 6 million registered users.

"Bybit is committed to growing our footprint with a principled approach to financial risks and regulatory compliance. To better serve our community we need to place checks and protections that make sense, and to make crypto more accessible for honest users, which is the vast majority of digital asset holders. Cross-border rules for the protection of legitimate finance were designed to prevent exploitations in the international financial system, and we welcome organic crypto-native solutions to fast-track regulatory compliance in the crypto space," said Igneus Terrenus, head of communications at Bybit.

"Transparency is one of the core values at Bybit. And VerifyVASP gives us the data solution and technology to implement it at scale," he added.

The Travel Rule recommendations require VASPs to become better custodians and transmitters of information. Centralized exchanges with standard Know Your Customers (KYC) processes will play an increasingly pivotal role in crypto's transition to mass adoption.

Bybit's participation in the VerifyVASP Alliance will contribute to the data quality and validation efficiency of the decentralized protocol for secure information sharing between VASPs in the network. Compliance with the Travel Rule via VerifyVASP is blockchain technology's answer to risk mitigation of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing.

Ecospend has today announced its partnership with Anglian Water where it will begin processing customer payments using open banking technology.

Ecospend’s pay-by-bank technology will enable Anglian Water to receive instant account to account payments, which will reduce the utility provider’s processing costs. The partnership will also enable a range of new payment functionalities for Anglian Water customers, including:

• QR codes on all monthly invoices, enabling customers to set up a direct bank transfer, and pay their water bill instantly, by scanning the code
• Payment links on SMS to initiate a direct bank transfer, allowing customers to receive invoices via text messages and pay instantly from their phone
• A ‘pay by bank’ option on their website, app and via My Anglian Water which will also allow customers to pay their water bill instantly through Ecospend’s e-commerce payments technology

Currently, Anglian Water collects payments through various channels, including manual bank transfers and card payments. However, card transactions can prove expensive. This new payment process ensures a more streamlined payment journey for customers, by leveraging the latest in payments technology.

All payments will bypass payment processing providers like Visa or Mastercard, resulting in an online payment that is a fraction of the cost of a card payment. Furthermore, every transaction is authorised by bank level security for a much more secure payment process, reducing the risk of fraud. 

James Hickman, COO, Ecospend, comments:

“This partnership with Anglian Water is a hugely exciting moment for Ecospend, as we introduce all the benefits of open banking payments to the utilities sector. This partnership will deliver a smoother and more efficient customer experience.

“Ecospend has now surpassed one billion pounds in payment transactions, and is now in a unique position to introduce sectors, such as utilities, to the benefits of open banking. We would like to thank Anglian Water for sharing our innovative outlook on the future of payments, and we look forward to working together to modernise the utilities sector.” 

Spencer Hough, Head of Customer Services, Billing and Collections, Anglian Water comments:

“This new initiative shows Anglian Water’s commitment to developing great customer experiences through innovative technology. As one of the largest utility companies in the UK it’s crucial that our payment services are efficient and inclusive.

“With Ecospend’s ‘Pay by bank’ offering, Anglian Water customers will find it simpler than ever to pay their water bills, and will be doing so through a payments system that is safe, fast and easy for all of our customers to use.”

Company grows workforce in Europe and localises the nCino Bank Operating System® for EMEA market with expanded product capabilities

nCino, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCNO), a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, has strengthened its presence in EMEA by opening entities in Spain and France to advance digital transformation of financial institutions in the region. The new entities are in addition to one previously announced in Germany along with nCino’s EMEA hub office in London. The Company has also increased its employee base by nearly 50 percent over the last year across Sales, Marketing and Product Development to drive further localisation of the nCino Bank Operating System®

Driving Digital Transformation
Digital delivery is a core focus in the financial services industry with the number of people banking digitally in EMEA increasing by 23 percent since the start of the pandemic (McKinsey & Company, 2020). This has left financial institutions (FIs) racing to deliver tailored digital experiences. nCino, through its agile cloud-based platform, provides solutions to improve the digital journey for clients and employees via smart automation across loan origination, client onboarding, and account opening processes. With steady client growth across the region, nCino has invested in hiring local product development teams, with deep knowledge of in-market regulatory challenges and client needs, to provide innovative new solutions that help ensure FIs receive localised products to help solve their unique challenges.

Tom Byrne, Head of Product at nCino, EMEA said “We’re excited about our progress in EMEA and the work being done within the nCino platform to further localise it for specific regions. By reinvesting approximately 26 percent of our FY21 revenues back into research and development, we’ve been able to build market leading solutions for multiple countries across Europe. This includes recently launching an Automated Spreading feature, which can reduce the time it takes to spread and process financial statements by 75 percent, and which is being used by numerous customers across the continent. We’re also excited to bring a bespoke Mortgage solution to market for the UK and Ireland, which streamlines the mortgage process for lenders and brokers and creates a simplified and frictionless homebuying experience for borrowers.”

Continued traction in the UK has resulted in FIs such as GBB, Recognise and Cambridge and Counties adopting nCino’s cloud-based platform as well as customers in new regions such as Germany (HCOB) and Denmark (kompasbank).

“A year into my role as Managing Director, I’m excited by the momentum we’re experiencing and the demand for the digital banking solutions we offer. The teams we continue to build across the continent not only represent our culture but are also motivated by nCino’s mission of transforming financial services through innovation, reputation and speed,” said Jennifer Geary, Managing Director, EMEA at nCino. “As we look ahead, we know how important it is for us to understand and embrace the particularities of the markets we operate in, and we look forward to having nCino become even more known and recognised in EMEA through the success and value we deliver to customers.”

 Caxton, the leading UK fintech payments provider, today announced a major partnership with Banking-as-a-Service provider OpenPayd to offer customers a simplified payments experience. To meet the demands of rapid growth, the collaboration will upgrade and automate Caxton’s payments infrastructure, to drive faster processing of payments in and out and deliver a better customer experience.

The deal enables Caxton to issue IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers) unique to each of its consumer and corporate clients. This will reduce time spent on payment reconciliations, remove the possibility of human error and significantly speed up payment processing time. The capability, integrated into Caxton’s platform in just two weeks, is part of OpenPayd’s embedded finance infrastructure for payments businesses – offering plug-and-play banking products and services through a single API.

“For over 20 years, Caxton has provided its corporate and consumer clients with a world class payments experience, combining best-of-breed financial technology with an award-winning level of customer service,” said Rupert Lee-Browne, CEO. “As we continue to grow, we’ve chosen to partner with OpenPayd to overhaul our operations. OpenPayd’s unique API-driven infrastructure will help our teams continue to shape the future of payments, automating time-consuming processes, delivering improved operational efficiency and an even better service for our customers.”

“Embedded Accounts are fundamental elements of embedded finance infrastructure. They power critical operational processes which enable embedded finance use cases,” said Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd. “No matter how quickly Caxton scales, embedded IBANs give them the infrastructure they need to deliver an efficient finance operation and improved customer experience. We are proud to support the bold growth ambitions of a business with such an established presence and reputation for innovation.”

A fully compliant, low-code payment solution built for platform businesses to quickly integrate, accept and scale their online payments

Mollie, one of the fastest growing payment service providers in Europe, today announced the launch of its newest product, Connect for Platforms. Designed for online SaaS and Marketplace platforms, it is the most efficient and easiest way for companies of all sizes to integrate payments, onboard customers and accept and route payments. It also offers dedicated local, multilingual support – vital to Mollie’s customers operating throughout Europe. 

Connect for Platforms caters for the specific needs for SaaS and Marketplace businesses with a low-code integration which enables effortless onboarding, improved operational efficiency with a faster time to market. Mollie verifies both the marketplace and sellers with full KYC (Know-Your-Customer), saving time and reducing operational workload.

With configurable APIs to accept and route all payments, the payment process is simplified with an extensive suite of global and local payment methods – helping platforms improve conversion and accelerate geographic expansion. In addition, the split payments feature makes it easy for marketplaces to distribute payments from the shopping cart to different sellers.  

One of Mollie’s first Connect for Platforms customers is Q-Park, an international parking operator in Western Europe. “As Q-Park has over 3,000 parking facilities in seven Western European countries, we were looking for a payment solution that enables us to both centralise payments acceptance, as well as allocate revenues to a variety of financial entities,” said Frank Janssen, Corporate Information Manager at Q-Park. “Mollie’s Connect for Platforms product was the answer. We can now accept multiple global and local payment methods. Onboarding was quick and easy, and the in-market support we’ve received has been outstanding.”

“We’re excited to launch Connect for Platforms. It meets a very important market need, one that is very close to our hearts at Mollie: simplifying payments in a complex, multi-party ecosystem,” said Rogier Schoute, Chief Product Officer at Mollie. “The marketplace business model is gaining traction quickly and is now applicable to a host of different organisations of all sizes. Whether you’re a SaaS platform that provides hospitality bookings and reservation solutions, or a marketplace offering products from hundreds or thousands of sellers, Connect for Platforms simplifies marketplace payments and ensures every party gets paid what they expect and when they expect it. Our customers will be able to compete against the ecommerce behemoths, grow revenues and accelerate geographic expansion. We look forward to supporting the growth of a diverse and competitive marketplace landscape.”

Enterprise technology and services firm R3 has established an official presence in Hong Kong, opening its “Innovation Lab” at Cyberport. Cyberport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with R3 to provide Hong Kong’s financial services and FinTech sectors with blockchain technology innovation resources relating to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).The collaboration will bring R3’s suite of trust technology – Corda, its distributed ledger platform, and Conclave, its confidential computing platforms, closer to Hong Kong’s FinTech start-ups and enterprises to support the creation of next-generation software applications based on digital trust technologies. This partnership is the latest in a string of CBDC-focused initiatives that R3 has undertaken which include the Bank of Thailand’s Project Inthanon. 

The two parties, via R3 Sandbox for Digital Currencies will launch a series of blockchain training programme for technical developers later this year to help all companies within the Cyberport community to seize the transformative opportunities offered by blockchain and CBDCs, as outlined within the FinTech Vision 2025 by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Through R3’s Digital Currency Sandbox, companies can experiment with CBDCs and interact with a global and a diverse pool of participants to explore how they could incorporate certain forms of CBDCs development within their own businesses.

As part of the launch of the “R3 Innovation Lab”, R3 is proud to welcome several high-profile technology partners including Red Date Technology which drives the global Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), HK’s home-grown technology transformative giant Cherrypicks, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in joining the lab as the inaugural “Innovation Partners” to foster collaborations in co-researching and co-creating possible new technology solutions based on blockchain and confidential computing.

The R3 Innovation Lab will serve as an agile transformative space where Cyberport, R3 and all the Innovation Partners will come together to offer support resources, training curriculum, technology comprehension, industry expertise; and work closely with ecosystem stakeholders to co-create more fintech innovations within Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area to contribute to Hong Kong’s long-term success as a prominent global leader in technology innovations.

Peter Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport, said, “The Central Government has been striving to promote e-CNY. By the end of last year, the usage of e-CNY had reached 87.5 billion yuan of transactions with 261 million individual wallets set up. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is actively studying CBDC payment and settlement in Hong Kong to help promote mutual access in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and support the consolidation of Hong Kong's status as a global offshore RMB business hub. CBDC will drive demand for blockchain applications and create a huge opportunity. With blockchain being one of the key technology clusters, Cyberport and its Cyberport Academy organised various seminars, workshops and competitions to promote blockchain applications. This collaboration with R3 will further nurture and gather talents of blockchain and relevant technologies to consolidate Hong Kong’s edge in advanced technology.”

Amit Ghosh, Chief Information & Services Officer for R3 said, “The advent of the CBDC will reshape the financial industry. Both central banks and financial institutions will need to build new systems, and even review the financial system’s operating processes. The related financial innovation cannot rely solely on promotion by the government and the financial industry. As Hong Kong’s largest FinTech community, Cyberport is an important asset in promoting the application of Hong Kong’s Central Bank digital currency. R3 is delighted to establish an innovation lab at Cyberport in order to allow outstanding FinTech start-ups and the wider enterprise community to better grasp blockchain and confidential computing technologies, while providing them with convenient tools to develop more advanced CBDC-related applications and other blockchain technology applications.” 

“It is also very exciting to see yet another traditional financial institution make the move to transform their business through blockchain technology. Following the success of Bank of Thailand’s project Inthanon, which R3 participated in as a technology partner, we can see how explorations of DLT and its potential have helped lay the infrastructure that is instrumental to the building of CBDCs within Asia,” added Amit Ghosh.”

R3 collaborated with Cyberport in as early as 2020 to launch the “Block AdVenture” challenge to help start-ups build on Corda as well as its global Venture Development program for HK’s local technology community. The program offers a variety of resources and support for every stage of the blockchain journey – from office hours, workshops and educational content to access to an ecosystem of over 200 industry experts, mentors and investors.