EuropeanCEO, the leading subscription-based print and online publication, have announced that Jason Mace, CEO and Co-Founder of Gala Technology has been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 by for his work in the financial technology industry.

The London based publication which is delivered quarterly to C-suite executives in 28 countries throughout Europe, judged Mace as a worthy winner citing recognition for the work, he and his extended team have conducted within the payments sector to help support merchants of all shapes and sizes protect themselves from fraud related chargebacks, simplify PCI DSS compliance requirements and embrace new technologies such as Open Banking, without the need for internal development, via their suite of innovative solutions, including the multi-award-winning, pay by link solution, SOTpay.

Mace is no stranger to business success and picking up accolades. He, alongside his long-term business partner Mark Thompson, built Gala Tent, one of Europe's largest manufacturers of commercial marquees and gazebos with a £2k investment, growing the business to a turnover circa £10m. The Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 award, however, is for his work in the payments and finance sector with Gala Technology.

Mace stated ‘This is a huge personal honour to be recognised as Financial Technology Industry, Entrepreneur of the Year 2022, by EuropeanCEO magazine, but is also reflective of the quality work my team and colleagues put in every day. I have always said that you could have the best idea in the world but unless you put it into action, it will simply stay an idea. Fortunately, I stayed true to my word, and we continue to innovate, which has seen Gala Technology continue to grow and add value to businesses across Europe, helping them to process secure and compliant payments in both the card and account2account sectors.’

A spokesperson for EuropeanCEO stated ‘Entrepreneurs and leaders are visionaries who are instrumental in the success of a business. Their tireless approach to enterprise expansion places them at the heart of the business. Understanding objectives, formulating ideas and making decisions are part & parcel of the role. Entrepreneurs have not only taken products, technologies and even industries to another level on the innovation curve, they have done it day in day out for years.

Our awards celebrate successful entrepreneurs in those fields that our readers feel, are making strides in the European and Global economies. We recognise product, functional, strategic, and managerial innovation in companies and individuals showing commercial insight and market integrity. (We are) very pleased to confirm that Mr Jason Mace has been adjudged the winner for 2022 in the European CEO Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in the category of Financial Technology Industry.’

Gala Technology are the innovative development team behind the multi-award winning, secure and PCI DSS compliant, payment solution, SOTpay. This cloud-based solution enables merchants of all shapes and sizes, process secure digital payments across numerous channels, including telephony, email, SMS, web chat and Social Media platforms. 

Visit: https://www.galatechnology.co.uk/

BCB Group, Europe's leading crypto business banking partner and provider of payments and trading services for the digital asset economy, today announced the launch of BCB Yield, a product that lets customers earn a return on both fiat or crypto funds.

BCB Group Founder and CEO, Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie commented: “This is a hugely exciting development for BCB customers who can now access a brand new set of features designed to earn a return on their balance while offering a genuine alternative to low yielding traditional finance vehicles. The crypto markets are generating phenomenal innovation and as a multi-regulated institution, serving both the traditional finance and crypto industry, we are uniquely positioned to leverage both markets to generate sustainable market risk-neutral returns. ”

Find out more about BCB Yield Accounts https://bcbgroup.com/yield/

PCI Pal, – the global provider of cloud-based secure payment solutions – today announced a partnership with Customer Experience as a Service specialist and Amazon Connect expert, VoiceFoundry – a TTEC Digital company.  The partnership with VoiceFoundry will also provide TTEC Group companies with access to PCI Pal’s services.

VoiceFoundry specialises in the comprehensive design and delivery of Amazon Connect, a cloud-based enterprise contact centre solution used by enterprises around the world. It is uniquely focused on helping businesses improve customer engagement and the contact centre experience through customised solutions that empower businesses to deliver intelligent and dynamic customer experiences across all channels by leveraging Amazon Connect

With PCI Pal being one of the first secure payment providers available in Amazon Connect, the partnership enables VoiceFoundry to offer customers additional options for payment security and compliance, as part of its contact centre offer.

Darren Gill, CRO, PCI Pal said, “We are delighted to announce VoiceFoundry as a global PCI Pal partner; there is great synergy between the two organisations. As an industry leader in deploying Amazon Connect and other AWS services, VoiceFoundry will be able to integrate the PCI Pal secure payment solutions to help enterprises improve customer engagement and comply with PCI DSS rules, while maximising the benefits of AWS.”

Dan Bloy, Executive Director at VoiceFoundry, said, “We are passionate about customer experience and, with a deep legacy of over 40 years in the contact centre environment, we have the expertise to help organisations successfully navigate the key technologies needed to deliver an exceptional customer experience, leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS).  This includes PCI Pal’s multi award-winning suite of secure omnichannel payment solutions.”

For more information regarding PCI Pal, visit www.pcipal.com, call +44 207 030 3770 to arrange a demonstration or follow PCI Pal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pci-pal/.

“This is a highly competitive industry and Qumulo has demonstrated intuitiveness and ingenuity which gives them their edge,” said Annabelle Whittall, Judge at the Cloud Awards. “Qumulo offers a wide service that does more than just recover data and ensure you can get back to "normal" after a ransomware attack. Businesses using Qumulo also benefit from monitoring and detection as part of their defense against data thieves. At the Cloud Awards, we are impressed and pleased to recognize Qumulo with this award.”

“We are honored to be recognized by the Cloud Awards for our continued cloud innovation and leadership,” said Ben Gitenstein, Vice President of Product at Qumulo. “Today’s enterprises create and store more data than ever before. A record-breaking number of customers from all industries around the world are turning to Qumulo for its radically simple solutions, such as Recover Q, to store, protect and manage their data, and it is thrilling to be awarded for that innovation.” 

LPA, the capital markets technology and advisory firm, today announced that it has enhanced its ESG reporting services through a partnership with Globalance, a global pioneer in the field of sustainability. The partnership will see LPA gain access to investment insight platform Globalance World. 

Coined the “Google Earth for Investors”, Globalance World gives investors and other stakeholders free access to analyse and assess the future orientation and sustainability of over 6,000 listed companies and selected stock indices related to ESG, climate change and megatrends. Globalance World is the first interactive tool of its kind, visualising ESG in a dynamic, transparent and interactive way.

Despite the postponement of standardised EU ESG reporting (SFDR Level 2) to July 1, 2022, demand for ESG funds is high, especially in the aftermath of COP26 in Glasgow. Firms who distribute corresponding products need to align their ESG fact sheets with the SFDR standard at an early stage.

LPA’s Capmatix Regulations is a leading all-in-one platform for compliance and regulatory reporting in the investment management industry which helps integrate and verify numerous data structures and automates firms’ reporting processes. LPA’s Capmatix Regulations dashboard ensures complete transparency and the highest degree of automation, enabling efficient creation of almost all current reporting formats in the EU and UK. The integration of Globalance World will offer clients an enriched reporting format and help them extend their market position beyond sustainability compliance. 

Stefan Lucht, Founder and Managing Partner at LPA commented: “Never before has enhanced ESG reporting been more critical, particular as the path forward has been laid by COP26. LPA integrating Globalance World into our regulatory reporting software was a natural and obvious next step. Our banking and asset management clients are increasingly asking for deeper and more meaningful ESG insights, in order to properly market sustainable investments. Together with Globalance World, we are very much looking forward to demonstrating the capabilities of this new data to our clients.”

Reto Ringger, Founder & CEO of Globalance stated: “We are seeing an increasing need among private and institutional investors for greater transparency on the impact of their investments through enhanced reporting solution. When it comes to investments, investors no longer seek only financial returns, but also positive change and a contribution to solving the challenges of our time. Through our partnership with LPA, we’re helping clients better understand the complex interrelationships of investments and their impact on the economy, society, and environment, which investors will see in our interactive reporting solution. We are excited about this partnership and look forward to providing clients with the reporting tools to achieve their sustainable investment goals.”

CoreCard Corporation, the leading provider of innovative credit technology solutions and processing services to the financial technology and services market, announced today its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2021.

“CoreCard’s strong performance continued in the fourth quarter and resulted in full year top-line growth of 34%, which was at the high end of our upwardly revised expectations,” said Leland Strange, CEO of CoreCard Corporation. "We recognized $1.8 million in license revenue in the quarter, bringing full year license revenue to $5.9 million, an increase of 63% year-over-year. Additionally, our full year professional services revenue grew by 22%, while our processing and maintenance revenue grew by 38% compared to fiscal 2020. The investments we are making in our platform and processing capabilities are already showing significant results. Our new office in Bogotá, Colombia, is gaining traction, and the team we have in place is scaling well. CoreCard is a best-in-class platform that is extremely well positioned to capture the growing demand for next-generation card management platforms by large and complex modern card issuers."

Mr. Strange continued, "Looking ahead, we expect topline growth of 20% to 25% in fiscal 2022, the opportunity ahead of us is sizable, and CoreCard remains a growth business focused on meeting the evolving needs of modern issuers while generating long-term value for our shareholders."

Financial Highlights for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021

Total revenue in the three-month period ended December 31, 2021, was $13,046,000 which represents an increase of 36% compared to the comparable period in 2020. Revenue of $48,248,000 for full fiscal year 2021 was up 34% from fiscal year 2020.

In the following table, revenue is disaggregated by type of revenue for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:

Income from operations was $3,026,000 for the fourth quarter compared to income from operations of $2,732,000 in the comparable prior year quarter. Full year 2021 income from operations was $11,658,000 compared to $11,295,000 in the comparable prior year.

Net income was $2,660,000 for the fourth quarter compared to net income of $2,119,000 in the comparable prior year quarter. Full year 2021 net income was $9,039,000 compared to $8,161,000 in the comparable prior year.

Earnings per diluted share was $0.30 for the fourth quarter compared to $0.24 in the comparable prior year quarter. Full year 2021 earnings per diluted share was $1.03 compared to $0.91 in the comparable prior year.

Investor Conference Call Today

The company is holding an investor conference call today, February 15^th, 2022, at 11 A.M. Eastern Time. Interested investors are invited to attend the conference call by accessing the webcast at https://www.webcast-eqs.com/corecard02152022/en or by dialing 1-877-407-0890. As part of the conference call CoreCard will be conducting a question-and-answer session where participants are invited to email their questions to questions@corecard.com prior to the call. A transcript of the call will be posted on the company’s website at www.corecard.com as soon as available after the call.

The company will file its Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2021, with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early March. For additional information about reported results, investors will be able to access the Form 10-K on the company’s website at www.corecard.com or on the SEC website, www.sec.gov.

SCCG Management CEO and Founder, Stephen Crystal announced a partnership with the competitive social media platform, CliquePicks as a strategic equity owner and investor, to provide investment, business development, and advisory services to grow the company within the North American sports wagering markets.

Stephen Crystal said of the partnership, "As sports betting expands across North America, we look for systems and technologies that help bettors express their interest in sports betting as part of their lifestyle, beyond the moments around a particular wager. CliquePicks is part of the fandom of sports wagering and the more encompassing sports betting lifestyle."

Nick Giangreco, Founder and CEO Of CliquePicks said: "CliquePicks is thrilled to be partnering with SCCG. Their industry-leading resources and strategic advice will play a pivotal role in enhancing our current business model and marketing approach as we build toward our upcoming active launch. SCCG's expertise will open doors to potentially vast opportunities for CliquePicks across platforms and partnerships. Teaming up with SCCG, CliquePicks will unite the interactive rivalry of fantasy leagues with the thrill of sports wagering, giving our users the power to make every game a rivalry!"

CliquePicks is a competitive social media platform created to unite the interactive rivalry of fantasy leagues with the thrill of sports wagering. Its users only wager against their friends -- not a faceless online sportsbook.

Through the CliquePicks platform, Clique members create wagers in real-time, allowing members to Ride (take the same bet) or Fade (take the opposing position) with other members of your Clique, on the web, or through an Android or iOS app.

In the CliquePicks Locker Room, CliquePicks users chat, joke, and place wagers with one another. CliquePicks also offers various customization options to satisfy any Clique's preferences, such as buy-in, Clique size, and pay out.

CliquePicks runs on credits, with a similar business model to fantasy sports leagues. Money is handled internally within each clique so none of the money being paid-in or paid-out goes through the CliquePicks website. Further reducing risk, participants set limits to their weekly risk, but still have a max of 500 credits to wager throughout the week.

A revolutionary new tool to protect consumers and the construction industry, Pay Trade celebrates its official launch of its escrow and construction contract administration tool in Q1 2022, providing free registration for all property owners, contractors, and architects. Pay Trade has launched with an aim of Bridging The Trust Gap In Construction.

"A revolutionary new tool to protect consumers and the construction industry"

Construction projects are high-value items often involving unfamiliar parties. We wouldn’t second think about using a solicitor when making a property purchase, so why isn’t the use of a third party the norm for what is likely to be the second if not biggest purchase a person will make in their lifetime. The use of escrow globally in a variety of industries has been increasing with the development of new technology and services to make the process quicker, easier, and cost-effective. Escrow technology is disrupting a variety of industries' payment processes to safeguard consumers and providers. It is time for the construction industry's financial revolution.

So often financial risk is ignored by the industry with standard industry contracts even suggesting that proof of affordability clauses to be used sparingly in a domestic setting. The standardization of the use of escrow alongside construction contracts for even the most minor construction project will better protection for all. Additionally, the segregation, off balance sheet, in escrow, of construction retention payments will put the impact of disasters such as Carillion’s administration behind us. Even the biggest entities can fail, and parties should be reminded of this and seek financial protection.

• No more cowboy builders leaving consumers out of pocket.
• No more bad payers or insolvent entities leaving contractors out of pocket for work professionally done.
• No more financial uncertainty relying solely on good faith and hope.
• Escrow for all the construction industry.

To help raise awareness, Pay Trade are beginning with education by releasing of a series of how to guides and CPD sessions on escrow payment in construction. We are also seeking to engage with industry bodies, trade unions and the media. As part of its launch, access to the system will remain free for the foreseeable future.

Phil Taylor, CEO of Pay Trade says, “I am thrilled that a project so close to my heart has now become available to make such a positive impact on the construction industry. Upon returning to the construction industry after a 10-year career stint in investment banking I was shocked to see how unprotected parties are when engaging in construction work, how little trust there is for many leading to so much poor mental wellbeing in the industry. The introduction of the likes and not limited to PayPal, Alipay, Amazon Pay to online merchant checkout has revolutionised protection for online shopping, and we expect Pay Trade will do similar for the construction industry. Less risk means greater trust leading to better mental wellbeing and importantly reduced cost for consumers and the wider industry. Consumers will be able to openly ask for risk adjusted discounts in return for historically unprecedented levels of financially security”

Launched by Beyond.pl, a data center and cloud provider in Poland and Europe, the first truly Polish cloud is celebrating its 10th birthday. After a decade of presence on the market, e24cloud is once again writing the history books of the local cloud market becoming the first Polish 100% green cloud solution.

e24cloud is the first cloud computing solution deployed by a Polish operator. Upon launch in 2011 it became an alternative to the purchase or rental of servers for Polish companies. Today, cloud solutions have become mainstream, and e24cloud is used by companies for the purposes of hosting ERP systems, back-office CRM and HCM applications, proprietary solutions, and e-commerce platforms. Among the customers of e24cloud are companies and institutions from Poland and abroad, including the international manufacturing group BONG, Ecco Holiday, Ceramika Paradyż, Media4u, Pho3nix Foundation and the Poznan City Hall.

“10 years ago, Polish companies preferred to rent dedicated servers, and the cloud’s promise of immediate scalability was viewed with skepticism. As the first company in Poland, we created a cloud solution which delivers a high level of quality and safety and adapts to the financial resources of dynamically developing SMBs while. The launch of such a service in 2011 was a groundbreaking development. Let me remind you that at the time only 6% of companies in Poland used any cloud services. Today this number has increased fourfold,” says Michał Grzybkowski, the initiator of e24cloud and VP of Beyond.pl.

e24cloud is also used in regulated industries such as healthcare and finance. This is due to the fact that the storing and processing of data occurs only in Poland. The solution is fully compliant with GDPR and European Commission directives on data privacy. The information security management standards of the e24cloud are confirmed by the ISO 27001 standard. 

High standards and green dimension

Ten years after its launch, e24cloud is once again leading the way in the market as the first green cloud solution in Poland offered by a local provider. This means that companies elect to use the e24cloud can significantly reduce their carbon footprint and minimize the environmental impact of their IT infrastructure and processing needs.

The entire e24cloud infrastructure platform is maintained in data centers powered by 100% renewable energy, which are also one of the most energy-efficient facilities in Central Europe. Furthermore, the e24cloud platform runs on HPE GreenLake solutions which consume 18% less energy than other hardware solutions available on the market ensuring efficient and ecological infrastructure.

“More and more European and Polish companies are looking for green technologies, preferring to collaborate with IT service providers who operate in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. Beyond.pl is such a partner and we are proof that the Polish cloud can also be green. Polish companies, from startups to large organizations, can now leverage the potential of e24cloud and reduce their IT carbon footprint with virtually no effort. They also gain the safety and reliability of our data centers, expert knowledge of our engineers and the ability to spread and optimize the level of expenses in line with business needs and resources available, reflecting their pace of growth,” adds Wojciech Stramski, Beyond.pl CEO.

There is an infrastructure behind every cloud 

The key market differentiators of e24cloud are modern and secure technologies which guarantee the highest quality of services for customers.

From the point of view of the physical infrastructure, e24cloud is one of the most secure cloud platforms in this part of Europe. It is maintained in two Beyond.pl facilities, Data Center 1 and Data Center 2, which meet the stringent requirements to support business continuity. Beyond.pl Data Center 2 is the first and currently one of just three Rated 4 ANSI/TIA-942 certified data centers in the European Union. The potential unavailability of the cloud services due to the failure of the data center is minimized to 26 minutes per year. However, from its commissioning in 2016, Data Center 2 has delivered 100% uptime.

The high quality of the e24cloud service is also apparent on the technical side. To ensure the highest efficiency and speed of operation, the hardware infrastructure supporting e24cloud is continuously upgraded. HPE GreenLake, Dell and Intel infrastructure are currently used. Customers can be sure that their data is stored and processed on modern and highly efficient equipment of the world’s top technology providers, which decreases the risk of failure and potential unavailability. Additionally, the platform employs proven virtualization solutions, which are also used by global hyperscalers, including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

e24cloud is ready to serve the needs of retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, professional services, medical, advertising and marketing companies, as well as start-ups. It has been designed to enable quick and safe migration of data from on-premise infrastructures or integrating them to create hybrid environments. As in the case of other providers’ clouds, it can be integrated with global and local vendor solutions to build multi-cloud environments.

Not just technology

For years, e24cloud has been distinguished by its financial transparency and cost flexibility. There are no hidden fees in the service. Customers are guaranteed that the fee is consistent with the amounts agreed in the contract, or with the public price list in the case of pre-paid services. It is also a cost-effective alternative to purchasing or renting IT infrastructure or using global providers’ clouds.

e24cloud provides customers with excellent technical support. There is a 24/7/365 Help Desk available in Polish and English, and a dedicated team of engineers responsible for the maintenance and development of the platform. Customers no longer have to worry about the lack of qualified in-house IT staff.

As a cloud operator, Beyond.pl has been systematically expanding the range of e24cloud services over the last 10 years. Customers can use virtual servers, disks, network services and many other infrastructure solutions. Managed services are also available, including DDoS protection or BaaS (Backup as a Service) solutions.

Lisa Laybourn, Head of Technical Policy and Regulation, at The Investing and Saving Alliance commented on the close of the latest FCA consultation on the new Consumer Duty:  

“TISA welcomes all efforts to improve consumer protection in retail financial markets.  Consumer-friendly regulatory measures are needed to drive a healthy and successful financial services system in which firms can thrive and consumers can make informed choices about products and services.  We support the FCAs ambition that the Consumer Duty will help make competition work more effectively, driving up quality and putting consumer at the heart of their business.

  “TISA is concerned, however, the changes required in practice are significant and through the consultation process are proposing timescales that it believes will enable a considered and effective implementation.  The FCA will need to ensure that the cost of change for firms does not fall on the consumer, result in raising barriers to market entry or disproportionate costs on smaller firms.

“A second concern we share with the industry is clarity, both when it comes to the extent of regulatory responsibility across the distribution chain and some of the terms of the new consumer duty. Guidelines around broad concepts such as ‘reasonableness’, ‘good faith’ and legal ones including ‘cause’, ‘foreseeable’ and ‘outcomes’ will need to be clear, tight and transparent, with a common understanding across the financial services ecosystem including the Financial Ombudsman Service.  

“Where firms provide products which span across the remit of more than one regulator, such as the FCA and The Pensions Regulator, a joined-up approach or regulatory college is needed. This would help to ensure the same protection for consumers, irrespective of the regulator of the product.  

 "We are also concerned that without solving the advice-guidance boundary issues for firms, they will be limited in the contribution they can make in helping consumers achieve their financial aims. The introduction of the new Consumer Duty proposals could lead to conservatism among providers as they prioritise avoiding consumer harm over good outcomes, which could inadvertently create more financial exclusion.

"The new consumer duty is an opportunity to improve consumer outcomes, but a number of concerns need to be addressed beforehand so we can achieve that worthy aim."