Fintech behind record-breaking Series A raise makes key hire in Latin America growth push

Volt, the leading open payments gateway, has hired Nathan Marion as General Manager LATAM, to lead its strategic expansion in Latin America (LATAM). This follows the fintech’s innovative integration of Brazil’s instant payments system, Pix.

Marion joins from digital commerce platform VTEX. There, in his role as VP Growth Enablement, he helped the firm grow from a little-known Brazilian fintech to a New York Stock Exchange-listed unicorn serving more than 2,500 online stores.

Prior to VTEX, Marion spent six years at Amsterdam-headquartered payments platform Adyen, where he helped to grow its LATAM operation to over 100 people.

Marion’s hire follows Volt’s integration of Brazil’s 120 million-user instant payments network Pix and the establishment of the firm’s São Paolo office, both announced in November 2021.

The Pix launch has allowed Volt’s customers to access one of Latin America’s largest and fastest growing markets, effectively cutting the country’s lengthy 28-day card settlement times to two seconds, while boosting payment conversion rates and avoiding costly card infrastructure.

Marion’s hire marks the latest step in Volt’s global growth plans in response to rising demand for real-time payments. The firm is behind a record-breaking $23.5m funding round – the largest Series A on record for the Open Banking industry.

Tom Greenwood, Founder and CEO at Volt, says: “Pix is a thriving example of the power of instant payments, creating a huge opportunity for ambitious global merchants.

“Our decision to expand into Brazil aligns with our ambition to unite new generation open payment systems to a unified payments interface, through which merchants can receive payments account-to-account and in real time.

“We are delighted to have Nathan on board. At a critical moment in our growth, he brings with him a wealth of experience in payments and specialist regional knowledge that will help us expand in Brazil, as well as establish the Volt brand in more countries.”

Nathan Marion, General Manager, LATAM at Volt, says: “Integrating with Pix has created a huge opportunity not just for Volt, but for international merchants. By the same token, it marks a significant development for Latin Americans in general.

“Latin America is a thrilling environment. There are big challenges in payments – economically and politically – but this generates resilience. Problems are tackled by amazing companies with amazing ideas and solutions.

“I like being part of something that’s disruptive. A combination of this, a first-class founding team and an amazing product is what attracted me to Volt.”

 Connect Financial, an innovative cryptocurrency financial platform, announces today the successful completion of their L2 Arbitrum migration and launches its full capabilities on the Connect Financial ecosystem.

Connect Financial combines both DeFi and CeFi technologies within their platform where people worldwide can borrow, save, earn and trade their digital assets. Connect strives to harmoniously join digital assets to everyday lives and give customers financial control, flexibility, and autonomy.

The growth experienced in DeFi has been unprecedented in 2020 and 2021, fuelled by financial services for underbanked users, stable coin adoption, and remarkable innovation. DeFi radically changes the way we use financial instruments, promoting equal opportunities and unprecedented economic growth. More and more customer-facing Fintechs and other online-centric verticals have been implementing crypto at a tremendous rate, targeting it to a more tangible state in people's everyday lives. Currently, the amount of cryptocurrency held in DeFi globally has grown by over 40,000% since November 2018.

High gas fees and slow transaction times on the Ethereum network have occurred as a result of this DeFi growth and adoption. Many DeFi projects are diligently working to solve this poor experience and be well prepared for the continuous growth expected in the industry. Currently, this decentralized finance sector only represents 0.1% of its maximum potential - syncing with leading technologies and expanding past just the Ethereum network is essential. 

Layer 2 projects like Arbitrum will quickly become the robust solutions for the Ethereum scalability confrontation. Leveraging L2 rollup technology allows Connect Financial to ensure its users experience more efficient and cost-saving transactions while still obtaining L1 premium security.

Arbitrum, founded by OffChain Labs, is the first proper Layer 2 solution for the Ethereum network with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) at the bytecode level. Arbitrum uses rollups to beat the Ethereum network congestion. It attempts to remove the requirement for zero-knowledge proofs and instead assumes each transaction is correct. The platform then leverages Ethereum to ensure the results of these transactions are accurate. Through this functionality, the chain can reduce fees. 

Connect Financial understands the essential nature to leverage modern technologies for the success of their products, service and overall customer engagement and satisfaction. To date, Connect has already implemented and fully supports Polygon, Solana and the Ethereum network technology. The addition of Arbitrum, quickly becoming Connect's preferred L2, further expands their networking bridge options to their valued customers. 

Connect Financial continuously looks for more experienced-centric value opportunities to bring to their customers - ensuring every transaction and engagement of digital assets is swift and secure. Users in the Connect ecosystem can avoid the higher Ethereum gas prices and traditional delays. Purchasing CNFI tokens on uniswap, depositing CNFI into a Connect account for membership or into a collateral wallet to unlock borrow and earn products now presents users with multiple networks for a premium depositing experience. 

How Will SCA Change Fraud Pressure for Businesses?

​​Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is a requirement of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in the UK and the EU. Aimed at securing online payments, consumers’ identities are verified with a two-factor authentication. This authentication will ask consumers to prove two of three factors:

●      Knowledge — something they know, like a password

●      Possession — something they own, such as a mobile phone

●      Inherence — something they are, using facial recognition or fingerprint scans

However, as fraud prevention blocks some avenues of fraud and abuse, those aiming to do your business harm will aim to find another. It’s clear that payment SCA will change fraud pressure for businesses. Here, we explore factors that online merchants must consider in the new world of SCA and how to address modern ecommerce fraud.

Out-of-scope transactions

SCA doesn’t cover all online payments. In fact, some payments are considered out of the scope of SCA regulation. This means that any payments that qualify as an out-of-scope transaction will not trigger a two-factor authentication check. These out-of-scope transactions include:

●      Mail order or telephone order (MOTO) payments

●      Merchant-initiated transactions, such as direct debits

●      One-leg-out (OLO) transactions

●      Recurring transactions of a consistent amount, once the first transaction has been authenticated

Merchants can expect to see fraudsters shift their efforts to these channels as they attempt to cause harm to businesses beyond SCA enforcement. The psychology of the situation is simple: when you make one channel of payment difficult to commit fraud, then fraudsters will find another. Which other channels will they use? Those that are not protected by SCA, of course.

Let’s look at OLO transactions as an example. This occurs when either the merchant’s acquiring bank or the consumer’s issuing bank is located outside the EU or the UK. A fraudster could purchase international credit card information on the dark web as the issuing bank would be outside the remit of SCA, purchasing through them as a foreign identity. This would be classed as an out-of-scope transaction, and their fraudulent purchase would be exempt from SCA.

Liability

As SCA changes the way that fraud will be attempted, it will also impact the liability of fraud. Just as there are out-of-scope transactions that do not require SCA, some in-scope transactions can be exempt from the regulation. This is because some transactions are classified as having a low risk of fraud. This includes low-value, regular, whitelisted, and low-risk transactions. Ultimately, these exemptions help the checkout to have less friction and boosts the customer experience. However, fraud can still occur under the exemptions.

PSD2 allows for certain in-scope transactions to be exempt from SCA. Exempting low-value, regular, whitelisted, and low-risk transactions can reduce friction for the customer. These exemptions are decided and applied by issuers and acquirers, but merchants can also play a hand in the outcome.

However, if a retailer utilses an exemption strategy as part of their SCA strategy, the liability for those exempted transactions will lie with the retailer. When a fraudulent transaction occurs, your business could be losing money. It’s essential to incorporate other fraud detection programmes in place to avoid this.

Friendly fraud

Don’t be fooled by the name; friendly fraud can hurt just as bad as any other. This type of fraud occurs when a genuine consumer makes a claim to their issuing bank that is false. These could involve the customer claiming:

●      an item wasn’t delivered

●      an item does not match its description

●      a refund had not been processed

●      an order was cancelled but still sent

●      that their credit card has been compromised and used.

Friendly fraud occurs when these claims are falsified, and they can cost businesses a significant portion of their revenue. Interestingly, The Consumer Abuse Index states that non-payments fraud has increased five-fold during the COVID-19 pandemic. Worryingly, the index shows just how commonplace abuse is among shoppers. 36 per cent of UK shoppers have claimed that a legitimate charge on their account was fraudulent. Meanwhile, 30 per cent have falsely claimed that an item hadn’t arrived. Before the pandemic, only 14 per cent had said the same – less than half of its current levels.

SCA is out of scope for this type of fraud because most orders will look legitimate when they are made as a genuine consumer isn’t hiding behind a false identity with friendly fraud.

Merchants must consider other fraud solutions to avoid friendly fraud. Fraud prevention platforms that utilise historic shopping data can identify consumers that are more likely to commit friendly fraud, prevent them from doing it again, and remove liabilities of chargebacks for merchants.

Transaction risk analysis

Removing the friction caused by SCA will involve creating a seamless authentication strategy. Seeking out exemptions is the best way to remove the need for SCA and reduce consumer touchpoints that may lead to cart abandonment.

Transaction risk analysis (TRA) is one effective method carried out by issuers and acquirers that identities low-risk transactions and exempts them from SCA. Transactions go under a real-time, dynamic evaluation of various risk factors, verifying the identity of consumers and assessing their fraud risk.

However, to be eligible for a TRA, merchants’ fraud rate must remain below a specific threshold. If your fraud rates rise, so does a PSP’s appetite to authorise an exemption – it's bad news all around. Merchants could even be hit with financial penalties as a result.

To be eligible for exemptions as part of TRA, merchants must adopt an effective fraud prevention strategy that first reduces their fraud rate before accessing more frictionless checkout experiences. The lower your fraud rate, the more opportunities, the easier the checkout, and the better experience your customers will have.

Fraud is changing with SCA regulations. Fraudsters will continually find new ways to harm your business, but proactive merchants are utilising more effective fraud prevention methods. A solid fraud prevention strategy can help reduce your fraud rates, improve the customer experience, and boost your revenue.

Open Banking Expo, the leading global community of Open Banking and Open Finance executives responsible for digital transformation across financial services, will host thought leaders and practitioners for the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Confex on 10 March 2022.

This agenda-setting virtual event, which is running for the second consecutive year, will explore the latest developments in CBDCs, including evolving use cases. It will also cover CBDCs’ journey from conception to reality, their impact on financial systems and monetary policies, how they can improve on existing payment systems and the evolving attitudes of central banks, regulators and policymakers.

Adam Cox, co-founder and CEO of Open Banking Expo, said: “The future of money has well and truly arrived.
From cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, to stablecoins and tokens, the race to replace cash with digital
money is on. And for central banks that control the supply of money, the new digital economy is an area of
increased focus, with particular attention given to the role and function of CBDCs.
“Our event last year revealed growing appetite and interest in this area, and we really look forward to bringing
together trailblazers behind some of the latest initiatives and developments in CBDCs.”

Barry James, founder and CEO of Token Intelligence, will set the scene for the day by looking into why CBDCs should be introduced, whether or not central banks should succumb to the pressure to develop a governmentbacked digital currency, how CBDCs can help modernise the international monetary and payments landscape, and what is required of regulators and policymakers to support this transformation.

James said: “One way or another the combination of geopolitics and decentralised technologies and their spin-offs
mean we are entering a disruptive new era of money and finance that will make fintech look like a first ripple on a
pond. This will have profound and far reaching implications for us all, inside the industry and out, which we have
hardly begun to explore. So I welcome the opportunity to plumb these depths together.”

The carefully curated conversations will also look at CBDCs in light of the broader macro picture of the growth of crypto assets, fiscal and monetary risks, regulatory headwinds, as well as data and privacy issues.

Division Chief at the Bank of Jamaica Novelette Panton said, “Central Bank Digital Currency plays a major role in

Bank of Jamaica’s quest to further digitise payment services and support the government’s digital transformation
of the economy. In this regard, CBDC is an enabler of easy and secure access to financial products and services by
all Jamaicans thereby facilitating the country’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy,”

The attendees will get insights into how central banks and payments innovators around the world are developing their respective CBDCs and digital money, and what progress is being made in integrating CBDCs with other payment systems and applications.

For example, they will hear from the Bank for International Settlements who along with Banque de France, the Swiss National Bank and a private sector consortium were behind two experiments: Project Jura and Project
Helvetica. Project Helvetica focused on the integration of wholesale CBDC into the existing financial ecosystem. It demonstrated that a wholesale CBDC can be integrated with existing core banking systems and processes of commercial and central banks. And Project Jura tested the cross-border settlement of tokenised assets and wholesale CBDCs. It studied a new approach for central banks to allow access to wholesale CBDCs for regulated
non-resident financial institutions.

“Given the rapid developments in global payments that the pandemic has accelerated and the fact that more and more central banks are taking the idea of CBDCs seriously, it’s more important than ever to learn more about the subject. There are so many unanswered questions that we need to consider and listening to lots of points of view can help us understand these issues more,” said James Pomeroy, Global Economist, HSBC.

The delegates will also learn about the US-based FedNow Programme, its overall design, management and operations.

This year’s line-up also includes:

● David Copple, Policy Manager, Digital Currencies, Bank of England
● Dan Anthony, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, FedNow, Federal Reserve Bank of
Boston
● Oliver Sigrist, Advisor, BIS
● Anne-Catherine Bohnert, Deputy Head of the Digital Currency & Innovation Service, Banque de France
● Novelette Panton, Division Chief, Financial Markets Infrastructure, Bank of Jamaica
● James Pomeroy, Global Economist, HSBC
● Manuel Klein, Product Manager, Deutsche Bank
● Jonathan Dharmapalan, Chief Executive Officer, ecurrency
● Xiaochen Zhang, Principal Manager, AWS
● Aman Cheema, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Global Real Time Payments, FIS
● Austin Elwood, Manager, Payments Policy, UK Finance
● Omri Ross, Chief Blockchain Scientist, eToro
● Peter Clifford, CBDC & Payments Head, Digital Asset
● Nilixa Devlukia, Founder, Payments Solved

Global information and insights provider TransUnion has announced it is ready to accept buy now, pay later finance into UK consumer credit files, being the first credit reference agency in the UK to do so.  

Following extensive research and product innovation, buy now, pay later finance – also known as deferred payment credit – will soon be included within TransUnion credit information to help protect consumers and enable finance providers to ensure that payment plans are affordable and sustainable.  

“We’re delighted to announce these important changes to the way buy now, pay later products are treated within the credit ecosystem,” said Satrajit “Satty” Saha, CEO of TransUnion in the UK. “We’ve been working closely with prominent providers of buy now, pay later finance to lead the way in line with industry changes and consumer needs. Incorporating this data into credit reports will support consumers that are using this type of point-of-sale finance, whilst also ensuring lenders have a comprehensive picture of a borrower’s financial position.”

Buy now, pay later finance saw unprecedented growth during the pandemic, with consumers seeking out more ways of accessing interest-free credit as they shop online. TransUnion research shows that more than a third of consumers (35%) used this type of payment in 2021.

The addition of buy now, pay later data to UK credit files follows extensive industry debate and acknowledges a key recommendation of the Woolard Review. Consumer protection has been central to the changes and new search footprints are being introduced to enable consumers and lenders to see applications for this kind of finance.

Shail Deep, chief product officer at TransUnion in the UK, added: “By conducting extensive industry analysis and working with leading global buy now, pay later providers to simulate the impact of buy now, pay later data within our credit bureau, TransUnion has been able to identify the most appropriate way to incorporate the data into our products, in what is an evolutionary milestone for the industry, putting the consumer at the heart of these new developments.

“These changes will be really beneficial for those with thin credit files, supporting financial inclusion and wider access to credit, as well as helping to ensure finance providers have a holistic view of an individual’s borrowing, so they can use these insights to help ensure the right outcomes for consumers.”

With a phased implementation, TransUnion will utilise buy now, pay later data within a range of its products, which are widely used by leading banks and credit providers across the UK. This data will start to appear on consumer credit reports from summer 2022.  

To find out more about credit information and how it’s used by finance providers, consumers can download TransUnion’s ebook: Getting to Grips with Your Credit Report and Score.

Results for the past half year were strong, and the indicators of sustainable profitable growth remain intact. The company achieved new milestones in the past year including half a trillion Euros of processed volume and a billion Euros of net revenues.

Results for the past half year were strong, and the indicators of sustainable profitable growth remain intact. Having achieved new milestones of scale in the past year including half a trillion Euros of processed volume and a billion Euros of net revenues, the view of the prospects of the business remain strong. 

Summary H2 2021

• Processed volume was €300.0 billion, up 72% year-on-year
• Net revenue was €556.5 million, up 47% year-on-year
• EBITDA of €357.3 million, up 51% year-on-year
• EBITDA margin was 64% for the period as a result of strong net revenue growth paired with the operational scalability of the Adyen platform
• Free cash flow conversion ratio was 90%, with CapEx at 6% of net revenue driven by investments in our new headquarters in Amsterdam

Shareholder letter & financial results

You can find our full H2 2021 financial results and accompanying shareholder letter here.

Earnings webcast

Today, at 3 PM CET, Pieter van der Does (CEO) and Ingo Uytdehaage (CFO) will host our H2 2021 earnings videoconference. You can access the live webcast  here. On this same webpage, a recording will be made available shortly following the conference.

Full Year 2021 Figures

• Processed volume was €516 billion: up 70% year-on-year
• Net revenue was €1.0 billion: up 46% year-on-year
• EBITDA of €630 million: up 57% year-on-year
• EBITDA margin was 63% for the full year
• CapEx was 5% of net revenue for the full year

This press release contains information that qualifies, or may qualify, as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

Modulr and Hodge have today announced a new partnership which sees the FinTech provide the Cardiff-based bank with the underlying payments and accounts infrastructure to deliver a market leading, real-time digital banking experience to its customers.

Powered by Modulr, Hodge customers will now get all the benefits a digital banking experience and superior customer service bring. Including the ability to see their balance and payments in real-time for increased control and reassurance. Likewise, Hodge’s customers also benefit from Modulr’s Confirmation of Payee service, ensuring when the customer sends funds to their Hodge account number, the sending bank recognises the account as their own.

This is the first time Modulr has partnered with a bank in this way and marks an exciting milestone for both organisations; bringing together the experience of a 56-year-old bank with the digital at-scale technology of a FinTech.

Hodge can provide each savings customer with a unique account which is connected to Faster Payments and Confirmation of Payee (CoP). The Hodge platform receives webhooks in real-time when payments are received into the account, allowing them to notify customers immediately.

Modulr is a directly connected participant of Faster Payments, allowing the FinTech to settle directly with the Bank of England, and was the first non-bank or building society to roll out Confirmation of Payee services.

Without these services, transfers can take hours or even days and customers receive limited notifications on their payment status. This can lead to customer anxiety, particularly when making large transfers for the first time. This new method means real-time notifications, more security and transparency which increases customer confidence.

Katie Johnson, Managing Director of Savings at Hodge, said:

"We're committed to putting our customers first and focusing on what matters to them. What they've told us is they want greater control and transparency when it comes to their finances, in a fast and convenient way.

“Our partnership with Modulr is about providing exactly that. We're looking forward to working with Modulr on new projects, especially with their focus on customer confidence and control over finances using facilities like Confirmation of Payee."

Myles Stephenson, CEO and Founder of Modulr added:

"This really shows how financial services have changed in recent years, and it's a great reminder of how FinTechs and banks can work together to turn analogue experiences into digital ones. Not only does Modulr provide the fast, reassured, and convenient payments infrastructure customers demand, we also provide security and trust for Hodge’s customers. We hope to provide support to those who are less familiar with online banking and using digital tools like Confirmation of Payee to provide an important level of protection and visibility.

“We’re looking forward to working on more projects with Hodge. Its decision to partner with us rather than traditional agency banking partners, who may not have the technological infrastructure to deliver innovation in the same way, means that we can quickly build and launch new financial products together. It’s a hugely exciting partnership for both of us.”

Bolero International, the leading cloud-based trade finance digitization experts, announce the signing of UBS as its first major customer for Galileo TPaaS, its new white-labelled trade finance portal-as-a-service solution for banks.

The innovative solution helps financial institutions provide their corporate clients with unrivalled functionality and a transformed digital experience. For the very first time, banks can achieve an accelerated time to market and an overall lower cost of deployment as compared to traditional trade finance digitisation options.

Galileo TPaaS allows corporates to conduct traditional trade and open account transactions and leverages the structured communication processes and electronic trade documents, making Bolero a leader in trade finance digitization. Over time, Bolero will work with like-minded fintechs to expand the functionality and services available to Galileo users.

The white-labelled solution is built on Bolero’s secure SaaS platform Galileo and is available on-demand as a fully managed service on the cloud.

“Galileo TPaaS fits well into our vision of an eventually end-to-end digital trade business. The collaboration with Bolero brings us one, significant step closer. The Galileo TPaaS core allows us to offer a great user experience to our customers,” 

said Didier Furrer, Product Manager Trade & Export Finance at UBS.

Andrew Raymond, CEO at Bolero International added: 

“We are very pleased having gained UBS as a first flagship client. This allows us to deliver a unique and compelling offering to corporates through a branded portal. It helps realise our vision for corporates to embrace digitization of trade finance and will drive adoption in other areas of our business. The great teamwork and sharing of ideas have accelerated our plans in this space, and we are excited to announce further client acquisitions in due time.”

Bolero’s Chief Product Officer, Anchal Tiwari also added:

“The signing of a major European bank leads Bolero to the next chapter of its growth and success. Galileo TPaaS will be fully integrated into their back-end systems which will allow end-to-end digitization of trade transactions requests by corporate clients. With Galileo TPaaS, the bank will be able to tap into Bolero’s connected digital ecosystem and offer out of the box multi-bank trade finance services and ready carrier connectivity to their clients."

One, and possibly the only positive aspect of the COVID 19- pandemic is, that it highlights the critical need for digitization. It shows that digital transformation is no longer an option, it is an imperative. The growing volumes of electronic invoices are rapidly changing and challenging the market and require that businesses and organizations take proactive actions toward digitization.

The E-Invoicing Exchange Summit Americas is the only forum dedicated to E-Invoicing in the Americas. The conference will be held in Miami from May 9 to 11, 2022. During the conference, a great variety of presentations, user case studies, roundtables and panel discussions will address the key challenges of the industry when it comes to driving the digital transformation.

Key to be covered

+ E-Invoicing as Leverage for a Digital Strategy: Global Best Practices

+ An E-Invoice Exchange Framework for the U.S. – Moving from Concept to Pilot: Update from the Business Payments Coalition

+ E-Invoicing and Continuous Transaction Controls in the Digital Age

+ Global Developments in Peppol

+ The New Frontier: E-Invoicing in Transnational Operations

+ Global Interoperability Framework - Collaboration in the Connected World

+ Effective AP Automation with RPA and AI: How and When

On Monday, May 9, all participants are invited to join two workshops: First, the E-Invoice Exchange Market Pilot Work Group of the Business Payments Coalition will discuss the next steps for an E-Invoice Exchange Framework for the United States and second, the OpenPeppol Workshop will focus on the implementation of Peppol in the Americas. The conference itself will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 10 and 11, 2022. More information on the E-Invoicing Exchange Summit Americas: www.exchange-summit.com/americas