Global marketing technology company Awin Group expands partnership with fintech unicorn Payoneer to streamline international payments 

Payoneer (NASDAQ: PAYO), the commerce technology company powering payments and growth for the new global economy, and the Awin Group, today announced a strengthened partnership aimed at fueling growth for publishers around the globe. The latest collaboration follows a successful partnership, established in 2017, between Payoneer and ShareASale, and a partnership with Commission Factory; both entities are a part of the Awin Group.  

Since the start, publisher experience has lived at the heart of the growing partnership between the two firms. ShareASale and Payoneer first started working together at the request of their growing publisher base. In the years since, the companies have kept a steady focus on making affiliate marketing payments more streamlined, cost effective, and transparent.  

Following the success of the ShareASale and Commission Factory collaborations, the Awin Group moved to expand the relationship with Payoneer. Today, nearly 70% of international payments on the Awin Group are processed through the Payoneer platform, and the firm has reported a 90% drop in failed payments since the year has begun.  

“Expanding our partnership with Payoneer to Awin ensures our publishers across the globe have access to clear and reliable international payments,” comments Jasper Mulder, Global Publisher Director at Awin. “Off the back of these early successes that we’ve been able to build together, we aim to further deepen our technical and strategic collaboration with Payoneer, bolstering our continued efforts to provide best in class payment services to our publisher base.” 

The recently launched API integration further simplifies the payments process and improve user experience. There are more expansion plans in the works.  

“We are thrilled to continue to grow our relationship with the Awin Group,” noted James Allum, VP of Payoneer Europe. “Awin is a giant in the affiliate marketing space, and their dedication to their publishers aligns with our mission to empower small businesses around the world. We look forward to continuing to grow together, and to make international payments easier, more cost effective, and more secure for the tens of thousands of publishers across their global network.” 

• Monument’s lending proposition is focused on the needs of busy professionals, experienced landlords and brokers
• It has built a team with the right experience and skills but also a shared passion for what Monument is setting out to achieve

In preparation for its recent launch and achieving its full banking licence in November, Monument has built out a strong lending team, bringing on board experienced professionals with deep knowledge of the end-to-end journey in providing debt facilities to experienced property investors. 

The relationship management lending team is led by Conor McDermott, Head of Lending, who joined in 2019 from Arbuthnot Latham, where he headed up the specialist lending team. Conor has a breadth of experience, from operations through to commercial credit underwriting, advising private clients, running teams, and managing relationships. He has also held leadership and relationship management roles at Metro, AIB, Santander and RBS.

Joining Conor is Savvas Nicola as Relationship Manager, with Edwin Yamoah and George Chipperfield providing Credit Support.  Joining from UTB, Savvas has over 20 years of experience in property finance, and he has also held relationship management roles at Metro Bank and Lloyds Bank. Edwin brings over 13 years of experience, having spent most of his career at Santander. George joins from Metro Bank, where he has worked on the Real Estate team for a number of years, with a stint at LendInvest in between.

The end to end proposition is complemented by Orlagh Mangan as Operations Manager, and Jo Vudali as Senior Underwriter. Orlagh has over a decade of experience in the space, joining the Bank from Aviva Investors. Jo brings deep experience of underwriting buy-to-let and bridging finance from Shawbrook and Metro Bank.

Together the new team will further develop and drive Monument’s lending proposition, which entails providing buy-to-let and bridging loans with initial lending of up to £3m, focusing on delivering a better experience for busy professionals, experienced landlords and brokers. The Bank’s best-in-class systems will enable Relationship Managers to provide speedy, tailored solutions to what Monument believes is an underserved market.

Commenting on the team, Mintoo Bhandari, CEO and co-founder of Monument said: “We are delighted to have assembled such a highly experienced team.  We believe we have the ideal blend of experience and skill, but also that each individual shares our passion for delivery and service excellence.  We will continue to enhance our human, technological and operational capabilities, to become the first challenger bank in the UK to meet the unmet demands of over 4 million professionals, property investors, entrepreneurs and others that are seeking a bank to help them save and grow their wealth.”

Conor McDermott, Head of Lending added: “We are really pleased with how our proposition and approach has been received by the market in these early stages. Each of us saw the opportunity presented by focusing on the needs of this particular segment of the market.  The technology we have built and which we will further enhance brings much needed efficiency, speed and transparency to what can often be a frustrating experience for landlords and brokers. We are all looking forward to redefining what service means in this space.”

The deal teams up Africa’s renowned artist with Africa’s leading payment provider to seamlessly drive remittances in Africa. 

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces Grammy Award-winning international artist, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, as its Global Brand Ambassador. Flutterwave also announces the launch of Send, a remittance solution, aimed to increase remittance flow and uptake to the African continent. 

Send by Flutterwave aims to offer  customers the easiest way to send money to all parts of Africa from within the continent and the globe as well as provide Africans easy access to fund overseas bank accounts. 

By partnering with Wizkid, Send aims to reach the global African diaspora to increase awareness of the affordable and seamless remittance service available to them through Flutterwave’s infrastructure.

In 2020, about $40bn was remitted across formal channels to various countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region with Nigeria taking a significant share of total remittances. The IMF reports that remittances sent to SSA through informal channels, at 45–65% of formal flows, are significantly higher than in other regions.

Commenting on the partnership, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “Wizkid’s story is that of hard work, resilience and excellence. The way he constantly represents Africa in the global entertainment stage is something we love. As a leading technology company out of Africa, our values align and we're excited to have him join us to drive adoption for Send.

Flutterwave and Wizkid share a common belief of showcasing the best of Africa to the world. Send by Flutterwave is the best remittance solution out there by coverage, cost of transactions and speed. Send represents our over five years of learning, relationship-building, research, and development in cross-border payments. It is also a truly African solution made in Africa by Africans and for the world.”

GB continued “We want to create opportunities for Africans everywhere through Send. We hold our vision of creating endless possibilities in Africa close to our heart and we’re excited to work with Wizkid to drive these goals. ”

Flutterwave’s Global Ambassador, Ayodeji Balogun, Wizkid, commented: fi

Nearly Two-Thirds Report Intercompany Issues Increase Employee Stress with 90% Reporting

All-Nighters to be a Regular Occurrence

FourQ, the leading provider of intercompany financial management software to streamline the global operations of the world’s largest companies, announced the results of a survey it conducted in conjunction with Dimensional Research. The research, titled “The Reality of Intercompany,” uncovered widespread issues related to corporations’ intercompany processes and procedures that negatively impact business outcomes and the operations of their finance, accounting, and tax teams.

A startling 96% of respondents report challenges with intercompany, with near total agreement (99%) that critical accounting responsibilities are becoming more complex and challenging. Finance and accounting professionals at multinational corporations with intercompany responsibilities believe that intercompany is a largely misunderstood concept (86%) that has significant negative impact to business operations and, disturbingly, takes a toll on employees’ daily lives. An astounding 90% reported their finance and accounting staff pull all-nighters at least once a year due to intercompany issues.

“Intercompany is a complex and difficult function that frequently flies under the radar,” said Diane Hagglund, Founder and Principal of Dimensional Research and author of the study. “Three quarters of respondents reported that intercompany volume at their corporation was two to 10 times that of their revenue, while an additional 18% cited intercompany volume that was more than 10 times revenue. Intercompany is causing significant and myriad issues across multinational corporations.”

Key findings in the report include:

• Intercompany is a mess and only getting worse: Almost all (97%) of respondents say challenges within intercompany have a negative impact on business outcomes. Nearly half of respondents report that overdue intercompany balances create business uncertainty (49%), increase risk of SEC investigations (43%) and cause missed tax deduction opportunities (43%). Nearly half (48%) report unreconciled balances that are more than five years old.
• Intercompany issues negatively impact the accounting, finance and tax operations while stressing the teams: Nearly all respondents (97%) say challenges with intercompany have a negative impact on finance and accounting operations. Concerningly, 98% say intercompany issues negatively impact their employees. Specifically, 60% of respondents report that their company’s intercompany processes increase stress among team members causing physical or mental health issues. Well over half (57%) report that employee churn makes it harder for the remaining team to resolve intercompany issues.
• ERPs only partially solve intercompany issues; Improved technology holds promise: 96% of respondents agree that ERP systems only partially solve intercompany challenges. An almost equal amount (97%) say they would benefit from better technology capabilities for intercompany, with automated intelligent intercompany analytics and reporting topping the list (68%). Other capabilities that would improve intercompany operations include end-to-end transactional transparency for all intercompany stakeholders (56%); centralized dispute management (55%); automated cost and tax allocation (55%); automation of manual intercompany processes (50%); and allocated vendor invoice management (47%).

“These survey results confirm what FourQ has long known to be true about the state of intercompany. Difficult to manage, intercompany has become a huge drain on many multinationals’ valuable resources,” explained Jeremy Womer, CPA, Chief Customer Success Officer at FourQ. “Even with extensive and costly modifications, ERPs rarely can manage the complicated intercompany processes of large corporations. As a result, more and more companies are turning to the technology and discipline manifested in intercompany financial management.”

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted by Dimensional Research, on behalf of FourQ, between November 17 and December 2, 2021. A total of 106 finance and accounting professionals participated in the online survey, all of whom worked at multinational companies and were knowledgeable about their companies’ intercompany. Respondents worked at companies in a variety of industries with 74% having more than 100 legal entities. The purpose of the survey was to understand the intercompany experiences of finance and accounting stakeholders.

 Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider, Scienaptic AI announced that Jax Federal Credit Union (JAXFCU) has selected its adaptive AI-powered platform to bolster the institution’s credit decisioning and enhance member experience.

A hallmark of the Northeast Florida financial sector since its establishment in 1935, JAXFCU provides top-tier banking and financial services, including credit and debt counseling, financial planning and education to its members, proudly serving the communities of Duval, Clay, Nassau, Baker and St. Johns Counties. Deploying Scienaptic's platform will position the credit union to make stronger, faster credit decisions while increasing its reach and minimizing risk.

“At JAXFCU, we are committed to championing and promoting financial wellness and inclusion for all our members and throughout our communities,” said Joy Bing, Vice President, Consumer Lending and Mortgages for JAXFCU. “Implementing Scienaptic's platform will help further support this mission, allowing us to make faster credit decisions and boost credit access for both current and potential members, strengthening their financial options and our relationships with them.”

“We are excited to be working with JAXFCU to help bolster the credit and financing options for its members,” said Pankaj Jain, President, Scienaptic. “Scienaptic's unique, adaptive AI technology will enable the credit union to say ‘yes’ to more members, more often, increasing loan approvals without increasing risk, while enhancing the member experience.”

• New research from Mercuryo has shown 34% of UK finance businesses are now using cryptocurrency to facilitate payments
• Three in five businesses report increased demand from customers to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment
• 55% of all businesses believe cryptocurrency is the future of payments
• Innovation, confidentiality and security are seen as the key benefits to crypto payments
• A third (34%) of UK finance businesses now make payments via the blockchain, according to new research by global payment network Mercuryo.

A huge 68% of all businesses agree that there is a need for greater innovation in payments and that is echoed by their customers as three in five (58%) businesses report increased demand from customers and partners for cryptocurrency as a payment option-with this rising to 75% among large businesses and 43% among SMEs.

This demand is reflected in the recent news that Visa is launching its own crypto consulting service to help clients navigate the world of cryptocurrencies. With fintechs clambering to harness crypto technology, key market players such as Revolut are already looking at building their own crypto exchange to broaden their offering, signifying a potential new era for the mass adoption of digital currencies within the financial services landscape.

‘SMEs are a driving force for the UK economy, but if they fail to innovate, they are in danger of being left behind.” comments Mercuryo Co-Founder and CBDO Petr Kozyokov. ‘We’re seeing increased levels of demand from customers, looking for providers who can offer them both fiat and crypto services. In just a short few years, I predict crypto and fiat payments will reach an equilibrium, with consumers able to easily pay via whichever payment type they choose’.

When asked about the advantages of using cryptocurrency compared to traditional B2B payment methods, 24% stated innovation, confidentiality and security were both reported by 23% of businesses and faster transactions were the key benefit for 22% of respondents.

With ever-increasing interest from customers, it’s no surprise that 55% of businesses now view cryptocurrency as the future of payments, with 57% of all businesses claiming they believe accepting cryptocurrency payments will give them a competitive edge. In fact, findings show that a further fifth (20%) of all businesses  are considering adoption of crypto payments within the next three years.

• The addition of WPM expected to bolster Flywire’s product suite and deliver substantial value to clients
• Acquisition extends Flywire’s customer base and accelerates penetration in U.K. education sector
• Flywire plans to continue to invest in providing best-of-breed client support and leverage WPM’s value-added services, such as strategic consulting, research, and events

Today, Flywire Corporation  (Flywire) (Nasdaq: FLYW) a global payments enablement and software company, announced that it has acquired WPM, a leading software provider that enables seamless and secure payment experiences for universities and colleges across the United Kingdom. The acquisition will build on Flywire’s existing education payments business to scale its global customer base and is expected to further accelerate its market share in the U.K. education sector. Flywire estimates payment volume in the U.K. education sector to be approximately $30 billion.

Flywire will augment its existing capabilities with the addition of WPM’s industry-leading software solutions. Additionally, the integration of WPM with Flywire is expected to deliver even greater value to clients through Flywire’s next-gen payments platform, proprietary global payment network and industry-specific software across the combined U.K. client base of education institutions and their customers.

“As a core pillar of our strategy, we continue to look for investment opportunities that supplement our strong organic growth and align with our belief that software drives value in payments,” said Mike Massaro, Flywire CEO. “WPM’s strong client centric approach is a perfect fit with Flywire and will allow us to accelerate our expansion in the U.K. higher education market.”

Teaming up to accelerate expansion and client satisfaction in U.K. education

The economic impact of the higher education industry in the U.K. is significant, and it remains one of the most popular markets for international students. According to a 2021 study from London Economics, international students alone contribute approximately £28.8 billion to the U.K. economy. According to ICEF, the number of international students studying in the U.K. reached a record high in the 2019-2020 academic year, which includes the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic; the study reported a year-over-year increase of 12.5%. 

Founded in 2000 by seasoned technologists Holger Bollmann and Jan Bollmann, WPM is one of the leading software and payments solutions in the U.K. higher education sector. WPM delivers an innovative platform to institutions and an improved payment experience to their millions of payers. In addition to its leading payments software, WPM also provides value-added services to the higher education industry, including strategic consulting, industry research and events, each of which underpin its offerings.

Deeply penetrated in the U.K. market, WPM integrates with more than 130 university systems and powers more than 170 university and college clients, including some of the most prestigious universities and colleges in the U.K.

“Our focus in building WPM was always to deliver amazing and secure payments experiences for our clients through our software, research, events and consultancy,” said Holger Bollmann, WPM Director and Co-Founder. “Flywire has been an innovator and leader in software and payments across many major sectors of the global economy, including education, and I’m thrilled to be joining the Flywire team along with all of the WPM team to continue to deliver great value for our clients.”

Combination of software and payments continues to lead industry digitization

Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for global education remains strong and the need for a streamlined, digital-first payment experience continues to transform how higher education institutions engage with their payers. According to a recent survey of finance professionals at higher education universities, more than 80% state that payment options tailored to individual student needs are attractive alternatives to traditional, one-time payments.

Likewise, in an independent survey by Flywire, 77% of international students stated that a simplified payment experience would improve their higher education experience. Global payments in education represents one of the largest market opportunities for Flywire. Flywire estimates its addressable market in global education is approximately $660 billion in payment volume.

This acquisition reinforces Flywire’s focus on digitizing high stakes, high value payments in large underserved markets and its ability to deliver value to its clients through the Flywire Advantage, which is the combination of its next-gen payment platform, proprietary global payments network and vertical specific software.

Additional Strategic and Financial Benefits

• Comprehensive solution combines software and payments: Combining WPM’s software system with Flywire’s payment platform will deliver institutions an industry-defining, integrated and secure offering.
• Strength in key geographic end-market: Since entering the U.K. market in 2015, Flywire has seen strong adoption of its digital payments solutions due to market demand. The acquisition of WPM, including the opportunity to provide services to its more than 170 current clients, serves to fortify a key geographic end-market, especially given WPM’s reputation and position in the industry.
• Complements strong organic growth: The acquisition of WPM is a continuation of Flywire’s long-term plan to supplement its strong organic growth and continually expand across all business lines. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to revenue and growth in 2022 and will be factored into future company guidance.

 PPRO, the global provider of local payments infrastructure, has appointed Bernie Miles as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to drive the development of its cross-border payment technology. Bernie will oversee a rapidly growing global team of engineers based across Munich, Berlin, London, São Paulo, and Singapore. His primary objective will be scaling up PPRO’s platform to support the company’s hyper-growth trajectory. 

A product-centric technology leader, Bernie has 20 years of experience working with e-commerce and fintech brands, including Wayfair, Expedia, Hotels.com, and Klarna. In his most recent role as Head of Engineering for Europe at Wayfair, Bernie served as the regional technology leader, massively increasing the company’s engineering capabilities on the continent. 

“This has been another transformational year of growth for PPRO. We’ve already seen the expansion of our leadership team with new, exciting appointments, and now we round out the team with Bernie as our CTO. His expert knowledge of technology, product culture, and experience scaling up high-profile companies will enable us to propel PPRO and digital and local payments forward,” said Simon Black, CEO of PPRO.

Bernie Miles, CTO of PPRO said: “This is an exciting time for the payments industry. We’re seeing greater demand for cross-border e-commerce and a more diverse payment ecosystem, where both businesses and consumers have greater choice when it comes to how they buy and pay for online products and services.”

He continued: “PPRO is on a mission to make the world’s local payment methods available everywhere through the combination of building mission-critical, high-integrity infrastructure and holistic customer experiences. We’re driving financial inclusion by enabling people in every corner of the world to pay using their preferred, or in some cases only available method of payment – and I’m proud to play a role in facilitating that.”

PPRO has established itself as the most trusted infrastructure provider in the cross-border payments space, powering international growth for payment service providers and platforms such as Citi, Elavon, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, Mollie, PayPal, and Worldpay. PPRO’s API-based local payments platform and expert services help its customers get the industry’s best conversion rates in markets around the world.

SunTec to offer Xelerate to help clients modernize with IBM Z

SunTec today announced it has joined the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center, a digital front door comprising tools, training and ecosystem partners to help IBM Z clients accelerate the modernization of their applications, data and processes in an open hybrid cloud architecture.

Through this collaboration, SunTec will empower banks to seamlessly integrate an intelligent middle layer with their existing core banking application platform by co-locating its Xelerate application on the IBM Z and LinuxONE systems. SunTec will also help banks to leverage existing investments in the infrastructure, without compromising on key areas such as security, performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability. This co-location approach is designed to help banks achieve agility to scale up key business functions like product and revenue management, billing and statements management, and partner ecosystem management and monetization.

Banks will be able to leverage this solution to help enhance their ability to address customer needs and expectations to help elevate customer experience. The solution will allow banks to access a single platform-based view of customer relationships, across different lines of business and multiple geographies since transactional core banking applications and data also run on the same IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE systems.

According to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value survey, “The hybrid cloud platform advantage,” the value derived from a full hybrid, multi-cloud platform technology and operating model at scale is 2.5 times the value derived from a single platform, single cloud vendor approach. Further, an IBM hybrid cloud transformation that integrates IBM Z can extend up to 5x the value of a public cloud only approach.[1] According to a Hurwitz and Associates whitepaper sponsored by IBM[2], this value is derived by: business acceleration, developer productivity, infrastructure cost efficiency, regulatory, compliance and security, and deployment flexibility.

Commenting on this collaboration, Amit Dua, President Client Facing Groups, SunTec Business Solutions said, “With the increasing shift to a digital-first world, banks must build capabilities to anticipate customer needs and expectations to deepen customer relationships and trust. Through our collaboration with IBM, we will empower banks to effectively leverage a hybrid multi-cloud strategy for their data, applications, and services. Our co-locating approach is designed to enable banks to leverage existing infrastructure investments and acquire functional benefits, without disrupting their existing core banking applications.”

The IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center brings together IBM’s decades of experience with innovative IBM methodologies, tools, training, global systems integrators, and technology partners to create and execute a roadmap that is engineered to lower risk and maximize business value. The Center offers clients a one-stop digital interface to schedule briefings, connect with partners, join workshops, speak to personnel with extensive domain experience and much more, designed to help clients fully realize and extend the value of their IBM Z environments. This interactive client digital journey showcases comprehensive access to resources, capabilities and guidance for business professionals, IT executives and developers alike. Through the Center, clients will gain access to a partner learning hub, including resources from SunTec and its cloud-based solutions to help companies adopt a digital-first and customer-first strategy.

“The pressure for organizations to accelerate transformation for speed and efficiency is greater than ever,” said Meredith Stowell, VP, IBM Z Ecosystem. “Collaborating with ecosystem partners like SunTec as part of the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Center provides innovative capabilities and expertise to help joint clients in the design and execution of their modernization strategies.”

SunTec Business Solutions is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem to help IBM Z clients accelerate the in-place modernization of their applications, data, and processes in an open hybrid cloud architecture.