FIBR, the connected digital bank, has launched with the sole focus of servicing European SMEs, through combining the stability of a bank with the agility and technology of a fintech. 

· With ‘Pay Now’ consumers in the UK can pay immediately and in full wherever Klarna is available.

· Part of a package of consumer-focussed changes to drive up standards across the UK payments industry.

· Even stronger credit and affordability checks, clear checkout language, simplified T&Cs, improved complaints handling and removal of last remaining late fees.

Klarna, the leading global retail bank, payments and shopping service, today announces a package of changes to expand and strengthen it’s UK offering to give consumers more choice, clarity and control over how they pay. ‘Pay Now’ ensures UK consumers can always pay immediately and in full, wherever Klarna is available, with the same payment experience whether they choose to pay now or later. And in its continued drive to set standards for the UK payments industry, Klarna is also strengthening affordability checks, simplifying checkout language, providing more ways of fair redress for consumers on the rare occasions where necessary, and removing the last remaining late fees on its regulated financing product - all with immediate effect.

Putting consumers in control whether they pay now or pay later

 While it is best known for Buy Now Pay Later in the UK, globally Klarna offers a wide range of payment and shopping services and its ‘Pay Now’ immediate payment option is extremely popular globally. Klarna’s UK payment and shopping options will now be consistent with those offered globally across 20 markets, giving consumers more choice, clarity and control over how they pay. 

Pay Now is launched alongside a package of consumer-focussed changes to drive up standards across the UK consumer payments industry. Central to this, Klarna has begun to leverage its own well established Open Banking services, already connected to over 6,000 banks across 20 countries, to help support even better real-time lending decisions. In addition to the robust credit checks which Klarna performs on each and every purchase, consumers will be able to securely share income and spending data from their bank accounts to confirm they can afford future repayments. This supports Klarna’s commitment to financial inclusion by giving safer access to credit for those individuals with a limited conventional credit history, which is reliant on the use of credit cards and does not reflect how people are choosing to make payments today. Crucially as a complement to this, Klarna continues to drive innovation and change with the UK Credit Reference Agencies to enable all buy now pay later (BNPL) providers to share their data and reward the vast majority of Klarna customers who use BNPL responsibly with improved credit scores, and further protect consumers from accumulating debt.

As part of continuous efforts to lead the way on transparency and protection for consumers throughout their shopping and payment experience, Klarna has recently further strengthened the language visible at check-out to make it absolutely clear that BNPL options are credit products, with consequences for missed payments. It has also worked together with the consumer group, Fairer Finance, to make sure that Terms & Conditions are clear, simple and easy to understand. Additionally, Klarna has established its own complaints adjudicator for more ways of fair redress for consumers, having been informed by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) that BNPL products couldn’t currently be referred on a voluntary jurisdiction basis. Up and running for over 6 months now, this service is providing valuable recourse for consumers on the rare occasions when they are not happy with the way a complaint has been handled. 

Finally, Klarna has never charged late fees on its Pay in 30 or Pay in 3 BNPL products in the UK. From today, the company will now remove any remaining late fees from its regulated Financing product, which consumers use to spread the cost of higher value purchases over 6 - 36 months. This change drives better outcomes for consumers and means that whatever Klarna product they choose to use, they can be confident there will be no late fees. 

Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s Co-founder and CEO said: “We firmly believe that most of the time, people should pay with the money they have, but there are certain times where credit makes sense. In those cases, our BNPL products offer a sustainable and no cost healthy form of credit - and a much needed alternative to high cost credit cards. The changes we are announcing today mean that consumers are fully in control of their payments whether they pay now or pay later.”

Temenos Transact core banking will enable fast product innovation and massive scalability and efficiency for Pakistan’s leading digital payments platform Easypaisa.

Telenor Microfinance Bank, operator of Pakistan’s leading digital payments platform Easypaisa, has gone live on Temenos’ modern core banking platform with NdcTech to power its digital banking services.

By employing Temenos best-in-class solution and NdcTech’s implementation expertise, Telenor Microfinance Bank will be able to innovate faster and provide customers with much-needed access to digital savings accounts and micro-loans. Additionally, this solution will enhance controls, increasing the bank’s ability to comply and achieve operational excellence.

NdcTech collaborated with Telenor Microfinance Bank as the system integrator and implementation partner to successfully lead the banking platform implementation and modernization project. It adopted a hybrid agile implementation approach to complete the project delivery successfully within the stipulated time amidst the COVID-19 crisis. NdcTech’s expertise in Pakistani market practices and such migrations has enabled the Bank to comply with local regulatory and market requirements and best practices.

Telenor Microfinance Bank required scalability, automation, agility, and a proven technology platform that would enable it to offer personalized, customer-centric products, while allowing for lower operational costs and increased return on equity. The bank went live on Temenos Transact, the next generation in core banking, Temenos Financial Crime Mitigation (FCM), Temenos Advanced Collection (TAC), and Temenos Analytics and Reporting, to deliver a seamless, simple, and secure digital experience to its customers while ensuring sustainable growth.

Commenting on the development, M. Mudassar Aqil, CEO, Telenor Microfinance Bank/Easypaisa, said: “We have always remained true to our mission of transforming Pakistan into a cashless society through collaboration and technology. Our partnership with NdcTech to implement Temenos solutions has added a vital component to our services infrastructure, which will catapult our move towards digitization. By going live on the platform, we can now fast-track our digital transformation journey and come up with more innovative digital financial solutions for our customers in a more efficient manner.”

Jean-Paul Mergeai, President – International Sales, Temenos, added: “Congratulations to Telenor Microfinance Bank on its digital banking transformation. Running on Temenos Transact, the bank has future-proofed its technology infrastructure, gaining the agility, efficiency and product building capability to fulfil their customer demands for digital services faster and at lower cost. Temenos is seeing strong growth in the Pakistan market, with many of the country’s leading banks now running on our platform. This local market expertise is a key advantage for our banking clients as they seek to innovate and grow.”

Ammara Masood, CEO & President, NdcTech commented: “We are proud of our partnership with Telenor Bank and believe that this transformation will be a game changer for the Bank in terms of enabling their digital capabilities. We look forward to supporting Telenor Bank’s vision and growth in the years to come.”

With Temenos’ winning combination of rich banking functionality and modern core technology, as well as NdcTech’s deep implementation and managed service expertise, Telenor Microfinance Bank is now uniquely positioned to scale quickly and reach new heights by continuing to innovate and offer best-in-class digital financial services to all Pakistanis.

Payment services provider PayAlly, and Nets Group, one of Europe's leading PayTechs, have entered into a partnership for full issuing and acquiring processing services in the United Kingdom.

Nets will deliver a full issuing services product suite, starting with a Card Management System based on the modular platform developed by TUUM, as well as tokenisation and access to Nets’ XPay Card Service. Nets will also deliver both issuing and acquiring payment authorisation and clearing, dispute management, fraud prevention and customer services.

"PayAlly aims to provide client orientated payment services, with truly innovative, safety-focused instant solutions that meet customers’ financial needs,” said Rafal Andzejevski, CEO of PayAlly. “We are excited by our partnership with Nets, which enables us to provide a range of additional digital services within fast fund transfers. This will allow us to keep operational costs low while focusing on delivering strong security and reliability.”

Henrik Anker Jørgensen, CEO of Nets Estonia AS and Head of the Baltic region in Nets, added: “We are very excited to continue our growth strategy of supporting European FinTech challengers, and we are happy to welcome PayAlly as both an issuing and acquiring customer. This aligns with our commitment to supporting the evolving demands of European consumers as digital services continue to proliferate.”

The long-term agreement has already entered into force.

Inclusive investment service migrates to WealthKernel’s APIs for UK app launch

WealthKernel, a wealthtech provider for digital investment services, today announces it has extended its partnership with inclusive investment service, Wealth8, which has migrated its investment offering to WealthKernel’s trusted APIs. 

After initial success following its business launch earlier this year, Wealth8 is now using WealthKernel’s investment APIs to launch its new mobile app, which sees it benefit from increased flexibility, faster onboarding for its customers, and cross-platform functionality across its desktop and mobile user experiences. 

Previously, Wealth8 used WealthKernel’s white-label robo advisor via a single, desktop experience, providing its customers with stocks & shares ISAs, general investment accounts and a suite of portfolios created by BlackRock. As an Appointed Representative of WealthKernel, Wealth8 also sits under WealthKernel’s regulatory umbrella, allowing it to provide services to its users until it is directly authorised by the FCA.

Headquartered in the UK, Wealth8 is a wealth-management platform helping to connect people with wealth and investment opportunities, by providing easy access to global investment products. Its new investment app, available now in the UK, will support wealth creation, and provide financial education services for black and multi-ethnic investors in the UK.

Karan Shanmugarajah,  CEO of WealthKernel, says:

“Wealth8 is a prime example of how we as an industry should be tackling conversations around wealth, equality and inclusion. By helping bring more financial businesses like Wealth8 to market, we can bring investment and wealth creation services to underserved communities, while challenging the misconceptions that wealth management should be limited to those with significant amounts of money. We’re incredibly excited to be supporting Wealth8 on their journey, and wholeheartedly support their mission to tackle growing financial inequality across the UK”

David Fisayo, Co-Founder and COO at Wealth8, says:

“We believe that investing and building wealth should be for everyone. It's time to bridge the wealth gap for those who have been traditionally overlooked or underserved in the area of investments. Wealth8 has launched its iOS and Android mobile app, which is now available for early access. To celebrate our launch and black history month, we are running a #MyWealthIs campaign to document the black wealth experience with unscripted reflections on what wealth means within the black community—taking the opportunity to put a positive light on wealth creation within the black community.

WealthKernel has been an exceptional partner and enabled us to bring our vision to life by utilising their technology platform and infrastructure. They have an experienced and committed team that invested in understanding our vision, customers and worked with us to leverage their tools to power our digital wealth offering.”

The launch of Wealth8’s new app coincides with Black History Month, an annual observance and celebration of black heritage and culture. According to a 2020 report by the Resolution Foundation, people of Black African ethnicity typically hold the lowest wealth (a median figure of £24,000 family wealth per adult), which amounts to less than one eighth of the typical wealth held by a person of White British ethnicity. In light of this, Wealth8 aims to give individuals from traditionally overlooked, or underserved backgrounds better access to finance and help address growing wealth gaps across the country.

Tata Consultancy Services’ Marketplace of Partner Solutions is a Destination for Financial Institutions to Curate Contextual Customer Experiences and Build New Revenue Streams

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced the launch of the enhanced TCS BaNCS™ Marketplace, an innovation hub for customers to collaborate and adopt cutting-edge partner solutions compatible with the TCS BaNCS suite, spanning banking, capital markets, and insurance domains.

Financial institutions are increasingly partnering with TCS to accelerate their innovation and to leverage a larger co-innovation ecosystem curated by TCS. The TCS BaNCS Marketplace offers them a rich ecosystem of solutions and APIs from fintechs, insurtechs, risktechs, regtechs and other innovators.

Customers can collaborate and experiment with these partners in a secure and trusted sandbox environment, to co-innovate and rapidly prototype solutions that enhance end-customer experience, and enable new value-added services and revenue streams. They can also select pre-packaged and curated solutions to accelerate their responses to evolving market needs.

For partners the Marketplace offers access to TCS BaNCS’ large installed base across the world and an opportunity to expand into newer markets. More than 100 partners are already part of the TCS BaNCS Marketplace. Of these, 50% are in different stages of monetization and 25% of the partner solutions have already been deployed at customer organizations.

To be hosted on the Marketplace, partners go through a process of curation to determine their strategic relevance to customers and complementarity with the TCS BaNCS product roadmap.

R Vivekanand, Co-Head, TCS Financial Solutions, said, “TCS BaNCS Marketplace gives our customers a place to collaborate and innovate with our curated set of partners in a secure, trusted environment, and deliver fresh experiences to their customers. The solutions on the Marketplace have evolved with the product direction of TCS BaNCS and the market, and its API-first approach not only facilitates easy and secure integration with multiple ecosystems, but also creates new business models and possibilities for our customers.”

The 2021 Global Digital Trade Conference and Wuhan (Hankoubei) Commodities Fair presented "Digital Trade and Technology", a thematic keynote event, on October 13 in Wuhan, Hubei Provence, China. More than 300 distinguished guests, including experts and scholars in the digital economy, shared new insights on digital trade under China's new "dual circulation" development strategy, and on the future of the global digital economy.

Jiang Wei, Standing Committee-member Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and Vice-Mayor of Wuhan encouraging conference attendees to take advantage of digital trade development opportunities in Wuhan for new businesses and tech innovations.

Organizer/host Qi Zhiping, CEO, ZALL Smart Commerce Group, joins entrepreneurs Qian Xiaojun, CEO, Beijing United Information Technology; Mu Xiaohai, Vice President, JD Cloud Business Group; Sun Wei, CEO, Shenzhen Sinoagri; and Huang Jianwen, Chairman, pao400, for panel "Industrial Development in the Digital Economy Era". [All images: ZALL Smartcom]

This new technological revolution and industrial transformation brought about digital trade, significantly impacting the trading sector, fostering new business models and trading patterns. This has reshaped the global industrial chain, supply chain, value chain and innovation chain, becoming a major driving force for economic globalization.

As one of the key highlights of the Global Digital Trade Conference, the "Digital Trade and Technology" event aims to become the leading platform that facilitates discussions, exchanges, and conversations around global digital trade.

Jiang Wei, Standing Committee member of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and Vice Mayor of Wuhan, delivered a speech that addressed Wuhan's geographic location and transportation advantages, vibrant commercial hub, and quality modern logistics infrastructure laying the foundation to advance the development of Wuhan's digital trade and economy. Wuhan has introduced a series of policies to promote development of the digital economy with much success. Jiang Wei welcomed all attendees to take advantage of the digital trade development opportunities and invest in Wuhan for their new businesses and technological innovations.

Internationally renowned speakers including Dr Finn E. Kydland, Norwegian economist and winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics; Yoshinori Ogawa, Executive Director, Marubeni Corporation and Managing Director, Marubeni China; Wu Ying, Chairman of the Digital China Federation; Liang Rubo, CEO of Bytedance; Jiang Guofei, Vice President of Ant Group; Loh Boon Chye, Vice Chairman, World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and CEO, Singapore Exchange (SGX); Tian Ning, Chairman of the Board of the Panshi Group delivered keynote addresses, sharing new insights into the development trends of the global digital economy, the integration of digital trade and technology, and industrial supply chain innovation and transformation.

Host organizer Qi Zhiping, CEO of ZALL Smart Commerce Group, joined entrepreneurs Qian Xiaojun, CEO of Beijing United Information Technology; Mu Xiaohai, Vice President of JD Cloud Business Group; Sun Wei, CEO of Shenzhen Sinoagri; and Huang Jianwen, Chairman of pao400, for an in-depth panel discussion around the development and transformation of traditional industries in the digital economy era.

iResearch Consulting, China's leading data research organization, presented a new white paper on Global Digital Trade during the event. Li Chao, a Chief Analyst at iResearch and Executive Dean of iResearch Institute, presented their findings. The white paper shares the current development of digital trade from the existing digital infrastructure, policies, technologies, and capital. It also analyzes in-depth how digital trade has redefined traditional trade across production, transaction and supply chain.

The whitepaper looks at five major industries: agriculture, steel, plastics, wholesale and cross-border trade, along with the business models of renowned Chinese and global digital trading companies. It analyzes the profound changes digital technologies and supply chain services bring to the global trade industry, highlighting the growth momentum of digital trading companies and their financial market prospects. The paper suggests that with continued industry upgrading and business segmentation, there will be opportunities for digital trade services and ecosystem-based platforms to create new industrial supply-demand relationships and ecological synergies.


Themed "Intelligent Connectivity . Global Trading", the 2021 Global Digital Trade Conference is organised by the Hubei Provincial People's Government; supported by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce; co-organised by the Wuhan Municipal People's Government and the Department of Commerce of Hubei Province; and executed by the Wuhan Huangpi District Government, Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Hankoubei Group and ZALL Smart Commerce Group.

The Wuhan (Hankoubei) Commodities Fair is organized concurrently and features hundreds of procurement hubs and thousands of live streaming activities, pushing global industrial and supply chains towards digitalization and intelligent connectivity while promoting high-quality economic development and global trade. Running through October 26, 2021, the event has attracted representatives from 100+ countries, as well as over 10,000 merchants, experts and scholars. (en.hubei.gov.cn)

Read more here https://financialit.net/news/it-innovations/hybrid-conferences-are-they-now-default

-  Custody provided by Fidelity Digital Assets 

-  Authorised by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC)

-  Administrators: Sigma Asset Management (Guernsey) Limited

-  Fund Architecture/Consultancy: Midshore Consulting Limited

Jacobi Asset Management has received approval to launch the world's first tier-one Bitcoin ETF. The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF is a centrally cleared crypto-backed financial instrument, authorised by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) and with custody provided by Fidelity Digital Assets^SM. It is Jacobi's intention to list the Jacobi Bitcoin ETF on Cboe Europe, one of the largest pan-European equity exchanges, subject to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) listing approval.

Launched in May 2021 to shape the future of digital asset management, Jacobi brings together decades of expertise from Banking, Regulation, and Fintech to shape the future of digital asset management by designing, issuing and managing institutional crypto products and funds connected to digital assets.

Jacobi is spearheaded by CEO Jamie Khurshid, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and pioneer of regulatory transparency in financial markets. Jamie was named by Financial News as one of the top 40 under 40 in European trading and technology and ranked in the 'Exchange invest' Top 1000 most influential people in global financial markets. He has appointed a team with extensive financial services, regulatory and crypto asset expertise.

CEO Jamie Khurshid said: "We are excited to be launching a new secure, transparent and accessible product to track the performance of Bitcoin. We are de-risking investments in crypto by removing the technology risk associated with the physical asset and the counterparty risk associated with traditional funds or tracker products that are unregulated leveraged debt instruments. We are proud to collaborate with Europe's leading regulated firms for a truly tier 1 offering to service market demand, subject to the necessary regulated approval. This is an exciting moment for Europe as regulatory approval comes ahead of those waiting for a decision from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission."

"The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF will finally bring digital assets wholly into the mainstream investment infrastructure with the support of the leading firms we are working with. It will provide investors with the opportunity to participate directly in physically-settled Bitcoin. This new ETF provides simple, secure, accessible investing into one of the world's most exciting asset classes via some of the world's leading regulated entities," commented Roy McGregor, Chairman of Jacobi Asset Management and former CEO of Credit Suisse Channel Islands.

Jacobi Bitcoin ETF investors will benefit from the security of Fidelity Digital Assets' enterprise-grade custody and execution services, designed to enable institutional investors to safely secure, trade and support investments in digital assets. Chris Tyrer, Head of Fidelity Digital Assets^SM in Europe, commented: "Greater diversity of investor interest has created significant demand for additional vehicles for exposure to help provide broader access to digital asset markets. While safekeeping of assets is a top priority for investors and asset managers in all asset classes, the highly technical nature of digital assets places even more emphasis on this and underscores the need for institutional-grade custody solutions like ours."

The Jacobi Bitcoin ETF was developed to meet regulatory standards by Christopher Jehan, Head of Fund Architecture and former Chair of the Guernsey Investment & Funds Association (GIFA). Christopher led the team at Midshore Consulting in designing the Fund with legal work performed by Collas Crill led by Partner Wayne Atkinson and Senior Associate Gareth Morgan.

Prior to FCA listing approval, Jacobi Bitcoin ETF investments will be facilitated through Sigma Asset Management (Guernsey) Limited ("Sigma"), the fund manager providing management and administration. Fund consultancy support will continue through Midshore Consulting.

For further information visit Jacobiam.com

Few deals drive FinTech volumes, record number of mid-market M&A transactions, but European capital markets remain elusive for FinTech

Today Finch Capital issued the 6th edition of its annual State of European FinTech Report for 2021. The report covers a range of topics including capital market and M&A implications for FinTech valuations and exits, events that might stall the FinTech “blast”, the broader European FinTech landscape and the themes the Finch Capital team expect to shine through in the next year.

"Fintech continued to dominate European tech, but compared to last year we see a shift towards B2B, more concentration of large funding rounds with 5% of deals getting 65% of funding, a growing war for talent, and exits predominantly in the €50-500m range with limited large ticket listings. The last trend is especially concerning for the highly valued loss-making unicorns' ' says Radboud Vlaar, Managing Partner at Finch Capital.

Key findings:

• FinTech Funding dominates European Tech: The lull pandemic phase seems to have disappeared in the past 12 months, as financing amounts have more than doubled in Europe from c.€5 billion in H2 2020 to over €15 billion in H1 2021. B2B funding has clearly dominated with 65% of the capital, seeing the appetite in B2C FinTech businesses slip from 50% to 35% in the past two years 

• More capital went to fewer companies in Europe than any other region: Despite record financing, it is becoming increasingly clear that a few deals are driving the growth in overall funding. Europe is the least diversified, with 5% of the deals seeing over 65% of the funding amounts. As FinTech now accounts for over 25% of the value of overall VC funding, a few large unicorns are driving this trend (eg: Klarna, Rapyd) rather than the broader ecosystem benefiting from more capital

• War for talent as aggressive hiring continues across most sub-sectors: Companies are not backing down. The shift in workplace dynamics has enabled all companies to become even more aggressive with their pace of hiring. Brokerage businesses understandably saw the most growth, but as new member growth slows and wage inflation creeps into the system, there could be signs of margin pressure

• Record M&A transactions in the €50-500m range, while IPO and SPAC markets in Europe remain elusive: Europe should see a record 2x growth in the number of financial services M&A under €500m by the end of this year compared to 5 years ago, higher than the US or Asia in terms of growth. However, the IPO market remains elusive, with 60% fewer IPOs expected this year than in 2015.

• There are early signs that the FinTech blast could stall in 2022: We see 4 factors:  (1) War on Talent, putting financial plans at risk as growth falls behind due to longer time to find talent and cost rise due to increase in salaries;  (2) Public & IPO markets starting to slow down putting pressure on the primary exit path for European Unicorns; (3) Increased regulatory scrutiny resulting in higher costs and slower expansion; (4) Finally, rising interest rates can have a dramatic impact on the valuation of high growth loss making companies

• Big trends that will shape 2022: Examples of our predictions are margin pressure in payments driving M&A and value add growth; Credit cards to be replaced by BNPL; The rise of embedded insurance; New infrastructure being delivered for financial services via APIs; and a shift back to basic AI.

Vlaar continues: “We expect the market environment for FinTech in 2022 to be a bit circumspect, with early signs of structural events that could stall the amazing ride of the last 8-10 years. Rising interest rates put pressure on the valuation of loss-making high growth companies, war for talent puts pressure on economics and ability to grow. To allow the unicorns to deliver against their growth expectations we expect significant M&A activity in 2022 of € 50-500m companies using their cash war chest and valuable stock.” 

The report summarises and compiles industry data from hundreds of sources including Dealroom, CBInsights, McKinsey, Morningstar and equity research as well as interviews and views from experts in the industry. It also includes the Finch team’s own views, proprietary insights and data based on a decade of investment experience in European FinTech.