Digital bank Zopa has announced the appointment of Helen Beurier as its first Chief People Officer. 

With over 25 years’ experience across some of the largest FMCG, retail and pharma household names, Helen brings a wealth of experience to the digital bank at a pivotal point in its growth journey. 

Helen will be leading all activity encompassing Zopa’s people experience, with a specific focus on strengthening key capabilities for growth. She will ensure the unique culture at Zopa continues to delight and engage as the bank expands its breadth of products, attracts new talent and solidifies its leading position as a key competitor in the banking sector. 

Prior to Zopa, Helen held progressively senior HR Executive roles at household names M&S, PepsiCo and GSK, leading the delivery of HR and transformational change initiatives across the globe. More recently, Helen has partnered with founders and investors to develop people strategies for accelerated growth for challenger brands. 

Helen Beurier, Chief People Officer at Zopa said: “I’m delighted to be joining Zopa at this pivotal moment in its history, and to become part of its fast-paced, growing team. Looking towards 2022, Zopa will be significantly expanding its talented team and investing in new capabilities to support its rapid growth. Zopa’s culture of community, collaboration and inclusion make it an exciting and inspiring place to be.” 

Jaidev Janardana, CEO at Zopa added: “We are very excited to welcome Helen as our first Chief People Officer. She brings a wealth of experience that is crucial to building Zopa’s best-in-class talent force. Our growth plan over the next 18 months is bold. We will only achieve it by making Zopa the best place to work, and by attracting and retaining the smartest people.” 

Zopa has one of the most engaged teams of people, with more than 80% of its people recommending Zopa as a great place to work, a 4-star rating on Glassdoor, and a 98% approval rate for its CEO.
 

Over the last 16 years, Zopa has approved over £6 billion funds in personal loans. Since the launch of the bank (June 2020), Zopa has attracted £675m in deposits for its fixed savings accounts, issued 150,000 of its British Bank Award-winning credit cards, doubled revenue per customer, and became a top 10 credit card issuer. Zopa is currently issuing around 20,000 new credit cards every month.

Implementation of TRM Labs’ tools further strengthens XREX’s ability to monitor transactions to ensure a clean and secure ecosystem

XREX Inc, the Taipei-headquartered neo fintech, today announced it has implemented a full suite of risk management tools developed by TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence provider, to further enhance the platform’s ability to detect and defend against fraud, scammers and suspicious activities.

Photo Available: XREX I TRM: Taipei-headquartered neo fintech XREX Inc. partners with TRM Labs to bolster platform security.

XREX is among the first blockchain firms in Asia to implement TRM Labs’ risk intelligence platform, with modules including Forensics, Know-Your-VASP (Virtual Assets Service Providers), Wallet Screening, and Transaction Monitoring. These tools allow XREX to undertake real-time cross-chain analysis on all the crypto transactions on the platform, giving XREX extra firepower to combat financial crimes, preempt fraud, and root out illicit actors.

Led by CEO Dr. Wayne Huang, an internationally recognized cybersecurity expert with over a decade of experience, XREX is one of the most tightly secured crypto-fiat platforms in the world. The company’s mission is to level the playing field by using blockchain technology and digital assets to resolve US dollar liquidity shortages faced by cross-border merchants, particularly in emerging markets.

The latest collaboration with TRM Labs reflects XREX’s long-standing commitment to creating a clean, safe, compliant, and trust-based collective financial system that empowers users to participate and contribute to the global economy.

“The integration of TRM tools as part of our fraud detection mechanism enables XREX to trace the entire source-to-destination flow of any cryptocurrency transactions on the platform without compromising the data privacy of our users,” said Huang. “Such wider and more in-depth visibility allows XREX to quickly identify questionable behaviors and take necessary actions.”

Currently, XREX supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USDT, XRP, and BCH, which are among the hundreds of thousands of digital assets monitored by TRM Labs.

 TRM Labs CEO Esteban Castaño said the collaboration with XREX underscores an increasingly proactive effort by many in the crypto ecosystem to implement best-in-class technologies and policies that promote trust and safety for users and collaboration with the regulatory community.

“At TRM Labs, our goal is to build a safer financial system for all. We do that by working with firms that share our vision, such as XREX, and enabling them to proactively manage risk and build best-in-class compliance programs,” said Castaño.

TRM’s proprietary technology provides automated alerts on high-risk activity and speeds the process of source and destination of funds tracing for investigators, which is key for compliance teams who need to stay on top of a large number of cases.

In addition to implementing leading risk management tools, XREX also works closely with banks, financial regulators, and compliance advocate groups such as Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule Information Sharing Alliance TRISA.io, and Crypto Defenders Alliance (CDA) to uphold the highest globally-agreed standards and protocols.

- China Minsheng Bank, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase  are latest to go live to support small businesses and consumers  with fast, secure, predictable cross-border payments 

- Rapid adoption of SWIFT Go since launch in July reinforces  SWIFT strategy for instant, frictionless cross-border transactions 

SWIFT today announces that 100 banks around the world have signed up for SWIFT Go since it went live in July, underscoring strong demand for the service that enables small businesses and consumers to send fast, predictable, highly secure and competitively priced low-value cross-border payments from their bank accounts. Ten banks are already live with SWIFT Go, most recently Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and China  Minsheng Bank, representing 41 million low-value cross-border payments a year. 

SWIFT Go is a key building block in the co-operative’s strategy to enable instant and frictionless  transactions across its network of more than 11,000 institutions and 4 billion accounts in 200  countries. And it has the potential to be transformative in enabling greater financial inclusivity,  supporting SMEs in emerging economies and individuals sending remittances internationally. 

The service leverages the high-speed rails of SWIFT gpi, which have transformed the speed  and predictability of high-value cross-border payments, to strengthen the capabilities of banks  to serve their customers in the high-growth small business and consumer segments. Payments  sent via SWIFT Go are fast – with the fastest completing in seconds – secure and predictable,  with upfront transparency on fees.  

Stephen Gilderdale, Chief Product Officer, SWIFT said: “SWIFT Go has been  enthusiastically received by institutions and their customers since launch as it transforms the  way SMEs and consumers make payments across borders through the banking system. When  integrated in banks' customer channels, SWIFT Go provides a best-in-class user experience 

that is fast, predictable and competitively priced. There is a clear demand for the benefits it  enables, and we look forward to working with our community to extend SWIFT Go even further  as we continue to progress with our strategy.”  

Dr. Xu Jie, Deputy General Manager of Transaction Banking Department, China  Minsheng Bank and Vice-chairman of the China International Chamber of Commerce  Banking Committee said “According to our analysis, the remittance cost-to the U.S. using the  SWIFT Go channel is more than 30% lower than traditional channels. Minsheng Bank is  prepared to launch SWIFT Go in all channels, which will give great banking support to our SME  and retail customers. We encourage more peer banks to join SWIFT Go to expand and continue  building this network for future cross-border payments.” 

Marc Recker, Global Head of Product, Institutional Cash Management, Deutsche Bank  said “At Deutsche Bank, we are well aware that SMEs and consumers value upfront  transparency speed, and security when making payments internationally. It is with this in mind  that we are excited to go live with SWIFT Go and to offer our customers a bespoke service that  will radically improve the way they make low-value transactions across borders. 

Shirish Wadivkar, Global Head of Payments, Standard Chartered said “We are excited to  be part of SWIFT Go, which supports our strategy to deliver better and differentiated payment  experiences. Our SME and Retail clients will value a service that aims to provide seamless,  fast and predictable low value international payments. 

George Doolittle, MD and Head of Global Payment Services, Wells Fargo said “SWIFT Go  leverages the strength of SWIFT gpi with a stricter multilateral service level and central 

reporting engine, vastly improving the end-to-end client experience, reducing friction, and  enabling banks to more effectively serve the lower value cross border payments needs of their  retail and small business clients. As a leading financial services company and the largest  originator into the U.S. ACH system, Wells Fargo has supported this initiative since its  inception.” 

• Today, Creditspring launches ‘Step’, a new credit builder product which helps people improve their credit score, restore their financial health and to access affordable forms of credit.
• This comes as new Creditspring research finds that 28% of 18–34-year-olds are unaware of how to improve their credit score.
• Step offers near-prime borrowers who struggle to access mainstream credit the opportunity to build credit profile steadily and affordably, improving their chance of being eligible for more affordable borrowing options in the future.

Subscription loan provider, Creditspring, launches Step, a new credit builder product that helps members gradually improve their credit score without running the risk of incurring further debt. With new Creditspring research finding that over a quarter (28%) of 18–34-year-olds are unaware of how to improve their credit score, young borrowers are set to benefit from this accessible, easy-to-use solution.

Step, which is the industry’s first credit builder product where the issuer takes on risk through loans borrowed, offers members a small, no-interest loan in exchange for a fixed monthly fee, with an individual’s permission, shares information on members’ borrowing data with credit rating agencies to help people build their credit score in a low-risk way.

The product has been launched in direct response to the rise of ‘questionable’ credit builders in the UK. People are signing up and paying monthly fees to these companies believing it will improve their access to credit, but the ‘credit score’ that these companies help improve is not even one that lenders ever see. They are preying on the confusion around credit scores and are just another example of companies tricking people who are looking for support.

Step is designed to benefit the UK’s 10-14 million near-prime borrowers whose credit files make it harder for them to access mainstream credit products. This forces many to turn to higher cost, short-term alternatives – such as payday lenders or guarantor loans – which often come with extortionate interest rates and hidden fees and charges. In fact, unaffordable credit was the source of a third of all complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service last year and the most common issue for customers.  Difficulty repaying loans can lead to a spiral of debt, and in turn, negatively affect an individual’s credit score, leaving prospective borrowers with even fewer options the next time they need credit.

At present there is confusion and worry around credit scores, particularly among younger generations, with a third (33%) of individuals concerned that the financial impact of COVID-19 has negatively affected their credit score. For these individuals, Step provides no-interest loans, allowing customers to build their credit score to help improve their chances of being accepted for future credit – such as a mortgage – later in life. Members pay a fixed cost of £5 per month, and receive a first advance of £100, followed by a second advance of £200 over a 12-month period, with repayments reported to credit rating agencies.

Neil Kadagathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Creditspring, comments: “Step offers our members an accessible and affordable method of building their credit profile, with no hidden charges to contend with. We want to empower near-prime borrowers with the tools to make more informed financial decisions that contribute to better overall financial health in the long term because we think our job is done when our customers don’t need us anymore. It’s our goal to help our members get better access to mainstream, affordable credit products after using Step to improve their credit profile.”

SmartStream Technologies, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM^®) solutions provider, today announces new intelligent exceptions management design for its cloud-native AI-powered SmartStream Air solution – enabling the process of identification, prioritisation, allocation, and audit to be further simplified.

This enhancement will bring even greater simplification to a typically complex and manual exceptions management process for data reconciliations. With clever design and optimum efficiency, the solution will make break-resolution easy with reduced manual touchpoints. In addition, it will provide real-time and dynamic business insights and analytics that any user, with or without IT skills can leverage. Overall it plays a critical role in managing risk more efficiently and providing operational insight.

Andreas Burner, Chief Information Officer, SmartStream, states: “This marks the next phase of work in our Innovations Lab, with ongoing developments throughout the year, with some exceptional capabilities, we are now delighted to launch this new design, and with positive feedback from clients it has genuinely been very encouraging. We have set the bar high on this and are proud to say already our SmartStream Air solution is being used by several new customers – the feedback we get is that the design of this workflow is unlike anything else on the market today. Trust is everything when it comes to AI and machine learning and we have managed to gain this with our clients”.

During the course of this year SmartStream’s Innovations Lab has designed many new features for SmartStream Air, making it the most advanced cloud-native AI data reconciliations solutions on the market today. It launched ‘Affinity’, SmartStream’s unique observational learning AI capability that learns from manual data matching behaviours – and more recent version releases has assured that even deeper and more detailed explanations for the end user are available. Other developments include the ability to continuously stream data records to carry out reconciliations of multiple data formats in real-time. It also integrates seamlessly with business intelligence and analytics tools such as Tableau and Power BI, meaning that it can fit into any ecosystem of IT systems, and reconciled data can be consumed in a data lake of a customers choosing - facilitating the ever-growing requirements of compliance, audit and regulatory reporting. The solution can now load even more data formats, providing customers with the ability to create custom data format integrations where required providing the ability to ingest any structured data format. In addition, SmartStream Air is available in Mandarin for Chinese users and data use cases.

Airbank, a financial management solution for European startups and SMBs, has selected open banking infrastructure provider Yapily to help its users manage their finances with ease.

Airbank provides a simple financial management solution that aggregates all bank accounts in one place and delivers more control, visibility, and automation to modern finance teams. Startups & SMBs use Airbank to access bank accounts, monitor cash flow in real-time, create reliable forecasts, and make business payments.

Airbank matches bank transactions with merchant and category data to give finance teams complete visibility into revenues and expenses, thus helping make their lives easier with cash flow budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.

Yapily's API infrastructure provides Airbank users with a smooth, simple way to connect to more than 1,500 banks across the UK and Europe including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Sparkassen, Volksbanken and neobanks. Airbank selected Yapily for its strong coverage in Europe, with a specific focus on Germany, France, Spain, and the UK. Yapily's European bank connectivity enables Airbank's customers to scale and grow across Europe, delivering forecast visibility anywhere they go.

The partnership with Yapily alleviates Airbank's customers from spending time and resources managing their finances - giving them direct access to all the financial and contextual data they need in one tool. Historically, most businesses created budgets and cash flow forecasts in manual spreadsheets which is time-consuming and error-prone. With Airbank, customers save time and costs to focus on value-adding business tasks.

The partnership also enables Airbank's customers to use its data enrichment platform and transaction categorisation engine to turn the raw data from bank accounts into meaningful and actionable insights. Airbank reconciles account balances, forecasts financials and helps business owners make smarter business decisions every day. Harnessing Yapily's leading open banking infrastructure, Airbank can accelerate its adoption of digital banking services.

Airbank's vision is to simplify financial management for SMBs and to create a unified platform that helps its users with the full cycle of financial management from cash flow analysis and forecasting, to accounts receivables and payables management, and more. Airbank has raised $3m seed funding from leading VCs, and counts hundreds of users in Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the UK.

Open Banking has enabled smooth integrations with banks, which we utilize to offer richer banking and payments experiences for our users. We're building a business banking solution that connects all your financial accounts in one place. Our partnership with Yapily gives users a smooth and simple way to connect to thousands of banks in Europe, unlocking real-time insights into their cash flow. We eliminate the pains of finance admin so business owners can focus on what’s really important — growing their business.

Christopher Zemina, Co-founder and CEO of Airbank

Airbank helps simplify the daily routine of banking and finance management for small and medium sized businesses. By leveraging Yapily's open banking infrastructure, Airbank can provide actionable insights to businesses - at a time where it's needed. As a small yet fast growing company, Yapily is committed to supporting the SMB community and we are excited to see how Airbank delivers the benefits of open banking to many businesses across Europe.

Comment by Chris Scheuermann, Commercial Lead DACH at Yapily

About Airbank

Airbank is the next-generation multi-banking platform for startups and SMBs that puts all bank accounts into one place. Airbank offers bank account aggregation, cash flow management, multi-user permissions, and single sign-on, aiming to become the leading B2B payments provider for small and growing businesses. Incorporated in Berlin, Germany, Airbank is backed by leading entrepreneurs and investors. To learn more, visit joinairbank.com.

About Yapily

Yapily is an open banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone. The company has raised $69.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Vivid, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 100 people and continues to scale rapidly.

The strategic partnership enhances digital banking services with digital asset marketplace and wallet functionality

Finastra and Bakkt today announced plans to make Bakkt’s digital marketplace and wallet available through Finastra’s open developer platform and app store, FusionFabric.cloud. Through the partnership, Bakkt, the trusted platform that enables consumers to buy, sell, store and spend a range of digital assets, including bitcoin, will be available to customers of community banks and credit unions, as part of Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking solution. The app, which will soon be available, will enable financial institutions to offer their account holders access to the growing crypto market without having to leave their existing, trusted banking environment.

“Joining FusionFabric.cloud and the FusionStore marketplace will allow us to quickly and seamlessly introduce Finastra’s banking clients to cryptocurrency choices, in order to meet rising consumer demand,” said Sheela Zemlin, Chief Revenue Officer at Bakkt. “From its unique combination of innovative banking products to their deep customer relationships and overall digital experience, Finastra was a natural fit to help expand the reach of Bakkt’s digital asset ecosystem.”

“Finastra’s clients are constantly seeking new and innovative experiences to drive engagement with their end consumers,” said Philip Taliaferro, Head of Fintech Ecosystem at Finastra. “Bakkt’s robust digital marketplace meets those demands by seamlessly integrating crypto, cash management, money transfer and wallet capabilities into Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud platform and marketplace. Its modern user experience and API-enabled platform make Bakkt an attractive solution for financial institutions seeking an intuitive, tightly-integrated, low risk solution to offer crypto services.”

As the marketplace for digital assets continues to grow and evolve, Bakkt is empowering and strengthening a growing partner network to tap into the new opportunities for customer engagement and choice. Bakkt aims to help banks and merchants facilitate new customer experiences by leveraging digital platform solutions that deliver a frictionless customer journey while also providing access to new products and features.

The partnership adds over 1,200 convenient locations where members can make cash deposits
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), a global enterprise technology provider, today announced that PenFed Credit Union, America’s second-largest federal credit union, is expanding its long-standing relationship with NCR and its newly acquired Cardtronics business to provide 2.4 million PenFed members cash deposit capabilities at more than 1,200 Allpoint ATMs. Cash deposits at ATMs add another layer of convenience as over 85% of PenFed member transactions occur online. Adding cash deposits at premium retail locations enables members to make convenient deposits near where they live, work, and shop. NCR plans to have over 1,800 cash deposit-enabled ATMs deployed in the largest and fastest-growing markets by the end of the year.

“PenFed has a long history of being a leading innovator in delivering new services and convenience to our members. Collaborating with strong partners like NCR and Cardtronics is a key piece to our strategic vision. Over the years, we have expanded our relationship with them to help us achieve operational efficiency and attract new members in critical markets,” said Brad Patterson, Head of Cards for PenFed.

“The addition of self-service deposit capabilities through our retail-based network of Allpoint ATMs allows PenFed to further expand its ‘anytime anywhere’ transaction capabilities nationwide,” said Carter Hunt, Managing Director of North America for NCR’s Cardtronics business. “We are exceptionally proud of the innovative solutions that we can provide to forward-thinking PenFed as its members’ desire for self-service banking and surcharge-free cash withdrawals and deposits continues to grow.”

PenFed collaborates with NCR and its Cardtronics division on other products and services, including ATM branding, managed services, and locator search.

PenFed also provides member access to Allpoint, the world’s largest retail-based surcharge-free ATM network, with more than 40,000 ATMs in the U.S. and 55,000 worldwide. Consumers can find Allpoint ATMs in top retail establishments such as grocery and convenience stores, pharmacies, and big-box stores.

Founding members hail from large banks, large aggregators, the identity and security fields, and the general API industry

Focus includes monitoring Open Banking API performance and standards

The API Ratings Agency (TARA), an industry-wide effort to create an advisory council for API monitoring standards, has named four members to its board.

In addition to David O’Neill, CEO of APImetrics, members now include:

• Brian Costello of the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence
• Don Thibeau, formerly of the OpenID Foundation
• John Musser, founder of Programmable Web and API Science
• Lorinda Brandon, VP of Software Development at BetterCloud

“APImetrics has been working in something of a vacuum for the last few years as we have pushed for better standards for API measurement, particularly in the area of Open Banking” O’Neill said. “At the moment there are no real standards on what should be measured, how it should be measured, and how to read those measurements. It’s incredibly painful to see situations where both sides on an API contract think the other is wrong and to eventually realize the truth lies somewhere else.”

The API Ratings Agency will focus on the following critical items:

•        Defining best practices for production monitoring. Many banks are unable to monitor production systems because internal risk teams are blocking efforts.

•        Agreeing on global performance and quality targets. Currently, targets are set regionally.

•        Agreeing on like-for-like monitoring requirements. The industry currently self-reports performance uptime, availability, and latency metrics, leading to disagreements between parties and a lack of trust.

“The role of the API Ratings Agency is absolutely essential,” Thibeau said. “Without commonly agreed ways to measure and talk about measurement, we will continue to see disagreements between providers and no clear ways for national regulators, especially in financial services, to talk about what is happening.”

Brandon said, “If you use APIs from different providers, how do you agree on what is good and what is not? Can you be sure that they are measuring the same things, in the same way and that if there’s an issue, you’re all on the same page? We see this as a key concept moving forward to get us all in alignment."

“The API economy is growing up. Standards need to grow with it.” O’Neill said. “For our API.expert ratings site, we don’t want to rate in a vacuum. But we think quality ratings and the methodologies we use should be set by the industry, not by us. We’d like clear external guidance on how often we should measure, from where, and what a profile’s representative sample should look like. We’re excited that others are interested in the same things.”

The API Rating Agency is just starting its work but aims to release an operating charter and working goals by the end of the year, with its first standards to be published in 2022. Additional board members will be announced later in October.