Facebook-owned platforms’ global outage last week hinders its plans to launch fintech services.

How we got here: The outage—which lasted more than 6 hours across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram—left 3.5 billion global users and businesses disconnected.

• In its wake, some influencers and small businesses lost as much as $5,000 in sales, and plan to reduce their reliance on Facebook’s platforms to advertise and sell products going forward.
• The outage was badly timed for and may have a lasting impact on Facebook’s plans to facilitate its users’ access to financial services.
• These plans include its August 2020 launch of F2, a new division to oversee all its payments projects, like the stablecoin Diem. And this July, it made Facebook Pay available on third-party platforms, starting with Shopify.

The impact: The latest global outage exacerbates two of Facebook’s challenges: its tarnished reputation and regulatory pressures.

• Reputation. US households trust banks far more than Big Tech for handling their personal data, per a Bank for International Settlements survey from June. The controversies surrounding leaks and testimony from former product-manager-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen, combined with the recent outage, will only widen this trust gap. This is particularly problematic for Facebook’s fintech solutions—financial data is exceptionally sensitive.
• Regulation. The outage revealed that all Facebook products run on a single system. Regulators may find this particularly troublesome, since more than 200 million businesses use Facebook platforms for their operations. This summer, the US House antitrust subcommittee introduced five bills aimed at curtailing Big Tech’s dominance. The latest outage may encourage further regulatory restrictions to mitigate greater financial risk.

Bottom line: In recent years, it’s become conventional wisdom that Big Techs will fundamentally disrupt finance and market players. Capgemini found a growing share of consumers would be willing to access insurance and wealth management services from such platforms, for example.

But the Facebook outage underscores that, for the time being, it still lacks the infrastructure, regulatory oversight, and even sufficient know-how to fully take on banks and fintechs at their own game. This also may be the case for its peers, as seen with Google recently axing its Plex bank accounts.

Award program aims to support institutions that invest to make the world a better place

Novus Partners, a portfolio intelligence company servicing both asset allocators and managers, today announced the launch of its “Novus Greater Good Award” program which is geared to foundations, endowments, pensions plans and sovereign wealth funds that can demonstrate a positive impact they are making on the world through their investments.

"We recognize that today, capital allocators are the actors who are directly investing in our collective future. By empowering a mission-driven investor via the ‘Novus Greater Good Award’ we hope to contribute in a small way to making that future just a little bit brighter," said Andrea Gentilini, Chief Executive Officer at Novus.

The award program aims to support institutions that invest to make the world a better place by magnifying those actions with the winning institution receiving one-year of complimentary access to the Novus Portfolio Intelligence platform to support their workflows. 

The award package includes Novus’ full suite of data services (ingestion, harmonization, and enrichment) as well as its multi-asset class analytics toolset and reporting engine. Entries for the award are being capped at 100 submissions. Applications can be submitted directly at https://www.novus.com/greater-good-award.

Applications must be submitted by November 12, and must demonstrate the positive impact applicants are making on the world and how they believe the Novus Portfolio Intelligence platform can amplify their impact. Current Novus users do not qualify to enter though they are encouraged to nominate their partners or peers.

“We've proven that better insight into one's data leads to better decisions and better outcomes. In our industry, better outcomes can include grant work, scientific research, humanitarian aid, art, a cleaner planet, and more secure pensions. This award seeks to magnify such outcomes,” Gentilini added.

The Temenos Banking Cloud will enable greater features, functionality and scalability on a more streamlined, secure platform for Green Dot’s direct and banking platform services’ customers

Temenos, the banking software company, today announced that Green Dot Corporation (NYSE: GDOT) has enlisted The Temenos Banking Cloud as its platform of choice to power its direct digital bank and banking platform services (or “BaaS”) partners, enabling more feature-rich, secure and streamlined banking and payment experiences for customers, as well as scalable growth.

Temenos’ robust and scalable cloud platform will power Green Dot’s technology stack, enabling the leading Banking Platform Services (BaaS) provider’s partners to embed financial services – including credit, payment, lending, DDA accounts and other features – into their ecosystems. The Temenos Banking Cloud will also support Green Dot’s 33 million-plus customers who are served across its retail and direct-to-consumer digital banking channels.

“We selected Temenos as our platform partner because of their hyper-efficient and secure open-cloud capabilities, which align with and support our goals to provide exceptional, scalable solutions to our customers and partners,” said Dan Henry, President and CEO of Green Dot. “This is a critical component of our mission to seamlessly connect people to their money, both directly through our digital bank and products like GO2bank, and through our valued partners.”

Max Chuard, CEO, Temenos, said: “At Temenos we have a vision to power a world of banking where financial institutions and businesses open opportunities for people to achieve their ambitions. Green Dot continues to pioneer new ways to support underbanked Americans, through its own financial products as well as its strategy to offer embedded finance through Banking Platform Services to the world’s leading brands. Temenos’ intelligent, cloud-based open banking platform will drive innovation and growth as Green Dot continues to build out its ecosystem and grow its digital bank platform and customer base. We’re excited to partner with Green Dot to make banking more human and accessible for everyone.”

Jacqueline White, President – Americas, Temenos, said: “Green Dot is a technology-driven company with a mission to seamlessly connect people to their money. We are proud that Green Dot selected The Temenos Banking Cloud to accelerate its impressive track record of growth, innovation and social impact. We are pleased to see strong traction in the U.S. market across all our products, as we continue to support financial institutions to deliver value to their customers.”

The leading Canadian fintech is building its reputation as a disruptor and creator of dynamic software services as it enjoys exceptional growth 

Reach’s rapidly expanding headcount is a testament to the strength and broad appeal of its international ecommerce proposition

Reach, the global payment localization provider, has announced the appointment of Jade Ohlhauser as Vice President of Software Development to extend Reach’s pioneering software services amid unprecedented demand for the company’s cross-border Merchant of Record payment solutions.

Ohlhauser brings 22 years of commercially-successful software development expertise to Reach, where he will spearhead acceleration of the company’s platforms and launch new services. Reach is already experiencing its best year of growth, at a time when cross-border ecommerce is set to surge to an estimated $156 trillion in payment flows just by 2022.

Ohlhauser will oversee the development of dynamic, scalable solutions that are helping businesses to accept cross-border payments through localized processing and providing access to optimal foreign exchange currency services. Reach’s platform increases conversion rates and allows small and medium-sized businesses to compete with the biggest names in the industry.

Before joining Reach, Ohlhauser was the technical co-founder of RPM Software, an independent SaaS process automation platform based in Calgary. Ohlhauser aligned and scaled the development of the business to generate increased revenues. The success of RPM Software under Ohlhauser’s leadership saw the company being acquired by ScanSource, a Fortune 1,000 technology distributor. At ScanSource, Ohlhauser oversaw the creation and development of multiple software teams for two years.

Commenting on why he chose to join Reach, Ohlhauser said: “I wanted to be part of a growing business with a strong offering, but also to have the opportunity to help shape the future of the company, and the industry as a whole. I believe that Reach is capable of offering more services and supported platforms and having a great software team will play a crucial role.

“As someone who has led teams in the past, my priorities are recruitment, developing a strong team structure, and making Reach the best place to be a software developer in Calgary.”

Ohlhauser’s appointment is the latest in a series of high-profile hires for Reach to support its rapid expansion plans. This includes the appointment of David Mays as an independent board member, and those of Sarah Hermary and Lohrasp Seify as Heads of Human Resources and Data respectively.

These hires, and the recent acquisition of office space in the Edison building in Calgary, described as ‘Calgary’s headquarters for collaborators, innovators and visionaries’, provide Reach with the perfect platform to continue strengthening its business throughout 2021 and beyond. Reach currently has around 100 employees, with this number expected to increase by between 50% and 100% in the next year to keep up with the increase in demand for Reach’s innovative localization solution.

Demonstrating this demand is Reach’s partnership with HobbyLink Japan, a major Japanese ecommerce retailer, which is using Reach’s platform to seamlessly process growing cross-border sales and accept international payment methods. Reach’s tailored solution and dedicated customer support is helping HobbyLink Japan to accept more cross-border payments than ever before.

Sam Ranieri, CEO of Reach, commented: “Reach is achieving exceptional growth during 2021 as the demand for cross-border ecommerce payment solutions intensifies. Our continued success is attracting outstanding talent, and we are strengthening our team to meet growing demand for our solutions around the world. The software development team is central to what we want to do here at Reach, and Jade has the leadership skills and expertise we need as we continue to expand in the coming years. His experience in the industry makes him the ideal choice to build and manage a world-class team.”

 continue to expand in the coming years. His experience in the industry makes him the ideal choice to build and manage a world-class team.”

The Philippines played host to a content-rich virtual conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation on Thursday, 16 September 2021. Hosted by Trescon, World AI & RPA Show convened over 250 online participants that included major stakeholders of the Philippines’ AI ecosystem including government authorities, top AI experts and solution providers. The virtual conference featured leading AI organizations such as Oracle and Denodo coming together to discuss the Philippines’ AI and RPA prospects.

The conference was themed on highlighting the next steps driving the Philippines’ plans for the future through the use of emerging technologies.

The event focused on key topics such as preparing for the next evolution of AI as a driver for business success; Building the business strategy for AI across the enterprise; Aligning organizational structure to deploy at scale; RPA and AI implementation: Challenges and Opportunities; Leveraging Intelligent Automation to tackle issues of compliance and big data; Improving CX with AI and RPA, and much more.

The show featured a groundbreaking collaboration from experts such as:

• Gregorio B Honasan II, Executive VP and Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation

• Peter Leong, AI Specialist, Singapore Polytechnic
• Yu Ka Chan, Senior Regional Manager, Cloud Engineering, Oracle ASEAN
• Alex Hoehl, Senior Director, Partner Channel Sales & Business Development, APAC, Denodo
• Simon Johnson, Asia Head of Claims Advisory and Operations, Marsh Asia
• Peter Lee, Head of Customer Loyalty, Payment and Big Data, PLUS Malaysia
• Kathleen Mackay, Chief Digital Officer, Revenue NSW - Department of Customer Service
• Andy Chun, AI Pioneer, Regional Director – Technology Innovation, Prudential Corporation Asia
• Lcol Francel Margareth Taborlupa, IS Officer, National Task Force Against Covid 19
• Reynaldo (Rey) Lugtu, Founder & CEO, Hungry Workhorse
• Edmund Situmorang, CTO, Sinarmas Group; to name a few.

Gregorio B. Honasan II, Secretary at Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), discussed at length on the topic ‘Artificial Intelligence: Advancement in information and communications technology’. He stated, “We at DICT play the most important role in the AI strategic planning, focusing on the important factor of digitalization and architecture. Our aim is to ensure that the AI-driven economy is successfully promoted, beginning with the development of digital highways.”

Yu Ka Chan, Senior Regional Manager, Cloud Engineering at Oracle ASEAN spoke on Unlocking the power of AI and ML with Oracle Cloud Technology. He was quoted saying, "We at Oracle are helping our customers to manage their data very effectively and in the end, we are able to help them drive a positive business outcome"

While speaking about ‘How data virtualization accelerates machine learning and AI projects’, Alex Hoehl, Senior Director, Partner Channel Sales & Business Development, APAC, at Denodo, mentioned that, “The Denodo platform deployment was as easy as a click of a button with centralized configuration management. This simplified Prologis’s Data architecture and also helped bring down the overall maintenance cost”.

LCol. Francel Margareth (PADILLA) Taborlupa, Head Executive Assistant to Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation & Unity & IS Officer at National Task Force Against Covid 19 Philippines in her keynote spoke at length on the topic, ‘The Importance of AI In the Pandemic Response Operations’, where she stated that, "AI tools can help monitor the economic crisis and recover. For example, via satellite, social networking and other data, like Google's community and with data gathered through AI, we can learn from the crisis and build early warnings for a future outbreak."

"The right business environment for AI & RPA is an important part of the game as it provides a wide range of options, and we were privileged to provide that environment. Innovations like AI, however, need to be contextualized and integrated into an enterprise use case,” stated Mithun Shetty, CEO, Trescon.

The show was hosted on the virtual events platform Vmeets which helped the participants to network and conduct business in an interactive and immersive virtual environment. Participants were also able to engage with speakers in Q&A sessions and network with solution providers in virtual exhibition booths, private consultation rooms and private networking rooms.

World AI Show Malaysia was officially sponsored by Gold Sponsors - Oracle and Denodo; Bronze Sponsor – BCS Technology.

• Female SME decision makers are more likely to feel uncomfortable talking about money with customers or suppliers
• 41% of business decision makers are interested in technologies such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to reduce the rate of failed payments
• GoCardless partners with award-winning author and podcast host Emma Gannon to help small businesses overcome their ‘money muteness’

New research from GoCardless, a global fintech in account-to-account payments, has revealed that the stigma attached to talking about money has left British small businesses vastly under- and unpaid. The findings indicate 29% of SME leaders feel uncomfortable asking customers for payment and nearly three-quarters (73%) are willing to forgo up to 10% of their annual turnover to avoid an awkward money conversation. 

However, small business leaders recognise that ‘money muteness’ places a ceiling on their success: 73% agree that failing to talk about money openly would prevent their company from reaching its full potential. Indeed, SME decision makers are all too aware of what they could gain if they collected their receivables on time: 20% say they would have more time to think about their long-term strategy and growing their company, while 18% would invest in other parts of their business, such as in marketing or new software. 

Female-led SMEs lose out most

Female business leaders are disproportionately affected by this taboo topic, with 32% indicating they feel awkward talking about money, compared to only 22% of male leaders. When dealing with customers over half (54%) of women say it’s because they don’t want to be seen as rude, in contrast to 40% of men. 

GoCardless has partnered with Emma Gannon, award-winning author of The Multi-Hyphen Method and host of careers podcast, Ctrl Alt Delete, to raise awareness of the issue and get small businesses talking more openly about money. 

Gannon said: "Money is an emotional topic as it is, but add in the problem of late payments and it's even more stressful. Chasing payments causes a huge expenditure of emotional and mental energy and has affected almost every single freelancer I know. Research tells us women worry more about being seen as rude or could sometimes feel intimidated, which means they’re at a greater disadvantage. Small business owners and solopreneurs deserve more respect, and they deserve to be able to do their work without having another job on top. Late payments are a massive problem, and it is a scandal how normalised they’ve become. I'm really excited to be working with GoCardless to raise awareness of this problem, but more importantly, to offer solutions."

It’s not all bad news

Although many small business leaders dodge discussions about ‘the m-word’, it is often the consumer who is left red-faced: When informed about a late or failed payment, 42% of people feel embarrassed, 28% feel apologetic and 22% are grateful to have the opportunity to resolve it. 

Technology has the potential to minimise awkwardness on both sides. 62% of consumers agree they would feel more comfortable getting chased for a late or failed payment by an automated message, for instance on email or text, rather than a call or notice from a human being. 

As for SMEs, 41% of business owners report they are interested in technologies such as machine learning or artificial intelligence to reduce the rate of failed payments. Almost half (45%) say they would be open to introducing technology which increases the speed of getting paid, including those that pull payments when they’re due, such as Bacs direct debit.

Pranav Sood, VP Small Business at GoCardless, said: “You can’t fix a problem if you don’t talk about it. Getting paid is one of the biggest problems that SMEs face and an inability to talk about it is holding too many businesses back. At GoCardless, we are committed to breaking this taboo and tackling ‘money muteness’. The first step is to recognise that it’s normal to feel awkward when talking about money. But that isn’t enough - to solve this problem for good, SMEs will need to adopt technology and processes that automate collection and eliminate late and failed payments.”

Coinbase is pleased to announce the launch of its marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Starting today, prospective users will be able to join the waiting list to use Coinbase NFT - a decentralized marketplace for NFTs that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.

NFTs offer buyers the opportunity to own digital assets that are stored on the blockchain. NFTs have gained mainstream attention across the art, music and fashion industries, enabling creators to monetise their digital work and providing buyers with a unique and clear proof of ownership. 

NFT trading activity is on the rise. It soared this summer, more than doubling between July and August 2021, with roughly 280,000 unique buyers and sellers by the end of August^[1]. High profile NFT sales include the £500,000 sale of the ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ NFT earlier this year^[2].

Coinbase NFT will be a peer-to-peer marketplace designed to enable creativity. The initial launch will support Ethereum-based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards with multi-chain support planned for the near future. The platform has been created to foster community and connect creators, collectors and fans. Users will receive a personal feed that will showcase their NFTs in one place, helping to connect them with like-minded fans or artists.

As part of Coinbase’s overarching mission to drive economic freedom, Coinbase NFT will empower creators and help to raise the ‘creator economy’ from being a smaller subset of the ‘real economy’ into a central driver of economic activity.

Users can now sign up for early access and regular updates today by visiting www.coinbase.com/nft/announce.

Evolve Bank & Trust ("Evolve") announced it has appointed Monica Wharton to its Board of Directors. Wharton has an extensive track record of achievement and leadership excellence serving as a senior healthcare executive since 2008. She is currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, Memphis, Tennessee.

"We are pleased to welcome Monica to Evolve's Board," said Scot Lenoir, Chairman. "She is consistently recognized as a respected counselor, confidant and advocate. Monica will play an important role in guiding our strategic plans for the future."

"It's an honor to be asked to serve on Evolve's Board of Directors," said Wharton. "I look forward to joining Scot and supporting Evolve's mission as a local community bank as well as a global leader in financial technology solutions."

Wharton earned her Juris Doctor from the William and Mary School of Law and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English from Hampton University. She is active in community and professional organizations, serving as board chair for the American Heart Association. Wharton also serves on the boards of Youth Villages, the Women's Foundation of Greater Memphis, and the University of Memphis Foundation.

Throughout her career, Warton has been recognized for her work in the community and her profession including Super Women In Business by the Memphis Business Journal, A Woman of Distinction by St. Jude, 2011 Memphis Top 40 Under 40, The Women of Excellence Award, and the A.A. Latting Award from the Ben F. Jones Chapter of the National Bar Association. 

With Total Expert driving relationship engagement, FinLocker enables consumers to achieve goals through personalized communication from their financial institutions

Total Expert, the customer experience platform purpose-built for modern financial institutions, and FinLocker, a leading next-generation, consumer-permissioned personal financial fitness platform, today announced a partnership to provide the customers of modern financial institutions with a personalized path to homeownership and other important financial milestones.

Combining the technology of Total Expert and FinLocker empowers financial institutions to deliver data-backed, personalized communication to their customers on topics such as credit monitoring, budgeting, the mortgage process, and homeownership readiness. As FinLocker analyzes and aggregates consumers’ financial information in one place, Total Expert’s Journey functionality drives customized engagement at critical consumer touchpoints.

“With FinLocker and Total Expert, modern financial institutions can help customers find their financial footing, so they can achieve important goals like improving their credit score, paying off debt, buying a home, and preparing for retirement,” said Brian Vieaux, president of FinLocker. “By leveraging Total Expert’s dynamic engagement tools, we’ve amplified our in-app user experience while making it easier for banks, lenders, and credit unions to help their customers lead healthy financial lives.”

A powerhouse executive team of Vieaux, Henry Cason, CEO of FinLocker, and Joe Welu, founder and CEO of Total Expert, spearheaded the partnership under the objective of helping customers achieve financial well-being while financial institutions deepen customer relationships.

“In their mission to help people prioritize financial wellness, FinLocker created the perfect environment for our Journey functionality to provide tremendous value,'' said Welu. “With help from automated, personalized communication from their trusted financial networks, customers can stay engaged with a full view of their financial lives and make the right decisions toward their goals.”

The partnership is one in a series of new partnerships announced by Total Expert this year, following rollouts with InGenius (formerly 6 Solutions), RatePlug, and Salesforce.

Many financial advisory firms have a strong preference toward easier-to-use cloud solutions, whether due to internal IT staff constraints or the desire to focus more resources on core competencies. Aligned with this trend, RedBlack, an intelliflo solution, has released the cloud edition of its market-leading portfolio rebalancing and trading platform, which is used by more than 150 RIA firms, investment managers and family offices to manage over $300 billion in AUM.

The RedBlack Cloud Edition provides a high-performance software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to deliver advanced, personalized rebalancing and robust order management at scale in a multi-custodian environment. RedBlack Cloud capabilities include:

• Portfolio monitoring at the account and household level
• Rules-based rebalancing and trading on portfolio drift, restrictions, equivalents, asset location preferences and other rebalance settings
• Tax-sensitive rebalancing in line with household tax budgets
• Real-time compliance and restriction validation
• Order management via FIX to major custodians and brokers
• Compliance-ready, searchable archives of historical orders
• Integrations with portfolio management and trust accounting systems, custodial data providers, brokers, market data feeds, and more

According to Aite Group, cloud services are expected to see heightened adoption as wealth managers aim to achieve greater operational efficiencies across the value chain.¹ Accenture estimates that companies migrating business areas to the cloud can cut total cost of ownership (TCO) by as much as 40 percent.²

“The cloud is an essential part of business continuity and accelerating growth. Combined with the resource efficiencies and other proven benefits, rebalancing and trading have never been more personalized, precise, efficient and scalable than with RedBlack Cloud. It also makes us capable of reaching even more RIAs looking to grow their businesses,” said Jennifer Valdez, president, Americas for intelliflo. “We are fully committed to advancing both our traditional desktop version and our new cloud edition and continuing to offer firms a choice in delivery model.”