Digital technology highlighted as key to meeting new decarbonization targets as Atos launches new Digital Vision: Digital Banking report

Banks are rapidly accelerating their shift to digital channels as they seek to reinvent their business models in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new paper from Atos reveals.

Incumbent banks are facing a major challenge in fighting off digital competitors, while all banks must harness technology in order to meet new decarbonization targets and regulatory requirements, as well as cater for rising consumer demands

Two thirds (66 per cent) of banking leaders named transforming the digital customer experience as a top priority over the next year in a survey, while a further 80 per cent said digital technology is essential to achieving their decarbonization targets. Almost half named account security and protection from fraud as a key priority.

The results, from a survey that included 400 retail banking leaders across North America and Europe, are highlighted in the latest global opinion paper by Atos, Digital Vision: Digital Banking, which brings together leading voices from across the industry and geographies, including North America, to examine the latest trends that are shaping and transforming the digital future of banking.

Digital Vision: Digital Banking illustrates how digital technology is making banking smarter, greener and safer. It details how big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things are offering banks new opportunities to transform the customer experience, decarbonize operations, and protect their business and customers from external threats.

Adrian Gregory, Global Head of Financial Services & Insurance at Atos, said: “Digital disruption is not new to the banking industry: technologies advance and hungry market entrants are emerging all the time. What has changed, however, is the massively accelerated shift to digital channels as a result of Covid-19. Atos is working with our banking customers and global partners to help navigate and accelerate business and digital transformation to deliver banks’ priorities and ambitions. At this pivotal time in history, we see important opportunities to collaborate to help create a cleaner, more inclusive and secure future for all.”

The Digital Vision: Digital Banking paper builds on the experience of Atos as a leading digital partner to many of the world’s banking, capital markets and insurance companies, providing integrated technology solutions that help financial services providers prosper in a rapidly evolving digital world.

Over the past year alone, Atos has secured a broad range of banking, insurance, pensions, and capital markets contracts across multiple continents. Examples include the selection of Atos by Banque Misr, one of the largest banks in Egypt, to support its transformational journey to become the country’s first digital bank; a minimum 10-year contract with Nest to design and build a future focused pension scheme; and an extended agreement to accelerate transformation with Dutch insurer VGZ.

Over 4,000 Business Leaders & Attendees from Across the World Met in Amsterdam to Shape the Future of the $13 trillion Fintech Industry

Money20/20 today reported that more than 4,000 attendees, from 1,500 companies and 76 countries attended Money20/20 Europe in September, the fintech industry’s premier event, at the RAI Amsterdam, with more attendees and companies expected in Las Vegas for Money20/20 USA.

The event was a showcase for 185 of the fastest growing and most innovative fintech companies from across the world, at what was the first large scale fintech conference in over two years.  With more than 7,000 meetings organised via the Money20/20 app during the 3 days, on top of all the privately arranged meetings, Money20/20 proved that it is where the fintech community comes together to do business - generating new leads, landing  major deals and partnerships, all the while gleaning fresh insights to accelerate business growth.  With nearly twice as many leading fintech companies expected to be present, Money20/20 USA promises to be bigger and better.

Across five stages, 250 speakers, 53% percent of whom were fintech business founders or CEOs, engaged in 3 days of conversations that will shape the future of fintech. The headline speakers included:

●     Ana Botin, Executive Chairman, Santander Group

●     Julia Hoggett, CEO, London Stock Exchange plc

●     Annerie Vreugdenhil, CIO, ING

●     Daniel Marovitz, Senior Vice President, FinTech, Booking.com

●     Olugbenga GB Agboola, Founder & CEO, Flutterwave

●     Adriaan Mol, Founder, and Shane Happach, CEO, Mollie Payments

●     Shola Akinlade, Co-Founder & CEO, Paystack

●     Kristo Käärmann, Co-Founder & CEO, Wise

●     Martina Weimert, CEO, EPI Interim Company SE

●     Paolo Bertoluzzo, CEO, Nexi

There were 100+ international media and industry analysts at the event to report on the many significant industry announcements, including TrueLayer’s $130 million funding raise that values the London-based startup at over $1 billion and Italian payments giant Nexi telling the Money20/20 audience that they were in talks with the European Central Bank about the design of the Digital Euro.

“Today we celebrate the successful return of Money20/20 Europe, the industry’s leading fintech event and the first large international business conference to be held at the RAI, Amsterdam this year. With over 7,000 meetings held between attendees, Money20/20 Europe has proved once again to be the place where new partnerships are forged and fintech business deals are made. We now head to Las Vegas for Money20/20 USA, knowing that we can safely and successfully run a large-scale in-person business event”, said Money20/20 President Tracey Davies.

Money20/20 Rise Up Programme and Stage in partnership with Trustly

Money20/20 believes that women and people of colour should have a louder voice and more seats at the table in financial services. We work to amplify those voices and open doors through our platforms and programmes, collaborating with our community to empower real change and erode systemic bias. Inclusion and difference simply makes us stronger. In support of these values, 39% of Money20/20 Europe speakers were women and 11% were speakers of colour. In addition we curated the Money20/20 Rise Up Stage, dedicated to addressing these issues directly.

The following companies took to one of Money20/20 Europe’s stages to debate the big issues facing the industry, share their inspirational stories, and together shape the future of fintech:

Investment Navigator has confirmed that additiv customers can now access its full range of cross-border and product distribution suitability solutions through additiv’s DFS platform.

additiv, a leading SaaS and embedded finance provider to the wealth management industry, is integrating Investment Navigator’s advanced services to address the essential requirement for wealth managers to comply with stringent regulatory requirements.

The increasing regulatory requirements for the provision of banking services and the distribution of financial products require the simultaneous assessment of compliant cross-border business activities, product distribution rules and tax-related checks.

The joint solution addresses the need for reliable information on investment restrictions at the point of advice by offering an unambiguous suitability answer at instrument level.

Alberto Rama, co-founder and CEO of Investment Navigator, said: “Partnering with additiv is a natural collaboration. additiv are highly vocal about the need to simplify the advisory process. Unlike many other suitability service providers, Investment Navigator is truly independent. Our clients are not locked in and limited to the input of a specific rule-set provider, but we are rather giving them the freedom and flexibility that is needed to succeed over the long run in a rapidly changing world.”

Alberto added: “Combining Investment Navigator’s capabilities for automated suitability assessments with additiv’s award winning DFS platform is a major achievement in the move to support both traditional investments and their clients but also the new breed of investors that are emerging through the embedded finance opportunity in wealth management.”

Michael Stemmle, founder and CEO of additiv, said: “A seamless advisory process, is a major focus for our customers.  Many operate in multiple jurisdictions and need support across all asset classes.  They need a holistic, seamless experience that allows them to do what they do best – focus on advice and their clients.”

Michael continued: “Collaborating with Investment Navigator was the obvious solution to ensure that our financial institution customers avoid any cross-border distribution, product and tax suitability issues.  Connecting seamlessly to our intelligent orchestration platform through RESTful-API’s, it adds value to the advisory and distribution process; automatically assessing regulatory, product-specific as well as tax requirements and restrictions.  It offers an essential approach at a time when banks need any worries associated with regulatory compliance removed.”

Meniga (www.meniga.com), the global leader in personal finance banking solutions, has today announced that is has partnered with Portuguese national financial group, Crédito Agrícola Group, to launch its market-leading green banking solution, ‘Carbon Insight’ in Portugal.

"Meniga’s ‘Carbon Insight’ - which becomes the first bank-based carbon footprinting solution to be launched in Portugal – has been integrated within Crédito Agrícola’s innovative mobile banking app, ‘moey!’, and enables customers to analyse and track their carbon footprint in real-time."

Unlike traditional carbon calculators, which typically require lengthy and arduous manual inputting, Meniga’s ‘Carbon Insight’ automatically calculates a user’s carbon footprint based on their spending profile. The solution is equipped with several advanced features - including digital gamification, as well as nudges and personalised insights - which will provide ‘moey!’ app users with the necessary tools to understand their carbon footprint, improve their spending behaviour, boost their personal savings, and crucially, help save the planet.

The integration of Meniga’s ‘Carbon Insight’ solution is a result of Crédito Agrícola Group’s wider ambition to drive customer engagement and bolster its ESG strategy, coupled with a response to the growing demand from carbon-conscious consumers for new tools that help people understand and address the environmental challenges they are facing.

According to a recent survey conducted by Meniga, 88% of banking professionals across Europe believe that financial institutions should play an important role in increasing awareness around the impact of consumption on climate change. As such, the demand for carbon footprinting solutions like ‘Carbon Insight’ - from banks, financial institutions and other key industry players - has skyrocketed in recent months.

Georg Ludviksson, CEO & Co-Founder of Meniga, comments:

“As global anxiety around climate change continues to grow, the need for the banking industry to take matters into its own hands and help fight climate change is no longer an option but an absolute necessity.

“By implementing our ‘Carbon Insight’ solution and integrating carbon footprinting as part of the everyday banking experience, Crédito Agrícola Group has a unique opportunity - not only to serve the tangible needs of carbon-conscious consumers - but also to standardise individual carbon accounting, pave the way for a major change in consumer climate action, and become one of the frontrunners in this rapidly evolving green banking movement.”

Ricardo Madeira, Inovação e Digital, Director at Crédito Agrícola Group comments:

“Financial institutions must play an important role in fighting climate change. The moey! green functionality aims to make users aware of their carbon footprint, inviting them to rethink habits and behaviour, so that they can reduce their environmental impact, and ensure a more sustainable future.”

About Carbon Insight

Carbon Insight is Meniga’s inaugural green banking solution, which allows users to estimate and track the carbon footprint that stems from their spending, empowering them to take high-impact action, whilst enabling banks to unlock new dimensions of customer engagement and create a more robust ESG strategy.

The carbon footprint of transactions and purchases is calculated through the Meniga Carbon Index, which is localised for each country and has been created by a team of data scientists using the latest environmental research and databases on the carbon emissions of goods and services. The Meniga Carbon Index contains the carbon intensity value of approximately 80 spending categories, as weighed against a currency unit. When a purchase is made in a specific spending category, the carbon intensity value of that particular category is multiplied by the purchase amount, which provides a reliable carbon footprint estimate. Customer input along with demographic data and adjustments made for airline flights, public transportation and other such expenses are used to maintain a reliable carbon footprint calculation.

The Carbon Insight solution informs, empowers and motivates customers to take action against their carbon emissions, through a number of innovative features, which include:

●      Instant overviews estimating the overall carbon footprint based on a user’s spending profile, broken down into spending categories and time periods

●      Personalised nudges and notifications to educate users on the specific aspects of their spending that are the most detrimental to the environment

●      Carbon benchmarking to allow users to compare their overall carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of spending categories with that of other users

●      Actionable advice and insights on how to reduce their carbon footprint across spending categories

The solution also offers digital gamification to help banking customers consume more sustainably and offset their emissions via certified offsetting programs in developing countries. Meniga collaborates with the UNFCCC, which certifies projects in developing countries that reduce, avoid or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.

The development of Meniga’s Carbon Index is overseen by the Meniga Environmental Advisory Board, represented by climate change experts from organisations such as UNFCCC,  Accountancy Europe, World Resource Institute and the University of Iceland. 

Earlier this year, Íslandsbanki, one of the largest banks in Iceland, became the first bank to integrate the ‘Carbon Insight’ solution into its own digital banking offering. Meniga is also in the process of launching the same solution with several other banks in a number of different countries in the near future.

About Meniga

Meniga is a global leader in white-label digital banking solutions. Its award-winning products enable the world's largest financial institutions to dramatically improve their online and mobile digital environment, enriching the customer experience of over 90 million digital banking users across 30 countries. Meniga has developed a framework for next-generation digital banking around advanced data consolidation and enrichment, meaningful customer engagement and new revenue opportunities.

Meniga’s portfolio of products includes personal finance management, automated real-time notifications, predictive analytics and personalised engagement technologies, targeted rewards and consumer data analytics. Meniga is a six-time winner of “Best of Show'' at Finovate Fall and Finovate Europe, “Best Digital Banking Vendor” at the Banking Tech Awards, “Best Company” at the European FinTech Awards and has been featured three times on the FinTech50 list. Meniga’s offices are in London, Reykjavik, Stockholm, Warsaw, Barcelona, Singapore and New York.

Leading global payments and card issuance company honored second year in a row for achievements in Payments Processing and Networks at CB Insights Future of Fintech

CB Insights has named Nium to the fourth annual Fintech 250, a prestigious list of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology. This year’s list was unveiled on stage at CB Insights’ Future of Fintech conference in New York City.

“We’re honored to be named to the CB Insights Fintech 250 list of top fintech companies for the second year in a row,” said Prajit Nanu, Co-Founder and CEO of Nium. “This recognition validates our mission to remove the layers of friction and the endless complexities that hold back global commerce. With Nium, businesses can access the global payments infrastructure through one API suite, allowing them to focus on what’s important -- moving their businesses forward, opening up a whole world of new opportunities, and creating new and meaningful customer experiences.”

Through an evidence-based approach, the CB Insights Intelligence Unit selected the Fintech 250 from a pool of over 17,000 companies, including applicants and nominees. They were chosen based on several factors, including data submitted by the companies, company business models and momentum in the market, and Mosaic scores, CB Insights’ proprietary algorithm that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

“This is the fourth class of the Fintech 250, and it’s also the most international, representing 26 countries.  These 250 fintech startups are attacking an incredibly diverse array of financial services opportunities across 19 sectors, including digital banking, insurance, payroll, retail investing, and more,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal. “After being named to the CB Insights Fintech 250 last year, the 2020 class saw 17 companies go public and 25 get acquired. They also went on to raise over $25B in additional financing and forged more than 380 new partnerships after being recognized. The Fintech 250 has a history of spotlighting the very best fintech companies, and this year is no different. We're excited to see how these fintech startups disrupt and transform financial services in the years ahead."

Nium remains on a high-growth trajectory, raising over $200 million in Series D funding. A round that propelled Nium to a $1 billion+ valuation, making it the first B2B payments unicorn from Southeast Asia. In the last year, Nium has processed over $8 billion in payments, issued more than 30 million virtual cards, and has seen its revenues grow by more than 280 percent year-over-year. Nium also recently announced it entered into a multi-year agreement with the International Cricket Council (ICC), a global partnership that will help promote the company and its innovations to billions of cricket fans around the world. Overall growth and success for Nium is tied to strategic acquisitions, including the acquisition of travel B2B payments leader, Ixaris, which added comprehensive virtual card issuance capabilities to the Nium platform, as well as the acquisition of Wirecard Forex India Private Limited, which gives Nium greater reach into India's booming payments market. In the year ahead, Nium will rapidly expand its global payments infrastructure through strategic license acquisitions, new and innovative product development, and accelerated growth globally, as well as in key regions including the United States and Latin America.

Fintech 250 2021: Investment Highlights

• Unicorns: 118 of the 250 companies (47%) are valued at or above $1B as of their latest funding round
• Funding trends: In 2021 year-to-date (YTD), these 250 private companies have raised $40.3B in equity funding across 275 deals (as of 9/14/21)
• Mega-rounds: Since 2020, there have been 178 mega-round ($100M+) equity investments to this year’s Fintech 250, with 138 of them in 2021 YTD
• Global representation: 36% of the 2021 Fintech 250 are based outside the US. After the US, the UK is home to the most Fintech 250 companies (25), followed by India (12). This year’s winners are based in 26 countries, including France, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
• Top VC investor: Ribbit Capital is the most active investor in this year’s Fintech 250 companies, having invested in 62 deals since 2016. Since 2019, Ribbit has participated in 41 deals with this cohort of companies, including to Nubank, Uala, Brex, Vouch, Razorpay, and BharatPe. Tiger Global Management and Accel were close behind with 57 and 55 deals, respectively.

Michael brings over 25 years of experiencing leading software development teams and digital transformation in financial services.

ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services, announced today that Michael Borts has joined the firm as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead ACA’s technology development, vision, and strategy. In his role, he will oversee all product development for ACA’s award-winning ComplianceAlpha^® regulatory technology platform and technology enablement at the firm.

Michael joins ACA with 25 years of experience leading teams of scale that include engineering, operations, digital transformation, and cloud strategy in both financial services and entertainment industries. Previously, he worked with large enterprise clients developing and implementing digital transformation for Amazon Web Services.

He has also served as the Head of Digital Transformation at Citco Group and Head of Operations, Infrastructure, and Information Security at Warner Music Group. He has also previously held roles in RegTech and Market Surveillance software development leadership at NYSE.

Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, noted: “ACA’s vision and client mission aligns deeply with our regulatory technology. With our recent acquisition of eComms surveillance provider, Catelas, we are expanding the capabilities of ComplianceAlpha to be a 360° holistic surveillance platform that will complement our existing consulting and managed services business. Michael’s experience with product development, digital transformation, and understanding of our client base, will provide us with the leadership to drive our technology vision and mission. What impresses us most about Michael is his ability to think strategically about how technology can better enable clients and staff, and explain that with jargon-free clarity, to bring everyone along on the journey.”

Michael Borts, Chief Technology Officer of ACA Group, said: “I have spent most of my career working closely with financial services firms to help them innovate and become more efficient through technology. The regulatory and environmental changes that firms are facing today requires them to be more proactive with their approach to monitoring investment and firm-wide activity. The ACA team brings a new level of innovation and commitment to clients that excites me. I am looking forward to working with this team to build our next generation regulatory technology.”

 TORA, provider of the industry’s most advanced cloud-based order and execution management system (OEMS) and portfolio management system (PMS), has announced the appointment of Jason LeDell as the Product Manager responsible for the OEMS.

LeDell joins TORA from Horizon Asset International where he was responsible for execution and trade analysis. He also brings across 20+ years of sell-side experience having worked in electronic trading at such firms as Mizuho Securities, Nomura Securities, Instinet, and ITG. 

LeDell will be based in Tokyo and reporting to Global Head of Product, Ovidiu Campean. LeDell will be responsible for developing and deploying OEMS product strategy to aid TORA's global expansion plans.

LeDell stated “I am very excited to join TORA and honored to be put in charge of their flagship product. They are growing rapidly and I am looking forward to helping to achieve the next level of success. TORA’s OEMS expansion into fixed income and FX makes us a true all-in-one multi-asset trading technology provider.”

Ovidiu Campean, Global Head of Product at TORA stated “Jason will make a fantastic addition to the product team. We have significant expansion plans and our OEMS needs a dedicated head to deal with demand and drive growth and innovation.”

Campean continued “Jason’s sell-side experience will be vital in bringing new functionalities, innovation and product development to TORA’s best in breed OEMS.”

TORA’s all-in-one OEMS & PMS offers a wealth of functionality covering execution, allocations, risk control, order management, real time general ledger, positions-keeping, P&L monitoring and SWAP finance modelling. The platform can also provide detailed reports, compliance management & advanced analytics with broker-neutral equity pairs algo suite. The system integrates with brokers, trading venues, custodians, prime brokerages and trade matching providers across the globe.

Aldermore Bank and Cashplus Bank have today announced an exclusive partnership which delivers an easy to manage business savings solution for time-poor SMEs with returns 50 times that of those offered by the largest high street banks¹.

Cashplus selected Aldermore as the best partner for their 150,000 business customers for the highly competitive proposition they offer, great rates, fast onboarding process and ease of managing business savings 24/7 with no fees or charges.

Cashplus Bank customers will be able to open an Aldermore savings account with as little as £1,000 and link their Cashplus current account to their Aldermore savings account, allowing for easy mangement, deposit and withdrawals.

Cashplus allows SME customers to bank through their user-friendly digital platform, with a business current account opened in as little as four minutes. Cashplus business current accounts offer a range of benefits including 24/7 online and app access, safe and secure banking with 24 hour fraud monitoring, alongside a range of other perks for fluid, fast and secure business banking.

Benefits of the partnership include:

• Competitive savings rates that allow SMEs to make the most of surplus business cash generating valuable income to support their business needs. For example, Aldermore’s easy access product pays £375 on a savings balance of £75,000 held for 12 months, compared to just £7.50 offered by many high street bank savings accounts, which is 50 times the return¹
• 24/7 online access to Aldermore’s Easy Access and Fixed Rate Business Savings accounts
• Peace of mind, with money up to £85,000 protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK's deposit guarantee scheme

Earlier this year, Cashplus Bank surveyed its business current account customers with nearly 65% expressing a preference for the type of easy access savings accounts offered by Aldermore Bank but lack the time to research the best provider or product.

Cashplus SME customers hold nearly £400m of deposits with the bank and the partnership announced today will allow those small businesses to make their money work harder for them, while minimising time consuming admin and removing the need to shop around, as they can be confident of a competitive rate.

Paul Schooley, Chief Commercial Officer, Cashplus Bank said: “We understand the challenges faced by SMEs, and we’re focused on constantly improving and building our business banking platform into the ultimate all-in-one solution for small businesses. We asked our business customers, and many told us they wanted the types of savings options that Aldermore offer to help make the best use of their surplus and saved cash. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Aldermore to help our customers enjoy the benefits of holding money in a business savings account, whilst still managing their day-to-day business banking with Cashplus Bank.”

Ewan Edwards, Director of Savings, Aldermore comments: “This partnership represents Aldermore’s ongoing commitment to backing SMEs so they can emerge from the pandemic stronger and focused on opportunities for growth.

“Running an SME comes with a whole host of challenges, so it is vital that business owners make their surplus cash work harder to provide additional financial support and to strengthen financial resilience. The relationship will allow Cashplus customers to make the most of their cash and receive a worthwhile return, all while benefiting from the high levels of service and convenience that Aldermore can offer.”