Tribe’s processing platform, ISAAC, will secure cryptocurrency payments for Amon Tech’s trading and investment customers

Payment technology provider, Tribe Payments, today announced it has been selected by Amon.Tech as payment partner for the Amon Card. Tribe will be providing issuer processing services including its proprietary 3D Secure product for the Amon Card in the UK and then across Europe.

Amon.Tech offers its customers - predominantly investors and traders - a secure digital wallet to hold funds, both in fiat and crypto currencies, as well as exchange funds between currencies, earn interest and spend funds via the Amon Card.

Tribe’s platform, ISAAC, will process transactions for the Amon Card. To ensure Amon Tech’s customer transactions are highly secure, all payments will be authenticated by Tribe’s proprietary 3D Secure technology. In addition, through Tribe’s real-time transaction monitoring and analytics capabilities, Amon. Tech will also glean customer insights to drive further innovations and improve the payments experience.

“Our customers are crypto investors and traders who expect the highest standards of security and we needed a partner that was able to go above and beyond,” said Daniele Izzo, CEO at Amon.Tech. “Tribe’s comprehensive platform, data-driven risk monitoring solution and its 3D Secure technology will give our customers the ability to deposit and spend crypto safely. We pride ourselves on being a customer-first company and with Tribe we know our payments are in safe hands, so we can focus on what we do best; delivering for our customers.”

“At Tribe we are always looking to push the boundaries of payments by partnering with pioneers such as Amon.Tech“ said Alex Reddish, Managing Director at Tribe Payments. “Using our modular platform, Amon.Tech has launched a market leading proposition that offers a compelling user experience without compromising on security. With a host of data-driven innovations around the corner, Amon. Tech is just getting started.”

Twitter users from the US (except Hawaii and New York) and El Salvador can now tip fellow tweeters with Bitcoin, per Finextra.

Here’s how it works: First launched in May, Twitter’s Tip Jar lets users send fiat money and now also Bitcoin via third-party payment services, like PayPal, Cash App, Venmo, and more. Twitter does not earn any revenues, but the third-party firms may charge transaction fees.

Why add Bitcoin?

The cryptocurrency is an efficient additional payment option to power its global platform.

• Twitter founder Jack Dorsey previously described Bitcoin as the internet’s “native currency” which, can reach every single person on the planet much more easily than building infrastructure to process fiat currency in each local market.
• Blockchain can reduce the time for cross-border payments from days to four to six seconds on average while also reducing transaction costs, per Insider Intelligence’s Blockchain in Payments report.

It’s part of a broader crypto ecosystem Jack Dorsey is trying to build.

• Bitcoin tipping helps boost Twitter's crypto plans chances of success by letting more users become comfortable with using a crypto wallet before introducing other features.
• For example, Twitter will soon enable NFT creators to share their NFTs on Twitter by connecting their crypto wallets.
• Dorsey’s digital payment platform Square is working on a platform that lets developers create DeFi solutions on the Bitcoin blockchain. Though no details are known yet, we could expect these solutions to be accessible via Twitter.

The bigger picture: Twitter isn’t the only social media company looking at adding cryptos to encourage user engagement and facilitate payments on their platforms.

• Last May, Reddit launched a beta test for two Ethereum-based tokens, which members of subreddits r/Cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR can use to vote and tip content creators. It’s now scaling the solution.
• Meanwhile, Facebook’s digital currency, Diem, is still in limbo amid regulatory concerns, but its eventual launch could provide billions of people with a way to buy goods and services and tip influencers across Facebook properties, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

Bottom line: Twitter’s announcement is a bellwether signaling that more of its peers will incorporate cryptos. They may be pressured to do so if new social media platforms born directly on a blockchain become popular: Last week, Andreessen Horowitz led a $200M funding round in DeSo, a decentralized social network that aims to make social media monetizable by anyone—not just by the platform itself.

Fusion is working with over 120 Global Financial Institutions to ensure they meet and exceed the new requirements 

With just over five months left to prepare for the new UK Regulatory Operational Resilience Requirements, Fusion Risk Management, Inc. (“Fusion”), a leading provider of operational resilience, risk management, and business continuity software and services, says institutions must act now to prepare for the new requirements or risk missing the March 2022 deadline requirement to identify, map, and set impact tolerances for important business services.

Currently working with over 120 global financial institutions to ensure compliance with the new Bank of England, PRA, and FCA regulatory requirements, Fusion has continued to strengthen its offerings, accelerating firms’ progress by 80%, and is now introducing an operational resilience self-assessment to help firms implement a scalable framework. Having enhanced its already comprehensive operational resilience approach after consulting with regulated firms, industry advocacy groups, and supervisory authorities earlier this year, Fusion is now working directly with clients to ensure they are on track to meet the deadlines and exceed the new requirements.

“The new rules and guidance relating to operational resilience and outsourcing will apply to a broad range of firms including banks, building societies, designated investment firms, insurance firms, e-money, and payment services firms. Firms that are dual regulated face the complexity of applying both the FCA and PRA’s rules, including the potential requirement to set different impact tolerances to comply with the regulators’ different drivers,” said Michael Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Fusion Risk Management.

Campbell continued, “Many institutions have done the work to identify and map their important business services and are on a journey to set impact tolerances for each important business services ahead of the March 2022 deadline. However, they are looking for ways to integrate it into the operating fabric of their organization and are being challenged by the regulators to look at impacts beyond their own commercial interests. Fusion provides a framework that anticipates, prevents, prepares for, responds to, and learns from risks and disruption over time, ensuring customers can manage to the desired outcomes set forth by regulators. This is not just a checkbox exercise; this is an operating model for the modern institution.”

Rich Cooper, Global Head of Financial Service Go-To-Market, Fusion Risk Management, says Fusion’s proven track record as a provider of best-in-class service ensures its customers stay ahead of regulatory expectations. “Our rigorous operational resilience assessment determines how well our customers currently adhere to the new requirements, and what changes still need to be made. The assessment looks at every detail of their business services, including how often internal or external risk events affect their customers and how these affect the bottom line. The assessment also provides clear evidence of how the firm concluded which services are indeed Important Business Services (IBS), as defined by the regulators. From each IBS our capabilities allow us to map the end-to-end delivery of important business services, set the impact tolerances, check all progress against the milestones outlined by UK regulators and are then able to conduct extreme yet plausible scenario tests. Fusion is the nerve centre for the financial services operations, with a proven framework that makes operational excellence actionable.

“Our mission has always been to keep businesses in business and safeguard our customers’ ability to deliver on their brand promises, regardless of the disruption. We are proud to serve 120 global Financial Institutions who rely on us to deliver a robust operational resilience program that exceeds regulatory requirements and optimises their overall efficiency,” Cooper continued.  

Fusion continues to grow rapidly and now counts five global systemically important banks (GSIBs), six domestic systemically important bank (DSIBs), 50% of the top 10 largest US domestic banks, and more than 120 leading financial institutions globally as customers. Fusion’s collaborative ENGAGE customer community fosters a common understanding and best practices between those working toward greater operational resilience in financial services. Weekly more than 90 organizations meet to discuss their most critical issues, often led by regulated banks and financial services participants.

Fusion will share more insights into the importance of developing robust operational resilience plans for the financial services sector at the OpRisk EU conference, October 5-8. Learn more about the conference at https://www.opriskeurope.com/.

For more information, visit www.fusionrm.com.

The European startup Payoro launches its fintech platform Payoro Connect — the first in a suite of innovative open banking initiatives from the young company

European fintech startups are growing fast. With solid regulatory frameworks, advanced technology and a dynamic, tight-knit European market, many consider these upstart fintechs well-poised to take on the global financial world. 

Established in COVID-19-stricken 2020, Payoro is a new European fintech startup. Based out of Gibraltar and Estonia, Payoro aims to develop open banking technology products, offering both B2C and B2B bank-tech solutions. Now, Payoro launches Payoro Connect, a platform that may change how banking relationships are established. 

Martin Osterloh, the newly appointed CEO of Payoro, comes from the traditional banking sector. For 13 years, he worked as Vice President Digital Sales at Wirecard Bank. He sees the launch of Payoro Connect as a vital step in the young company's journey. "With the launch of Payoro Connect, we want to position Payoro as an innovative player in the banking technology and embedded finance space. Our solution allows large companies to move fast and adapt to the ever-changing financial landscape. What used to take days, maybe even weeks, now takes mere minutes — all whilst satisfying strict SCA rules." 

At its core, the Payoro Connect platform is a bank account servicing tool, connecting consumers with European financial institutions. Payoro Connect enables dynamic bank account servicing and money transfer through partner relationships and innovative fintech. In accordance with PSD2, all user information is verified based on strong customer authentication (SCA). Payoro Connect allows international banks and electronic money institutions to focus on what they are best at: handling money and building customer relationships.

Osterloh has high hopes for future products and services. "Payoro Connect is the first product we are launching, but certainly not the last. It makes great sense for Payoro to continue its innovation-fueled exploration of the exciting intersection of banking, technology and user experience. The embedded finance market alone is estimated to reach a market value of $3 billion by 2030. That is really where we see the opportunity — to lodge ourselves between traditional banks and future savvy consumers and companies." 

Established in 2020, Payoro is a banking technology company with offices in Gibraltar and Estonia.

The Blockchain Domain Registry System will focus on enabling the Cardano community to maximize the use of blockchain domains

Web23 Inc., a USA company, and NexBLOC, a British Virgin Islands company, are partnering to develop a blockchain-based naming system that runs natively on the Cardano blockchain platform. The initiative continues the move of the Butterfly Protocol onto numerous blockchains to ensure that those communities have the tools needed for full decentralized internet optimization.

The Butterfly Protocol was originally created using the Ethereum blockchain and continues to provide resources and tools for the Ethereum community. But, according to Dana Farbo, Founder of NexBLOC, the move helps expand the various blockchain development communities' access to a unified naming convention. Mr. Farbo stated that, "we will continue to lock the root domain on Ethereum but by using other blockchains, we can prepare for wider acceptance of blockchain DNS (bDNS) and lower costs for using the decentralized web."

Som Kirann, Founder of Web23 went on to say "Cardano has been driving decentralization at its core and with the recent deployment of their Plutus smart contract capabilities, we wanted to be a first mover in creating capabilities for human readable naming that exist on other chains. Working with Butterfly and NexBLOC allows us to move fast and prepare for a bright future within the Cardano community."

This marks the second blockchain in the NexBLOC roadmap for naming system ubiquity across chains. Earlier this year, the buildout on XDC Networks was announced and work is progressing rapidly on the XDC blockchain. Supported by a grant from the XDC Foundation, a full deployment and rollout is expected for November 1st, 2021. In addition to the standard access tools for connecting websites using IPFS, wallet authentication and browser extensions, NexBLOC is working with XDC Networks dApp developers to integrate specific dDNS solutions for their projects.

Web23 is known for its work on allowing companies or individuals to create domains at scale. This is important for building an offensive and defensive system around brands and professional work. The SaaS solution creates an artificial intelligence supported capability to acquire similar names automatically based on trends, word searches and social media chatter. They are integrating the system into the decentralized domain acquisition space with low gas fee blockchains such as Cardano. As per Mr. Kirann, "rapid and bulk domain acquisition with the current state of Ethereum gas fees makes it prohibitive to deploy at scale. Cardano, XDC Networks and other blockchains allow us to provide a solution that supports the brand owner."

The Cardano deployment is expected to be ready in mid-Q4, 2021, with other blockchains planned as part of the collaboration between Web23 and NexBLOC.

About Butterfly Protocol (https://www.butterflyprotocol.io/)

Butterfly Protocol is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that aims to replace the Domain Name System (DNS) system and change the economics of domain ownership.

Leading fintech in the FIRE movement partners with WealthKernel to help millennials retire early

WealthKernel, the wealthtech provider of digital investment services, today announces its partnership with Topia, a UK-based app empowering millennials to reach financial independence and retire early. As part of the partnership, Topia will use WealthKernel’s investing API and regulatory umbrella to bring flexible SIPP and ISA investing accounts to market to boost its personal finance offering.

Topia, one of the UK’s most innovative new personal finance apps, is founded on the belief that everyone should make the most of life, and is built around helping individuals reach financial independence. The app is based on the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early), and aims to revolutionise how millennials view the timeline of their lives by helping them achieve financial freedom early on in their lives in order to reach retirement sooner than those following a more traditional model.

The FIRE movement is a growing trend in the UK, which directly questions why we should retire at the conventional retirement age of 65. By dedicating up to 70% of their income to savings, followers of the movement hope to be able to quit their jobs and live solely on small withdrawals from their portfolios, decades before they reach 65. Topia’s announcement follows recent confirmation that the pension triple lock will be suspended from next year, making the prospect of relying on a state pension increasingly unattractive.

Topia will utilise WealthKernel’s flexible ISA and SIPP tax wrapper APIs, as well as its portfolio management and trading functionalities to power the app. As an appointed representative of WealthKernel, Topia will also utilise its regulatory umbrella to bring its new services to market at speed, avoiding in-house completion of the lengthy FCA accreditation process.

Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO of WealthKernel, says:

“It’s incredibly important to open people’s eyes to the savings vehicles that are available to them beyond traditional pensions - whether that’s SIPPs, ISAs or other investment products. Using our simple, flexible, scalable technology and regulatory integrations, WealthKernel is able to help forward-thinking companies like Topia make financial security accessible every day. We’re excited to be supporting them in empowering more consumers to reach financial security in their own time, and on their own terms.”

Logan Leckie, Founder and CEO at Topia, says:

“We are very much focused on building a fantastic product for our community and helping everyone understand and reach financial freedom. With WealthKernel’s Appointed Rep service, the opportunity to come to market much faster was fantastic. Topia will now be able to dedicate more time and resources towards enhancing our FIRE offering. We are also excited to launch the Topia FIRE fund using WealthKernel’s services and begin our journey.”

• Bank assets: €320 billion 
• Bank clients in Belgium: 2.6 million
• Bank digital users in Belgium: Approx. 1.6 million  
• Partner since 2018 
• Customer satisfaction of personalised insights: +90%
• Insights generated over time: 47.4 million 
• Average of  6 new insights per customer per month
• Personetics Active Engagement: 35%
• Languages: Dutch, English, French, German

• Launch of global Open Banking Platform in Australia, following accreditation by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, will support local and global clients to harness the power of the Consumer Data Right.

• Brenton Charnley was promoted to CEO of Australia & New Zealand, overseeing TrueLayer’s expansion in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland across product, engineering, operations, commercial and marketing functions.

TrueLayer, the global open banking pioneer, has today announced the launch in Australia of its global Open Banking Platform and promotion of Brenton Charnley to CEO of Australia & New Zealand.

This follows approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of TrueLayer as an unrestricted Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right (CDR). TrueLayer’s local subsidiary will also become a Corporate Authorised Representative of Amplus Global Pty Ltd, an Australian Financial Services Licence holder.

The TrueLayer Open Banking Platform is backed by proven, market-leading data and payments APIs that currently process more than half of all open banking traffic in the UK, Ireland and Spain.  

“We have built a solid foundation in Australia and now we’re ready to launch and accelerate our growth.  We will deliver amazing open banking-powered customer experiences.  We’re proud to bring TrueLayer’s global know-how into the local market, in the right way and at the right time, to contribute to the overall success of the Consumer Data Right,” said Brenton Charnley, CEO of Australia & New Zealand at TrueLayer. “I’m looking forward to collaborating closely with our team, customers and commercial partners to deliver on TrueLayer’s mission of opening up finance.” 

TrueLayer’s Open Banking Platform will harness the core functionality of the CDR to power both mainstream and emerging use cases, supporting financial and non-financial firms to offer market-leading financial experiences across:

• Lending - faster lending decisions and identification of eligible borrowers

• Wealth management - faster and easier onboarding, personalised insights and instant payments for account funding

• Personal finance management apps - account aggregation, budgeting, income and expenditure analysis

• Digital banking - securely connecting consumers and businesses with financial data

• E-commerce - improved conversion and reduced friction compared to cards through seamless, instant payments

TrueLayer also announces today the promotion of Brenton Charnley to CEO of Australia & New Zealand. Brenton joined TrueLayer in Sydney in October 2020 to establish its local Australian operations, work with various regulatory entities to obtain licences, build the team and product capability, and position the brand. Australia and New Zealand are a focus for TrueLayer’s global expansion and the firm is actively recruiting to grow its teams in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.  

“We founded TrueLayer with the belief that open banking would be a catalyst for meaningful, long-term change in financial services. What began in the UK and Europe has now been embraced by Australia through the CDR,” said Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and Co-Founder of TrueLayer. “Receiving our Australian accreditation is an important moment and reflects the hard work that Brenton and the team have put in to make it happen. TrueLayer’s combination of a local presence with our international network means we can work with local firms and European businesses looking to launch in the country. It’s an incredibly exciting time with the opportunity to help firms embrace open banking capabilities and build innovative services that will better meet the financial needs of consumers and businesses throughout Australia and New Zealand.”

The launch in Australia is another milestone for TrueLayer, following the recent US$130 million funding round led by Tiger Global Management, with participation by Stripe, to accelerate the global rollout of its open banking payments network, with a focus on instant and recurring payments.

The Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab (Fin²Sec), a centre in which the common challenges in personal finance can be addressed through collaboration and product development, was launched today. The ambitious initiative driven by Huawei, will facilitate and support the financial services sector to develop technology to improve the financial health of customers, enhance their experiences and encourage loyalty.

Speaking at the opening of the Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab; (Derek Yu, President of Central Eastern Europe, Nordic and Canada Region, Huawei Consumer Business Group; Helsinki, Finland, 28 Sept 2021)

Huawei and its R&D centre in Finland will work with researchers from Aalto University and University of Helsinki, as well as fifteen Lab participants¹ - banks and fintechs from across Europe. At the launch financial services brands including Raiffeisen Digital from Austria, BLIK, a leading mobile payment system in Poland, and Neonomics, an open banking services pioneer from Norway, provided unique insight into the challenges of delivering digital solutions for customers.

“Huawei’s objective is to deliver a seamless AI life experience for consumers and this means easy, convenient access to financial services,” said Derek Yu, President of Central Eastern Europe, Nordic and Canada Region, Huawei Consumer Business Group. “The Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab reinforces our commitment to facilitating new ideas that deliver solutions to the consumer needs of today. We are excited about opening doors for future technology and services and driving innovation. ”

Factors behind digital transformation

The aims of  Fin²Sec focus on three key areas driving digital transformation: mobile technology, to enhance payment process and improve access in any location, circumstance or scenario; innovations that make the experience simpler and more convenient; and partnerships which bring together business, banking, academic and technology expertise to help develop universal solutions.

“As a global leader in industrial R&D with a long term strategy for investment in research, Huawei is well placed to launch and steer the Fin²Sec initiative,” commented Wang Aimeng, President of Huawei Finland Research Center. “The digitalization of economies can succeed where research, education, and industry players are working together on common R&D collaborative projects.”