PRNewswire/ -- Investment Control Systems (ICS) today announced that Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) the UK's largest digital wealth management service has selected ICS as their partner for investment data management, analysis and reporting.

Following a rigorous vendor evaluation and peer-review which commenced in early 2021, HL with assets under management in excess of US$185B and 1.645 million clients will be looking to extract business value from the ATHENA platform kicking off the project immediately.

"Hargreaves Lansdown provides a market leading range of research and tools to help investors build their portfolios. We are always looking to continually enhance our service to clients, and this project will help us put even better information in the hands of our investors", says Toby Hine-Haycock - Head of Funds Development, Hargreaves Lansdown.

HL will be utilising ICS ATHENA as a centralised platform for automated data management of various participants including custodians, market data vendors, risk systems and more, plus manage various functions and processes including; creation of a single source of investment data, investment reporting, risk analytics integration, post trade compliance, NAV validation, reconciliations, fact sheet production as well as ESG and sustainability reporting.

Christian Eriksen – Commercial Director of ICS says "Our unique hosted investment data platform supports investment organisations with best-in-class data and reporting tools that will provide a return-on-investment in weeks, not months or years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people involved in the project from HL. This is a significant client for ICS in our mission to become a leading global investment data platform"

With the signing of Hargreaves Lansdown, ICS will continue to build on an already expanding European presence with plans to extend our team and continue to grow our client base.

Jeff Dworin has been appointed Sales Executive, Americas at United Fintech, the rapidly growing firm launched by Christian Frahm to help banks, hedge funds and asset managers to accelerate their transition to a digital world through access to fintechs specializing in capital markets.

Jeff Dworin joins United Fintech from State Street where he worked for over five years in New York and Boston, latterly as Assistant Vice President, FX Connect Sales & Relationship Management. His career also includes business consultancy and sales roles at Eze Software Group, and FXCM.

At United Fintech, Jeff Dworin will focus on sales of the cutting-edge capital markets products within the organization’s portfolio in addition to building awareness of the United Fintech brand and vision amongst financial institutions in the Americas. He will leverage his strong buyside network and extensive e-FX experience to drive sales across the region.

Jeff joins the US division and will report to Mark Lawrence, United Fintech’s Director and Head of Americas who joined the firm from Goldman Sachs in June 2021. As the first hire in Mark Lawrence’s US-based team, Jeff is part of a global team which consists of over 70 employees across five offices: London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Romania and the US. Additional sales team members in the US are currently being recruited.

Mark Lawrence, Director and Head of Americas at United Fintech says,  “United Fintech acquires and scales innovative FinTech, RegTech and CapTech companies in the capital markets space and distributes them to financial institutions in order to help them to transition to a digital world. We are on a mission to reduce cost, drive automation and deliver efficiency within capital markets. We have a very dynamic business model and Jeff really buys in to the vision of what we’re trying to build and achieve. He has a proven track record of building strong client relationships and will bring great energy and experience to our Sales efforts in the Americas. We are thrilled he has decided to come on board.”

Jeff Dworin adds, “I am extremely excited to be joining such a high caliber global team at United Fintech. The success of the organization is going to be driven by Christian’s powerful vision to partner with the banking world and offer truly innovative capital markets technology products all under one hood, enabling a seamless transformation into a digital environment. We look forward to partnering with our rapidly growing set of portfolio companies to offer the most cutting-edge, cost-efficient technology throughout the industry and we can now provide scale and distribution into the Americas.

“I am thrilled to be working for Mark whose unmatched leadership and experience is going to drive us towards our mission goal as we continue to build a strong and diverse team in New York.”

Cabital, a leading digital assets institution, today announces that it has added the European Union’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to its growing list of payment methods, enabling customers to seamlessly change between euros and cryptocurrencies and generate high-yield passive income. 

SEPA allows customers to make cashless euro payments – via credit transfer and direct debit – to anywhere in the European Union, as well as a number of non-EU countries, in a quick, safe and efficient way, just like national payments.

The SEPA region consists of 36 European countries, including several countries which are not part of the euro area or the European Union. 

Raymond Hsu, Cabital’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, said:

“The SEPA integration is a major milestone that enables our customers to easily move to and from cryptocurrency in a fast, safe and secure manner. Today’s announcement transformed Cabital into a full-service cryptocurrency wealth management and savings platform - where users across the European Union can deposit their digital assets to earn up to 12% a year without any hidden fees.

“Integrating SEPA into our business provides Cabital with significant competitive advantages, providing us access to everyone in the European Union and beyond. As we further expand across Europe and execute our strategic priorities, we will continue seeking efficient and secure on-ramps that will allow our customers to easily and safely invest in cryptocurrencies and generate high-yield passive income.

“I am confident that the continued execution of our strategic ambitions will create long-term sustainable value for our customers and shareholders.”

Jonas Narbutas, Cabital’s Senior Money Laundering Reporting Officer, said:

“We are delighted to receive regulatory approval to integrate our business with SEPA. This reflects the trust and confidence placed in Cabital to make a lasting contribution to the long-term development of the European Union’s cryptocurrency industry.

“Cabital believes that regulating the cryptocurrency industry is essential to its sustainable growth. We will continue to further strengthen the industry’s unprecedented level of legitimacy by leading in compliance risk and promoting a culture embedded in transparency and good business ethics. We are committed to playing our part in the further development of the European Union’s cryptocurrency industry as we plan to help millions of people across the region achieve their financial goals in a safe and sensible way.”

The SEPA integration provides Cabital with significant advantages in the European Union. It allows our customers to easily purchase and sell cryptocurrency assets with euros with any amount at the best rates in the industry. They can also now passively earn up to 12% APY. Unlike many of our competitors, we do not have any requirements for minimum deposits nor maximum deposits. We do not charge fees for depositing digital assets on our platform. 

Cabital’s competitors provide high yields on cryptocurrency assets for users who stake or lock their native tokens, putting their customers at risk during volatile market conditions. Cabital successfully achieves up to 12% APY on cryptocurrency without a native token through highly strategic investments that are safe, secure and always compliant.

Today’s announcement comes after Cabital’s recent successful $4 million seed round that was led by SIG, Dragonfly, and GSR, increasing our valuation to $40 million. That followed Cabital’s recent successful angel round when we raised $3 million. 

Jonas Narbutas has recently joined the leadership team as Senior Money Laundering Reporting Officer based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Prior to joining, Jonas worked in senior compliance roles at Western Union for nearly a decade. He was also the Head of Anti-Financial Crime Governance at Luminor Group.

Finalto takes the complexity out of Non-Deliverable Forwards with a revolutionary NDF offer that does away with the product’s associated issues, providing a streamlined forex solution that can slot smoothly into any existing infrastructure.

For too long, clients have struggled with the complexities NDF pose, with problems cropping up trying to trade NDFs vs spots that stop trades dead, problems like:

• NDF month settling time scales - retail brokers may need to pay out client PNL the next day
• Having to deal with fixing dates which don’t occur in spots
• Needing to deal with the forward risk stemming from differences in the way retail systems work against NDFs

Finalto’s new offering is designed to slot seamlessly into the client’s existing infrastructure, putting NDFs into the client’s hands without their commonly associated headaches. Now, clients from small hedge funds to money managers and everyone in between can get fundamental exposure to FX markets without worrying about fixing dates and settlement risk.

NDF trades will be available in the below currencies initially with more to follow:

• Indian rupee
• Indonesian rupiah
• Korean won
• Brazilian real

Rupee, rupiah and won trading will be available 22 hours a day. Brazilian real will follow Brazilian exchange trading hours.

Andrew Biggs, Finalto Head of Liquidity, says, “The complexities of NDFs have caused large parts of the retail market to miss out on trading opportunities. We’ve abstracted some of those complexities to allow seamless integration into existing systems and offerings. Let us take away the hassle so you can focus on trading.”

Global brokerages are facing an increasingly competitive environment, with the exponential rise in retail trading interest during the pandemic. On the other hand, thousands of retail investors entering the market is attracting the scrutiny of regulatory bodies. Regulators are especially concerned regarding misinformation, and risky trading practices. In the United States, a change in political leanings has made data transparency, listing rules, and tax issues gain prominence for financial market participants.

 Markets Direct, a brand of Triton Capital Markets Ltd., licensed and regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), has announced that it will offer brokers access to US exchange traded products, in compliance with the requirements of the nation’s information reporting regime, commonly referred to as Qualified Intermediary (QI)/Qualified Intermediary Dealers (QID) Regime.

To make the most of this offer, brokers first need to know the developments expected in the US financial markets landscape in the coming years.

Market Data Pricing and Distribution

Data is an extremely valuable commodity in the world of finance. In particular, the issue of market data distribution and pricing has become extremely important for regulators and financial market participants globally.

Highlighting this fact is an example of the top US exchanges. Although they are incredibly diversified businesses, US exchanges have over the years become more dependent on the sale of market data for revenues. In fact, they are so possessive of this business model that they filed a lawsuit against the US SEC in February 2021, against the regulator’s decision to add supply and demand for stocks to public feeds. This information is sold at a premium to Wall Street banks, hedge funds, and other financial services firms.

Markets Direct has contracted with the CBOE to be an authorized re-distributor of price data. Markets Direct is required to maintain proper oversight of this data to its end users.  Markets Direct has also contracted with a service provider of corporate actions.  This ensures that all corporate actions are affected in the underlying trading accounts accordingly. For foreign brokers, this is a great way to foray into the US financial markets

US Exchanges Look to Clamp Down on Unauthorized Market Data Distribution

The US SEC is one of the entities to have recently received a backlash from the exchanges in this regard. For years, exchanges have been concerned about unlicensed brokerage firms re-distributing their data feeds without proper license arrangements. In a 2015 investigation by Finance Magnates, several reputed industry insiders had revealed that several big exchanges, with the help of regulators, were clamping down on downstream CFD brokers, who didn’t have direct access to exchange data feeds. But they were still providing data to their clients, without a license or paying adequate fees.

Clamping down on these practices is expected to be top-down. Exchanges will approach brokers who have the license to access their data feed directly, to understand the structure of re-distribution. For downstream CFD brokers, it will mean a blackout for US-based assets, if their upstream liquidity providers decide to terminate the feed or demand fees for the data.

CFD Brokers Need to Withhold Tax

US tax laws stipulate the withholding of tax for non-US investors (non-resident aliens) on payment of US source stock dividends, distribution of short-term capital gains, and substitute payments in lieu. Most types of income from US sources received by foreign investors are subject to a tax of 30%. This rate can be reduced, or an exemption can be provided if there exists a tax treaty between the US and the country of residence of the foreign investor.

Most CFD brokers offering margin trading activities in US-listed assets don’t withhold tax.

This can be a significant lapse in compliance, considering that the current US government is increasingly stressing on combating tax fraud and avoidance. President Biden plans to propose a funding boost of $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the next 10 years, which will help the agency double its enforcement staffing and provide new technology tools for regulatory crackdowns.

The new sources of funding will not only help the IRS train new enforcement officials but also enable it to speed up audits, without the intervention of lawmakers.

The regulatory landscape for the American financial markets is becoming increasingly complex. The QI solution through Markets Direct will offer brokers an opportunity to navigate the markets more efficiently.

MarketsDirect is a Brand of a Qualified Intermediary

Foreign brokers who wish to offer retail or institutional investment opportunities to their clients in US CFDs, indices, stocks, and other assets are required to be compliant with the Qualified Intermediary Regime (QI/QID). This is a stringent process. Not all jurisdictions qualify, and even if they do, the process for approval may take anywhere from 8 months to a year. Registration costs are high, and brokerage firms need to implement software that complies with the regime. Through the Markets Direct Gateway, brokers can allow clients access to US-listed equities without the high cost of data and registrations, as well as huge resource requirements for becoming a QI/QID themselves.

In conclusion, Brokers gain access to qualified data, while withholding tax on dividends. This will allow them to remain compliant with the law of the land, avoiding costly litigations and fines. One final point, they will not need to disclose client data to Markets Direct. The gateway will allow them complete control over individual customers, through the Markets Direct environment, from a single account.

If you need more information on this, make sure to connect with the Markets Direct team at the iFX EXPO International taking place on 4-6 October in Cyprus. Send an email to Anthony Edwards,  Head of Sales-UK, to set up a meeting or you can contact sales@marketsdirect.com.

Fast-growing European trading and investing platform appoints former Exness Asia head, Chul Lim, as regional CEO; selects Singapore as its headquarters 

Capital.com, the high-growth global FinTech innovator leading the UK leveraged trading industry in overall client satisfaction has  today announced the appointment of Chul Lim as its Chief Executive Officer in Asia. Based in Singapore, Chul will oversee Capital.com’s expansion into East Asia , as well as neighbouring markets in the fast-growing Southeast Asian region. The company plans to establish Singapore as its regional headquarters and will begin the process of growing its team and seeking regulatory approval in key Asian markets immediately. It aims to gain a Capital Markets Services licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore by early 2022. 

With more than 15 years of experience driving strategy and growth operations in Asia, Chul will be responsible for building the business and growing the marketing team out of Singapore to help Capital.com expand across Japan, Korea, and the wider Asian region. He was most recently Regional Director of Asia for the global brokerage firm, Exness, where he was responsible for the company’s growth across a dozen Asian countries. He previously held senior leadership positions with leading global technology and e-commerce companies including JD.com, AstraZeneca, GoBear, Samsung Group and Cisco Systems.  

Commenting on Chul’s appointment, Jonathan Squires, Group Chief Executive Officer at Capital.com, said: 

“We see great opportunities for growth across Asia. Younger, tech-savvy Asian investors are becoming increasingly active in financial markets through online trading platforms. In January for example, we saw the share value of Malaysian rubber glove manufacturer, Top Glove surge following activity on Reddit threads in a story reminiscent of the GameStop rally in Europe and the US. Online trading is alive and well across Asia, and we are confident Asian investors will respond well to Capital.com’s simple and slick user experience, extensive educational resources and competitive pricing. With Chul’s knowledge and experience in the region, we  are confident we can lower the barriers to investing and enable more people in Asia to responsibly exercise their value as investors.”

Chul Lim, Chief Executive Officer, Capital.com Asia said: 

“This is an exciting time for Capital.com. The business has gone from strength to strength and is rapidly expanding its global footprint. As a cutting edge FinTech company with a global client base, it is fitting that Capital.com would choose Singapore, home to some of the most dynamic and innovative global companies, as its regional headquarters. I’m truly excited to be spearheading Capital.com’s expansion into Asia.”

Capital.com’s foray into Asia is supported by the company’s strong growth results in Europe. In 2020, the company saw its client base surge by 700% globally. While volume of trades on Capital.com increased by 65% over the same period. This growth has continued into 2021. In the first half of 2021, the platform reported a 400 per cent growth  in new clients compared to H2 2020. The company recently expanded into Australia with a license granted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

“Capital.com has been on an extraordinary journey the last 18 months. A strong customer-centric culture coupled with a growing interest around the world for online investing  have made us one of the fastest growing trading and investing platforms in Europe.  We will continue to support our clients all over the world by expanding into new markets and diversifying our products. We are committed to ensuring sound risk management and providing the right learning tools to help people become confident investors,” added Squires. 

With offices around the world, Capital.com enables clients to trade derivatives on more than 3,000 of the world’s most popular indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, shares and currency pairs. In addition to its web and  mobile-based platforms, Capital.com also provides clients with access to free education and trading tools to help them hone their trading knowledge. 

To give its clients access to different products and services, Capital.com launched a zero-commission stock dealing account for clients in the UK, Germany and France. The service enables clients to invest their own capital in global stocks without leverage. 

• New research from Tink finds over one in three (37%) financial executives expect their institutions to take more than a decade to complete their open banking objectives
• While a further 40% expect to take 5-10 years to fulfil their open banking objectives
• Despite this, positive sentiment towards open banking rises from 55% in 2019 to 71% in 2021 as executives take advantage of its commercial potential and recognise its strategic importance

New research, published today by Europe’s leading open banking platform Tink, reveals that in spite of growing positivity, the complete implementation of open banking will take financial institutions many years to realise.

The survey of 308 executives across 12 countries found that four in ten (40%) believe it will take their institution between 5-10 years to realise its open banking objectives, and a further 37% believe it could take over a decade. These cautious timescales reflect the size of the task at hand, with many organisations embarking on complex, large-scale open banking transformation projects that will take several years to realise. 

Of those surveyed, executives in Spain (37%), Italy (34%), and France (30%) were most optimistic about their open banking timescales - predicting their institutions’ objectives can be completed in under five years. This reflects a more limited scope for open banking strategies in these markets, focusing on short term compliance-based use cases rather than larger scale open banking transformation projects.  

Meanwhile, with the UK a trailblazer for the open banking movement, it is unsurprising that its executives are positive about the completion of their open banking objectives, with over one in four (28%) expecting their institution to deliver on its objectives in under five years. 

When examined across sectors in Europe, challenger banks and wealth management firms are most bullish when it comes to timescales, as 75% and 74% respectively believe their institutions’ open banking objectives can be achieved in under a decade. At the more cautious end of the scale, only 55% of mortgage providers, 56% of credit providers, and 57% of payment service providers believe they can reach open banking maturity within a decade.  

Open banking: a revolutionary force on the industry

While legacy infrastructure and technical challenges mean the pace of open banking transformation may be relatively slow, there is evidence that financial institutions have a keen appetite to embrace its benefits. Over four in five (83%) European financial executives believe open banking is having a revolutionary effect on the financial services industry, and positive sentiment towards open banking continues to rise – up from 55% in 2019 to 71% in 2021.

Financial institutions in Belgium (87%), the Netherlands (85%) and the UK (81%) are most positive about open banking. What all three have in common is a competitive and innovative financial services ecosystem with a collaborative relationship between TPPs and incumbent financial institutions.

Financial institutions across Europe are also waking up to the size of the open banking prize – recognising immediate commercial opportunities to be realised by enhancing the customer experience (36%), launching new digital services (35%) and increasing revenue (34%). 

Daniel Kjellén, co-founder and CEO, Tink, said: “As an early pioneer of open banking, it’s exciting to see our predictions come true, as the vast majority of European financial institutions are eager to embrace open banking’s true potential. But we know an open banking revolution won’t happen overnight and we recognise that the pace of change may be slow as institutions grapple with complex transformation projects that could take over a decade to deliver. 

“And it’s not because of a lack of appetite on the part of financial institutions – many find themselves held back by legacy infrastructure or technological challenges. This is where fintech partnerships can work to catalyse open banking strategies. Building open banking infrastructure is difficult – rather than embarking on in-house transformational projects which can take a decade to come to fruition, smart partnerships can shortcut timeframes and leapfrog legacy systems, allowing institutions to reap the rewards of open banking earlier than they might realise.”

 FintechOS Leap, the free banking and insurance event from FintechOS, a global technology provider for banks, insurers, credit unions and other financial services companies, will be taking place between 2^nd – 3^rd November 2021.

The event formerly known as Finvision - will bring together over 1,000 leaders working in banking and insurance and is designed to fast-track the digital roadmap for companies working across these two industries. The event’s new name better reflects the journey of FintechOS’s brand with the tech provider maturing and expanding its products, customer base and the markets it operates in. Since its Series B funding round announcement, FintechOS has entered the US market and has its sights

set on Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa.

The conference and exhibition will bring to the forefront FintechOS’s self-service approach that empowers institutions to build, test and scale digital products in weeks rather than months, and attendees will be walked through the FintechOS platform, hearing from companies already using ‘plug and play’ solutions such as FintechOS Lighthouse and FintechOS Northstar.

Featuring over 20 speakers, covering the latest trends in tech innovation and digital leadership, FintechOS leap sessions include:

• How to build a low code/no code banking product in 15 minutes
• Super apps in banking and insurance
• Cloud innovation in financial services
• Building the bank of tomorrow
• Delivering the right digital first claims experience.

Sessions will be held in a variety of formats including keynotes, fireside chats, radio shows, panels, lightning talks, Q&As and networking sessions both virtually and in-person. The event will be held at The Brewery in Central London and be streamed via the Hopin virtual platform. To register for the event please visit https://leap.fintechos.com/. 

“After almost a two year absence, we are very excited  we can have an in-person event again and we can’t wait to meet our customers, prospects and partners at FintechOS Leap, live from London.” Said Teo Blidarus CEO and co-founder of FintechOS. “This year we’ll leap into real-life digital transformation journeys, as various well-respected figures from banking and insurance will highlight the ups and downs of digitization, and things to look out for along the way. Attendees will also learn how the latest FintechOS platform can upgrade their customer experience – it’s not one to be missed.”

• Russia, Germany, Portugal and Sweden are projected to grow the fastest for mobile payment transactions in Europe by 2025, comprising four of the ten fastest countries globally.
• Despite rapid growth in mobile transactions, Europe lags behind emerging markets when it comes to mobile wallets. Africa and The Middle East and Latin America are the two markets set to grow most significantly by 2025 with seven of the top 10 fastest growing countries for mobile wallet purchases hailing from these regions.
• By 2025 SadaPay (Pakistan), MercadoPay (Brazil) and PicPay (Brazil) will be the fastest growing mobile wallets in the world.
• Between 2020 and 2025 the number of mobile wallets transacting over USD $1 billion per year will increase by 27%, creating a growing acceptance challenge for merchants.

The biggest study of mobile wallets in the world, released by payments fintech Boku, with data from Juniper Research, reveals that Europe will be home to four of the ten fastest-growing countries for mobile payment transactions by 2025. Russia, Germany, Portugal, and Sweden are projected to grow the fastest in Europe, comprising four of the ten fastest globally, with France, Norway, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, and the UK, being the other European nations helping make up the top 20.

Despite this growth in mobile transactions, Europe lags behind emerging markets when it comes to mobile wallets. Africa and The Middle East and Latin America are the two markets set to grow most significantly by 2025 with seven of the top 10 fastest growing countries for mobile wallet purchases hailing from these regions. When it comes to specific wallets, it’s those based in emerging markets where the growth is set to happen. By 2025 SadaPay (Pakistan), MercadoPay (Brazil) and PicPay (Brazil) are predicted to be the fastest growing mobile wallets.

Boku’s report also reveals that one in two people globally will use a mobile wallet by 2025. The growth of mobile wallets is down to factors such as:

• Displacement: Mobile wallets are displacing cash, bank transfers and card transactions as commerce shifts further online and consumers seek more convenient and secure payment methods.
• Ease of access: Many consumers in emerging markets, particularly younger ones, are opting for mobile wallets, that enable them store value and transact digitally, instead of traditional bank accounts.
• Super-apps: Outside of North America and Europe, mobile wallets offer greater utility - from ticketing to delivery services. They are increasingly “essential” for digital commerce with growth commensurate.

For merchants to grow globally, they must accept the mobile payment methods that consumers prefer in target markets, which in many cases are increasingly mobile. Some markets, such as the UK, are seeing contactless payments as a major driver of usage going forward; spurred on by the pandemic. But for many markets around the world, mobile wallets are the preferred mobile payment method. Between 2020 and 2025 the number of mobile wallets transacting over USD $1 billion per year will increase by 27% creating a growing acceptance challenge for merchants.

To support merchants with that challenge, Boku recently launched its M1ST (Mobile first) network. M1ST is the largest mobile payments network in the world, reaching 5.7 billion payment accounts in 90 countries through 330+ mobile payment methods. Through M1ST, merchants can quickly and securely serve billions by accepting mobile wallets, real-time payments and carrier billing through a single API integration.

“eCommerce payments continue to be the primary driver of digital wallet usage around the world. This is a result of outdated payment types, such as cards and cash, not being designed for eCommerce.” Said Jon Prideaux CEO of Boku.  “Consumers are gravitating to mobile-first payment methods and “super-apps” that offer a better user experience, better security and better rewards. If merchants want to attract, convert, and retain mobile-first consumers, they need to accept the mobile-first payment methods they have and use. For European merchants with global ambitions, this requires a new strategy for payment acceptance that goes well beyond cards and into mobile-first payments.”   

Partnership with Temenos opens up Paymentology technology for banks to deliver more customer-centric payment services                                                                                                                                                          Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that Paymentology, the banking digitization, payment and data specialist, is now live on Temenos MarketPlace. The collaboration offers Temenos banking clients a pre-integrated solution to deliver innovative card products with spend controls and enhanced features, backed by highly secure, cloud-native payment processing technology.

Paymentology is a market leader in payments processing, used by many of the most disruptive challenger banks, such as Revolut and Standard Chartered's Mox Bank, to power their highly customer-centric card programs.

The SaaS solution provided by Paymentology empowers banks to have more control over their cardholders' spend-cycle, allowing them to create and modify card programs in minutes, not months. It also will enable banks to offer buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and installment services, as well as insurance, to their cardholders.

The technology provides banks with an enriched real-time data feed with access to over 120 lines of data associated with any given transaction, rather than just the 10-20 lines of data most legacy systems use, which may not even be accessible in real-time.

This capability allows banks to understand their customers' behavior and requirements better. It also empowers banks to launch more effective card programs based on more granular, calculated, data-driven decisions. Access to enriched customer data combined with Paymentology's flexibility enables banks to offer new service lines that transcend the traditional bank-customer relationship.

Joining the Temenos MarketPlace will significantly shorten Paymentology integration projects to existing Temenos customers, providing faster speed to market to ultimately enhance the customer experience.

Abe Smith, CEO at Paymentology, said: "As the leading cloud-native banking platform, Temenos is a natural partner for Paymentology, the leading cloud-native issuer processing platform. We share a commitment to helping banks know their customers better and deliver a better service through data and digitization. Together, we are helping banks better support the customer spend journey via AI-enabled data analytics, meaning they can offer service solutions for debit, credit, prepaid and commercial cards."

Martin Bailey, Product Director, Temenos, said: "Paymentology is one of the most advanced cloud-native issuer processing platforms. They are a global leader in guiding banks to the forefront of the digital payment millennium, with unparalleled flexibility, security and data-rich reporting. Through Temenos MarketPlace, we are opening up this capability to our clients worldwide, enabling them to deliver innovative payment experiences much faster. In today's hyper-competitive payments market, this ability is vital for banks to differentiate and stay ahead of the curve."

MarketPlace is Temenos' ecosystem for connecting banks with the best in complementary fintech solutions, such as Codat, Tink, Taurus, and Wise. More than 3,000 banks and financial institutions worldwide run on Temenos cloud-native banking software and SaaS solutions.