Global investor services group IQ-EQ, today announced that its specialist regulatory hosting and outsourced compliance business, Lawson Conner, has rebranded as IQ-EQ.

IQ-EQ completed the acquisition of Lawson Conner in 2018, adding appointed representative and AIFM solutions to its comprehensive range of existing compliance, administration, asset and advisory services for investment funds. Integrated and working seamlessly as part of the Group, the time has come for Lawson Conner to embrace the IQ-EQ brand and operate as an integral part of the Group’s overall service offering.

Speaking about the rebrand, Rachel Aldridge, Managing Director, Regulatory and Compliance Solutions at IQ-EQ, said, “As we evolve our business to better reflect our clients’ needs, our brand identity must mirror the shift. Throughout our 11-year history, we have stayed ahead of industry trends and market changes to support the strategic needs of our clients. For us rebranding as IQ-EQ is the next logical step on our journey and represents our continued commitment to helping our clients manage regulatory risk.”

John Legrand, Managing Director, UK and Ireland, added, “In today’s complex world we know that our clients are looking for a one-stop shop when it comes to investor services so making the decision to rebrand as IQ-EQ wasn’t a difficult one. Operating under a single and unifying brand name will allow us harness the strength and depth of the Group to provide our growing global client base with a holistic suite of services that saves cost and reduces time to market. We’re confident that operating as IQ-EQ will bring positive benefits to our employees and clients alike and are hugely excited about what the future as IQ-EQ has in store.”

Lawson Conner’s regulated services, delivered by its two FCA-regulated entities, G10 Capital Limited and Sapia Partners LLP will continue to operate under their existing entity names following today’s announcement.

Investments in customers and partners of the global issuer processor accounted for 13% of worldwide fintech investment in the first half of the year

Multi-award-winning payments processor, Global Processing Services (GPS), today reveals the ongoing success of its customers and partners through their collective investment figures. Worldwide, GPS customers and partners have generated $12.53 billion of investment this year through venture capital (VC), private equity (PE) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. This accounts for more than a tenth (13%) of the reported $98 billion worth of investment the global fintech industry has generated in the first half of the year.

Investments in GPS’ customers and partners totalled $11.96 billion in the UK alone, accounting for almost half (49%) of the UK fintech industry’s staggering $24.5 billion investment reported for the same period.

Investment activity shows no sign of slowing down either, with July in particular seeing several large raises amongst GPS’ customer base. Business expenses and prepaid card specialist, Soldo, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) challenger, Zilch, both reported significant raises throughout the month of $180 million and $110 million respectively. When taking into account just VC and PE activity, GPS customers and partners have to date generated $2.34 billion of investment in 2021, with 59% of that activity taking place in July alone.

High-profile raises from the UK’s homegrown challenger banks have driven the majority of investment activity, with Revolut raising $800 million of funding and Starling Bank generating $376 million. Both fintechs are underpinned by GPS’ payment processing services. Payments platform, Paysafe, also completed a $9 billion dollar mega merger with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II this year. Meanwhile, Visa recently agreed to a $970 million acquisition of Currencycloud, the cross-border payments specialist that GPS recently partnered with to offer a full-stack mobile FX platform, demonstrating renewed confidence in the travel sector as restrictions loosen.

GPS’ impact can be seen not only in the UK fintech ecosystem, but across the global industry. In Europe, for example, mobile wallet provider Stocard has reportedly been acquired by BNPL platform, Klarna, for around $129 million. Further afield in the Asia Pacific region, Hong Kong digital bank, WeLab Bank, secured $75 million of funding, and Japan-based Paidy achieved unicorn status after a $120 million raise.

Joanne Dewar, Chief Executive Officer at GPS, commented: “Following a turbulent 2020 for the world, these figures are a resoundingly positive sign of the resilience and huge opportunity in the global fintech industry, with notable investor appetite pointing to exciting, continued evolution for the sector. We’re immensely proud to support our customers’ and partners’ impressive growth, powering the next generation of payments with our award-winning technology and as the trusted partner they can rely on as they expand their offerings across multiple market segments. The future of fintech is most certainly global, and we are excited to help businesses of all sizes continue to deliver innovative payment experiences across the world.”

The figures reflect GPS’ ongoing commitment to global fintech, powering start-ups to tier 1 banks, from proof-of-concept to fully scaled global offerings. A unicorn maker, the company has supported multiple customers to $1 billion valuations including Revolut, Starling Bank, Paidy and more.

To find out more about GPS, visit: https://www.globalprocessing.com/ 

Inflation a key worry for people across the UK despite 48% of those surveyed not knowing what the current rate is

The Toluna Financial Services Sentiment Indicator (FSSI) is a bi-annual study exploring key issues related to the UK population’s personal and household finances, attitudes towards financial institutions in the UK and behaviours in relation to personal finances. The latest research surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,081 members of the UK public. 

KEY FINDINGS

Financial responsibility and resiliency

After a tough 18 months, people are starting to feel more confident about their personal finances. With limitations on where we can go and how we can spend our money, there’s been greater opportunities to save money and spend less. The pandemic has highlighted the need to become more financially secure:

• One in three (33%) said that, overall, their household financial situation has improved over the last 12 months.
• 25% of respondents said their household savings have actually increased in the last 12 months. When asked if they are looking to spend this money on a big-ticket item, such as a car, house, dream holiday or wedding etc. over the next year, over half (52%) said that they are not planning to do this.
• More importantly, 1 in 4 (24%) of those who say their financial situation worsened in the last 12 months feel optimistic about the situation improving in the next 12 months.
• When asked about their top 5 current financial worries, 1 in 4 (23%) mentioned not saving enough or not having enough savings for an emergency/rainy day.
• 23% also said that they’re worried about not saving enough or not having sufficient savings for retirement.
• Almost two fifths (38%) claim that they would have to borrow from friends and family as their savings would only last one month or less.

Worries about the economy - inflation a key worry

While those surveyed said they feel more positive about their current and near-future financial situation, the rising cost of living remains a key concern:

• 34% of respondents are most worried about the rising cost of household bills.
• A quarter (25%) cited increasing inflation as a key worry and this is clearly a ‘top of mind’ issue for people and adds to the growing pressure on the Bank of England to act.

Understandably, those who are more likely to say that they are worried about their finances are single parents with children under the age of 18 (91%), those in poor health (93%) and those who have lost a job/become redundant (97%).

But the majority of the UK public don’t completely understand inflation and are not aware of exact inflation figures

• Although many people are feeling the effects of increasing costs on household expenditure, the majority of the public are not aware of exact inflation figures. With over a decade of low inflation and a low interest environment, inflation has perhaps been a forgotten word in the UK.
•  
• When asked if they knew the current rate of inflation, almost half of respondents said they didn’t know (48%).
• Less than 1 in 20 knew the current rate of inflation.
• When asked what is the Bank of England’s target for inflation that the UK Government has set, two-thirds (62%) were unable to answer and again most answered with an incorrect figure.
• People also don’t understand the difference between the different measures of inflation such as CPI, CPIH and RPI, with only 14% saying they are clear on what each includes.

Michael Worledge, Head of Financial Services Research at Toluna, said:

“While the pandemic has taught us some harsh financial lessons, especially around security and resilience, it also shows where we are still rather quite naïve when looking at the bigger picture from an economy point of view. It is clear that we are all going to be impacted by inflation. The commentary by the Bank of England suggests that the rise in inflation may well be a temporary or transitional change as the economies around the world emerge from an extraordinary year. There is no doubt however, especially as some estimates suggest that the rate of inflation could hit 4% by the end of the year, there is increasing pressure on the central bank to act and tame the rate of inflation. There is also pressure on the Chancellor to balance the books to pay for the biggest peace time spending that we have seen in the UK. How this influences the Government policy making is an area many in the UK are feeling both curious and anxious about.”

SurePay, inventor and leading provider of Confirmation of Payee (CoP) in the UK and Benelux, raised a €12.2 million round led by Connected Capital with Iris Capital, joining Rabo Frontier Ventures to boost the company’s international expansion.

The funding will support the hiring of new business development teams in Germany, the UK, a cross border team and new IT experts to scale the technology platform and to further develop new solutions for customers.

The company plans to launch bulk payments related products, cross border payments as well as expand SurePay PayID, a Pay Your Contacts solution, to offer new methods of secure and seamless payment services to its customers. The CoP for Organisations solution, based on its best-in-class Confirmation of Payee algorithm, will thus be made accessible across Europe.

Since its launch in 2016, SurePay has carried out four billion payment checks. Its solution helps banks and organisations avoid misdirected payments and reduce payment fraud by giving greater assurance that their payments are going to the intended beneficiary. The company estimated that its solution reduces misdirected payments by 67%, fraud in payments by 81% and leads to 80% less fraudulent onboardings for the clients using the platform.

SurePay is already a leader in the UK and its Dutch home market, these being the first countries to implement a nationwide CoP approach to reducing payment fraud.

Both new investors are specialised at scaling B2B SaaS solutions internationally and will help SurePay extend its leading position as a multi-country technology platform focused on reducing payment fraud.

Payments across Europe have increasingly shifted to digital channels, leading to a surge in fraud cases throughout the continent as fraudsters deployed new methods such as phishing, spoofing, APP Scam and CEO fraud. Now over 30 banks and more than 150 corporates are using SurePay’s service which helps prevent these types of fraud. The platform’s strong performance has helped drive +400% year-on-year growth among corporates, which together with bank clients, is expected to drive growth going forward.

Clients and partners include ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, NatWest Group, Atom Bank, Triodos Bank and STRATO.

David-Jan Janse, CEO and Co-Founder of SurePay, said: “We are on a mission to protect both our clients and their customers against the growing threat of fraud worldwide, giving them the reassurance that their payments are going to the intended recipient also cross-border and multi-domestic.”

“We are very excited to welcome Connected Capital and Iris Capital as our new shareholders. Together with Rabo Frontier Ventures, their knowledge and experience will position us on a scale-up trajectory in important growth markets across Europe and connect to global standards.” he continued.

Wim Haring, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Connected Capital “We are excited to lead the investment and support SurePay’s mission to become a leader in paytech to optimise payment processes, whilst reducing fraud. We look forward to actively supporting the team as they continue to innovate and drive SurePay’s international growth.”

Thorben Rothe Partner at Iris Capital: “We are proud to invest in SurePay to assist and fuel their growth. Their work has been impressive as they built a world-leading Confirmation of Payee solution preventing payments fraud that already proved its industry leading position across the UK and Netherlands. We are confident that with our help they will lead a tremendous growth in new markets like Germany and France.”

Harrie Vollaard, Managing Director at Rabo Frontier Ventures: “SurePay has grown from an in-house start up to a solution that benefits millions of consumers daily. SurePay is well on its way to further unlock its enormous potential. We are proud to welcome the two renowned investors to join the journey. With this round SurePay will continue to add financial players to its European platform and further build out their digital ecosystem”.

Research reveals top complexity drivers for UK CFOs and their ever-growing to-do list

• Over a third (39%) of CFOs note a larger demand to collaborate with the c-suite than two years ago
• Adopting new technologies is the top priority for almost a third (30%) of CFOs in 2021 and beyond
• In addition to CFO priorities, research reveals nearly a third (28%) of CEOs cite international growth as top priority for the CFO in the year ahead

97% of UK CFOs believe their role has become more complex during the last two years, a survey from global payables automation company Tipalti Europe has revealed. The poll, which quizzed over 300 UK CFOs and CEOs about the position of the finance leader, highlights the increasing pressures and responsibilities placed on the finance leader today, and the greater collaboration needed with the c-suite.

As UK businesses continue to face uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the constantly changing environment brought about by Brexit, Tipalti research shows the increasing amount of responsibilities placed on the modern CFO and finance director to support businesses. In general, a fifth (20%) of UK CFOs say they’ve seen a greater demand placed on them by the CEO and board, a key factor that has made their job more complex. In addition to this, over a third (39%) believe collaboration with the CEO and other members of the c-suite has become more necessary than before to the office of the CFO.

As the CFO’s job scope continues to grow, Tipalti’s research highlights the areas making their job more complex and key focuses for both CFOs and CEOs in the year ahead – those being environmental sustainability initiatives, international growth and technology adoption. However, with nearly a third (29%) of CFOs stating they are having to deal with more manual finance operations, and have a more strategic role across the business (23%), it’s having the time to wear multiple hats that proves challenging.

Sustainability is a key focus

Highlighting the ever growing to-do list of a CFO, over a quarter (27%) of CFOs describe incorporating ESG (environmental, social, and governance)/sustainability into their role, as a main driver of complexity. The origin of this priority is clear as CEOs (29%) cite the ability to develop ESG capabilities as the most important quality needed in a CFO today, compared to five years ago – undoubtedly as strong ESG ratings become ever more critical for investors, and therefore adding the responsibilities of the CFO. This insight follows the UK government’s call in March for businesses to take urgent action on their carbon emissions by signing-up to Race to Zero and setting out clear pathways to get to net zero. With environmental concerns growing globally, and the UK government looking to businesses to help, already time-poor CFOs require time to think strategically, away from the day-to-day admin.

International growth remains pivotal

With trading deals between the UK and EU still uncertain thanks to the pandemic, many businesses have set their sights on opportunities outside of Europe. A recent paper from the Department for International Trade stated that almost 90% of world growth is expected to be outside the EU over the next five years and that growth in digital trade, services trade, and green trade are all expected to accelerate this decade. It also identified that the export market opportunity for the UK’s green sector alone is estimated to be worth up to £170 billion a year by 2030.

This rings true with Tipalti’s research, which highlights over a quarter (28%) of UK CEOs believe helping the business grow internationally is a top priority for the CFO in 2021 and beyond, 23% of CFOs believed the same. However, a fifth (22%) of CFOs admit international expansion is something which has made their role more complex. An alarming finding of the survey is that nearly a fifth (16%) of CFOs say keeping finance operations up with company growth has too been a challenge. What is comforting is that CEOs are on board with a fix – with a third (29%) stating that adopting solutions to enhance efficiency is their biggest priority to help achieve growth.

Modernising the finance department

For over a quarter (27%) of CFOs, the global pandemic was cited as a reason for their role becoming more complex in the last two years. Over the past 18 months we’ve seen incredible transformation across all departments, including finance, as businesses look to survive and thrive in the pandemic with dispersed workforces and changing business needs. The desire to digitally transform is echoed in the research. For a third (30%) of CFOs, adopting new technologies is a primary focus the remainder of the year and beyond. This desire is matched with UK CEOs believing that the ability to prioritise innovation (25%), and the ability to improve financial and business reporting accuracy and timeliness (28%) are important qualities for a successful CFO today.

Rob Israch, General Manager of Tipalti Europe comments on the findings of the research: “Our research shows the increasing amount of responsibilities placed on the modern CFO and the essential role they have in driving strategic initiatives beyond simply running the financial operation. However, as a result of a mounting to-do list, CFOs and finance leaders are incredibly time constrained.

“In order to see success with initiatives like sustainability, international growth and digital transformation, which we know are key priorities for businesses in the UK, it is essential for finance departments to adopt technology that removes manual labour, so CFOs can focus on what matters. Only then will CFOs be able to focus on strategic initiatives that see business success.”

• Xfers and SEBA Bank joint proposal among 15 finalists selected from over 300 applications globally 

• Proposal to be presented publicly at Singapore Fintech Festival in November 

• Selection builds on SEBA Bank’s successful CBDC experiment with the Banque de France in June 

SEBA Bank, a FINMA licenced Swiss Bank providing a seamless, secure, and easy-to-use bridge between digital and traditional assets, today announced together with Xfers, a Southeast Asia based payments leader holding a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license for e-money issuance, that they have been named among the 15 finalists for the Global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Challenge organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, United Nations Development Programme, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Global CBDC Challenge calls for FinTech companies, financial institutions and solution providers around the world to submit innovative retail CBDC solutions to enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion.

The joint proposal submitted by Xfers and SEBA Bank was shortlisted from over 300 applications representing over 50 countries and will be presented to the public and a panel of judges at the Singapore Fintech Festival on 08 November 2021. 

Aymeric Salley, Head of StraitsX, said, “We are delighted to be named finalists for the CBDC challenge by the MAS. We look forward to continuing leveraging our experience as Singapore’s first stablecoin issuer, and working closely with our partner, SEBA Bank, which comes with a wealth of expertise and practical experience in developing CBDCs, having just completed a CBDC experiment with Banque de France in June this year."

In June this year, SEBA Bank completed a successful CBDC experiment with the Banque de France, which demonstrated the capacity of distributed ledger technologies to communicate with the Eurosystem’s settlement platform TARGET2-Securities for the settlement of listed securities. This testing is an important contribution towards the development of an EU wide CBDC. 

Matthew Alexander, Head of Digital Corporate Finance & Asset Tokenisation SEBA Bank, commented, “We are thrilled to have been selected by the MAS for this CBDC challenge amongst such a prestigious group of institutions. We look forward to working with our partner Xfers and contributing both our Digital Asset capabilities and recent experience working with the Banque de France CBDC to support the MAS and the Singapore financial centre. At SEBA Bank, we are constantly striving for innovation in the development of digital currencies and digital asset infrastructure. This selection, alongside our partners Xfers, by MAS as a finalist in the CBDC challenge, is a significant validation of our innovation in the development of digital currencies, and builds on our work supporting the Banque de France in CBDC testing. The shortlisting by MAS is testament to SEBA Bank’s extensive network and operations in APAC, with the recent appointment of Sam Lin as APAC CEO, and headcount growth in our Singapore and Hong Kong hubs, further solidifying our presence in the region.” 

85’000 merchants in Switzerland can now conveniently offer crypto payments through seamless integration in the Worldline payment infrastructure powered by Bitcoin Suisse

Today Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse announce the go-live of their omnichannel crypto payment solution for the more than 85’000 Swiss merchants in the Worldline network. Now all merchants in Switzerland using the Worldline point-of-sale and e-commerce payment services can let their clients pay in Bitcoin and Ether as easily as with other traditional payment options.

As the largest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin has gained wide interest in recent years. Now thanks to the collaboration between Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, and Bitcoin Suisse, the Swiss market leader in crypto-financial services, payments with cryptocurrencies become widely available for merchants and their customers in Switzerland.

The integrated service offered by Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse, named WL Crypto Payments, lets merchants accept Bitcoin and Ether as a payment option at the point-of-sale (POS) and in e-commerce. Merchants can easily download the WL Crypto Payments mobile app or conveniently install the Worldline payment plugin for their webshop. Clients paying with crypto may do so through their usual mobile crypto wallet application. Prices shown by the merchant in CHF, can be, upon selection by the customer, alternatively quoted in Bitcoin or Ether in real time, paid for with crypto, and get confirmed to the merchant instantly. WL Crypto Payments enables merchants to offer payments with cryptocurrencies without being exposed to volatility risks, as the crypto transaction is securely converted into Swiss Francs straight after payment confirmation. Merchants benefit further by settlement in Swiss Francs and pay-out processes bundled with other payment options, like credit cards.

The crypto payments collaboration between Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse was first announced in November 2019. The rollout to all Worldline merchants in Switzerland was preceded by a successful pilot program.

Worldline Switzerland CEO Marc Schluep commented: “The launch of cryptocurrencies acceptance at the POS in Switzerland is a great proof of our ambition: Worldline wants to bring tangible value to merchants across the globe and to facilitate smooth and modern payments in all the markets we operate in. We’re happy to collaborate with Bitcoin Suisse on this forward-looking project.”

Bitcoin Suisse CEO Dr. Arthur Vayloyan added: “This is a historic milestone for crypto adoption in Switzerland and beyond. It is a great pleasure working together with Worldline to bring user-friendly crypto payments to the market in Switzerland. This step proves once again that Switzerland is a leader in collaborative innovation and a pioneer in the crypto and blockchain industry.”

Video on simple payment in crypto currencies:  WL Crypto Payments

Expands Direct Market Solutions to cover 50% of global meetings – complementing its 100+ market coverage model, improves market voting deadlines and lowers overall costs to custodians

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc today announced the significant expansion of its Direct Market Solutions (DMS), a custodian focused local market “golden copy” event sourcing and vote execution service extension to Broadridge’s leading Global Proxy solution. The innovation in DMS services is across three areas:

-       Grows coverage to 20 key markets in 2021 (which represents the significant majority of client holdings and ~50% of global meetings) with more markets to follow in 2022 and 2023. This complements Broadridge’s existing leading voting solutions that already provide 100% coverage across 100+ markets

-       Improves market deadlines and extends voting windows by up to three days, allowing investors more time to make their elections

-       Reduces costs to custodians due to Broadridge’s ability to mutualise event sourcing and execution across the industry, and pass those savings to participating clients

DMS enables issuer market “golden copy” meeting information to be communicated to investors on the day of the meeting announcement, where required.  It also extends the voting window by up to 3 days for investors by removing market inefficiencies in the traditional voting process, allowing votes to be placed directly from the investor to the issuer or its agent in these markets. 

“Today’s announcement is part of our ongoing innovation to enable higher standards of corporate governance and investor stewardship,” said Demi Derem, GM, International Investor Communication Solutions at Broadridge. “Broadridge has long advocated and invested in more efficient and innovative local market models through its DMS service launched in 2015.  Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II) obligated European issuers to provide the market with “golden copy” machine readable issuer meeting information. Since SRD II was put into effect in September 2020, we have completed over 300 new retail and institutional client implementations and processed over 89,000 meetings for clients that trust in our global proxy credentials and ability to continually drive the market forward for the benefit of all participants.”

DMS markets covered in 2021 include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and US. 

With its track record of over 30 years leading the industry in voting-related managed services, Broadridge has the scale, global coverage, and the ability to provide an iron-clad, multi-lingual 24/7 client service solution that enables every vote to get to the right place at the right time. The investments involved in building this infrastructure are substantial, but Broadridge is deeply committed to making sure its clients always get the most advanced voting service possible.