JCB International Co., Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., Japan's only international payment brand, and Advanced Bank of Asia Ltd. (ABA Bank), the digital banking leader in Cambodia and a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada, signed the License Agreement and announced the launch of JCB payment acceptance in Cambodia.

Askhat Azhikhanov, CEO of ABA Bank (left) and Yoshiki Kaneko, President and COO of JCB International Co., Ltd. during the Online Signing Ceremony of Partnership Agreement on 17 August 2021.
This partnership will enable JCB Cards to be used at ABA merchant network across Cambodia, which will provide greater convenience to JCB cardholders. JCB has been expanding the issuing business in the ASEAN countries including Cambodia.

JCB and ABA plan to expand the partnership to all ABA merchants including acceptance at PayWay online payment platform and ATMs by the end of 2021.

Askhat Azhikhanov, CEO of ABA Bank said: "We are delighted to announce our partnership with JCB, one of the world leaders in payment services. Under the agreement, ABA merchants and JCB cardholders will be able to broaden their payment opportunities through our extensive networks across the country. Witnessing solid economic and business ties of Cambodia and Japan, we believe that this cooperation will bring benefit to Japanese businesses and individuals in the Kingdom and will enhance the efficacy of the Cambodian payments industry."

Yoshiki Kaneko, President and COO of JCB International Co., Ltd. said: "We are honored to announce the partnership with ABA. The acceptance of JCB Cards in ABA merchants will increase the convenience to our customers in and outside of Cambodia. I believe that this partnership will contribute to the further growth of digitalization in this highly potential market and hope to seek for further business opportunities with ABA."

Tonik, the Philippines’ first private neobank operating under its own digital bank license by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has launched the physical debit cards for clients of its mobile app.  Tonik customers can now order physical debit cards through the app, and use these cards at any ATM or merchant that is part of  Mastercard’s global network, which includes the majority of the ATMs and card-accepting merchants in the Philippines.
 
Responding to the needs of the Filipino consumers for higher security of card transactions, Tonik’s debit cards are equipped with multiple pioneering features for secure payments:  

• No name and card number on the face of the card – providing enhanced customer data privacy;
• In-app controls to easily freeze and unfreeze the debit card for transactions;
• Ability to manage limits of physical debit cards within the app;
• 3D Secure and advanced antifraud, powered by Mastercard’s state-of-the-art security suite;
• Savings protection - Stash and Time Deposit accounts are not directly linked to the account with the card, thus protecting the savings;
• Tonik encourages its customers to use their virtual card for online transactions, instead of the physical card, as in the unlikely event of the card being compromised the virtual card is very quick and easy to replace.

In line with Tonik’s philosophy of maximizing customer’s access to their money, Tonik debit cards offer the highest potential transaction limit in the market of up to Php450,000.   However, we do encourage our clients to keep limits low to reduce risk, and only increase the limits for specific high-ticket transactions, and subsequently reducing them back to a lower level to keep their accounts well-protected. 
 
“Filipino consumers increasingly prefer the convenience of physical debit cards for their daily transactions. However, the security of card payments remains their primary concern.” shared Greg Krasnov, Founder and CEO of Tonik. “Our physical debit cards are specifically designed to offer a highly secure payment experience.  We hope this will help the Philippines continue on its rapid path of transition towards a cashless society and will help drive higher financial inclusion in the country.”

Tonik made its commercial debut to the Philippine market last March, which saw it secure over Php1B (US$20M) in retail deposits in under 1 month - a historic record for any new bank launching in the country.  The neobank continued to break records of speed of growth, having attracted ca. 3.5 billion pesos (US$70M) in retail deposits as of mid-August. 
 
Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC).  Its unique cloud-based solution is powered by global financial technology leaders such as Mastercard, Amazon Web Services, and Finastra.
 
To know more about how you can order a physical debit card and other updates from Tonik, visit https://tonikbank.com/. 

Leading retail finance platform Deko, has today announced the acquisition of technology services provider Imegamedia in order to expand its service offering and integration experience for its partners.

The deal, which includes 100% acquisition of the Imegamedia Services Ltd and TrueInnovation Ltd businesses, will enhance Deko’s integration service; paving the way for accelerated growth. All of Imegamedia’s existing partners will continue to receive the same high levels of service as part of the deal and will also have access to new and enhanced features.

The deal will provide Deko with expanded integration capability, providing merchants a same-day installation service and their customers faster access to Deko’s unique multi-lender platform.

Over the past 10 years, Imegamedia has become a market leader in Retail Finance technology integrations, supporting over 15 finance providers, 500 merchants and processing c.£400m of new lending requests annually.

The acquisition comes following announcements about new Deko partnerships with NewDay, SNAP and ZIP, all of which have been integrated into the Deko platform in recent months.

Mike Dawson, CEO of Deko commented: “We are excited to welcome the Imegamedia team, along with its hundreds of partners, to Deko. We have partnered with Imegamedia for a number of years and have been consistently impressed with its service model, technical standard and integration promise. Imegamedia’s business model is strongly aligned to ours and we believe we can achieve more for all our stakeholders as a combined and focused group. Delivering Imegamedia’s market leading onboarding experience into the Deko platform is an essential investment and underlines our commitment to making immediate, lasting and valued connections across our ecosystem.”

Maxine Moon, MD of Imegamedia and TrueInnovation commented: “We are thrilled to be joining the Deko business. Our ecosystems are very similar, we are motivated by the same purpose and share the cultural commitment to service excellence and innovation. Imegamedia has been built over the past 10 years to simplify access to ecommerce financing solutions and we are excited to be incorporating our unique integration solutions into the Deko platform. All of Imegamedia’s existing partners can look forward to the same consistent level of service and an exciting roadmap of future enhancements.” 

TPAY MOBILE platform allows developers to monetize their apps on Huawei devices across twelve operators in seven countries 

TPAY MOBILE, a full-service digital payments platform, today announces the first phase of its strategic app monetisation partnership with Huawei.  The partnership is live across twelve mobile operators in seven countries within the MEA region, enabling over 60 million subscribers to purchase from HUAWEI AppGallery using direct carrier billing (DCB).

During the first half of 2021, millions of DCB transactions have been processed across Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, and Tunisia. In addition, developers have gained the opportunity to connect with an array of operators, including Orange, WE, STC, Ooredoo, Vodafone, Omantel, and Zain. 

The strategic partnership, first announced in September 2020, enables local and global developers to accept DCB payments for their apps and services through Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) In-App-Purchases (IAP) kit. 

Sahar Salama, founder and CEO of TPAY MOBILE, says, “TPAY MOBILE and Huawei have been working together closely as part of our ongoing commitment to support developers and consumers in the MEA region. We are pleased that this partnership has scaled at such a rapid pace in a short amount of time. Huawei is leading the pack when it comes to smartphone adoption and penetration across the MEA region, and this is further demonstrated by the tenfold growth in DCB payment volumes we are witnessing on a monthly basis.”  

Adam Xiao, Managing Director of Huawei Mobile Services MEAI, Huawei Consumer Business Group, said, “At Huawei, consumers’ satisfaction is always at the forefront of our strategies, and our partnership with TPAY MOBILE is a testament to that. Huawei device users will gain the opportunity to pay for their favourite applications and services conveniently via DCB – using just their mobile phone number and without the need for a bank account. This service is vital, especially when traditional transactions are not realistic for many smartphones users who don’t have access to bank accounts.”

Nav, the simple and intelligent financing platform for small businesses, today was included on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. This year's recognition marks Nav's fifth consecutive appearance on the Inc. 5000 list.

Founded in 2012, Nav has worked with small business owners to match business financing products from top-tier traditional and alternative lenders by utilizing their real business data to meet businesses’ needs. Since its founding, millions of small business owners have been helped by Nav’s platform. Since the pandemic started, Nav facilitated more than 239,000 applications for financing to help small businesses unlock PPP funding. Additionally, Nav helped over 23,000 small businesses to secure business loans through the PPP process.

"The team at Nav has been focused for nearly a decade on helping small business owners navigate the tricky world of business financing,” said Greg Ott, Nav’s CEO. “Being named to the Inc. 5000 list for a fifth year in row is a true testament to our employees and the company’s dedication to helping small business owners. Our data-driven, digital platform that we’ve built has been essential to supporting small businesses through their small business journeys."

In addition to being named on Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies in America list for the fifth year in a row, the company has continued to be recognized for their growth and work in the state of Utah. In 2020, The Salt Lake Tribune named Nav as a “Top Place to Work in Utah”, and The Utah Business Journal selected Nav as a “Best Company to Work For” in 2019.

More information about Nav is available at Nav.com.

Combined offering provides instant PSD2 and global Open Banking compliance for an open, secure and personalized banking experience

Finastra today announced its collaboration with Salt Edge to improve the speed of compliance with the Payments Service Directive 2 (PSD2) and other global Open Banking standards, for banks and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) worldwide. The integration of the Salt Edge Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, Open Banking Compliance, with Finastra's core banking solutions, Fusion Essence and Fusion Equation, enables institutions to build the necessary architecture to support end-to-end banking requirements and compliance through one Application Programming Interface (API). The integration is carried out via Finastra’s open development platform, FusionFabric.cloud.

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, banks and EMIs are under pressure to optimize their core processes, increase profitability, reduce the time to market for new products, and continue to innovate and personalize their offerings. The opening up of data has provided a good foundation for achieving this. In fact, Finastra’s State of the Nation research found that, globally, 94% of professionals at financial institutions agree that Open Banking is important to their organization, with 63% reporting that it has enabled them to improve customer experience and 59% stating that it has helped attract new types of customers. However, complying with PSD2 and regional Open Banking standards can be a time-consuming, expensive and complicated task.

Dmitrii Barbasura, Co-Founder & CEO at Salt Edge said, “Finastra’s commitment to unlocking the power of finance for everyone supports our goal to simplify all components of Open Banking and PSD2 compliance for both financial providers and end customers. The partnership extends our network coverage from our existing      customers to Finastra’s wide customer base, while the pre-integration of our combined best-in-class solutions allows end customers to benefit from more inclusive financial services thanks to Open Banking.”

Open Banking Compliance provides full coverage of regulated markets with cross-bank and pan-European API standards, such as Open Banking UK and The Berlin Group in the EU, as well as newly regulated markets such as Australia, Brazil and the GCC. The comprehensive set of APIs gives Third-Party Providers (TPPs) access to instant and secure account information, payment initiation and a full-stack developer portal. Additionally, the integration provides added security, with a TPP verification system and mobile-first application to comply with strong customer authentication (SCA) and dynamic linking requirements.

Anand Subbaraman, General Manager, Banking at Finastra said, “Salt Edge has a proven track record of success with more than 100 API implementations for financial institutions globally. Bringing Open Banking Compliance into our suite of core banking solutions makes compliance quick and seamless for both Finastra and Salt Edge customers, while giving them the tools to create better and more personalized products and services. For the end user, the benefit is a much quicker, more secure and relevant banking experience that truly accommodates their needs. We are excited to partner with Salt Edge and welcome them into our ecosystem.”

Find the app on the FusionStore here.

The Inc. 5000 list ranks the most successful private companies demonstrating standout growth

Provenir,  a global leader in risk decisioning and data analytics software, today announced it has been named to the Inc. 5000 list, Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies based on company revenues over the past three years. Provenir is one of only 572 software companies included in this year’s list.

In 2020 alone, revenue for Provenir’s software-as-a-serve (SaaS) solutions increased 25 percent year-over-year, driven by a 22 percent increase in its customer base of disruptive financial services companies, and its increasing presence in the Buy Now Pay Later (BNBL) and challenger bank markets. The company also expanded into new geographic markets including Latin America, UAE, and Asia, and now serves clients in more than 40 countries worldwide.

For those companies included in the Inc. 5000 this year, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Collectively, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs to the economy over the past three years.

“Provenir is honored to be included in this prestigious list of companies that are driving innovation and change to be leaders in their respective markets,” said Larry Smith, founder and CEO, Provenir. “We are proud of our growth over the past three years in both new customers and expansion into new markets to meet the burgeoning need for real-time risk decisioning solutions.”

“The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled,” said Inc. Editor-in-Chief Scott Omelianuk. “Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”

Provenir’s technology enables fintechs, financial institutions, and payment providers to easily design, build, and deploy solutions to solve complex business challenges such as digital onboarding, retail financing, Buy Now Pay later (BNPL) approvals, SME lending, insurance, credit card management, eCommerce, eWallet, digital banking, alternative data and fraud. Its flagship product, the Provenir Cloud Suite, is a cloud-native data, decisioning and analytics platform, providing one unified digital experience powering four cloud products — decisioning, data, insights, and solutions — enabling users to create the platform-as-a-service cloud that best fits their needs.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

AML RightSource (“AMLRS”), the leading outsourced provider of Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”), Know Your Customer (“KYC”), and Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) compliance solutions, is pleased to announce that it has acquired QuantaVerse, Inc.

Founded in 2014, QuantaVerse uses advanced data science to automate and improve financial crime identification, alert investigations, and the documentation of investigation results. The QuantaVerse Financial Crime Platform reduces financial crime risk by identifying patterns and discerning anomalies that are regularly missed, increases efficiency by reducing false positives while speeding investigations, and lowers operational risks by delivering consistent, accurate, high quality results. 

“We could not be more excited to be joining forces with AML RightSource,” shared David McLaughlin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of QuantaVerse. “Combining our technology solutions with AML RightSource’s global advisory and managed services offerings, in an integrated deployment framework, will enable customers to improve flexibility, scale, and regulatory compliance. The strategy that’s been put in place by AML RightSource is going to drive a paradigm shift in the industry.”

QuantaVerse uses robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning to automate financial crime identification and investigation, helping to rid organizations of money laundering and other financial crime related to drug trade, human trafficking, terrorism, and political corruption. QuantaVerse solutions have helped clients more efficiently comply with AML, KYC, and FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) regulations.

“We are thrilled to have David and the QuantaVerse team join us in our mission to fight financial crime and diversify our services for customers,” added Frank Ewing, Chief Executive Officer at AML RightSource; “Adding QuantaVerse will help us provide our clients improved ROI by eliminating noise and unproductive reviews, through their nimble infrastructure which seamlessly integrates with in-place systems. It also accelerates our strategy to offer more tech-enabled services to support our clients.”

AML RightSource provides custom solutions to financial institutions, FinTechs, money service businesses, and corporations using a blend of highly trained anti-financial crime professionals, cutting edge technology tools, and industry leading consultants. AMLRS is backed by Gridiron Capital, LLC (“Gridiron Capital”), a leading investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams.

Finastra announced that it has signed 25 financial institutions to its Fusion Phoenix core banking platform during its 2021 fiscal year (ending May 31, 2021). These institutions include a mix of banks and credit unions that have selected the software for its ability to meet their unique needs with a flexible core that can easily scale and evolve. Among the new customers that have recently selected Fusion Phoenix are Peoples Credit Union, First National Bank of Manchester (KY), and Fowler State Bank.

“Financial institutions have long viewed legacy core technology as a hinderance to innovation,” said Stephen Greer, Senior Analyst, Celent. “They are realizing that an open, cloud-based core has the ability to actually facilitate innovation and eliminate the roadblocks and inefficiencies caused by lack of integration with other technology solutions used within the institution.”

Fusion Phoenix offers community banks and credit unions an open and modern core that can easily integrate with new technology via a progressive open API architecture, enabling financial institutions to take advantage of emerging trends and opportunities. Additionally, Fusion Phoenix offers seamless connectivity to a suite of Finastra's best-of-breed solutions for digital enablement, lending, mortgage, payments, and more. Integration with Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud open developer platform provides access to a growing ecosystem of apps, to empower the institution to evolve beyond traditional banking business models and enhance their customers’ experience.

“We needed a core that could provide a foundation for innovation and scalability,” said Jordan Hensley, CEO, Peoples Credit Union. “With Fusion Phoenix, we are confident it will serve our current needs and grow with us for years to come. The way it’s built means that as new technology comes to the market, we will be able to take advantage of easier integration than with a legacy core that’s built on old technology. An open technology platform will keep us relevant and will even enable us to meet future expectations for Banking as a Service.”

Available in the public cloud via Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, financial institutions have faster access to innovation, transformation at scale and accelerated time to market. Cloud technology is a significant enabler for community banks and credit unions, providing a low-cost path to innovation and open banking – something considered a must-have to 94% of financial institutions globally.

“The momentum we are seeing in the market has been tremendous, and 2021 has really shown us that the bold moves we are making—both with Fusion Phoenix and as an organization—are resonating with the market,” said John Weinkowitz, VP, Retail, Community Markets at Finastra. “We have made our journey to the cloud and our open platform strategy top priorities within Finastra, and banks and credit unions understand the immediate and long-term benefits this will have on their ability to serve their customers. With Banking as a Service (BaaS) and embedded banking services set to make a notable impact on the industry over the next 12 months, Fusion Phoenix is configured to help financial institutions take advantage of this exciting development.”

Jonathan Allan, Chief Marketing Officer, Puzzel says: 

Online has reigned supreme across most sectors throughout the pandemic, so it’s no surprise that online challenger banks are now leading the way ahead of their incumbent rivals. It’s essential that the financial services industry continues to adapt to changing consumer demand by making smart investments to strengthen online offerings. From opening new accounts to processing claims or conducting live online consultations, banks need to ensure that all online touchpoints enhance the customer experience. With innovative live assistance channels, such as video and screen sharing, and AI-powered self-service tools, even the most traditional of banks can provide next-generation experiences.

Customers today want effortless financial services with personalised support available across all channels, all the time. They want the flexibility and freedom to choose the service channels most convenient to them, and to know their information is protected with the highest security and compliance.