Small business loan approval percentages at big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) climbed slightly from 13.5% in May to 13.6% in June 2021, while small banks’ approvals also rose from 18.7% in May to 18.9%, according to the latest Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index™ released today.

“Banks are looking to increase their SBA 7(a) loan-making, as they found out that the small business lending sector can be lucrative. Many lenders earned millions in processing fees for processing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the past year,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora, one of the nation’s leading experts in small business finance. “Smaller banks, especially community and regional institutions are partnering with FinTechs to make their small business loan application process digital. The pandemic opened up opportunities for many banks.”

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 850,000 in June, and the unemployment rate rose by one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.9%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, July 2. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, public and private education, professional and business services, retail trade, and other services. Many of these jobs are created by small businesses.

Non-Bank Lenders’ Approval Percentages Rise

Credit unions edged up from a 20.4% approval rate in May, to 20.5% in June 2021. Institutional lenders approved 23.8% of funding requests in June, up two-tenths of a percent from 23.6% in May. Meanwhile alternative lenders approved 24.5% of funding applications in June 2021, up from 24.3% the month prior.

“Small business owners need capital both to rebound and to grow,” Arora said. “They have taken off their blinders and look for alternative to the big name banks. They can get funding from many different sources, and capital seems to be flowing again, but we are not anywhere near we were before the pandemic. Still, we are seeing encouraging trends.”

Biz2Credit analyzed loan requests from companies in business more than two years with credit scores above 680. The results are based on primary data submitted by more than 1,000 small business owners who applied for funding on Biz2Credit's platform.

Verizon Business and Mastercard today announced a strategic partnership expected to drive transformational solutions for the global payments and commerce ecosystem. From contactless shopping and autonomous checkout technology to Cloud Point of Sale (POS) solutions, Mastercard and Verizon Business will collaborate to deliver scalable innovations that drive the industry forward and create new experiences for consumers and businesses alike.

Verizon and Mastercard will work closely to unlock Internet of Things (IoT) sensor connectivity with near real-time edge computing to power the fintech, payments and banking industries, in addition to working to arm SMBs with hyper-automated and immersive commerce experiences. This includes:

●        Enabling smartphones or connected devices to seamlessly accept payment: Mastercard’s commitment to delivering contactless payments at scale will be coupled with Verizon 5G to turn certain connected devices into commerce-enabled devices. This includes Tap on Phone, which allows any business to deliver new and best-in-class contactless consumer experiences by turning qualifying smartphones into acceptance devices.

●        Unlocking touchless retail shopping experiences: Verizon 5G and Mobile Edge Computing will be integrated with Mastercard’s retail technology solutions to reduce hardware requirements for autonomous checkout in-store, with a goal of faster deployments and new use cases, such as mobile updates, voice and video ordering, and more.

●        Creating new ways to consume physical and digital goods: Verizon and Mastercard will collaborate to create a digitally motivated network that allows both firms to insert new, innovative solutions that can entice further personalized consumer shopping experiences. This includes potential use cases such as access control for unattended retail stores and home door lock.

●        Empowering small business digital readiness: Verizon and Mastercard will continue to explore ways that 5G mobility, business internet and near real-time edge computing can provide real time access to industry best practices customized for SMBs through Mastercard’s Digital Doors^TM curriculum, helping businesses drive greater efficiencies and effectiveness in their online operations to meet customer needs.

●        Enhancing the bill pay experience for Verizon customers: Verizon will tap Mastercard’s Bill Pay Exchange™ real-time messaging network to enable enhanced, immediate communication between consumers and billers. Bill Pay Exchange will allow Verizon to streamline bills paid through digital banking channels, digitize paper bills and deliver a mobile-first solution, reducing costs and enhancing the payment experience for Verizon customers. Verizon will also leverage technology from Ethoca, a Mastercard company, to quickly identify and resolve fraud.

“Business needs and consumer demands constantly fluctuate. Critical components of long-term success are the ability to remain agile and align with strategic financial and payments partners that have the tools and capabilities to drive industries forward,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, CRO, Verizon Business. “Coupling Verizon’s leading global IP network and transformative 5G technology with Mastercard’s deep industry expertise, leading services and solutions, and a strong commitment to innovate, is a partnership that aligns perfectly with what we are striving to achieve at Verizon and one that can create game-changing solutions.”

At Mastercard’s New York City Tech Hub, located in the Flatiron District, Mastercard and Verizon will test and embed 5G to accelerate the pace of innovation and collaboration. Together, Mastercard and Verizon plan to explore 5G and Mobile Edge Computing technology and use cases, while also enhancing the overall experience for Mastercard employees.

“Emerging technology such as 5G and Mobile Edge Computing will undoubtedly reshape how we interact with each other, making it all the more critical for these exchanges – particularly payments – to be trusted and anticipate further changes,” said Linda Kirkpatrick, president, North America at  Mastercard. “Through this collaboration, Mastercard and Verizon’s platforms, which connect billions of consumers, businesses, banks and governments around the world, will be a force in driving transformational change.”

Bitmedia.io, has recently celebrated its 7th birthday and shared the achievements of the company in the crypto advertising market over the course of its existence. Today, the crypto ad network can be righteously considered to be the leader in blockchain and crypto advertising. It's reach spans over an extensive network of over 6000 publishers, which are websites that broadcast display ads distributed through the platform. On the other end, the company has attracted and continuously works with at least 4000 clients that in turn get unmatched access to the global blockchain community.

Key Achievements

Bitmedia LTD reports that its revenue has increased by over 20 times throughout the past few years and continues to grow along with the crypto industry developments. In the time between Q4 of 2019 and Q1 2021, Bitmedia's user base has increased by over 56%, progressing further at a similar pace. Other key achievements include:

• Total impressions: over 150 billion 
• Total advertisers: over 4,000 
• Total ads: over 100,000 
• Total publishers: over 6,000 
• Mailing List users: over 120,000 
• Unmatched variety of advertising tools 
• Industry-leading entrance bids threshold

Becoming the market leader 

Rising up the leaderboard of the best marketing service platforms in blockchain must be accompanied by constant improvements. It is exactly the tactic that Bitmedia has chosen, which to this day, keeps it at the forefront of the industry. In fact, thanks to the team behind the platform, Bitmedia crypto ad network is the only platform that offers CPC display ads, lowest CPM bids, frequency capping and ad rerun settings. Likewise, the webmasters that exist on the other side of the network can toggle their CPM Floor, which allows setting the minimum threshold on the ads supplied by Bitmedia crypto ad network. In the conversation with Matvey Diadkov, the company's CEO, he outlined: 

"Our clients get the most provably effective ad solution on the market, and we never stop improving further!"

Unbound Security, leader in cryptographic key management and protection solutions, today announced that Fifth Third Bank (NASDAQ: FITB) has deployed Unbound CORE to tokenise credit card and other personally identifiable information (PII) to improve data security as part of its migration to the cloud.  

When the bank began upgrading and modernising its data infrastructure – including an organisation-wide move to the cloud – it turned to tokenisation as a means of securing that data. It needed to ensure end-to-end security of its most sensitive information and that data could be segregated on multiple levels to limit the impact of a compromise or technical issue.  

While refreshing its infrastructure and moving legacy apps to AWS Cloud and creating new ones for mobile, the bank also required a solution that provided secure tokenisation with a fast application integration API and that had a minimal impact on its existing databases.  

The bank deployed Unbound CORE over AWS and two data centres, supporting the tokenisation of assets across multiple applications. The platform uses multiparty computation, an advanced form of cryptography, to split encryption keys into shares and never bring them together to eliminate the single point of failure in cryptographic deployments. Critically, other functions built on top of this technology – such as the ability to tokenise complex data and make it functional with any existing database – ease the cloud migration process for developers.   

Philip Schneider, director of security engineering at Fifth Third Bank, comments: “Securing sensitive data is absolutely critical for cloud adoption, specifically in the financial sector. When we embarked on our cloud migration, we knew it had to be one of our top priorities. The local container tokenisation product that Unbound is creating has huge potential to safely post services forward into untrusted zones, in trusted ways.”  

Fifth Third Bank secures between 30 to 50 distinct applications with CORE and is examining other ways of utilising the technology to streamline and simplify its tech stack – and to continue to bring premium services and unprecedented security to its customers.  

Prof. Yehuda Lindell, chief executive officer at Unbound Security, comments: “At Unbound, we want to ensure that both financial institutions and enterprises can deploy security across their business without compromising on operations or the user experience. Multiparty computation and our CORE platform have helped dozens of enterprise clients do just that, and we are honoured to have Fifth Third as one of our primary customers.”  

For more information on Fifth Third Bank’s use of Unbound CORE, please read the case study here.  

Egress’ Insider Data Breach Survey 2021 has revealed that an overwhelming 96% of financial services organisations have experienced insider data breaches in the last year. Human error was the top cause of serious incidents, according to 88% of IT leaders surveyed. However, IT leaders are more concerned about malicious insiders, with 38% indicating that employees falling for a phishing attack is their biggest fear. 

Additionally, 80% of organisations have been breached because of employees breaking security rules, and 79% have been the victim of phishing attacks.

The survey, independently conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Egress, surveyed 500 IT leaders and 3,000 employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal.

The research also highlights the impact of the pandemic on security for financial services firms. With employees working at arms length from security teams, organisations are seeing an increase in data breach incidents. Almost seven in ten (69%) IT leaders in financial services said that they’ve seen an increase in incidents caused by human error during the pandemic, such as employees sending emails to the wrong person by mistake. When asked if they think that remote and hybrid working will make it harder to prevent breaches caused by human error, 63% agreed that they will be more difficult to prevent.

Furthermore, 65% of IT leaders say that the number of employees falling for phishing attacks has increased during the pandemic, indicating a need for additional security technology and employee training.

Concerningly, due to the pandemic IT leaders in financial services are also seeing an increase in incidents caused by employees intentionally not following security procedures, with 65% indicating that they’ve seen an increase in incidents caused by employees not following security measures. With many organisations considering their plans for a hybrid or remote future, security teams will be considering the best way to manage this increased risk moving forward.

Egress CEO Tony Pepper comments: “Insider risk is every organisation’s most complex vulnerability – and it has far-reaching consequences, from ransomware attacks to loss of client trust. Organisations must act now to mitigate the risk posed by their people.

“The research highlights the importance of empowering employees – they want to protect their employer’s data, and it’s up to organisations to ensure that they’re building a security-positive culture. With the right technology and strategy in place, organisations can transform their people from their biggest security vulnerability into their strongest line of defence.”

Allstar Business Solutions Limited, the UK’s leading fuel management company, today announces its new partnership with leading electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure provider, EB Charging. The partnership will begin with 59 charge points before the rest of EB’s network will be added over the coming months to the multi-branded Allstar One Electric network, as they are upgraded to accept the Allstar One Electric Card.

EB is a fast growing British business working with over 50 local authority, NHS and commercial partners, aiming to improve infrastructure for the EV market and enable fleet operators to adopt the technology with greater ease. By joining Allstar Business Solutions’ network, the company will continue to support customers across the UK, providing greater access to compatible charging points.

The partnership signifies the continuation of Allstar’s EV network expansion and follows the launch of its EV charging payment solution, the Allstar One Electric card. As the 282 chargers are added to the network, the partnership comes at a time when businesses are increasingly looking to incorporate alternative fuels (AF) vehicles and EV into their fleets.

The latest EV statistics for February* confirmed this, with more than 215,000 pure-electric cars on UK roads and over 455,000 plug-in models, including plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).  However, research on Allstar Business Solutions’ customer base last year found that a third of fleet owners that participated in the research currently see a lack of infrastructure as a critical barrier to integrating AF vehicles into their operations**.

The partnership will help address this issue with the expansion of the fuel network and will aid businesses as they work towards meeting the government’s plans to ban sales of new petrol, diesel and some hybrid cars in the UK by 2030.

Paul Holland, Managing Director of UK Fuel at FLEETCOR UK, said: “It is clear that UK fleet operators are eager to incorporate even more EV into their businesses. They just need a better infrastructure to support the transition. Collaborations, such as our partnership with EB Charging, will help make this a reality by offering greater access to charging points through our Allstar One Electric card.”

Dan O’Hara, CEO at EB Charging, added: “Our main target is to reduce the UK’s collective carbon footprint and improve air quality by helping people move from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles and more sustainable energy. This switch is made so much easier by improving access and the availability of electric charging points.”

He added: “This switch to electrification for fleets is also crucial in meeting these targets and today’s partnership with Allstar Business Solutions is an exciting next step on this journey. Our joint goal of improving access to charging points will help drive our shared success and make the EV driving experience easier and more cost-effective.”

To find out more about the Allstar One Electric network and how the Allstar One Electric card can benefit your business visit: www.allstarcard.co.uk or contact our expert team at: 0345 266 5101.

* next greencar: Electric car market statistics (11^th March 2021)

**Allstar survey carried out in Nov 2020 with 477 Allstar SME customers.

Paya , a leading integrated payments and commerce solutions provider, has announced a strategic partnership with RECUR360, a cloud-based software and automation solution provider which offers recurring payment, invoicing, and collection capabilities across a number of B2B verticals. Through the partnership, RECUR360 will offer its clients enhanced capabilities and support for integrated card and ACH while also tapping into new, underserved markets such as wholesalers, distributors, and field service providers.

“With this strategic partnership, RECUR360 will offer its customers increased efficiency throughout the end-to-end payments process while also offering an enhanced user experience,” said Jeff Hack, Paya’s CEO. “The partnership also provides Paya with further opportunities to serve B2B-focused software clients within the field services industry, where our integrated payments capabilities can offer a major value proposition.”

“Our collaboration with Paya represents another significant step forward in value for our customers,” said Andrew Abrams, Founder and CEO of Recur360. “We are excited about Paya’s robust API library and its automated onboarding process, both of which will make the payments process more seamless and efficient for RECUR360’s customers.”

Hardbacon, a personal finance application that helps you achieve your financial goals, launches a national advertising campaign today encouraging Canadians to shop for financial products, while shining light on the best way to do it.

Under a new campaign, “Compare. Make Money”, Hardbacon reaffirms its commitment to help all Canadians take responsibility for their own finances by highlighting the Hardbacon app and website to compare everything from credit cards and bank accounts, to insurance and online brokers. Created by EKO productions, a Montreal-based content agency, the campaign includes a series of playful vignettes, created to spark curiosity, evoke thought and showcase the hidden money behind your financial products.

“Canadians leave a lot of money on the table by selecting the first financial product offered to them, rather than shopping for the best fees and rates,” said Hardbacon CEO, Julien Brault. “We wanted to make finding and comparing the right financial products easier and more convenient with Hardbacon.”

The Canada-wide TV and digital initiative launches today with campaigns on Facebook and Youtube, as well as with targeted TV ads through media properties such as Radio Canada’s Zone économie, hosted by Gérald Fillion, and on L’Indice McSween with Quebec personality Pierre-Yves McSween. The campaign will run throughout the 2021 summer season and into fall with new initiatives.

Hardbacon launched as an app for retail investors and transformed into an app for all Canadians to take control of their finances at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, it is on a mission to help Canadians make better financial decisions and, in turn, get the bacon to lead wealthier and more financially secure lives.

The campaign is now live and the various ads can be viewed on Youtube.

Compare credit cards : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Bt1XA5o18   
Compare online brokers : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMivxUAa2Lo
Compare bank accounts : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQBFiPp9FKI
Compare mortgages : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYgbctv92pk

• Eka Ventures is an early stage venture fund that is integrating impact investing into mainstream venture capital
• The firm will invest in category-defining consumer technology companies that positively shape the world, making it more sustainable, healthy, and inclusive.
• Eka’s team has strong expertise in backing consumer-tech companies such as Gousto and Bloom & Wild
• Investors in the fund include British Business Bank, Big Society Capital, Isomer Capital, further institutions and technology entrepreneurs, including 12 founders the Eka partners previously backed

Eka Ventures today announces that it has had a final close on a £68m ($95m) fund, making it the largest impact-driven early stage venture capital fund focused on the UK. Investors in the fund include British Business Bank, BSC, Isomer, Guys and St Thomas Foundation, Planet First Partners, Draper Esprit, Snowball and others, including 24 entrepreneurs, 12 of whom are founders the Eka partners have previously backed.

Eka was founded on the belief that the most successful businesses of the next generation will be built to solve a clear social or environmental challenge and is integrating impact investing into mainstream venture capital.

Eka will invest in consumer technology companies focused on redefining business systems to be more sustainable, healthy and inclusive. This is reflected in Eka’s three investment themes: sustainable consumption, consumer healthcare, and the inclusive economy. The fund will focus on the UK, invest early and lead rounds, making investments between £500k-3m.

Eka was founded by Jon Coker, Camilla Dolan and Andrew Richardson. The founding team has a combined 30+ years of experience working in venture capital, and has backed some of the biggest and most exciting consumer tech companies of the last 10 years, including Gousto, Bloom & Wild, Peak and Elder.

The fund focuses on three key areas: sustainable consumption, consumer healthcare, and the inclusive economy.

Sustainable consumption: reducing emissions, waste and resource use through more efficient, circular consumption models and supply chains.

Our current consumption models are linear and inefficient creating unsustainable levels of emissions, waste and environmental degradation. 66% of global carbon emissions are created by household consumption, and a developed world consumer creates 3.5x the global average. We believe a combination of software, hardware and data science can change these models to be low waste and resource-efficient.

Consumer healthcare: reducing chronic illness and health inequality through prevention, early detection and low impact treatment methodologies.

Our treatment focused health systems are creaking under the pressures of ageing demographics and rising chronic disease. Currently, 95% of healthcare spend is on treatment rather than prevention but the quality of the treatment you receive only determines 25% of your health. We believe technology has now reached a cost point to put products in the hands of the consumer that can shift to a more proactive & preventative system.

Inclusive Economy: Reducing expenditure poverty and financial exclusion by using technology to reduce the cost to serve in life-essential products.

Whole sections of our society find it hard to access essential products. 45 - 50% of our health is determined by socioeconomic factors and healthy life expectancy is 18.5 years shorter for the most disadvantaged in our society. We now have the technology to dramatically reduce the cost to serve making life essential products more accessible and affordable to everyone.

Jon Coker, General Partner of Eka says “Over the next 20 years the effect our old business systems have on our health and climate is going to become increasingly and undeniably apparent. At the same time the power of our new technologies to meet, shape and change these old businesses systems can be realised in mainstream adoption. The combination of these two dynamics will create an environment of unparalleled opportunity for entrepreneurs to build companies of extraordinary value that positively shape the world. These are the entrepreneurs we set up Eka to back.”

Camilla Dolan, General Partner of Eka, says “When it comes to working with companies, we are clear in our desire for scale, and we will do everything in our power to help the founders we work with achieve their ambitious goals. We are looking for entrepreneurs who set the bar for impact driven innovation high and who are focused on fundamentally changing or creating a category, in the same way Tesla has single-handedly propelled the electric vehicle industry forward. We set Eka up to back companies with that level of ambition”

Timo Boldt, Founder of Gousto “Jon and Camilla are two of the best investors a founder could possibly hope for. They supported Gousto with our Series A back in 2013 and have been cheerleaders ever since. Their new venture, Eka, is tightly aligned with our own philosophy because of their focus on sustainability. Much like them, we believe in the power of people to drive change.”

Ken Cooper, Managing Director, Venture Solutions, British Business Bank said: “The Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme is a key tool in helping to develop and maintain an effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers and for those targeting less well-served areas of the market.  Our commitment of £36m to Eka Ventures, will enable them to support new and growing sustainable consumer technology businesses in the UK.”

Douglas Sloan, Investment Director at Big Society Capital, “It’s been hugely rewarding and exciting to work with Eka on developing their approach to investing with impact. The team brings a track record of successful VC investing and a thoughtful thesis on identifying areas where impact and commercial value are delivered in parallel. With an impact lens embedded into its core investment tools and decision making, we’re excited about Eka’s potential to create impactful ventures which tackle the problems of those most in need, at scale.”

Catherine Dupéré, Partner at Isomer Capital, “We're impressed by Eka's focused investment strategy which addresses a rapidly growing opportunity in sustainable brands and B2C businesses. We've had the privilege of knowing the team for over ten years now and we've observed that they not only bring together significant experience and expertise to support companies as they scale, but also the passion and empathy that makes entrepreneurs want to work with them. Eka is a wonderful addition to our portfolio of over 40 early stage European VCs who all share an entrepreneurial mindset and partnership-driven approach.”