Funding Xchange has been a leading provider in the digital assessment of SME lending applications since 2014. Leveraging this experience, Funding Xchange has created a platform which delivers assessment of eligibility and affordability across products. FXE Technologies makes these digital solutions available to banks and lenders to instantly triage customers against underwriting models while transforming customer conversion and engagement.

FXE Technologies today, is providing white labelled solutions to a range of customers including Tier 1 banks and boutique lenders. The application of the solution suite enables these clients to realise a number of key value drivers, from increased conversion rates in the front office to optimised visibility of risks and opportunities in the back office.

Chief Commercial Officer, Ben Sher commented “As the financial services market continues to diversify, lenders are challenged to meet the growing digital experience demands of customers while facing into the threat of technology enabled competitors. FXE Technologies provides banks and lenders with easy to deploy tools to maximise customer conversion and reduce portfolio risk while delivering an experience to the end customer that secures stickiness in the relationship.

Customer insight is at the heart of everything we do, pulling in data from multiple credit reference agencies, management accounts providers, open banking, payments data and accounting platforms. All delivered within business applications that consume this data to yield customer insight relevant to the business context, be it pre-origination triage, portfolio risk assessment or broker driven intermediation.”

Co-Founder and CEO of Funding Xchange, Katrin Herrling commented, “Seeking out opportunities in an uncertain time requires greater insights into businesses’ trading and payments performance. It is clear that there are attractive lending opportunities in the market and unlocking these will require digital capabilities to be able to identify and deploy funding efficiently. The use of real-time data to understand how businesses are performing is becoming even more important in these times. This is where FXE Technologies comes in to deliver digital capabilities to the SME lending eco-system.”

The FXE Technologies solution suite can be viewed at: https://fundingxchange.co.uk/fxe-technologies/

Fintechs to co-develop tailored version of Finastra’s Fusion Opics treasury solution for Chinese market

Finastra, headquartered in London, UK, and Hangzhou Hundsun Lirong Software Co. Ltd. ("Hundsun Lirong"), a subsidiary of Hundsun Technologies Inc., have today announced a partnership to co-develop a Chinese version of Finastra’s Fusion Opics treasury solution, Hundsun Mangos. Built on Hundsun Technologies’ cloud-based platform, the new solution will be tailored to the specific requirements of the Chinese market whilst also meeting international standards, enabling banks to develop and deliver high quality treasury operations and capitalize on opportunities.

As of the end of 2020, China's interbank market served more than 30,000 institutional investors from over 50 countries and regions around the world, with an average daily trading volume of more than RMB 6 trillion. As interbank market transaction volumes continue to expand, and as institutions deepen and broaden their participation in this space, banks are raising the standards required of their treasury systems. However, given the highly specialized nature of the industry, the complexity of domestic and international business use cases, and the fact that markets outside of China have been developing treasury software for longer, there remains a sizeable gap between domestic and foreign treasury solutions.

Fan Jingwu, Executive President of Hundsun Technologies and Chairman of Hundsun Lirong, said: “As a software company focused on the development of banking treasury systems, Hundsun Lirong will partner with Finastra to develop an integrated banking treasury system called Hundsun Mangos, covering the whole value chain across front, middle and back office. This will be done by leveraging Finastra’s experience in the treasury operations space, combined with Hundsun Technologies' technical and commercial expertise in front office transactions. The solution will support the self-reliant and steady development of domestic treasury systems, as well as being a key initiative in Hundsun Technologies’ strategy to increase international expertise.”

Finastra’s Fusion Opics is used by over 180 customers in more than 300 sites around the world. The solution covers all aspects of a bank’s treasury operations on a single platform, from deal inception through to settlement and accounting, making treasury operations more cost-effective and increasing overall profitability. Hundsun Mangos will include compatibility with Chinese domestic treasury products, as well as being cloud-ready in anticipation of more banking systems moving to the cloud in the future.

Eric Duffaut, President and Global Head of Operations at Finastra, said: “By combining the deep expertise and experience of Hundsun and Finastra we are creating exciting potential for the Chinese treasury market. Hundsun Mangos will enable banks to benefit from streamlined treasury operations with integrated and automated systems, all within a platform that is tailored for China’s specific local requirements whilst meeting international standards. We are pleased to embark on this new partnership with Hundsun Lirong to help banks across China enhance their treasury operations and grow their businesses.”

As part of the new partnership, Hundsun Lirong will take on the management of Finastra’s existing Fusion Opics customers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as their overseas branches. The Hundsun Lirong team, which has gained many years of experience in implementing and maintaining Finastra’s Fusion Opics and Fusion Summit solutions, will work in close partnership with Finastra’s China team. Hundsun Lirong will continue to act as Finastra's partner for Fusion Summit in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau going forward, providing differentiated treasury solutions for banking clients of all sizes, across large state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, city commercial banks and rural commercial banks.

• Anne-Sophie joins from Crédit du Nord Group and will lead Ebury’s activities in France
• ​Appointment reflects Ebu2ry’s ambitions in the French market following its partnership with La Banque Postale, and continued international expansion

Ebury, a leading global FinTech, has announced the appointment of Anne-Sophie Matthieu as the new Country Manager of its French division.

Anne-Sophie began her career at BNP Paribas working for its M&A unit in London before moving into the private banking division in Paris.

She joined the Société Générale group in 2007 in the trading room on foreign exchange products, then the Crédit du Nord group in November 2011 as Head of Sales of the trading room. Moving into the position of Head of Client Market Solutions in 2018, she became a member of the Supervisory Board of Banque Courtois in 2016, then of the Crédit du Nord Group Management Committee in February 2021.

Anne-Sophie will be charged with executing Ebury’s international strategy by accelerating the company’s growth in France, drawing on her experience and knowledge of the international banking system.  

Ebury recently announced that it has joined forces with a French bank, La Banque Postale, to support French SMEs in their international activities. 

The partnership gave the bank’s customers access to Ebury’s services to open a foreign currency account, carry out spot foreign exchange transactions in 140 currencies and make international transfers from a secure, dedicated platform, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Ebury executes transactions totalling more than $21bn annually and is located across 25 global offices. 

Anne-Sophie Mathieu, Country Manager of France, commented: “I am honoured and happy to join the Ebury team. I am determined to accelerate the development of Ebury’s activity in France with passion, determination and enthusiasm.

“Foreign exchange solutions are vital for SMEs in France to conduct business internationally with activities ranging from making payments to securing trade finance. Ebury’s dedicated and expert team streamlines this process and offers a secure platform to transact. Building off the partnership with La Banque Postale, I am excited at the opportunity in France and look forward to realising Ebury’s ambitious growth strategy in the region.” 

Fernando Pierri, Chief Commercial Officer at Ebury commented: “Ebury is a business built on the best and brightest talent out there, and Anne Sophie fits this perfectly. I am delighted to welcome her to Ebury and we are all excited to see her and our French team continue to offer our clients an excellent service.”

The ability to adapt to higher levels of supply chain uncertainty is now essential for global companies and their suppliers

The supply chain challenges seen throughout the world in recent months, from the pandemic to the Suez Canal blockage and now the ongoing closure of the Yantian terminal in Shenzhen, can no longer be considered shocks, according to Taulia, the leading fintech provider of working capital solutions. In a new paper, Taulia has outlined the numerous issues over the past 18 months that have highlighted the fragility of global supply chains, and their impact.

Uncertainty in managing inventory had been growing even before the pandemic, as geopolitical tensions affected trade between the US and China. The US has also faced trucking strikes, while Brexit has caused transportation shortages and increased costs for UK and European firms. The recent Suez Canal blockage created yet another supply shock, costing around $9 billion each day, while the semiconductor chip shortage has wreaked further havoc for many industries. 

Taulia predicts that higher levels of demand, inflation and interest rates in the near future will only add further pressure and complexity for companies already struggling with supply shortages, depleted stock, increased shipping costs, supplier financial pressures and greater uncertainty. 

Erik Wanberg, Head of Inventory Management at Taulia, commented: “These problems now need to be treated as a new normal in supply chain and inventory management. There is simply too much at stake for companies to continue attributing them to outlier events and not taking appropriate forward-looking action.  Investors generally reward companies who have the agility to react quickly to negative events with minimal impact to their performance relative to their peers.” 

Taulia believes this ‘perfect storm’ has created an urgent need for companies to adapt to higher levels of supply chain uncertainty and costs in shipping and international trade. It has made agile supply chain management more critical than ever. While many firms have begun adapting by holding higher levels of safety stocks, this increases inventory and storage costs, tying up valuable capital that could be put to better use elsewhere in the organization.

Wanberg added: “Today, balancing the competing priorities of holding just enough inventory to avoid production outages while reducing inefficient capital and storage costs is a crucial part of supply chain management and one that shouldn’t be overlooked. By reducing the working capital tied up in inventory, while maintaining the same level of sales, companies can drive a higher return on capital. But in order to do this, companies need new solutions that can both increase their visibility through better data and bring improved access to efficient capital. As with many things, technology will provide the greatest opportunity for supply chain transformation and competitive advantage”.

Taulia’s ‘Profitability through Inventory Management’ white paper can be downloaded here: https://taulia.com/resources/profitability-through-inventory-management-a-new-approach/ 

• New partnerships with WellnessLiving and Tevalis will allow merchants to take payments through a trusted, secure and compliant platform
• This will also help businesses deliver seamless online and in-store checkout experiences, which is critical as the economy reopens
• In addition, Barclaycard Payments extends its partnership with BigCommerce, to offer a faster, digital on-boarding service to small and medium-sized businesses

Barclaycard Payments, which processes almost £1 in every £3 spent in the UK, has announced a trio of new partnership agreements to boost its offering to e-commerce, leisure and hospitality merchants.

The new partnerships with WellnessLiving and Tevalis will provide specialist payments expertise for customers with an online presence and with physical stores, across the leisure and hospitality sectors. As non-essential stores reopen for business, and pubs and restaurants return to serving food and drink indoors, being able to offer customers a seamless payment experience is critical to success.

WellnessLiving and Tevalis’ leisure and hospitality customers, such as gyms, pubs, bars and restaurants, will now have the opportunity to access Barclaycard’s payments platform and select Barclaycard as a new payment provider, benefiting from a trusted and secure payment gateway through which to process transactions.   

WellnessLiving – a cloud-based solution for the fitness, health and wellness industry supporting 5,000 businesses worldwide, will see the full integration of Barclaycard’s Smartpay Fuse gateway into its booking management solution to provide a safe and frictionless checkout experience when taking payment for classes, appointments memberships or repeat services.

The integration with Barclaycard Payments allows a customer to see availability online, select a session and make payment all on the same page seamlessly. There is no need to go into a gym, spa or salon and personally set up a direct debit – instead, the customer can complete the whole process online. A new customer’s account ID can be set up, as well as the option to hold card details and schedule payments online, though a secure and trusted payment provider.  

With the pandemic limiting face-to face interaction, WellnessLiving gives customers the ability to host live and on-demand fitness classes online, for their clients. This is made even easier thanks to the partnership with Barclaycard Payments, because clients can book and pay for the entire experience simply and securely, giving them more time to focus on their fitness and wellbeing.  

As eating and dining out becomes part of daily life once more, Tevalis – a leading electronic point-of-sale technology provider – has been making the transition easier for the hospitality industry. Tevalis supports over 2,000 UK hospitality businesses of all sizes, including pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels. The integration of Tevalis’ systems with Barclaycard terminals means the average sale processing time is reduced, helping to improve speed-of-service, customer satisfaction and productivity.

The integration will also reduce human error, because staff will no longer type the payment amount into their card machine by hand, which means that customers won’t be accidentally over or under-charged. Reconciliation is fully automated, meaning there is no need to cross-check figures against end-of-day reports when completing the final settlement, saving staff valuable time.

Furthermore, with customers favouring fast and simple ordering methods, Tevalis’ new order and pay app allows customers to scan a QR code, prompting the free app to be downloaded. This then allows the customer to order their favourite dishes to their table and the integration with Barclaycard means customers can make payments seamlessly.

In addition to these two new agreements, Barclaycard Payments is also extending its partnership with BigCommerce, the e-commerce platform catering to more than 60,000 customers worldwide – from large corporates to small and medium sized businesses. The partnership will now offer digital on-boarding in the UK, meaning smaller businesses can set up their online payments quickly and seamlessly. This will allow them to start trading faster, maximising sales, without compromising on security.

Nicole Olbe, Managing Director of Partnerships at Barclaycard Payments, said: “The past year has been very challenging for SMEs, in particular those in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. Strengthening our e-commerce capabilities with BigCommerce will speed up the process for smaller businesses wanting to go online allowing businesses to increase sales and maximise profit. In addition, partnering with WellnessLiving and Tevalis has given us the ability to deliver an equally seamless online and in-store payment experience across specialist businesses in the leisure and hospitality sectors.

With the reopening up of non-essential stores and the wider economy, retailers are tasked with drawing back their physical customer base as well as continuing to drive growth online, in order to be successful. Thanks to these new partnerships, merchants will benefit from having a market-leading, trusted and secure payments platform, giving them peace of mind, and the head space to really focus on what they do best – driving growth.”  

Intelligence Squared launches a special series of debates titled “Intelligence Squared Crypto: Debates Within Cryptocurrency”, in partnership with EQONEX Group, the Nasdaq-listed digital asset financial services company.

Intelligence Squared, the global media company known as one of the world's leading forums for live debate, today launches a new series seeking to urgently address the key issues in the world of cryptocurrency. The series will bring together some of the world's best speakers to debate the key issues and opportunities faced by the crypto industry, beginning with a debate between Anthony Scaramucci and Peter Schiff on the merits of Bitcoin vs Gold (register here). Given their scarce nature and anti-inflationary properties, both assets have been seen as a resilient store of value, with strong and vociferous supporters on both sides. The series will be hosted by Anne McElvoy senior editor and director of podcasts at The Economist newspaper. 

Through the series, Intelligence Squared intends to make the sometimes polarizing world of cryptocurrency, and more specifically Bitcoin, more understandable. The series will allow a broad audience access to the biggest names in crypto who will share their views on the most important issues impacting the world of crypto. Audience members can ask questions of the speakers and can also vote on the motion set out at the beginning of each event.

Other issues to be debated will include the environmental impact of crypto with Lyn Alden Schwarzer; Bitcoin's potential threat to the U.S. Dollar as a global reserve currency; and whether cryptocurrencies can help to 'bank the unbanked' in developing nations, with Peter McCormack. 

Intelligence Squared has partnered with the newly rebranded EQONEX, (previously known as Diginex), the first digital asset ecosystem with a cryptocurrency exchange to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, making it the ideal partner given its focus on fair, transparent and compliant markets for crypto. EQONEX has funded the launch of Intelligence Squared Crypto with bitcoin, which is being held on the company’s balance sheet and stored securely by EQONEX's FCA registered digital asset custodian, Digivault.     

The events will be free to attend. The audio will become episodes on Intelligence Squared’s podcast network.

Intelligence Squared is the world’s leading platform for high-level debate and discussion. It has a network of podcasts, a YouTube subscriber base of more than 430,000, a digital subscription service called Intelligence Squared+ for its live events and will be staging in-person events in London in the autumn. It has featured on its stage many of the world’s top business leaders and thinkers including Satya Nadella, Tom Friedman, Sheryl Sandberg, Eric Schmidt, Yuval Noah Harari, Kate Raworth, Michael Lewis, Mariana Mazzucato and Reid Hoffman.

Matt McAllester, CEO of Intelligence Squared, said: “We’re excited to be launching Intelligence Squared Crypto, which will bring robust and equitable debate around cryptocurrency to our audience. In building this offering, we felt that EQONEX would be the perfect partner given the values they stand for around strong corporate governance as well as fair and transparent markets for crypto. This alignment with the Intelligence Squared mission – to be a global platform for debate – made it a natural fit for our organizations.”

Richard Byworth, CEO at EQONEX, said: “For crypto to become mainstream it is vital for healthy debate to be held about all aspects of its utility, sustainability credentials and challenges. This partnership with Intelligence Squared is expected to bring rigorous but balanced debate around crypto, and educate a wider audience, a crucial step for the increased adoption of this rapidly evolving industry.”

Fintech industry veterans join a growing team as global payment provider opens new regional headquarters

Today MultiPay Global Solutions is announcing the latest phase of its global expansion with the appointments of its new Nordic CTO, Anders Jacobsen and Sales Director, Jakob Dige. The appointment of Anders and Jakob will also see MultiPay’s couture service and unique payment technology extended to support customers in Norway from its new Denmark-based Nordic office.

The appointments of Anders and Jakob come at a crucial time for MultiPay as it looks to broaden its presence across the region. Working closely with co-founders CEO, David Maisey and COO, Delia Pedersoli, Anders, and Jakob will aid the growth of MultiPay’s customer base while also providing local partners and customers with additional advice and support.

“Anders and Jakob bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to our Nordic customers and partners, and we are so pleased to have them join our team,” said David Maisey, CEO of MultiPay Global Solutions. “Across the world, the payment landscape is changing. Cash is rapidly disappearing, and newer ways to pay like mobile and contactless solutions are growing. Having Anders and Jakob’s expertise on hand will mean we can better support businesses as they look to update and improve their payment infrastructure.”  

Anders Jacobsen arrives with nearly 20 years of experience in the payments and retail sectors, where he helped and guided businesses in making critical decisions about their technology infrastructure. He will be supported by payment industry veteran Jakob Dige who brings over 25 years of experience. Jakob will also be working closely with MultiPay’s regional partners to enable more businesses in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway to accept any payment, anywhere.  

“For the next phase of our Nordic expansion it was important that we got the right people in place,” said Delia Pedersoli, COO at MultiPay Global Solutions. “Anders and Jakob’s knowledge and expertise of the Nordic payment landscape enables us to better assist customers with local support backed up by the power of our full global team. As a result, businesses across the region have greater access to our class-leading technology and couture customer experience.”

Further underlining MultiPay’s commitment to the Nordics, is the news of the opening of its new Nordic office. Located in Denmark, the new regional office will provide a base for sales and support teams to assist customers with their growth and expansion.

Anders commented: “MultiPay’s focus on the Nordics is well-timed. Like many regions across the globe, payments technology and trends are changing at a rapid pace. Whether in a physical store, restaurant or even online, consumers expect to be able to pay with their preferred method. Businesses that fail to offer this, or add in unnecessary steps, damage the customer experience, and risk high levels of customer churn. MultiPay’s unique technology means that business can simplify their payment infrastructure and offer a premium service to their customers.”

“It is really exciting to be joining MultiPay as it expands its Nordic presence. I’m looking forward to working not only with MultiPay’s experienced and passionate team but also its incredible set of partners too. As we look to grow across Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, we want to ensure that we continue to work closely with and support our partners too.”  

“The continued expansion of MultiPay’s presence in the Nordic region is great news for businesses that are looking to grow and expand into new territories,” said Karsten Knudsen, CCO at ONLINEPOS. “It’s ability to support any payment anywhere through a single API means it can quickly and easily scale to other countries without needing to work around payment technologies, currencies or location. For ambitious businesses, it is the perfect payment solution.”

Now available across Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, MultiPay is ready to help businesses access the payment experiences their customers now expect.