We are glad to share the news that Path Solutions and its Group Chairman & CEO have been announced as winners in the GAMECHANGERS (ACQ5) GLOBAL AWARDS 2021, under the following categories:

• Islamic Financial Software Provider of the Year, Path Solutions
• Core Banking System Provider of the Year (Islamic Finance), Path Solutions for the seventh year
• Gamechanger of the Year (Fintech) - Mohammed Kateeb, Group Chairman & CEO for the third consecutive year.  

“As these two awards bring our total number of accolades to 12 in just the last six months, we are honored and grateful for this staggering recognition. These awards are key part of our score that measures our continuous drive and passion for innovation for the financial services industry. It also reflects the incredible hard work and commitment of our amazing team at Path Solutions”, commented Mohammed Kateeb. “It is our firm’s mission to create innovative software solutions tailored to meet our clients’ technology needs and help enhance and transform their strategic goals. We pride ourselves on being a key contributor to the evolving financial ecosystem and are particularly pleased when our efforts are recognized and rewarded”, he concluded.

The GAMECHANGERS (ACQ5) GLOBAL AWARDS 2021 pay tribute to firms and individuals who have been successful over the past 12 months and had the greatest impact on the industry at this ongoing complex juncture. All candidates were examined by ACQ5 research team and winner shortlists were created for each jurisdiction and practice area. The candidates were then evaluated and selected by an independent panel of industry experts.

Justin Downey, ACQ5 Global Awards Coordinator, said, “The difficult operating environment makes this year’s winners in our GLOBAL AWARDS program even more deserving of the coveted trophy. Not only have businesses successfully managed the pressures of running their operations remotely, but have also taken good care of their clients, responding rapidly to their needs and stepping up support in these demanding times”.

He further said, “What is clear from the thousands of entries we have received this year is that the investments which businesses have been making in the digital space have truly paid off and will continue to reap rewards in the years to come - constantly strengthening financial institutions in terms of reducing operational costs, improving customer experience and driving the financial inclusion agenda, and this is exactly what we are celebrating today”.

Path Solutions is a global provider of world-class AAOIFI-certified software solutions and services. As a proven IT partner focused on building tomorrow’s intelligent banks, Path Solutions enables clients in more than 40 countries to outperform and stay head of the innovation curve, by reinventing their business processes and enhancing customer experience driven by the transformative power of digital technologies.

To view Path Solutions’ listing in the GAMECHANGERS (ACQ5) GLOBAL AWARDS 2021, go to: https://awards.acq5.com/33/

Splitit, the company empowering shoppers to use their credit cards to pay in instalments, announced today it is bringing its instalment payments to in-store retail locations worldwide. Splitit InStore also includes Apple Pay and Google Pay to deliver an effortless in-store payment experience.

Splitit InStore was built to meet the needs of the retail sales associate to deliver a better customer experience at a time when retailers are also thinking about how to optimise their omnichannel strategy. Splitit InStore provides an instalment option the retail sales associate can initiate for shoppers when making larger value purchases, such as home furnishings, jewellry, luxury retail and sporting goods. Splitit InStore also enables shoppers to use ApplePay and GooglePay accounts via Splitit, using pay-by-link with a Splitit QR code, text message or email, when buying from participating merchants.

The added flexibility to pay over time helps alleviate the perceived risk of large expenditures and helps consumers afford the products they want. Splitit InStore also extends to phone orders providing additional capabilities for merchants.

The company also announced several new leading brands have signed on to use Splitit InStore. These brands include La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, Gem Shopping Network™, PROCAM, Fabergé, KEF and Aftershock PC Australia. Merchants interested in adding Splitit InStore to their retail locations can get on the waiting list at www.SplitIt.com/InStore.

“Online shopping has transformed the way we shop for furniture. But consumers still want to see, feel and experience our furniture firsthand,” said David Hilst, owner of five La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores in Illinois and Indiana. “Splitit delivers a seamless in-store experience. We can meet the shopper in the store and offer an instalment option instantly – it’s the best online experience in an offline environment. You don’t get this with other financing options.”

The service is accessible on any connected device. It can be offered right at the moment of purchase with no application or sign-up required by the shopper. And because Splitit uses the consumer’s available credit on a credit card, approval rates are in line with credit card industry averages of 85% or better^[1]. No red tape and low rejection rates mean more closed sales and less time checking out. instalment plans can last between six to 24 months, and Splitit never charges the consumer fees or interest. It’s a win for merchants, sales associates and customers.

“Retailers are starting to see a consistent increase of in-store traffic as we slowly recover from the pandemic. As a result, providing an in-store solution was the number one request from Splitit’s customers,” notes Splitit CEO Brad Paterson. “Splitit InStore answers this call and is just one way we continue to innovate to match this permanent change in shopper habits and preferences. Besides broadening our addressable market by accessing retailers with a brick-and-mortar store presence, this also opens Splitit to exciting new categories.”

Splitit InStore benefits other industries, including automotive repair, healthcare, home repair and improvement, and others without a flexible system to offer customers instalment payments.

New merchants using Splitit Instore include:

• La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries: Showcasing the world’s leading residential furniture producers with furniture for every room of the home. Hilst Enterprises operates five La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries stores in Illinois and Indiana and uses Splitit InStore to deliver a seamless shopping experience.
• Gem Shopping Network: Gem Shopping Network, the preeminent omnichannel platform for selling fine jewellery in the United States, reaches over 60 million pay-TV households and millions more across OTT, streaming and social platforms. Gem Shopping Network will partner with Splitit to pilot the program for their customers, giving them the flexibility to pay over time.
• PROCAM: A family-owned and operated business serving professional photography and video production. PROCAM will integrate Splitit into its ecommerce website and offer Splitit InStore at its brick-and-mortar locations in Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati.
• Fabergé: Fabergé, the world’s most iconic artist jeweller, creates extraordinary jewellery, watches and objets d’art, as well as bespoke commissions for a discerning international clientele. Fabergé is currently using Splitit in its online boutique, Faberge.com, and will be implementing Splitit InStore for selected boutiques in Europe.
• KEF: After more than half a century at the cutting edge of audio, the company remains committed to excellence in sound. KEF’s reputation for quality is founded on a refusal to compromise on aural authenticity or experience. KEF is offering Splitit online and using Splitit InStore at the KEF Music Gallery in Hong Kong to enhance the customer experience.
• Aftershock PC Australia: Founded in 2012 by a team of hardware enthusiasts, competitive gamers and IT professionals, Aftershock PC delivers the ultimate boutique PC experience through a combination of craftsmanship, no-compromise service and value. The company offers Splitit InStore in its new showroom in Melbourne for both its Aftershock and OmniDesk brands.

The launch of Splitit InStore continues the company’s recent innovation and growth. Recent milestones include the debut of Splitit Plus in April, a payment gateway built exclusively for instalment payments and several key partnerships, most notably the recent partnership with tabby, the largest BNPL provider in the Middle East. tabby will integrate a white-label version of Splitit into its platform, allowing tabby’s merchants to offer instalments on credit cards.

To learn more about how Splitit InStore can instantly add instalments to your retail stores, visit: www.SplitIt.com/InStore.

Rapid emergence of transformational digital business initiatives such as AI, ML, automation, and analytics is the driver behind increasing adoption of all-flash object storage

Scality today announced the results of an independent survey completed by IT decision makers across the UK, France and Germany. It revealed a fundamental shift in the industry towards flash-based object storage to fuel artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and big data analytics in place of other forms of primary storage. All-flash object storage provides comprehensive data protection of and rapid access to massive volumes of unstructured data, powering the heavy workloads of these digital business initiatives

The survey indicates that Europe is mature for this change, with 90% of respondents across all three countries stating that this move to all-flash object storage will occur within five years. Notably, France seems most convinced that this digital transformation will happen in under three years (76%), followed by Germany (72%) and the UK (43%).

“As flash becomes available at higher densities and lower costs, it is now suitable for high-capacity data storage,” explained Paul Speciale, chief product officer at Scality. “Object storage has begun to embrace flash media and, as the cost of flash decreases, it is likely to become the default media for object storage and will effectively make object storage the new primary storage for a much broader range of applications.”

Not only does all-flash object storage provide extremely high performance, thereby accelerating AI/ML environments, empowering business intelligence/analytics, and increasing infrastructure performance and utilisation, it also lowers TCO and improves application development.

In the survey conducted by Vanson Bourne, IT decision makers across various industries including financial services, telecom, professional services, manufacturing, and retail, were asked: “Do you think flash-based object storage will dominate storage platforms to fuel artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and big data analytics, in place of other forms of primary storage?”

Key findings in the UK include:

• The vast majority of UK respondents (77%) said this move to flash-based object storage will happen in the mid-term (one to five years), while respondents in France (76%) and Germany (72%) leant towards the short term (under three years).
• 3% of respondents said that it would occur within a year, 40% between one and three years, 37% between three and five years, and 1% beyond five years. 9% said it will not happen and 10% didn’t know.
• In the UK, participants from the IT, technology and telecom, (9%) and the retail, distribution and transport (5%) sectors were the only to state that this digital transformation will occur within one year.
• UK respondents in the business and professional services sector were most likely to state that the move to flash-based object storage will occur between three and five years, at 71% compared to an average across all UK respondents of 37%.
• UK respondents from smaller organisations (1,000 - 2,999 employees) were more likely to state that this transformation will occur within five years compared to larger organisations (3,000+ employees), at 92% to 76% respectively. Smaller organisations were also more likely to say all-flash object storage will dominate in the short to mid-term (8% under one year, 50% one to three years, 33% three to five years and 0% over five years). In contrast, larger organisations leaned more evenly towards the mid-term (1% under one year, 37% one to three years, 38% three to five years, and 1% over five years).

These European results are in line with research carried out by ESG in the US earlier in the year, which found that 77% of IT professionals at organisations currently using all-flash object storage said the technology has had a high impact or has been a game-changing technology in their on-premises storage environment.

• Creditspring reaches 50,000 members since its launch.
• Revenues and customer base have more than doubled in the last 6 months.
• Members benefit from two loans per year, with capped costs and no hidden charges.
• Members have so far made savings worth almost £3 million.

Creditspring, the FCA-regulated consumer credit provider, today announces that it has reached a milestone of 50,000 members since its launch in 2016. This is a key step in its ambition to improve the financial health of 100,000 members by the end of 2021.

Over the past six months, the number of people signing up to Creditspring’s services has increased sharply and its customer base has more than doubled. The company expects to retain this pace of growth during the remainder of 2021 and is on track to reach its goal of attaining 100,000 members by the end of the year.

This comes as COVID-19 continues to impact the finances and creditworthiness of many, with a quarter of UK adults experiencing low financial resilience according to the FCA.

Creditspring’s mission is to improve the financial stability and resilience of its customers by providing them with the tools they need to better manage their finances and steering them away from high-cost, short-term credit options. To date, it has been successful in this mission, with a recent survey revealing that 90% of Creditspring members attribute the company with improving their financial stability.

By the end of 2025, Creditspring aims to acquire over 2 million members, and put over £120 million per year back into the pockets of Creditspring members. The credit subscription service has made significant progress as it continues to pursue its overall mission to help over one million people.

Neil Kadagathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Creditspring, comments: “This milestone represents an exciting step as we seek to help over one million improve their financial stability, especially those borrowers whose thin credit files mean that they have been overlooked by mainstream lenders, and struggle to access affordable funds. With our growing subscription finance model, customers know upfront the cost of the credit they receive and have support when it comes to repayment planning and budgeting. With our customers’ overall savings amounting to nearly £3 million, we’re excited to continue to empower our growing member base to restore and boost their financial health.”

Credispring’s 50,000 members benefit from the platform’s affordable, easy-to-use loans and education tools. The subscription service’s fixed cost and low-risk credit solution offers an accessible, affordable, and responsible alternative to unscrupulous or unregulated lenders for borrowers who struggle to access mainstream credit. With access to two loans per year, members enjoy clear repayments, capped costs as well as no hidden charges or confusing APRs. In total, members have so far made savings of approximately £3 million, with nearly £13 million lent through over 40,000 loans.

MOVE Network, the world's leading NFT aggregator, is working with Binance NFT Marketplace to launch an NFT drop for the American superhero horror film named Brightburn. This highly anticipated NFT debut is expected to drop as early as Q3 2021.

MOVE is kicking things off by creatively tokenizing an esteemed selection of Brightburn's best artwork and digitizing the world's first superhero horror film NFTs. On April 29, 2021, MOVE Network announced its partnership with The H Collective, a well-known film corporation working with Hollywood's top producers and talent, for the upcoming release of premier NFT projects in the film industry such as this Brightburn NFT drop.

Binance NFT Marketplace offers an open market for artists, creators, crypto enthusiasts, NFT collectors, and creative fans around the world, with the best liquidity and minimal fees. Consisting of three categories, Premium Events, Mystery Box and a trading Marketplace, Binance NFT features valuable collectibles and an easily accessible trading market for all of its users.

MOVE proudly confirms its NFT Drop Event for Brightburn digital assets on one of the world's largest NFT marketplaces, Binance NFT Marketplace. This collaboration allows MOVE to leverage Binance's blockchain NFT technology and offer Brightburn themed NFTs on Binance NFT Marketplace. The exciting NFT Drop Event is expected to capture the attention of Brightburn and superhero fans alike. The fans can subscribe today on MOVE Network to stay informed on the latest news. With a promising future ahead, MOVE will continue co-producing innovative digital assets with its exclusive film industry IP.

 "The NFT Drop on Binance NFT Marketplace gives both companies a more robust way to market and distribute content. With the trust, integrity, and transparency that Binance brings, MOVE will bring its unique value proposition to the world of movie fans. In our collaboration with Brightburn, we have access to a broad portfolio of IP and unique NFT offerings that is beneficial to our clients and partners," said Daniel Bokun, President & Co-Founder of MOVE Network.

"The movie industry is always changing and we've been lucky to have been part of that process for the last few years. Movies and streaming content are rapidly moving into the crypto space via NFTs, which is another major shift in the world of global entertainment. We're excited by both our collaboration with MOVE and witnessing Brightburn transform as a crypto asset," said Kent Huang, Executive Producer of Brightburn and the Co-Chairman of The H Collective.

"The NFT launch on Binance NFT Marketplace would benefit both parties and further extend the NFT ecosystem. We are proud of MOVE and strongly support MOVE to develop innovative NFT product and derivatives. As investor, we are expecting MOVE to lead the market and re-define the NFT market" , said Richard Wang, Partner of DraperDragonFund.

MOVE Network is part of a larger tech group, Aladdin Technology Holdings, which specializes in blockchain, fintech platforms, and emerging platform technology. As the world's largest NFT aggregator, MOVE covers a wide spectrum of NFT products such as entertainment, music, artwork, and Esports. MOVE is teaming up with different IP distribution partners for NFT issuance in Asia and North America. 

Atom Bank, the UK’s first app-based bank, achieved two significant milestones this week when it exceeded £3bn of residential mortgage completions and on the same day hit £1bn in deposits into its Instant Saver accounts.

Since November 2016, Atom has provided 21,700 mortgage offers worth £3.97bn and has now helped 16,400 households complete on new mortgages to a total value of £3bn. Atom is achieving strong and profitable mortgage portfolio growth, providing more people with the opportunity to become homeowners. Atom continues to bring its combination of app-based customer experience and competitive pricing to those parts of the market where competition is most important, particularly for customers with smaller deposits and those with less than perfect credit history.

Reaching £1bn in Instant Saver balances is a key a moment of truth for both Atom’s new tech platform  - Instant Saver was the first product Atom built on its state of the art cloud-hosted banking core – and Atom’s decision to compete in instant access savings alongside its long-standing and award winning fixed rate products. Instant Saver was launched to the public in September 2020 and has been gaining a significant following for the ease of account opening and instant money transfers with customers’ existing current accounts.

Edward Twiddy, Chief Customer Officer at Atom, said:

“These milestones are significant achievements for Atom. We are here to solve two key questions for customers – where should I save to get a proper return on my savings, and where can I get a well priced mortgage that I can manage on my terms. We don’t carry excess costs in our business and so in a price lead market we can pay our savers more and charge our borrowers less; that has to be better for everyone, and the progress we continue to make suggests that we are getting a lot right.

“Alongside our rapidly growing commercial mortgage lending and our partnership with Funding Circle, the continued growth of our mortgage book means that Atom is very well set commercially. A sustainable business relies on being commercially strong as well as playing its role in the wider community; we will continue to do both as we set our sails towards an IPO, which we anticipate taking place in the next two years.”

 TORA, provider of the industry’s most advanced cloud-based order and execution management system (OEMS) has announced they are integrating the Glimpse Markets buy-side data sharing tool for fixed income into their multi-asset platform.

TORA users will now be able to seamlessly view Glimpse’s aggregated buy-side execution data inside TORA’s OEMS at point of trade. Clients can also opt in to contribute their trading data from TORA’s OEMS to Glimpse which will enable them to receive a ‘data dividend’ for the information that they contribute, based on the number of trades and total volume.

TORA’s market leading OEMS provides bond traders with access to advanced trading functionality, including sending RFQs to major bond platforms from the TORA GUI, trading on ATSs, access to real time market data, aggregation of runs, axe and inventory information, order allocation management, and post-trade analytics. The system also offers a comparable bond tool, smart order routing, pre-trade risk controls, real-time position management, and P&L tracking in one single interface. TORA FIX network is also able to connect to multiple bond trading platforms and global brokers to access greater liquidity and improve trade execution quality.

Glimpse Markets, is a fixed income data sharing platform that provides the buy-side with a post-trade data-sharing service for bond investors. Clients see all of the aggregated and anonymized data from everyone in the network on a T+1 basis.

Chris Jenkins, Managing Director, TORA stated “We are very happy to have integrated Glimpse Markets into our global unified trading platform. Both TORA and Glimpse are focused on building more transparency in bond markets and improving data for institutional investors. This integration will certainly help to give the buy-side more control and visibility”.

Paul O'Brien, Founder, Glimpse Markets commented “We are delighted to be collaborating with TORA and making our execution data available in their OEMS. Integrating with the leading technology vendors in our industry is essential to ensure the Glimpse dataset fits seamlessly into a buy-side client’s existing workflow so we’re very grateful to be partnering with a forward-looking company like TORA who embraces new initiatives like Glimpse.”

TORA’s OEMS offers the most comprehensive front-to-back end trading solution for hedge funds and asset managers. The functionality is fully auditable, MIFID II compliant and automatically details in depth order records, price information and creates best execution reports. TORA’s multi asset platform also delivers advanced pre trade and post trade TCA to improve execution quality and ensure best execution. TORA OEMS is a single trading system covering global markets in equities, bonds, futures, options and FX.

Internal ceremony reveals the £150 billion paid in hidden fees on foreign currency each year

Wise releases independent research* revealing £150 billion is unknowingly spent in hidden fees on foreign currency transfers each year, to coincide with its direct listing on the London Stock Exchange today.

The research was unveiled by company founders Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus from the company’s Tallinn office, as part of a private listing ceremony streamed to the company’s 2,400 Wisers (employees), located in 17 offices around the world. 

The direct listing is the first of a technology company on the London Stock Exchange. In contrast to a traditional Initial Public Offering, a direct listing is a fairer, cheaper and more transparent way for Wise to broaden its ownership, in support of its mission to move money around the world faster, cheaper, more conveniently and transparently.

As part of a speech to Wisers, Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise, said: 

“Wise was created to solve the problem of the billions unknowingly spent in hidden fees every year on currency exchange. Those are the billions we care most about, even today.

“Our listing is incredibly exciting, and lots of hard work from many people has made it a reality. But, it’s important to remember that we’re still very early on in our journey. Moving money into another currency is still a maze of hidden exchange rate mark-ups, high fees, delays, and small print for many people. We’re currently saving customers around £1 billion a year in these hidden fees. The £149 billion that’s still to go remains our focus.”

*Research methodology

An independent report from Edgar, Dunn and Company, with research undertaken in January 2021, shows that over £150 billion is paid in fees to traditional banks each year. These fees are either extracted through an exchange rate mark-up or a rate mark-up plus additional fees. The same research shows that only 4% of surveyed bank customers understand what they are being charged in these transactions.

 Serquo, a leading software and technology company, and HPS, the leading global provider of payment solutions, today announced a long-term strategic partnership to offer new and exciting payment technologies.

Combining their respective expertise in IT and payment software, Serquo and HPS will join forces to offer state-of-the-art payment solutions. Leveraging on Serquo’s strong local presence and experience in payment and testing, this partnership will allow Spanish financial institutions to benefit from an end-to-end service offering, with five-star local support.

HPS’s collaboration with Serquo will allow both companies to exchange and maximise their technological capacity, which will in turn enable HPS to further expand its partnerships and presence in Europe and more specifically in Spain. 

“We are very pleased to partner with a global and well-known player such as HPS. This new agreement will create many opportunities for both companies in the Spanish market. It will also strengthen our presence and our offer, always keeping in mind our standards of excellence.” said Galia Gómez, CEO of Serquo.  

“Through this partnership, HPS has established a local presence in Spain which will help us grow our footprint and deliver innovative payment solutions to all the banks in the country.” said Sebastien Slim, Europe & Americas Regional Director of HPS. “We look forward to working together on exciting and innovative projects across the peninsula.”

GoCardless, a leading fintech in account-to-account payments, has joined forces with Pennylane, the first financial management and accounting platform designed for companies and their accountants, to offer SMEs and start-ups a seamless way to manage and collect recurring payments. The partnership will combine Pennylane’s new subscription management functionality, enabling businesses to automate the creation of recurring invoices and accounting, with GoCardless’ global bank debit network, allowing them to automatically debit their customers when each payment is due. 

This means SMEs and start-ups no longer have to use manual processes, such as keeping a log, to remind them when to send their next invoice. This ensures invoices are always sent on time, eliminating barriers which slow down the payment cycle, and removes the need to duplicate and update invoices.

When it comes to collecting payments, the partnership helps to accelerate the process; on average, business get paid 47% faster with GoCardless. Users also benefit from lower failure rates and improved visibility of their cash flow, gaining greater certainty around the exact date when they’ll get paid. In addition, this integration gives joint customers easy access to the latest payment technology as GoCardless launches a series of open banking-enabled features this year.

Customers are already experiencing the power of Pennylane and GoCardless. Benjamin Donteville, founder of Scalability, a growth agency that allows companies to accelerate their sales through the implementation of an outbound strategy, acquired new clients rapidly after establishing his business at the start of this year. When he hit 50 customers, he started searching for a solution to save time on accounting and administrative tasks, leading him to Pennylane. 

Donteville said: “With subscription management from Pennylane, I easily save an hour a week -- and that's without taking into account the mental load that I'm saving.” GoCardless’ direct debit facility also helped him dramatically cut the amount of payments outstanding: “In April, I had €10,000 in arrears. Now that I use Pennylane's invoice editor and its integration with GoCardless, I have €400.”

News of this partnership comes after Pennylane announced a $18m funding round in June led by Sequoia Capital, becoming the first French start-up the famed VC invested in after establishing its European team. Founded in 2020, Pennylane now supports more than 1,200 business leaders and 100 accounting firms.

Rachel Astall, Director of Partnerships at GoCardless, said: “We’re excited to work with Pennylane, a company that is a great cultural fit with our own. With its vision to be the best financial operating system for startups and SMEs in Europe and our mission to take the pain out of getting paid, this partnership revolves around our mutual obsession to help merchants save time, reduce costs, maximise cash flow and, ultimately, focus on what they do best. We can’t wait to grow with Pennylane and our joint customers.”

Arthur Waller, CEO at Pennylane, said: "We are very happy to work with GoCardless, with whom we share the same ambition: to facilitate the financial management of SMEs so that business owners can focus on their customers and the growth of their company. Automating sales management and providing companies with better visibility of upcoming payments are two key elements in achieving this ambition."