Cardlay, a leading Danish commercial banking as a service payment FinTech, today announced it is collaborating with SAP^® Concur^®, the world’s leading brand of travel, expense and invoice management solutions, on an integration that is designed to allow banks to issue and manage virtual payment cards for their corporate card holders. 

Through this partnership and planned integration, Cardlay will offer a cloud solution that helps a bank’s corporate card holders to easily capture, verify, and reconcile card spend. Corporate card holders will be able to benefit from a closed loop of optimized automated processes to save time, avoid errors, reduce fraud, and secure data enrichment. 

Cardlay’s solution is planned to enable employees to operate their card through digital wallets on a mobile app and web portal, integrated with Concur Expense, and managers will be able to issue and control virtual cards for employees.

Employees will be capable of quickly requesting a payment card via the app before any company spend occurs. Managers can then approve/deny new cards, set spend limits and review settings. Virtual cards would be added easily to digital wallets, and as the card is used, the transaction data would be available in the SAP Concur service to be reconciled. 

Jørgen Christian Juul, CEO at Cardlay, said: “Through our SAP Concur partnership we can simplify and streamline corporate card management for companies globally. The collaboration brings banks enormous value, leveraging the distribution of corporate payment cards for all employees by securing the transition from out-of-pocket payments. This is planned to enable immediate benefits such as streamlined processes, improved data, minimized fraud, reduction in errors, and increased control. Commercial payment is going through a massive development and we see a great opportunity for Cardlay to create powerful integrated solutions with numerous benefits for global companies.”

Currently, companies need to plan, predict future needs and issue cards accordingly. Cardlay’s integrated solution with Concur Expense is planned to enable banks to deliver a sophisticated and integrated card management capability to their corporate card holders to issue a payment card and simultaneously approve a budget.

 Brave New Coin , a leading data analytics and research company backed by Techemy Ltd., today announced a partnership with QuantHouse, the global provider of end-to-end systematic trading solutions including innovative market data services, an algo trading platform, and infrastructure products and part of Iress (IRE.ASX), to offer Brave New Coin’s data feeds, Indices and Analytics to QuantHouse customers. Upon launch, QuantHouse will feature Brave New Coin’s high-speed single asset indices for top ten crypto assets, plus the Brave New Coin DeFi Index.

Trusted by leading financial institutions, Brave New Coin’s enterprise-grade cryptocurrency market data solutions deliver actionable insights around trading, valuations, portfolio construction, performance attribution and risk management.

The partnership enables QuantHouse customers to leverage Brave New Coin’s high-frequency data feeds that the organization has been building out over the past 12 months, and underscores the importance of high-quality crypto indices and the role they play in successful trading. Brave New Coin’s indices have been launched to become the industry standard for price discovery and for pricing/ settling derivatives and other instruments, while its basket indices offer sector and asset diversification while mitigating market volatility.

For QuantHouse traders who have an established source for quotes, the availability of Brave New Coin’s data provides for an additional reference on settlement price and an understanding of real-time market conditions. This is particularly significant in the absence of formal standards in crypto trading.

“QuantHouse and its parent company, Iress, have a deep history of assisting hedge funds, market makers, investment banks, brokers and other trading venues to achieve optimal trading performance, and gain access to rich datasets, together with ultra low latency built on a global infrastructure footprint” said Fran Strajnar, CEO of Brave New Coin. “We’re proud that our new partnership with QuantHouse will enable their customers to make smarter trades courtesy of our industry-leading datasets.”

Stephane Leroy, Co-Founder QuantHouse, commented “Since its launch in early 2020, Brave New Coin’s cryptocurrency index infrastructure has been in high demand by companies including BTSE, the Toronto Futures Options and Swaps Exchange (tFOSE) and LedgerX. QuantHouse is pleased to be a part of developing standards in this space, enabling better trading by mirroring market structures similar to existing indices for equities and futures.”

BIAN, the independent not-for-profit standards association, today announces three new appointments to its executive board. Charaka Kithulegoda, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President, Retail Banking at PNC; Shanker Ramamurthy, Global Managing Partner - Banking at IBM; and Balaji Kumar, Managing Director, Head of Engineering and Architecture Practice for Citi’s Global Consumer Bank all joined the board effective 6 May 2021. These three experts come armed with a wealth of knowledge on financial and banking technology and are well-known for forging meaningful change across the sector.  

As banks and fintechs navigate the evolving landscape, the financial services industry is being shaped by new consumer trends - from the rise of a cashless society to the pandemic-driven shift towards online banking and mobile payments. The pandemic spurred banks to make years’ worth of technology and business model changes in only a matter of months and, according to research from the IBM Institute for Business Value, COVID-19 spurred shoppers to explore different tools and services, like mobile contactless payments, with many saying they will continue to use them in the future.  

To support these changes, there will be a continued focus on technological development this year and beyond. BIAN’s recent board appointments will provide expert counsel and help the organisation navigate this period of immense disruption.  

Commenting on the appointments, Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director of BIAN, says: “I am extremely pleased to welcome Charaka, Shanker, and Balaji to our Executive Board. They each bring a tremendous amount of industry knowledge and passion for technological innovation. They will provide our board with unique insight as we step into the unknown. BIAN has a significant role to play in helping organisations transform and innovate as they build the financial services industry of the future. We look forward to working with these companies throughout this transition.” 

With over 20 years of technology and transformation experience, in his role at PNC Bank, Charaka Kithulegoda is responsible for all technical aspects of PNC’s Retail Banking business, including the transformation of its existing Core Banking platform and applications aimed at delivering a differentiated and superior customer experience. Speaking about his appointment to the BIAN Executive Board, Charaka says, “BIAN enables transformation and innovation at scale by providing standards, frameworks and tools for the financial services industry. I am proud to appointed to BIAN’s Executive Board and looking forward to working with the members to define the platform for the next level of innovation in Financial Services.” 

With more than 25 years of global financial services experience, Shanker Ramamurthy is the worldwide leader of IBM’s banking consulting practice in IBM Global Business Services, focused on banks’ digital transformation, core banking, and payments. He is also the President of the IBM Industry Academy. Shanker comments, “The winners of tomorrow will be the banks who have a technology and business strategy to support the bank of the future and are prioritizing innovation powered by hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence. BIAN has a significant role in helping banks do just this. I am proud to be joining BIAN’s Executive Board and to be part of this journey.” 

Balaji Kumar has over 20 years of experience working across the technology sector. In his current role at Citi, he is responsible for defining architecture standards, creating a culture of engineering excellence, and implementing technology frameworks that enable rapid development and deployment of software products at scale across the bank. On his appointment, Balaji shares, “Technology is a real differentiator in every industry, and it’s forcing organisations to consider how they adapt to survive. I’m excited to join BIAN’s Executive Board during this time of accelerated disruption and to support BIAN’s efforts towards cross-industry collaboration.”  

David Vander, Regional Vice President of Business Value Services at Salesforce, was also re-appointed as BIAN’s treasurer and advisory board member.   

Carbon (ng.getCarbon.co), a pan-African fintech company providing access to basic financial services for Africans, has today announced a strategic five-year partnership with Visa, the world leader in digital payments, to offer both digital and physical issuance of Visa cards to its customers.
Carbon is launching Visa debit cards in the third quarter of 2021, roughly a year after shifting from being a leading digital lending company to becoming a digital bank offering a range of financial services including, savings and payments. By leveraging Visa's payment functionalities, Carbon will deploy an instant issuance process in three key markets including Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.
The collaboration between both companies includes financial support from Visa and will be spread over the five-year partnership period. The funds will be used to provide implementation and marketing support to help drive further growth and adoption of Visa’s payment solutions across Carbon’s products.
“Carbon is focused on delivering an unparalleled banking experience that is both safe and reliable across all touchpoints,” said Chijioke Dozie, CEO/Co-founder of Carbon. “We want more customers to enjoy some of our popular products like Carbon Zero through their Carbon card, and key to achieving this is our partnership with a leading payments and fintech-friendly company like Visa.”
With the arrival of debit cards, Carbon is building on its fast-growing user base of over 650,000 customers and a strong 2020 fiscal year which saw the company process ₦96.54 billion (~$241.35 million) in payments and ₦25.21 billion (~$63 million) in loan disbursements, eclipsing the previous year’s numbers despite the pandemic.
“The rapid pace of technology innovation has driven a powerful shift in business and consumer expectations in finance,” said Kemi Okusanya, Vice President, Visa West Africa. “Whether it is changing the way people invest, manage money, receive loans, or send real-time payments to friends and family, Visa is a natural partner for fintechs including Carbon, providing them with new ways to reach their customers through Visa’s vast network and global scale.”
Adding Visa cards to its payments stack will also enable easier access to Carbon Zero, the company’s Buy Now Pay Later product, which allows consumers zero percent financing on items they need the most but cannot afford immediately.
The partnership with Visa will undoubtedly go a long way in consolidating Carbon’s first-rate digital bank status and facilitate a robust payment experience for consumers across different demographics with unique financial needs.

NICE (NASDAQ: NICE), a leading provider of communication compliance solutions, today announced that BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM), the global investment manager owned by BMO Financial Group, has deployed NICE’s certified Cloud Compliance Recording solution for Microsoft Teams across its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to meet certain regulatory requirements around recording omnichannel communications for regulated employees now working from home. 

“As we transitioned to Microsoft Teams to support our remote workforce, we needed to implement a compliance recording solution quickly,” said Scott Wilson, Director, Infrastructure & Operations at BMO Global Asset Management. “NICE’s fully managed, cloud-based, software-as-a-service offering for Teams compliance recording enabled us to accelerate our adoption of Microsoft Teams. We were also able to free our staff from time-consuming activities like handling security patches, upgrades and other platform management tasks, which are now fully managed by NICE.” 

Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE, said: “Leading financial services firms like BMO GAM are embracing remote and hybrid work environments and collaborative communication technologies like Microsoft Teams. NICE is helping to accelerate their digital transformation and ensure faster time-to-value, by providing complete recording coverage and contributing to compliance with different regulations worldwide. For firms with a cloud-first strategy, our SaaS recording solution delivers a low maintenance, touch-free experience, along with other powerful advantages of the cloud, including zero footprint and unprecedented scalability, reliability and security.” 

NICE’s Certified Compliance Recording for Microsoft Teams

Offered as an on-premise or fully managed cloud solution, NICE’s all-in-one compliance recording and assurance platform is used by most of the world’s leading banks and investment firms to record and retain trade-related conversations from unified communications platforms, turrets, desk phones, and mobile phones. It is the first compliance recording solution to be certified under the Microsoft Teams certification program. Offering complete recording coverage for all Microsoft Teams communications, including voice, video, chat and screen sharing, the solution leverages the Microsoft Azure secure cloud for application hosting, and compliant capture and archiving of regulated employee communications.  

Sound Income Strategies, a registered investment advisory (RIA) firm with more than $1.4 billion in assets under management (AUM), has implemented RedBlack, an intelliflo solution, which is a leading wealth management industry provider of rebalancing and trading software. Using RedBlack enables the firm to create block orders for best execution on one platform across multiple portfolios.

Sound Income Strategies required a more sophisticated, multi-asset software platform that provides household-level rebalancing, advanced drift reporting, independent trading, FIX connectivity with block order capabilities, and integration with their key partners.

Eric Lutton, CFA, Chief Investment Officer at Sound Income Strategies, said: “As we grew, we became keenly aware we would need a new platform to streamline reporting, trading, compliance, and portfolio-specific customizations. Adding RedBlack gives us all that with the highest levels of accuracy and efficiency. The platform provides a great deal of sophistication, flexibility, and efficiency that we needed and now we can monitor for drift and run ‘what-if’ scenarios prior to execution, plus dynamically align and rebalance portfolios across our entire book of business.”

“RedBlack makes it more efficient for firms to build and manage a universal modeling strategy, and customize clients’ retirement and tax strategies at scale. Ultimately, this allows for more client engagement,” said Jennifer Valdez, President, Americas for intelliflo. “Our dynamic model capabilities are especially appealing to firms like Sound Income Strategies, who have many sophisticated models and strategies, and need customization and workflows to drive greater scale across rebalancing, trading, and order management.”

Liti Capital SA, a Swiss Litigation Finance company, has just found and identified the perpetrator of a cryptocurrency scam. This comes days after their commitment to push back against fraud in the crypto community and help create a safe atmosphere for innovation and investment moving forward. By tokenizing their equity, Liti Capital introduces litigation finance to the blockchain, providing retail investors with a new asset class and giving them the opportunity to fight back against crypto criminals. 

Joel “Coach K” Kovshoff, a popular cryptocurrency influencer, was recently the victim of an elaborate con, resulting in the loss of $250,000 for himself and his investors. This is a common story in the crypto community, and the victims are rare to voice their misfortunes, particularly if they live in the public eye and their income is contingent on their reputations. As one of the few public figures to announce this potentially embarrassing story, he was able to catch the attention of Liti Capital through their mutual contact, Kurt Ivy at Splyt. 

The con artist used a unique tactic: he created a fake identity, complete with documentation, did extensive research on “Coach K,” and found him in public to slowly befriend him over time. This is how he was able to gain trust and eventually walk away with the money. He directed Joel to JD Capital, with whom Joel has worked with before, about a fund of CertiK he could purchase. After some more convincing, Joel paid the cost of the CertiK and waited for a response that did not come. However, the con artist may not have been as sophisticated as it seems. 

“These guys are acting with complete impunity,” David Kay, international litigator and CIO of Liti Capital said, “They’re so sure they won’t get caught that they don’t even cover their tracks. They don’t think anyone’s coming. Well, we’re coming.” Joel Kovshoff had given the con artist a chance to return the money, plus interest, before taking legal action. Liti Capital is on standby with a powerful team that has seen worldwide success. 

“The same tools we deploy to investigate international cases are the ones we will use to identify and pursue crypto scammers,” Jonas Rey, Co-Founder and Managing Director said, “My team of investigators and intelligence officers have found the con artist in question, his personal information, where the money is, and have engaged with counsel and security at his location. We will give him the weekend to reach out to us.”

Liti Capital launched the LITI token yesterday, Thursday, June 24, 2021, at 11:59 PM EDT, and the wLITI on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 6:00 PM EDT. The LITI token will be available for purchase on their website after passing KYC requirements. The wLITI will be available to trade for on Uniswap.

Finastra is celebrating over 150 apps now available in its FusionStore marketplace, for financial institutions to tap into innovation at speed via the FusionFabric.cloud open developer platform. The apps reflect significant momentum for the platform and Finastra’s growing ecosystem, within which fintechs are able to reduce time to market and overcome collaboration challenges.

Vincent Pugliese, SVP & General Manager, Platform at Finastra said: “This is an exciting milestone in the growth of our FusionFabric.cloud platform, with over 150 apps now available for financial institutions to tap into. These apps have been sourced through incubators, innovation hubs, existing customers, industry analysts, and developed within Finastra, and cover an ever-increasing number of use cases including digital banking, cross-border payments and regulatory compliance and reporting. We’re proud to be able to orchestrate this growing ecosystem, enabling collaboration that helps fintechs and financial institutions worldwide access the benefits of an open platform approach.”

Fintechs using the FusionFabric.cloud platform benefit from access to growing addressable markets, reduced project implementation time and reduced sales cycles – sometimes cut from six months to just one month. One fintech reported tripling of its addressable market in two months by publishing their app on the FusionStore.

Dmitry Norenko, CEO at UpSwot, which has just launched a loyalty and engagement app on the platform, said: “Our collaboration with Finastra is a perfect example of the ways that corporates should be working with start-ups like us: fast, convenient, and very supportive. We are happy to join forces in helping to empower banks with actionable insights and accurate data.”

ComplyAdvantage, a compliance fintech, recently launched its anti-money laundering (AML) app on FusionFabric.cloud. "Finastra has long been recognized as a trusted partner to leading financial institutions around the globe,” said Charles Delingpole, Founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage. “As a former Finastra intern, I am especially delighted to have our company partner with Finastra and to publish our solution into the FusionStore so that we can offer our award-winning transaction screening solution to their wider community.”

As financial institutions are redefining their bank operating models to become customer-first, a platform approach enables agility and generates growth. Financial institutions can quickly customize their services to customer demand by accessing new apps, in turn accelerating innovation and time to market.

Mike Gorman, CEO at Baptist Health Federal Credit Union which recently selected the Allied Bill Payment app from Allied Payment Network on FusionFabric.cloud, said: “Finastra’s platform enables us to access innovation and choice quickly and cost efficiently. With a simple app we can offer real-time person-to-person payments and account-to-account transfers, giving us the opportunity to add these capabilities that our members need, without building from scratch.”

Visit the FusionStore here: https://store.fusionfabric.cloud/

Pay and reward consultancy Innecto has used OutSystems, a leading modern application platform, to develop and deliver a range of industry-leading digital services for its customers.

Established in 2002, Innecto is the UK's largest independent reward consultancy, supporting more than 100 companies, from high-growth SMEs to large multinationals, with creative and commercially focused talent and reward solutions - these include Arsenal Football Club, Boden, the London Stock Exchange, Sky, and the V&A.

In order to test the market, it developed a range of prototype digital services for clients, based on existing tools and methodologies, including those for job evaluation and pay benchmarking.

Having successfully rolled out these services to clients, Innecto looked at how it could digitise more of its tools and improve the features of existing services, in order to stay ahead of competitors and better help its clients.

However, the team realised that its current platform - a bespoke PHP solution - which had been built by an external team of developers, would need to be rebuilt in order for the digital services to fulfil their true potential and become part of a complete suite of digital offerings.

The initial services had been built as a pilot, rather than as part of a strategic move to digitise all customer-facing services. As a result, the technology used to develop the platform was not capable of supporting Innecto’s vision and future needs, without huge levels of investment in recoding. Having received quotes for the work and ongoing support, the team realised that it was in a ‘technical debt’ position.

As a result, having developed its digital services roadmap, and following Innecto’s acquisition by Personal Group in 2019, it embarked on rebuilding its digital services to create its ‘360 Degree Toolkit’ in-house. 

Using the OutSystems modern application platform for ISVs, it was able to create a much more sophisticated set of feature-rich products that could be evolved and improved over time, as clients’ requirements changed. 

These include ‘Evaluate’, Innecto’s online job evaluation system, ‘PayLab’, its pay benchmarking and insights tool, and ‘Advance’ product, an annual pay review modeller, which its clients use to manage their pay reviews on an annual cycle. It is also currently building ‘Flourish’, a performance and competency framework tool. Sitting on top of all of these is Innecto’s newly launched ‘Roles Profile Hub’, which is a dashboard that allows its clients to get insights across all of the systems they use and enables them to make better informed decisions.

Sarah Lardner, Director of Business Innovation and Senior Principal Consultant at Innecto, said: “Expanding the systems we had in place was going to be very expensive and wasn’t going to offer the flexibility and functionality we needed. As a result, we made the decision to wipe out our ‘technical debt’ and bring the development in-house, using OutSystems. This has allowed us to rollout this amazing system that has way more features than we previously thought possible and provides really valuable insights for our clients. As a result, we have improved customer retention rates, which is brilliant for the business.” 

Willem van Enter, VP of EMEA, at OutSystems, said: “Not only has our modern development platform enabled Innecto to digitise its services and deliver a range of feature-rich applications that help its clients make better, more informed decisions, it has also allowed it to clear its ‘technical debt’. The team can also quickly and easily make changes to the applications whenever they need to, as they’re no longer reliant on third-party developers that use traditional coding methods.”