Multi-award-winning payments processor, Global Processing Services (GPS), today announces that it has joined forces with Currencycloud, the experts simplifying business in a multi-currency world, to widen access to cross-border payments for financial institutions and fintechs, providing a passport to a post-COVID world.

The pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of payments and the move away from cash. People are naturally operating more globally, whether that’s for personal or business travel, to accommodate multiple bases as the world shifts to a more hybrid model of working, or growing e-commerce and global supply chains. As a result, financial institutions and fintechs need to offer customers solutions that satisfy this changing dynamic as people shift to digital-first behaviours for safety and convenience.

Leveraging each other’s expertise, the combined value proposition will deliver a complete, enterprise-grade, off-the-shelf and pre-integrated solution. It will enable businesses to offer customers compliance and regulatory infrastructure, cross-border payments infrastructure, real-time FX for overseas card transactions, access to a global banking network, multi-currency accounts, banking cards and much more. 

Fintechs can now upgrade their existing product offerings and launch dynamic new services, including:

Multi-currency wallets:

• Using Currencycloud rates, customers can fund up to 34 foreign currency wallets with real-time wholesale rates, allowing consumers to purchase currencies ahead of travelling and while on the go.
• Competitive FX rates for 38 currencies, including restricted and non-restricted currencies, and nearly 300 currency pairs.
• Guaranteed weekend FX rates.

Point-of-Sale (POS) FX:

• Cardholders benefit from transparent, competitive, real-time FX rates when making purchases abroad and can choose to be notified of the amount spent in their domestic currency via push notifications on mobile devices in real time.
• By securing a guaranteed and real-time FX rate at the point of sale, ensuring it is locked in through to clearing and settlement, cardholders now know exactly what overseas transactions cost at the point of sale.

Shaun Puckrin, Chief Product Officer of GPS, commented: “There is a major opportunity for payment players to further displace cash with seamless card-based FX payments. Integrating our respective platforms provides fintechs with enterprise-grade capabilities, driving speed to market, and an invaluable competitive advantage as we emerge from the pandemic.”

Stephen Lemon, Co-founder and VP, Partnerships & Enterprise at Currencycloud, said: “For fintechs, building a multi-currency solution requires a huge effort across multiple functional and regulatory domains. By working with Currencycloud and GPS, fintechs can reduce the complexity involved and get to market much more quickly for a fraction of the cost of self-building, while vastly reducing ongoing operational risk and overhead.”

●       Avast uncovers regional cybercrime differences across the UK, following research with the University of Birmingham

●       London and Wales most affected by cybercrime while the north of England reports significantly lower levels of victimisation

●       Findings draw attention to a gap in cybercrime perception versus reality in the UK with several regions underestimating the actual levels of cybercrime

Findings from an academic study between Avast, a global leader in digital security and privacy, and the research division of the Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing, University of Birmingham, indicate that people living in London and Wales experience higher levels of cybercrime compared to the rest of the UK. Over the past 12 months, Avast has been working with the University of Birmingham to create a Cyber Vulnerability Index for the UK which assesses the regional differences in cyber-related crime across the country to better understand where cybercrime hotspots exist.  

The following list shows the worst and least affected regions, along with the corresponding percentage of victimization levels. Victimization refers to the percentage of people who have been impacted by cybercrime:

1: London - 72%

1: Wales  - 72%

2: Northern Ireland - 67%

3:Scotland - 63%

3: South West - 63%

4: West Midlands - 62%

5: East Midlands - 21%

6: East Anglia - 18%

6: South East - 18%

7: North East - 14%

8: Yorkshire & Lincolnshire - 8%

9: North West - 6%

The research forms part of Cyberhood Watch, a grassroots cybercrime prevention initiative between Avast and Neighbourhood Watch, that aims to help people protect themselves online and feel confident using the internet. The Cyber Vulnerability Index, which will be used to determine where Cyberhood Watch support is most critical, identifies the proportion of adults who have been impacted by cybercrime, such as having their personal data or identity stolen in a breach, or falling victim to an online scam. The University of Birmingham created this index after analysing data from an Ofcom survey on internet concerns among more than 2,000 people in the UK.

There are stark differences between some regions in the UK, with 72% of adults in London and Wales having experienced cybercrime, compared to just 6% in the North West. In fact, the ranking points towards a North-South divide, with those in the North not appearing to suffer from cybercrime to the same extent as those in the South, The findings also show an East-West gap in the Midlands; 62% of adults in the West Midlands have fallen victim to cyber-related crime as opposed to just 21% in the East.

Commenting on the victimisation findings, John Hayward-Cripps, CEO of Neighbourhood Watch, said, “There will be multiple reasons why the level of cybercrime victimisation differs from region to region. What we know for sure is that opportunistic cybercriminals are indiscriminate in who they target, and as our lives become more digitised, more people are likely to be affected by an increasing number of attempted attacks. Our Cyberhood Watch initiative exists to educate and protect people from cybercrime with on-the-ground support in local communities so that we can prevent it from spreading and adversely affecting unsuspecting people.”

The Cyber Vulnerability Index also highlights the levels of cybercrime perception in the UK. This ranking shows the percentage of adults in the UK who register high levels of concern about using the internet, recognise potential online dangers, and don’t trust that organisations are doing enough to keep their data safe. Overall, the research shows very low levels of perception across the country:

1: West Midlands – 42%

2: South West - 39%

2: East Anglia - 39%

3: Scotland - 36%

3: Wales - 36%

3: London - 36%

4: Northern Ireland - 35%

5: North East - 31%

5: South East - 31%

6: East Midlands - 30%

7: North West - 26%

8: Yorkshire & Lincolnshire - 24%

The findings show a perception versus reality gap in the UK, with regions falling into two distinct groups. Those living in the West Midlands, London, Wales, Scotland, South West and Northern Ireland appear to underestimate the threat, with their levels of perception much lower than actual rates of cybercrime. By contrast, those in the South East, North West, East Midlands, North West and Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, overestimated the threat in comparison to their levels of victimisation.

“For some people, there can be an unwillingness to report certain cyber incidents and for others there’s a lack of understanding of how to do so. These could be contributing factors, however it’s clear that more needs to be done to prevent cybercrime and raise awareness of its presence at a hyper-local level”, said Pete Turner, Consumer Security Expert at Avast. “Cyberhood Watch exists to stop cybercrime from spreading throughout our local communities and to help people, particularly vulnerable groups, feel confident using the internet. It’s important that we continue to educate individuals on how to overcome false senses of security that could be contributing to this apparent disconnect between the perception and reality of cybercrime.”

Formed in 2019, Cyberhood Watch is a joint grassroots initiative between Avast and Neighbourhood Watch that aims to help vulnerable people in local communities become more cyber secure. The programme, led by local Cyberhood Watch Ambassadors, includes a training and accreditation scheme for Neighbourhood Watch representatives, downloadable guides and resources, and ongoing sharing of information about emerging threats.

For more information please visit the Cyberhood Watch website: https://www.avast.com/uk-cyberhood

Crown Agents Bank Ltd (“CAB”) is pleased to announce they have been selected as a new banking partner by Cambridge Global Payments (“Cambridge”), a FLEETCOR company and a provider of integrated cross-border payments and currency risk management solutions. The partnership allows Cambridge to expand its global banking footprint to facilitate payments across emerging and frontier markets in APAC and Africa.

Changing socio-economic dynamics and an increasing prevalence of digital technology are impacting trade and the way organisations do business overseas. A recent Crown Agents Bank study found that in the wake of Brexit, almost two-thirds of UK companies have outreach and expanding plans into Africa alone. CAB’s award-winning service, established network and local expertise spanning across 200 years of history allows it to offer deep liquidity and last-mile termination across 400 currency pairs.

“Since partnering with Crown Agents Bank, Cambridge has added 8 additional currencies to our portfolio and has benefited from demonstrated improvements in the transparency of payments & speed of settlement across frontier and emerging markets” said Mark Frey, President, Cambridge Global Payments. “With Cambridge’s already strong coverage across Europe, North and South America, our partnership with CAB will allow us to further expand our presence across Asia and Africa, providing additional value to our customers.”

Joe Hurley, Chief Commercial Officer, Crown Agents Bank, said: “2021 is proving to be an exciting year for Cambridge as it transitions to its new brand, CorPay. Cambridge is highly regarded worldwide, so we are delighted to have been chosen to support them at this important time for the business”.  “Our vision at Crown Agents Bank includes offering our clients cutting edge services that give them every advantage in a competitive environment, particularly in emerging and frontier markets. This partnership enables Crown Agents Bank to continue our rapid digital transformation and dynamic growth and we look forward to our combined success on this journey.”

Global technology provider Arrow Electronics announced an agreement with Unisys to become a Unisys Stealth Value-Added Distributor (VAD) in EMEA, initially focussing on the UK, Germany and France.

The agreement covers the sale of licensing and services of the Unisys Stealth suite of security solutions. Under the agreement, Arrow will add a wealth of benefits including its capabilities in channel recruitment, channel enablement, sales support, and financial options, supporting Unisys’ channel partners in the region.

Alexis Brabant, vice president sales of Arrow`s enterprise computing solutions business in EMEA said, “With decades of experience building high-performance, security-centric solutions, Unisys complements our security portfolio that helps protect critical infrastructure from edge to core to cloud. Adding Unisys Stealth to our offering strengthens our proposition and will further drive innovation and transformation in the market.”

Unisys Stealth provides “Always-On” security by establishing a software-defined perimeter that enables a Zero Trust environment. Unisys Stealth reduces attack surfaces by discovering and understanding network assets and their communication flows. It then creates dynamic, identity-driven microsegments that separate trusted systems, users and data from the untrusted."

“Unisys Stealth isolates cyber threats quickly and builds resilience into organisations’ environments,” said Karim Jawhary, EMEA channel lead, security solutions at Unisys. “This agreement with Arrow is hugely important to Unisys, as it gives our channel partners across Europe access to Arrow’s extensive specialist expertise to help strengthen their customers’ infrastructures.”

SEON, the fraud fighters, today announces its partnership with VCC Live, the cloud contact centre specialists. Through the deal, they will work together to help end fraud for contact centres in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

The deal will mean that VCC Live customers will benefit from SEON’s security and fraud detection across all channels, including phone, email, or webchat, minimising the time spent on analysing fraudulent applications. It will also mean increased accuracy and maximised efficiency when identifying fraudulent activity and enhancing customer identification.

BFSI companies typically operate with outsourced or internal contact centres, which employ teams of agents to perform customer verification, sales, customer support and debt collection through phone and digital channels.  Agents must authenticate the customer, however fraudsters take advantage of the human nature of contact centres to impersonate customers and takeover accounts. 

Enhancing data enrichment, SEON’s Intelligence Tool scans open-source databases and gathers extra information about users based on factors such as email address, phone number or IP address. It further enables users to verify if an email address is valid, and can instantaneously retrieve background information for a complete user profile. This can also be used to flag fraudsters, confirm suspicions or remove doubts.  

Szabolcs Tóth, Founder and CEO at VCC Live, commented: “A common problem for contact centres is account takeovers, with fraudsters taking advantage of the fact that many companies use humans for their customer care rather than automated solutions. That is why we teamed up with SEON, which offers the very best in fraud protection, to provide us with the tools we needed to better protect our customers.”

Speaking on the announcement, Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-Founder at SEON, said: “Almost half of global businesses have experienced a surge in account take overs, so now more than ever it’s critical that we start working together to combat this. Partnering with VCC Live takes us to the heart of the problem, enabling us to equip those contact centre employees on the front line with an advanced suite of tools in order to identify bad actors and take the action needed.” 

He added: “Not only does this partnership represent a great meeting of minds, with an enthusiasm for increasing security across the BFSI sector, but complementary solutions too.” 

To learn more about SEON and the services it provides, visit: https://seon.io/   

Apex Litigation Funding has been ranked in the Chambers Guide 2021, despite the firm only completing its first full year in recent months. It has achieved a ranking in the ‘Litigation Funding: Insolvency’ section of the latest Chambers Litigation Support Guide.

In the listing, Chambers point to Apex’s focus on claims from £30,000 to £27m, and its use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in the assessment and valuation of claims.

Maurice Powers, CEO of Apex, says: “It is such an achievement to be recognised by Chambers after our first-year trading. I believe that this is not just a reflection of our business already being recognised as a leader in our field, but also of the important need for a funder specialising in providing access to justice for small and mid-size claims.

“We are proud to be the leading litigation funding specialists who focus solely on this part of the market. We have shown that it is a market that was lacking in support – and that serving these clients can be done profitably.”

Apex’s approach to serving this market has been to bring together experts from the legal and finance sectors to provide third party litigation funding. Clients include corporates, liquidators and individuals who would otherwise be unable to pursue a claim, with no costs for them should there be no recovery.

Chambers base their listings on the work of 200 Research Analysts, who collect hundreds of thousands of responses from lawyers, clients, peers and other independent sources when deciding which firms to rank in its guides.

Firms are ranked on several categories, including technical legal ability, client service performance, value for money and diligence.

In Apex’s second year trading they have been appointed to provide litigation funding to a scheme generating 200-plus cases per annum and grown its team through proactive recruitment of AI and litigation funding specialists.

• Almost two thirds (65%) of global banking executives believe that the branch-based model will be “dead” within five years, up from 35% four years ago

• The same proportion (65%) of bankers see new technologies as the biggest driver of change for the next four years, up from 42% three years ago

• Four in five bankers believe that banks will seek to differentiate on customer experience rather than products

• 47% expect their businesses to evolve into ecosystems, involving partnerships with both banking and non-banking third parties

• This independent global report surveys over 300 banking executives, half of whom are C-suite

A new report published today by Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, finds that 65% of global banking executives believe branch-based banking will be “dead” within five years. The report written by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) entitled “Branching out: can banks move from city centres to digital ecosystems?” is based on a recent survey of 305 senior global banking executives. The research highlights how COVID-19 branch closures, new technologies and increased competition from fintechs, super-app platforms and tech giants have accelerated digital transformation and triggered a shift in banking priorities and business models. 

The report highlights how 65% of global banking executives view new technologies such as cloud, AI, and APIs as the trend that will have the biggest impact on the sector over the next four years, ahead of regulation and changing customer demands. Moreover, 81% think unlocking value from AI will be the differentiator between winning and losing banks. Banks are focusing their technology investment on cybersecurity, AI and cloud computing as they accelerate digital transformation projects.

The report finds that 81% of bankers believe banks will seek to differentiate on customer experience rather than products. With this, many established banks are turning to strategic partnerships and investments in technology to become trusted banking partners and the purveyors of consumer-friendly banking experiences.

The pandemic has been a catalyst for collaboration and experimentation. The report states that nearly half (47%) of bank executives expect their businesses to evolve into ecosystems in the next two years, whereby banks offer third-party products and services, together with their own, to customers and other financial organizations.

Aalishaan Zaidi, Global Head of Digital Banking at Standard Chartered notes the change in attitude and culture as a result of the pandemic: “The big shift for us was our belief that we could change fast if we really wanted to.” Mr. Zaidi adds that pre-pandemic, “We would have never done the partnerships we are doing now.”

The report also shows how the pandemic has emphasized the societal role of financial services. Findings show that bankers view microfinance for entrepreneurs (34%) and accounts for the unbanked (33%) as the most promising inclusion-related business opportunities.​

Kanika Hope, Chief Strategy Officer, Temenos, said: “Open Banking and increased competition from big tech and new entrants are causing banks to rethink their business models. Many now aspire to develop digital ecosystems that bring more human, differentiated experiences to their customers using the power of cloud, SaaS and AI. This report shows that bankers now understand that technology will be an enabler for these new business models and is critical to their competitive differentiation. Temenos continues to extend its leadership in AI and cloud, serving more than 3,000 banks worldwide, including incumbents and more than 70 challengers. We recently brought to market The Temenos Banking Cloud to help banks digitally transform and take control of their business models and innovation cycles.” 

LiquidShare, a leading European fintech startup, has selected Sextant for Daml, the blockchain and smart contract  management and operations platform provided by Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), to deliver its cutting-edge post-trade offering.

LiquidShare was created in 2017 by eight major European financial institutions (AFS Group, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Caceis, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM and Société Générale) with the mission to build a European post-trading blockchain infrastructure for the financial industry. The company’s post-trade offering secures and streamlines back-office operations in financial markets, while enhancing the transparency and trustworthiness of post-trading operations, leveraging the open-source distributed ledger Hyperledger Besu, and Daml, an application platform.

“We chose Daml as our smart-contract language for its strong potential to embed business logic, and because it enables us to build multiparty business processes easily and rapidly. The fact that it is supported by BTP on our ledger of choice, Hyperledger Besu, was also a main driver for us,” said Jean-Marc Eyssautier, CEO of LiquidShare. “Sextant for Daml has accelerated our time to market by allowing us to focus on customer needs.”

BTP’s Sextant for Daml solution radically simplifies the deployment and management of the Daml  runtime environment on distributed ledgers, so innovators such as LiquidShare can focus on the application rather than the underlying infrastructure.

“We are delighted to facilitate such financial innovation by freeing LiquidShare from technology infrastructure frustrations,” said Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP.  “This is a great use case that showcases the business value of distributed ledgers and smart contracts, by lowering the barrier to entry to capital markets.”

Daml, created by Digital Asset, is an application platform purpose-built for coding complex multiparty business processes. Daml applications provide a robust framework to better manage transactional workflows, resulting in improved operational efficiency, while preserving privacy and trust. This is particularly relevant to capital markets.

“LiquidShare is at the forefront of innovation in post-trade markets,” said Yuval Rooz, Co-founder & CEO at Digital Asset. “Post-trade processes can significantly benefit from the efficiency and trust provided by distributed ledgers and Daml, which is quickly becoming the de facto standard in capital markets. It’s great to see LiquidShare using Sextant for Daml. It is the right platform to help LiquidShare bring its new blockchain-enabled offering to the market.”

Sextant for Daml, developed in partnership with Digital Asset, simplifies the deployment and management of the Daml runtime environment on Hyperledger Besu and Hyperledger Sawtooth, as well as Amazon QLDB, Amazon Aurora and PostgreSQL. It is rapidly emerging as the platform of choice for companies delivering Daml applications in production.

Reach, the global payment localization provider, has further strengthened its senior management team by appointing leading cross-border ecommerce stalwart, Dave Mays, as an independent board member.

Mays’ appointment is the latest strategic hire by the disruptive fintech pioneer as it reaches a pivotal stage in its expansion plans, which are gathering pace as the borderless payments ecosystem continues to soar to an estimated $156 trillion in payment flows just by 2022.

With 21 years’ experience leading cross-border and ecommerce logistics businesses, including as founder of parcel logistics and distribution specialist Landmark Global, Mays will drive Reach to the next level of growth.

As someone with a unique understanding of overcoming the obstacles a growing business can face, Mays comments: “As much as there is a bounty of untapped opportunities for merchants in the modern world of ecommerce, so too do they face real challenges, none more so than the rise in competition and the potential for inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic. The ever-present possibility of regulatory changes that restrict companies from doing business outside of North America also impact not only a merchant’s ability but desire to enter the competitive cross-border ecommerce arena.

“With so many factors that merchants must consider when operating global ecommerce operations, I’m thrilled to be joining such a pioneering company as Reach, which truly has the ability to help retailers deal with these issues and to become a market leader by doing so.”

After the most fiscally successful start to a year in Reach’s history, Mays is the latest senior hire attracted to Reach’s growing team as it makes its mark in new territories and leverages a portfolio of powerful strategic partnerships worldwide. Reach’s rapidly expanding headcount, which has doubled in size from 40 to 80 in just six months, is testament to the strength and broad appeal of its proposition to businesses of all sizes in all sectors.

“Payments are the most complex and important piece of an international transaction. Managing payments on a global scale can be difficult, creating company liabilities, adding risk, and introducing roadblocks to growth and indeed participation in the cross-border ecommerce space. I believe that Reach is in the best possible position to provide logistics and payments solutions to retailers looking to serve the top 30 international markets,” Mays continues.

Reach’s platform empowers businesses to expand on a global scale by offering localized processing, which reduces costs, increases conversion rates, and offers customers across the world a better shopping experience. At a time when ecommerce has become increasingly popular from both a B2C and B2B perspective, localized payments processing provides huge rewards for small and medium businesses looking to compete with the big players in the industry.

Sam Ranieri, CEO of Reach, adds: “We’re honored to welcome Dave as a member of the board at Reach and already witness the profound impact his years’ experience and expertise is bringing to our team. From parcel flow and customs clearance to fulfilment functions and bolstering operational efficiencies in emergency and desirable territories, his understanding of business and tackling challenges will be vital as we move forward in 2021 and beyond.

“The appetite for cross-border ecommerce has never been higher, with more customers looking beyond their own localities for goods and services. We know the true value that Reach can bring to these retailers and consumers alike. We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made over the last year and we want to continue to support retailers who are finding themselves faced with new challenges. There are huge opportunities for retailers working in cross-border ecommerce and with appointments like Dave we are putting ourselves in the best position to help brands take those opportunities.”

This announcement follows the news that Reach recently welcomed Sarah Hermary as Head of Human Resources and Lohrasp Seify as Head of Data. Reach’s phenomenal growth in such a short space of time is accompanied by its relocation into an entire floor of the Edison building, one of Calgary’s most prestigious workspaces. The Edison is home to a range of financial and technology enterprises, making it the ideal location for an innovative fintech disruptor.