Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital to the economy in every country, with the World Bank estimating that around 90% of businesses are SMEs and that they provide more than half the jobs in the world. They also make a sizable contribution to their local economy, ranging from up to 40% in emerging economies to around 55% in Europe.

However, when it comes to banking, this sector is poorly served by financial services.  SMEs face hurdles of complex paperwork, poor access to finance, not being paid on time, and little to no advice or support for future planning.

Like many consumers, SME owners are comparing financial service providers with other providers in the economy and the comparison is not favourable. People expect digital solutions from their phones and laptops, fast and efficient products and services and ease of doing business.

This is of course the reason that the fintech market is beginning to make inroads into the SME market by providing real time digital services with personal attention, thus allaying the hassle of complexity and the regulatory hurdles associated with banking.

According to Kristen Kjerulfa, Chief Operating Officer at PayPugs, “the freelance economy is growing rapidly and does not look as if it will slow down, rather, it is expected to increase as the post-Covid world sees more people becoming freelancers.”

People who transition from a salary to working independently discover that there is a world of difference in a bank’s approach to lending money to them before and after the change.

On one hand, governments are encouraging SMEs to start up and on the other they are applying increasingly stricter controls over financial transactions, regardless of the nature of the SMEs.

Small businesses therefore find opening an account, accessing credit, and providing the correct documents for anti-money laundering (AML) regulations daunting. Even the know your customer (KYC) requirements can be hard to provide in emerging economies that pay utility bills through mobile money, thus making proof of residence difficult.

Credit applications are time-consuming and difficult to process and credit cards are also seen as difficult to obtain and expensive to manage. Therefore, SMEs often seek loans from family and friends, which in turn limits their growth.

People newly entering the market as entrepreneurs also discover the perils of not being paid on time and managing cash flow.  It isn’t usually a lack of cash but instead uncontrolled cash flow that causes more than 80% of SMEs to fail in the first year.

Kjerulfa added that “SMEs are familiar with off-the-shelf accounting packages but find banks do not provide accounting information in meaningful ways, then they are faced with needing either a full time accounting officer or hours of an owner’s time”.

The back end of fintech is state-of-the-art software, to enable speedy verifications, transactions and payments. On the front end, there is still a need to offer personal accounting officers that can guide and manage an SME’s business and enable it to grow.

This requires disruptor thinking that does not create work silos of software, accounts, front office but rather sees clients as an integrated whole that needs services and people working in harmony.

Fintech companies, like PayPugs, that can streamline verification of businesses and individuals, automate accounting and expense processes, and use data and advanced analytical techniques can open up a new financial world for its customers.

Finastra today announced that Fargo Public Schools Federal Credit Union, a not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative providing services to the employees of Fargo Public Schools and their families, has gone live on Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking platform. The new digital banking solution will bring the credit union’s members more features and functionality, and greater integration with ancillary solutions through FusionFabric.cloud, Finastra’s open and collaborative developer platform and marketplace for financial solutions.

“Our members’ lives are increasingly digital, and they demand banking services that keep pace,” said Mari Gagelin, President, Fargo Public Schools Federal Credit Union. “With the launch of our new digital banking platform, we are providing robust banking functionality and exciting new features, making it easier for our members to bank how they want to, wherever they are.”

With Fusion Digital Banking, Fargo Public Schools Federal Credit Union is delivering its members a single, seamless, and easy-to-use banking experience. Among the new features that it is now providing are remote deposit, touch and face identification, and increased account and security alert options, in addition to enhanced fund transfers, e-statement access, bill pay and more. In the future, the credit union will be able to quickly and easily add innovative third-party services as needed, such as personal financial management (PFM) or mobile geo notification services, as needs evolve.

“Fargo Public Schools Federal Credit Union is a longstanding client of Finastra, and it is an honor to have been selected to work with them to future proof their digital banking capabilities,” said Chris Zingo, SVP and GM of Americas Field Operations, Finastra. “With Fusion Digital Banking, the credit union will be able to provide a modern digital experience to delight their existing members and attract new ones, and easily evolve their digital capabilities to keep ahead of market trends.”

HIPS Payment Group Ltd., a provider of innovative and cost-effective e-commerce and mobile payment solutions, and Vourity, a Swedish SaaS platform for unattended Sales and Payments with one of the leading payment solutions for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe, today announced their partnership, enabling crypto payment for 50,000 EV charging stations across the European Union (EU).

"Allowing the use of crypto payments will make charging convenient for all EV drivers, which will accelerate the move to an all-electric vehicle future"

“We are really pleased to announce this partnership as we believe it is forward-thinking on many fronts; allowing the use of crypto payments will make charging convenient for all EV drivers, which will accelerate the move to an all-electric vehicle future,” says John Cavebring, CEO of Hips.

Currently, the Vourity platform enables EV drivers to pay for charging by using regular open payment methods such as credit cards (e.g., Visa and Mastercard), Apple Pay, Google Pay, Swish, and Bluecode. The partnership with Hips will expand customer payment processing options, promoting the use of crypto currency as a viable and accessible option.

Crypto payments will be fully integrated in the Vourity platform and can connect directly to the blockchain via Hips Merchant Protocol's (HMP) native protocol token Merchant Token (MTO) starting November 2021. The roll out to 50,000 EV charging stations across the EU will be over 3 years.

“At Vourity, we are all about innovation and that starts with listening to EV drivers to understand and address their evolving needs. We want to make it easy for drivers to charge their car and offering an open platform that allows for crypto payments is the most logical choice for our next generation world,” said Hans Nottehed, CEO of Vourity.

GigaSpaces InsightEdge Smart Operational Data Store (ODS)/Digital Integration Hub (DIH) has been named the Best Data Tool and Platform of 2021 as part of the annual SIIA CODiE Awards.  The CODiE Awards recognize the companies producing the most innovative business technology products across the country, and around the world.

“We are honored to receive this very prestigious award, that is based on a deep dive into our technology’s differentiators and our powerful customer testimonials”, said Eti Gwirtz, VP Product at GigaSpaces.  “With the new focus on the online economy triggered by COVID, companies are competing to see who can be the first to develop and deploy new differentiating online services, and we are proud to provide an award-winning technology that enables our customers to deliver superior user experiences.”

The InsightEdge Smart ODS/DIH in-memory platform provides the required high performance, availability, and elastic scaling enabling enterprises to meet the most challenging data and analytics processing needs.    InsightEdge executes data transactions and analytics 30X faster than NoSQL, and 6X faster than other in-memory platforms and run complex algorithms, as used in risk and fraud, in minutes compared with hours, while saving millions of dollars a year on resource provisioning compared to alternative solutions.

“Congratulations to all of the 2021 Business Technology CODiE Award winners,” said SIIA President Jeff Joseph. “The products honored this year hold a particularly special place in the distinguished history of the CODiEs. Many of these winners literally helped business survive, and even thrive, as the global business community transitioned to remote status due to the pandemic. All those honored today demonstrate the resilience of this dynamic industry. Innovation continued even in the face of an unprecedented challenging year.”  

Acknowledged as the premier awards program for the software and information industries for over 35 years, the SIIA CODiE Awards are produced by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software, education, media and digital content industries.

Details about the winners are listed at https://history.siia.net/codie/2021-Winners.

Singapore: Diginex Limited, recently rebranded as  EQONEX Group (the “Company”), a digital assets financial services company, today announced that total spot and derivative trading volumes on EQONEX, its  cryptocurrency exchange, exceeded US$5 billion over the past 30 days. 

Volumes in June have continued their recent strong upward trajectory, with  average daily volumes in June month-to-date of US$190 million, representing an  increase of 206% and 80% from April and May this year, respectively. Compared to  the first quarter of 2021 and prior to the launch of its native exchange token EQO,  volumes in June month-to-date are up over 12 times. 

30 Day Rolling Average Daily Volumes on EQONEX Exchange (US$m)

Source: www.eqonex.com/markets/ 

The EQONEX exchange has transitioned from an early-stage strategy focused on  building a highly competitive order book with tight spreads and deep liquidity, to  one focused on driving organic revenue growth. Since early April 2021, the EQONEX  exchange has seen a rapid expansion in fee-paying volume, driven in part by the  launch of the EQO exchange token, which began trading on April 8, 2021. 

This strategy has not only contributed to overall volume growth but has also driven fee-paying volume significantly higher, as highlighted in the table below. 

30 Day Rolling Average Daily Fee-Paying Volume (US$m)

Entrust, a leading provider of trusted identities, payments and data protection, today announced that it has become a Visa Ready certified partner, offering their market-leading portfolio of Instant Financial Card Issuance solutions and expert guidance to help financial institutions create a smart, secure and convenient issuance experience for their cardholders across their branch network.

Today’s consumer finance market is highly competitive, and financial institutions and merchants alike are looking for partners that can help them elevate their customer experience. Credit and debit cards have proven a key part of that experience. By deploying the capability to print fully-activated and personalized payment cards in-branch when cardholders need it most, financial institutions differentiate their brand to attract and retain these valuable customers. As a Visa Ready certified partner, Entrust has flexible, secure and inspirational single-source instant issuance solutions that are trusted throughout the global payments ecosystem.

“We are pleased that Visa has recognized our leadership in the instant financial issuance space,” said Tony Ball, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Instant Issuance at Entrust. “Entrust is ready to help banks, credit unions, fintechs and merchants delight their cardholders with a robust range of cards, branding and personalization options, as well as on-premise and cloud deployment solutions across the globe.”

Entrust has also joined the Visa Fintech Partner Connect program. Initially launched in Europe, the program was recently expanded and is now available to customers in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This program provides Visa fintech customers with curated list of vetted payment and banking technology providers to simplify the discovery and procurement process for digital-first solutions. The program also offers pricing discounts and decreased implementation fees to participating fintech customers.

“In today’s climate, building a competitive financial product requires more technology than ever before. Consumers want seamless interactions across mobile and web, and they want access to a greater suite of digital banking capabilities,” said Terry Angelos, senior vice president and global head of fintech at Visa. “With Entrust participating in the Fintech Partner Connect program, our clients will have access to powerful set of tools for building new digital-first experiences.”

To find Entrust Instant Financial Issuance solutions on the Visa Ready Partner Portal or the Visa Fintech Partner Connect, visit https://partner.visa.com/site/partner-directory/entrust.html. 

To learn more about Entrust Instant Financial Issuance solutions, visit our website: https://www.entrust.com/issuance-systems/instant/financial-card. 

To learn more about what Visa Ready means to instant financial issuance programs, register for our upcoming webinar: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/17380/491082.

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), a global enterprise technology provider, today announced that it is recognized as an overall leader in Javelin’s 2021 Small Business Digital Account Opening Scorecard. Additionally, the report recognizes NCR Terafina as the leader in the user experience evaluation category and among the top three vendors evaluated in the customer journey and administrative tools categories.

NCR acquired Terafina earlier this year to expand account opening, sales and servicing capabilities within NCR’s Digital Banking portfolio. With this software, financial institutions can make it simple and easy for customers to open accounts anywhere (in the branch, online or through call centers) and deliver consistent experiences across digital and physical channels.

“Only half of the top 24 U.S. banks offer digital account opening for small businesses, but it should be table stakes,” said Ian Benton, Senior Analyst of Digital Banking. “Banks that force business owners to call a banker or visit a branch not only will fall behind competitors but also popular fintechs that are stealing customers from banks.”

Highlighting NCR Terafina’s focus on the customer journey, Benton writes in the scorecard: “Its account-opening process is a study in attention to detail, featuring several applicant-facing capabilities that none of the other vendors provided.” Benton also calls out the user experience category leadership of NCR Terafina citing, “a well-designed onboarding process for digital services.”

“Financial institutions today need to provide ‘digital everywhere’ experiences for their retail banking and business banking customers, and we are proud to deliver one of the industry’s most complete solutions to accomplish this,” said Ashwin Goyal, vice president and general manager, NCR Terafina. “This recognition is another validation of our strategy to deliver solutions that run self-directed banking for our customers.”