Nebulon Inc.®, the pioneer of smartInfrastructure^TM, server-embedded infrastructure software delivered as-a-service, today announced Nebulon smartCore^TM and Nebulon smartEdge^TM solution support for the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus Server using the new 3rd Generation AMD EPYC™ Processor. With this announcement, Nebulon offers customers using HPE ProLiant servers a broad range of server options for their smartInfrastructure deployments.

Many enterprises have a cloud-first strategy, fuelled by the need to improve operational simplicity. Whether it is self-service provisioning ease or comprehensive infrastructure management behind-the-scenes, the public cloud provides an operating model that allows application owners to focus on their application versus the underlying infrastructure. However, organisations do not view all enterprise application data as suitable for public cloud data centres due to concerns around cost, service levels or compliance. IT organisations who seek a cloud-like experience but must keep applications on premises are finding smartInfrastructure is an ideal solution with their HPE ProLiant servers.

HPE ProLiant Gen10 Plus servers using AMD EPYC processors deliver exceptional performance and scale for both core and edge data centres. By equipping HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus servers with Nebulon’s cloud-managed IoT endpoint, customers can leverage the SaaS-based Nebulon ON cloud control plane to gain the agility of cloud, bring the cloud operational experience to wherever their on-premises data lives and ultimately realise three major benefits. 

·       First, smartInfrastructure does not require any server CPU or memory overhead, so the workload density achieved can enable organisations to reduce infrastructure costs by up to 33%. 

·       Second, the Nebulon solution provides single-click centralised data plane updates for all Nebulon-based HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus servers across the enterprise that complete in minutes, reducing time spent on software and firmware updates by 90%. 

·       Finally, application owners can leverage application templates with standard services provisioned from a single API endpoint in the cloud, accelerating infrastructure provisioning by 2x. And all of these benefits come without adding a new data centre vendor. 

“As a SaaS provider for electronic medical records and practice management for medical offices, we first heard of Nebulon in the process of modernising our application infrastructure,” said Hamid Amjadi, CEO at Prime Clinical. “HPE ProLiant servers using AMD EPYC processors give us the performance we need, and Nebulon makes it much easier to manage our application infrastructure—it is cloud-simple and much better integrated than anything else we have seen.

“HPE and AMD have a long history of bringing performance and scalability to data centres around the globe,” said Siamak Nazari, CEO at Nebulon. “We are excited to expand our server integration to include the HPE ProLiant DL385 Gen10 Plus server to help customers not only bring cloud simplicity to their on-premises application infrastructure, but with this combination, help our end users drive greater business results in less time.”

To learn more about Nebulon smartInfrastructure and where to find us at HPE Discover, click here.

Fuel management and payment solutions specialists Payment24 (www.Payment24.co.za) have launched a new module in their comprehensive solutions suite, bringing contactless, cardless and secure fuel payments to market.

Payment24’s latest innovation, FastLane, is described as ‘biometrics for the vehicle’ which instantly identifies any vehicle enrolled in the system as it drives into the forecourt, and then authorises refuelling and automates payment. The solution is designed to allow petroleum companies and organisations operating their own fuelling homebases to improve service and efficiency, and reduce the risk of fraud.

The FastLane system uses cameras and artificial intelligence to detect a vehicle’s registration number, make, model, colour and type as it drives into the refuelling station. This data is sent to the Payment24 cloud, and if the vehicle is registered in the system, refuelling could be pre-authorised or a push notification can be sent to the FastLane companion app for driver verification and authorisation. The pump will release the fuel allocation and payment will be deducted automatically, with a receipt sent via the app. As a B2C solution, the registered driver will authorise refuelling and payment, but the system also enables fuel allocations and payment to be controlled by fleet owners and industrial fuelling station owners to speed up processes and reduce the risk of theft and fraud.

Payment24 CEOs Shadab Rahil and Nolan Daniel report that FastLane adds yet another layer of security to Payment24’s portfolio of over 20 fuel and fleet management solutions. It offers service station owners, fleet managers and even individual consumers greater efficiency and a better refuelling experience, with the added advantage that drivers and petrol attendants do not have to touch cards or keypads in order to make payments during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Says Daniel: “We are advancing to a stage in which the vehicle becomes the payment mechanism, taking away the time and effort that was traditionally needed to refuel a vehicle. Using advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence, we have made ‘paying by car’ a lot faster and more secure than using something like a fleet card. It’s the gateway to a world of cashless transactions, real-time visibility, and satisfied customers. Payment24 FastLane is a way to distinguish yourself, giving customers peace of mind and building loyalty with them.”

Built for conditions across Africa, the smart FastLane solution is very light on energy requirements and can run offline. Rahil notes: “You don’t need constant connectivity to approve transactions, which is perfect for mines with limited connectivity, and in rural fuel stations across Africa.”

Rahil says FastLane offers a number of benefits: “For fuel stations, the benefits include more sophisticated, faster service and a better customer experience. By fast tracking authorisation and payment, they can move vehicles off the forecourt much faster and accommodate more customers. Our smart technology also supports analysis – fuel station management can use the data for assessing factors like traffic patterns, dwell time, repeat visits and customer behaviour to help improve logistics and operations.”

Curbing fuel fraud across Africa

Payment24’s mobile and cloud based strategy and hardware agnostic approach is allowing the company to address key challenges facing petroleum companies and fleet managers in regions with limited infrastructure and countries with developing economies.

Payment24 operates in seven countries in Africa, with a strong partner network Ghana, Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, and UAE, as well a footprint in Europe and the U.S. The company’s range of technologies are helping petroleum companies and fleet owners to effectively manage fleets and fuel, and curb rampant fuel theft and fraud, which have become a major challenge as fuel theft becomes more lucrative.

The rising cost of fuel has seen fuel fraud overtake vehicle maintenance as the main reason why fleet managers are using technology to monitor their vehicles and fuel consumption, says Rahil .“From a fleet manager perspective, one of the main challenges - if not the main challenge - is to prevent fraud when it comes to fuel payments,” he says. “If you consider the fact that large vehicles can take up to 1,000 litres of diesel at a time, poorly managed refuelling could cost businesses a significant amount of money, so advanced fraud prevention solutions are crucial,” Rahil says.

Access Multimedia Content

ING announced today that it is conducting a strategic review of its Retail Banking business in France. The review is focused solely on the Retail Banking business and not on ING’s Wholesale Banking activities in France.

ING has been active in the French retail banking market since 2000 as an online bank and currently serves around 1 million customers, offering current accounts, mortgages, consumer lending and investment products. ING France has around 700 employees, of which two-thirds work in Retail Banking. Globally more than 57,000 ING employees offer Retail and Wholesale Banking services to customers in over 40 countries.

Any potential outcome of the review of ING’s Retail Banking business in France would be carried out in accordance with the social and regulatory legislation in force, taking into account the best interests of our customers, employees and other stakeholders.

Today, Solidatus, the leading data management technology firm, announces two new significant senior appointments, supporting its recent accelerated growth and fuelling further global expansion. 

David Northmore joins in the new role of Vice President of Sales, following eight years as Area VP at MarkLogic. David’s extensive experience spans 25 years in the data industry, having held senior management roles at HP Software, Computer Associates and EMC Documentum. His role at Solidatus will focus on developing new processes and scaling the team as the business expands both domestically and overseas, while maintaining its established reputation for fuelling positive client outcomes. 

Chris Crang joins in a similarly newly created role as Vice President of Marketing. He will be focusing on developing and driving the Solidatus brand as the go-to provider of data management solutions. Chris previously held roles as the Head of Corporate Marketing at Worldpay UK, where he established their marketing function for enterprise business and saw the company through to IPO. Chris has also served as Director of Customer Marketing and Strategy at American Express and held management and leadership roles for over 15 years in both UK and multinational organisations.

Both roles will work in partnership, and report into Solidatus’ co-founder, Philip Dutton. This expansion of the leadership structure marks a pivotal time in the company’s history as it quickly expands internationally. The new senior hires follow a landmark year for Solidatus, following its successful Series A funding round and a 400% growth in employees. Its continued investment into senior recruitment and rapid business expansion reinforces its leading position delivering innovative data management strategies for businesses around the world.

Philip Dutton, co-founder of Solidatus, said, “These hires mark an inflection point in our evolution, as we continue to rapidly scale and expand into new territories following our most successful year to date. Attracting the talents of David and Chris reinforces our ambition and commitment to meet the on-going complex needs of clients, as the chosen data management tool for regulated and data-rich organizations. David and Chris both have a firm belief in the transformative difference we can make for our clients, and their combined exceptional expertise make them the perfect fit to drive Solidatus into the next phases of our journey.”

David Northmore, VP of Sales at Solidatus comments, “I have a long-term affinity for Solidatus, having worked with several of its clients and partners throughout my career. We have built an enviable reputation for delivering value to our clients time and time again. Our rapid growth is a testament to this and our singular focus on positive customer outcomes will remain at the heart of everything we do.” 

Chris Crang, VP of Marketing at Solidatus, said, “Solidatus’ ability to fundamentally reimagine how data can be used attracted me to the role, as fresh approaches like theirs are so vital to businesses facing complex data burdens. The team has done an exceptional job in getting the brand to where it is today, and Solidatus now stands at an exciting point in its development. As we enter this next phase of growth, I look forward to developing the Solidatus story as market needs evolve, underlining our unique ability to solve complex data problems.”

·       Volt to build global payments platform by unifying instant schemes around the world to a single point of access

·       New funding round is the biggest Series A on record for the open banking industry

·       The investment, led by EQT Ventures, will support Volt’s product development and international expansion activities

Volt, the leading open payments gateway, today announces that it has raised a $23.5 million Series A to fund expansion into new territories and build out its global instant payments footprint. 

The investment round, the largest Series A on record for the Open Banking industry, was led by EQT Ventures. Existing investors Augmentum Fintech PLC and Fuel Ventures also participated in the round, alongside several angel investors with extensive payments industry experience and influence. These include: Robert Kraal as Chairman (co-founder of Adyen) and Gabriel de Montessus as Non-Executive Director (Group President at FIS Worldpay). 

Founded in 2019, Volt has established itself as Europe’s leading open payments gateway. It offers seamless access to Open Banking payments in Europe, connecting over 5,000 banks across the UK and EU, and is forging the path by bringing together new generation account-to-account (A2A) payments infrastructure to a single point of access. 

Across the globe, merchants and payment service providers (PSPs) are prioritising instant payments in their expansive ecosystems. There are 58 countries around the world rolling out their new instant payment schemes, with companies across the globe embracing a new more digital way of working. 

Volt’s intelligent platform translates and operationalises the real-time payments infrastructure, creating a highly flexible and scalable solution, and delivering a unified experience for Merchants and Payment Service Providers. 

Tom Greenwood, CEO of Volt, comments: “Instant payments are set to dominate the global payments landscape and will become the new normal. It’s an exciting time to be in payments, and we are delighted to have secured such a significant funding round, and the backing of an influential group of investors. We look forward to working with our new partners at EQT Ventures as we build out our global vision.”

Tom Mendoza, Partner at EQT Ventures, added: “The pandemic has created an inflection point in the payments sector; faced with unprecedented online demand, merchants and PSPs are re-assessing the technical infrastructure that underpins their business. Volt’s team of payments experts are creating meaningful change and building a new category in instant payments, forging the path by bringing new real-time networks to a single switch. We are delighted to be working with Tom and the team.”

Using Open Banking technology, tenants can now improve their credit score, increase their eligibility for a Zopa loan and potentially reduce the cost of a loan from the neobank through its partnership with CreditLadder. 

For those that rent, getting access to finance and loans at competitive rates can be made harder as monthly rental payments are not recorded on their credit file. However, a new partnership between neobank Zopa and financial inclusion service CreditLadder will now allow renters to make every penny count towards their credit score.

Using Open Banking technology, Zopa customers can now use CreditLadder to ensure their rental payments are recorded on their credit file. In turn, these payments are taken into consideration in Zopa’s unique credit score tool and loan eligibility checker, Borrowing Power. Borrowing Power is a free tool in the Zopa app which calculates a customer’s financial health score, recommends targeted actions to help them improve it and links directly to their eligibility for Zopa products. By teaming up with CreditLadder, Zopa app users that rent will have the opportunity to improve their Borrowing Power score and gain better access to cheaper Zopa loans. This is yet another Open Banking initiative from the neobank to help even more people gain access to its fair and transparent credit options.

CreditLadder is the UK’s first and biggest rent reporting platform and has reported close to £500m in rent payments on behalf of tenants. Rent payments are recognised through the Open Banking technology CreditLadder employs, and this in turn is reported to the UK’s leading credit reference agencies each month.

Data from Equifax shows that just under 70% of users with a ‘thin credit file’ - this is where users have two or fewer credit accounts - saw an increase in their credit score when 12 months of rental payments were added.

Clare Gambardella, Chief Customer Officer at Zopa Bank, said: “We at Zopa are proud to be teaming up with CreditLadder to enable our customers to report their rent payments and use them to help build their credit score. We believe that as many people as possible should have access to fair, simple and transparent products. Partnering with CreditLadder and using its Open Banking technology via our app makes it possible for us to offer those that rent a more accurate credit score, tailored tips on how to improve their credit health and access to more affordable Zopa loans in the future.”

Sheraz Dar, CEO and Co-Founder of CreditLadder said; “There are over 10 million households in the UK who rent and our mission is to ensure they can benefit from reporting their rent payments to improve their credit score - just like home owners do when it comes to their mortgage. The partnership with Zopa is a great use of technology that can help its customers access finance at better rates simply by using CreditLadder to report their rent payments each month.”

Anyone can access Zopa’s Borrowing Power feature within its free app. All users that are renters with thin file credentials will be offered the chance to sign up to CreditLadder.

For more information on the partnership, please visit: https://www.creditladder.co.uk/press

• Getsafe has acquired over 10,000 customers in the UK
• In total, Getsafe has crossed the 200,000 customer threshold
• From 2022 onwards, Getsafe plans to expand to other European markets

 Path Solutions is thrilled to announce that it has won three different awards at Banktech Award 2021 held on Wednesday 9 June.

The global Islamic banking software company won two different categories for Path Solutions ‘Best Islamic Finance Technology Vendor in Banking’, and ‘Best Digital Banking Technology Provider’, while Path Solutions’ Group Chairman & CEO, Mohammed Kateeb was selected as ‘Banking Technology Personality of the Year’.

Commenting on this triple recognition, Kateeb said, “We are proud to receive these coveted accolades. These rewards have enforced our belief in our vision and will boost our motivation and intensify our resolve in realizing new heights by becoming the technology provider of choice for financial institutions in the post-COVID-19 era. We are constantly striving to keep our leading-edge banking software ahead of competitors, and awards such as these clearly demonstrate the market recognition of our relentless and uncompromising efforts. We will continue to provide the best open and flexible platform for our clients to deliver engaging and empowering frictionless banking experiences”.

Launched by Faster Community, the ultimate Banktech Award programme embodies and celebrates the best of fintech and banking innovations around the world. These innovations have been carefully chosen for their impact on the bank business models, customer journeys, processes, and digital channels, leading to higher performance and larger market share for their respective banks.

Path Solutions is an Islamic core banking system provider with a proven track record and deep understanding of digital banking transformation. The company helps financial institutions around the world dramatically accelerate their digital transformation, streamline their processes to enable their customers a seamless experience across all channels. 

Kateeb is an inspirational fintech leader who has demonstrated his excellent leadership skills and vision to drive the business growth of Path Solutions. His exemplary leadership has made a significant impact on the company’s success and will continue to drive innovation and growth more than ever.

Competition was fierce for this year’s award programme. An expert jury comprising of global banking and technology leaders evaluated the nominations on the basis of three criteria – Leadership in innovation, commercial viability, and social and economic impact. Traditional banking business practices were already under scrutiny for relevance and business advantage, being challenged by emergent market forces. The ongoing global pandemic has further accentuated the situation, underlining the need for deep flexibility for adaptive innovation. More on the winners of the Banktech Award 2021 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJRIKZtHF2U

OROPAY, a Cypriot EMI, has partnered with Salt Edge, leader in developing open banking solutions, for becoming PSD2 compliant to provide safe and secure payments to its customers.

OROPAY is an electronic money institution regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus, providing business & personal eMoney, and eCommerce solutions. The company focuses on international money transfers and aims to help businesses and consumers conduct their transactions more conveniently. With the goal to provide better, faster, and more advantageous services, OROPAY became fully PSD2 compliant. 

It all started with OROPAY’s expansion plans to the European Union and the European Economic Area. The eWallet’s clients in this region are mostly businesses that, thanks to PSD2 compliance’s perks, have been enjoying more than just safe payment journeys. The compliance solution empowered OROPAY to build new, value-added services around the APIs, enabling businesses to optimise their processes in a rational and time-efficient way. According to Konstantinos Kareklas, OROPAY Deputy CEO and Director, business clients need easy and secure manners for executing their daily eMoney transactions via OROPAY business accounts, and this is where Salt Edge’s open banking solutions became more than necessary.

Being PSD2 compliant enables OROPAY customers to securely connect their eWallet accounts to third-party applications (TPPs) and get a full view of their transactions and initiate payments directly in the app.

“Strengthening our relationship with our customers is a priority and this is why we constantly aim to come up with offerings suiting their needs and the changes happening in our domain. Cross border payments are a mandatory element of business activities. Becoming PSD2 compliant was, undoubtedly, an added value, so, after a thorough market research, we decided to partner with Salt Edge. We choose specifically Salt Edge for its rich experience in the field, API technology, and excellent customer service.”

Konstantinos Kareklas, OROPAY Deputy CEO and Director

The collaboration between OROPAY and Salt Edge helped the eWallet build services around the new possibilities of open banking.

“Looking back at the time when Salt Edge started implementing the open banking solution in OROPAY’s ecosystem and the great manner that the eWallet is now leveraging it in Europe, it becomes clear that the more open a company is to making its customers’ lives better, the greater its success will be. Our goal was to make this transition as seamless as possible so that OROPAY’s clients from all over Europe take full advantage of the provided solution, and we are happy to ensure their safety and quality at every single stage.”

Victor Colta, Technical Project Manager at Salt Edge.