In response to increased demand for intercompany financial management (IFM), FourQ has launched a global partner program designed to drive collaboration and engagement with technology providers, consulting firms, and professional services firms. The partner program will promote and develop joint best-in-class intercompany solutions in areas of tax, billing, vendor payments, and financial transformation.

“Corporations operating across various tax jurisdictions with multiple ERP systems are burdened with intercompany complexity and overhead,” explained May Ma, Vice President of Transformation at FourQ. “There is a tremendous opportunity to address the challenges that multinational corporations are facing through our new FourQ partner program. Collaboration with strategic technology and consulting partners will enable us to seamlessly deliver innovative and interoperable solutions at scale.”

The FourQ partner program encompasses four distinct channels, including:

• Technology Partners. Companies that offer financial close and automation solutions (such as e-invoicing) that complement and enhance FourQ’s technical capabilities to provide customers with comprehensive solutions.

• Managed Service and BPO Partners. Outsourcing providers of standardized back-office processes that leverage FourQ’s platform to differentiate their service offerings and maximize clients’ investments.

• Consulting and Professional Services Partners. Services firms that bring a wealth of knowledge in tax, financial advisory, process controls, and industry expertise.

• Referral Partners. Firms that serve and educate those involved with managing intercompany risk and intercompany financial management processes.

FourQ streamlines operations and eliminates the complexity inherent to conducting global business. Providing automated intercompany processing seamlessly integrated with global vendor invoice management, FourQ processes over $34 billion annually across 110 countries. FourQ’s intercompany financial management platform, comprising of two integrated solutions include Paymaster which provides universal vendor invoice management and OneBiller which automates intercompany accounting for billing and tax optimization.

As defined by business technology research and advisory services firm, Ventana Research, IFM is a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities. IFM is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage, and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance. Ventana Research predicts that by 2025, one-half of organizations with 10,000 or more employees will have implemented IFM to achieve tax, risk management, and financial close benefits.

To learn more about FourQ’s partner program, please contact us at: partnerships@Four-Q.com.

VALK, the London and Zurich-based creators of a market-leading digital platform designed to enable users to capitalise on a global surge in private trading activity has secured a prestigious place in the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory sandbox.

Launched in 2016 and widely seen as a global sandbox pioneer, the FCA regulatory sandbox is designed to help the financial services industry and the UK Fintech market, worth £11 billion, to collaborate and solve some of the industry’s most complex challenges – including the drive towards full digital transformation.

It also provides a safe test space for companies, and the regulator, to learn how products work – normally for several months – with safeguards in place.

VALK is operating a digital end-to-end solution for investment banks, asset and fund managers as well as multi-family offices that integrate every stage of a fundraise or M&A deal onto one secure platform, which connects financial institutions and investors.

Based on the Corda Digital Ledger Technology, the product’s interoperability seamlessly digitises and automates the securities issuance process for a streamlined, efficient and more secure execution of private offers.

For this year’s FCA sandbox chosen cohort, VALK is collaborating with leading global law firm CMS on the product’s development to ensure it fully complies with all legal and regulatory requirements.

VALK co-founder, Antoine Loth, said:

“Our mission is simple. We want to bring private markets in the UK and globally into the 21^st century by making them digital and securely connected, driving efficiencies and, most importantly, new revenue streams from secondary market transactions and other new opportunities that will transform and unleash the enormous potential which this trillion-dollar sector holds.

“Our success and experience to date have helped us to ensure a sought-after place in the FCA regulatory sandbox and we look forward to participating fully in this hugely beneficial and unrivalled experience as part of our growth journey.

“We warmly welcome the opportunity to test our leading digital platform solution so that we can help to bring even greater efficiency, reliability, transparency and liquidity to a market in urgent need of reform.”

For VALK, a successful exit from the sandbox will mean it ensures its products will be FCA-authorised and that its infrastructure and processes are fully compliant for regulatory standards, enabling its clients to take full advantage of its opportunities.

The company, which launched its blockchain-powered digital platform that securely automates the back-office essentials needed to facilitate the growing trade in unlisted assets in 2019, is already making waves in the fintech sector. 

Backed by strategic investors such as R3 and the fintech investment vehicle of SIX Group and Generali, as well as VCs Ascension and Metavallon, the award-winning company recently celebrated a significant growth milestone after confirming that more than $1 billion of assets had been fundraised or traded on its platforms.

VALK is already servicing more than 30 institutions globally and growing at an accelerated rate.

Sam Robinson, Partner at CMS, said:

“We are delighted to have been appointed to the sandbox with VALK and being involved in the FinTech changes in the Financial Services industry and helping to drive those changes. We are excited about the opportunity to continue our relationship with VALK and its growth in the industry."

Shortlisted twice at The Asset Management Awards 2021 for Technology Provider of the Year and Asset Management Innovation of the Year, VALK was established in 2017. Earlier this month, it was nominated for this year’s Blockchain Project of the Year at the FStech awards 2021.

The brainchild of founders Antoine Loth and Elie Azzi, VALK’s mission is to make private markets in the UK digital and connected by offering a seamless end-to-end solution.

Its pioneering technology also features additional secondary market functions enabling financial intermediaries to offer increased liquidity to clients as well as access to digital exchanges.

ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services, today announced that it has become a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). By adding its name to the other 3,900+ signatories, ACA formally endorses a framework that aligns with ACA’s commitment to promote a more sustainable financial system, most notably through the launch of its global environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) advisory practice in January of this year.

The PRI is recognized as the leading global network of asset managers, owners, and service providers who are committed to putting responsible investment into practice. The voluntary principles aim to provide a framework for integrating ESG considerations into investment decision-making and ownership practices.

To become better aligned with the PRI, ACA commits to undertake a series of steps in 2021. These include making public its organizational commitment to advancing responsible investment and how this is put into practice in the services provided to clients; providing transparency around the global frameworks with which ACA aligns its ESG service offerings; and launching its own corporate sustainability strategy to promote consistency between recommendations made to clients and how the firm operates on a day-to-day basis.

Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, said: “We are proud to count more than three thousand financial services firms as our clients. Taken together, their capital allocation in sustainable and responsible investment influences trillions of dollars and touches billions of people. Our ability to shape those decisions energizes us, while reminding us of our own accountability. It was clear we had to drink our own champagne – we could hardly advise clients on how to improve their ESG impact without living up to its highest standards ourselves. By publicly agreeing to adhere to the Principles for Responsible Investment, we are demonstrating our commitment to integrating ESG factors into our own business.”

Fiona Reynolds, CEO of the PRI, said: “We are delighted to welcome ACA as a PRI signatory. This move, combined with the creation of its dedicated ESG advisory practice, demonstrates the GRC firm’s commitment to boosting the awareness of ESG in the investment decision-making process and supporting the sustainable investment ecosystem.”

The six Principles for Responsible Investment are a voluntary and aspirational set of investment principles that encourage the incorporation of ESG issues into investment practice. In committing to the six principles, signatories contribute to developing a more sustainable global financial system. They have attracted a global signatory base representing a majority of the world’s professionally managed investments.

The six principles are:

1. We will incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes.

2. We will be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our ownership policies and practices.

3. We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest.

4. We will promote acceptance and implementation of the principles within the investment industry.

5. We will work together to enhance our effectiveness in implementing the principles.

6. We will each report on our activities and progress towards implementing the principles.

ACA’s ESG advisory practice complements the existing governance, risk, and compliance offerings of the firm. The ESG team, offering ESG program development, portfolio oversight, and assurance services, is supported by the wider ACA community, which provides cyber, risk, and regulatory technology solutions alongside UK, European, and U.S. regulatory compliance advisory services.

EBANX, the leading cross-border commerce platform in Latin America connecting global merchants with local consumers, today announced an investment of US$400 million from Advent International and an additional commitment of US$30 million to the company's planned IPO in the U.S. Advent is one of the largest private equity firms in the world and one of the most successful investors in the Payments industry, having made investments in Vantiv, Worldpay, Nets, Nexi, Planet, Xplor Technologies, Prisma, Concardis, Monext, and Stone. The firm joins FTV Capital as a minority investor in EBANX. 

The investment will be used to continue funding EBANX's aggressive expansion across Latin America. "Our goal has always been to develop the highest-performing digital payments solutions, recruit the best technology talent and business minds, and deliver a superior value proposition that makes it easier and more cost effective for global companies to access and grow their businesses across Latin America. We are excited to have Advent join us on our journey and help us accelerate our growth”, said João Del Valle, CEO and co-founder of EBANX.

EBANX’s Expansion in Latin America 

EBANX has helped companies such as Amazon, Alibaba, Shopee, Spotify and Uber reach and conduct commerce with over 70 million Latin American consumers across 15 countries, through its proprietary platform and solutions. The Company has grown at an exponential rate in recent years, and processed over US$3.5 billion in volume and 150 million transactions in 2020.

“EBANX is one of the most impressive companies I’ve seen in the last 20 years,” said Mario Malta, Managing Director and Head of Latin America Financial Services at Advent. “The company is the clear leader in a rapidly expanding market, serving clients that are among the fastest-growing companies in the world and helping them to sell throughout Latin America with simplicity, confidence and higher-levels of transaction approval.”

EBANX also continues to recruit talent aggressively. The Company recently hired Alexandre Dinkelmann as Chief Financial Officer, who brings his public company experience as CFO of TOTVS, the largest software company in Brazil. “Recruiting the most talented and experienced professionals in the market is essential to the continued evolution of our best-in-class customer experience and industry-leading capabilities," said Wagner Ruiz, Chief Risk Officer and co-founder at EBANX.

Advent Invests Through All Four Funds for the First Time in History 

For the first time in its history, all four of Advent’s funds, including Latin American Private Equity Fund (LAPEF), Global Private Equity (GPE), Advent Tech and Sunley House Capital, are participating in the same investment, demonstrating the firm’s strong global support of EBANX. This round is also Advent’s largest investment in a Latin American tech company. 

Brenno Raiko, Managing Director and Head of Latin America Technology at Advent said, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with such a remarkable group of founders and industry leaders at EBANX. This management team is building a unique growth engine throughout Latin America and is the type of disruptive category leader in which we look to invest. We are proud to have EBANX in the Advent ecosystem.”

Monneo, a virtual IBAN and corporate bank account provider, is proving a hit with yachting and marine businesses.

Unlike traditional banks, Monneo simplifies the management of corporate banking for companies with unique financial needs.

Having a multi-tiered structure provided by Monneo, allows companies better visibility and control of funds as they can decide how much money to transfer to each yacht and its crew’s sub-accounts.

An ideal solution for managing expenses, and potentially saving yacht owners and management companies $millions each year, it allows for the payment of international expenses, maintenance, international money transfers and deposits, as well as accepting different currencies and dealing with different languages.

Lili Metodieva, Managing Director at Monneo explains; “Currently, too much time is diverted away from the priorities and into cumbersome expense tools and spreadsheets. In addition to our digital banking services, Monneo provides a super easy tool that gives ultimate control and accountability to finance management. A purpose-built multi-card, multi-currency account that enables staff to transact, record and review expenses in real time at the click of a button. This makes life easier for captains and crews onboard, and ultimately provides a better service for yacht owners.”

For further information visit https://www.monneo.com.

nexo standards, which offers the payment community a unified, ISO-based solution for payment acceptance, has expanded its scope beyond card-based transactions to support changes in the ways consumers are paying for goods and services; for example using mobile wallets, instant payments, request-to-pay and QR codes; and new payment scenarios such as open-loop transport payments. 

The freely available nexo technical standards are based on ISO 20022 which addresses the complexity created by using existing fragmented and proprietary financial service standards.

Working with an international membership base of acquirers, card schemes, issuers, merchants, processors and vendors, nexo standards simplifies and standardizes the exchange of data between all stakeholders to detail an integrated global approach to payment acceptance.        

Jacques Soussana, Secretary-General at nexo standards, comments: “Today, our standards are easing integration complexity for merchants, processors, vendors, PSPs and banks, and are supported by schemes all over the world. Adding other means of electronic payments to our scope enables nexo standards to bring these significant financial and operational benefits regardless of the transaction type, payment method or technology used. This reflects the needs of our members, the market and their customers.”

The scope expansion was agreed at the association’s General Assembly last month, during which several new representatives were elected to its Board of Directors and appointed to its Executive Team. Yann Leclerc, Project and Solutions Director at Market Pay, was elected as new General Assembly Chairman; and Patrice Hertzog, Manager at Crédit Mutuel Global Payment Solutions, was elected as Board of Directors Chairman. 

nexo standards are already used across six continents and power more than five billion payment transactions a year.

Learn more about becoming a member and shaping the future of payment acceptance.

United Fintech has announced its Advisory Board, with the appointment of six world-class experts who will play a key role in the global expansion of the fast-growth firm launched by Christian Frahm to help banks, hedge funds and asset managers to accelerate their transition to a digital world through access to fintechs specialising in capital markets.

The members of the Advisory Board are:

• Russel Levi – 25 years’ experience heading up Sales at Bloomberg and SuperDerivatives; responsible for building Bloomberg’s European business.
• Michel André - CTO at Saxo Bank for 14 years and widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading IT architects.
• Rasmus Jensen – Specialist in corporate leadership and digital transformation, instrumental in the significant growth of Templafy’s commercial team.
• Peter Korsholm – successful investor, former partner at EQT and 12 years at the firm which is one of Europe’s most successful Private Equity firms with $80 billion AUM.
• Jannik Kruse Petersen – 20 years in investment banking and private equity and a successful private fintech investor.
• Morten Jensen – Leading legal expert, Head of Capital Markets and M&A at Bruun Hjejle, advising clients such as Goldman Sachs and EQT.

Peter Korsholm, Jannik Kruse Petersen and Morten Jensen are also investors in United Fintech.

Christian Frahm, Founder and CEO, United Fintech says, “We have strengthened our exceptional team with an outstanding Advisory Board to provide further scrutiny and consultancy, particularly in terms of our strategic fintech acquisitions. Our Advisory Board comprises of world class leaders in their respective fields, including highly experienced and talented M&A experts and fintech leaders. I feel very humbled and honoured that, at this early stage for United Fintech, such eminent experts have chosen to support our vision and join our journey.”

Russel Levi, Advisory Board member, adds, “I am excited and feel privileged to be part of such a talented and experienced Advisory Board.  The capital markets industry largely runs using legacy technology and data provided by a small number of outdated providers with inflexible and expensive business models. The status quo is ripe for disruption by nimble start-ups with strong engineering credentials.

“Christian is an incredibly ambitious and successful visionary and has established United Fintech with a clear plan to enable banks and hedge funds worldwide to have easy access to innovative capital markets solutions and to help proven but small fintechs accelerate their growth globally and realise their true potential.”

United Fintech plans to acquire and scale a range of pioneering small to medium-sized engineering-led fintech companies, all with a proven capital markets product; and to partner with banks and financial institutions to help them to access and onboard these innovative digital technologies.

To date, the firm has acquired two fintech firms, NetDania and TTMZero and plans to have an extensive fintech portfolio including products ranging from trading platforms, liquidity management and regulatory reporting tools through to AI and machine learning applications, Big Data tools, institutional Blockchain, Bots and Virtual Assistants.

Since launching in November 2020, United Fintech has grown at a rapid pace and now employs 85 people in London, New York, Copenhagen, Berlin and Romania. Its team consists of world-class experts in each aspect of building, growing and scaling capital markets businesses.

For further information, please visit www.unitedfintech.com 

Reach, the global payment localization provider has announced the appointment of two members of senior management, with Sarah Hermary joining as Head of Human Resources, and Lohrasp Seify as Head of Data. The new hires will support Reach’s impressive and rapid expansion plans, following a successful start to 2021. 

Seify, a data science and advanced analytics expert with a MSc in Theoretical and Computational Physics, will be responsible for Reach’s data strategy. This encompasses scalable data delivery and analysis, and optimizing data-driven decision-making for the organization, its customers, and partners.  

He will also oversee the creation of new Business Intelligence, Data Engineering, Master Data Management, Data Architecture, Data Science, and Data Security teams to strengthen Reach’s expansion and reputation as a pioneer in e-commerce data and business intelligence. 

Previous positions saw Seify leading the data, analytics, and data science teams at Blackline Vision and working on the TRIUMF particle accelerator project as part of the ATLAS Group. He will now bring his deep knowledge and expertise in cutting-edge artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to extend Reach’s industry-leading data services into more client sectors. 

“Reach is a market disruptor that is doing something new,” Seify said. “Intelligent and talented people have brought the company to where it is now. Data, analytics, and data science products are untapped potential opportunities for the company that we will start taking advantage of over the next year. As we grow and gain a larger, more diverse client base, we can do even more with data – from helping our clients attain more sales, to getting the the visibility that they might never have had, and analysis that they didn’t know they needed.” 

Meanwhile, Hermary will use her 16 years’ experience to oversee the execution of Reach’s HR strategy and operations, as well as strengthening its talent acquisition and employee development programs.  

A proven leader in her previous role in the energy sector, Hermary led the enlargement of the organization’s HR department, developing her strategic mindset which she now turns toward supporting the ever-expanding Reach team. 

In her new role, Hermary’s main focus will be developing scalable and efficient HR initiatives that can support the planned expansions to Reach’s workforce in the near future. Hermary will also play a key role in driving the implementation and improvement of HR practices that resonate with Reach’s ethos of employee development and wellness. 

To meet the requirements of its growing head count, Reach will take office space in one of Calgary’s most upscale districts, with the business taking an entire floor of the Edison building. The Edison, which is described as ‘Calgary’s headquarters for collaborators, innovators, and visionaries’, provides Reach with the perfect platform to continue strengthening its business throughout 2021 and beyond. 

Sam Ranieri, CEO of Reach, commented: “Building on our incredibly strong start to 2021, we’re excited to prepare for the next stage of Reach’s evolution by adding exceptional talent and moving to beautiful new surroundings. Sarah and Lohrasp bring with them enviable amounts of experience in both developing and leading HR and data science teams. They will play critical roles in directing our employee engagement and talent acquisition strategies and leveraging advanced data analytics to drive business growth from our new Calgary office. 

“The appetite for cross-border ecommerce has never been higher, with more customers looking beyond their own localities for their goods and services. With this, we know the true value that Reach can bring. By taking out the lease on our new office space in the heart of Calgary’s burgeoning tech scene and attracting experienced professionals internationally, we are building the foundations for our accelerated growth in the months and years to come.”