Volante Technologies, the global leader in cloud payments and financial messaging, and SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures, controlled by CDP Equity, have signed a partnership agreement to enable banks, financial institutions and payment service providers to access instant payments, speeding up the adoption of digital payments in Europe.

The combination of Volante’s cloud-native SEPA Instant Payments as a Service with the high-speed, secure and low-latency network infrastructure SIAnet will allow European banks and financial institutions to directly access the EBA Clearing’s pan-European real-time payment system RT1 and the TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) service of the Eurosystem (the ECB and national central banks in the Eurozone). 

The partnership will allow the banking and financial communities to send and receive payments in less than 10 seconds for a maximum amount currently set at 100,000 euros per individual transaction, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC).

Adopters of the Volante and SIAnet solution will benefit from cloud payments processing as a service and outstanding resiliency and network infrastructure performance. The service is also extensible with a wide range of available additional payment types and schemes, including SEPA Credit Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit.

Domenico Scaffidi, Vice President, Global Industry & Regulatory Affairs, Volante Technologies said, “The number of payment schemes across Europe continues to climb. Our combined proposition dramatically speeds up the process of connecting to these pan-European payment systems and platforms. As we are already certified with SIAnet, banks can very quickly offer instant payments to their customers, and benefit from reduced project resource and implementation costs. The partnership will also enable joint customers to extend the service to other payment types beyond SEPA Instant Payments.” 

“The partnership with Volante Technologies is an important step in implementing SIA’s strategy to develop instant payments for banks and financial institutions in Europe and we are fully committed to supporting the success of this initiative. As part of the SIA Partnership Program, we will enable Volante Technologies’ customers to directly access the pan-European payments platforms by leveraging the integration between a leading network infrastructure and a cloud-based innovative solution,” stated Cristina Astore, SIA’s Northwest Europe and DACH Region Sales Director.

Fabrick, Italy’s leading open banking ecosystem, is launching a suite of API based solutions that harness Open Finance. Fabrick has created two market-ready solutions based on Mastercard’s APIs: InControl for Business and Identity Check Mobile (IDCM) and utilises them to bring value to end users with easy-to-use applications.

The new solutions can be readily adopted by banks, fintechs and enterprises by removing friction through Fabrick’s Open Finance platform and simplifying time-to-market.

Controls for Business is a solution that Fabrick has developed based on a set of APIs Mastercard created called InControl. While banks can choose to incorporate these APIs themselves, Fabrick’s solution integrates the APIs reducing the technical burden and easing adoption. The platform is a fully customisable white-label solution that is integrated with the main payment networks. This new solution is a new, quick and easy route to market for banks. The key functionality of Controls for Business allows a business to better control the use of company credit and debit cards issued to employees for expenses and business costs.

The Controls for Business app was created to meet the specific payment needs of SMEs to have a seamless multi-channel experience across mobile, tablet and PC. With the Controls for Business solution, the business owner can set different profiles for groups of users, setting limits and restricting how and where their cards can be used. It delivers greater convenience, security and control to business owners allowing them to spend smarter.

Controls for Business’ offering satisfies the strong end-user need for high security and managed access to spending accounts, while providing cost efficiencies and speed-to-market for issuers without the need for any changes in the payment process at the merchant. Beyond this, the platform can extend card programs into new payment categories with enhanced controls and other features, resulting in the potential for new revenue opportunities. This puts business owners in control of their companies’ financial destinies.

Controls for Business is a vital and timely solution as small firms will benefit from a post-lockdown recovery only if they are able to harness the right digital tools; ultimately allowing them to compete with larger firms by closing the digital divide. Financial technology has a critical role to play in helping SME firms optimise their growth potential.

IDCM is a biometric recognition platform that allows banks and financial institutions to provide their end customers with secure biometric services such as face ID, touch ID and voice recognition that can be integrated within apps and is also available as a Software Development Kit (SDK).

IDCM is being offered to European issuers to make biometric authentication available for their customers on remote card transactions to authorise their online payments. Additionally, multiple new use cases for IDCM to improve other banking operations where the customer identity needs to be confirmed are being developed, such as updating personal details in online banking, withdrawing cash in-branch or contacting a bank call centre. With IDCM customers receive a notification via their smart phone enabling them to verify their identity via secure biometrics. As well as delivering a smoother customer experience, it can potentially reduce fraud and operational costs for the bank.

Solutions like InControl for Business and IDCM that are built on Mastercard’s APIs demonstrate the possibilities for the future of Open Finance.

Marco Casartelli, Deputy CEO of Fabrick: “We are delighted to strengthen our strategic partnership with Mastercard to deliver seamless solutions that harness the transformative power of Open Finance and realise concrete benefits for banks, fintechs, enterprises and end customers. Our InControl for Business and IDCM solutions enable easy adoption of Mastercard’s APIs.

“IDCM is highly innovative and proven in the market and we look forward to developing new use cases. IDCM is the future of secure and fast identity verification, and with InControl for Business we have brought to market a new intelligence-driven solution that offers SMEs empowering real-time control”.

Rigo van den Broeck, Executive Vice President, Cyber Security Product Innovation at Mastercard Europe, commented: “We are excited to continue to partner with Fabrick to bring solutions such as InControl for Business and IDCM to our customers and end-users. The speed and efficiency with which IDCM was delivered was really impressive. We look forward to further partnerships in the future to create solutions driving the user experience - that is convenient and controlled by the end user - of tomorrow”.

4OTC, the FinTech connectivity specialist for FX and digital assets, today announced that Cobalt, a provider of risk and settlement infrastructure for FX and digital assets, is using 4OTC's new TicketLounge service to capture and normalise post trade data onto a single FIX API.

TicketLounge is 4OTC's second product launch in only four months. In February this year, it was announced that Cobalt was also using 4OTC’s first service, 1API to connect with market data in the Digital Asset and FX Markets.

TicketLounge enables post trade automation by providing a robust and reliable infrastructure that utilises redundant, multi-regional, connectivity to major FX ECNs and digital asset exchanges.

Cobalt and its clients can leverage a single FIX API for connectivity, greatly reducing onboarding time, risks and costs. Cobalt’s 24/7 infrastructure connects risk management systems, execution venues, asset custodians, clearing mechanisms, and settlement services. Its robust engines ensure that market participants have access to best prices while credit providers and asset custodians maintain accuracy and oversight over market access.

Alexis Atkinson, Co-Founder of 4OTC said, "We are delighted to work again with Cobalt. TicketLounge delivers the same benefits for STP as our 1API service does for market data and execution. TicketLounge provides a single API for receiving STP tickets, across all significant venues, for FX and Digital Assets.  By delivering a back office process using front office technology, including the same low latency components used for market data and trading, we ensure that tickets are delivered to their end destination as fast as possible." 

Darren Coote, CEO of Cobalt said, “4OTC provides a wealth of experience in both FX and Digital Assets.  Importantly 4OTC has demonstrated on multiple occasions the ability to deliver on time and to aggressive timelines, making them the ideal partner as we expand our footprint in FX post-trade while providing a market-ready network for institutional Digital Asset trading. This partnership enables us to provide full venue coverage and an unrivalled suite of post-trade services for our customers.”

TicketLounge supports digital assets, FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFs and NDF swaps and has full support for all regulatory fields. Operating in London, New York and Tokyo, it is certified against all major FX ECNs.

Temenos, the banking software company, today announced that Standard Chartered has extended its strategic relationship with Temenos to support its growing Financing and Securities Services offering.

Standard Chartered is a leading international banking group with a presence in 59 of the world’s most dynamic markets and serves clients in a further 85. Its Financing and Securities Services arm provides custody, clearing, fiduciary and fund services, securities lending and prime service to client segments that include insurance, asset management and sovereign wealth funds. The organization’s fund and fiduciary footprint covers 22 markets across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The rapidly expanding alternatives market in Asia Pacific, which is expected to grow to $4.97tn by 2025, faster than any other region and more than double the forecasted growth rate for global alternative markets¹, has been the underlying driver for the enhancements of Standard Chartered’s investor servicing platform. With Temenos’ modern technology stack, Standard Chartered is now well positioned to offer futuristic services to its clients, improve the overall client experience and continue going from strength to strength to take on this growing market opportunity as one of the leading alternatives administrators.

Kiran Dhillon, Head of Fiduciary & Fund Services, Technology & Innovation, Securities Services, Standard Chartered, commented: “We have invested significantly in our infrastructure to bring stability and robustness to the platform as part of our sustainability agenda, to ensure that we bring scale and speed to market in today’s ever-evolving landscape. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Temenos to further streamline our technology ecosystem by advancing our cloud journey, and further harnessing their solutions to improve our services across alternative products to enhance the client experience.”

The new service offerings include automations throughout the investor servicing lifecycle, have enabled higher levels of operational efficiency, freeing operations teams from manual, labor-intensive tasks so they can focus on deepening relationships with their clients.

Oded Weiss, Managing Director, Temenos Multifonds, said: “We are proud to work together with Standard Chartered, a long-standing and valued customer. Standard Chartered is leading the way with their enhanced securities services offering for alternative assets, leveraging back-office innovations to deliver personalized experiences to its clients, across multiple jurisdictions. We are excited to be a partner on this growth journey.”

Temenos has been providing market-leading investor servicing software for over 25 years. Temenos Multifonds is used by nine of the top 15 global fund administrators and services over 30,000 funds at a value of over $7 trillion. On a single, global platform we help to deliver a step-change in efficiency, control and oversight. Temenos Multifonds has the most extensive capability in the industry, integrating all administrative support functions and supporting the full investment lifecycle for traditional and alternative funds.

¹ Prequin Insights – Future of Alternatives 2025: the Great Awakening in Asia - https://www.preqin.com/insights/research/blogs/future-of-alternatives-2025-the-great-awakening-in-asia

The SER Group, a leading global content platform provider for intelligent information management, announces today that analyst firm Forrester Research has named it a "Strong Performer" in The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q2 2021.* Furthermore, in the Wave, the SER Group is the vendor with the highest score in the current offering category.

The SER Group was one of 14 vendors evaluated by Forrester Research based on a set of 25 objective criteria. It received the full score of 5 out of 5 points in 10 criteria including “Document Management”, “Digital Process Automation”, “Integrations & Interoperability”, “Support for Team or Project Workspaces”, “Packaged Applications” and “Search”. According to the evaluation scale, a full score indicates that the vendor provides superior capabilities relative to others included in this evaluation.

The Forrester report states, “As the flagship product from SER Group, Doxis4 continues to evolve its low-code app design and development capabilities, embed native AI and ML capabilities, and accelerate its vertical strategy with a growing set of solution templates for common use cases.”

Dr. Gregor Joeris, CTO of the SER Group, comments, “With over 40 ready-to-run solutions, our strategy is geared towards enabling a faster time-to-market for organizations. Embedded with AI capabilities, these solutions give customers greater operational flexibility, better insights, and improved productivity. We know that a pragmatic use-case oriented approach built on a visionary technological foundation is crucial for digital transformation.”

Morad Rhlid, Managing Director of SER Solutions International, adds: “It is our mission to ensure that our customers have the digital dexterity they need to meet the needs of the next normal. Doxis4 as an intelligent information hub plays a central role in this. Meaning, it brings together information from various systems and places it in the right context to empower people, support decision-making and speed up workflows throughout the organization.”

The Forrester Wave is based on independent research and rigorous inclusion criteria. It is designed to help enterprise decision-makers understand and shortlist vendors of the content platform market. Full and complimentary access to the The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q2 2021 report and its evaluations of all 14 vendors can be found here.

 Fi911, the sister company of Chargebacks911, has launched a new micro-mentorship program to empower female leadership across the thriving fintech and payments arena. LIFT: Elevating Women in Fintech aims to champion and enable more women to seize opportunities across the sector.

The completely free program facilitates one-on-one, on-demand meetings with industry leaders and entrepreneurs, including Andrea Dunlop, Managing Director of the Payment Division, The Access Group, Marion King, Director of Payments, NatWest and Sondra Fienberg, Global Workload Lead-Fraud, Microsoft, allowing mentees to discuss challenges and pressure points.

Leading the program, Fi911 Co-Founder and COO Monica Eaton-Cardone said, “While there are many factors in achieving greater inclusion for women in fintech, it’s imperative that women at the top hold the door open for others to follow. Mentorship for aspiring leaders can improve their confidence, help them build a strong network and encourage self-advocacy, all of which are key tools for advancement.”

Eaton-Cardone continues, “We often hear about the benefits of mentorship, but many find it unattainable. Especially in an industry where there is such gender disparity – women currently only make up 7% of fintech startup founders – it can be difficult to find female mentors. On the other hand, influential women are often stretched to take on as many mentorships as they would like. That’s why we chose this format for LIFT.”

Women seeking mentors are asked to identify the challenge they are facing – such as navigating a difficult conversation or transitioning into a new role – and can choose a preferred mentor to speak to. After submitting a request, a virtual meeting is arranged, and mentors use the discussion to understand their unique situation and ensure they walk away with specific, actionable advice.

Applications are now open for leaders interested in joining the program as a mentor. The founding mentors represent a group of women in various positions of influence across finance and technology industries, and include:

• Andrea Dunlop, Managing Director of the Payment Division, The Access Group
• Angela Yore, Co-Founder & Managing Director, SkyParlour
• Becky Clements, Director of Payments, UK Finance
• Denise Gee, Co-Founder & MD, findexable
• Marion King, Director of Payments, NatWest
• Monica Eaton-Cardone, Co-Founder & COO, Chargebacks911 & Fi911
• Sondra Fienberg, Global Workload Lead-Fraud, Microsoft
• Tracy Cray, Head of Card Scheme Compliance, Chargebacks911 & Fi911

Between finding the appropriate mentor-mentee fit, to maintaining the relationship over time, traditional mentoring is a significant commitment on both sides. Micro-mentoring allows for greater flexibility and a broader reach by pairing mentees with the right professionals to coach them through specific pressure points as they arise.

In addition, Fi911 and sister company Chargebacks911 recently announced a partnership with findexable to build the Fintech Diversity Radar, the world’s first global platform that measures the role women play in fintech, creating transparency and encouraging progress within the industry. Eaton-Cardone currently serves on the initiative’s advisory board alongside top fintech and diversity experts.

For more information about LIFT: Elevating Women in Fintech, visit: https://fi911.com/lift-mentorship/?utm_campaign=Press&utm_source=skyparlour

B2Broker, a leading technology and liquidity provider for the forex and crypto industries, chooses Sumsub to help 450 businesses across 40+ countries stay compliant by adjusting verification routines to international requirements—all in a few clicks.

B2Broker offers a full range of Forex, CFD, and cryptocurrency solutions for institutional customers worldwide. Since B2Broker’s customers onboard users in many different jurisdictions, it can be quite difficult and time-consuming to keep up with all the changing and tightening regulations around crypto. It can also be exhausting to shop around for a suitable provider. That's why B2Broker opted for Sumsub's AI-powered solution.

Sumsub’s solution will assure that B2Broker’s customers comply with international regulatory demands and avoid hefty fines. Through this partnership, SumSub and B2Broker aim to provide businesses with secure and easily-customizable KYC and video verification checks that take around 3 minutes to complete. Sumsub will also be providing crypto transaction monitoring, ensuring that the sources of commercial crypto transactions are legitimate and free of money laundering.

The cryptocurrency market has received a lot of attention since it’s value topped $2 trillion this year, driving even more new investors to the industry across the world. This has led to stricter regulatory regimes that, if violated, could cost businesses millions of dollars or their ability to operate on the market.

“With ever-increasing regulations, and as an industry-leading provider of crypto-related services, we take stringent steps to ensure our clients’ onboarding process fulfills all their obligations. Sumsub’s solution will ensure that our clients are able to comply with international regulatory demands and avoid the possibility of substantial fines.”—Arthur Azizov, Founder and CEO of B2Broker.

“The crypto industry has been generating a lot of interest recently. This means that crypto platforms need to be increasingly careful about who they onboard and how. We are excited to be partnered with B2Broker, helping hundreds of businesses tackle security and regulatory compliance through time-saving automation”,—Jacob Sever, Co-founder of Sumsub.

• A new report from Checkout.com shows the impact the pandemic has had on online retailers, as many predict a shift to eCommerce is here to stay
• 97% of CEOs say business model innovation will be crucial to remain relevant and competitive as high streets reopen
• A new wave of digital payments is underway, with growing consumer demand for digital wallets, QR codes, and crypto
• Study based on views of 10,000 European consumers and 550 senior execs at Europe’s top eCommerce retailers

New research released today by Checkout.com is a ‘wake-up call’ for online retailers, as the majority predict the shift towards online shopping, accelerated by the pandemic, is here to stay.

The study reveals that across Europe, three-quarters (74%) of consumers have no intention to significantly reduce their online shopping now that they can revisit the high street. Ecommerce retail leaders agree as three-quarters (75%) believe the future of shopping is solely online.

The data comes from a new report, The New State Of Retail, from leading cloud-based global payment solutions provider Checkout.com, which gathered the views of 10,000 European consumers and 550 senior executives at Europe’s top eCommerce retail organisations.

Progressive eCommerce leaders take advantage

In 2020, lockdowns across the world accelerated the shift towards online retail. Merchants rushed to pivot online, investing in new infrastructure and logistics to meet spikes in consumer demand. The study shows that, as the shift towards online retail continues, eCommerce leaders recognise the importance of staying agile: 97% say that to remain relevant, resilient and profitable, they will need to evolve their business models within the next 18 months.

Merchants are taking action to ensure they keep pace with the changing retail landscape. One-quarter (25%) say they are creating new local fulfilment centres to meet demand, whilst half (50%) have responded to increased cross-border demand since the start of the crisis by expanding the range of payment methods they offer. Yet, 60% of eCommerce merchants feel they still don’t have the payment insights needed to drive better performance.

The new wave of consumer demands for digital payments

Online shopping is now ubiquitous across European households. Consumers are increasingly seeking new ways of paying online and using financial services to empower themselves, whether this is through new solutions for credit, budgeting, or security. The report reveals that the growing demand for new and emerging digital payments is set to soar: three in 10 (31%) Brits plan to purchase with buy now and pay later in the next 12 months. 80% of European consumers intend to use a digital wallet such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal in the next 12 months and 40% plan to do so regularly.

Moshe Winegarten, Senior Vice President at Checkout.com, said: “As lockdowns ease, analysts have predicted that eCommerce revenues are set to drop as consumers head back to the high street. But our research reveals that’s not the case. eCommerce will continue to accelerate, testing online retailers along the way. But the savviest of retailers will capitalise on this opportunity, riding the wave of accelerated eCommerce adoption in Europe and willingness to try emerging payment methods.”

“The past 18 months have demonstrated the need for businesses to remain agile, adapting business models, implementing new payment methods and meeting new regulatory requirements. Checkout.com has been developed with performance and speed in mind. Our modular payments platform is ideal for retail merchants looking to integrate better payment solutions seamlessly.”

The New State Of Retail report explores numerous additional topics, including the growing surge in cross-border shopping, the uptick in subscription models, and the social commerce boom, an exciting way for merchants to tap into new pools and potential customers and increase revenues.

The report can be downloaded here: www.checkout.com/connected-payments/the-new-state-of-retail

TruNarrative are proud to announce their latest partnership with the UK’s first ethical digital banking platform, MoneeMint to provide their market leading customer onboarding and transaction monitoring solution. 

MoneeMint is a London based FinTech with a focus on providing socially responsible finance to millennials in the UK and Europe.

Aiming to be Europe’s first ethical digital bank, MoneeMint will provide their customers with transparent, fair mobile banking, through a digital-first experience.

Initially delivering range of prepaid products and services, MoneeMint’s relationship with Railsbank allows them to issue pre-paid Mastercard, providing a digital pre-paid account, international money transfer services and many more products that MoneeMint will launch in the future.

The TruNarrative platform will enable MoneeMint to deliver a smooth and compliant onboarding and transactional risk strategy.

Multiple challenger banks, FinTechs and payment services providers trust TruNarrative technology to quickly & compliantly bring their services to market, deliver customer onboarding and prevent financial crime.

With the goal of delivering a market leading digital experience for their customers, MoneeMint went to market for a solution that allowed them to seamlessly onboard, monitor and transact with their customers.

TruNarrative will deliver MoneeMint access to a full suite of customer onboarding and verification technology, including automated; identity verification, fraud prevention and ongoing risk monitoring.

Within the TruNarrative platform’s no-code interface, MoneeMint will be able to adapt its onboarding and transactional risk monitoring strategies to quickly react to market, regulatory & fraud trend changes, mitigating risk and streamlining its customer’s experience.

TruNarrative will also provide MoneeMint with customer behaviour and transactional monitoring, delivering visibility over every transaction & interaction; giving MoneeMint the ability to efficiently make customer acquisition and business risk decisions.

Through the TruNarrative platform, MoneeMint will gain access to a full case management system for manual review and referrals. Providing a single view of each customer whilst facilitating  customer acquisition and relieving pressure on referral management teams.

“It is fantastic to work with another ethical finance provider. Our partnership with MoneeMint demonstrates TruNarratives commitment to helping organisations of all sizes protect their business and their customers from financial crime, whilst remaining compliant and delivering a world class customer experience.” John Lord, CEO of TruNarrative “We are looking forward to helping them continue to grow and become one of the UK’s most innovative banks.”

“I am delighted to be working with industry leaders TruNarrative to provide us with a comprehensive transaction monitoring and screening service to enable us to combat fraud and ensure that our customers money is kept safe.” Hassan Waqar, CEO of MoneeMint “We look forward working with TruNarrative as we launch and grow MoneeMint to be the world’s greatest bank.”