Worldline, the European market leader in payment and transactional services, is proud to announce that it has launched a pilot to develop Pick-Go-Pay, a frictionless, non-attended checkout experience in The Netherlands.

With Pick-Go-Pay, consumers will be able to enter in a shop to buy products at any time, without cashier employees inside the shop, all that, in a secure environment. The ambition of this new solution is to bring back commerce into remote areas whilst offering a frictionless and easy checkout experience.

Whilst shops are closing, villages and small town lose inhabitants and rural area commerce is not profitable, Worldline indeed wants to provide with a frictionless, non-attended checkout experience, that is adaptative and easy for all consumers.

The Pick-Go-Pay solution is integrated in the lockblox & Zuply solutions of Innovend.  The pilot was launched in June in The Netherlands in the city of Nieuwendijk alongside Worldline’s partners Innovend and Fruitschuur.

Pick-Go-Pay addresses all the challenges of the customer journey:

• Compliant opt in to drive seamless payment user experience;
• CRM information;
• User detection;
• Automatic user authentication;
• Fraudster identification;
• Innovative architecture, secure and trusted authentication;
• Seamless payment: no card, no cash.
  
   
  Michel Léger, EVP Global Solutions Development, TSS, Worldline said: “Through this pilot – ambitioning to develop more in a near future – Worldline intends to transform its clients’ businesses in a real corner store with an ultimate frictionless checkout experience, allowing customer enrolment for future card on file transactions.”
  
  Sander Sciarone Director of Innovend said: “By integrating the Pick-Go-Pay app in our software, we introduce an aditional, innovative and easy way for consumers to use our smart vending solutions even more. Innovation and covenience are key in our Lockblox and Zuply solutions. The Pick-Pay-Go application fits perfectly in this experience.”

Scientific company Smart Engines with its French partner Tessi presented the developments in the field of Green Artificial Intelligence at the French-Russian program for business collaborations “Trianon Startups”. The event, which took place on June 7, 2021, Versailles, was attended by CEO and Founder of Smart Engines, Ph.D. Vladimir Arlazarov. At the cross-meetings between startups and French corporate groups, Smart Engines demonstrated the advanced solutions for scanning national IDs, passports, drivers’ licenses, credit cards, barcodes, and business documents. 

“Trianon Startups” program is an event initiated by the members of the coordination committee of Dialogue de Trianon, founded by presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron. The event is aimed at fostering business cooperation between tech startups and large companies of Russia and France. “Trianon Startups” was attended by the following French companies: Pernod Ricard, Technip Energies, Orange, Air Liquide, Renault Group, Air France, Mazars, Auchan Retail, TotalEnergies, FM Logistics, and others.

Within the framework of the program, Smart Engines introduced Smart ID Engine, Smart Code Engine and Smart Document Engine software products that are based on the scientific results in the field of Green AI. Smart Engines is a member of the United Nations Global Compact Initiative. The proprietary GreenOCR® technology minimizes processor energy consumption and carbon footprint thanks to the framework of low-bit pipelines for deep neural network inference.

Smart Engines recognition technologies implementation enables companies to enhance document processing effectiveness and minimize manual data entry, as well as to optimize the customer contactless experience. The customer’s data is processed securely without any need to send it to external services. Integrating state-of-the-art technologies is GDPR-compliant, as well as it meets the requirements of other international standards for the processing of personal data. 

Today software products of Smart Engines are used by Tinkoff Group, Dukascopy Bank, Emirates NBD, Oman Arab Bank, Raiffeisen Bank Russia, Beeline, BioCollections Worldwide, Blockpass IDN, Caribbean Airlines, iDenfy, NEC, Sumsub, Tessi, Travizory, VerifyMyAge and other companies globally.

Path Solutions, a global Islamic fintech house and Soneri Mustaqeem, an Islamic Banking Division of Soneri Bank Limited, announce the selection of iMAL Sharia-compliant Profit Calculation System to ensure industry’s best practices for Sharia compliance. By integrating iMAL with Temenos T24 core banking platform, this new Pool Management System will help Soneri Mustaqeen emerge as a modern data-driven Islamic banking division, enhancing governance, accountability and transparency in its daily Islamic financial operations.

Mohammed Kateeb, the Group Chairman & CEO of Path Solutions said, “It is my pleasure to welcome Soneri Mustaqeem to the growing family of banks providing Sharia-compliant Islamic financial solutions in Pakistan powered by the industry’s leading iMAL suite. This modern Islamic solution enables the bank to manage multi-currency and segment pools coupled with highly customizable data-driven models for deeper visibility into the risk-return profile of the banking portfolios. This extensive automation across business processes will enable the bank to drive operational excellence while enhancing customer experience”. Kateeb further added, “The solution will be implemented on-site, using our Professional Services team in Pakistan, and Support will be provided via our local Support team as well”.

Muhtashim Ahmad Ashai, President & CEO of Soneri Bank Limited commented, “Soneri Mustaqeem, established in 2004, is aiming to support comprehensive economic development in the Islamic banking sector of Pakistan through ethical, inclusive and convenient Sharia-compliant financial solutions. Our mission and growth strategy in the coming years, in an increasingly competitive environment determined the need for a solution built from the ground up based on Sharia rules and duly certified by a recognised industry standard-setting body for its enforceable and globally accepted governance and accounting standards. This partnership will create an edge for our Islamic Banking Division, Soneri Mustaqeem to operate in a more Sharia-compliant manner and comply with the State Bank of Pakistan’s regulations”.

As part of its Shop Owners Benefit Program, PayNearby - India’s leading branchless banking and digital payments network - has launched a unique insurance solution ‘Poorna Suraksha’ for its retail community. In a first of its kind initiative, this exclusive and holistic insurance solution will ensure the safety and security of PayNearby’s 15+ lakh retail partners across 17,500+ PIN codes. This pocket-friendly, 3-in-1 offering is designed in partnership with IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited (IndiaFirst Life) to safeguard PayNearby’s retailers during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond to assure they have access to a safety net anytime, anywhere. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in lives and livelihoods of many. While the second wave has gripped the country, PayNearby’s Digital Pradhans have been aiding their communities as frontline Corona warriors ensuring relief disbursements reach the hands of the intended. To help the nation combat this pandemic, they have been at the forefront and have been serving the citizens tirelessly with essential financial and digital services. Today, not only are they doubling up to create vaccination awareness in their local communities but are also handholding people through the registration process. 

PayNearby is determined to ensure that the Digital Pradhans grow and prosper and are protected from future obscurities. Echoing this sentiment is PayNearby’s innovative and one-of-its-kind holistic solution - Poorna Suraksha insurance. It provides coverage across all aspects of insurance - Life, Health & Disability at an affordable premium. Ensuring ‘complete protection’, this cost-effective policy can be availed by retailers at a premium of just ₹3 per day, and an enrollment fee of ₹111.   

Available exclusively for PayNearby retailers, Poorna Suraksha offers a life cover of ₹2 lakhs, disability cover of ₹1 lakh and hospital cash of ₹15,000. There are no waiting periods involved for life insurance and hospitalization due to accident. Additionally, to combat the mayhem of the pandemic, the COVID-19 hospitalisation cover starts after the 15^th day of enrollment.  

Speaking on the development, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “Our Digital Pradhans have shown great resilience and a spirit of selfless service throughout the pandemic and provided uninterrupted service to ensure citizens had access to essential financial resources to fight the deadly virus. To guarantee their safety and to protect them from future ambiguities, we are elated to partner with IndiaFirst Life Insurance, to offer Poorna Suraksha. This offering cements PayNearby’s commitment to providing its Digital Pradhans with innovative and need-based solutions for a tension-free today and a better tomorrow. Since the entire journey is digital, the processing happens in a couple of minutes with immediate issuance of the cover, protecting our retailers instantly."

Commenting on the partnership, Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited said, “With an endeavor to offer “Insurance to All”, IndiaFirst Life is delighted to associate with PayNearby to secure its Digital Pradhans (retailers). This association with PayNearby further strengthens our strategic alliances foray wherein we embed bite-sized insurance with the core proposition of our alliance partners.” 

Anand Kumar Bajaj further added, “It has always been our priority to empower our retailers and now we are adding an umbrella of protection to it, too. As the name suggests, Poorna Suraksha will provide complete protection against expenses related to all kinds of life exigencies and give peace of mind to our retailers and their dear ones. Our retailers are indispensable to us, and we recognise their determination that has made our work a success. We would like to stand tall by our retailers in times of both illness and wellness, equally to fulfill our promise of Zidd Aapki Suraksha Ki and Zidd Aage Badhne Ki.” 

Chetwood Financial (“Chetwood”) announced today the appointment of Simon Allsop as Chief Financial Officer. Simon who will be based in Wrexham, joins from OneSavings Bank where he was Group Director of Capital Markets. Prior to this he held senior positions at Fitch Ratings and Charter Court Financial Services, where he was a key member of the management team that led the company through its 2017 IPO and merger with OneSavings Bank in 2019.

Andy Mielczarek, CEO of Chetwood said, “We are delighted to welcome Simon to the Chetwood team. Simon’s extensive knowledge of the financial services industry is going to be invaluable as we continue to grow the business in new high-priority markets and develop digital products that support our mission of making people financially better off.”

Simon Allsop said, “I am excited to be joining Chetwood for the next phase of the company’s journey, bringing innovative financial products to the thousands of individuals who are currently underserved by the banking system. I look forward to supporting Andy and the Chetwood team to achieve this goal.”

·       Challenger digital bank goes live on The Temenos Banking Cloud, creating a unique digital service that simplifies banking, rewards customers and helps them achieve their financial goals

·       Successful launch of new digital bank paves the way for a transition to The Temenos Banking Cloud solution for all retail brands under the Bank of Queensland umbrella

Temenos, the banking software company, announced that Virgin Money Australia is live on The Temenos Banking Cloud, enabling the digital bank to innovate fast and differentiate with an ecosystem of partners to create a unique digital service that simplifies banking, rewards customers and helps them achieve their financial goals.

As part of Bank of Queensland (BOQ), the successful launch of Virgin Money on The Temenos Banking Cloud paves the way for other retail brands under the BOQ Group umbrella to transition to Temenos’ cloud-based core banking platform. BOQ’s stated long-term goal is to leverage the Temenos platform to achieve its overall digital transformation. With Virgin Money, BOQ and ME Bank[1] all operating in the cloud on a shared data architecture, the Group can accelerate innovation for its customers.

The Temenos Banking Cloud brings the unmatched breadth of Temenos front-to-back banking services, an innovation sandbox, and the most complete fintech Marketplace, powered by an Explainable AI-enabled engine - all through an easy-to-access, self-service portal.

Virgin Money has ambitions to disrupt the Australian banking market with a new kind of digital bank for millennials, one that embraces simplicity and rejects financial complexity. With Temenos, Virgin Money has created a frictionless and fully integrated digital banking experience, bringing together credit cards, transaction and savings accounts, plus a loyalty program and personal financial management tools in a single, native mobile app. Customers can create a new account in minutes and start saving or spending immediately via the app.

The Temenos Banking Cloud is a SaaS banking solution that gives Virgin Money Australia total control to deploy banking services that are easy to consume, configure and integrate with external applications. Using open APIs, the bank can also collaborate and extend its banking services with other fintechs and developers.

Today, the SaaS banking solution combines the Temenos Infinity customer onboarding banking service and the Temenos Transact saving accounts banking service. Partner applications for credit card management, payments and its innovative loyalty and rewards program are all connected via an API framework and real-time event architecture.

With a digital banking platform and integrated partner ecosystem running in the cloud and delivered as SaaS, Virgin Money Australia can launch products much faster and scale based on customer demand. The bank can also test and iterate products in rapid innovation cycles to deliver experiences that truly delight its customers.

The next phase of the digital bank is underway, which includes new products such as home loans and new deposit options.

Max Chuard, CEO, Temenos, said: “We are proud to partner with Virgin Money Australia to power its ground-breaking digital bank. With The Temenos Banking Cloud, we are putting banks in control of their business models and innovation cycles, giving them the agility and speed to build great customer products and profitable business. It is incredible what Virgin Money Australia has achieved in such a short timeframe. The pace of innovation reflects the passion and commitment of the Virgin Money team and shows what is possible with an agile cloud-based solution. We look forward to building on this success to support the digital bank in its continued evolution and with Bank of Queensland as it seeks to leverage The Temenos Banking Cloud across its retail brands.”

Greg Boyle, CEO, Virgin Money Australia, said: “With Temenos, we aim to set the new standard for Australian banking-customer relationships. The Temenos Banking cloud makes it easier to integrate with third parties and we have an agile platform that easily scales up or down depending on business demands. With all the banking technology we need at our fingertips and all managed in the cloud by Temenos, we can focus our energy on what matters most - delivering the amazing digital banking experience our customers will love.” 

• 09.06.2021 -- 09:41 am

Unlike traditional Banks, Chetwood Financial is not looking to build a customer base and then cross-sell to them. Instead, focus on distinct customer segments that are underserved by the market, creating innovative products to meet their needs. Chetwood Financial does this through different brands, not one, because what works for one customer isn’t necessarily right for all customers. Chetwood Financial also does this for other industries and companies too, offering them white-labelled products with no upfront investment. Chetwood Financial's business model is focused on keeping costs low, with state-of-the-art, cloud-based technology, and digital distribution with partners such as ClearScore and MoneySuperMarket.

Helping banks, financial institutions and non-bank finance companies (NBFCs) to better assess micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) for credit solutions, Mswipe announced an industry first hybrid credit score in partnership with Equifax.

The score adds a quintessential layer of credible alternative data - transaction variables, merchants customer profile, loyalty base and other payment related parameters in addition to traditionally available demographic data and credit bureau rating.

The new tool will make assessment of MSME creditworthiness easier and provide the opportunity to differentiate risks thereby opening possibilities of dynamic pricing of credit solutions.

In addition to making it easier for MSMEs to avail credit with the new score, Mswipe is also providing retailers with the most affordable loan repayment facility through daily settlements on POS loans.

MSMEs, which comprise 95 per cent of businesses in India, typically face challenges in availing credit from traditional lenders. Lack of regular banking habits, financial and income statements of MSMEs limit banks and NBFCs in their credit testing ability to provide credit lines or loans as they continue to rely heavily on demographic data or bureau footprint for decision making process.

Amit Mande, Head – Lending Business, Mswipe said, “We have created an extremely powerful tool to differentiate risk and not only expedite decision making for banks and NBFCs but also offer risk based pricing for credit solutions. The credit score enhances Mswipe’s ability to allow our  lending partners to extend credit products like loans, credit lines, loans against POS to MSMEs in a quick and affordable manner.”

Equifax has strengthened the credit score by back testing  merchants’ credit behaviour in the past and identifying different risk variables, basis transaction history and merchant credit behaviour.

Nipa Modi, Country Head, Fintech, Insurance & WFS, Equifax said, “Over the years, Equifax, as the leading credit bureau in the country, has worked with the Indian financial services industry to help maintain highest levels of underwriting standards. Now, with its partnership with Mswipe, Equifax brings a unique blend of differentiated data and analytics thereby assisting MSME lenders and Fintechs navigate through crests and troughs of the lending cycle, further promoting responsible lending in these times. Equifax will facilitate lending of business loans to merchants backed by a statistical scoring mechanism using Mswipe POS data and merging it with the bureau performance data.”

The Mswipe credit score will be available for industry partners to offer credit solutions to MSMEs who have been hit badly owing to continued lockdowns amid the second wave of COVID-19.

Leading anti-money laundering specialist SmartSearch has warned many businesses may be at risk of being in breach of GDPR rules, due to a lack of secure data hosting.

The end of May marked the third anniversary of GDPR becoming law in the UK, yet according to the RegTech specialist, regulated businesses in the housing chain risk non-compliance if they rely on manual customer records.

John Dobson, CEO at West Yorkshire-based SmartSearch said that even three years after the law was introduced, a lot of firms do not have procedures in place to protect customer details, which has been exacerbated with the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

In response to the concern, SmartSearch has enhanced its data hosting capability which updates customer details automatically when something changes, both increasing due diligence and data security.

Dobson adds: “Customer data hosting is something that can be overlooked, or businesses think the processes they have in place are good enough. But the fact is, even three years after the introduction of GDPR, a lot of firms still have manual records in the office, which poses a genuine GDPR risk.

“If you have a digital platform in place to carry out ID verification for AML purposes when onboarding new customers, it’s crucial that the data is hosted so that it updates automatically. And if there is a knock on the door from the auditor, a fully hosted system will make it quick and easy to pull a report which has everything on it necessary for compliance.

“Once the customer inputs their client data, they don’t need to do anything with it from an AML perspective, which enables them to forget about it and get on with the job of running their business.”

Qumulo, the breakthrough leader in radically simplifying enterprise file data management across hybrid cloud environments, today announced the expansion of its executive team through the appointment of Jonathan Maltos as Vice President of People, effective immediately. In this role, Maltos is responsible for expanding global hiring and spearheading employee engagement and development initiatives at Qumulo, and will play a key role in accelerating the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives (DE&I).

Maltos brings more than 20 years of human resources leadership experience with talent acquisition, learning and development, retention, employee relations, and more. He joins Qumulo from gaming company, Big Fish Games, where he served as the Vice President of HR and led the company’s people operations through several business transformations and acquisitions. Jonathan has also held numerous HR leadership and consulting roles at distinguished corporations such as Aon Hewitt, Darigold and Washington Mutual Bank.

“Jonathan’s wealth of employee development experience will be a key addition to our global leadership team,” said Bill Richter, CEO of Qumulo. “His passion for building creative, culture-driven and diverse teams and scaling globally make him a natural fit to scale Qumulo in service of our customers. With his track record of empowering and developing people, I know he will make a great impact here.” 

“I look forward to building upon the incredible culture and people team that already exist within Qumulo,” said Maltos. “Qumulons are passionate – they like rolling up their sleeves to build a great company, a great culture and a great product. My interest in joining the team was immediate because these are things I’m also very passionate about. I’m thrilled to start my next chapter at such a mission-driven company.” 

Maltos holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of Washington.