Filogix, a Finastra company, announced that Real Mortgage Associates (RMA) & Broker One, Eastern Canada’s leading network for independent mortgage brokerages, has selected Filogix Expert Pro to provide its members with digital mortgage capabilities. The digital mortgage platform will empower brokers and other mortgage professionals within RMA and the Broker One network to run their businesses their way, from anywhere, with an improved digital customer experience, enhanced workflow optimization and the ability to manage new opportunities and fund deals more rapidly.

“Digital tools are the future of brokerage and we are excited to offer these capabilities to our members through Filogix,” said Ron De Silva, President & CEO, Broker One. “As long-term partners, we know Filogix’s commitment to the Canadian mortgage market, and are excited to join them on their journey to push the industry into the future.”

“Digital interactions are increasingly crucial throughout the mortgage process,” said Siobhan Byron, Senior Vice President and Head of Finastra’s Technology Enabled Managed Services. “With Filogix Expert Pro, Broker One’s members will be able to unlock their potential, with robust capabilities across devices to best serve their customers and not miss a deal.”

Filogix Expert Plus and Filogix Expert Pro were launched in February 2021 to digitize the full end-to-end mortgage process. Both Filogix Expert Plus and Filogix Expert Pro are built on the cloud-based point-of-sale mortgage capabilities obtained through the acquisition of Doorr. Filogix Expert Plus is available for free to Canadian mortgage professionals, while Filogix Expert Pro integrates additional value-add services at a fee.

 Finzly, a fintech provider of modern banking applications for payments, foreign exchange, trade finance and digital account opening, announced the addition of new digital deposit core capabilities to its BankOS^TM platform, notably an Infinity Account^TM functionality powered by a multi-asset, real-time general ledger that enables financial institutions to offer customizable digital accounts so customers can track virtually any asset including foreign currencies, cryptocurrencies, and rewards points, among others.

FIs are realizing that customers’ accounting experiences can go beyond the initial digital accounting process. To achieve this, FIs must provide innovations in the management of the day-to-day financial needs of their businesses and consumers. When it comes to organizing their finances into different buckets, customers prefer a compartmentalized provision of sub-accounts. These could include separate accounts for managing business budgets, storing emergency funds or saving towards vacations. Infinity Account is an effective and flexible way to meet the savings goals of customers by managing the sub-accounts on the digital core in real-time.

Additionally, new debit cards can be issued for specific Infinity Accounts and FI customers and members gain access to pre-loaded payment rails including ACH, FedWire®, RTP®, FedNow^SM and SWIFT – all enabled through Finzly’s BankOS platform, which fully supports real-time payments and processing capabilities. Traditionally, this level of flexibility and functionality would be cost prohibitive for financial institutions to develop themselves or in tandem with large core data providers, but the cloud-based, open API architecture of BankOS and Finzly’s Payment Hub provides institutions with a cost-effective pathway to drive digital transformation and greater levels of innovation.

“The way that consumers think about their finances and the management of their assets is changing and financial institutions need to be able to react to and support these new market preferences,” said Murthy Balusu, Chief Technology Officer for Finzly. “A steady stream of new budgeting and PFM solutions that require multiple accounts are being launched and entering the market. With BankOS and our new Infinity Account capabilities, business banking and retail banking customers alike gain true ‘360-degree control’ over rewards, savings and fees, and will have greater visibility into the entirety of their finances. This positions financial institutions to better serve their customers, other fintechs, or even develop and launch more of their own modern fintech solutions.”

About Finzly

Finzly connects financial institutions with customers through a modern digital banking experience and an efficient, real-time payment services hub. Freeing financial institutions from core system limitations, Finzly’s open, cloud-based bank operating system, BankOS, enables transformation and innovation at the speed of fintech. With freedom to adopt solutions from Finzly and third parties of choice, financial institutions can implement apps in three simple steps – subscribe, try and launch. Serving customers across North America, Finzly has been modernizing international banking and treasury management solutions since 2012. For more information, visit www.finzly.com.

Spice Money, India’s leading rural fintech, extends financial services in Chitkul, India’s last inhabited village in Himachal Pradesh with no ATM facility till date, by introducing Spice Money Mini-ATM services. The company has converted one of the only two Kirana Stores in the village into a Spice Money ‘Digital Dukaan’ to offer cash-in cash-out services to the residents and tourists. This move furthers Spice Money’s vision of financial inclusion and strengthening India’s ATM network, which has seen a staggered growth for the last few years.

Tucked away from the hustle-bustle of cities in the Kinnaur-Kailash region of Himachal Pradesh, the picturesque village of Chitkul has a population of about 900 people along with 20-25 holiday resorts catering to international and Indian tourists. With the closest ATM being 25 km away in Sangla and non-availability of e-banking due to poor internet connectivity, the village had historically been facing a challenge of accessing cash or payment services, causing a lot of inconveniences which eventually impacted the economic growth of the village. Spice Money, with its digitally-enabled financial services, addresses this problem by empowering the kirana store owner to become a Spice Money Adhikari and open his Digital Dukaan with zero cost. This Digital Dukaan now act as an ATM center providing basic cash withdrawal and deposit services. The Spice Money Mini ATM accepts debit and credit cards from all major banks.

“Rural India continues to be a cash-driven economy but grapples with cash shortage, mostly due to lack of ATM and banking infrastructure. At Spice Money, our mission is to empower the smallest towns and villages in the remotest corner of India and bring ATM services to their doorstep. The mini ATM service in Chitkul is a step towards bettering the ATM infra in the country and thus moving towards our objective of creating the largest ATM network in India. Locals and tourists traveling to Chitkul have always been struggling with access to cash. We are confident that these issues will now cease to exist, with the first Digital Dukaan from Spice Money.”, said Sanjeev Kumar, CEO of Spice Money.  

Spice Money has plans to expand the Spice Money Adhikari network in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh by onboarding more distributors to offer mini-ATM services, payment and tours & travel services to the community. Currently, over 5,00,000 Adhikaris (merchants / entrepreneurs) are a part of Spice Money network and nearly 90% of them are present in the semi urban and rural India. With this network, Spice Money is covering 18,000+ pin codes, 700+ districts and 5000+ blocks in India.

Goal Group, the global fintech leader in withholding tax reclamation and securities class action recovery services, has announced that accomplished business leader and withholding tax specialist Dawn McGuire has joined the company as Managing Director, Americas.

Her appointment is the latest in a series of new hires as Goal scales up its US business in response to strong market demand for its next-generation technology and world-leading expertise in cross-border tax recovery and shareholder class actions participation. Dawn will spearhead the company’s ambitious growth by fully capitalising on the roll-out of its innovative, subscription-based cloud delivery model, and guide the New York-based team to further raise the bar in operations, client service and research excellence. 

Dawn has a proven track record building, leading and growing three global information reporting and withholding tax practices, most recently at Ernst & Young LLP and PwC where she managed the largest client engagement in the practice’s history. As a frequent national speaker, she is recognised as a prominent thought-leader in the industry.

Stephen Everard, CEO, Goal Group, said: “With her deep knowledge of tax, legal and operational matters, Dawn is the perfect choice to take our world-leading tax reclaims and securities class actions business to its exciting next stage of growth."

“We are being approached by institutions across the investment community who wish to leverage our in-house knowledge base and powerful, market-proven technology applications to bring new levels of efficiency, transparency and cost-effectiveness to their established processes. Dawn is an exceptional business leader and I’m confident that she will build strong relationships with new and existing clients, and help us to maximise new market opportunities presented by our compelling suite of highly secure, cost-effective cloud-based services.”

Commenting on her appointment, Dawn McGuire said: “It’s clear that Goal is going from strength to strength and I am excited at the prospect of working with clients and partners to improve results for investors while reducing costs, and steering the team to reach its full potential."

“As the focus on corporate governance intensifies globally, investors are more motivated to seek redress from an ethical as well as financial perspective. If investment intermediaries do not empower their clients to make their voices heard and submit every eligible claim, they are failing to maximise returns and neglecting a vital fiduciary duty."

“With the right external support, fund managers and custodians can transform reclaims and recoveries from a burdensome duty into a lucrative competitive differentiator.”

Goal Group offers an insourced (licensed), outsourced and now a subscription-based delivery model to meet the full range of client requirements. The company is processing its highest ever volumes of claim filings, monitoring in excess of £8 trillion (USD 11 trillion) in client assets worldwide and recording record revenues. Its client base includes five of the top ten global custodians, six of the top ten global fund managers and all four U.S. depositary banks.

MonetaGo, the fintech pioneering digital fraud prevention solutions, has hired Sunil Senapati as its Head of Business Development. Sunil will be based out of MonetaGo’s Singapore office beginning Monday, May 17th and will support the firm’s award-winning technology and growing presence across the country and APAC.

As Head of Business Development, Sunil will spearhead company partnerships in the region with top banks and industry leaders, with a particular focus on Singapore’s burgeoning fintech sector. International businesses and local governments alike have invested heavily in the sector, strengthening Singapore’s appeal as a regional fintech and innovation hub.

“As the world’s leading trade fraud prevention firm, MonetaGo provides the solutions that trade finance has been looking for,” shares Sunil. “Its industry-first solutions enable banks and businesses in Singapore and beyond to make trade finance more secure. Having worked in technology for almost twenty years, I am a firm believer in the potential of the company and its strategy, and look forward to working with the Singapore team to expand MonetaGo’s offering.”

Sunil joins MonetaGo from Bolero, a cloud-based trade digitization platform, where he led the growth strategy for APAC as Director of Trade Finance. Prior to Bolero, Sunil amassed almost two decades of experience working with regulators, financial institutions, shipping companies, and large corporations. During this time, Sunil has held leadership roles across global technology corporations such as Oracle, HCL, NTT, Tech Mahindra, and Maersk.

“There’s no better time to be working in fintech and trade finance in Singapore and the expansion of our Asia Pacific operation is testament to the strength of the service MonetaGo provides,” states Neil Shonhard, Managing Director Asia Pacific at MonetaGo. “The sector’s growth is exponential, and MonetaGo is proud to be part of that growth. Sunil’s industry expertise will be invaluable as we expand, both within APAC and internationally. We are delighted to welcome him to the team.”

MonetaGo’s solutions have been live since 2018 and have processed over one and a half million transactions to date. 

Tradeteq, the technology provider for bank asset distribution, has announced the appointment of Lenna Russ as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer. The move forms part of the company’s investment into expanding the team and its products following its successful Series A funding round earlier this year.

Lenna brings over 15 years of leadership experience in the enterprise software space to the team, having most recently worked as Global SVP of Commercial at technology firm, Polecat, and having previously headed up the enterprise group at NICE Satmetrix. 

Tradeteq provides banks, credit insurers and asset managers with technology that repackages trade finance into investable assets. Its technology automates and streamlines the asset distribution process and reduces friction costs for clients. 

Lenna will play a pivotal role in accelerating the next phase of Tradeteq's growth. This includes full ownership of the company’s revenue generating organisations, customer lifecycle, partner management and all channel-related activities. Lenna will develop and drive a sustainable growth strategy while ensuring that the firm continuously delivers innovation and experiences that matter to  Tradeteq’s customers and partners globally.

Nils Behling, Co-Founder and CFO at Tradeteq, says: “As a fast-growing fintech, our people are as important as our product so over the past few months we have been investing in both. We are delighted to have Lenna join our team as she brings vast leadership experience and a strong track record in driving scalable revenue growth. Thus will be important as we continue on our mission to expand access to trade finance for SMEs by making trade finance exposures investable"

Lenna Russ, Chief Revenue Officer at Tradeteq, added: “I am excited to join Tradeteq and strongly believe its transformative trade finance distribution technology and expertise will both simplify the end-to-end trade distribution process and grow the value of the trade finance market overall through our unique securitisation solution.”

SER group Holding International GmbH (SER Group) is pleased to announce that Sven Behrendt, previously Chief Operating Officer and member of the Management Board, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and thereby Chairman of the Management Board of the SER Group, effective May 1, 2021. He succeeds Kurt-Werner Sikora, who will focus exclusively on his work on the Advisory Board of the SER Group. Furthermore, Dr. John Bates has been appointed Executive Chairman of the Advisory Board of the SER Group as of May 1, 2021.

In his new role as Executive Chairman of the Advisory Board, John Bates will work in close cooperation with Sven Behrendt on driving the international growth and strategic development of the SER Group. Bates has many years of experience in the development of software companies and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge in Computer Science. Most recently, he was CEO of Eggplant, a leading UK-based provider of digital automation intelligence. He is also currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of Sage, the UK’s largest listed tech company.

Sven Behrendt looks ahead confidently at the future of the SER Group and his new role: “In the past two years we’ve already successfully effected changes in many areas. The next steps will be to build on our cloud/SaaS business and solution portfolio, and, in particular, to further drive the internationalization of the SER Group. John Bates, with his wealth of experience and expertise, will be a huge asset in supporting us. I look forward to achieving our goals together with John and the entire SER team.”

Dr. Thorsten Dippel, Managing Director in the Advisory Team of Carlyle Group Europe Technology Partners, comments: “Since our investment in December 2018, Sven Behrendt and the entire SER Group team have made continuous progress. We are very pleased that Sven has accepted the appointment as CEO. We would like to express our deep gratitude to Kurt-Werner Sikora for the close and trusting working relationship and his ongoing support. John Bates, as Executive Chairman of the Advisory Board, will work closely with CEO Sven Behrendt to accelerate SER’s strategic development and internationalization. We look forward to working with John and wish him and Sven every success in their new roles.”

Following accreditation by the British Business Bank, Atom has today started to offer quotes on its award winning secured lending products under the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). Having been one of the leading providers of broker-led secured lending to new and existing customers under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Atom’s accreditation for RLS confirms the bank’s continuing support for businesses across the UK.

RLS gives UK businesses access to finance as they recover and grow following the COVID-19 pandemic, with funding that can be used for managing cashflow, investment, and growth. Through RLS, Atom will offer secured loans from £250,000 up to £5m, subject to eligibility criteria, via its network of 200+ independent brokers across the UK.

Atom has built a business lending book of over £725m and the Durham-based mortgage and business lender finished the last financial year with income well above business plan, and a Net Interest Margin in excess of 110 basis points.

With simple, transparent and competitively priced secured business lending products, and a history of lending to UK SMEs since 2016, Atom has invested in a programme of Open Banking and automation capabilities as it seeks to deliver a further £1bn in business lending over the next two years. 

Paul Elliott, Head of Mortgages and Business Lending at Atom said:  “Atom is delighted to have been accredited by the British Business Bank and to start lending under the Recovery Loan Scheme. Ever since we started lending to UK SMEs in 2016 we have been committed to supporting business owners. Having been a leading lender of broker-led secured lending to new customers under CBILS, we will continue to welcome new customers and to support our rapidly growing group of existing customers with secured RLS loans.”

ITI Capital, an emerging markets-focused brokerage firm, today announces that it has successfully onboarded over 5,000 former SVS Securities clients onto its state-of-the-art trading platform. ITI has also completed over 2,200 transfer-out requests, with just a handful of unresponsive clients left for verification.

Additionally, over 4,000 clients with minimal balances have yet to respond to their account activation request, despite repeated letters, emails, and phone calls from the ITI team.

ITI originally completed the transaction to purchase retail clients from distressed broker SVS Securities in March 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 global pandemic. At the time of purchase, SVS clients had not had access to their funds since the company was put into administration in August 2019.

The onboarding process initially suffered challenges, with the pandemic forcing ITI staff to work remotely, along with issues such as outdated email addresses and contact information for SVS clients delaying Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.

ITI recently announced several major new updates for its platform, including offering clients the opportunity to invest in global Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and Secondary Placings as part of major expansion of its services.

ITI is now also a key FCA-regulated prime broker in the UK that custodies Bitcoin, has expanded its crypto trading capabilities for professional and eligible counterparty clients to include block trading of BTCE (Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto) and ZETH (Ethereum Exchange Traded Crypto).

In March this year, ITI Group hired 30-year industry veteran Stephen Hawksworth as Chief Executive Officer with a brief to build the company’s market share and services in key global emerging markets.

Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director of ITI Capital, comments:

“After an incredibly challenging 12 months, with the Coronavirus pandemic causing huge disruption and a large-scale client verification programme to oversee, we are pleased to report substantial progress with our onboarding of former SVS Securities clients. We accept that there were challenges along the way, but are proud to have addressed these issues and worked swiftly to ensure all new clients can benefit quickly from the full range of services available via ITI’s platform.

“Our team has invested heavily in improving its customer support systems, including improved back-office IT and helpdesk support. We have also rolled out new services such as our IPO and Secondary Placement services and achieved unique status as an FCA-approved cryptocurrency specialist.

“We look forward to a very exciting year ahead at ITI, with many more new hires and announcements in the pipeline.”