Spice Money, India’s leading rural fintech, has launched a dedicated assistance initiative for Covid vaccination registration to enable rural citizens to register through its dense network across 18000+ pin codes. Also the company has initiated a special drive to spread awareness and educate its banking correspondent partners (Spice Money Adhikaris) about the priority vaccination available to them, as directed by the Department of Financial Service, Ministry of Finance. Spice Money Adhikari network covering 95% of India’s rural pin codes will facilitate people to register and book an appointment for vaccination, while at the same time dispelling vaccine-related myths that may exist in smaller communities.

“The banking correspondents have played a critical role since the beginning of the pandemic to provide essential financial and banking services to India’s masses. They are the unrecognized COVID warriors who are taking immense risks to offer last-mile financial service delivery. The Spice Money Adhikaris form the backbone of India’s financial inclusion efforts and it is our duty to ensure their safety at each step. We are offering our assistance in the process to avail the covid-19 jabs as part of DFS’ initiative to vaccinate BFSI employees on priority. We are also mobilizing our SMAs to help rural communities in their areas with self-registration for the vaccines. Through this initiative, we want to play our part to support the vaccination drive in rural India,” said Sanjeev Kumar, CEO, Spice Money.

Rural India grapples with the challenge of online self-registration, primarily due to lack of digital literacy and often remains unaware of the initiatives that have been rolled out for them. Spice Money, with its army of digitally and financially empowered Adhikaris, aims to overcome this challenge by making the process smooth and inclusive. Covid vaccine registration is made available on the Spice Money app and portal. The Digital Dukaans operated by the Spice Money Adhikaris will now act as registration help centers for their communities. They will offer end to end assisted registration services to their customers and ensure the rural citizens get vaccinated.

Currently, to facilitate vaccination of Spice Money Adhikaris on priority, the company has created a digital folder with all necessary documents that they need to carry to the vaccination centre, including their Spice Money ID card, government ID proof, DSF letter and a copy of their self-registration slip, among others. Further, to facilitate rural customers to register for vaccination, Spice Money has integrated Covid registration on their app and portal itself. Rural citizens can also call on 1800 572 1572 to find out available Spice Money Adhikaris near to them.

About Spice Money

Spice Money is India’s leading rural fintech company with over 500,000 Adhikaris (entrepreneurs) offering cash deposit, Aadhar enabled payment system for cash withdrawal, mini ATM, insurance, loans, bill payments, cash collection centre for customer/agents/representative of NBFC/Banks, airtime recharge, tours & travel, online shopping, Pan Card and mPoS services. More than 90% of their network reside in semi-urban and rural India. Spice Money services are available through Spice Money App (Adhikari App) and web portal. The user-friendly interface and superior technology platform has earned the app a 4.4 star rating, best in industry, on Google Play Store. Spice Money through its cutting edge technology and wide network of Spice Money Adhikaris, is bridging the gaps in access to various financial services for the masses across the length and breadth of India."

To know more, visit https://spicemoney.com

Torstone Technology, a leading SaaS provider of post-trade securities and derivatives processing, announced today that it has partnered with Digivault, a digital asset custody provider and custodial arm of Diginex, to provide Digivault’s clients with enhanced post-trade services while enabling Torstone Technology’s customers access to digital asset custody solutions.

The partnership with Digivault will leverage the Torstone Technology cross-asset platform including cryptocurrencies and tokenised assets, giving clients the flexibility to handle all of their crypto trading in a single post-trade solution leveraging Digivault for digital asset custody. This partnership will provide Digivault clients with an institutional-grade book-of-records functionality which is critical for regulatory compliance, and auditors.

The partnership will integrate and leverage both firms’ cloud infrastructure, with the Torstone platform providing a bridge between movement of traditional securities and fiat payments with digital assets, spanning standards and networks like FIX and SWIFT with digital networks and crypto custody.

Digivault has been built by specialists from government security and banking infrastructure technology. The custody solutions have been built to institutional risk policy standards and the team works with banks across the globe. Digivault offers extreme cold and one of the industry’s most secure warm solutions. Custody solutions built by Digivault are certified and accredited by cybersecurity standards, such as Cyber Essentials Plus. The cold solution operates out of the vaults of global vault provider Malca-Amit.

The Torstone platform provides a full middle and back-office solution for crypto assets alongside traditional securities and derivatives that covers trade capture, real-time clearance, settlement management and monitoring, and central safekeeping book-of-records. Through the platform’s real-time multi-currency sub-ledger, Torstone and Diginex clients can account for all their business in one place with full audit capabilities to address any needs of regulators and auditors alike.

Brian Collings, CEO, Torstone Technology, said, “Over the last year, we have seen a significant increase in interest in digital assets from our clients. Recognising the needs of the industry to consolidate traditional assets and digital assets on a single processing platform, we are now extending our multi-asset capabilities of crypto currencies and tokenised assets to custody and partnering with Digivault, a leading custodian of digital assets. This is an exciting growth area, and we look forward to continuing to work with our new partner Digivault.”

Robert Cooper, CEO, Digivault, said, “Our partnership with Torstone offers financial institutions assurance that their post-trade operations, including custody, are being managed safely while meeting regulatory standards. This transparency and the ability to simply manage cryptocurrency back-office processes alongside traditional assets is becoming an essential capability for investors and is a window into the future of investment.”

In 2019, former President Donald Trump staged a showdown with the Universal Postal Union over China’s unfair postal rates. His resulting victory saw US packet rates increase by an average of 50% in July 2020. Ten months on, ParcelHero asks, ‘Could UPU reform be a positive legacy of Trump’s time in office?’

In 2019, the USA went head-to-head with the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – the governing body of all international mail services – in a bid to raise China’s rock-bottom postal rates to America. Then President Donald Trump threatened to quit the nearly 150-year-old organisation unless it voted to raise China’s payments for access to the US and other countries’ postal systems.  

The international delivery expert ParcelHero says a dramatic meeting in September 2019 resulted in a ‘High Noon’-style showdown between the USA and the UPU that threatened to destroy postal rates agreements across the world. In the event, Trump’s team won the day. Consequently, a significant rise in the cost of small packages arriving from China was introduced on 1 July 2020.

ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says that even though the move was the kind of ‘America first’ policy typical of Trump, the result is likely to have a positive impact on international e-commerce lasting many years.

Says David: ‘Significantly, other Western countries, including the UK, will now also be able to renegotiate the rates other countries – including China – pay to access their postal system. This will have a lasting international impact and help level the playing field for UK and European online traders.

‘In his first 100 days, President Joe Biden signed 24 executive actions that directly reverse Trump’s policies. These include halting funding for Trump’s border wall, reversing travel bans on largely Muslim countries and cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline. However, it’s highly likely that UPU reform will stand as a permanent legacy of Trump’s time in office.

‘There’s no doubting that, under the previous UPU agreement, Chinese sellers had an unfair advantage over e-commerce sellers in the West. It had been receiving what amounted to Third World rate subsidies for 50 years, despite having become the second wealthiest nation in the world.

‘US e-commerce traders were being significantly disadvantaged by the rates. Amazingly, it was cheaper for a Chinese seller in Shanghai to mail a packet of earrings to New York, than for a US seller in neighbouring Pennsylvania to send the same packet to the same address.

‘Trump’s high-risk strategy was to force the other member countries of the UPU to allow the US to set its own postal access rates for small packages arriving in the US, or it would quit the organisation altogether. This would have led to the complete collapse of international mailing systems, as every country scrabbled to set its own rates.

‘Trump’s gambit won the day and the first phase of the resulting reforms was introduced ten months ago. Between 2020 and 2025, logistical costs for exporting small parcels from China to the US are expected to increase 164%.

‘For the US, the win is already paying dividends. Katherine Muth, of the US-based International Mailers Advisory Group, told the Financial Times in December that the USPS had already raised its inbound rates by an average of about 50%. This had caused a “huge drop-off in volume on inbound parcels” – especially from China, which had sent about half of all packages.

‘Chinese sellers agree it has had a significant impact. The Shanghai-based businessman Bai Haitao sells to the US and Europe, under the trading name Vastsee. In March, he told Marketplace.org that, prior to the increase, during peak times he used to send more than 10,000 small parcels a day to the US. After the new rates were introduced, he revealed the cost of sending a necklace from his Shanghai warehouse to the US went from mere pennies to more than $1. For items such as headphones, the logistics cost has doubled or even tripled. Since the extra cost had to be passed on to his US consumers, his company saw sales drop by half from its 2018 volumes.

‘However, closer to home, there is a price to be paid for Trump’s reform. America’s new mailing rates are being increased in phases over the next few years and all countries, not just China, will be impacted. UK sellers using traditional UK Post Office services to send economy mailings of up to 2kg may see rates rise if their service uses the United States Postal Service (USPS) once in the USA. However, express courier shipments such as those available through ParcelHero should not be impacted by the new charges. You can find out the latest information on US deliveries at  https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/international-courier-services/usa-parcel-delivery

Engagement banking technology provider Backbase today announces it has renewed its partnership with leading UK retail and commercial challenger bank Metro Bank. The focus of the renewed partnership sees Backbase providing dedicated digital innovation support for Metro Bank’s business banking customers. By leveraging the latest cloud-native version of Backbase’s platform, which includes a vast amount of off-the-shelf accelerators for business banking, Metro Bank is able to further enhance and tailor the experience offered to its business customers. 

This relationship extension comes five years after Backbase and Metro Bank first began their partnership, with the core strategic objective of harnessing Backbase’s leading digital banking technology platform to deliver a best-in-class customer engagement experience and lay the foundations for an agile digital banking service – all while achieving cost efficiencies. 

By collaborating with Backbase over the longer-term, Metro Bank will be able to grow and mature its digital banking offering with a customer-centric approach while continuing to deliver against its ambitious digital innovation strategy.  

Cheryl McCuaig, Chief Information Officer at Metro Bank, comments: “Backbase has been a dedicated digital technology partner to us from the start, and we are continually impressed by the company’s investments in research and innovation. We’ve benefited substantially from direct access to Backbase's ongoing in-house innovation, and by using its cloud-native technology we’ve been able to optimise our IT costs. We look forward to deepening our relationship and reaping the benefits of Backbase’s unparalleled commitment to helping us maintain our competitive edge.” 

Frank Uittenbogaard, Regional Vice President, Europe at Backbase, adds: "We’re thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Metro Bank, enabling them to offer a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. As the first true challenger bank taking on the Big Four, Metro Bank’s embrace of a client-centric, human-first approach to banking aligns with our fundamental values as a business. We’re delighted to be helping Metro Bank continue its ambitious growth and achieve outstanding business and client outcomes using digital technology.” 

Nets Group has today announced a significant new appointment to its C-Suite:

James Hicks has joined Nets Group as Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer for its Merchant Services division. Based in Frankfurt, Hicks will be responsible for strategically enhancing the relationships, processes and solutions of Nets and its key strategic partners.

James has over two decades of experience in the payments industry around the world, most recently founding the Kegaska Group, a Toronto-based payments advisory firm. Previously, Hicks was EVP of Global Acceptance and Solutions at Mastercard based in its Global headquarters, following a number of leadership roles at Global Payments, including as President of Global Solutions and leading its Asia Pacific and Global Payments Europe businesses

PXP Financial, the global expert in acquiring and payment processing services, has today published a research report ‘The COVID-19 Effect on European E-Commerce and Retail’, exploring UK and European consumer attitudes to the future of retail shopping.

The report uncovers current thinking towards COVID’s impact on the high street, the concept of a cashless society and the alternative payment methods that are currently being utilised in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland and the UK.

Combining answers from respondents across all countries in the PXP Financial research, over half (55%) of all participants think the high street was already on the decline before the pandemic, 41% would feel positively about a cashless society and 48% have tried contactless as a result of the pandemic. Other forms of mobile transactions such as wallets and wearable payment forms also increased, further adding pressure on retailers to have the necessary payment systems to process mobile transactions going forward.

The report highlights that if merchants use solutions which can generate data insights from customer payments, they can quickly identify how best to optimise the retail experience for their customers – whether that is through targeted personalised promotions, in-store-only redemption of rewards, or online discounts. Only by getting a deeper understanding of their customers will merchants be able to foster deeper loyalty and greater sales volume.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Koen Vanpraet, CEO of PXP Financial, believes retailers can thrive – both in the digital space and the physical. “Covid may have affected the way people pay, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of European high streets as we know them. Forward-thinking merchants and payment players will adapt to the ‘new normal’ by using innovative payment technologies to replace cash usage. By working together to better understand consumer behaviour, retailers and payment players can capture consumer imagination with personalised promotions and value-added services that will deepen customer loyalty.”

“This new retail landscape that we find ourselves in doesn’t have to mean the end of the high street. It can also offer a prime opportunity for merchants to join with payment organisations to promote safer, quicker and more efficient cashless payments. At the same time, European retailers can gain valuable insights into their customers, enabling them to adapt to changing consumer needs much more quickly and efficiently than before,” Vanpraet concluded.

By and large consumers were already adapting their purchasing behaviour in line with the growth of e-commerce. While the pandemic has accelerated the shift towards online shopping, the bricks-and-mortar high street is still regarded fondly by shoppers, and retailers can still count on the loyalty of their customers. But it’s more important than ever for those retailers to ensure that shoppers have the widest possible choice of payment methods which should be considered in retailer strategies going forward.

For more information, or to download PXP Financial’s whitepaper, The COVID-19 Effect on European E-Commerce and Retail’, visit:

George Govier has been appointed as Sales Executive at United Fintech, the firm launched by Christian Frahm in November 2020 to enable banks and financial institutions to accelerate access to innovative digital technology from a wide range of fintechs specialising in capital markets.

George Govier joins United Fintech following five years at Goldman Sachs where he worked in Prime Brokerage, within the Global Markets Division, helping European hedge fund clients to launch new funds with the bank.

Based in London, George Govier will have a European remit, with a focus on sales of all products from within United Fintech’s portfolio of fintech firms – which currently includes NetDania and TTMzero. George will report directly in to Joshua Green, Senior Sales Manager UK & Ireland, who joined United Fintech from Bloomberg in February 2021.

Tom Robinson, Partner and Head of Sales at United Fintech said, “George is a fantastic addition to our team and another high calibre hire. He brings a wealth of relevant experience to United Fintech in terms of relationship management and has a proven track record in understanding clients’ needs and cross selling relevant solutions."

“Our team is growing rapidly and between us we have an impressive network of contacts in banks and financial institutions globally and an in-depth understanding of how best to help them to digitize their operations with innovative, cost-saving capital markets products."

“George’s appointment comes a week after announcing the appointment of Senior Sales Consultant, Juerg Schudel who has over 30 years’ experience of selling financial technology to financial institutions in Switzerland, German and Austria. This takes our sales team in Europe to four, with more hires in the pipeline.”

George Govier added, “I am very excited to have the opportunity to join such an impressive team at United Fintech.  I have seen first-hand the current focus and challenges within investment banks and hedge funds on digitizing their operations. United Fintech, with its growing portfolio of innovative capital markets solutions, is ideally positioned to provide them with the help and products they need in order to transition to a digital world.”

TORA, provider of industry leading trading technology, has today announced that Cowen Outsourced Trading has selected TORA’s Order and Execution Management System (OEMS) for Fixed Income across USA, Europe and Asia.

Cowen selected TORA’s SaaS OEMS following an intensive side-by-side evaluation of leading trading system providers. TORA was hand-picked for bond trading operations after making an assessment of TORA’s product and support capabilities against the requirements of a rapidly transforming and increasingly electronified global bond market. Cowen’s Outsourced Trading team works alongside their clients, functioning as either the clients’ trading desk or as an extension of the clients’ trading desk.

TORA’s OEMS provides traders at Cowen with access to advanced trading functionality, including market data aggregation, customized order intake and execution, order allocation management, and post-trade analytics. The system also offers a comparable bond tool, smart order routing, pre-trade risk controls, real-time position management, and P&L tracking in one single interface. Cowen traders are now using the TORA FIX network to connect to multiple bond trading platforms and global brokers to access greater liquidity and improve trade execution quality.

Joram Siegel, Head of Fixed Income Outsourced Trading at Cowen, stated “TORA’s SaaS OEMS stood out because of its functionality to go beyond traditional buy-side order management systems. Their ability to give traders a single system with detailed insights and access to various sources of bond liquidity, coupled with straight-through execution on major bond venues, is unparalleled”.

Siegel continued “TORA’s robust technology, which is uniquely suited for the Outsourced Trading workflows, provides a highly scalable technology infrastructure that allows us to deliver exceptional results for our clients.” It was noted that TORA was also awarded the contract because of their interoperability with various different analytics and data providers in this market.

Chris Jenkins, Managing Director at TORA commented “We are delighted to have been selected by Cowen. The selection process was particularly intensive and highly competitive. We are focused on facilitating electronic trading in fixed income, so I am really pleased Cowen chose our trading platform for their fixed income requirements. We are looking forward to working together over the coming years.”

He added “increasing numbers of clients are using outsourced trading as a solution and TORA’s flexibility allows our clients to easily incorporate them into their workflow.”

TORA was one of the first in the industry to establish a buy and sell side cloud based OEMS over 16 years ago. The system offers multi-asset, multi-region trading technology covering bonds, equities, futures, options and FX. TORA’s OEMS offers a wealth of functionality covering execution, allocations, risk control, real time positions-keeping and P&L monitoring.

Cowen Outsourced Trading delivers customised multi-asset solutions to more than 200 clients worldwide. Fixed income investors benefit from Cowen’s institutional market connectivity, for both voice and electronic execution, in primary and secondary markets. The fixed income outsourced solutions are provided across all stages of the trade life-cycle including: pre-trade market data, order generation, execution management and post-trade services.NEW YORK & LONDON, 5 May 2021 – TORA, provider of industry leading trading technology, has today announced that Cowen Outsourced Trading has selected TORA’s Order and Execution Management System (OEMS) for Fixed Income across USA, Europe and Asia.

Cowen selected TORA’s SaaS OEMS following an intensive side-by-side evaluation of leading trading system providers. TORA was hand-picked for bond trading operations after making an assessment of TORA’s product and support capabilities against the requirements of a rapidly transforming and increasingly electronified global bond market. Cowen’s Outsourced Trading team works alongside their clients, functioning as either the clients’ trading desk or as an extension of the clients’ trading desk.

TORA’s OEMS provides traders at Cowen with access to advanced trading functionality, including market data aggregation, customized order intake and execution, order allocation management, and post-trade analytics. The system also offers a comparable bond tool, smart order routing, pre-trade risk controls, real-time position management, and P&L tracking in one single interface. Cowen traders are now using the TORA FIX network to connect to multiple bond trading platforms and global brokers to access greater liquidity and improve trade execution quality.

Joram Siegel, Head of Fixed Income Outsourced Trading at Cowen, stated “TORA’s SaaS OEMS stood out because of its functionality to go beyond traditional buy-side order management systems. Their ability to give traders a single system with detailed insights and access to various sources of bond liquidity, coupled with straight-through execution on major bond venues, is unparalleled”.

Siegel continued “TORA’s robust technology, which is uniquely suited for the Outsourced Trading workflows, provides a highly scalable technology infrastructure that allows us to deliver exceptional results for our clients.” It was noted that TORA was also awarded the contract because of their interoperability with various different analytics and data providers in this market.

Chris Jenkins, Managing Director at TORA commented “We are delighted to have been selected by Cowen. The selection process was particularly intensive and highly competitive. We are focused on facilitating electronic trading in fixed income, so I am really pleased Cowen chose our trading platform for their fixed income requirements. We are looking forward to working together over the coming years.”

He added “increasing numbers of clients are using outsourced trading as a solution and TORA’s flexibility allows our clients to easily incorporate them into their workflow.”

TORA was one of the first in the industry to establish a buy and sell side cloud based OEMS over 16 years ago. The system offers multi-asset, multi-region trading technology covering bonds, equities, futures, options and FX. TORA’s OEMS offers a wealth of functionality covering execution, allocations, risk control, real time positions-keeping and P&L monitoring.

Cowen Outsourced Trading delivers customised multi-asset solutions to more than 200 clients worldwide. Fixed income investors benefit from Cowen’s institutional market connectivity, for both voice and electronic execution, in primary and secondary markets. The fixed income outsourced solutions are provided across all stages of the trade life-cycle including: pre-trade market data, order generation, execution management and post-trade services.

Europe’s leading open banking platform Tink, and payments technology provider Tribe, have entered a channel partnership for open banking technology. The partnership will enable Tribe to combine its issuer and acquirer services, with payment initiation services (PIS) and account information services (AIS) powered by Tink.

Through Tribe’s technology platform, its UK customers now have seamless access to traditional payment methods alongside open banking payments – with AIS services to follow. Through its issuer and acquirer processing platform, ISAAC, Tribe uses the latest technology to enable banks, fintechs and acquirers to choose the payments modules that suit them.

This new partnership follows Tink’s €85 million investment round at the end of 2020, to fuel the open banking platform’s expansion of payments services across Europe. During 2021 Tink will increase staff by 50%, adding 200 new recruits to its almost 400 employees today. Many of these new employees will focus on doubling the fintech’s market presence for PIS services, by expanding operations to 10 European countries. Tink now processes around 1.5 million payment transactions per month, for clients including Swedish digital mailbox provider Kivra, used by 4 million adults among a total population of 10 million, and payment fintech Lydia, used by more than 5 million customers in France. 

Alex Reddish, Chief Commercial Officer at Tribe, said: “Over 3 million consumers and businesses are already using open banking-enabled products in the UK alone. We’re keen to help our clients capitalise on this opportunity to build even more compelling propositions in this space. We strongly believe that Open Banking will play a huge part in enabling the frictionless and, eventually, invisible payment experiences of the future. We’re committed to delivering the very best solutions, through inhouse development and key partnerships, to help our clients deliver innovative payments propositions. Tribe was the first issuer processor to have launched initial compliance APIs for fintechs to harness the power of Open Banking without developing their own APIs and we’re keen to continue investing in further Open Banking functionality. That’s why we’re excited about our partnership with Tink; we can now offer easy access to broader opportunities through a market-leading partner.”

Rafa Plantier, Head of UK & Ireland at Tink, added: “We’re proud to partner with Tribe to help give more businesses access to innovative payment solutions. The advancements in mobile payments in recent years, combined with the strong development of open banking infrastructure and regulation, makes it more compelling for payment providers to adopt open banking payments. Our aim is to be the backbone of payments services providers across Europe, to enable inclusive, streamlined, fast-settlement, low-cost payments solutions.”

Leading dispute technology specialist, Chargebacks911, and Fi911, its revolutionary dispute management brand for financial institutions, today announce the appointment of Matt Stein as Senior Vice President of Brand Strategy. 

In his new role, Matt will focus on ensuring a unified brand and marketing strategy across the Chargebacks911 and Fi911 brands with a focus on driving increased revenue across the merchant, financial institution, and partnership landscape.

He brings a wealth of experience to the role, having spent more than two decades leading full-service marketing capabilities at a range of fintech, investment and technology-focused companies, such as Wunderman, PEAK6 Investments and Kobie Marketing.

Over this time, Matt developed a strong financial services portfolio, with previous clients including American Express, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, and First Bank of Puerto Rico. He has also helped several companies to become recognized as industry leaders in their verticals, as backed by Forrester’s Wave reports and Gartner in its Magic Quadrant reports.

On his new role, Matt commented: “I’m delighted to be joining Chargebacks911 at such a pivotal time for the business – having recently launched the Fi911 brand, and due to the boom in payment disputes and friendly fraud caused by COVID-19.

“Both brands are doing revolutionary things for the payments network, innovating in a space that is often overlooked. Through a clear and synergized branding strategy, we can further communicate the benefits that future-proofed chargeback management solutions provide.”

Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and Co-Founder of Chargebacks911 and Fi911, added: “We’re so pleased to welcome Matt to the team. He is an experienced marketeer with an impressive history in the fintech space.

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, chargebacks were costing merchants over $100bn a year – some industries have now seen their rates grow by 20-30%, placing a huge strain on their bottom line. Now, more than ever, awareness is needed around effective chargeback management.

“This is exactly why a strategist of Matt’s calibre and the investment in our brand is imperative; to empower our journey as we work to reduce the drain that chargebacks cause on time, energy and profits.”

To find out more about how Chargebacks911 and Fi911 help merchants and financial institutions mitigate and manage chargebacks, visit chargebacks911.com and fi911.com.