Yapily, a leading provider of open banking solutions, is delighted to announce its partnership with Uncapped, a pioneering fintech providing working capital funding to scaling brands retailers and merchants across UK, EU and US. This collaboration significantly bolsters progress in the financial lending sector and democratises access to capital for online companies.

Yapily’s open banking platform plays a crucial role in enabling Uncapped to meet and exceed its ambitious goals with accelerated speed and expanded coverage. Alongside Yapily, Uncapped is able to provide funding and offer continued support to growing businesses.

Funding businesses with speed and efficiency

The decision to partner with Yapily was driven by several key factors that align perfectly with Uncapped’s vision and operational needs. Yapily’s exceptional customer support, comprehensive bank coverage, particularly in key markets like the UK, and its ability to facilitate accelerated growth opportunities stood out as pivotal advantages. Furthermore, Yapily’s efficient communication and adaptability have proven instrumental in supporting Uncapped with its 3 core objectives; greater speed, connectivity, and support for businesses as they grow.

Yapily’s query response is faster than Uncapped were previously able to access, regularly receiving thorough and detailed responses within a day. This resulted in response time doubling in speed, which meant a much quicker experience for Uncapped end users.

Stefano Vaccino, CEO and Founder of Yapily, commented “This partnership portrays the power of our open banking platform coming to life to drive better and faster funding to businesses, enabling them to grow globally. Yapily is designed to empower our clients with speed, efficiency, and expansive bank connectivity across Europe. We are excited to see how this partnership evolves and continues to break new ground in the lending sector.”

Extensive coverage and enhancing customer experiences

Yapily’s extensive banking coverage and geographical reach have been crucial in supporting Uncapped’s expansion plans.

“Yapily has enabled us to further our penetration in existing markets. For example, in the UK, we are able to connect with far more banks than our previous provider allowing us greater coverage in our domestic market,” said Piotr Pisarz, Uncapped CEO and Founder. “In addition to existing markets, the outlook is promising for new territories as Uncapped looks to launch new markets in the near future.”

The shift to Yapily was a strategic move by Uncapped to embrace a more advanced technological infrastructure and proactive problem-solving capabilities. “The transition to Yapily reflects our commitment to leveraging the most effective solutions in the market. Their superior technology and responsive support are pivotal in enhancing our operational efficiency and adaptability,” commented Piotr Pisarz.

Since the inception of this partnership, Uncapped customers have experienced a tangible improvement in service quality. “We benefit from having direct access to dedicated support from the Yapily team, meaning that we can resolve any issue with speed and precision. The impact of this is that the connection process and flow for our customers is far smoother creating a better experience for them and allowing us to help them faster than we were able to before” added Piotr Pisarz.

Feedzai, a global leader in fighting financial crime with AI, has partnered with UK Finance, the trade association representing the banking and financial services sector in the UK. 

For the second consecutive year, Feedzai has been selected by UK Finance as the lead sponsor and contributor for its Annual Fraud Report. The 2024 edition will explore key fraud trends and the challenges and opportunities for the UK banking and finance industry as it continues to protect consumers from fraud and financial crime. 

Combining data supplied to UK Finance by several of its largest banking and financial services members with its sector expertise, Feedzai will provide insight into the number of fraud cases and the value of fraud losses in the UK. It will also provide additional analysis of the emerging trends and the incidence of particular types of fraud. 

Commenting on the renewed partnership, Pedro Barata, Chief Product Officer at Feedzai, said: 

“We are pleased to be trusted by UK Finance once again to be their partner in delivering the Annual Fraud Report, which underscores our commitment to working at the forefront of this space alongside the most reputable partners and trade bodies. 

With financial crime evolving every single second, minute, and hour of the day, the report is a valued resource for all professionals in the banking and financial services industry looking to obtain a 360-degree view of the fraud environment.”

Lee Hopley, Director, Economic Insight and Research at UK Finance, added:

“Our Annual Fraud report highlights the ever growing issue of financial fraud and we are looking forward to continuing our partnership with Feedzai for a second year. Our Annual Fraud Report is a key marker in evaluating the ongoing fight against financial crime and Feedzai’s industry knowledge and additional insight will be a valuable asset to the report, making it a valuable resource for the industry.”  

Basware, a global leader in AP automation and invoice processing, has announced the appointments of Anssi Ruokonen as its Director of AI Research and Enablement, and Barrett Schiwitz as its new Chief Information Officer (CIO).  

Ruokonen will further enhance AI technology within Basware’s product and service offering, while Schiwitz will oversee Basware’s digital transformation projects to deliver an ever-improving customer experience.  

Generative AI has the potential to generate upwards of $4.4 trillion across all industries, according to McKinsey. Basware’s AI strategy is centred around expanding its innovation lead within its product offering and doing better with its customer experience. 

The company is already utilising AI through its SmartPDF system which automates the conversion of machine-readable PDFs to e-invoices with over 97 per cent accuracy, removing the need for outdated manual processes. Last year, Basware also teamed up with Microsoft to announce the use of ChatGPT within its customer support function, called AskMary. 

Ruokonen will lead Basware’s AI development, shaping the company’s strategy, research and approach to AI, implementing AI technology to optimise Basware’s product offering and enhance operations across the business. He joins from AI firm Fluentic where he served as Chief Product Officer.  

Ruokonen will be based in Helsinki, Finland and be part of Basware’s Products, Cloud Engineering & Operations (PCE&O) function. 

Anssi Ruokonen, Director of AI Research and Enablement, Basware, said: “Basware’s commitment to leveraging AI in transforming business operations is exciting and I’m fascinated by AI’s potential in revolutionising industries. Basware's position enables us to leverage AI in every aspect of our business, directly translating to increased customer value. By automating routine tasks, AI frees up human intellect to focus on creativity and strategic thinking. The democratisation of AI means not just easing existing work, but empowering every team member with new capabilities.”  

Basware is a world leader in AP automation, developing and integrating AI solutions to deliver benefits across the invoice processing cycle, including invoice capture, data extraction and PO (purchase order) matching. Through SmartCoding, Basware further automates the coding of invoices without a PO. SmartCoding leverages AI and uses the history of a supplier’s invoices to automatically code and send invoices along the workflow by creating rules for non-PO invoices. Basware Insights has further harnessed AI to identify the risk of late invoice payments, capture early payment discounts, and analyse patterns in transaction data to help predict cash flow.  

Meanwhile, as Chief Information Officer (CIO), Barrett Schiwitz will oversee Basware’s digital transformation projects including the technological advancement and management of Basware’s internal digital transformation to allow staff to better serve customers. The project will completely revamp Basware’s systems and data across all functions, starting with customer-facing areas. This initiative will be supported by major investments in new systems and education to empower staff to deliver more value to customers. 

With more than 30 years’ experience in the technology sector as a transformation leader, implementer and software developer, Schiwitz will strengthen Basware’s technology team as part of the company’s overall digital strategy. Prior to Basware, Schiwitz served as SVP of Integration and Business Transformation at tech firm Snap One.  

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Schiwitz will be a part of the executive team and report to CEO Jason Kurtz. 

Barrett Schiwitz, Chief Information Officer, Basware, said: “Technology plays a central role in any successful business, from finance functions to sales and marketing, and Basware’s emphasis on innovation with products and services that make a difference stood out from the rest. I’m excited to be a part of the team and leverage my experience to make an impact by leading the digital transformation strategy across the business to make technology work better for employees and customers.” 

AU10TIX, a global technology leader in identity verification and management, today launched an innovative Know Your Business (KYB) solution that enables companies to know exactly who they are doing business with and avoid potential financial and reputational losses. By combining KYB with Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, the offering addresses every KYB business need, from sole traders to corporates, including KYC for UBOs and associated entities.

Increasingly rigorous regulatory demands are forcing businesses across all sectors to collect and analyze more data about the identities of their partners and vendors. Companies must also ensure that they are not working with unscrupulous businesses involved in identity theft, fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing or other crimes. However, most available KYB solutions are limited in scope, forcing companies to engage with multiple vendors for KYC, forgery tests, serial fraud detection and other crucial capabilities.

AU10TIX’s unified KYB and KYC solution provides a comprehensive check against 200+ jurisdictions and over 1000 government registries in one automated workflow. It provides thorough and comprehensive checks within seconds, while other vendors require days and rely on unofficial and potentially outdated databases. The new solution also provides full profiling and continuous monitoring, ensuring business integrity for compliance and risk management.

AU10TIX’s KYB solution comes in three packages:

• Business Validation enables a quick and efficient Proof of Business (POB) verification process by confirming essential identification details, including business name and ID, address, country, registration date, and official status.
• Sole Trader Verification extends Business Validation to validate both the company and owner with automated KYB + KYC risk evaluation through one API call.
• Enterprise Verification extends Business Validation with several additional benefits and features, including:
  • Continuous monitoring to ensure compliance, detect changes, and manage risk in real time across all entities
  • In-depth KYC risk assessment of all related entities, Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs), officers, directors and stakeholders linked to the organization in question.
  • Robust AML screening against sanctions and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) watchlists.
  • Seamless AI-based Proof of Business (POB) collection, extraction, validation, and registry comparison, with added forgery checks.

"Our customers have been requesting a comprehensive KYB solution, because money laundering and fraud have become far too prevalent in the corporate world,” said Dan Yerushalmi, CEO of AU10TIX. “Our unified KYB/KYC solution is essential for identifying bad actors and maintaining a safe business environment in 2024.”

Key benefits include:

●        Fully automated and unified KYB and KYC process - End-to-end automation in one flow for increased speed and accuracy

●        Advanced document verification - AI-powered tech quickly and accurately verifies various documents to authenticate the legitimacy of the business

●        Case management dashboard - Enables user-friendly management of check results

●        Comprehensive scoring mechanism - Provides scoring based on an advanced algorithm, for informed decision-making and risk measurement

●        Single API call for both business and individual verification - Reduces cost by requiring only one payment for both KYB and KYC record checks

●        Global coverage - Offers insights into ownership structures across 200+ countries

In addition to this new business offering, AU10TIX will also be addressing fraud through a joint webinar on Tuesday, March 5 at 11:00 am EST. AU10TIX and Frost & Sullivan will host an exclusive session on “Disrupting Fraud with AI: Actionable Insights to Effectively Combat Fraud.” Register here to take a deep dive into the world of fraud detection and prevention.

MoneyHash, the first and leading payment orchestration platform in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), has successfully raised $4.5M in a seed funding round. The round was co-led by COTU Ventures and Sukna Ventures, with participation from RZM Investment, Dubai Future District Fund, VentureFriends, and a group of strategic investors and operators.

Despite the significant slowdown in market activity, this investment illustrates the market’s confidence in MoneyHash and its potential for continued growth and market leadership. MoneyHash's proprietary payment orchestration platform and end-to-end payment operating system have garnered acclaim for their innovative approach to streamlining payment processes, making it the top choice for businesses seeking efficient and scalable payment infrastructure. This funding will enable MoneyHash to further invest in its technology and expand its regional business growth initiatives.

The payment landscape in the MEA is highly fragmented. Each country has tens of payment providers and methods, developing payment regulations, limited economic integration with other markets, and a diverse set of customer preferences and market dynamics.

The complexity of the ecosystem is compounded by the region's susceptibility to payment fraud, low checkout conversion rates, and increased transaction failures. "COVID certainly boosted the adoption of digital payments in the region, but the infrastructure remains significantly underdeveloped. In MEA, payment failure rates are three times the global average, and fraud rates and cart abandonment are over 20% higher than in all other regions. This places merchants in a challenging position, viewing payments as a cost and risk center rather than a strategic enabler," says Nader Abdelrazik, co-founder and CEO of MoneyHash.

Abdelrazik adds, "However, the opportunity is enormous. MEA's trillions of dollars in payments are still less than 10% digital, suggesting the region will experience the most growth over the next decade. Merchants who navigate the complex payment ecosystem effectively will reap significant benefits. This is where MoneyHash steps in."

MoneyHash offers a comprehensive payment operating system as a service to address the various technological and product challenges faced by enterprise merchants. Elena Panchenko, the Chief Product Officer of MoneyHash, emphasizes, “Payment challenges are intertwined. Rather than merchants juggling between solutions and in-house fixes, we offer a versatile suite to address current and future challenges simultaneously.”

MoneyHash's product includes a unified API to integrate pay-in and pay-out rails, a fully customizable checkout experience, transaction routing capabilities with fraud and failure rate optimizers, and a centralized transaction reporting hub. This is complemented by tools enabling various use cases such as virtual wallets, subscription management, and payment links.

Elena adds, “An integrated set of solutions is essential for enterprise merchants to address challenges comprehensively and explore opportunities freely. The infrastructure is powered by over 200 pre-integrated APIs with payment service providers and payment methods across 80+ markets. This not only offers merchants maximum flexibility and coverage but also helps us gain the trust of our customers, knowing that all scenarios and implementations fall within our expertise.”

MoneyHash product promises a 10-20% increase in revenue generation and a 90% decrease in development cost.

Perhaps best-known for bringing a civil fraud case against Donald Trump, the verdict of which is expected to be announced later this month, New York Attorney General Letitia James is now focusing on the fraud committed by cybercriminals against Citibank customers – and the bank’s failure to protect them. 

On January 30th, James sued Citibank, alleging that the bank’s online protections are not strong enough to stop unauthorized takeover of customer accounts. The lawsuit also claims that, after funds are stolen, Citi misleads account holders about their rights and denies reimbursing them. James is seeking to require the company to pay back defrauded New Yorkers and to adopt enhanced anti-fraud defenses to prevent scams.

The finance industry has long been one of the primary targets of cyberattackers due to the potential therein for huge monetary gain. Financial institutions have been sucked into a game of cat-and-mouse, where they’re constantly working with their cybersecurity partners to plug the holes in their defenses and thwart the latest attack vectors. 

However, this just causes attackers to adapt and find new vulnerabilities. These days, rather than targeting a bank’s own systems directly, hackers are more likely to use phishing techniques to aid in impersonation attacks, misleading customers into entering sensitive data on spoofed websites. It is these customers who are most at risk – and it is no longer enough for banks and big companies to shrug off all responsibility. The Citibank case is just one reflection of the growing public desire for financial institutions to adapt to this reality and protect their customers adequately. 

Customers Are The Main Target

Of particular concern is that it’s not only big banks with broad name recognition who are subject to such attacks. In a 2022 analysis of over 50 million websites, Allure Security found that in the first 90 days of that year, more than 20% of smaller regional banks and credit unions were also faced with brand impersonation attacks. 

Brand impersonation attacks aim to deceive banks’ customers, and they can take on various guises. Malicious actors employ a combination of emails, phone calls, SMS messages and more, spamming customers with messages that appear to be legitimate. The idea is to encourage victims to click on a link that redirects them to a fake version of their bank’s website. If the customer is fooled, they will willingly enter their login credentials and personal information, which is subsequently used by the attackers to access their accounts and steal their savings. When these attacks are successful, they don’t just harm the customers, but also erode the banks’ reputations, leading to a loss of trust and loyalty. 

The escalation in brand impersonation attacks illustrates how customer protection has become a blind spot, especially in the financial services industry, says Israel Mazin, co-founder and chief executive of Memcyco, a company that develops software to help companies protect themselves from website spoofing. 

“AI has made brand impersonation fraud an off-the-shelf commodity for seamlessly cloning legitimate websites,” Mazin said. “Particularly for financial services providers, digital impersonation scams are now a top threat. Worse still, the shockingly-convincing nature of fraud leveraging brand impersonation scams, makes it harder for businesses to even map where those customer-protection blind spots are, making the damage to reputation, 'below the waterline', almost incalculable.”

Fighting Back In Real-Time

Memcyco was founded to address such blind spots, having developed a suite of tools that aim to identify website impersonation attacks and stop them in their tracks. Its solution provides both real-time detection of spoofed websites, plus protections for customers who may inadvertently visit them. The moment a fake website goes live, Memcyco can detect it and inform the bank it’s being impersonated and that its customers are at risk. Banks can then take immediate action to get the spoofed website taken down as quickly as possible, while protecting their customers in the meantime.

One of Memcyco’s key innovations is its ability to do something about those fake sites before they’re taken offline. Unlike other solutions, the company has developed the ability to display a Red Alert notification in real-time that warns customers they’re accessing a fake website, rather than the real thing. It goes further too, displaying a digital watermark on a bank’s legitimate web properties to reassure its customers that they’re on the correct website.  

To illustrate how its novel brand impersonation prevention solutions work, Mazin cited the example of one of North America’s premier banks, which was dealing with an escalation in phishing and brandjacking attacks that were designed to steal its customer’s credit card details. The attacks were extremely sophisticated, the fake websites were tremendously convincing, and the bank was unable to do anything about it, putting it in danger of suffering serious financial losses and untold damage to its reputation. 

But once Memcyco deployed its Customer ATO and Fraud Protection solutions, the bank gained the ability to warn its customers whenever they visited a fake website, preventing the loss of their personal information. At the same time, the bank worked with Memcyco to try and identify the attackers responsible. This involved using decoy data, which was entered into the fake websites to track how and when it was used. 

Additionally, the bank was able to detect hundreds of credit card fraud attempts in real-time and warn its customers. This led to a significant and immediate decrease in usage of stolen credit card data, and as a consequence, the bank was able to reduce its customer compensation budget. The bank also benefited from productivity gains, as its security operations teams gained additional time to focus on other kinds of cyberattacks and investigations. 

Proactive Defense Breeds Customer Loyalty

Preventative measures against phishing and impersonation attacks are essential for the financial services industry in particular, an industry that works extremely hard to build trust with its customers. Reputational damages are hard to recover from, and customers who lose funds due to attacks are doubtful to simply “forget and forgive.”

As such, the onus is on the banks to try and prevent these attacks from happening in the first place. By ensuring they have their customers’ backs, banks can foster a reputation of trust that leads to increased customer retention and loyalty.

Klarpay, a leading Swiss financial institution, proudly announces the launch of its new Entrepreneur Accounts, a tailored financial solution designed exclusively for Business Founders, UBOs, and Senior Management members who already hold accounts with Klarpay.

Recognising the intrinsic link between entrepreneurs and their businesses, Klarpay is committed to providing personalised solutions to meet their unique needs.

Klarpay's Entrepreneur Accounts provide a comprehensive array of exclusive benefits designed to help entrepreneurs better manage finances and streamline transactions. This service allows entrepreneurs to set up multiple accounts customised to their business needs. It enables them to segregate personal and business expenses efficiently and execute transactions, such as payments, transfers, and withdrawals, all while monitoring and managing their activities effortlessly through Klarpay's intuitive dashboard.

Entrepreneurs can now expand their global reach, conduct transactions effortlessly across multiple currencies, and benefit from the security and stability of the Swiss financial ecosystem. For larger balances, they can also opt for Deposit-Guaranteed Accounts with an additional guarantee from a Tier 1 Bank in Switzerland, ensuring peace of mind.

"Klarpay is dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs on their journey to success. The launch of Entrepreneur Accounts underscores the company's commitment to fostering financial growth and providing a robust financial ecosystem for digital businesses and entrepreneurs.", says Martynas Bieliauskas, Klarpay's CEO.

Rimes is pleased to announce that Sit Investment Associates has selected its Matrix investment management platform as a crucial part of a firm-wide modernization program. With some $15 billion AUM in the U.S., Sit Investment Associates is one of the largest independent, family and minority-owned investment firms. 

Mark Madden, Manager of Client Administration at Sit Investment Associates, commented. "Our commitment to consistently delivering unrivalled investment performance for our clients is what drives us. Therefore, our goal is to retain our leadership position, and we see modern, proven technology as an essential pillar of this unrelenting quest. We have a clear vision of what we want to achieve, and thus far, Rimes has demonstrated flexibility, expertise, and a refreshing approach to our future shared success. Together, we are at the start of an exciting journey which I believe will deliver tangible benefits to our clients, the Sit Investment team and the people at Rimes.” 

Stuart Plane, Chief Revenue Officer at Rimes concluded. "Following a rigorous selection process, we are honored to have been awarded this prestigious contract, and we thank them for their confidence in us to deliver. The proven Matrix investment management platform provides exceptional data management underpinned by seamless integration and automation capabilities, which Sit investment Associates were seeking. We look forward to cementing a mutually fruitful and lasting relationship with this highly collaborative and focused firm."

Capchase and BBVA Spark close a partnership agreement allowing their clients to connect to BBVA directly through API integrations via a seamless digital experience.

Through this partnership, BBVA Spark will access Capchase’s technology, which enables a digital analysis of clients through innovative technologies such as open banking, and live connections to ERPs (financial management software) or electronic invoicing sources. This process speeds up decision-making and ensures that financing aligns effectively with the needs of companies.

Following a successful proof of concept with fifty BBVA Spark clients, this product, which is tailored for companies with recurring revenue models including SaaS or subscriptions, is now validated and available to clients in Spain through BBVA Spark online banking. The technology powering this program is Capchase Infra, a new lending infrastructure solution which Capchase is formally launching today.

Capchase’s CEO and co-founder, Miguel Fernández, stated, “Increasing access to capital for startups was a primary goal when Capchase launched in 2020, and the introduction of our infrastructure product is the result of the team’s dedication to refining our underwriting technology to serve more companies. The partnership with BBVA establishes Capchase as a trusted technology vendor for the global financial industry. Now, banks can leverage our infrastructure to accelerate their ability to serve high-growth companies with innovative and flexible financial solutions at an earlier stage.”

Roberto Albaladejo, head of BBVA Spark, pointed out that “this agreement is another step forward in our value proposition based on providing comprehensive financial services for high-growth technology businesses. In the future, we expect to continue complementing BBVA’s entire range of products and services for companies with strategic collaborations like the one we are announcing today with Capchase, demonstrating our commitment to innovation.”