Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitex announced that it has commenced providing Investment Declaration Report for all its retail and institutional investors, becoming the first Exchange in India to comply with the recent amendments made to the Companies Act 2013 by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had sought full disclosure of crypto transactions and holdings by companies making it mandatory for companies to declare cryptocurrency investments. The Government has earlier also indicated that the income from cryptocurrency gains will be taxable under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The report can be submitted for tax purposes by individual investors as well as by companies and can be used to prepare financial statements as stipulated by the government. To enhance transparency into the cryptocurrency trading, the exchange will also support regulators as per disclosure rules under the Companies Act.

Bitex Founder and CEO Monark Modi said, “As cryptocurrency becomes a mainstream investment asset it is important that standard procedures that are applicable to any other investment grade asset be applicable to Digital Assets. The recent directions by the Government clearly pave the way for a transparent functioning of cryptocurrencies in India and also help retail and institutional investors to confidently go ahead to trade or hold cryptocurrencies. Similar practices are now commonplace in other major crypto markets in the world and Bitex is committed to supporting investors and regulators with the necessary framework that will boost the market in India.”

Bitex’s move will support the Government’s aim of verify business investments in cryptocurrency and transfer of funds. For businesses, it will improve the transparency in financial statements as the figures provided by the exchanges can be tallied by the auditors before their final document is submitted. The reports can be included in the profit and loss statements and balance sheets submitted by the companies at the end of the year.

In the United States, crypto assets are categorized as a property and are liable to be taxed as a short term or long term capital gains depending on the duration for which the asset is held. For any gains or losses made for a duration less than a year are taxed in the income tax bracket the investor lies in. Any gains or losses made from a crypto asset held any longer than a year incurs lower than 20 per cent tax depending on individual or combined marital income. In India, until now there has been no data available with the IT department, and the recent move will certainly help the department to assess tax liability of cryptocurrency investors.

About Bitex:

Founded in 2018 in UAE, Bitex is a leading digital currency exchange and a professional trading platform that operates in global markets including India. Bitex provides mobile and web platform to invest and trade in digital assets with a matching engine that can handle up to 1 million transactions per second. Through its secure cryptocurrency wallet, users can send and receive digital assets to third party wallets. The digital asset exchange provides advanced charting tools, order books and one-click trade options and a derivatives platform that offers quarterly futures trading contract and margin trading. Bitex is a fully regulated and compliant financial exchange which follows a stringent Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) policy.

Commenting on Rishi Sunak’s plans revealed at UK FinTech Week, Rafa Plantier, Head of UK & Ireland at Tink, said:

On planned reforms to the visa system

“This reform is crucial to ensure that businesses have access to the best talent from around the globe — specifically people who have spent time with ambitious, rapid growth businesses and who can bring this experience to bear on the UK fintech sector.”

On plans for a new Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology 

“This is a clear step in the right direction to support fintechs across the UK to continue their growth trajectories — and to create centres of excellence not only in London but also in other major cities in Britain. Not only will this body enable the fintech industry to continue to flourish in the UK, it will also drive growth internationally.” 

On the introduction of a scale box

“For new entrants into the industry, a ‘scalebox’ will be invaluable in helping the UK’s fintech sector reach its full potential. It’s clear that a second stage of support would be beneficial to help fintechs manage the often tricky transition from the sandbox into the real world, so the proposed scalebox is a welcome stepping stone.”

Bling, a modern cash advance service that helps users get money fast and trouble-free, has announced its partnership with KYC provider Sumsub. Sumsub is set to verify Bling’s users within minutes while providing bulletproof, platform-wide fraud defense.

Bling is a French cash advance service that allows users to receive up to €100 in just a few minutes. Bling eliminates the excessive time and paperwork necessary for getting some extra cash through traditional methods. Instead, Bling aims to make this process pleasant and seamless. Users can quickly set up accounts through the Bling app, receiving money in no time at all. The app launched in spring 2020 and currently has over 200,000 users in France.

Bling aims to create a sophisticated service that provides money to users instantly—backed up by strong fraud-prevention mechanisms that detect dishonest users and fake documents. To make this happen, Bling has integrated Sumsub’s KYC solution. This has empowered Bling’s platform with liveness detection technology, which ensures accurate identity verification and robust fraud protection. Sumsub has also empowered Bling to screen users across adverse media, ensuring that their documents have no traces of digital or physical tampering. Sumsub was also able to reduce Bling’s median onboarding time to 1-2 minutes, resulting in a more people-friendly user experience. Last but not least, Sumsub has helped Bling ensure the high level of security demanded by French AML regulators and the 6th European AML Directive. All in all, these upgrades will help Bling gain the upper-hand in the 6.9 billion dollar cash advance market.

“Since the very beginning, we knew that if we wanted to instantly provide money, we needed a KYC software that would give us high check security and onboard even a big number of users quickly. Sumsub’s solution felt confident and proved to be very effective for us—we haven’t had any fraud incidents and received only positive feedback on our onboarding flow. We are happy to work with Sumsub as while they take good care of our onboarding, we can focus on further growth and improvement.” —Théo Rougon, Risk Manager at Bling.

“The cash advance sector is attractive and rapidly growing, yet tough in terms of fraud. What’s more, given the importance of fast onboarding in this area, checks need to be fast, while still proving a strong level of security. We are glad to support Bling’s growth with our fast and safe KYC checks and look forward to seeing them attract more customers with their young, modern, and innovative service.” —Jacob Sever, Co-founder of Sumsub.

Mastercard and Aion Bank, supported by technology partner, Vodeno, have signed a strategic partnership, whereby the digital bank has become a welcomed, certified member of Mastercard’s Fintech Express programme. Through the partnership, fintechs will be able to leverage Aion Bank’s Vodeno Cloud Platform (VCP) technology, one of the most comprehensive banking platforms operating entirely in the cloud.

Aion Bank is a full service, European licensed digital bank for individuals and business owners that combines the best in technology with the breadth of services of a traditional bank. Aion’s IT, powered by VCP, covers all aspects of Retail and SME universal bank activities with 300+ public APIs. Vodeno, a fully cloud-based Banking-as-a-Service provider, built its proprietary platform on top of Google’s public cloud infrastructure and is a unique composition of micro-services that simplifies migration from any legacy core banking system or other in-house solution. Vodeno provides embedded financial services for banks, lenders, and merchants regardless of size or sector. The combination of Aion’s banking license and compliance expertise and Vodeno’s technology offer a unique solution that meets the demands of regulation while enabling innovation at speed.

Another attractive benefit of the Aion/Vodeno offering is its 'Decoupled Debit' proposition. This product allows the customer to link accounts and authorise card transactions against the balance held in their primary bank. Consumers will be able to use new fintechs without the need to pre-fund the account or to set up a standard credit product. This is already being adopted by several clients across Europe and can be implemented for a new entity in a small number of weeks.

Aion was also the first bank in Belgium to use NFC chip technology for onboarding new Retail and SME members. As part of the onboarding process, Aion Bank uses facial recognition to validate the NFC data, all within the app, and is fully compliant with AML/KYC banking regulations. This allows new customer records and accounts to be opened in 10 minutes, and its loan process is cut down to 20 minutes for qualifying members.

In addition to a fully digital lending experience, Aion/Vodeno have developed lending products for fintechs and ecommerce players looking to add embedded banking into their ecosystem. Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) and merchant finance are offered as complete end-to-end solutions; technology is provided by Vodeno, and loans are carried on Aion Bank’s balance sheet, adding the security and guarantee of the licensed European bank. Aion/Vodeno provide the flexibility and compliance for any fintech to implement lending services, with industry-leading speed-to-market through its suite of APIs.

Backed by Mastercard Processing, which provides full capability of issuing processing services, Aion/Vodeno are well-positioned to support clients with digital first solutions safely and securely. Joining the Mastercard Fintech Express programme will also give Aion/Vodeno the opportunity to engage with Mastercard’s extensive network, thus helping its business to scale at a faster rate.   

In February, Vantik announced a partnership with Mastercard and Vodeno to launch its free debit Mastercard with long-term savings benefits in Germany. Users of the Vantikcard receive 1% cashback on every purchase, which are automatically invested into a sustainable pension fund. Vantik leveraged Vodeno’s technology stack and Aion Bank’s license to launch in record time.

Jason Lane, Executive Vice President, Market Development Europe, Mastercard comments “During the time of accelerated digital shift, financial services’ users seek technological innovations. We know that there is a heightened appetite for online solutions, with many Europeans expressing an interest in switching from physical banking to digital platforms. Innovative market players aim at meeting their needs by launching new fintech products fast and at scale, with support of the right partners. We are very happy to welcome Aion Bank into our Fintech Express programme. It aims at assisting digital players by making the collaboration with Mastercard easy. We realise the great potential of this partnership because of Aion Bank’s comprehensive portfolio, supported by fintech enablers like Vodeno.”

Wojciech Sobieraj, CEO of Aion Bank explains “We are very pleased to further build our partnership with Mastercard and join their Fintech Express programme. This cooperation was born out of a long-standing relationship with Mastercard Europe, and we look forward to offering fintechs in the programme embedded financial services powered by Vodeno’s fully cloud-based banking technology. Through our work together, we have unprecedented access to a myriad of Mastercard’s added services, including business development teams in key markets, connection to key commercial clients, brand endorsement and marketing support. The combination of Mastercard, Vodeno’s technology stack and Aion Bank’s fully regulated charter will accelerate European fintechs looking to develop a broad range of products and lending services across multiple sectors.”

Mastercard Fintech Express falls under the umbrella of Mastercard Accelerate – Mastercard’s overarching fintech platform that gives start-ups and emerging brands support and assistance for every stage of their growth and transformation, from market entry to global expansion. Mastercard Accelerate is comprised of four main programmes: Fintech Express, Start Path, Engage and Developers.

FintechOS the global technology provider for banks, insurers and other financial services companies, today announced it has raised USD60 million (EUR51 million) in Series B funding. The round was led by Draper Esprit, a leading venture capital firm whose investments include Form3, ICEYE, Revolut, Thought Machine, UiPath. Existing investors Earlybird Digital East, Gapminder Ventures,   LAUNCHub Ventures, and OTB Ventures also participated in the round. Further investors are set to be announced at a later date.

The funds will be primarily used to cement the company’s position in Europe and the UK and fuel international expansion to target financial institutions in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and North America. This includes new offices in the USA, Dubai, and Singapore, along with the addition of 120 new staff members resulting in a 40% increase in overall headcount. FintechOS also plans to use the funds to expand its core systems capabilities in banking and insurance, strengthening the low-code self-service proposition and personalization through AI and machine learning in customer journeys and product and services offerings. The overall aim is to accelerate growth beyond the 200% CAGR achieved to date.

Across the globe financial service providers are planning to invest heavily in new technology to accelerate digitalization. However, many institutions are struggling with existing digital transformation strategies. Instead of lengthy and laborious rip and replace digital transformation strategies that require high levels of technology expertise and investment, FintechOS allows financial service providers to start small, think big and scale fast. With its low-code, self-service approach that augments legacy systems, FintechOS allows institutions to build, test and scale new digital products and services in weeks rather than months.

Teodor Blidarus, co-Founder and CEO at FintechOS commented: “When we launched FintechOS in 2017, we could already see existing solutions to digital transformation would struggle to deliver tangible results. By contrast, our unique approach has quickly inspired a sea-change in how financial institutions address digitization and engage with their customers. Events over the last year have only increased pressure on our industry to evolve and as a result we’re seeing growing demand for our powerful platforms. Our latest round of funding will help us grow at the pace needed to improve outcomes for financial institutions and their customers globally.”

Sergiu Negut, co-Founder, CFO & COO at FintechOS added: “Not only is our technology helping financial institutions become customer centric, but it’s also helping them provide products and services to more people and businesses. With so many markets still underserved, the ability to tailor offerings to a segment of one offers the opportunity to increase financial inclusion and adheres to our ideal that easy access to financial services is essential. We’re delighted to be working with investors who share our views on how fintech should be transforming the financial services industry.”

Vinoth Jayakumar, Partner at Draper Esprit commented: “When we met Teo and Sergiu, we were immediately convinced of their vision: a data led, end-to-end platform, facilitated with a low-code/no-code infrastructure. Incumbent financial services firms have cost-to-income ratios up to 90%, so we see a huge and increasing need for infrastructure software that allows digitisation at speed, ease and lower cost. Draper Esprit builds enduring partnerships; with the team at FintechOS we hope to build an enduring fintech company that will dramatically change financial services experiences for people all over the world.”

Finastra has announced the winner of its recent hackathon - Hack to the Future 3. Launched to help build an unbiased fintech future, the event saw over 600 participants from more than 50 countries, including Antarctica. With many women-led and diverse teams of students, fintech enthusiasts, financial institution developers and fintech founders all joining the movement, the hackathon is a step towards positive change and redefining the future of finance.

Prizes up for grabs included cash, as well as incubation and internship opportunities from Finastra and some of its 40+ partners.

And the winner is…

·       Bloinx: A decentralized application using blockchain technology to help build savings communities by operating as a ROSCA administrator through smart contracts. Rotating credit and savings associations (ROSCA) e.g. tandas in Mexico, enable people with lack of financial knowledge and access to credit cards and bank loans to obtain money quickly through a money-pooling fund.

1^st Runner up:

• tinch.: An agri-fintech initiative to tackle bias against women in the agriculture sector when it comes to market price, access to agricultural loans and land availability. 

2^nd Runner up:

• Qualify - Growth Simplified: A peer-to-peer lending platform to help low income communities generate credit scores and gain access to formal credit.

Sharon Doherty, Chief People and Places Officer at Finastra said, “We’re on a mission to make financial services more equitable and inclusive, leading by example. During International Women’s Day we shared a point of view that AI bias, if unchecked, could be one of the biggest drivers of inequality in our lifetime. In practical terms, financial solutions such as lending aren’t equally available to people of all genders and cultures."

We also launched a global hackathon to encourage women-led and diverse teams to join our global open innovation community to hack with us, with a particular focus on AI solutions. In fact, nearly 80% of the projects were led by women, which has shone a light on the wealth of female talent in the industry and has been wonderful to see.”

Adam Lieberman, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at Finastra said, "From platforms that help assess algorithmic fairness metrics and synthetic data solutions that create more representative datasets to solutions tackling gender inequalities and the credit invisible, we have seen amazing AI-powered use cases for building an unbiased fintech future and fighting algorithmic bias."

Finastra made its open development platform – FusionFabric.cloud, underpinned by Microsoft Azure – along with more than 180 APIs, SPIs and data sets available for the hackathon.

Check out the submitted projects here or join the conversation on social media using #HackToTheFuture, #HackingForGood and #OPENbydefault

To read recent Finastra-commissioned research from KPMG, centered on algorithmic bias, visit: Open by default | Finastra

Credit Kudos, the challenger credit reference agency and Open Banking provider, today announced they have been selected as the Open Banking provider for Curve, the fintech that brings your cards into one smart card and app, for its forthcoming Curve Credit product. 

Powered by Open Banking, Curve Credit is a new lending and loan offering from Curve. Curve Credit allows customers to pay for purchases in instalments, allowing customers to spread payments over three, six or nine-month periods, offering credit on more transparent and fairer terms. Customers will be able to split the instalments at the point of purchase or after they’ve paid for an item.  The ‘Go Back in Time’ feature also offers people the chance to change their minds on which card they want to use to make a transaction, up to 90 days later. 

Leveraging Credit Kudos’ award-winning insights, built from Open Banking data, Curve will be able to better assess an applicant’s affordability and creditworthiness. Credit Kudos’ Affordability Insights solution provides insights into an applicant's affordability at speed through their intuitive dashboard, Atlas, or quick API, for a robust and seamless assessment process. 

Curve Credit is currently in beta testing and is expected to launch widely in the coming months.

Paul Harrald, Head of Curve Credit, said: “With the right approach, credit can enable financial freedom; allowing people to access the finance they need to meet unexpected needs and take advantage of new opportunities. The forthcoming launch of Curve Credit and our partnership with Credit Kudos, another disruptive fintech, will bring us a giant step closer towards truly simplifying our customers’ finances, putting them in control and allowing them to more easily manage their monthly outgoings. "

Freddy Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO, Credit Kudos, added: “Our technology is transforming and modernising the lending sector to benefit both lenders and borrowers and we’re excited to partner with Curve as part of our mission to make credit fair and accessible to all. People increasingly want personalised, flexible financial products and over the past 12 months we have seen a number of innovations developed leveraging Open Banking insights, such as the soon-to-launch Curve Credit. We’re excited to be working with Curve to power faster and more accurate affordability assessments for this new product - so it can bring further innovation and financial flexibility to UK borrowers.” 

W2, a Cardiff based technology provider, today announced its strategic partnership with kompany, a RegTech platform for Know Your Company (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB). The partnership will allow W2’s client base to access the RegTech’s latest KYB offering, including its global Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) data, via its award-winning compliance platform.

W2’s partnership with kompany will ensure that W2’s range of clients across regulated industries  have access to real-time, accurate and audit-proof entity information directly from the primary source. The partnership will not only allow W2’s clients to reduce manual and time consuming KYB processes but will ensure a truly seamless onboarding journey for its clients’ customers.

“Partnering with kompany is a critical for the strategic development of W2,” said Warren Russell, CEO & Founder of W2. “The ability to offer our clients access to company filings and real-time business information allows for more streamlined compliance with the 5^th and 6^th Anti-Money Laundering Directives and ensures that the effectiveness and efficiency of the digital onboarding journey is enhanced.”

The partnership will provide full details on all shareholder information, as well as annual and financial accounts direct from official commercial registers worldwide using kompany’s extended UBO service. This will enable W2’s clients to comply with regulations with the most up-to-date and accurate information available.

“Despite reports indicating that the global KYB market will be valued at close to USD 12 billion by next year, we estimate that currently only 5% of financial institutions have an automated B2B or corporate banking onboarding journey,” said Russell E. Perry, CEO and Co-founder of kompany.

“In fact, nearly 75% of these businesses are still relying on Google searches to complete their customer due diligence. We are excited to bring our RegTech platform to W2 and empower their clients to get the best value out of their compliance procedures with the greatest ease and confidence possible.”