Ziglu, the UK-based and FCA regulated cryptocurrency challenger, has launched Bitcoin Boost, an account that allows Ziglu users to earn interest equivalent to an annual percentage rate of 5% on their bitcoin.

Investors and savers are looking for alternatives to traditional saving schemes – interest rates have dropped to unprecedented levels, impacting savings rates that currently stand at their lowest ever level. Bank of England data shows that variable rate ISAs (tax efficient savings schemes) earn 0.35%, and even including any bonus and fixed rates for the year will earn 0.49% – the lowest since ISAs were introduced.

Through Ziglu’s Bitcoin Boost account, interest on the value of the bitcoin holding is calculated every second and an interest payment is added to the balance each week. Customers can buy or sell the bitcoin in their Bitcoin Boost account instantly and with no penalties – by providing this instant access, Ziglu has added a new layer of return to bitcoin, whether being held for a long period of time or for a matter of minutes. 

Mark Hipperson, Ziglu Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said: “It’s pretty much impossible to find interest rates that are higher than the rate of inflation, and yet digital currencies and decentralised finance have massive potential to provide a real rate of return for everyone. Our aim is financial inclusion and choice – through the Bitcoin Boost account we are able to offer our customers instant access to bitcoin, and a game changing 5% rate of interest on the value of their bitcoin, no matter how large or small.”

Since launching last year, Ziglu has released a stream of new features and functionality with a focus on providing a safe, secure investment platform for crypto beginners, with their crypto-assets insured against cyber-attack. Ziglu recently announced the addition of an additional cryptocurrency,  Tezos, to the app, giving customers access to five cryptocurrencies including Tezos, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and Litecoin. Customers can also now make peer-to-peer payments across all currencies, both digital and traditional, and make faster payments to any UK account as well as being able to spend through a Mastercard debit card. 

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union (SASCU) has extended its long-standing relationship with Temenos, completing an implementation of the newest functionality of Temenos Analytics to drive its growth strategy. With 20,000 members, and $800 million assets under management, SASCU continues to grow in size and product offerings, using Temenos Analytics to deliver seamless, hyper-personalized digital experiences for its members. 

According to a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, improving the account holder experience and engagement is the top strategic priority for financial institutions around the world. SASCU is a forward-looking, community-focused, financial organization driven to provide world-class products and services for all phases of a member’s life. Recognizing the power of data, SASCU has been using Temenos Analytics to drive profitability and strategy for 10+ years as it has grown. Focused on attracting and retaining members, and expanding wallet share through an outstanding experience, SASCU is one of the top performing credit unions in Canada.                                                

Temenos Services Partner ClearSight Solutions collaborated with Temenos to implement additional capabilities at the credit union to modernize the way SASCU uses data with Temenos’ industry-leading funds transfer pricing and activity-based costing capabilities. Leveraging the full strength of Temenos’ powerful reporting tools, SASCU can now calculate the profitability of every member and product using industry best practice financial models in order to identify areas for improvement and new product development. This will enable the credit union to improve financial performance and the member experience.

Over the past five years, online banking visits have nearly doubled. A seamless digital member experience is vital to SASCU’s member acquisition and retention goals. Temenos Analytics is core-agnostic, allowing SASCU to run on a third-party core, break down data silos and improve data accuracy, all with a single view.

Barry Delaney, President and Chief Financial Officer, SASCU Financial Group, commented: “Our vision is to be our members’ lifelong partner – to do that, we need to make sure that we are offering them the products and services they need. Advice and member experience is not one-size-fits-all. We continuously seek new ways of doing things, and for that we need to fully leverage our data. Temenos has enabled us to enhance the range of products we offer in order to deliver better choice, value, and a member-centric experience. By expanding our relationship with Temenos and implementing the enhanced functionality, we will empower our employees to better serve our members, and fully leverage data to drive our strategy.” 

Jacqueline White, President, Americas, Temenos, said: “Financial institutions face many challenges such as the acceleration of digital, intense competition, changing account holder behavior, and high operating costs. Continued investment in innovation and technology is vital to success, which is why more than 30 Canadian banks and credit unions partner with Temenos. As a leading provider of banking technology, Temenos enables SASCU to overcome these challenges and create hyper-personalized experiences, ensure higher member satisfaction and increase profits. We’re delighted that, supported by ClearSight’s valuable in-depth business and technical knowledge, SASCU has implemented additional Temenos technology, and we look forward to continuing to support the team as it continues to grow and create meaningful member relationships.”

Michael Zywicki, Partner, ClearSight Solutions, added: “By deploying Temenos Analytics, SASCU demonstrates its understanding that modern tools and data are required to better understand members’ activities and relationship value. ClearSight is excited to be part of this project and to see how SASCU uses the enhanced knowledge of their members to provide them with a differentiated experience.”

AND Digital -- the British tech consultancy accelerating digital delivery for businesses, providing access to tech talent and helping them build products faster -- today announces it has secured £8 million in follow-on funding from BGF, the UK’s most active growth economy investor. This takes total investment in the business to nearly £20 million over the last 12 months. The new funding will enable AND Digital to help more clients address their digital skills shortage by working with them on immediate challenges, and helping them build their own internal capabilities long-term.

BGF’s fresh capital will be used to fast-track expansion in the Benelux region in Europe, as well as further offices (known as ‘clubs’) in Scotland and Manchester. In addition, the company will focus on growing existing clubs in Leeds and London. AND Digital will also invest heavily in increasing its cloud engineering capabilities, aiming to add 300-400 new high-paid digital jobs -- including software engineers, product analysts, and UX/UI specialists -- over the next 12 months.

Founded in 2014 by Paramjit Uppal, CEO, AND Digital seeks to contribute to closing the world’s digital skills gap by providing businesses with digital talent whilst simultaneously helping them accelerate their permanent digital delivery long-term. The company is now one of the largest independent providers of digital services in the UK -- and, increasingly, in Europe. Headquartered in London, the company has 11 clubs across the UK, opening its first overseas club in Amsterdam this summer.

The company’s client portfolio is deliberately diverse, spanning a wide variety of industries and sizes, from large scale enterprises to smaller organisations in both the public and private sector. Clients include industry giants like British Airways, Premier Inn, Costa Coffee, and People’s Postcode Lottery, as well as disruptive startups and scaleups like Gousto (a unicorn) and Splink -- plus government departments including HM Courts & Tribunal Service. 

This variety is a key strategic strength, as it allows for the cross-pollination of lessons, ideas and new approaches. AND Digital’s people benefit from a wide range of experiences and applied challenges, while clients benefit from a fertile mix of ideas beyond their immediate sector. 

Commenting on this news, Paramjit Uppal, CEO, said: “Since our inception, there’s been a pressing need for digital skills to become foundational to every organisation, regardless of sector or size. Now, as Covid-19 persists, we believe even more deeply that every business is now a digital business -- with software and data at its core, powered by talent at the heart. I’m excited for AND Digital’s next chapter, powered by BGF; now, we can make essential investments that will fuel our growth further, enabling countless more companies to scale and grow in bold new ways.”

Alex Snodgrass, investor at BGF, said:  “AND Digital is a brilliant business, leading the pack with its scalable approach to delivering matchless technology services, supporting some of Britain’s biggest enterprises as well as high-growth small businesses that are the backbone of our economy. Having worked with AND Digital as a strategic partner for over a year now, as an investor and board member, we are delighted to support the next stage of the company's growth journey to further expand across the UK and internationally.”

AND Digital currently employs around 800 people. The company’s decentralised model is built from ‘clubs’, each comprising 80-90people. While clubs are largely autonomous -- allowing them to respond quickly to client needs in their portfolio, -- they share a common set of values, culture, and operating playbook. This allows AND Digital to combine the best of startup culture with big company resources. With a strong people-first reputation and focus, the company’s rapid growth has been widely recognised, having been recently listed 24th in the Financial Times Top 1000 fastest growing companies in Europe. The company has also appeared on The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies list for several consecutive years and is currently ranked 10th best company to work for in the UK. 

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the general availability of the industry’s first financial services-ready cloud platform, IBM Cloud for Financial Services, now including the support for Red Hat OpenShift and other cloud-native services. First revealed in 2019, the IBM Cloud for Financial Services was designed in collaboration with Bank of America. Since then, IBM has built a cloud environment capable of supporting the needs of the financial services industry for their mission-critical workload and data protection, with our compliance capabilities and industry-leading security1. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services is designed to help to reduce risk for financial institutions, their partners and FinTechs, and innovate quickly with built-in controls that are adhered to by the entire ecosystem.

In addition to Bank of America, IBM is working with several global financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, Luminor Bank, MUFG and more. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services is supported by an ecosystem of more than 90 collaboration partners including new additions EY and Tata Consultancy Services, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. As part of today’s announcement, SAP has joined the IBM Cloud for Financial Services ecosystem, giving clients a diverse set of applications to deploy via the platform.

“Together with some of the world’s largest banks and leaders in regulatory compliance we are driving a change in cloud adoption for highly regulated industries, aiming to improve the security and compliance posture for the industry,” said Howard Boville, Head of IBM Hybrid Cloud Platform. “With a focus on data security delivered with IBM’s confidential computing and sophisticated encryption capabilities, we aim to reduce risk in the supply chain for banks, insurers and other financial services industry players, and at the same time accelerating the time by which they can drive and consume innovation.”  

Secured Platform Designed for Open Innovation

With the general availability of IBM Cloud for Financial Services, the financial services industry, including technology partners, can now build applications with Red Hat OpenShift, migrate virtual machine workloads, and establish compliance profiles across their workloads– to help support their continuous compliance needs. Financial services institutions can now accelerate their cloud journeys with IBM Cloud for Financial Services’ built-in security and compliance controls for both cloud-native and VMware workloads. 

“We're excited to continue our partnership with IBM to help enable financial institutions and their ecosystem partners to confidently host apps and workloads on the IBM Cloud for Financial Services using VMware infrastructure,” said Fidelma Russo, SVP and GM, Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. “We find the platform helps demonstrate security and readiness for regulatory compliance more efficiently, can bring significant value to the financial services supply chain.” 

IBM Cloud for Financial Services is built on IBM Cloud, the industry’s most secure and open cloud for business, which uses Red Hat OpenShift as its primary Kubernetes environment to manage containerized software across the enterprise, and includes more than 200 API driven, cloud native PaaS services to create new and enhanced cloud-native apps. Developer and ecosystem partners can build and modernize in a secured environment to drive innovation for today’s modern customer.

Safeguard Data with Confidential Computing

To protect data across cloud-native and VMware workloads, IBM Cloud for Financial Services uses IBM’s fourth-generation confidential computing capabilities and 'Keep Your Own Key' encryption delivered via IBM Hyper Protect Services and backed by the highest level of security certification commercially available1. This gives enterprises technology-backed control of their own encryption keys so clients are the only ones who can control access to their data. This same hardware-based assurance enables confidential computing, meaning that financial institutions can process critical data in a secured enclave within a shared cloud environment.

To ease cloud adoption for financial services clients IBM developed IBM Cloud for Financial Services to help address the security and regulatory requirements of the heavily regulated industry. Central to the platform is the IBM Cloud Framework for Financial Services which delivers an industry-informed set of security and compliance controls to operate securely with bank-sensitive data in the public cloud. This was developed with Bank of America and Promontory, a global leader in financial services regulatory compliance consulting, and will continue to be maintained by IBM’s Financial Services Cloud Council, led by Howard Boville, Head of IBM Hybrid Cloud Platform.

SAP Joins IBM Cloud for Financial Services Ecosystem 

IBM Cloud for Financial Services established a growing ecosystem of more than 90 ISVs and SaaS providers to help enable financial services organizations integrate offerings from third-party providers and modernize core applications to improve the customer experience. With the addition of SAP, clients can now quickly engage with the largest enterprise app company across their workloads.

IBM will guide ISV and SaaS providers through each step of the onboarding process, which includes a technical and security assessment, workload migration, and readiness validation designed to address third- and fourth-party risk. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services features a control framework designed to help financial institutions reduce expenses and accelerate revenue growth while fostering a secure and compliant partner ecosystem.

This process supports partner compliance initiatives with the IBM Cloud Framework for Financial Services requirements and efficient onboarding through a systematic approach supported by IBM’s technical, security, and regulatory teams. For more information, visit here. 

 BNP Paribas Drives Innovation with Ecosystem Partners

Based on IBM Cloud technology, the BNP Paribas-dedicated MZR located in Paris will now be equipped with the security and controls to begin onboarding the bank’s workloads and ecosystem partners to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. BNP Paribas already migrated more than 40 line-of-business applications to the platform, with plans to speed up the migration for the years coming. BNP Paribas technology partners are also in the process of working with BNP Paribas to initiate the onboarding process in order to develop solutions and transact in a secure environment. 

“IBM has been our long-time partner in large part for their knowledge of cloud technology, security, including data encryption, and deep industry expertise associated with banking regulations. We’re collaborating with IBM to establish a BNP Paribas-dedicated cloud that is compatible with all the constraints that are imposed by regulators throughout the world,” said Bernard Gavgani, Global CIO, BNP Paribas.

 NYMBUS®, a leading provider of banking technology solutions, today announced a new partnership with data and analytics company Segmint® to enrich Nymbus’ customer-based transaction data across its entire suite of banking products and services.

The content of merchant payment transactions is often cryptic and non-descript, making it difficult to distill into a merchant name. Segmint’s Merchant Payment Cleansing is a critical tool that allows financial institutions to better understand customer transaction behavior and model spend patterns, turning complex and hard to use data into actionable insights for enhancing customer experiences, analytics and modeling investments.

To date, Segmint’s automated process combined with the granularity of human scientific research has scrubbed more than 20 billion customer transactions to deliver merchant name and levels of merchant categorization; this process produces highly accurate results with specificity on the data.

“Translating data towards creating better banking experiences is important to both banks and credit unions,” said Larry McClanahan, Chief Product Officer at Nymbus. “Segmint applies an end-to-end data strategy that aligns with our shared vision of combining the people, process and technology required for meaningful innovation. Bringing their data-driven insights and analytical toolkit to our business operations further validates Nymbus’ commitment to digital transformation and growth on behalf of financial institutions.”

Furthered Adam Craig, President of Segmint, Inc., “Our data cleansing services lead the industry in speed, accuracy, and scale, giving our clients data analytics usage and the ability to model spend patterns. We also add ‘real humans’ to the process which ensures that the quality of our data lives up to the absolute highest standards.”

Nymbus has transformed the traditional banking model at an accelerated speed to keep financial institutions relevant as consumers demand contactless payments, digital platforms and personalized experiences. They are at the forefront of driving financial institutions of all sizes to be relevant by providing innovative solutions to support the entire digital customer journey.

“As Nymbus adds to their growing list of clients, our foundational partnership will be the catalyst in bringing ground-breaking developments around actionable use cases, financial management, and the structured personalized experiences that consumers demand in this new digital era,” said Nate Shahan, Chief Product Officer for Segmint.

For more information, please visit nymbus.com.

About NYMBUS

Nymbus enables banks and credit unions of any size to grow and attract new market segments by delivering a full suite of banking technology, including Loan Origination, CRM and Digital, along with the operational resources to launch and run a new digital bank. Whichever growth path you choose, Nymbus buys back decades of lost time and accelerates your ability to engage and support the entire customer journey.

About Segmint

Segmint empowers financial institutions and financial technology providers to easily understand and leverage data, interact with customers, and measure results. Derived from billions of transactions, Segmint provides the fastest and most accurate customer insights through advanced data tagging, categorization, and contextualization. Our insights enable all functions of an organization to inform strategies including competitive analysis, risk, marketing, customer experience, and product innovation. For more information, visit segmint.com.

Global FinTech Industry Market, is expected to be valued at US$ 382.38 million by 2027, exhibitinga CAGR of 7.05% during the forecast period (2020-2027), ashighlighted in a report published by Coherent Market Insights. 

Fintech industry consists of technology-based financial services and related goods. Companies in the FinTech industry areengaged in providing end-to-end process financial services and solutions toautomate financial transactions over the internet. Services provided by theFintech companies range from traditional banking services such as payment services and fund transfers to technologically advanced banks such as Neo Banks and financial platforms such as Buy Now Pay Later Platform. Moreover, in recent years many variations have occurred in Fintech services, in which tailored technologies are offered for specific functions or sectors such as Insurtech, Regtech, etc.

In addition, the Fintech industry is increasing in emerging economies across the globe such as India and China. For instance, according to Invest India, in the year 2019, the overall transaction value in the Indian FinTech market was US$ 65 bn, and it is expected to increase up to US$ 140 bn by 2023. The growth of the fintech industry in the region is majorly due to high-level banking services penetration due to central government initiatives such as Jan Dhan Yojana, high smartphone penetration, and growing disposable income. The key segments included in the FinTech industry are digital payment, digital lending, banking technology, insurance technology, and wealth technology.

The global FinTech industry analysis was accounted for US$ 208.01 Mn in terms of value in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.05% for the period 2020-2027.

Market Dynamics

Increasing number of investments received by buy now pay later platform providers for geographical expansion, and service offerings, is expected to boost the adoption of buy now pay later platform over the forecast period. For instance, according to Reserve Bank of India, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the investments in Fintech companies in India increased by over 60%, and this fund raising was worth over US$ 647.5 million.   

Moreover, the players in the buy now pay later platform market are focusing on launch of advanced solutions and services, which is expected to attract new customers. For instance, in March 2019, Airbase Inc, a spend management platform provider, has launched modern spend management platform. This spend management platform offers control and visibility over the spend lifecycles such as approval of spending, making payments, and recording of every transactions in accounting software. Moreover, in November 2019, Open Financial Technologies, a neo-banking platform provider, has launched Founder One Card for SMEs & Startups. This card can help organizations to manage their spending from the single platform.

FinTech industry analysis

The spending patterns of people across the globe have also changed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to CMI’s study in 2020, consumers have increased their spending on healthcare products, groceries, and home entertainment systems and reduced their spending on vehicle purchase, shared mobility, fuel, and tours and tourism. Moreover, many small and medium organization are focusing to manage their expenses.

To tackle this situation, many players in the Fintech industry are engaged in launching new solutions and services. For instance, in August 2020, Ramp Business Corporation launched expenses management tools. This software can aid an organization to cut down the overall expenses.

Key Trends and Analysis of the Global fintech industry analysis:

• Among industries, the Retail & e-commerce segment is expected to have the highest growth during the forecast period. Retailers have upgraded their payment devices with advancements in the payment industry. With the rising adoption of digital wallets and mobile payment, retailers are providing payment requests as per the requirements of the customers. Moreover, vendors are also supporting payment through QR (Quick Response) code scanners, POS (Point of Sale), and NFC (Near-field communication) compatible devices. For instance, according to Worldwide Market Reports’ analysis, it is estimated that 1,950 million people purchased goods and services from online platforms and e-retail sales crossed US$ 3.5 trillion in 2019.
• Asia Pacific is expected to exhibit the highest growth during the forecast period owing to increasing initiatives for the cashless transition by the government bodies. For instance, in July 2015, the Digital India program was launched by the Government of India, which is a flagship program of India to transform the country into a digitally empowered country. In the financial year 2017-18, the Finance Minister of India announced a target of US$ 340,000 million digital payment transactions by various platforms.

Competitive Section

Major companies operating in the global fintech industry are: Corporate Card for Spend Management Platform: Air Canada, AirPlus International Ltd, American Express Company, Bank of America Corporation, Citigroup Inc, Diners Club International Ltd, East West Bank (East West Bancorp, Inc.), JP Morgan Chase & Co. Inc, Mastercard Incorporated, NIUM Pte. Ltd, The UPS Store, Inc, Tradeshift.

Spend Management/Spend Analytics Solutions Providers: Advanced, Airbase Inc., Ariba, Inc. (SAP SE), Brex Inc, Coupa Software Inc, GEP, Open Financial Technologies Pvt Ltd, Procurify, Ramp Business Corporation, Sage Intacct, Inc. (The Sage Group PLC), Sievo, SutiSoft, Inc, TOUCHSTONE GROUP PLC, VA Tech Ventures Pvt Limited (Happay).

Metro Bank has launched new invoicing technology for business customers using its mobile app, it announces today.

The new invoicing features offer a range of benefits for the bank’s business customers, including the ability to create, track and manage branded invoices directly from their Metro Bank accounts.

Metro Bank customers can quickly create invoices on the go via the mobile app, accessing lists of their previously saved clients as well as products and services they provide. They will then be able to manage their cash flows more effectively, with the app showing the payment status of each invoice and automatically reconciling their invoices with payments that come into their accounts.

For an added personal touch, customers can easily include their company logo on each invoice. The service is free of charge to all Metro Bank Business Bank Account customers, helping out small businesses who may want to avoid the expense of using an accountant or cloud accounting software. The invoicing features will also be available for customers using online banking later in 2021.

This new invoicing tech is part of a larger collection of digital tools that Metro Bank has launched in the previous 12 months, to help its businesses customers manage their money. In 2020, the bank launched new receipt management technology and a partnership with leading accountancy software provider Clear Books. Since the coronavirus pandemic struck, the bank has also provided £1.5billion in government-backed loans to 36,000 UK businesses.

David Thomasson, Chief Commercial Officer at Metro Bank, comments: “This latest initiative is another string to our bow when it comes to serving the UK’s businesses, after what has been a strange and difficult year for us all. SMEs across the country are crying out for convenient, easy-to-use banking tools that free up precious time to run and grow their businesses. We’re doing our bit to make their lives a little more hassle-free.”