Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that TCS BaNCS™ for Market Infrastructure has been selected by South African Bankers Services Company Proprietary Limited (BankservAfrica) to drive the Rapid Payments Program (RPP), a significant national initiative to introduce a next-generation, easy to use, real-time retail payments system for the growing payments ecosystem in South Africa.

RPP aims to introduce instant payments, usage of proxy resolution for easier addressability, and the ability to initiate payments using a request-to-pay. All these capabilities, along with the expansion of the payments ecosystem to banking and non-banking players, will make it easier for South Africans to make payments instantly. BankservAfrica selected the TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure solution to create a modern, open central payments infrastructure to realize its vision for real-time payments and unlock innovation across multiple industries in the country.

With its unique High Performance Transaction Manager (HpTM) deployed as microservices, the TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure solution will provide Bankserv with an ultra-high performance, low latency and scalable solution to meet the needs of RPP. The solution’s unified clearing approach will consolidate multiple payment rails into a single solution while offering the flexibility and configurability to cater to a differentiated payments infrastructure. Complete ISO 20022 support will enable standardization and the solution’s APIs will allow for easy integration with ecosystems and overlays, expanding the reach of payments in the country.

Additionally, by leveraging TCS’ innovative Quartz™ Smart Ledgers for proxy resolution, built on a de-centralized/ distributed architecture, BankservAfrica’s customers will benefit from a secure, real-time and scalable solution for account information. The Quartz KYC/ AML solution will provide real-time fraud management capabilities to facilitate transaction screening and monitoring.

“Following our rigorous selection process, TCS BaNCS emerged as the natural fit, matching our key criteria for fit-for-purpose and ability to deliver. In addition to having the best technology stack, they have had major success for innovating in India’s payments ecosystem and will no doubt support us in bringing some of this experience to South Africa. This comes at a time where economic recovery is critical and the industry needs to catch up to the digital changes in the economy,” said Jan Pilbauer, CEO, BankservAfrica. “With TCS’ technology, we are well-positioned to expedite the launch of a modern, easy-to-use and efficient payments platform that caters to lower value transactions at an affordable cost for the benefit of all South Africans.”

“TCS BaNCS has seen wide adoption and success in the South African financial services industry, with the country’s top 8 financial institutions and the South African Depository running on our solutions,” said R Vivekanand, Co-Head, TCS Financial Solutions. “As BankservAfrica looks to set new standards for real-time payments and financial inclusion in South Africa, TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure will help create a modern, high-performance, open central payments infrastructure. We are happy to be a partner in this exciting purpose-led transformation and are committed to delivering innovative solutions leveraging TCS BaNCS and Quartz in the country.”

TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure supports clearing and settlement for exchanges, CSDs, CCPs and central banks. Bringing in the unique ability to support multiple markets, currencies, and asset classes on the same platform, it has been a key catalyst in driving transformation in many markets worldwide. The solution's continuous focus on regulatory needs and messaging standards helps customers stay ahead of market changes and drive efficiencies in their businesses.

Tinkoff, one of Europe’s largest and most innovative digital banks, has began using an AI-powered predictive analytics tools, based on combined data from multiple sources, including telecom operators, Russia’s largest credit bureau and Tinkoff itself. 

This is made possible by the oneFactor platform, which uses a Hardware Security Module (HSM) solution in conjunction with Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and processes encrypted information in the perimeter of the data owner, ensuring the safety and confidentiality of client data. Such software architecture and the way it employs big data analytics is unique, making this application the first of its kind in Russia and worldwide. 

In addition to providing greater security, the technological solution embedded in the oneFactor platform ensures that the quality of the combined data is 20-40% higher, compared with using separate data sets. Using this platform for credit-scoring helps to reduce the level of non-performing loans (NPLs), potentially allowing banks to unlock additional profit.

The ML platform allows to confidentially combine and process data from multiple data owners and launch AI services based on this combined data. It trains and utilizes ML algorithms by relying only on encrypted data. Therefore, the platform allows to securely and confidentially combine data sourced across different industries and use it in AI predictive analytics services. 

The hardware impossibility of compromising the initial data is an important feature of this technology, which was confirmed by an independent audit, carried out by companies that connected their data to the oneFactor platform. In addition, the end users of the platform’s services do not have access to the underlying data, which provides greater security. The users receive findings from the ML algorithm after the platform performs calculations completely autonomously. The processed information is not available to third parties, including employees. 

Tinkoff initiated the development of this unique technology and participated as a data set owner alongside the other project participants. The pilot implementation of this project was carried out in late 2019 and early 2020 by Tinkoff and oneFactor, a developer of the secure data monetization platform for banks and telecoms. 

Tinkoff also became the first commercial user of AI services launched by the ML platform. This allowed the bank to significantly increase the accuracy and efficiency of its business processes, including credit scoring, underwriting automation and fraud prevention with the help of the oneFactor platform.

This unique technology does not limit the amount or the nature of the data that can be connected to the oneFactor platform. It enables the launch of AI services in just a few days –  both for the data owners using the platform, as well as for its commercial customers, such as banks, insurance companies, retailers and e-commerce sites.

Evgeny Isupov, Head of Data Monetization at Tinkoff Bank, commented: “The initial goal of the project was to learn how to work effectively with clients with a thin credit file, which we did. In the course of this project, it became clear that to ensure trust between different parties, a platform that implements secure multilateral computing is needed. This technology can also be transferred to other types of banking data distributed between parties. For example, such data can include account operations and transactions. This technology makes it possible to calculate exactly what all parties agreed upon without disclosing the underlying data. The platform also allows a bank to potentially earn additional profit from the synergies created by using data from different owners, and ensures that client data stays confidential.”

Roman Postnikov, CEO and Co-Founder of oneFactor, commented: “I am glad that we were able to address the need to ensure the safety and privacy of customer data for industrial processes using Machine Learning technologies, which are now used by many companies - from banks to retailers – but not always while keeping privacy and security in mind. I’m sure that this will push all market participants to invest in data protection and will be the driver of growth for the entire Artificial Intelligence market.”

• Evershare uses Moneyhub’s market leading Open Banking payments technology to support charities to raise much needed funds during pandemic and beyond
• Through a combination of QR codes and regulated Open Banking payments, people can make socially distanced cashless donations from their mobile banking app directly to the charity’s bank account 
• Charities can save up to 75% in card payment processing fees*.

2020 saw most physical events cancelled and accelerated the UK’s advance to becoming a cashless society. ATM cash withdrawals were around 40% lower in October 2020 compared to October 2019**. As a result, many charities experienced a critical drop in donations as invaluable fundraising activities were stopped. 

To solve this challenge, Bristol based fintech business Evershare has launched a QR-code based donations tool for charities, with payments powered by Moneyhub, the market leading data, intelligence and payments platform. Moneyhub’s Open Banking payments API initiates direct bank to bank payments. This removes the need and cost of traditional card based solutions, enabling charities to keep more of the money gifted.

Moneyhub’s payment API enables donations to be paid directly from the donor’s mobile banking app to a charity’s existing bank account. The technology ensures instant, more secure and cheaper payments, and provides a safe alternative to cash. The service is supported by 22 major UK banks and has automated Gift Aid, boosting donations by an additional 25%. 

According to Statista***, the average donation in 2020 was £24. For that donation, Stripe charges 54p, PayPal 54p and Just Giving 66p. With Evershare, a £24 donation would cost a charity only 17p – making Evershare the most cost efficient cashless payment provider in the UK, supporting charities with saving costs and making the most of all-important donations. Gift aid is automated, boosting donations by 25%.

The Evershare platform can be used for donations of up to £10,000 providing charities with a cost-effective and seamless payments solution at a time when fundraising has never been more important. 

Tim Hegarty, CEO and founder of Evershare.io commented: “Charities are struggling to support their aims and initiatives as annual events last year and into the near future have had to be postponed or cancelled.

“At the same time, COVID has all but destroyed the use of cash, but it has exponentially increased the use of QR-codes. Our partnership with Moneyhub and its Open Banking abilities has allowed us to harness a transformational technology into a one stop solution.

“Reducing costs for charities was one of our number one priorities, and we’re delighted that the direct bank to bank function of Evershare means that we offer 75% cheaper donations than using credits cards or PayPal.”

Samantha Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub commented: “2020 was a turbulent year across the board, and the charitable sector was particularly hard hit by a fall-off in footfall donations and household finances being squeezed by economic uncertainty.

“QR code technology has been around for a while, but as the pandemic prompted a move away from cash and the necessity of socially distanced payments, the ingenuity of QR codes was a ready-made alternative. Combining these capabilities with Moneyhub’s Open Banking payments technology has provided a seamless solution for charities, whilst also establishing Evershare as the cheaper, faster and easier alternative to other payment providers.

 “This partnership demonstrates the versatility of Open Banking technology and the possibilities it can offer. It is our responsibility to support charities during challenging times and we are honoured to partner with Evershare to help the third sector.”

*Calculated using saving difference between Just Giving and Evershare

** https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2020/2020-q4/cash-in-the-time-of-covid

***https://www.statista.com/statistics/292949/average-amount-given-to-charity-per-giver-in-england-uk-y-on-y/ 

SEON, the fraud fighters, today announces the launch of The Great Debate, which will bring together prominent figures in the fraud management industry to establish which three threats will top the agenda for the sector in 2021. The five leading experts will bring a trend each and will compete for its place amongst the top three.

Being held on 23^rd February, 4pm (CEST), SEON decided to create the live debate after witnessing the dramatic digital transformation across many industries in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the coinciding rise in online fraud. With this change in mind, it set out to see the complete picture of the fast-evolving risk landscape and technology that can be used to combat fraud.

Compiling the unique insights and perspectives of the speakers, the short panel debate will give viewers what they need to know about possible emerging risks and how they can best prepare for them. As a result, by the end of the virtual session, there will be a definitive and agreed list of the top three threats to keep an eye on in 2021.

Industry experts taking part in the debate include:

• Andrew Renshaw, VP of Strategy at Feedzai
• Kevin Gosschalk, Founder and CEO of Arkose Labs
• Luke Reynolds, SVP Global Product - Financial Crime at MasterCard
• Meredith Beeston, Consultant FINTRAIL Solutions
• Pallavi Kuppa-Apte, COO of Chargehound

Discussing the event, Bence Jendruszak, COO and Co-Founder of SEON and host for The Great Debate, said: “Over the past months we have been working hard to give insights into the layout of the fraud landscape during the dramatic transformation the world is going through. This debate presents a unique opportunity to find out what industry leaders are experiencing and what continuing change will look like throughout the rest of 2021.”

Formatted to draw on as much of this insider knowledge as possible, the debate will open with an introduction to the guests. It will then shine a spotlight on each one of them to establish their number one prediction. Then, the debate will commence.

Bence added: “We are excited to see what our guests bring to the table as their insights will be hugely beneficial for viewers. With fraud trends changing so quickly, it’s important that the industry stays one step ahead.”

You can register for SEON’s The Great Debate at: [https://seon.io/webinar-sign-up/the-great-debate-webinar-top-3-fraud-predictions-for-2021/].

Yooz is the most powerful AP Automation solution, offering real-time self-learning processing technologies - Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning - and blending the highest automation level with extreme simplicity to provide businesses using Sage software with complete and secure automation of their accounting processes.

Yooz automatically recognises and records financial documents, offering a ‘no touch’ solution for invoice processing - allowing businesses to capture finance documents, update information in real-time, and send invoices directly to the Sage platform to be automatically processed.

Yooz is the only AP automation solution providing access to the invoice image in the Sage platform, resulting in significant time savings, security and productivity increases.

Jerry McGill, Operations Director at GSC Grays, a Yooz customer, said: “With Yooz, the invoices are attached to the email and registered immediately and automatically. This, along with the traceability, audit trail, accurate data and access to the invoice image in Sage, add up to significant time and operational benefits for the business.”

Jen Kim, Finance Manager at Five Guys UK and active user of Yooz AP automation, said: “Automating our invoice process with Yooz is guaranteeing total security and traceability of daily operations on all our UK and Spain restaurants. We have been impressed with how quickly Yooz was integrated with Sage X3, and how its advanced and powerful OCR technology has cut our invoice processing time.”

Yooz’s recent partnership with Sage Intacct has strengthened its technological leadership by offering a unique, cost-effective, simple and smart solution that integrates seamlessly with the Sage Intacct ERP system, allowing Finance and Accounts departments to benefit from a better visibility into payables at any time, make more informed decisions with real-time data, and decrease administrative costs by 70%.

Poojah Dey, Product Marketing Manager at Sage Intacct, added: “We are always looking for the best solutions for Sage Intacct customers to improve their operational performance. Yooz offers a very efficient, agile, simple and quick solution to implement, regardless of the size of companies and volume of invoices.”

ClearBank, the cloud-based clearing bank, today announced it has enabled real-time payments for Manchester Credit Union members. With ClearBank providing direct access to Faster Payments via incuto’s banking technology platform, Manchester Credit Union will be able to offer viable and equitable banking services to the community of Manchester, giving consumers alternative options to pay day lenders.

The economic fallout of the pandemic has left more UK consumers needing quick access to cash. Manchester Credit Union receives approximately 10,000 child benefit payments per week and processing these payments for members used to take up to three days. Direct access to Faster Payments via ClearBank and incuto means these payments are now processed and accessible to members within 15-20 minutes.

The partnership also helps to bring down the cost of accessing Faster Payments to Credit Unions, enabling them the opportunity to offer digital, real-time payments to members and supporting better financial education through instant and accurate account information.

Christine Moore, CEO at Manchester Credit Union, said: “Offering real time payments to our members opens up many new opportunities to us as a credit union. Covid-19 has only strengthened the need for members to have real-time, online access to their accounts and money, so we look forward to now offering this service through ClearBank and incuto.”

Charles McManus, CEO at ClearBank, said: “financial inclusivity has never been so important. Living through the fallout of the pandemic means credit union members need to budget, save and plan and it’s essential they can control their money in real-time. Supporting Manchester Credit Union, who promote responsible lending and are focused on providing services to underserved end consumers, perfectly aligns with our commitment to positively impact the communities in which we live and work.”

Andrew Rabbitt, CEO at incuto, said: “Having access to advanced services is vital for the digital transformation of credit unions. To truly offer a compelling alternative to pay-day lenders, real-time payments are crucial. Manchester Credit Union has been a leading light in the adoption of Faster Payments, enabling their members instant access to cash around the clock.”

Yolt Technology Services (YTS), Europe’s leading open banking provider, has hit another milestone in its journey after being granted a PSD2 license from the FCA. This means YTS can continue with payment services activities that include Payment Initiation Services (PIS) and Account Information Services (AIS) under its own independent FCA license, as opposed to that of shareholder ING – marking a significant growth milestone for the business.  

Since making its first successful API call in 2018, YTS has been providing PIS and AIS services to top financial institutions and ambitious tech businesses across the UK and Europe, operating under ING’s banking licence. Now, after a period of rapid growth, YTS has taken on full responsibility for its operations and obtained its own FCA licence to fully realise the open banking potential in the UK market.

The FCA license will help YTS further its ambition to spread the benefits of open banking far and wide, with YTS now able to extend its regulated services to businesses without a PSD2 licence too. This will typically benefit small businesses that are looking to validate if open banking could elevate their own business.

Regulatory approval also addresses one of the major blockers to widespread adoption of open banking - data security concerns.1 The FCA process thoroughly tests the proposition and scrutinises areas such as compliance, IT security and processes. As an original venture of ING Bank, security is part of YTS’ DNA and it has been able to demonstrate its robust security and risk management controls. Within this framework, YTS can help businesses to seek opportunities in open banking while YTS takes care of the regulated part.

Leon Muis, Chief Business Officer at Yolt Technology Services comments:

“This is a significant milestone and shows just how far we’ve come since launching Yolt Technology Services into the UK market in September 2019. From making the first ever open banking API call for our client, the Yolt app, to surpassing one billion API calls in 2020, to now obtaining our own FCA licence, which will help us realise our ambition to bring the vast benefits of open banking to even more businesses.”

The news comes on the back of sustained momentum across the UK open banking market. Over 2.5 million UK bank customers now connect their accounts to trusted third parties using open banking, up from 1 million in January 20202, and API call volumes are growing 10-15% month-on-month.3 This looks set for continued growth in 2021, with 46% of respondents in a recent YTS survey4 stating they were considering adopting open banking technology, or another service like AIS in the near future.

Payment Initiation Services (PIS) are expected to make significant strides this year, in light of Covid-19, as businesses seek more cost-effective means of accepting payments. One example is the travel industry where there is a critical opportunity to reduce transaction fee costs on high value payments.

Leon Muis, Chief Business Officer at Yolt Technology Services, continues:

“Open banking has enormous potential to revolutionise the way both businesses and customers process and access financial information, ultimately delivering increased efficiency and richer insights for businesses, which is especially pertinent in a post-Covid and post-Brexit world. Our ambition is to drive this revolution across Europe.”

P20 is delighted to announce McKinsey & Company as its first Global Knowledge Partner, focused on supporting P20’s Working Group convened to collaborate and share best practice around the world to reduce criminal transactions and fraud.

This group, led by The Clearing House, has already released an interim report on the global approaches to Payee Verification and the final report alongside another one on authorized fraud will be released in the coming months.

P20 is the Voice of the Global Payments Industry and brings together industry leaders, regulators and government officials to collaborate in harmonizing a global approach and developing solutions to non-competitive issues in the payments industry in the areas of fraud & criminal transactions, cybersecurity and financial inclusion.

P20 regularly releases signature reports on payments and hosts its annual Global Payments Conference attended by industry leaders, politicians, regulators and government officials. Previous participants include:

• Rt Hon David Cameron, former UK Prime Minister

• Governor Nathan Deal, former Governor of Georgia

• Jack Lew, former US Treasury Secretary

• Steven Mnuchin, former US Treasury Secretary

• Rishi Sunak PC MP, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer

• Mary Ng PC MP, Canadian Minister of International Trade

• General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA

• Admiral Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC PC, former UK Security Minister

• Philip Hammond PC, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer

• John Glen MP, UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury

• Kipp Kranbuhl, former US Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions

• George Holding, former US Congressman

• Gwyneth Nurse CB, Director of Financial Services, UK HM Treasury

• Christopher Woolard CBE, former Interim CEO, UK Financial Conduct Authority

Robert Byrne, Senior Partner, McKinsey, said: “We are excited to become P20’s first knowledge partner and to collaborate on these important issues with P20 and its members across the industry. The P20 working group on reducing criminal transactions and fraud is doing vital work and we are excited about the impact this can have in the future."

Duncan Sandys, CEO, P20, said: “I am delighted to welcome McKinsey as the first P20 Global Knowledge Partner and to see the contribution they will bring as we collaborate with players across the industry to develop best practice and solutions for the global payments industry.”

Steve Ledford, SVP, Product & Strategy, The Clearing House, comments: “As Chair of the P20 Fraud & Criminal Transactions Working Group, I look forward to welcoming McKinsey and working together to improve the effectiveness of the industry’s efforts in this area.”