Cybertonica, the advanced fraud and risk management provider, has appointed Carl Clump to its Board to lend his strategic and managerial expertise to the expanding business. Cybertonica’s innovative fraud and risk management system is changing the game in the fintech and fraud space.

Carl is a legendary entrepreneur in the fraud and payments sectors and has led several fintech companies to triple-figure growth, market leadership and successful exit. He was behind one of the world’s first Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud prevention platforms, Retail Decisions (ReD plc).

Since retiring from ReD, Carl has been in high demand as a Non-Executive director and is currently a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management and its Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship. He has over 30 years’ experience building organisations from the ground up in a number of sectors including petroleum and fintech.

The move to strengthen international expertise in the Board and the strategy team comes as Cybertonica enters the new year with ambitious growth plans in the UK and beyond. The company’s portfolio of innovative core solutions, including behavioural biometrics, makes it well-positioned to take advantage of the growth in the eCommerce, neobanking, and payment tech spaces. Juniper Research predicts global online payment fraud will grow by more than 50% from 2020 to reach more than $25 billion per year by 2024 – so fresh and innovative approaches like Cybertonica’s are clearly needed.

The recent launch of eComm360 Fraud Prevention by Cybertonica, which brings enterprise-level anti-fraud solutions to Shopify merchants, is already showing strong customer uptake.

Joshua Bower-Saul, Cybertonica’s CEO, noted: “We are very excited to bring Carl’s expertise to the table. His vast experience in running an international business in the payments space will add great value to the current board, composed of other strong tech industry players. Carl comes with a wealth of practical growth hacks from his own startup journeys, as well as a great network.”

Carl Clump commented: “Joshua and Jane Butler, Chair of the Board, have given me a tremendous opportunity back in the fintech world. Cybertonica reminds me very much of ReD in its early years. It has a talented group of people with a real customer focus, backed by an exceptional and flexible technology platform. This combination of talent, technology and focus historically allowed us to protect many of the world’s largest companies in fields such as Retail, Travel, Mobile Telephony and Card Issuing. Cybertonica has the same characteristics and is now on the launchpad for sustained growth.” 

Jane Butler, Chair of the Board, added: “I am personally delighted to be able to collaborate with Carl to see Cybertonica bring its world-beating solutions and core technologies to even more sectors fighting online fraud. With Carl’s presence and advice brought to bear the Company is positioned to achieve growth at rates faster than the market.”

Leading payments issuer processor, Global Processing Services (GPS), announces its sponsorship of findexable’s Fintech Diversity Radar, the world’s first global platform gathering progressive data to understand women’s impact and contribution to the digital economy.

Despite being one of the world’s most sizeable economic forces - controlling 32% of global wealth with a wealth pool projected to grow to $93 trillion by 2023 - women remain largely overlooked and underserved by fintechs, most of which do not use sex-disaggregated data to inform their product design decisions. In the UK alone, a mere 17% of fintech companies have female founders and women account for less than 30% of the sector’s overall workforce, according to Innovate Finance. 

As fintech will play a central role in the post-COVID economy in expanding access to financial services, including supporting those most affected in society and creating a more diverse and sustainable marketplace, now is the time to reassess the state of the industry and its existing diversity disparities.

The Fintech Diversity Radar will build the world’s first dataset on gender diversity in global fintech to enable scaling companies and incumbent peers to benchmark progress and identify measurable steps to improve. Starting with a real-time global market map and report, and culminating in the launch of a digital scorecard, the initiative will:  

• Map the global fintech landscape to identify how and where women are employed and assess progress
• Advance the employment of women in fintech globally by identifying practical actions to improve gender balance
• Build a roadmap for the advancement of female entrepreneurship in advanced and high growth markets
• Identify the cause and effect of success in serving female customers
• Highlight which countries, regions and firms are out-performing – to analyse the reasons for success

Denise Gee, Founder and Managing Director of findexable, added: “Gender diversity makes business sense – a more diverse workforce equals more success and improvement is predicated on the ability to measure accurately. To realise the promise of fintech to everyone in society, we need data that is relevant, up-to-date and validated, which is why we have launched the Diversity Radar.”

Already taking important strides with its diversity agenda, findexable’s Fintech Diversity Radar partner, GPS, is committed to HM Treasury’s ‘Women in Finance Charter’, an initiative to help build a more balanced and fairer fintech industry by supporting the progression of women into senior roles. Led by Chief Executive Officer, Joanne Dewar, the company deploys a pioneering People strategy which provides equal opportunities for everyone to thrive, with 40% of its senior management made up of women. Adding to its existing progress, the Diversity Radar will allow GPS to be part of a cutting-edge approach to analysing and improving diversity in the workplace.

Commenting on its involvement in the radar, Annette Evans, Vice President, People and Culture at GPS, said: “At GPS, we are continually on the lookout for how we can improve our diversity and inclusion strategies. Providing women with the opportunities to succeed in their professional and personal lives has always been embedded in our culture and our goal is to help secure an equal future for our female employees, customers, and the communities we serve. Working with a company like findexable on this ground-breaking research will allow us to deepen our understanding of the role women are playing within the fintech ecosystem.”

Gee continued: “We couldn’t conduct the research on our own, and we are so thankful for the support of our experts and partners, including GPS. This is a company that has embedded diversity into the very fabric of the organisation, and its ongoing successes are a prime example of what is possible with a culture that encourages diversity.”

To find out more about findexable’s Fintech Diversity Radar, visit: https://findexable.com/diversity-radar/

To find out more about GPS, visit: https://www.globalprocessing.com/

Entrust, a leading provider of trusted identities, payments and data protection, has announced a partnership with Netcetera, a leading 3 Domain Secure (3DS) provider, to help financial institutions combat fraud associated with card-not-present (CNP) transactions.

The combined solution allows issuing banks to perform real-time risk analysis of online transactions based on a wide range of factors, and then to challenge the user with Strong Customer Authentication if a CNP transaction surpasses the risk threshold.

The 3DS specification was developed by the card payment industry to strengthen security without adversely impacting the consumer experience. It brings together advanced transaction fraud risk analysis with modern authentication mechanisms such as mobile, while also supporting traditional mechanisms like physical tokens. The Netcetera partnership enhances this capability and works with the Entrust Identity portfolio – in the cloud and on premise. The joint solution enhances confidence in transactions and meets PSD2 compliance criteria for payments in Europe.

“The combination of our technologies enables consumers, merchants and banks to rest easier knowing that potentially fraudulent transactions are being spotted and challenged,” said Christian Waldvogel, Management Team Secure Digital Payments at Netcetera. “By partnering with Entrust, we are supporting the global shift to ecommerce channels by improving confidence in online purchases with a high performing and reliable system.”

“With global e-commerce transaction growth expected to surpass 20 percent in 2020, there has been a corresponding surge in digital payments adding to the number of fraudulent CNP transactions,” said James LaPalme, Vice President and General Manager, Identity Solutions at Entrust. “By partnering with Netcetera, we can more effectively stop fraud before it happens by providing step-up authentication and give consumers the trust they need when at the time of conducting the transaction.”

Entrust Identity offers a range of 3DS and PSD2 compliant authenticators, allowing organizations to provide consumers the best authentication experience possible. Authenticators include Mobile Smart Credential, Mobile Smart Token, Challenge Response Token, Camera Token, and SMS DL OTP.

Klarna, the leading global payments and shopping service, today announces a strategic collaboration with Ingenico (part of Worldline, the European leader in the payment and transactional services industry, since late 2020) to make Klarna’s online payment solutions accessible to even more European merchants. 

The expansion builds on an initial successful rollout in the Nordics, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Now merchants across Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom will also have the ability to implement Klarna’s seamless checkout experience and full payment suite*. Klarna’s payment solutions allow merchants to offer their consumers more flexibility, transparency and convenience when shopping online. Through the partnership, Worldline and Klarna will be complementing each other’s services, while expanding Klarna’s potential merchant base and global consumer brand. Shoppers will continue to enjoy a smooth, user friendly checkout experience when paying via Klarna.

“By including Klarna into the Worldline payment platform, we pursue our mission to support merchants on way to efficient growth. Several studies indicate that almost half of the customers abandon their purchase if their preferred payment method is not accepted. Offering a broader choice of popular payment methods helps the merchants increase their conversion rates,” highlights Frederic Loos, CMO, Merchant Services at Worldline.

“We are excited to partner with Worldline and become a true growth partner for their merchants. The last year has seen unprecedented change in retail with e-commerce becoming the increasingly dominant engagement channel for merchants across markets. Together with Worldline, we help merchants to adapt to that change and offer a better online shopping experience for consumers. Klarna’s payment solutions enable merchants to meet changing consumer demands, while ultimately unlocking growth, and driving customer satisfaction and loyalty,” says Alex Marsh, Head of Klarna UK.

Sopra Banking Software, leading partner of over 1,500 financial institutions across the world, announces the launch of its Marketplace aiming at accelerating modernisation and platformisation of banking and financial systems. This new Marketplace consolidates all offers provided by its partner FinTech. It will enable banks and financial institutions to leverage innovative use cases, combined with the power and richness of Sopra Banking Software’s products.

A powerful ecosystem supporting banking and finance of the future.

By launching this marketplace Sopra Banking Software is clearly demonstrating its aim to deliver modernisation and digital transformation for banks and financial institutions. Convinced that the future of banking and finance lies in the strength of a diverse ecosystem, Sopra Banking Software is combining its business expertise and technological strength with the innovative and digital capacities of FinTech. In doing so, it is boosting its platformisation strategy already strengthened with the acquisition of Fidor and its Marketplace at the start of the year.

Banks and financial institutions can thus leverage the full digitalisation chain and use cases linked to Open Banking, security, customer knowledge and engagement, data management and visualisation, documentary management, and even electronic signature. Sopra Banking Software aims to continue developing innovative use cases for its customers across the world, and thus enable partner FinTech to access new, either business or geographical, markets.

A scalable Marketplace that adapts to business requirements

Today, Sopra Banking Software’s new Marketplace integrates solutions from numerous FinTech partners who are recognised in their domain; this panel that will constantly evolve in order to adapt to banking and financial usages and the challenges that lie ahead for business in the sector.

In order to provide the best possible experience and offer to banks and financial institutions, Sopra Banking Software selects FinTech based on several criteria: added value for customers, reliability, and the speed at which their services are implemented and integrated into Sopra Banking Software’s platforms (Sopra Banking Platform et Sopra Financing Platform).

Guillaume Blot, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer - Senior Vice-President at Sopra Banking Software, explained: “To differentiate themselves banks must offer their customers interconnected, integrated and invisible financial services. This insight is driving all of Sopra Banking Software’s teams who are working every day to build a technological ecosystem combining our robust solutions with open and specialised banking technologies provided by increasingly innovative FinTech. We are combining this ecosystem in our new Marketplace so that our customers can develop unique customer experiences”.

To access Sopra Banking Software’s Marketplace : https://www.soprabanking.com/marketplace/.

Metapraxis, the financial analytics technology firm, announces the appointment of Carmen Hula as Chief Financial Officer, following the retirement of Andrew Mosely.

As CFO, Carmen will lead the finance team, responsible for accounting, financial planning and analysis, as well as tax and investor relations.

Carmen is a certified chartered accountant and brings a wealth of experience in technology and finance to Metapraxis. She has previously held the head of finance role at PrePay Solutions, a pioneering VC backed Fintech business, before spending eleven years in the finance team at HSBC. More recently, Carmen has worked with start-up focused Act 5 Ventures and as CFO Constellation AI, while providing mentoring at Hult International Business School and NatWest.

Simon Bittlestone, CEO at Metapraxis, comments: “Carmen’s experience in large company finance organisations as well as SaaS technology businesses will be huge assets to Metapraxis. We have seen continued growth over the last year despite the impact of Covid-19 and I am confident that Carmen will provide strong leadership to support us in continuing this. I’m very pleased to welcome her to the team.”

Carmen Hula, incoming CFO at Metapraxis, comments: “More than anything, 2020 has proved the value of financial planning and technology in helping businesses successfully navigate periods of economic recession. This is at the heart of what Metapraxis helps its clients to do and I truly believe in its purpose. As the business enters a period of growth, I’m looking forward to maintaining the momentum and leading the team through 2021 and beyond.”

Simon Bittlestone adds: “As we welcome Carmen, we must also say goodbye to Andrew. On behalf of our Board of Directors and the whole company I would like to thank him for his many dedicated years of service. He has been a great support to the wider leadership team, particularly over the last decade as the business has grown and expanded internationally and we wish Andrew the very best for his retirement.”

Leading Georgian bank BasisBank announced its partnership with banking technology provider Backbase to power its digital transformation and deliver hyper-personalized experiences to Retail and SME customers. Backbase’s world-leading Engagement Banking platform will enable BasisBank to expand its retail banking offering by providing unique mobile experiences to its customers – all while enhancing its ability to innovate at speed and scale.    

BasisBank will be implementing Backbase’s Engagement Banking platform – a comprehensive suite of pre-built technology solutions allowing institutions to own and orchestrate every step of the customer journey – to create a modern, mobile-first banking experience that will enable it to tailor and personalise services for customers. Through the platform, customers will be able to seamlessly onboard within a few clicks and have access to all their banking needs in one place. Already a strong player in the corporate banking space, BasisBank expects the partnership with Backbase to facilitate a compelling, digital-first experience for retail customers, as well.

In addition to enhancing the customer experience, Backbase’s technology will help BasisBank break down business siloes and access specialized technical expertise, in turn encouraging increased digital innovation and reducing the time to market with new solutions. The modern architecture of the platform is the first step in BasisBank’s process of becoming a one-stop-shop for their customers’ financial needs.

Rati Dvaladze, Chief Operating Officer at BasisBank, said: “We are confident that Backbase is the right partner to help us achieve our ambition of challenging the status quo in Georgia’s financial services industry. Customers crave a more user-friendly, intuitive, and centralized banking experience. Through Backbase, we are well-positioned to digitally innovate and provide a personalised service to our clients and, in the process, become a trusted partner in their day-to-day success.”

Pierre-Alexandre Boulay, Head of CEE at Backbase, adds: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with BasisBank. We’ve seen first-hand their commitment to their customers and supporting the Georgian economy as a whole, and are excited to see how they leverage our Engagement Banking platform to accelerate their digital transformation journey and create a best-in-class banking experience for their customers.”

AIO - Verified Financial Identity, a Fintech company based in Tel Aviv, and Finastra, today announced that they have been awarded a USD $1 million grant from the Board of Governors of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation for the co-development of a digital customer onboarding solution. Developed by AIO and available on Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud open developer platform and app marketplace, the solution automates the process of establishing the financial identity of a loan applicant in order to meet Know Your Customer (KYC)/Know Your Business (KYB) regulations. 

The project received the largest available grant through the BIRD Foundation following a thorough review by BIRD-appointed evaluators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Israel Innovation Authority. Driving factors that led to the grant being awarded to AIO and Finastra include the creation of an innovative solution that solves real-world problems and the ease with which financial institutions can leverage that technology.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the BIRD Foundation for a solution that will fundamentally change how financial institutions assess loan applications, bringing tremendous efficiency to what is often an inefficient process,” says Yoram Bechler, Co-founder and CEO at AIO. “In the world of COVID-19 there is also heightened demand and urgency for business loans. Our solution enables financial institutions to try to meet that demand, but also make lending decisions that are compliant, timely and cost-efficient. Working with Finastra, and making our solution available on its FusionFabric.cloud platform, we are able to reach more financial institutions, giving them the ability to leverage our customer-friendly mobile and web platform to meet KYC/KYB requirements and assess risk in just a few clicks.”

Current manual processes related to loan origination can be costly and time consuming. AIO’s solution, which integrates with Finastra’s Total Lending suite, speeds up customer onboarding by up to 80% and saves costs by securely automating the collection and verification of digital financial documents. Patented AIO technology maintains data collection with the customer, automatically verifying digital documents. These are then supplied digitally to the financial institution through Finastra’s Total Lending.

“This grant from the BIRD Foundation lends credence to a compelling solution, and also to our vision for open collaboration in financial services,” said Mike Salfity, Global Head of Finastra Product Strategy and Head of North America Community Markets, Finastra. “We recognize the exciting offerings coming out of startups like AIO, and are committed to providing access to that innovation through FusionFabric.cloud. At the same time, we are able to extend the fintech’s reach into the banking ecosystem. With this generous grant, AIO and Finastra will be able to better deliver an even more robust and impactful solution.”

The BIRD Foundation promotes collaborations between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technological fields for the purpose of joint product development. In addition to providing grants for approved projects, the Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions.

“We are proud to support the project between AIO and Finastra to improve loan origination and reduce time and costs to both loan applicants and financial institutions,” said Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation. “The BIRD Foundation will continue to support projects which contain high level of innovation that address present needs.”

Several large multinational banks in the U.S. and Europe are currently piloting AIO’s financial identity verification solution, with more expected to roll out in the coming months.