In July 2020, a group of 16 major European banks from five countries (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) paved the way for the future launch of the European Payments Initiative, by announcing the creation of the EPI Interim Company in Brussels, responsible for initiating the implementation of the joint payment initiative.

The ambition of EPI is to create a unified, innovative pan-European payment solution leveraging Instant Payment/SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), which offers a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet and P2P payments. The solution aims to become a new standard in payments for European consumers and merchants across all types of retail transactions including in-store, online, cash withdrawal and “peer-to-peer”, as an alternative to existing international payment solutions and schemes.

Today, EPI Interim Company is glad to announce that Worldline and Nets [1] are joining as shareholders of the recently created company, as the first third-party acquirers to join the initiative. The joining of third-party acquirers will greatly contribute to the expansion of EPI’s acceptance network on the merchant side in Europe and will allow EPI to build up its own payment ecosystem in the continent. Other well-progressed expansion talks are also ongoing with various players.

Gilles Grapinet, Chairman and CEO of Worldline, commented: “Worldline warmly welcomed the launch of the European Payments Initiative by 16 major banks earlier this year, and consequently gladly accepted their invitation to join the EPI interim Company as the first non-bank acquirer. Almost 20 years after the introduction of the Euro, the moment has come to join forces in a collective effort to provide consumers and merchants with a truly European digital payment solution, carefully designed for the business needs of the 21st century. As Europe’s leading Payment Service Provider for POS and E/M Commerce, Worldline intends to actively contribute to the definition of the necessary success factors for the future roll-out of EPI”.

Bo Nilsson, Group CEO of Nets, commented: “The European Payments Initiative will benefit the entire payments ecosystem in Europe. All stakeholders including issuers, acquirers, merchants and ultimately the end-consumers will gain from a strong and truly European digital payment solution. As a pan-European PayTech leader, and with our origin in one of the most digitised regions in the world, we look forward to becoming a significant contributor to designing and establishing a successful EPI platform. Based on modern payment technologies and capabilities, we will strive to make payments easier for merchants, banks and consumers across Europe”.

EPI Interim Company is also glad to announce the appointment of Dr. Joachim Schmalzl as chairman of the board and Martina Weimert as CEO of the Interim Company.

Dr. Joachim Schmalzl is an executive member of the board of the umbrella organization of the German Savings Banks (Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband). In this position, he is responsible for developing and driving forward the group's Business Model, Digitization, and Payments strategy.

As a partner at Oliver Wyman, Martina has been supporting European banks since the beginning of the initiative and has gained in-depth experience in payments working for 16 years on numerous issuing and acquiring solutions, in European and international markets and for all kinds of players of the payments ecosystem.

[1] Validation by the EPI Board foreseen in the next days.

Today Quantum Employment Design (QED) leader My Digital announces its collaboration with Ecospend Technologies Ltd, a pioneer in digital payment services and Open Finance. The new digital service will provide the disruptive innovation that UK accounting services need for the modern Quantum Workforce ushered in by the changing labour markets of the pandemic. 

Powered by Ecospend’s Open Banking technology, My Digital will provide leading-edge accounting and payroll services to the temporary labour market by offering: 

• Faster payments and instant receipt for work completed with strong authentication & authorisation of payments to heighten security

• Enriched financial data for umbrella companies, recruitment agencies and Professional Employer Organisations with AI-driven data analytics to improve relevance to clients 

• Full GDPR compliance for data handling for My Digital’s clients, who will have complete access to their data and the ability to manage their consent in real-time

The gig economy, which has long been subject to outdated systems and methods, is ripe for dramatic change as Quantum Employment continues to rise, with one in seven workers in the UK on flexible contracts. Ecospend and My Digital’s collaboration is an early and compelling entrant to this exciting new marketplace which is driven by young people with high expectations of digital banking. 

“We are very pleased to be helping My Digital bring authenticated account information rapidly and efficiently to its clients using our Open Banking infrastructure,” said Metin Erkman, founder and CEO of Ecospend. “We see My Digital’s platform leading the way in bringing the benefits of Open Banking to the business community,” Erkman added.

John Whelan, CEO of My Digital, concluded: “Open Banking is a transformational change for businesses, and we are delighted to have partnered with Ecospend to deliver this banking service for those supporting the Quantum Workforce. Our aim is to accelerate the evolution of QED to match the needs of a growing sector which is increasingly digitally savvy.  Our partnership with Ecospend means we are now moving into a higher gear and able to deliver on the expectations for digital banking. The collaboration is fully operational. Ecospend and My Digital are looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership and leading the way in the temporary labour market of the financial services marketplace.”

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today announced an update of Acronis True Image 2021 that incorporates a professional-grade vulnerability assessment tool into the personal cyber protection solution. Individuals and home office users can now scan their operating systems and applications for exploitable vulnerabilities and get recommendations on effectively closing those security gaps.

With an estimated 60% of data breaches involving vulnerabilities for which a patch is available but not applied, and more than 11,000 common vulnerabilities and exploits (CVEs) listed for popularly used software, the ability to quickly find and fix those openings is critical in stopping cybercriminals. Incorporating vulnerability assessments in the same personal solution as Acronis’ advanced antimalware and backup ensures individuals, prosumers, and home office users can significantly reduce the risk of malware.

“During the past five years, the emergence of ransomware as a service means criminals don’t need to be particularly technical – they can just pay for a malicious toolkit that exploits unpatched vulnerabilities,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis. “Users need an easy and efficient way to identify and close those vulnerabilities to ensure their system data and backups are secure. Providing that capability in one solution with antimalware and backup delivers comprehensive cyber protection and tremendous value.”

Given this year’s increased number of remote workers and online shoppers, cybercriminals are expected to particularly aggressive in their attacks during the holiday shopping season. The ability to close any security gaps in their system comes just in time for users taking advantage of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Antimalware that’s VB100 certified

In addition to the vulnerability assessment tool, the autumn update also introduces an enhanced antiransomware engine. The improved engine further strengthens Acronis True Image’s next-gen, full-stack antimalware technology, which recently earned VB100 certification by returning a 99.9% detection rate with zero false-positives in the independent lab’s tests.

Peter Karsai, Head of Testing at Virus Bulletin, said: "We were pleased to welcome Acronis True Image to our endpoint security certification programme and it came as little surprise that it achieved VB100 certification on its debut, the product's business counterpart Acronis Cyber Protect now having earned its third VB100 certification. We look forward to continuing to test both products."

The new vulnerability assessment tool and enhanced ransomware engine are both included in all editions of Acronis True Image 2021, the personal solution in the Acronis Cyber Protect family of products. The advanced antimalware capabilities are included with Advanced and Premium licenses, and offered as a three-month trial with Standard and Essential licenses.

“Increasingly, cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence and other technologies to make their malware more effective and increase the frequency of attacks. Stopping these attacks starts with fixing vulnerabilities so they are denied access to your system,” noted Candid Wüest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis. “Yet even with strong system defenses and an antimalware solution, the reality is an attack can still get through. That’s why cybersecurity without backup – and backup without cybersecurity – is ineffective against today’s threats. Only Acronis True Image delivers the cyber protection today’s users need.”

For additional details about Acronis True Image 2021 and its unique integration of best-in-breed backup and advanced antimalware technology, visit www.acronis.com/en-us/products/true-image/.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced a client pilot program for its new Insurance Information Exchange (IIEX) service, a transformative new platform that will help clients turn massive quantities of insurance data and information across 15.6 million policy records into actionable insights. The pilot program is backed by a consortium of industry-leading insurance carriers and distribution partners who are collaborating with DTCC on the development of the service.

DTCC’s IIEX platform, offered through the firm’s Insurance & Retirement Services business, will support the exchange of policy, producer, and product data, providing clients with an easy, flexible and secure data hub to support the sourcing and consumption of insurance data. Access to in-force policy data in IIEX is currently available in Release 1.0, on-demand through a user interface on the DTCC Portal as well as via an API-enabled platform. Full IIEX API specifications are available on the DTCC API Marketplace, a developer community where users can access turnkey applications and self-service tools to create custom software solutions.

“The new IIEX platform looks great, and we can think of many uses for us as a carrier. We see strong value in the offering, especially in the area of research, where we will be able to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to review the individual data elements on the position file,” stated Joe Procacini, Senior Business Systems Consultant, Retirement Solutions Division, Pacific Life Insurance Company.

“Currently, over 500 firms exchange large amounts of data through DTCC’s insurance products. While effective and efficient, the sheer volume of all this information can make it challenging for clients to pinpoint specific information needed for critical business decisions or for reporting requirements,” said Ann Bergin, Managing Director & General Manager, Wealth Management Services and Asset Services at DTCC. “IIEX is truly revolutionary because it allows clients to easily source and consume their policy, producer and product data – all in a secure, centralized hub. We look forward to working closely with our clients on this exciting pilot program.”

Using IIEX, I&RS clients will be able to generate on-demand analyses and intelligence to promote data-driven decision making and compliance while leveraging industry data standards. 

"DTCC's Insurance Information Exchange is the future of the Insurance and Annuity industry data needs, and will revolutionize what we are able to accomplish,” stated Amy Scott, Department Leader, Annuity Services at Edward Jones.

“Clients participating in our pilot program have implemented IIEX into their organizations’ environments, and are actively sharing their experiences and ideas with us,” said Barb Smith, Executive Director, Insurance & Retirement Services at DTCC. “We are excited about the possibilities of the IIEX platform, and we greatly value the feedback and insight gained through the pilot program.”

With pilot clients now leveraging IIEX in the production environment, DTCC will make the service fully available to all members beginning in January 2021. 

Talos, a technology provider for the institutional trading of digital assets, today announced that order flow from six OTC liquidity providers has been integrated into its end-to-end trading platform. These partners are: Alameda Research, B2C2, Cumberland, Galaxy Digital, Genesis, and Hehmeyer. With the addition of these liquidity partners to the Talos platform, which already includes connectivity to top cryptocurrency exchanges, institutional investment firms and broker-dealers can seamlessly and simultaneously access the vast majority of digital asset liquidity. 

"OTC liquidity providers play a crucial role in the digital assets trading landscape and account for a large portion of the global institutional traded volume," said Anton Katz, co-founder and CEO of Talos. "Access to these sources of liquidity is essential for price discovery and best execution for institutional investors and service providers alike as they increase their adoption of this new asset class. The addition of these top OTC liquidity partners to our platform allows us to connect our clients with an extensive network of liquidity in real-time and provides them with true best execution capabilities."

“We see tremendous opportunity in the platform created by Talos, which offers the sophisticated trading capabilities today’s institutional investors demand as they deepen their involvement in this asset class,” said Paul Famighetti, Cumberland’s Global Head of OTC Technology. “Since its founding, Cumberland has been focused on bringing deep liquidity and a world-class experience to our counterparties, and Talos’ platform is a powerful tool to advance this work.”

“We are pleased to now offer our competitive OTC pricing and continuous two-way markets to Talos’ institutional clients. With over-the-counter markets now dwarfing exchange trading, industry participants are increasingly demanding the bank-grade trading experience B2C2 is best known for,” said Rob Catalanello, CEO and President of B2C2 USA.

Chris Hehmeyer, CEO of global market maker Heymeyer, added: “For us, the partnership with Talos is incredibly exciting and really sets the foundation for future growth. Our skills are complimentary, allowing us both to do what we do best, and we firmly believe working together will provide institutional investors with vast opportunity in the digital asset space.”

By tapping into this extensive liquidity network, Talos’ customers can seamlessly interact with exchanges or OTC liquidity providers of their choice, while still maintaining direct relationships with their liquidity providers. The platform supports several modes of execution, including RFQ/RFS (Request for Quote/Stream) and ESP (Executable Streaming Prices), while also allowing its clients to use sophisticated execution algorithms.

Publicly launched at the beginning of October after a year of live trading with clients, the Talos platform is built exclusively to support end-to-end trading of digital assets – from onboarding to price discovery, from execution through settlement – including bilateral access to liquidity providers. The platform provides solutions to meet the needs of investors and financial service providers, including prime brokers, OTC liquidity providers, lenders, custodians, and exchanges. Clients access the Talos platform via API or GUI, and it is highly configurable to their unique workflow requirements.

The first virtual Africa Tech Festival took place 09-12 November in a year marked by challenge and change.  As a physical event, taking place in Cape Town each year for more than two decades, the Africa Tech Festival, incorporating AfricaCom, AfricaTech, AHUB, and other co-located events, has always attracted a global audience of digital infrastructure and emerging technology leaders.  In 2020, despite being hosted completely online, it was no different, with registered attendees of over 12 000.

Tom Cuthell, Event Director of Africa Tech Festival at Informa Tech, observed: “At the beginning of the year, we had of course, planned for our 23^rd physical event on the ground in Cape Town.  COVID-19 changed that and we were faced with many unknowns, including a sense of timing as to when to make the final decision to go fully virtual.

“The ultimate success of the virtual Africa Tech Festival ratified our decision to continue, and the favourable outcome can be attributed to the exceptional content, a line-up of outstanding speakers, an array of top exhibitors and the support of numerous industry leading sponsors and partners, including the South African Government.  Bringing them all together on a digital platform that allows all participants the opportunity to interact with each other, review the content live, or recap at will, and that asks questions in real-time, has proved to be a winning formula.”

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the saying goes, and whilst the devastating fall-out of COVID-19 and its impact topped many discussions, the pandemic has served to accelerate the importance for the continent to dive into digital and its rapid adoption. As expected, connecting the next billion people dominated the majority of the dialogue over the four days – from infrastructure roll-out (and what that looks like), to skills, education and the tools needed to enable digital empowerment.  Also high on the agenda, how collaboration, co-operation and partnership are going to be the winning recipe that will forge Africa’s economic revival and sustainability for the future.

Africa’s Digital Decade – what the future holds

A fascinating panel discussion on the last day of the festival, set the scene for what Africa can expect in the next ten years.  Off a COVID-constrained base in 2020, the next few years are going to be even more challenging with rising unemployment across the continent, contraction of GDP across the continent and ensuing recessions.  COVID has also decreased foreign direct investment across Africa, meaning that investment from within the continent is going to need to grow.

The backbone of any economic revival is the roll-out of telecommunications infrastructure across the continent and the updated regulatory frameworks that will engender this, along with the inclusion of more women and girls in the narrative.

Unchained melody

Once Africa’s connectivity is assured, the type of industries that are predicted to lead the commerce charge across the continent , include fintech and the payment space - Bitcoin and blockchain key among them, including the notion of individuals having agency over their own data and using Bitcoin to monetise their own information.  The Fintech sector is predicted to launch Africa’s first true tech Unicorn… watch this space.

Smart energy and internet-related everything, will of course, make a play for the region too.

Speaking of data, Cuthell shared that this year’s virtual Africa Tech Festival saw more than 55 000 messages exchanged between participants.  The desire to connect was patent and with the content still available on the platform, until 12^th February 2021, it is anticipated that there will be more networking to come.

In conclusion, the first virtual Africa Tech Festival actualised a renewed energy and commitment from all involved, to Africa’s economic resilience and growth.

In case you missed it, here are some of the key speakers who were at Africa Tech Festival in 2020:

• Siya Kolisi, co-Founder, Kolisi Foundation
• Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Republic of South Africa
• Shameel Joosub, Group CEO, Vodacom
• Lillian Barnard, Managing Director, Microsoft South Africa
• Charles Molapisi, Group Chief Technology & Information Officer, MTN
• Alioune Ndiaye, CEO, Middle East and Africa, Orange
• Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Republic of South Africa
• Peter Ndegwa, Chief Executive Officer, Safaricom
• Yolanda Cuba, Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer, MTN
• Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Deputy Chair, Presidential 4IR Commission
• Alice Munyua, Director, Africa Innovation and Public Policy, Mozilla
• Nenzeni Babs Duma, CIO, WesBank
• Nitin Gajria, Director - Sub-Saharan Africa, Google
• Izabela Milewska, Digital Skills Global Leader, Amazon Web Services
• Bob Skinstad, Former Springbok Captain and World Cup Winner, Partner, Knife Capital
• Sandra La Bella, Group CIO, Alexandre Forbes
• Emmanuel Lubanzadio, Head of Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa, Twitter
• Kojo Boakye, Director, Africa Public Policy, Facebook
• Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director at International Trade Centre
• Dejan Kastelic, Group Chief Technology Officer, Vodacom.

To register for the platform to view and recap on the sessions, please click here.

The Liquid Exchange has today announced that it will integrate the FIO Protocol for transactions, recording data and listed its token on its exchange. The integration of FIO protocol will be completed by December and enable over 700,000 Liquid cryptocurrency traders to participate in the blockchain ecosystem without needing complex public addresses.

FIO Protocol integration into Liquid.com’s trading platform deposit and withdrawal interface will formally take place on December 10th, 2020. The decision aims to make crypto products more accessible and easy to use for retail and institutional investors interested in blockchain technology but have concerns regarding the complexity of storing assets that require passphrases and complex addresses.

Luke Stokes, Managing Director, FIO, said: "The listing of FIO tokens on the Liquid Exchange and integration of its protocol further increases exposure to the technical benefits of secure, easy-to-use cryptocurrency addresses. Cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchain infrastructure have a long way to go before reaching the levels of compliance and security that traditional Financial Services offer, however integration of FIO Protocol is a clear towards that direction."

Exchange users will be able to deposit crypto into their account by sending to their Liquid-assigned FIO Address from any other FIO-enabled wallet or exchange.  FIO Protocol will enable traders to withdraw crypto from Liquid simply by sending to the FIO Address of any FIO-enabled exchange or wallets used by millions of individuals.

Ukheshe, Africa’s leading digital fintech platform provider, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Oltio.

Oltio developed the digital payments platform that supports Masterpass, Mastercard’s QR payment service in South Africa and enables people to safely pay for a wide variety of purchases with their bank card by scanning a QR code with their mobile phone.

Ukheshe has an established partnership with Mastercard, as it is a participant in Mastercard’s Accelerate programme – including Start Path and Fintech Express. The programme offers an access point to tap into Mastercard’s technology, data, expertise and global network of corporates and fintechs to help scale its operations globally.

Ukheshe will continue to provide the same support to the banks and other service providers that currently offer Masterpass, ensuring business continuity with no impact to consumers or merchants. The deal is also set to strengthen Ukheshe’s existing partnership with Mastercard, combining its ability to solve local market pain points with Mastercard’s global scale, technology and payment expertise.

Clayton Hayward, CEO, Ukheshe, says Oltio is a natural fit for the company given its proven track record of developing mobile-centred solutions and the fintech’s strong existing partnership with Mastercard: “Digital-first solutions for consumers remain a key priority. By enabling different customer segments as part of our ongoing partnership with Mastercard, Ukheshe is well placed to continue providing fintechs, telcos and banks with payment solutions, and services that will further deepen financial inclusion in South Africa.”

“Today’s news builds on the momentum of our QR work in South Africa and deepens our collaboration with fintechs,” says Suzanne Morel, country manager at Mastercard, South Africa. “We look forward to combining our global network with Ukheshe’s local understanding of consumer and SME pain points to provide consumers and businesses with safe and seamless payment experiences.”

The use of QR codes in South Africa complements the extensive investment in contactless payments to provide merchants of all sizes – from large retailers chains to individual shop owners and street vendors – a fast, secure and inexpensive way to accept payments. Currently, more than 300,000 merchants and billers accept Masterpass.

The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year.  

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Finicity, a leading North American provider of real-time access to financial data and insights.

“Today is a great milestone as we continue to build out the solutions that deliver on the potential of open banking,” said Craig Vosburg, president, North America, Mastercard. “We now turn our focus on bringing these two talented teams together. That starts with our shared commitment to consumer-centric data practices to create more value for consumers and businesses from the information in their account and give them more control in how that data is used.”

With a direct connection to the North American banking, lending and wealth management ecosystem, Finicity adds to Mastercard’s commitment to be a one-stop partner for banks, merchants, fintechs and governments. These connections are supported through next generation open banking APIs and clear consumer approvals, both best-in-class data management practices.