Tradeteq, the global hub for trade finance distribution, has today announced its collaboration with Microsoft. The collaboration enables the build-out of a market infrastructure which allows financial institutions to efficiently run trade finance distribution workflow processes while complying efficiently with data residency requirements. Tradeteq will be providing its platform through Microsoft’s flexible cloud platform Azure with access to over 60 regions globally. 

Through utilising Tradeteq’s cloud service, banks will be able to hold, maintain and access data with ease. This will improve access, data resonance and security for institutions utilising Tradeteq’s services. With distributing trade finance assets being a longstanding challenge for banks, having improved access to a product that helps overcome the data issues faced from different jurisdictions will be a boon to distribution.

Tradeteq has also become a partner in Microsoft’s reseller program, which allows the company to efficiently connect and collaborate with potential new clients.

Christoph Gugelmann, CEO of Tradeteq, comments: “Connectivity is a vital component to improving access for banks in trade finance. By using a cloud-based product, financial institutions can improve their ability to connect, trade and distribute trade finance assets – regardless of their location. Connectivity also extends to our role in the reseller programme, allowing us to be readily available for other banks keen to take advantage of our service.”

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA), the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, has announced that current board member and audit committee chair, Mike Kourey, will become Chief Financial Officer in March 2021. As part of this transition, Kourey will step down from the audit committee, which he has chaired since 2015, and resign from Okta’s board when he assumes the CFO role.

Since early 2019, Kourey has served as the CFO of Vlocity Inc., a cloud software company that was acquired by Salesforce in June 2020. Prior to this, he served as CFO of Medallia, Inc., a cloud-based customer experience management company, and Partner at Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm. Kourey also spent over 20 years in a variety of roles at Polycom, Inc., a communications solutions company, most recently as CFO.

Kourey will succeed Bill Losch, who will be retiring after serving as CFO at Okta since 2013. Losch will continue in his current role through early March 2021 and the filing of Okta’s Form 10-K, and will remain an advisor to Okta through the end of the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2022. Kourey will report directly to Todd McKinnon, Okta’s Chief Executive Officer and co-founder.

“I want to thank Bill for his invaluable contribution to Okta from our early years to helping set the course to achieve over $1 billion in revenue next year,” said McKinnon. “He’s been a fantastic leader, partner, and friend, and we are all going to sincerely miss him. We’re excited for the next chapter for Bill and wish him nothing but the best in his retirement next year.

“We couldn’t ask for a better successor than Mike, who has been an instrumental member of our board as audit committee chair over the past five years,” continued McKinnon. “Mike’s career in technology, both as an executive leader and board member, is second to none. He brings decades of experience in scaling companies, which will be key as we position Okta to become the next iconic technology company.”

The news comes following the announcement of Okta’s strong third quarter results which saw revenue grow 42% year-over-year and subscription revenue grow 43% year-over-year, increasing the company’s fiscal year 2021 outlook for both revenue and profitability.

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is to extend the Global LEI System to create a fully digitized LEI service capable of enabling instant and automated identity verification between counterparties operating across all industry sectors, globally.

Following a series of 2020 research initiatives, GLEIF today invites stakeholders from across the digital economy to engage in a cross industry development program to create an ecosystem and credential governance framework, together with a technical supporting infrastructure, for a verifiable LEI (vLEI), a digitally verifiable credential containing the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).

By embedding new and existing LEIs in Verifiable Credentials [1], the vLEI will create a cryptographically secure chain of trust that replaces today’s manual processes required to access and confirm an entity’s LEI data.

The vLEI will give government organizations, companies and other legal entities worldwide the capacity to use non-repudiable identification data pertaining to their legal status, ownership structure and authorized representatives in a growing number of digital business activities, such as approving business transactions and contracts, onboarding customers, transacting within import/export and supply chain business networks and submitting regulatory filings and reports.

“The global LEI system is unique in its capacity to provide regulated and standardized global identities for legal entities everywhere,” comments Stephan Wolf, CEO, GLEIF. “Our next step is to secure the process of presenting and verifying LEI data digitally, so it can be used across the digital economy in corporate ID use-cases. This year, GLEIF has begun exploring technical approaches across a number of industry sectors, with the aim of identifying an open and universally interoperable model. We’re excited to now formalize the vLEI development program and invite broader engagement to help us unlock the power of the LEI for all industry sectors around the world.”

Drummond Reed, Steering Committee Member, Trust-over-IP-Foundation, comments: “The vLEI has the potential to become one of the most valuable digital credentials in the world because it is the hallmark of authenticity for a legal entity of any kind. The family of digital credentials in the GLEIF vLEI Governance Framework can serve as a chain of trust for anyone needing to verify the legal identity of an organization or of a person legally acting on that organization’s behalf. The demand this will create for LEIs — and the impact it will have on adoption of self-sovereign identity — cannot be overestimated. It will be a sea change for digital trust infrastructure that will benefit every country, company, and citizen in the world.”

GLEIF is already engaged in research partnerships and technical trials with stakeholders in pharmaceutical, healthcare, telecom, automotive and financial services sectors. A range of blockchain, self-sovereign identity and other decentralized key management propositions are currently being explored.

Chris Ingrao, Chief Strategy Officer of Lumedic, a Tegria company, a US-based Health Information Logistics firm piloting the vLEI, comments: “Lumedic recently launched the Lumedic Exchange, the first healthcare ecosystem of its kind dedicated solely to community-driven standards development for patient-intermediated information exchange using verifiable credentials. It is attracting a multinational membership from a broad array of industries and needs to ensure all members are fully registered legal entities with strong accountability. The vLEI will enable us to standardize on a digital credential attesting to that status from all Lumedic Exchange members providing both efficiency and assurance.”

Steve Meizanis, Global Product Head of Symbology and LEI Services at Bloomberg LP, comments: “Bloomberg’s two vLEI proof-of-concept trials signal a clear opportunity to broaden the usage and increase adoption of the LEIs in digitized corporate activities. It also increases the scope for new and existing LEI issuers to offer vLEI services, strengthening the Global LEI System as a whole.”

GLEIF has collaborated with Deloitte to identify that demand generation for the vLEI will occur through a combination of existing LEI use-cases, including regulatory mandates for financial reporting, growth market segments in relation to new use-cases, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, and the broader digital economy, including strong anticipated growth in the area of self-sovereign Identity-enabled business ecosystems.

Derek Ryan, Partner, Deloitte, comments: “This is an exciting time for the self-sovereign identity industry. Universally trusted digital identities among both businesses and individuals are set to play a central role in our fast-evolving digital economy. Until now the absence of a trusted governance authority able to link digital identities with real world legal entities has presented an industry-wide barrier to innovation. GLEIF is very well positioned to overcome this barrier by extending the LEI as a critical component of the global digital economy. The potential value that will be unlocked by the vLEI is substantial, as it enables government authorities and identity service providers to embrace efficient new digital platforms, create new digital ecosystems and to end the reliance on repetitive manual identity verification steps which account for high annual costs across the global economy.”

[1] ‘Verifiable Credential’ is defined by the Worldwide Web Consortium’s Verifiable Credentials Working Group here.

Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies and leaders,  announces new signatories Atom bank, Co-operative Bank, Nationwide Building Society, TSB, and Virgin Money to the Fintech Pledge, joining existing signatories Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Santander.

The Fintech Pledge is an initiative of the Fintech Delivery Panel, supported by HM Treasury (HMT), to accelerate the growth of the UK’s fintech sector. A world-first, the Fintech Pledge sets standards for the establishment of efficient and transparent commercial partnerships between financial institutions and fintech firms. 

The key principles of the Fintech Pledge:

• Clear guidance on the onboarding process through a dedicated online landing page
• Clarity on which stage a potential partner has reached within the onboarding process, as well as providing a named contact and feedback
• Principles and practices of the Pledge implemented within six months of signing

Commercial partnerships provide an excellent opportunity to drive fintech growth, providing financial institutions with the latest innovations, and enabling fintechs to scale their propositions quickly across significant customer bases to the benefit of the end consumer. 

The first signatories have started implementing the principles, with positive effects of the commitment already reported by some fintechs.

Veronique Barbosa, Co-founder/COO of Flux and Fintech Delivery Panel member, said: “On Flux’s journey to becoming the industry standard for digitising item-level receipt data, it’s encouraging to see important innovation being supported by synergies between government, fintechs and large corporates. The Fintech Pledge is a great vehicle for ensuring this happens and we are looking forward to seeing the continued impact of the Fintech Pledge on the UK's financial ecosystem.”

The Fintech Delivery Panel is also today sharing more details on its future areas of focus. Beyond its work facilitating efficient and effective partnerships, these also include: enabling fintech solutions to financial inclusion challenges and driving diversity in the fintech sector. The Fintech Delivery Panel seeks to drive practical change on these issues, using the expertise and resources of members to address roadblocks and aid tangible opportunities for fintech growth.

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: “The UK is a leading global destination to start, grow and invest in fintech - and partnerships between small innovative firms and established financial institutions will be important to maintain our leadership. I am pleased to see five more banks and building societies committing to develop these valuable partnerships by signing up to the Fintech Pledge.”

Gerard Grech, Chief Executive, Tech Nation, said: “The UK is a global leader in fintech, with UK fintechs raising £4bn in 2019, and being home to 44% of Europe’s fintech unicorns, but we need to keep building on this to remain at the cutting edge. 

As the UK embarks on a new relationship with the EU and forms new partnerships with other countries, fintech will be key to our international success. Initiatives like the Fintech Strategic Review, of which Tech Nation is one of the stream leads, and the Fintech Pledge, illustrate the UK’s forward thinking approach to innovation, and a desire to maintain an ecosystem that supports the growth of this valuable sector.”

Eileen Burbidge, Chair of the Fintech Delivery Panel and Partner, Passion Capital, said: "It's fantastic to welcome new institutions to this important Fintech Delivery Panel initiative. The banks' commitment to transparency and effective collaboration with fintechs will help drive even more successful partnerships and innovation, keeping the UK at the forefront of financial innovation.”

Victoria Roberts, Director of Fintech Delivery Panel at Tech Nation, said: “Fintechs and financial institutions working together effectively offers an exciting opportunity to scale the newest innovations. I’m thrilled to see wider uptake of the Fintech Pledge principles, putting communication and collaboration at the heart of these important partnerships.

Patrick Eltridge, Chief Operating Officer, Nationwide Building Society, said: “We are delighted to sign the Fintech Pledge, underlining our approach to working with start-ups and technology companies. As a building society we know we can achieve more together through creating meaningful partnerships with organisations which reflect our values. At the heart of our mutual ethos is a collaborative approach and we believe this is how we can best help organisations we work with grow and thrive. Through partnering with some of the most exciting Fintechs we can continue to be at the forefront of developing innovative products and services that will benefit our members both now and into the future.”

Suresh Viswanathan, Chief Operating Officer, TSB, said: “Collaborating with FinTechs is at the core of TSB’s digital first offer as we innovate to help boost money confidence for our customers. We’re pleased to sign the Fintech Pledge, working closely with FinTech industry to meet the changing needs of our customers.”

Edward Twiddy, Chief Customer Officer at Atom bank, said: “The UK fintech industry is a world leader in the process of transforming financial services into an industry fit for the future. Partnership is at the heart of how better customer outcomes are being created by fintechs large and small, and we’re delighted to be signing the Fintech Pledge to codify what this means for us as a business. As a member of the Fintech Delivery Panel we are also committed to industry transformation and to securing the productivity gains and competitive edge for UK fintech so that as a nation we continue to command a leading role in innovation, investment and export markets.”

Sean Gilchrist, Chief Digital Officer at The Co-operative Bank, comments: “We know the value working with fintechs can add, not only to how we enhance our business operations and processes but also to directly benefit our customers and their experience of banking with us. Signing the Fintech Pledge shows our commitment to collaborate with UK fintechs to deliver some great innovation for our customers in a way that is in keeping with the values and ethical policy that underpins how we do business. 

We want to further build on the good work we’ve achieved this year with neighbouring fintechs in the North West and continue to develop strong relationships with like minded organisations, so we can work together to help them achieve their goals, and also progress and accelerate our plans for change and transformation that will make a real difference to our business and for our customers.”

Fraser Ingram, Group Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Money, said: “Working with FinTechs is central to our ambition to disrupt the status quo in banking; helping us create an ecosystem of innovative and compelling services for customers. Signing this pledge is a signal of our commitment to supporting and advancing the UK’s world-leading FinTech sector.”  

About the Fintech Delivery Panel

Established in 2017 by Tech Nation at the request of HM Treasury, and refreshed in 2020, the Fintech Delivery Panel is made up of leaders across the UK fintech ecosystem as well as the five largest banks in the UK. The Fintech Delivery Panel was established to enhance the UK’s position as a global leader in the future of financial services. The Panel develops collaborative initiatives to strengthen the UK fintech ecosystem, help fintechs achieve scale, and create an innovative environment for further developments to the benefit of consumers. See the Fintech Delivery Panel areas of focus published today here and download the Fintech Pledge here.

Further Details on the Fintech Pledge:

Tech Nation will be holding a webinar on the 15th of December explaining the origins, details and ongoing implementation of the Fintech Pledge. This is an opportunity to gain insights into how banks and fintechs can work together to build successful partnerships. The webinar will be followed by an online networking event; a great chance to meet the banks and fintechs putting this into practice. Sign up here.

BPC, the leading provider of digital payment solutions, has unveiled its new mobile and digital banking app solution, designed to provide banks and fintechs with a comprehensive set of features that go beyond traditional banking. The app solution offers ease of use and fast implementation for banks that wish to accelerate their digital transformation and fintechs that need to go to market fast.

Developed in house, the new app ultimately fulfils BPC’s promise to ‘bridge real life to digital’ in a contactless manner for its customers. In response to the digital banking boom during the pandemic, the app is built to serve all segments from retail customers and merchants, to agents in both mature and emerging markets, allowing them to quickly access the digital economy. The app comes with white label UX templates for institutions to style and brand the user interface as well as configurable process flows, making for a true end-to-end digital experience.

BPC’s SmartVista app is built to give financial institutions the tools to boost customer engagement, drive customer loyalty and generate new revenue streams from cross and up selling. 

Key features of the new SmartVista mobile banking app include:

1. Chatbot with Speech-to-Text Features: enabling customers to securely transact voicing queries or give instructions to the app, creating conversational, frictionless interactions that boost engagement.

2. Personal Financial Management: taken to the next level with management on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, using personalised alerts and limits, built to offer personalised control of financial health for customers.

3. QR Code Payments: available to customers and merchants, offering static and dynamic QR support and the ability to handle multiple QR codes, a feature in rising demand since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. A unified merchant and agent banking app: which creates a dual experience, from accepting payments for retail purchases to offering agent banking services on behalf of a financial institution.

5. Trading and Investment: delivered through open APIs, to integrate with any third-party investment app or local exchange house to gather trade information within one single banking app. Customers can grow their earning capabilities, while providing new revenue generation activity for financial institutions.

6. Goals and Loyalty: help customers make the most out of their money. Customer goals such as saving for a dream car, house, education or holiday destination are smartly blended with loyalty features, making it possible for financial institutions to expand their business models and expose partners at the right time and location, while staying relevant to the customer and their needs.

Oleg Patsiansky – Head of Digital Banking at BPC, commented: “A free card and a bank account are not sufficient to attract new customers. Relevance is the new ‘killer app’ and we are proud of our new mobile banking app, which has been inspired by our eclectic experience in serving tier one banks to fintechs in over ninety countries. The app blends all of our expertise in banking, mobility and commerce into a contextual experience wrapped around each individual customer and his or her private/business needs. Today’s modern technology makes it possible to create contextual and thus relevant experiences for BPC clients and their end users around the world.”

Find out more about BPC’s SmartVista digital banking app solution here.

iProov, world leaders in secure biometric authentication technology, has today announced a record year of growth across the company. In the 12 months since November 2019, iProov has more than doubled its customer base, more than doubled its revenue and increased its global team by +29%. The number of people using iProov to authenticate themselves with their bank, government or other organization worldwide increased by +549%, making 2020 a record year for the company.

Since the start of the year, iProov has added a range of major customers to its portfolio, which now spans government, financial services, travel, social networks and healthcare. A partnership with the NHS is enabling users to create their NHS login remotely and securely, while a partnership with Eurostar, backed by the Department for Transport, will provide contactless travel entry for passengers.

iProov expanded into new markets in 2020, with the opening of the company’s first U.S. headquarters and an office in Singapore. iProov also increased the number of partners in its partner program by +178% in 2020, integrating its authentication services with other leading identity providers and onboarding specialists.

2020 also saw Singapore introduce facial verification in its national identity platform SingPass, powered by iProov. In September, iProov unveiled the details of the partnership, which enables millions of Singapore residents to access hundreds of digital services online using iProov’s facial verification technology.

Andrew Bud, iProov Founder and CEO, commented: “In this difficult year, iProov has earned the trust of some of the world’s most demanding organizations. By assuring the Genuine Presence™ of many millions of people worldwide, we have helped protect institutions and the public against an unprecedented wave of fraud in a uniquely inclusive way. The whole iProov team has risen magnificently to the challenge of this rapid growth.”

“In 2021, we expect to see digital identity become a big focus globally for governments and businesses whose customers will remain online in the aftermath of the pandemic. Genuine Presence Assurance – the ability to confirm a person verifying is the right person, a real person and authenticating in real time – will be a necessity”.

Highlights from 2020 include:

Customer announcements

• NHS – iProov announced its technology had been deployed to verify users signing up to NHS login across Android and iOS, enabling users to create an NHS login remotely, securely and conveniently and removing the need for manual in-person verifications. Over 60,000 UK citizens verified themselves in the first week of April.
• Singapore NDI program – Four million Singapore residents can now access over 500 digital services online using facial authentication implemented by iProov and Toppan Ecquaria.
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security - The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) awarded $198,407 in phase 4 funding to iProov to test and pilot its solution, developed over the first three Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) project phases, in a full-scale U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operational environment.
• Eurostar – iProov announced a world first partnership with Eurostar to provide contactless travel entry for customers via an optional facial biometric corridor, funded by the Department for Transport.
• Knab – iProov announced its technology was deployed by Dutch challenger bank Knab to provide an effortless online biometric experience to its half a million customers.
• bkynd and bloomd – To help support the Coronavirus crisis, iProov offered its services free of charge to start-ups launching social networks to connect individuals looking for assistance or companionship.

Expansion

• U.S. launch – iProov opened a North American headquarters in Maryland to spearhead growth in the United States.
• iSOC launch – iProov launched the iProov Security Operations Centre (iSOC), a pioneering global threat intelligence system for biometric assurance across all regions.
• Acuant - Acuant, a leader in identity verification solutions, integrated iProov into its trusted identity platform.
• Evernym – iProov partnered with SSI market leader Evernym to issue, accept and verify portable digital identity credentials in technology, government, nonprofit, finance, insurance and healthcare sectors.
• Northrow – iProov partnered with NorthRow to provide simplified onboarding solutions to property companies, financial institutions, law firms and accountants.
• IDV Pacific - iProov announced its partnership with Australian identity verification specialists IDV Pacific Pty Ltd to extend its services into Australia and New Zealand.
• TRUSTDOCK - iProov partnered with Japanese eKYC specialists, TRUSTDOCK, to bring Genuine Presence Assurance to Asia-Pacific.
• Mvine – iProov announced a partnership with Mvine to work on a digital passport to assist with the management of COVID-19.

Product updates

• iProov for Kiosk – iProov launched its kiosk capability to enable customers to bring biometric authentication to physical locations.
• iProov Web – iProov launched its authentication technology on web browsers as well as mobile apps, bringing greater inclusivity and accessibility and opening up services to a wider audience.
• iProov Flexible Authentication - iProov launched an integrated authentication package that includes both Genuine Presence Assurance and Liveness Assurance. This allows organizations to authenticate online users according to the risk profile of the interaction.

Awards and accolades

• Deloitte’s 2020 UK Technology Fast 50 – iProov was recognised by Deloitte as the 5^th fastest growing technology company in the UK, securing a top five spot with a 6351% growth rate in a four-year period.
• New Years’ Honours List and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering – iProov Founder and CEO Andrew Bud was recognised by the Queen in the New Year Honours List with a CBE for services to export, shortly before also being made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
• Gartner Cool Vendor - iProov was named as a Cool Vendor for Identity Access Management and Fraud Detection by Gartner.
• Best Authentication Technology, SC Awards – iProov was recognised by the SC Awards and awarded Best Authentication Technology. iProov's Genuine Presence Assurance Technology was described as “game changing for customers and companies looking for speed with security”.
• Finovate Best of Show, for third year running - iProov was voted Finovate Best of Show for the third year in a row.
• Gartner Market Guide for User Authentication 2020 – iProov was recognised as a Representative Vendor in the Biometric Authentication category.

IOWArocks, the global marketplace for data, technology and services today welcomes Alqami into its rapidly expanding community of data providers. Alqami is a data intermediary, collaborating with a global partner network matching alternative data providers with data consumers.

Alqami specialises in sourcing large, esoteric, datasets and finding investment managers who would realise value in having this information edge. They focus on quality over quantity with its datasets ensuring to maintain a boutique service that prioritises relationships with both supply and demand clients. Some examples of their datasets include; unsecured loan application data, defense manufacturing data, business travel and tourism data and many more – visit the IOWArocks marketplace for more information.

Samantha Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Alqami, commented: “Our mission is to provide high quality and seamless access to alternative and hard to find data sources. IOWArocks is a unique marketplace which not only provides a global shop window but is also backed by their robust and proven, data distribution capabilities – this is key. In today’s highly competitive, global industry, it is crucial we partner with firms who have similar goals and values to ours. We are actively selling alternative data to our buy-side network and see huge promise for IOWArocks to expand our distribution reach. We are delighted to be part of this game changing community.”

Paul Watmough, Founder and CEO of IOWArocks, concluded: “We have been working with Alqami for quite some time and are excited about Samantha and her teams’ approach. Providing access to these unique, alternative datasets is a great addition to our marketplace and we are already receiving inbound enquiries from our data consumer community. We are very grateful for the enthusiastic support we have been receiving from our data provider network and warmly welcome Team Alqami on board. It’s been a busy few months and showing no signs of slowing up, we wouldn’t have it any other way!”

Pleo, the fintech empowering businesses with a smart spending and expense management solution, today announces Google Pay functionality for its 13,000+ European and UK customers. Pleo’s customers will be able to immediately benefit from Google’s seamless contactless payment method, giving employees increased flexibility when making business purchases.

Other secure Google Pay features that Pleo users will benefit from include:

• Encryption of important payment information which is then stored on secure servers.

• Virtual account numbers to protect sensitive user data and card details.

• A contactless payment method - removing the need to handle cash or touch buttons amid Covid-19 concerns.

The new, co-branded service will be rolled out to customers across Pleo’s six markets of operation in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, German, Ireland, Spain.

Coming just a few months after Pleo’s integration of Apple Pay, customers will now have even more flexibility when it comes to contactless business payment methods - with Google and Android users now able to sync their Pleo card to their preferred devices. Direct integration with the Pleo app will also mean managers and team leaders will have real-time transparency of business spending, no matter the device used.

Niccolo Perrera, Pleo co-Founder and CTO, comments: “As an Android user, I am particularly thrilled to be releasing this new functionality to our customer base. Following on from our Apple Pay announcement this year, the integration of Google Pay means that the Pleo service can be used seamlessly by up to 90% of all our customers. This is a huge step forward and marks another milestone in the movement towards Pleo becoming a fully-digitised business spending solution. In short, it’s never been easier to pay with Pleo.”

The Google and Apple Pay integrations come at a time when Pleo is helping its customers to transition away from legacy approaches to spend and expense management, which - according to its recent survey - can see employees spending up to 11.5 hours a month processing. These features, and Pleo’s recently announced ‘Pocket’ functionality, are helping to bridge the gap between analogue and digital expense processes.

In May 2019 Pleo closed a $56M Series B round led by New York-based growth fund Stripes. Its cards are now used by over 13,000 customers across six European countries, with the company supported by strategic and technical partnerships with Mastercard, J.P. Morgan and Danske Bank. 

The prize-linked savings app EverUp has chosen the Payments as a Service FinTech Modulr to power its payments infrastructure, including access to Faster Payments. 

The partnership means that EverUp will be able to offer its customers the UK’s first digitally native, prize linked money savings app, when it launches in January next year. EverUp hopes to rival other well-known saving vehicles with cash prizes such as NS&I’s Premium Bonds monthly prize draw.

EverUp customers will earn virtual coins based on how much they are saving and as they perform other actions, such as signing up, signing in, levelling up and inviting friends to join. The more they save, the more they will be rewarded with coins that can be used to play games, for the chance to win tax-free cash prizes. Customers never use their own money to play and can withdraw their  funds at any time, with no fees.

Modulr is one of the few non-bank payment service providers to become a directly connected participant of the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme, and it holds an account at the Bank of England so that funds are settled directly and held securely; providing reliability for EverUp and security for its customers, who have the assurance of knowing their money is safeguarded.

Giuseppe Caltabiano, CEO and Co-founder at EverUp, said: “While the financial industry has rolled out budgeting Apps and saving features that automate setting money aside, it can be hard for savers to give up short-term satisfaction derived from everyday spending. We replace delayed gratification with instant gratification by embedding instant games, lotteries and gamification into a novel, prize-linked money saving app.”

“Modulr’s fully scalable platform allows us to not only deliver on our customer promises now, but also supports our business ambitions, as we look to expand the product suite by adding innovative new prize-linked products and scale across Europe.”

Myles Stephenson, CEO at Modulr, said: “We are excited to be partnering with EverUp. Its innovative approach to saving will make it more rewarding for many and will enable other non-saving and unbanked households to take that first important step to saving. Unlike the traditional method of saving money, which takes time to yield results, a prize-linked experience instantly rewards efforts, powered by Modulr’s 24/7 payments infrastructure. We look forward to collaborating with EverUp to drive even further innovation in financial services.”

Through Modulr’s API-driven platform, EverUp can easily create individual money accounts* for each of its customers so that they can start funding their account and playing for free, straight away. Faster, real-time payment disbursements allow any winnings to be distributed automatically, while real-time payment notifications enable customers to track their savings progress and see credits against their accounts, instantly.

Modulr’s out of the box payments plumbing has given EverUp the ability to build easily and launch quickly, as well as the scope to scale faster - all from one powerful API platform.