Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced today the acquisition of CyberLynx, a leading Israel-based cybersecurity consultancy firm with a presence in the U.K., Switzerland, and Luxembourg. This acquisition marks Acronis’ third in the past year, which continues the company’s accelerated growth plan.

As a premier provider of security audits, penetration testing, and proprietary training solutions, CyberLynx enjoys a global customer presence built on cutting-edge technical expertise and strong connections with leading forensic suppliers. Acquiring these capabilities will advance Acronis’ mission to deliver world-class cyber protection to organisations around the world.

“Acronis’ acquisition of CyberLynx demonstrates its commitment to strengthening its expertise in cybersecurity,” said Frank Dickson from IDC. “By providing integrated cybersecurity and data protection offerings, Acronis reduces the complexity of implementing cybersecurity and improving IT resiliency. The CyberLynx acquisition will strengthen Acronis’ services offering, further enhancing Acronis’ ability to be an active partner in improving client organisation’s security posture with training and consulting solutions.”

Acronis will integrate CyberLynx’s services into its suite of Acronis Security Services, expanding the training and solutions available to increase an organisation’s security posture. Drawing on CyberLynx’s expertise in threat simulation and analysis, Acronis can better assist managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs) as they protect their clients and serve as the “last line of defence” against the latest threats.

“Adding CyberLynx to our portfolio helps Acronis provide security evaluations services to our partners, empowering them to improve their clients’ protection,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, Acronis’ Founder and CEO. “Working with our security team and global network of Cyber Protection Operation Centres, we will assist MSPs as they transition to MSSPs delivering training in incident response, penetration testing, and forensic analysis.”

With this acquisition, Acronis adds new layers of dynamic security and training services to its community of 50,000 IT channel partners. 

“In advancing its vision of cyber protection, Acronis has been redefining how organisations should be thinking about data protection and cybersecurity against the today’s cyberthreat landscape, and we’re thrilled that the next stage of CyberLynx’s contributions will be as part of such a visionary company,” said Noam Herold, founder and CEO of CyberLynx. “Our team looks forward to collaborating with our new peers to continue strengthening the security of organisations around the world.”

As the company continues its accelerated growth strategy, Acronis plans to consider additional acquisitions that will further enhance its offerings with new technologies and capabilities that address the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection — solving the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges that face today’s data, applications, and systems.

buguroo, the leading provider of customer identification solutions to prevent online fraud for the financial sector, today announced the launch of Policy Manager as part of its latest product update. The new capability of buguroo’s fraudster identification tool, Fraudster Hunter, allows fraud analysts to provide extensive detection and prevention coverage by leveraging previously identified fraud threats. This actionable data can then be used to generate alerts to help stop in-progress fraudsters before they create new accounts, compromise existing accounts, and establish a network of mule accounts.

To comprehensively prevent fraud, banks need to identify and block its perpetrators. Policy Manager allows fraud analysts to employ a comprehensive range of discovered suspicious and fraudulent activity to proactively stop fraudsters. Fraud analysts can then utilise this data to create rules which actively scan all user transactions at every point in the customer journey in order to identify and alert on suspicious activity. In the case of a match, buguroo’s platform automatically triggers alerts notifying the financial institution of potentially fraudulent activity. This allows them to take the appropriate action - ranging from stepping up authentication to terminating the transaction - depending on the level of risk. Analysts can store rules and use them to build complex, customised fraud prevention campaigns to actively scan for any combined set of fraud attacks.

“Fraudster Hunter’s new ability to proactively stop fraud using proven fraud identifiers greatly improves fraud prevention team efficiency,” said Pablo de la Riva, CEO, buguroo. “We’re excited to be able to offer a proactive approach to fraud prevention that is automatic, flexible, and scalable, and that will make a real difference in eliminating fraud and protecting financial institutions and ultimately the consumers they serve.”

Following the launch of USD collections for Amazon in the US, Canada and Mexico earlier this year, financial infrastructure provider Banking Circle is now providing USD collections for sellers across a wider range of online marketplaces.

Available ahead of one of the year’s biggest merchant sales opportunities – the festive season - the extended service gives Payments businesses an additional proposition for their customers. Virtual IBANs can now be used to collect the proceeds of online stores including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Wish, Walmart, Newegg, Souq (Amazon UAE), Jet, Wayfair, Etsy.

Most marketplaces pay out to sellers in the currency of the country in which the seller’s bank account is based. For example, payments from a US marketplace to a UK-based account will be settled in GBP, regardless of whether the merchant has a USD account. This currency exchange incurs the marketplace’s international transfer fee, typically around 4% of the payment value.

Tackling this drain on merchants’ profits, in June 2020 Banking Circle launched a USD Collection solution for Amazon payments to stores based in the Americas (US, Canada, Mexico). Now the bank is providing further support for marketplace sellers with the launch of USD collections across a larger number of online marketplaces at a crucial time in the annual sales calendar.

Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle, commented: “In today’s challenging market, small businesses like those selling through online marketplaces need additional support, and the industry must step up to help these businesses prosper.  Banking Circle is committed to improving SME financial inclusion, and the launch of USD collections on more marketplaces is a valuable part of this commitment. And the new solution gives Payments businesses an important added value for their clients, helping them provide vital support for SMEs around the world.”

Using Banking Circle Virtual IBAN, Payments businesses’ merchants are allocated US bank details, allowing marketplaces to pay in USD and via their ACH payment corridor (the US version of SEPA and BACS). This allows merchants to sell internationally and take control of the foreign exchange and payment method of their store income.

The addition of USD to Banking Circle Virtual IBAN enhances the service Payments businesses can offer their merchants:

• EU marketplaces – Sellers are provided with a DE IBAN and can receive SEPA credits
• UK marketplaces – Sellers are provided with a Sort Code and account number and can receive BACS, CHAPs and Faster Payment credits
• US marketplaces – Sellers are provided with an ABA number and account number and can receive ACH credits

As a multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional banking solution Banking Circle Virtual IBAN negates the need to have several banking relationships and enables foreign exchange and Payments businesses to give their customers their own virtual IBANs. With full transaction transparency, payments acceptance and screening time are reduced.  Banking Circle Virtual IBAN also reduces the likelihood of errors in processing cross border payments.  Plus, reconciliation and settlement times are improved, helping FX and Payments businesses improve the customer experience. End-to-end transparency also reduces AML and KYC risk.

• 17.11.2020 -- 10:30 am

Ziglu celebrates its Mastercard debit card launch by donating the price of a meal [1] to Fareshare every time a customer uses their card for their supermarket shop online and in store, regardless of the size of the transaction until the end of the year. 

Almost 1 million people a week access FareShare food from over 10,000 charities including food banks, children’s clubs and domestic abuse refuges. Just £2 can provide five meals at a children’s breakfast club, while £10 provides food for 24 meals at a community café. 

Submitting to pressure the Government has agreed to fund free school meals this Christmas, but it's not enough - there will still be more than 1.7 million children living in food poverty. 

Alyson Walsh, Commercial Director, FareShare, said: “FareShare are always looking for new ways to partner with businesses that are as passionate about tackling food waste as we are. We’re therefore delighted to receive the support of Ziglu through a scheme that triggers a donation when customers  shop at key food retailers. The combined impact of Ziglu and its customers will help us to unlock more surplus food and provide thousands of nutritious meals across the UK in these increasingly difficult times.”

Commenting on the campaign, Mark Hipperson, Founder & CEO, said: “The Coronavirus crisis has shone a light on hunger and poverty in the UK with more than 8.2 million people struggling to afford to eat. So instead of advertising our card launch we are using those funds to donate the price of a meal [2] every time one of our customers uses their Ziglu card at a supermarket.” 

At this pivotal time, and as consumers are seeking greater financial inclusion, Ziglu’s vision is to offer greater accessibility across all currencies and financial control with secure, digital money management. 

Ziglu is FCA regulated as an E-Money Institution and one of the first digital currency companies to be registered under the 5th Money Laundering Directive for Crypto Assets. With Ziglu, 100% of customers’ total digital assets are insured against cyber-attacks, up to the value of £50,000, and fiat currencies are safeguarded in a segregated account. 

Download the Ziglu app from Google Play and the Apple App Store. Links below:

Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/ZigApple

Google Play Store: https://bit.ly/ZigAndroid

___________________________________

[1] 2019/2020 In 2019/20 FareShare redistributed food at an average cost of 23p per meal. https://fareshare.org.uk/annual-reports/.

[2] 2019/2020 In 2019/20 FareShare redistributed food at an average cost of 23p per meal. https://fareshare.org.uk/annual-reports/.

Ascendant today announced the expansion of their global operations with an entry into the UK market. The financial technology and global payments provider will focus on growing their corporate client base and valued partnerships by offering technology-driven payment solutions that save customers time and money as they navigate a challenging economic environment.

“Having the infrastructure and operational capabilities to expand into the UK market is a significant and strategic milestone for our company,” said Jason Mugford, President and Chief Executive Officer at Ascendant. “We see a strong opportunity to help UK companies protect margins and drive efficiency in the face of renewed lockdowns. I’m proud of our team for placing us in such a strong position that we are able to increase our market footprint.”

Ascendant helps clients build business resilience with payment solutions that identify opportunities for increased operational efficiency. As members of the SWIFT network and Global Payment Initiative (gpi), Ascendant improves payment delivery and provides greater transparency for customers. Ascendant’s World Virtual Accounts also enable businesses to send and receive payments in hundreds of currencies without needing a local area presence.

Research by Velocity Global identified a 25% increase in inquiries from businesses interested in European expansion this year as firms look abroad for revenue and profit growth opportunities. Ascendant will support clients’ international businesses by offering more reliable, efficient, and cost-effective payment solutions that protect against market uncertainty and volatility.

Tony Crivelli, Chief Growth Officer at Ascendant, added: “Our team of experienced professionals are ready to bring our market-leading technology to help UK businesses find unrealized operational efficiencies at a time when they are sorely needed. Our client-driven solutions will help customers build business resilience through these tough economic times and beyond.”

For over a decade, Ascendant has worked with large corporations and over 2,000 financial institutions in North America, providing customized solutions to track and send global payments with ease while protecting customer data. To learn more, please visit www.ascendant.world.

HPD LendScape, a leading international secured lending platform vendor, today announces that key client Allied Irish Bank (AIB) has completed a major technology initiative with the migration of its receivables finance operations to HPD LendScape’s fully cloud-hosted platform.

The migration means that AIB’s entire UK and Republic of Ireland receivables finance platforms are now fully and securely hosted externally by HPD LendScape. Alongside the platform migration, there has also been a major software update to AIB’s LendScape solution, which now offers a one-stop package of receivables finance features, including a new web portal for AIB’s SME customers that enhances user experience and the bank’s ability to offer funding.

This is the first time HPD LendScape has fully hosted in-house the LendScape platform for an existing major bank client, with large banks such as AIB bringing additional security and regulatory requirements to add further levels to any platform migration.

The solution upgrade and migration are aligned to AIB’s wider cloud initiatives in helping to future proof its IT infrastructure. Also, allowing operations to be hosted by HPD LendScape simplifies AIB’s product management, lowers costs, and allows the bank to more easily scale up and upgrade its services to keep it at the leading edge of the market.

The platform migration has been completed within a wider context of the pandemic shifting banks’ priorities regarding digital redevelopment projects, with several global banks undergoing cloud-first transformations in recent months. Even before the current economic crisis, many large banks were   creating efficiencies by outsourcing major applications, and this initiative is an excellent example of achieving this as well as enhancing client services.

AIB is a longstanding HPD LendScape client, with the two companies having worked together since 1988. AIB has run the ‘LendScape’ solution on premises since 2007.

Over half of Irish SMEs surveyed have identified access to credit as their biggest challenge, while they are three times as likely to use bank funding as their UK counterparts. The Central Bank of Ireland identified earlier this year that many Irish SMEs would not be in a position to meet a collective multi-billion Euro liquidity need from their internal resources, existing credit lines and new bank lending without additional support.

Invoice finance, along with wider bank support and government initiatives, is one major route to this liquidity, with total invoice finance volumes in Ireland reaching €28.6bn last year.

David Avery, Head of AIB Commercial Finance, commented: “Completing this exercise is an important initiative for AIB. Having our receivables finance business operating on a hosted cloud platform means our customers now have a better, more seamless way of accessing funding, boosts our efficiency in this area, helps to expand the range of services we can offer and enables us to be more agile. As a longstanding client of HPD LendScape, we were very happy with how the two teams worked together so closely to ensure a smooth delivery, and I look forward to continuing our relationship for many more years to come.”

Kevin Day, CEO of HPD LendScape, said: “We’re thrilled to have worked together with AIB on this platform migration. AIB is one of our most longstanding customers, and this project required extremely close collaboration between the technical and business functions on both sides. Most importantly, this project demonstrates that large scale migration of major bank receivables finance functions can be completed successfully at low risk and will enable AIB to provide improved access to finance for UK and  Irish businesses, which is much needed in these difficult economic times.”

Trustly, the global leader in Online Banking Payments, has appointed London-based intelligent compliance technology provider Napier to enhance and automate transaction monitoring following a period of rapid growth.

Trustly, which provides Online Banking Payments for e-commerce, financial services, gaming, media, telecom and travel, operates across a global payments network. Through Trustly, customers are able to bypass card transactions and pay merchants directly from their bank account in a safe and secure way. The company has grown considerably over the past twelve months, including expansion into Australia and Canada.

Following a significant increase in the number of transactions it was processing, Trustly wanted to enhance and automate monitoring and regulatory compliance. While it had robust processes in place, they were largely manual and took a significant amount of time to manage.

After a competitive selection process, Napier was appointed to provide mission critical, cloud-based transaction monitoring and next-generation anti-money laundering (AML) solutions.

Napier will provide Trustly with transaction monitoring capabilities that are underpinned by machine learning. This will enable the company to build and define rules, simulate test scenarios, and manage cases and workflows through a single self-auditing platform.

Vadim Yurchenko, Head of AML, and Merchant Risk at Trustly, added: “Trustly is processing transactions at an increasingly rapid pace every day. We needed a compliance partner that could deliver a service that was robust and secure enough to keep up, even across borders. Napier’s solution really stood out as one that we could rely upon, leveraging the power of AI in automating our monitoring systems, and ultimately helping us to stay at the very cutting edge of online banking payments.”

Julian Dixon, Napier CEO, said: “This is a mission critical solution for Trustly as a global payments provider with extreme growth. It requires a future-proof platform that not only delivers its requirements for today, but also has a roadmap aligned with its vision to deliver its needs for tomorrow.”

PwC has spun out its proprietary intelligent data capture technology to create a new independent business LIKEZERO (“LIKEZERO”, the “Company”) in a management buy-out backed by Souter Investments, the private equity focussed family investment office and Manfield Partners Limited.

LIKEZERO is a leading provider of proven, next generation intelligent data capture technology for the financial services industry which gives institutions deeper, more effective insight into their counterparty risk profile.

The Company’s unique technology helps banks, financial institutions and other regulated businesses analyse and extract insight and data from within their client contracts, enabling and enhancing their risk management and contract governance, transformation and remediation activities. LIKEZERO enables the automated capture of complex data and then uses proprietary next generation data mining and matching techniques to provide a scalable process for any document type, which operates more quickly and with reduced need for human review.

Established in 2016, LIKEZERO, grew rapidly within PwC under the leadership of Michael Lines, now the Company’s chief executive, under the name of eBAM. LIKEZERO now counts some of the world’s largest financial institutions among its blue-chip client base and will continue to supply its technology to the PwC global network and its other partners. The Company has also established strategic partnerships with market leading data processing players such as AcadiaSoft and IHS Markit.

Michael Lines, Chief Executive of LIKEZERO, said: “This is a hugely exciting moment for our business. In today’s highly complex, unpredictable and regulated world, the ability for financial institutions to understand and manage their counterparty risk has become a critical function. Events such as Brexit, the cessation of Libor and the implementation of new regulations such as the new margin rules for uncleared over-the-counter derivatives, or indeed the impact of a global pandemic, all make the assessment of risk increasingly challenging. I’m convinced that our proprietary software and expertise is the best in the market and there lies the opportunity for us.”

“I would like to thank PwC for all their support and investment over the last four years and look forward to working closely with the team at Souter Investments, PwC and all our partners and clients to deliver on our and their ambitions.”

John Berthinussen, Investment Director at Souter Investments, said: “When speaking to LIKEZERO’s partners and clients we have consistently heard that the Company presents a strong combination of proven technology supported by an experienced team of innovative, entrepreneurial and highly skilled professionals who understand the challenges facing the world’s financial institutions. It is clear to us that LIKEZERO has a compelling and scalable proposition which serves the growing need for financial institutions to better understand and manage their critical risks. We are excited to be working with Mike and his team to accelerate LIKEZERO’s growth.”

Souter Investments and LIKEZERO were advised by Dentons UK and Middle East, with corporate finance support from IMAS Corporate Finance. Diligence services were provided by Crosslake Technologies, Neotas, Customer Plus, WillisTowersWatson, and FWB Park Brown. Osborne Clark advised management.