Surecomp, the leading provider of global trade finance solutions for banks and corporates, today announced the addition of another new fintech partner to its Marketplace platform. Through open API connectivity, customers can now access Windward which is a leading fintech provider of maritime predictive intelligence for trade, finance and compliance. 

Developed with the simple aim of bringing together the industry’s best-of-breed solutions for a holistic digital trade finance experience, Surecomp Marketplace customers can benefit from Windward to significantly enhance their capabilities with regards to mitigating risk whilst enhancing operational performance for transaction screening, investigating and auditing, relating to the 90% of global trade which touches the ocean.

Providing Know Your Vessel (KYV) and sanction screening to understand which entities are safe for business, advanced artificial intelligence combined with scientific data to predict behavior patterns and trends, and risk mitigation and reporting for compliance, Windward is a key addition to the digital evolution of trade finance processing.

“Risk-based compliance is of ever-increasing importance in the financial sector, requiring the industry to know everyone involved in a transaction that may trigger sanctions. Therefore, implementing new digital solutions is key,” explains Issey Ende, VP Sales, Windward. “The integration of Windward predictive intelligence into Surecomp’s fintech Marketplace will provide customers with the leading technological AI-driven solution to improve business operations, mitigate risk and employ forward-thinking business practices.” 

“Our Marketplace community is growing from strength to strength,” states Tsafrir Attar, Surecomp’s VP of Digitization. “We are so excited to announce the addition of Windward, which is truly next generation maritime technology that adds critical value and should be accessible to everyone in the world of global trade.”

Volante Technologies, the global leader in cloud payments and financial messaging, today announced strategic additions to its leadership team with senior hires in customer success and solution delivery. This follows Volante’s recent raise of $35m in growth capital from a consortium of investors led by Wavecrest Growth Partners, including BNY Mellon, Citi, Poste Italiane, and Visa Ventures.

Debbie Payne, SVP Global Customer Success, brings over thirty years of experience leading global support, delivery, and account management teams at fintechs of all sizes, including Fiserv, CheckFree, HelioGraph, Mercator/IBM, and Fidelity. At Volante, Debbie will have oversight of all aspects of customer success, ensuring the growth of resilient customer relationships based on high-quality collaboration.

Payne said: “I specialize in building high performing teams with processes centered on ensuring customer success. Quality is extremely important to me, as I know it is vital to over one hundred financial institutions that depend on Volante’s solutions and cloud-native payments services. I am passionately committed to listening to and acting on customer feedback to improve their experience. I am excited to be joining Volante at this sharp inflection point in the company’s growth, and in the evolution of the financial services industry.”

Buddhadeb Das Gupta, SVP Payment Solutions, comes to Volante with over three decades of experience as a technology professional and entrepreneur. His track record includes managing large business unit P&Ls and global customer engagements at Oracle Financial Services, serving as COO of Nous Infosystems, and co-founding Postero, an AI-based solution for workforce management. Prior to joining Volante, Das Gupta was EVP of Product at JMR Infotech, a digital core banking innovator.

At Volante, Das Gupta will lead the company’s solution delivery and implementation teams worldwide. Reflecting on his role, Das Gupta said: “Our blue-chip financial institution customers rely on us to process trillions of dollars in value and millions of transactions every day, so that they can in turn focus on their clients. I am energized about ensuring that every single one of our customers has the smoothest, highest-quality delivery and implementation experience available in the market today.”

Vijay Oddiraju, CEO, Volante Technologies said: “Serving as a trusted partner to our customers has always been part of Volante’s DNA. We genuinely believe that our success is predicated on our customers’ success. In the spirit of continuing this tradition, I am delighted to welcome Debbie and Buddhadeb and their deep domain expertise, experience, and customer-first attitude to the Volante leadership team.”

Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), a global leader in cloud communications technology helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, has announced a strategic partnership with UK-based data and software specialists, Software Solved. Vonage will embed its Video API into Software Solved’s innovative SurveyorTech solution to power comprehensive surveys remotely.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented limitations have been placed on in-person meetings and visits to physical locations, presenting a significant challenge to conducting surveys. In response, Software Solved will embed the Vonage Video API into its new SurveyorTech solution.

Software Solved secured funding from Innovate-UK and will use the Vonage Video API to develop remote video streaming as an enhancement to SurveyorTech. The technology enables professionals across a multitude of sectors including Insurance, Risk Management and Property Maintenance & Building services, to undertake comprehensive remote or on-premise surveys capturing images, annotations and notes as they go.

“We are pleased to work with Vonage to enable a remote surveying feature within SurveyorTech, something that is needed now more than ever,” said Martin Lovell, Head of Product, Software Solved. “With distancing guidelines and safety precautions in place, the inability to visit and access a property can be costly. Leveraging Vonage technology, we can quickly disrupt the old ways of working and meet this challenge by enabling a remote surveying option to serve customers across multiple sectors.”

"The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a secular change in how business gets done and accelerated digital transformation for businesses around the globe, particularly those that previously relied on visiting a physical location like surveying,” said Omar Javaid, President, Vonage API Platform Group. “Businesses must rely on technology to build disruptive solutions that provide virtual connections to meet customer demand. This is the value that Vonage brings to customers like Software Solved."

The Vonage Communications Platform brings both power and flexibility to businesses through the integration of multiple channels − video, voice, chat, messaging, email and verification − into their applications, products, and workflows to create new paradigms in their industries. With an ever-growing network of more than one million registered developers, the Vonage Communications Platform makes it easy for businesses to use APIs to disrupt their industries, and enable the type of business continuity, remote work, and remote delivery of services that is so essential in today's environment.

To find out more about Vonage, visit www.vonage.com.

The leading payment processing company in the South East Europe, Mercury PSI, became part of the Nets family together with the German Concardis Group in early 2019. Integrations have now been completed and the change will be embodied by merging Mercury PSI into the Nets brand.

The last phase in Mercury Processing Services International becoming part of the Nets Group is now underway. As of November 4^th 2020, Mercury PSI will be fully rebranded to Nets – a natural step for the company as part of its ambition to become the European payments champion.

Torsten Hagen Jørgensen, CEO of Nets Issuer and eSecurity Services, says: “The Nordics, where Nets has its strong roots, are known for their high level of digitisation with high-quality products, services and designs. We have vast experience in providing best-in-class digital customer experiences. Building on our Nordic heritage, including our profound knowledge and understanding of the digital transformation of payments, we offer an industry-leading level of support to our customers when it comes to being digital first and growing their business with an unmatched go-to-market speed.”

“We are committed to building on this solid foundation with new and existing customers across new markets including South East Europe, combining Nets’ pan-European knowledge with the great local expertise we find in Mercury PSI,” says Jørgensen.

A concrete, visible change to existing customers will be the full absorption of Mercury PSI into the Nets brand. The Mercury PSI purple will change to Nets light blue starting November 4th. But there are many more benefits for existing and new customers behind the scenes. Zdenek Houser, former Head of Mercury PSI and now Country Director for Nets in Croatia and Slovenia explains:

“In the rapidly consolidating payments business, scale plays an increasingly important role. I’m excited that new and existing customers in our region will now benefit from partnering with a substantially bigger, but also very innovative player in the industry, with a true customer focus and digital-first mindset.”

“We are very eager to leverage from our strong position in the South East European market to reach new customers with our combined, modern offering, and also bringing new capabilities to our existing customers through our future-proof, end-to-end solutions,” says Houser.

Eventus Systems, Inc., a multi-award winning global trade surveillance and risk management software platform provider, today announced that Vincent Turcotte has just joined the firm as Sales Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, operating out of Hong Kong. Turcotte has more than three decades of experience at exchanges, broker-dealers and futures commission merchants (FCMs), most recently as Director, Asia Pacific for Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

Reporting to Scott Schroeder, Eventus Global Head of Sales, Turcotte will play a key role in further building on the firm’s regional presence, which it established in Singapore in 2018. Eventus has also expanded its footprint in Europe this year; David Ririe and Matt Jefford are the latest hires there, each joining in September as Sales Director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Turcotte intends to focus initially on growing the firm’s client base in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and Singapore.

Schroeder said: “We see tremendous opportunity for growth in APAC, and Vince is ideally suited to help us achieve that goal. He has extensive, well-rounded capital markets experience across asset classes, as well as a strong track record of accomplishments and outstanding relationships with exchanges, banks and brokerage firms throughout the region. Our CEO Travis Schwab and I had the good fortune to work with Vince many years ago, and we saw in him not only a great colleague but an impressive work ethic. He has a thorough understanding of the challenges our clients and prospects face and our ability to help them solve these.”

Turcotte said: “As financial firms in Asia grow their market share within the global industry, they increasingly want to take more control over their destiny and become less reliant on their prime broker or clearing broker. Eventus can play an important role in helping them determine their own future, define their own risk management policies and take direct responsibility for client management through robust trade surveillance capabilities. I’m excited to introduce a host of new firms – including broker-dealers, FCMs, proprietary trading firms and exchanges – to the broad capabilities and flexibility of Validus in meeting their unique circumstances and regulatory requirements.”

For the past four years, Turcotte has represented ICE in the marketing of its platforms in Hong Kong and Singapore, focused on its listed financial products, connectivity, technology and infrastructure. Previously he was Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Head of Futures & Options for Nomura International, beginning in 2011.

From 1995 to 2011, Turcotte held senior production and sales management positions at Newedge Group as well as global banks UBS and JPMorgan Chase in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Prior to that, he had Vice President and Director roles at several brokerage firms after starting his career as a booth clerk and runner on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading floor.

Turcotte earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago, graduating Cum Laude.

Norwegian software vendor Commercial Banking Applications (CBA), today announced that its IBAS GBF - Global Banking Factory is now available to customers on a SaaS model in the cloud. IBAS GBF has already been successfully deployed in the cloud on Amazon Web Services for a customer in the trade finance space, and users are already benefitting from the increased agility, scalability and resilience offered.

In addition, CBA’s IBAS platform supports RESTful APIs, allowing banks to seamlessly interface to other systems and share information in real-time, not only between front and back office systems, but also directly with the banks’ customers on relevant portal platforms. Adopting a cloud-based platform and Open APIs is essential for banks looking to compete effectively and scale their business in a fast-changing landscape. It’s also crucial for those banks that see the benefits of collaborating and partnering with Fintechs and other players to broaden out and open up their service offerings.

“In the Open Banking era, banks need to be ready to compete and also collaborate with nimble Fintech players as part of a fully-connected ecosystem. Quite simply: if a bank is not ready to offer RESTful API services they will fall behind as they won’t be able to adapt and integrate new products and services fast enough,” explained Rolf Hauge, CEO of CBA. “Our IBAS platform already offers a library of RESTful API operations covering the relevant transaction types and business events across the payments and trade finance lifecycles. We’re making it very easy for banks to integrate other third-party solutions as part of their offering and provide a seamless service to clients through corporate portals.”

Having a flexible architecture in place is also essential in helping banks adapt more easily to upcoming changes in standards, such as the migration to ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and Target2. The microservices-based architecture of the IBAS platform employs reusable components to define products and workflows. This means that when an individual component is updated, all instances of the same component can be automatically updated throughout the IBAS system without any need to re-write source code. The result is that changes can be rolled out very quickly, and the testing process can be completely automated. This ensures a rapid time to market and an ability to react ahead of the competition to market changes and opportunities.

New FICO research [1] reveals that 1 in 10 UK borrowers found it hard to get assistance during the first phase of the pandemic; financial service providers need to be better equipped to offer support as extension of payment holidays come into force this week

Highlights

• Motor finance customers faced the greatest challenge making contact with their lender at the start of the pandemic at 33 percent

• Over 1 in 4 (27 percent) credit card customers and nearly a quarter of mortgage customers found it difficult or not easy to make contact with their lender

• 26 percent of customers seeking assistance experienced long waiting times for calls to be answered and 28 percent reported a lack of immediate information

• 60 percent of customers would like lenders to use email for future outbound communications

• Nearly a third of female respondents said they would prefer to be contacted by letter, indicating the kind of tailoring needed for effective communication

New data from global analytics software provider FICO reveals that UK consumers found contact with lenders difficult in the early days of the pandemic. Now, as another country-wide lockdown begins and the number of financially vulnerable customers rises, the FICO research highlights the importance of timely, tailored communications with customers in financial stress.

The data revealed that customers across product lines faced challenges getting in contact with their lenders, including:

• 33 percent of motor finance customers

• 27 percent of credit card customers

• 23 percent of mortgage customers

“As a new lockdown is due to come into force in England this Thursday, the FCA has confirmed an extension to the payment holiday arrangement; government has also extended the furlough scheme for some sectors,” said Bruce Curry, FICO vice president for collections and recovery consulting and sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “This is a turning point for lenders — they must be able to respond faster across multiple channels, or risk losing a big piece of their customer base. Indeed borrowers across every segment said that they are likely to move accounts in the next six months, or when renewing the secured credit, because of their experience during COVID-19.”

Motor finance customers appeared to be the most likely to move at 53 percent; main current account and credit card provider both at 30 percent and mortgage at 25 percent.

The survey shows that at the start of the pandemic, borrowers were frustrated by long waiting times and an initial lack of information.

“Our research shows that most customers still picked up the phone when attempting to contact credit providers — and this put a huge strain on providers’ systems,” said Curry. “Incredibly in this age of digital transformation 43 percent of mortgage customers, 49 percent of credit card customers and 55 percent of motor finance customers used the phone as their primary communication channel. It was also interesting to see the demand for ‘confirmation of agreement’ from those customers that need something more tangible than just an SMS. Economic victims need additional assurance on implied commitments from lenders.”

The FICO research found that Gen Z (16-24) were the least satisfied with the communication method used by their financial service provider during the first stages of the pandemic; 45 percent reported dissatisfaction. Millennials (25-39) were next at 40 percent.  The Silent Generation (75 +) were not particularly silent, with 35 percent saying they weren’t satisfied.

The FCA has reported [2] that 12 million people in the UK had low financial resilience in July 2020, meaning they may struggle with bills or loan repayments. According to the FCA data, over a third (36 percent) who already had low financial resilience, and had a mortgage, said they are likely to fall behind on mortgage payments; 36 percent of those with loans or credit cards are worried about repayments on these.

“People will be struggling to pay their bills for some time, and looking to their bank or other financial provider for real, thoughtful help,” said Curry. “The second national lockdown will increase the number of credit-stressed consumers, who won’t show up in collections right away as they will get support in the near-term. The post-Christmas peak may look flatter, as people use the payment holidays to cover holiday spending. If that does happen, the normal collections spike will come back with a vengeance later in the year, as Christmas borrowing on revolving credit becomes harder to service.

“These compounding stresses make omnichannel communication and self-serve strategies more important than ever. Lenders need to deliver both improved customer engagement and satisfaction, while reducing pressure on stretched contact centres.”

For more information on effective customer communications, visit https://www.fico.com/en/latest-thinking/product-sheet/fico-customer-communication-services-collections-0.

Novalnet AG, a full-service Payment Provider, is partnering with Banking Circle, for faster and lower cost foreign exchange (FX) and settlement solutions for its 12,000+ customers around the world. Banking Circle is helping Novalnet to efficiently support its global clientele with local and cross border settlement at competitive rates and with faster reconciliation to help online merchants manage and maintain cashflow.

Novalnet was created to tackle the countless payment pain points encountered by online businesses: payment fraud and resulting chargeback, the convoluted customer journey, processing errors, drop in conversion rates, cart abandonments, high transaction fees, lack of technical support, long binding contracts with PSPs and other service providers, to name a few.

Through its single integration, providing a comprehensive solution focused purely on customer need, Novalnet is resolving these challenges. It provides flexibility to clients by offering customised services fulfilling all payment requirements. These include payment processing of national and international payment methods, real-time fraud prevention and risk management, automated invoicing, subscription and member management, integrated marketplace solutions, claims management and simple reporting. Payment modules for 100+ shop systems/CMS have been designed to be easy to use, and to create a secure and seamless payment journey resulting in higher conversion rates for Novalnet customers.

Through Banking Circle, Novalnet can offer like-for-like settlement in 24 currencies, avoiding double conversions that reduce the payment value through multiple conversions and FX mark ups. Leveraging Banking Circle Real-time FX, Novalnet is also increasing its FX margins and reducing the inevitable overheads of managing multiple international banking partners.

Gabriel Dixon, Founder and CEO of Novalnet, commented: “Novalnet sets a high standard in the payment world by constantly innovating to deliver new features and functionality. Our payment experts build and develop tools and techniques that improve the performance and profitability of payment products worldwide, ensuring we provide our customers with a comprehensive, market-leading solution, focused on meeting their needs.

“To achieve our ambition of becoming a global leader in the world of payments, we work with the best partners in the financial ecosystem. Our global customer base means we need a solution that can help us to cost-effectively address the local and international reconciliation requirements. With its modern platform and range of payment and settlement accounts in multiple currencies, Banking Circle is able to do just that. Integrated into the Novalnet Payment engine, the Banking Circle platform delivers instant results, including scalability, cost savings on SWIFT, an additional revenue stream on FX and the all-important increased customer satisfaction.”

Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle, added: “As a financial infrastructure provider, Banking Circle gives Payment providers such as Novalnet the ability to offer their customers cost-effective payment and settlement solutions with flexibility and security built in.

“Novalnet can now offer customers reconciliation in up to 24 settlement currencies, as well as a wide range of currency conversion options. Together, Banking Circle and Novalnet are reducing the cost of cross border settlement and FX whilst simultaneously increasing transparency, efficiency and security. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Novalnet to develop further innovative solutions to help their customers trade efficiently regardless of geography.”

Aire, the credit insight service, today announced that its affordability assessment has helped N Brown Group PLC improve credit decisioning for more than 40,000 new customer credit applications. The first partnership of its kind in the digital retail sector, Aire now supports credit applications across all of N Brown’s brands, including Jacamo, JD Williams, Ambrose Wilson and Simply Be - as well as their newest brand, Home Essentials. 

Since October 2019, N Brown has engaged Aire to obtain detailed disposable income data to inform its automated credit account application decisions. N Brown uses Aire to provide additional affordability insights to augment existing credit bureau data and models when assessing affordability.

Applicants referred to Aire are invited to provide financial and lifestyle information during a short Interactive Virtual Interview (IVI). The answers provided by applicants are then validated with sophisticated credit algorithms to calculate a precise affordability score back to the lender. 

In direct response to Covid-19, in March Aire enhanced its affordability methodology to ensure N Brown could obtain a validated view of their customers’ most up-to-date financial situation. Created to spot sudden financial change, additional insights included changes to working hours, household income and expenses. 

Chris Kevill, FS Commercial Director at N Brown, comments: “Aire is helping us make better, more informed credit decisions with confidence based on the most up-to-date and detailed view of affordability available today. As the first lender to adopt Aire’s enhanced affordability assessment at scale, we’ve been delighted by the improvements this partnership has already made to our credit decisioning and customer experience. Now more than ever, a wider view of our customers’ current financial situation is crucial.”

Kate Richardson, Customer Success Manager at Aire, comments: "N Brown is an important partner for Aire and a true pioneer in their use of new data sources to drive better outcomes for their customers  - compliantly, seamlessly and at scale.  Results like these are a testament to Chris and all the team at N Brown’s faith in Aire and commitment to deliver real difference for the credit outcomes of their customers. Together, we’re proving that validated first-party data can significantly improve a lender’s ability to build a truly holistic picture of their customers.’