Ziglu, the challenger and fully FCA authorised Electronic Money Institution, has announced the appointment of James Sullivan as its Chief Legal Officer.

James joins Ziglu from Monzo where he was Head of Legal and Acting Company Secretary. At Ziglu, his key responsibilities will include growing the team, supporting and protecting the business as it continues on its trajectory of product growth and international expansion.

Commenting on his appointment, James Sullivan said: "It was always going to take an exceptionally exciting opportunity to move on from Monzo. In the last few months Ziglu has launched its exchange and payments app, been licensed by the FCA and is knocking it out of the park with its first crowdfunding on Seedrs. It’s been an impressive journey in just a few months. I’m incredibly excited to be joining the Ziglu team as the business enters its high growth phase and starts to target international expansion."

Mark Hipperson, Chief Executive Officer at Ziglu, said: “I am delighted to welcome James Sullivan to the Ziglu leadership team. He brings a wealth of experience in transformational fintech and will be integral to our international growth. James will be a great addition at Ziglu and we welcome him to the incredibly talented team.”

James joins the company in the midst of a crowdfunding round, which is 300% funded, at just over £3 million from over 1,100 investors. This follows the £5.25 million it raised in seed funding in June 2020. These funds will enable Ziglu to expand both its technology and product teams and become a global challenger. 

Ziglu is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and is one of the first digital currency companies to be registered under the UK’s 5th Money Laundering  Directive. 

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the value of unsecured loans issued via AI underwriting platforms will reach $315 billion in 2025, up from just $24 billion in 2020. This extraordinary growth of over 1200% over the 5 years will be driven by lenders seeking to leverage AI to rebuild and streamline their lending operations following the dramatic impact of the pandemic.

The report identified that lenders, who have been reeling from the effects of bad debt write-offs and repayment holidays, will seek to leverage AI models in order to more accurately assess and mitigate the risks that consumer and business customers represent. This will enable lenders to build more sustainable lending models in the wake of the unprecedented economic turbulence.

For more insights, download the free whitepaper: Banking Efficiency with AI ~ 3 Key Use Cases.

Consumer Lending to Account for the Majority of AI Underwritten Value

The new research, AI & Automation in Banking: Adoption, Vendor Positioning & Market Forecasts 2020-2025, found that consumer lending is driving overall AI lending and will account for 66% of loans by value underwritten by AI in 2025. AI, when combined with services such as Open Banking, can build a comprehensive picture of financial status and anticipate future risks. Juniper Research recommends that lenders leverage these AI capabilities to expand their portfolios post-pandemic to those without detailed credit files.

Research co-author George Crabtree explains: ‘Expanding lending operations into untapped areas of the market is a critical way in which banks can not only increase their own revenues but also compete more effectively with rival fintech services’

Roboadvisor Assets Under Management Set to Soar

The research also found that roboadvisors, where AI actors manage investments for users, will account for over $3 trillion in assets under management in 2025, from $500 billion in 2020. Rather than selling services directly to users, roboadvisors should partner with large banks. This enables roboadvisors to access large groups of potential users who are underserved by current wealth management propositions, growing revenues while keeping customer acquisitions costs low.

Whitepaper download: https://www.juniperresearch.com/document-library/white-papers/banking-efficiency-with-ai-3-key-use-case.

AI & Automation in Banking market research: https://www.juniperresearch.com/researchstore/fintech-payments/ai-automation-banking-trends-report.

As of October 29, OPR-Bedrijfskrediet is live with Vilja Line of Credit for SME customers in the Netherlands.

OPR-Bedrijfskrediet helps entrepreneurs to adjust the company’s finances and highly variable cash flows by providing business loans in a fast and transparent manner. Vilja Line of Credit solution simplifies the way a company can drive new revenue streams and has the quickest time-to-market when it comes to both create and launch new products for SME customers.

“We are happy to also offer our Dutch SME customers the flexibility of the solution which allows us to quickly meet their demands and gives us a competitive edge. The roll-out to the Dutch market was smooth and according to plans,” says Ville Rontti, CTO at OPR-Finance.

“We are proud over the continued trust from OPR-Finance and excited to be live in the Netherlands. As we are expanding our presence in Northern Europe this is an important milestone for us,” continues Fredrik Ulvenholm, CEO at Vilja.

Vilja Line-of-Credit products for SME allows you to offer customers more flexible financing options, with a flexible repayment schedule, both on a per-payout and a per-account basis. It seamlessly merges fixed plans and minimum-amount repayments into a single account statement. APIs allow you to offer cash instantly when needed and integrates through your channels, or your partner’s channels.

ITRS Group, the leading provider of real-time monitoring and analytics, has acquired Uptrends, the ultimate monitoring tool to stay in control of the uptime, performance, and functionality of websites, APIs, and servers, to address the needs of enterprise customers by providing greater scalability, APIs for controlling the software and its configuration, and enhanced visualisation of the data.

Guy Warren, CEO at ITRS, said: “With a combined experience of almost four decades, Uptrends has huge strength in synthetic and real user monitoring, while ITRS is serving some of the most demanding requirements of enterprise clients. This acquisition creates an opportunity to leverage expertise and offerings to benefit our customers.

“ITRS and Uptrends will continue to independently focus on their respective core markets while adding value to customers in areas such as capacity planning, network monitoring, log analysis and big data storage and analytics. This allows us to leverage our investment in R&D across a larger market and customer base.”

The purchase of Uptrends follows ITRS’ strategy to build, buy and partner to deliver smart, automated and predictive end-to-end monitoring solutions for increasingly complex IT estates across industries. This development follows the successful acquisitions of Sumerian and OP5.

Niels Brinkman, Uptrends CEO, added: “We are very excited to become part of the ITRS family and see this as a logical next step for continuing the growth of Uptrends.”

Uptrends will remain and operate as a separate brand and entity, fully owned by ITRS Group.

Refinitiv has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Giact Systems, LLC (“GIACT”) boosting Refinitiv’s existing risk and compliance capabilities with the addition of an industry leader in digital identity, payments verification and fraud prevention. 

The acquisition of GIACT comes at a time when organizations are challenged by the rapid growth in digitalization accelerated by the emergence of new fraud threats, global connectivity and world events such as the Covid-19 pandemic. These factors are forcing improvements to fraud prevention and compliance procedures, as well as a move towards more holistic solutions for digital identity verification, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering.

GIACT has grown rapidly since it was founded in Texas in 2004 and now has over 100 employees supporting more than 1,000 leading blue-chip companies, payment merchants, financial and insurance customers.  GIACT enables organizations across the United States to combat payments fraud, account takeovers and identity theft, which facilitates faster and more secure transactions.

GIACT’s platform approach and unique analytics enable risk insights to be generated from the aggregation of proprietary and extensive third-party data sources.  The platform enables customers to identify potential fraud related risk in real time for hundreds of millions of transactions across the customer lifecycle. Its platform is designed to provide a seamless digital experience for customers by ensuring that only high-risk transactions are flagged for attention, a critical element in effectively meeting Know Your Customer obligations and in the adoption of digital payments and services.

Refinitiv will integrate GIACT’s offerings into its risk and compliance business, alongside leading products and services including World-Check, Qual-ID and its recently expanded Enhanced Due Diligence service.

The addition of GIACT’s fraud prevention capabilities brings new offerings to Refinitiv’s customers by enhancing and broadening Refinitiv’s digital identity verification and document proofing solution, Qual-ID. GIACT’s extensive US data assets and Refinitiv’s international identity data provide customers a global platform to address identity theft. Customers will also benefit from access to GIACT’s platform alongside Refinitiv’s World-Check risk intelligence data, offering an end-to-end fraud prevention, identity verification and compliance platform that addresses money-laundering risks in addition to preventing monetary loss through fraud.

“The nature of financial crime, including fraud tactics is rapidly evolving and becoming more sophisticated. This presents significant challenges for organizations as they embrace online transactions and digital onboarding of customers,” said Phil Cotter, Managing Director, Risk at Refinitiv. “With the addition of GIACT, we can bring customers a comprehensive platform to address fraud, identity theft, money-laundering and payment-related crimes. I’m excited at the prospect of combining the expansive data sets, powerful analytics and human expertise of both organizations to the benefit of our customers, and I look forward to welcoming GIACT to Refinitiv.”

“Refinitiv has a strong global presence and a clear vision of how to respond to the growing demand from customers in the risk and compliance space,” said Melissa Townsley-Solis, co-founder and CEO at GIACT. “Through this combination, Refinitiv and GIACT will bring to market a unique platform that can address the complete customer lifecycle, regardless of industry, marking an industry first. We’re thrilled that GIACT will be part of that vision and we look forward to the next phase of growth for our business.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close before the end of the year.

To further help businesses collect payments due, or overdue, whilst remaining sensitive to customers’ changeable circumstances in the current market, PayPoint has enhanced its new responsible collection tool, PayByLink, with the addition of personalised SMS reminders.  Available through PayPoint’s digital payment solution MultiPay, businesses now have the option of sending customers a tailored text message, which can also include a payment link to increase engagement and reduce payment friction.

Danny Vant, Client Services Director of PayPoint, commented: “No one has been immune from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdown, trading restrictions and the furlough scheme have had a significant financial impact on a huge number of people, even those who have steadfastly been financially stable. In such challenging times, businesses need to demonstrate they understand the importance of managing arrears in a socially responsible manner, taking into account the emotional impact a change in personal circumstances will have had. PayByLink allows businesses to work in partnership with their customers to manage payments and collect with care.”

Rather than sending a standard ‘payment due’ SMS, PayPoint’s MultiPay users can now opt to send tailored payment reminder SMS messages, gently nudging customers ahead of the due date. They also have the option to amend the text to suit the specific circumstances and timing of upcoming payments due or overdue.  They can even offer flexible payment terms for customers struggling to pay on time or who would benefit from a more agile means of controlling their finances.

In particular, PayByLink enables easy collection of small arrears that would typically require too much time and resources to make it justifiable. What’s more, links can now be included to point customers to online advice around debt management or mental health support organisations, depending on individual circumstances.

Danny Vant concludes: “Through MultiPay, our clients can use PayByLink to gently but firmly remind their customers of payment due dates with personalised emails and tailored SMS messages. The payment link included in these communications ensures the payment process is as simple, quick and frictionless as possible. This allows businesses to efficiently provide a gentler, more personal approach and valuable assistance to struggling customers. They can now work more closely with their customers to help them manage their finances and the consequences of financial arrears.”

PayByLink benefits for late payment collection:

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd can today reveal the results of a national survey[1] into Brits’ relationships with their finances, and payment solutions. The findings of the research, commissioned by Samsung Pay, suggest that this year’s lockdown has had a transformative impact on the way people want to manage and improve their personal finances.

The UK’s enthusiasm for digital payment methods has soared over the last year, as almost half of (46%) Brits claim they are more willing to pay digitally following the lockdown period. With half of the respondents claiming to feel “anxious”, “overwhelmed” or “scared” when thinking about their finances, the nation is looking for new, simpler ways to manage their money.

The survey suggests that traditional transactions could soon be coming to an end. With more than four in ten (42%) people saying they have too many cards in their wallet – up to 15 in some cases – and many wanting to avoid using physical cash (45%), a growing number of people (31%) are now turning to their phone to make payments.

While this attitude has, inevitably, accelerated due to this year’s pandemic, evidence shows this was a pre-existing trend, with nearly half (48%) respondents claiming they can’t remember the last time they visited a bank in person. The flexibility of checking accounts and moving money around at the tap of a button is a key factor in this shift, as eight in ten state it is a major benefit of going digital.

Surveying 2,000 people across the UK, Samsung’s research also revealed the following insights:

• People want more control: More than six in ten (61%) people between 18-64 wish they had more control over their finances, with almost a third (31%) of Gen Z and Millennials admitting to feeling anxious when they think about it.
• Too many options: Four in ten consumers feel “overwhelmed” by the sheer number of different banking options currently available to them, suggesting a simple solution is in demand.
• Rewards are rare: Over eight in ten (82%) consumers say that they want to get rewarded for using their card, but currently only two in five say they currently feel like they are doing so.
• Bringing cards together is the dream: Seven in ten people agree that having all their payment cards in the palm of their hands is an “amazing” prospect.

As consumer attitudes evolve, so must the technology. Launched earlier this year, the Samsung Pay Card, powered by Curve and Mastercard, is a digital solution built for this new era of payment.

This is not another bank card to add to the mix. With the Samsung Pay Card, users can carry their whole wallet digitally via their Samsung smartphone or smartwatch. With a simple set-up in the Samsung Pay app, customers can shop with their existing debit and credit cards, as well as their loyalty and rewards cards, virtually anywhere that contactless is accepted[2].

By opting for the Samsung Pay Card, users can benefit from:

• All your cards, in one place: Samsung Pay Card supports all Mastercard and Visa payment cards, allowing people the convenience to pay contactless through one app, all from the palm of their hand.
• Leaving the wallet at home: From credit cards and debit cards, to loyalty and membership cards, Samsung Pay Card removes the need to carry a wallet or purse around – with everything in one, simple to use app.
• Maximising rewards: Samsung Pay Card is a free-to-use service that makes spending more rewarding. Additionally, users can earn 5% cashback[3] at Samsung.com and earn many more rewards from a wide choice of merchants[4].
• Going back in time[5]: With the unique ‘Go Back in Time’ functionality, Samsung Pay Card user can move transactions from one card to another after they’ve been made, giving customers more flexibility and control of their spending.
• See the full picture[6]: For a crystal-clear understanding of payments, customers can see transactions across different cards via the Timeline View in the Curve app, or recent transactions in Samsung Pay, with real-time notifications

“These results exhibit a clear shift in consumer attitudes towards the way they make payments following this year’s events,” commented Teg Dosanjh, Director of Connected Services, UK & Ireland at Samsung Electronics.

“Samsung Pay Card provides customers with the option to control all of their finances from the palm of their hand, something that this research shows is more important now, than ever before.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we strive to create technology that improves their day-to-day lives. The Samsung Pay Card is not a bank card, but a digital wallet that provides our loyal customers with a simple, safe and much more rewarding way to bring their cards together”

Despite the will to go digital with their payments, research results show that security is still a key concern for people looking to make the transition. Over half of respondents (54%) admit to worrying about how secure their details are when using digital payment methods. With vault-like security, built upon Samsung Knox and biometric authentication measures, Samsung Pay Card provides reassurance by ensuring every payment stays private, protected and secure.

Samsung Pay Card is available to all Samsung Pay app users, with a simple in-app set up, customers can use their Samsung Pay Card straight away.

For more information, please visit: https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-pay/#SamsungPayCard.

_________________

[1] The research was carried out by Ketchum Research and Analytics, on behalf of Samsung. A total of 2,000 people aged 18+ were surveyed in the UK. Fieldwork ran from 1st-5th October 2020 and was conducted by Vitreous World.

[2] Combination of Samsung Pay and the new Samsung Pay Card offers users greater coverage, compatible with nearly all banks and payment solutions available in the UK. Full list of Samsung Pay compatible cards can be found on https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-pay/faq/

[3] 5% cashback on all purchases made using Samsung Pay Card on Samsung.com until 31.12.20. Offer can be used with any other Samsung.com offer.

[4] Choose 1% cashback from 3 merchants selected from a wide range of brands. Introductory offer for 90 days.

[5] Move £1,000 up to 14 days after transaction. Limits may vary depending on individual Curve accounts.

[6] Samsung Pay platform shows recently 10 transactions using Samsung Pay Card, full transactions from date of use can be viewed in supporting Curve app

Aculab, a prominent worldwide provider of API-driven advanced speech and signal processing technologies, is pleased to announce the latest update for its voice biometrics system, VoiSentry.

The latest edition of VoiSentry sees further enhancements to its verification/identification algorithms, comes with improved encryption designed to provide additional security for the recording and storage of digital voiceprints, and features an extension to its presentation attack detection (PAD) function

As the Office of National Statistics (ONS) announces that this year has seen a 23% increase in cybercrime (1), the latest improvements made to VoiSentry’s verification algorithms have seen the platform’s equal error rate halved. With an even higher level of accuracy, VoiSentry offers solution developers additional levels of protection against fraud and other forms of cybercrime. 

In addition to this, the current update to VoiSentry’s presentation attack detection sees the platform categorise any suspected presentation attack according to the technology employed.

Steve Beet, Principal R&D Engineer at Aculab, explains: “Aculab continues its fight against cyber-fraud by integrating new technology that halves the number of verification errors. This makes our customers’ systems more secure, and the processing of genuine callers frictionless. The new release of VoiSentry also boasts improved presentation attack detection to mitigate against spoofing attempts, and optional audio encryption for even greater privacy.”

VoiSentry employs a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), advanced Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and many proprietary and hand-crafted algorithms, to achieve state-of-the-art accuracy in real-world scenarios.

Using VoiSentry, companies can provide quick and cost-effective voice biometrics to their automated business or customer interaction solutions, whether on-premise or for cloud-based delivery. As a result, businesses using such solutions will be able to replace costly, time-consuming, and essentially frustrating identification and verification processes, simply by allowing their customers to interact using their voice.

For solutions developers or providers offering services to multiple clients, VoiSentry presents an ideal option. A multi-tenant contact centre solution, for example, can offer speaker verification and identification as a customer interaction security feature, simply and conveniently, to individual businesses, where each has full, independent control over the creation of datasets against which its users’ enrolments and verification or identification attempts are performed.

Highly scalable, supportive of multi-factor authentication, and with innovative resilience and database persistence features, the new version of VoiSentry is available now. To explore the system or for any further information, contact Aculab.

Kinesis, the monetary system, based 1:1 on allocated physical gold and silver, announces the launch of its new Kinesis money platform. The fully redesigned platform offers a suite of new functions for users to make best use of its progressive technology.

At its core, Kinesis is a revolutionary monetary system that rewards all who participate, and operates independent of byzantine banking infrastructure. By using precious metals once again, people can avoid the drawbacks of traditional Fiat currencies, such as instability and inflation. However, in order to bring this technology to the masses, Kinesis money has to be easy to use, both to retain and onboard users. 

The freshly updated dashboard offers a selection of new and improved features and equips Kinesis users with one convenient service to access and manage their precious metal assets from anywhere in the world. The redesign includes improved user journeys for its primary functions, such as depositing, exchanging and transacting, to ensure every interaction within the platform is both intuitive and efficient. The updated platform also includes the ability to send physical gold globally in seconds, 24-hour market prices and the globally accepted Kinesis VISA card.

Thomas Coughlin, CEO of Kinesis, said: “Recent months have highlighted the extent to which precious metals are a source of stability. Kinesis brings them back into use for every-day financial transactions. That’s why we’re excited to release our new Kinesis money platform, an efficient and digital way for users to utilise the advantages of precious metals. Our new dashboard enables users to trade, send and spend their precious metals simply and seamlessly. And while physical redemption is always an option, the Kinesis Visa Card allows users to liquidate their gold and silver to spend it in 195 countries across the globe. We say it’s time people entered a new golden era of precious metals trading.”

Automata, the UK-France-based fintech on a mission to transform retail digital banking and wealth management, has announced €1.5M in private investments as part of its ongoing Series A funding round and €2M in total investments since the company was founded. 

The funding is raised through an equity token offering, enabling the public to acquire real equity in the company - creating a decentralized IPO. When the mobile app launches users will be able to buy equity tokens directly in the app, allowing them to become shareholders in their own bank.

The money raised will be used to support product development, the evolution of its own proprietary technology and the rollout of its self-termed ‘Wealth Card’ to the UK, allowing users to invest with ease and pay directly with invested capital, just like they would with any other currency.

Founded in 2017 by Gael Itier, Automata is the umbrella company and creator of akt.io, a wealth-centred neobank, merging AI-powered investment technology, decentralized finance and innovative payment solutions in a single platform. The platform enables customers to make automated fractional investments with the help of sophisticated algorithms, earn daily interest pay-outs by depositing funds into high-yield vaults, buy and exchange financial assets directly using a proprietary asset exchange and instantly pay with any owned currency, asset or vault using the Wealth Card.

The akt.io Wealth Card connects users to an all-in-one digital platform which allows them to grow their wealth while at the same time keeping it accessible for spending. Users can stay fully invested in an asset of their choice and, for example, buy a cup of coffee with Tesla stock. When paying with invested capital, a fraction of the asset you own will be sold and exchanged automatically to cover the amount requested by the merchant - anywhere in the world.

By merging this investment solution with retail digital banking, Automata is paving the way for real innovation in the fintech sector. Born out of France, Automata’s team is made up of 15 talented engineers, entrepreneurs, developers, and AI specialists, and plans to optimise the use of AI in banking to transform the industry as we know it.

The €2million raised so far is part of a plan to raise a total of €7million, which Automata will use to develop its bespoke technology. Since the company launched it has developed its own framework using its own algorithm to create technology which is almost 100% proprietary. Its aim is to continue developing its system to revolutionise how banks and individuals manage their money.

Gael Itier, CEO and founder of Automata, says: “Banks are and have always been so conservative, and they don’t mix with technology as they should. We are developing and merging cutting edge technology to provide the next generation of banking for people. A single platform where your money is always invested and working for you, while being instantly accessible for your daily needs.”

“We are transforming retail banking, investing and payments not at a surface level but at the core. Anyone can now have their money invested with a tap on their phone and still spend it as if the money was sitting on a normal current account. With automated fractional investing, you don’t need the same level of capital and knowledge anymore and investing becomes easy and accessible for everyone.”

“Savings have become a thing of the past, a sacrifice with close to zero returns. People need their money to grow and that’s not going to happen with a savings account that can’t even keep up with inflation. Investing has become mandatory for everyone wanting to secure their financial future.”

Itier says he has built on his years of experience in engineering, trading and computer science to develop a system where money is always working for its customers. He started his career as an analyst at BNP Paribas and went on to become a prop trader, design a robo-advisor and develop the wealth department at the fintech JFD Wealth, before founding Automata.

“We’re making current accounts obsolete by enabling you to pay with money that’s always invested and working for you, and by doing so, money as we know it will never be the same again.”