The European Digital Payments Industry Alliance (EDPIA) is happy to announce that SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures headquartered in Milan and controlled by CDP Equity, has joined the Alliance, joining founding members Ingenico Group, Nets, Nexi and Wordline in advocating the growth of digital payments in Europe. 

Gilles Grapinet, President of EDPIA welcomed SIA to the Alliance and underlined: “On behalf all the other EDPIA members, I warmly welcome the decision of SIA, a key European player in the digital payments industry, to join EDPIA. It is a very important first development of our joint major initiative launched in May 2020, demonstrating the attractiveness of our Alliance and of its ambition to unite all the independent European payment players to strongly and constructively contribute to the ongoing policy and regulatory debates and to actively promote the digital payments on our Continent.”

Nicola Cordone, CEO of SIA, said: “We are particularly proud to join EDPIA and to contribute further to accelerating the development of digital payments in Europe. SIA supports this initiative by leveraging its know-how, expertise and people in leading the innovation of digital pan-European payment services at world-class standard. For over 40 years we have proudly put citizens, corporates, financial institutions, central banks and the public sector at the center of the digital payments revolution”. 

Acronis announced a new fully operational Cyber Protection Operation Center (CPOC), which puts the EMEA-region on the global cyber protection map and will help partners, customers and individuals to get #CyberFit with cyber protection services, ongoing monitoring and analysis of cyber threats.

Just recently, Twitter accounts of some of the most prominent worldwide leaders, were hacked in an apparent effort to promote a Bitcoin scam. This recent case shows how cyber-attacks are omnipresent and can harm individuals and companies across the globe. Although prevention systems are constantly improving, the number of complex data breaches and security incidents is increasing. “It is thus essential for companies to identify threats early on and to react immediately and appropriately”, explains Candid Wüest, the Head of the new Acronis Cyber Protection Operation Center which is staffed with highly qualified international experts who use intelligent tools to detect, analyse and react to incidents at an early stage. He adds; “it is mission critical”. Ransomware attacks, by far the biggest cyber threat circulating today, are becoming more and more sophisticated. According to the data from Acronis CPOCs, when comparing the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020, we saw a 18 per cent rise in reported ransomware attacks.

Acronis’ International CPOC Network

A number of companies already have a Security Operation Center (SOC), which is a first good step. However, existing SOCs require further solutions for prioritizing the incidents detected in order to relieve the burden on the SOC analysts deployed. In addition, response services must be expanded so that SOCs can focus more on defence. Cloud services provide support for this. With its unique integrated approach and international expertise, the new CPOC in Schaffhausen will serve as the command centre for the EMEA-region. Wüest added “companies today need an integrated approach that delivers easy, efficient, reliable and secure cyber protection for all data, apps and systems”  and  “cyber protection should be based on the five  vectors of cyber protection: Safety, Accessibility, Privacy, Authenticity and Security (SAPAS).”

Currently 33 international experts across the globe are working in Acronis CPOCs and the company plans to continue to hire more experts in the next few years. Acronis’ new CPOC in Switzerland will help the company’s 500+ engineers tackle the most modern threats with the help of better AI/ML-based automated attack detection. Findings are used to improve products like Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud- a unique solution that provides integration of backup with full-stack next-generation anti-malware protection and comprehensive endpoint management tools.

The knowledge generated by the Cyber Protection Operation Center and its experts, will help Acronis to further develop even better solutions for Acronis’ ecosystem. The new centre will provide daily alerts on new cyber threats, natural disasters such as hurricanes and defines new protection plans for customers. It will also analyse and verify vulnerable software, and ensures the Vulnerability Assessment and Patch Management module automatically deploys patches.

Volante Technologies Inc., a leading provider of payments and financial messaging solutions in the cloud, today announced that it has raised $35m USD in growth equity financing led by Wavecrest Growth Partners with strategic participation from BNY Mellon, Citi Ventures, PostePay and Visa Inc.

The capital raise represents the company’s first outside investment after nearly two decades of strong organic growth and profitability. Volante will direct the capital towards accelerating its cloud expansion globally and its reach into new geographies, market segments, and industry verticals.

“We are thrilled to lead the first institutional investment in Volante and partner with its stellar team,” said Vaibhav Nalwaya, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Wavecrest, who will be joining the Company’s Board of Directors. “Volante has built an impeccable reputation as a fintech that can quickly enter and dominate new markets. Shortly after launching their Volante Designer financial messaging platform, they became providers to some of the world’s largest custodians and exchanges. Two years after entering the payments arena with VolPay, they processed the first U.S. real-time payment. Today, they can count four of the top five corporate banks among their more than one hundred customers.” 

“They’ve also rapidly emerged as the leader in cloud-based payments as a service,” added Nalwaya. “With cloud and digital transformation becoming ever more critical for organizations of all types, Volante is perfectly positioned to capitalize on this arc of success. We look forward to accelerating the company’s growth trajectory.”

BNY Mellon and Volante have been collaborating since 2017 on creating and deploying real-time payment capabilities. “We are excited to expand our strategic relationship by investing in Volante,” adds Saket Sharma, Chief Information and Digital Officer for BNY Mellon Treasury services. “This reinforces our commitment to helping our clients leverage best-in-class products and services in their own digital transformations.” 

Citi's Treasury and Trade Solutions business has been working with Volante for several years and Volante currently serves as the translation layer across Citi's core payments infrastructure. "Volante's solutions are already an integral part of Citi's payment processing architecture, underpinning the outstanding payments and transaction banking platforms for which Citi is known worldwide," explained Nick Nadgauda, Global Head of Treasury and Trade Solutions Technology at Citi. “Our investment signals our confidence in Volante's technology and we look forward to enhancing our relationship for future engagements.” 

PostePay, leading Italian Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and part of the Poste Italiane Group, is partnering with Volante to enable instant payments for SCT-INST as well as to provide a new transactional gateway to traditional interbank networks via their open banking platform.  

Mirko Mischiatti, Group Chief Digital, Technology & Operating Officer at Poste Italiane, said: “Our investment in Volante is directly linked to our ‘Deliver 2022’ innovation strategy. VolPay’s cloud-native microservices architecture will allow us to support current and future payment rails on and off the cloud. This will enable us to provide innovative customer experiences for over 14 million Poste Italiane account holders and 28 million cards as we continue to shift away from traditional payment methods to next-generation digital options and account-based payments.”

Vijay Oddiraju, Co-Founder and CEO of Volante, commented: “We started Volante in 2001 with a clear purpose. We wanted to help financial institutions by providing modern solutions to simplify the complexity of their operations and accelerate business outcomes, from capital markets to custody to transaction banking.”

Oddiraju continued: “Today, we process trillions in value and millions of transactions daily for the world’s largest banks, financial institutions, card networks, market infrastructures, and corporations. We plan to invest further in cloud technologies and into other areas of financial services, as well as new industries. The fact that the majority of our strategic investors are clients is a testament to the mutual trust we have built over the years with a wide range of organizations.”

Utility Warehouse (UW), has selected cloud-based payment processing platform, Paymentology, to process its cashback card transactions. UW customers can benefit from cashback from thousands of market-leading online and high street retailers, including Sainsbury’s, Boots, and M&S. This cashback is automatically offset against their monthly utility bill.

UW, the UK’s only multiservice provider, offers customers all their home services - energy, broadband, mobile, landline and home insurance - in one monthly bill. These customers can choose to receive a cashback card, which helps them save while they spend as well as benefiting from reward points as they spend with partner retailers. Customers can get up to 7% off their purchases.

The functionality provided by the Paymentology platform ensures that UW customers will benefit from market-leading fraud protection and split-second balance checking at the point of sale, meaning that purchases are cleared almost instantaneously.

Ben Wigoder, Head of Financial Services at UW, said: “After an extensive process, Paymentology emerged as the clear leader to take on our cashback card. Its fraud protection service adds another layer of security for our customers and its technology gives us a platform to build new features into our card in the future. We’re excited to begin our partnership with Paymentology and look forward to working together in the future.”

Shane O’Hara, CEO of Paymentology commented: “Working with UW is an important step for us in our growth as we expand the reach of the Paymentology platform across both banks and retailers. Moreover, though it is a good opportunity for Paymentology to play its part in helping consumers manage their budgets in these difficult coronavirus times.”

Sokin, the new generation payments firm, has announced a partnership with Jumio to introduce the latest digital identity verification technology as part of its client onboarding process. Sokin offers an easy to use fixed price subscription service for global payments which cuts out repeat and hidden costs, with transactions handled at some of the best market rates. 

By integrating Jumio’s AI-powered identity verification, Sokin is able to validate online customers by having them first capture a picture of their government-issued ID with a smartphone, and then take a corroborating selfie with embedded certified liveness detection functionality. This process ensures that the customer is who they claim to be and physically present during new account onboarding.

Vroon Modgill, CEO at Sokin, commented: “We offer payment cards in over 75 countries and wallets in 150 countries so need to have fast and effective client identification as part of our detailed compliance processes. We want to be able to check and onboard everyone as quickly and efficiently as possible, so they can benefit from making payments or transferring money with Sokin.  Jumio offers best-in-class technology which complements our systems, so we are very pleased that this partnership enables us to work together.”

Sokin allows users to make unlimited payments and transfers for one low monthly fee, starting at US$2.99.  There is no mark-up on transactions and on average prices are 20% lower than other existing payment solutions. Fast and secure payments are made through Sokin's app covering a range of business and consumer clients.

“Jumio technology is now essential for all businesses where KYC and AML compliance is built into online customer onboarding and authentication,” said Jumio CEO Robert Prigge. “Our solutions are designed to help fintechs like Sokin develop and expand their services across different regulatory environments.”

Sokin offers a subscription-based payment solution issuing cards in over 75 countries and wallets in over 150 countries and more than 35 different currencies.  For more information please go to www.sokin.net.

Mendix, a Siemens business and the global leader in enterprise low-code, today announced that Mphasis Digital Risk, a financial services technology provider for the competitive U.S. mortgage loan fulfilment market, has successfully launched an expanded portfolio of software development projects for both internal and external Mphasis clients. Mphasis, headquartered in Maitland, Florida, has leveraged the Mendix low-code platform to build 12 enterprise applications for internal use, and three industry applications that enable clients to process $1.7 trillion per year in secondary mortgage loans at a rate upwards of 10,000 loans per month.

In the last five years, Mphasis Digital Risk has experienced tremendous growth, doubling in size from 800 to 1,600 employees. “As business process outsourcers in the fast-moving loan-origination industry, we are tasked with solving our clients’ hardest technology and business challenges, which includes digitalizing numerous manual processes,” said Ravi Vasantraj, senior vice president & global head - Business Process Services Mphasis. “We rarely have the time, budget, or resources that we would like to tackle these problems. At our scale, it is essential to ramp up and streamline software development. And we need to be certain our applications are responsive to business requirements and performed at the highest level of security.”

Before adopting the Mendix low-code platform, Mphasis Digital Risk relied on Microsoft’s .NET framework to build software for both internal needs and client projects. Their experience, however, was that .NET-based applications typically required extensive developer rework, despite investing significant time in planning cycles with database architects creating entity diagrams and storyboards. Ravi observed that after switching to Mendix, one developer was able to build an entire application that would have required four developers working with .NET.

“With Mendix, the overall development experience is more accurate and streamlined,” Vasantraj said. “As a visually based process, a Mendix-built application is quickly understood by each new person joining an Mphasis Digital Risk project team. The platform’s ease of use enabled us to assign as few as two people or as many as 22 to a team, depending on a project’s complexity, knowing that everyone can make changes fast and safely. We found no other platform to be as robust straight out of the box. It has allowed Mphasis Digital Risk to scale up in response to the industry’s needs and create successful applications that our clients are happy with.”

Security Concerns Central to Digital Banking’s Competitive Response

For loan underwriters in the secondary mortgage market, the lending landscape has changed drastically in the past decade. Since the financial crisis of 2008 that rocked the mortgage industry, stringent regulations and compliance requirements have been adopted by multiple federal agencies. Yet underwriters expect frictionless, transparent data to assess an asset’s quality, risk exposure, and third-party agency ratings in real time, often within minutes of originating a loan.

For its external, secondary-market clients seeking to digitize their operations, Mphasis Digital Risk leveraged Mendix to build robust loan origination systems (LOS) and a quality control platform, Qcynergy, that maintain the highest level of data security through the entire mortgage lifecycle. These interactive online web portals centralize and collect data from legacy IT systems that had been difficult to extract or customize. Other time-sensitive data was previously gathered manually via Excel spreadsheets and shared via email.

“Some of our clients working on jumbo loans have a very short timeframe, often six weeks or less, to communicate with fellow underwriters to pick up these trades rather than securitize these financial notes in the stock market,” says Vasantraj. “These systems enable those trades by updating information and rebuttals in the loan review pool, communicating quickly and efficiently with the major third-party reviewing companies who participate in this process.”

Encouraging Citizen Developers Within the Enterprise

Mphasis Digital Risk has developed and deployed 12 low-code applications to improve workflows for its Florida-based employees and additional corporate offices in Chennai, India. Mendix’s low-code solutions have allowed internal stakeholders to have a direct hand in building the applications that they use daily, leading to a 300 to 400 percent improvement in productivity.

According to Vasantraj, software developers have moved from a “back office” function to a role where they regularly interact with product owners and end-users. This has resulted in applications that more precisely target Mphasis Digital Risk’s business needs. Additionally, low-code adoption has enabled 20 percent of the company’s business development staff to adopt application development roles using Mendix’s visually driven language.

When Mphasis Digital Risk identified an internal need with its legal and human resources departments to better track employee hours and workflow, the company once again turned to the Mendix platform. Department leaders required certain employee workflow data to be better tracked, logged, and distilled to ensure hourly employees were able to accurately record time worked, beyond simple login data. With this specific business need in mind, Mphasis Digital Risk created a bespoke platform for its employees to use and implement seamlessly.

“Mendix makes it not only financially viable to develop for ourselves,” Vasantraj said, “but has allowed us to take back control of our internal workflow and processes rather than retrofitting piecemeal solutions. We’ve seen a notable ‘velocity of change’ in our response to business-critical projects, improving our ability to adapt and respond to challenges from months to mere days.”

“With the ongoing talent shortage of IT professionals, we know that businesses must build software applications ten times faster with 70 percent fewer resources to keep pace,” said Johan den Haan, chief technology officer at Mendix. “That is why we are aiming high with low-code. Legacy IT systems do not have the speed or agility to respond to the competitive challenges that markets such as finance and banking are facing in the new decade. The work of Mphasis Digital Risk offers tangible proof of analysts’ predictions that nearly half of all professionals will soon be orchestrating their business application experiences in a manner uniquely tailored to their needs and function. This trend, which is well-matched by low-code’s capabilities, will only accelerate in the years ahead.” 

(Source: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-strategic-predictions-for-2020-and-beyond/).

iwoca will be reaching out to the CEOs of the UK’s largest banks urging them to work with the FinTech lender to ensure small businesses are accessing finance as quickly as possible through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The call for greater collaboration comes as iwoca announces a new fundraising round of £100 million which will be used to scale its CBILS offering and fund new customers through the scheme for the first time.

Businesses face delays in CBILS application process

The pandemic has seen banks receive huge demand from businesses for financial support. More than 7,000 CBILS facilities per month have been approved since May, similar to the volume of loan approvals for SMEs before Covid-19. However, the additional operational pressures for banks in approving over 1 million Bounce Back Loans and providing consumer credit support means that thousands of small businesses are facing delays in their CBILS applications.

iwoca analysis of HM Treasury data reveals that the gap between the number of CBILS applications and approvals has grown every week since the launch of Bounce Back Loans, rising from 40,560 in mid May to 58,707. Demand for CBILS has remained consistent over this period, with an average of 3,481 new weekly applications - one every three minutes. In the last week of available data, 3,729 new applications were submitted. 

With CBILS due to close in September, demand is likely to rise over the coming weeks, especially as other government support measures such as the Job Retention Scheme wind down. Indeed, iwoca estimates that a large number of the 790,000 firms with more than £250,000 in annual revenues could yet apply for CBILS, putting a great amount of pressure on large lenders dealing with unprecedented demand for finance from small businesses who are going through the application process.

iwoca can provide decisions on CBILS loans within a few days

In order to address this unmet demand, iwoca is calling on the UK’s largest banks to refer those businesses who they do not have the ability to serve to the FinTech. Tangibly, this means:

• Businesses who have been waiting for more than 2 weeks to receive feedback on their application

• Businesses who have either withdrawn or have incomplete applications that haven’t been followed up by the banks’ staff

• Smaller firms requiring a Relationship Manager to complete their application but don’t have access to them as they’re served through the banks’ call centres

A direct referral process is key as the vast majority of businesses wouldn’t otherwise consider seeking finance from an alternative lender. The SME Finance Monitor shows that in 2018-2019, 55% of all applications for finance from small businesses were made to their main bank, and a further 20% to another existing provider. However, the report also finds that an SME is more likely to successfully apply for finance from a different lender to their main bank (74% vs 69%).

Every business which applies for a CBILS facility up to £350,000 from iwoca receives a dedicated Relationship Manager to guide them through the process. This support means that on average customers receive a final decision and funds in their bank account in around 3 days.

Christoph Rieche, CEO of iwoca said: “We want to give small businesses the best chance of finding the support they so clearly need, which means the banks must work with us. It’s not acceptable that thousands of the businesses applying for CBILS are left hanging for weeks or even months without getting a decision from their bank. As an industry we have a joint responsibility in supporting this effort so that SMEs can access finance fast to survive and thrive.”

Chris Matthews, Founder and CEO of Silverlink Clinics has been waiting to hear from his bank for over three months: “Businesses have gone bust waiting. We’re still waiting for a decision, 12 weeks later and we’ve been promised we’ll get one by the end of the week for the last nine weeks. My finance director has been on the phone to my bank constantly trying to get them to ring her back. She’s been leaving messages that don’t get answered, promises that don’t get kept.”

David Dick, Director at B&H Commercials has been funded by iwoca and added: “We initially submitted an application with our high street bank who we’ve been with for four years. Our bank manager fully supported our application but when it got to the underwriting stage it was rejected. They let us down at the very time we were relying on them for support and there are thousands of other small businesses in the same situation.”

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology, today announced that Absa Regional Operations (ARO) has moved to Fiserv to support credit card management and processing in nine African nations.

What started as a program to enable Absa to separate its card platform from Barclays PLC has resulted in ARO taking bold steps to remodel its business for increased agility and growth as it serves customers in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

“Fiserv provided us with a flexible and scalable solution that meets local requirements across Africa, enabling us to achieve separation from Barclays PLC within our agreed timeline while preparing to support growing card usage in the region,” said Vimal Kumar, Chief Executive for Retail and Business Banking, ARO. “The collaborative effort of our teams exceeded our expectations, and I look forward to our continued partnership. I am confident that our platform choice will enable us to fast track the digitalisation of our credit card business, which is key to building our customer franchise.”

Absa is utilizing FirstVision™, a managed services solution that enables global processing economies of scale with integrated capabilities, such as risk management and loyalty programs, that span the card issuing lifecycle. The solution’s service-oriented architecture and open APIs facilitate rapid application development, enabling new capabilities to be brought to market more quickly.

“We wanted a technology partner that was committed to the success of the African continent. Our values at Absa demand customer centricity, and technology platforms are critical for us to achieve this goal. We are confident that the card issuing platform provided by Fiserv will enable us to provide cost effective and innovative products to our customers,” said Manoj Puri, Chief Information Officer, ARO.

This timely implementation of FirstVision was achieved using a virtual team model based on proven Fiserv conversion methodologies, as the ongoing pandemic required remote operations.

Vanessa Olver, Chief Enablement Officer, ARO, explained that, “This was a formidable accomplishment as we needed to work collaboratively across diverse geographies in a virtual mode. Our teams proved adaptable, agile and resilient. I’m proud of the partnership we enjoy with Fiserv and look forward to meeting and exceeding our ambitious goals in the region.”

The software as a service (SaaS) model of FirstVision aligns to the Absa strategy to reduce dependency on customized solutions, resulting in less operational risk as well as:

• Reduced operating costs with “pay as you use” pricing
• Access to a world-class development roadmap, so new services such as Google Pay can be simply “turned on”, rather than bespoke developed
• Increased automation, flexibility, and granularity of products and parameters, which can facilitate faster product and feature launches and enable targeted promotions
• Access to sophisticated tools including the Falcon fraud detection system
• Alignment to regulatory changes.

“We are looking for opportunities for greater digital innovation, entrenching remote working models, touchless payments and digital wallet solutions and digital servicing, which address emerging client needs,” explained Paul O’Flaherty, Chief Executive of Engineering Services at Absa. “Absa is at the forefront of this digital transformation.”

“Absa have a passion for Africa and a commitment to digitising their business for customer success. We are proud to be their partner and to leverage our experience gained from supporting nearly 100 million cardholders across EMEA to enable their ongoing transformation,” said Nicky Sheridan, Managing Director of Fiserv in Africa.