Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved Fiduciam for accreditation under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), and accredited BBVA under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).

New CBILS lender Fiduciam will be able to provide financial support to smaller businesses across the UK that are losing revenue and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

New CLBILS lender BBVA will be able to provide finance to midsized and larger UK businesses with a group turnover of more than £45m (the upper limit for the existing smaller-business focused CBILS) that are suffering disruption to their cashflow due to lost or deferred revenues during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Following their approval, each lender will put in place the operations required to start lending under the scheme and will confirm the dates from which they will be ready to start receiving applications from businesses across the UK. 

Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “Our accredited lenders continue to see high levels of demand for Covid-19 business loan schemes. Accrediting these additional finance providers means further support for smaller business customers and continues the British Business Bank’s long-term objective to offer more diverse sources of finance to smaller businesses.”

Government published statistics show more than one million businesses have to date[1] benefitted from loans and guarantees worth £47.9 billion through schemes delivered by the British Business Bank. This includes 1,084,153 Bounce Back Loans worth £32.8 billion, 55,674 loans worth over £12.2 billion through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and £2.9 billion through the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

The Bank continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types – from PRA-regulated banks, to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and responsible finance lenders.

________________________

[1] Latest figures published by HMT, 21 July 2020

CPP Group Plc, the global product and services company specialising in the financial services and insurance market, has further developed its cybersecurity credentials following the signing of a major deal with Ray Sigorta in Turkey.

Ray is a subsidiary of one of the leading global insurance companies, Vienna Insurance Group, and among its biggest brands.

CPP’s Cyber Care product will deliver online security checks within Ray’s new ‘Cyberella’ product, designed to protect customers from risks posed by identity and information fraud.

The deal follows an additional significant cyber contract win earlier this year for CPP’s Turkey team with Denizbank and AXA Sigorta.

It means the number of customers protected by Cyber Care – the local Turkey brand for CPP’s OwlDetect product – has now reached 200,000 over the past six months.

Cyberella provides Ray customers’ with 24/7 proactive online monitoring for unauthorised sharing of personal data, ranging from payment card details to passport or identity numbers, including analysis of activity on the dark web.

Customers receive instant alerts and guidance to protect themselves, including individual assistance in relation to identity theft.

The technology has been developed by CPP Group and has also been deployed across the UK, other parts of Europe and in Mexico.

Koray Erdoğan, Chief Executive of Ray Insurance, said: “Safeguarding personal data is a key priority for our customers, therefore we needed an innovative platform in order to help us meet these demands. CPP’s Cyber Care offering is the perfect solution to the challenge of tracking data on the dark web and will be of great benefit to our customers moving forward.”

Selnur Güzel, Chief Executive of CPP Turkey, said: “This is an incredibly important deal for us here in Turkey. Personal cyber security is of the utmost importance at this time as we have seen a rise in malicious actors looking to profit from the current COVID-19 pandemic on the dark web. Therefore, additional measures need to be taken to ensure that we are safer from such online exploitation. By leveraging our Cyber Care product through Ray Insurance, customers will have a greater peace of mind knowing that their personal data is protected.”

Jason Walsh, Chief Executive of CPP Group, said: “This latest success in Turkey is another excellent example of our global credentials in cyber security as we continue to develop key partnerships for this leading technology within the region. As our innovative cyber product makes inroads into our key growth markets, we continue to advance our broader strategy of international expansion and technological innovation.”

Fast growth fintech, TradeCore, has launched its new platform in the UK, aimed at increasing the pace of innovation in the fintech industry. The platform can reduce time to market for new fintech businesses from months, or even years, down to weeks.

The platform was founded by CEO, Stefan Pajkovic, after witnessing what he calls the Fintech ‘spiral of death’; whereby fintechs fail to launch due to the complexity of the sector. It’s not uncommon for new fintechs to spend up to a year or more navigating complex regulatory or licensing hurdles; often then running out of money or losing relevance before they even get to market.

TradeCore changes this. The platform combines fintech infrastructure excellence to remove complex back-end processes to help fintechs launch quickly and effectively, taking the burden of regulatory responsibility so that its customers can focus on what really matters: customer acquisition and retention. 

With more than ten key partner integrations, it will mean customers, for example, can access: payments powered by Modulr, including Bacs, Faster Payments, and SEPA, for euro payments; utilise category leading open banking infrastructure via Truelayer; and remain compliant through KYC and onboarding with ComplyAdvantage. 

Customers have a single contract with TradeCore, along with a single price offering - meaning there is optimal pricing for the value added and no multiple billing points. Within this, TradeCore handles legal activity, making it transparent for customers, including billing, lengthy agreements and any problems that may occur with partnerships and leading vendors. It then integrates the wider payments ecosystem and handles ever-changing integrations which can be costly and hard to maintain.

Stefan Pajkovic, founder and CEO at TradeCore comments: “For too long fintechs have faced too many barriers to market in the form of regulation, compliance or costly processes to reach the market. This has stifled innovation, cost far too much money, and has had a detrimental effect on the ability of fintechs to move quickly. This had to change. And that’s what we plan to do with TradeCore. By partnering with some of the biggest names on the fintech scene, we’ve created a one-stop shop that’s secure, trusted and compliant; allowing fintechs to move quickly and with agility, and to launch products and services that can grow their customer base quickly.”

TradeCore’s platform provides:
 • Card Issuing: Issue Mastercard virtual and physical cards with compliance made easy
 • Investment: Access capital markets and market data vendors using TradeCore’s asset-class agnostic trading interface
 • Digital Banking: Use industry leading providers for payments, issues IBANs, monitor transactions through open banking and more
 • Crypto: Automate secure cryptocurrency dealings with full regulatory compliance
 • KYC: Optimise digital account opening strategy and create a modern onboarding experience
 • Infuse: Unlock powerful information about customers to maximise the ROI of a fintech’s users using TradeCore’s data platform

Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr comments: “Modulr is on a mission to make money flow more efficiently through business and the economy, whether customers are using the Modulr platform directly or indirectly through our partners like TradeCore. Powered by Modulr, TradeCore is able to embed payments functionality and provide customers with the same level of access as established banks to payment services. We value our partnership with TradeCore, especially as they understand the competitive advantage a digital payments infrastructure brings to their customers. We look forward to supporting the payments of the fast-to-market fintech community TradeCore is creating.”

TradeCore’s platform launches in the UK with founding customers FlexInvest and OrbPay using the platform to launch into the UK market. OrbPay is a Bitcon payments gateway for businesses, and is using TradeCore to launch its crypto-processing payments product. FlexInvest is a simple, commission-free investing and banking platform, allowing customers to invest in global stocks, as well as borderless banking using FlexInvest’s digital wallet and debit card. Using the TradeCore platform, FlexInvest is now able to launch in a matter of weeks.

FlexInvest’s CEO, Rodrigo Garza comments: “TradeCore is the true backbone of our product. It’s significantly reduced our time to market, meaning we can launch our product in weeks, instead of the 6-9 months that’s typical for an EMI application. The platform also takes on the compliance burden, giving us a huge growth advantage and letting us move much faster. Building on the TradeCore platform has allowed us to focus completely on what makes our product standout and on our mission to disrupt the mobile investment and banking space.”

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced it is extending its partnership with Three UK to combat eCommerce fraud, which has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. The telco leader will enhance its online fraud management and prevention efforts by leveraging ACI’s award-winning fraud management offering ReD Shield, part of ACI’s UP Payments Risk Management solution.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, global eCommerce transactions across many sectors have risen dramatically. The UK telco sector for example saw a 36 percent rise in May in online transactions compared to the previous year. However, the growth in eCommerce volumes has also resulted in an increase in fraud, as fraudsters are using the surge in online activity to target unsuspecting consumers and merchants. 

ACI’s ReD Shield offers Three UK a multi-layered fraud strategy that uses a combination of consortium intelligence, profiling, machine learning and rules—a powerful approach that enables merchants to separate legitimate customers from fraudsters.

“The current crisis is likely to lead to a long-term behavioural change with millions of consumers opting for the convenience of shopping online instead of at brick-and-mortar shops,” said Andrew Quartermaine, vice president, ACI Worldwide. “However, this change also presents new opportunities for fraudsters, and merchants could be hit by a tidal wave of new fraud cases if they do not act. To protect transactions in the eCommerce space, a sophisticated fraud monitoring and prevention solution is crucial.”

“Our work with ACI Worldwide has enabled us to navigate the evolving and increasingly complex fraud market so we can better protect our business,” comments Martyn Cokayne, head of fraud risk, Three UK. “We’re pleased to extend our relationship with ACI, collaboratively working to maintain the highest standards in security and fraud protection across our online platforms.”

iBanFirst, a global financial services provider, has chosen Tunisia as the home of its new research and development centre to accelerate its product innovation. The new facility is iBanFirst’s third R&D centre globally, with the other two in Paris and Dijon. The office opening is accompanied by a recruitment plan in France and Tunisia of 45 additional hires in 2020.

 
Tunisia has been chosen as part of iBanFirst’s product strategy, to leverage the large talent pool of technology and engineering specialists from internationally renowned universities of excellence within the country.

 
Although the opening of the new centre, originally planned for March, has been delayed due to the COVID-19 crisis, several new employees have been confirmed out of the 20 planned for the Tunisia office by the end of this year.

 
The opening of the R&D centre will enable iBanFirst to achieve its ambitious research and development goals to continue to innovate and disrupt the financial services market with its B2B payments service. 

 
Oualid  Abderrazek, Chief Product Officer at iBanFirst said: "Our decision to locate an R&D centre in Tunisia is part of our global strategy to build a team of highly trained and specialist technology engineers. Tunisia’s heritage as a global leader in STEM skills combined with its geographical, cultural and linguistic similarities with France, made it a sound decision to open the new office in a thriving technology scene.”

 
"Tunisia represents a great pool of talent in which we will be able to draw the resources to accelerate the development of the products and services of tomorrow. The fact that we are in the same time zone has also been a decisive element in this choice of location, so that the collaboration between the teams in France and those in Tunisia is as fluid and efficient as possible.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that several global banks including BNP Paribas, one of Europe’s largest banks, will join a growing ecosystem of financial institutions and more than 30 new technology providers adopting IBM Cloud for Financial Services. Today’s news also marks a significant milestone in IBM’s collaboration with Bank of America, with the availability of the IBM Cloud Policy Framework for Financial Services. The IBM Cloud Policy Framework for Financial Services establishes a new generation of cloud for enterprises with common operational criteria and streamlined compliance controls framework specifically for the financial services industry, allowing IBM’s growing financial services ecosystem to transact with confidence.

IBM is also announcing the formation of the Financial Services Cloud Advisory Council to support this effort and advise on the ongoing advancement of the IBM Cloud Policy Framework for Financial Services. Chief Technology Officer Tony Kerrison will represent Bank of America on the Council, which will be led by Howard Boville, SVP, IBM Cloud. The Council will be focused on bringing major financial institutions together to help drive the strategic evolution of cloud security in this highly regulated sector.

“We have had great success with our proprietary, private cloud, that currently houses the majority of our technology workloads,” said David Reilly, Bank of America’s Global Banking & Markets, Enterprise Risk & Finance Technology and Core Technology Infrastructure executive. “At the same time, we have been looking to identify a financial services-ready solution that offers the same level of security and economics as our private cloud with enhanced scalability. That’s why we’re partnering with IBM to create an industry-first, third party cloud that puts data resiliency, privacy and customer information safety needs at the forefront of decision making.”

Central to the development of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, IBM collaborated with Bank of America and Promontory, an IBM Services business unit and global leader in financial services regulatory compliance consulting, to establish a set of cloud security and compliance control requirements as the basis of its policy framework, which will allow financial institutions to confidently host key applications and workloads. The IBM Cloud Policy Framework for Financial Services is now available and aims to deliver the industry-informed IBM public cloud controls required to operate securely with bank-sensitive data in the public cloud. IBM, Promontory and the advisory council will continue to collaborate to assure  that the framework will be up to date to address the latest industry regulations.

BNP Paribas joins IBM Cloud for Financial Services

BNP Paribas has committed to joining the IBM Cloud for Financial Services as an anchor client in Europe to support its first dedicated cloud in Europe to be GDPR compliant, acknowledging that a public cloud informed by IBM’s deep financial industry expertise, controls framework and industry-leading data-protection capabilities, meets their exacting standards. BNP Paribas will utilize a dedicated cloud, developed and managed by IBM, that will leverage IBM public cloud technologies, including Keep Your Own Key (KYOK) encryption capabilities. BNP Paribas could plan to onboard additional banking partners to the ecosystem across Europe in the future .

“As we continue to expand our collaboration with IBM, we’re driving innovation in the financial services industry and are able to partner with a growing ecosystem of technology providers, from small startups to leaders in the industry.  That’s an important step forward for BNP Paribas Group to accelerate its transformation journey and be compliant with European regulations,” said Bernard Gavgani, CIO, BNP Paribas. “IBM Cloud for Financial Services helps us to further our transformation journey to the cloud and migrate mission critical workloads with confidence knowing that we can meet the regulatory standards established for the industry.”

IBM Grows Financial Services Cloud Ecosystem

Additionally, MUFG Bank plans to explore the deployment of IBM Cloud for Financial Services in Japan, continuing its ongoing transformational journey with IBM to accelerate digital reinvention.

"MUFG has been shifting its IT workload to cloud for years, with strong focus on keeping our data secure and mitigating operational risks on this new and fast-changing technology platform. We believe IBM Cloud for Financial Services will be suited to help Japanese financial institutions redirect their efforts to maintain legacy systems toward digital reinvention in the era of new normal. We look forward to continuing discussions around our strategic partnership with IBM to leverage best-in-class technology for our mission-critical workloads, as well as to drive digital transformation across MUFG", said Mr. Hiroki Kameda, Managing Corporate Executive Group CIO of MUFG.

IBM has also expanded its growing ecosystem of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to include more than 30 partners. These technology providers have committed to onboarding offerings and cloud services to IBM Cloud for Financial Services that will help address stringent security, resiliency and compliance requirements and can accelerate transactions with financial services institutions.

“With major financial institutions and technology partners joining our financial services cloud, IBM is establishing confidence within the industry and around the globe that the IBM public cloud, equipped with industry-leading encryption capabilities, is the enterprise cloud for all highly regulated industries, including financial services healthcare, telco, airlines and more,” said Howard Boville, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud. “IBM is creating a platform with the goal that financial services institutions can address their regulatory requirements, while creating a collaborative ecosystem that helps enable banks and their providers to confidently transact.”

New IBM Research Cloud Innovation Lab and Innovative Security Capabilities for Clients

IBM Research has played a central role in the technology underpinnings of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, taking a holistic approach to security and compliance that spans infrastructure, platform, data, and the developer workflow. For example, developed in collaboration with IBM Research, IBM will launch the IBM Cloud Security and Compliance Center which will allow clients to continuously monitor and enforce their security and compliance posture across their workloads, and provide a seamless, automated and adaptable process for improving cloud security. Following on the heels of its recent acquisition of Spanugo, the IBM Cloud Security and Compliance Center will include the ability to instrument the developer workflow with automated security and compliance checks.

Once the IBM Cloud Security and Compliance Center is available in August 2020, global banks and ISVs with workloads on the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, will be able to define their compliance profiles and manage controls, maintain an extensive data trail for audit, and, in continuous real time, monitor compliance across their organization. Promontory will continue to provide tailored, IT risk advisory services to users of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services.

To enable financial services clients and ecosystem partners to benefit from, and influence, the emerging cloud technologies being created at IBM Research, IBM will launch the IBM Research Cloud Innovation Lab, planned for August, 2020. Clients and industry partners of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services will be able to get a first look at the latest innovations from the IBM Research lab as well as quickly experiment, go deep into the technology and functionality of new cloud solutions and exchange ideas. More information on the IBM Research Cloud Innovation Lab and IBM Cloud Center for Security and Compliance can be found here.

IBM Cloud for Financial Services is built on IBM public cloud, powered by the same industry-leading confidential computing security found in IBM Z. Delivered via IBM Hyper Protect Services, it features ‘Keep Your Own Key’ encryption capabilities backed by the highest level of security certification commercially available, making the IBM public cloud the industry’s most secure and open public cloud for business.

For more information please visit www.ibm.com/cloud/public.

Chip, the clever savings app that has helped its users put aside more than £150 million to date, has begun the roll-out of Interest Accounts in a move towards democratising savings. The first savings account to be available via the new platform is eligible for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and offers a highly competitive easy access rate of 0.90% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate). The rate is above inflation and significantly higher than the Bank of England’s base rate. The company expects to make more rates and accounts available soon, including market-leading notice accounts.

The goal of Chip’s new platform is to make interest smarter and to fully automate savings accounts. The technology behind the platform will enable Chip to negotiate highly competitive rates on behalf of its users and to combine the savers’ money into a trust account. The more money in the trust account, the better the rates that Chip will be able to negotiate from the banks. As a result, all Chip users - regardless of whether they have £5 or £5,000 in their account - will be able to benefit from the services normally only available to high net worth individuals with very large deposits.

Interest Accounts, which are being rolled out gradually due to high demand, will allow Chip users to open a new savings account with a bank with just a few taps. Users can deposit, withdraw, and track the performance of their savings all within the Chip app. Savers can initially deposit up to £5,000 into their account, but this cap will be lifted to the full £85,000 limit for ChipX users once the update launches later this year. The interest is paid daily and added to the user’s balance, which they can withdraw as soon as it is available.

Chip’s Chief Executive Officer, Simon Rabin, commented: “Millions of people in the UK have less than £100 in savings, leaving a huge chunk of the UK too reliant on credit, unprepared for a financial shock and not sufficiently planning for their financial future. And even if you do have savings, for the last decade it has been all but impossible to find a risk-free savings account that offers any kind of return. You can’t rely on banks to deliver, so this has left a problem for Chip to solve.”

“With clever AI and a radical approach to banking technology, we’ve helped tens of thousands of people who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, save up. We’ve reimagined what savings accounts should be, and are now building Interest Accounts. This isn’t just one savings account - it’s a platform that negotiates better rates on your behalf as you sit back, save and earn interest. We don’t think people should have to spend hours trawling comparison sites, filling out form after form, and opening multiple accounts, so we’ve built something that’ll do everything for you at the push of a button. The 0.90% easy access rate is only the first of many Interest Accounts. We’re already fighting to bring our users better rates, more savings account types and FSCS eligible products. We’re committed to owning the savings space and we won’t rest until Chip is universally known as the place to access the best rates on secure savings.”

TransferMate, one of the world’s leading cross-border B2B payments providers, and TouchNet, the leading provider of integrated and secure commerce and credential solutions for universities, announce the launch of a custom integration solution designed to help higher education institutions solve payment challenges. Through the partnership, TouchNet’s university customers will have access to TransferMate’s education payments portal and benefit from TransferMate’s broad global regulatory footprint. This new offering will come at no additional cost to the school or student.

TransferMate, with its cross-border payments capabilities covering 162 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, will help TouchNet expand its presence and ability to deliver a secure, intuitive payment portal for students from these countries who are studying abroad in the United States and Canada. International students and authorized users can pay their tuition and fees, books and accommodation expenses in their local currency or by domestic bank wire through the new solution. TransferMate’s adherence to strict licensing around the world will ensure these payments are processed in a timely and secure manner. In addition, TouchNet customers will benefit from preferential foreign exchange rates to ensure more cost effective payment options for students and families. 

Speaking about the announcement, Terry Clune, Executive Chairman of TransferMate, said: “TransferMate is delighted to partner with TouchNet to make the payments process for universities easier and more efficient. Much like TransferMate, TouchNet focuses on solving pain points for administrators, and we are proud to announce this partnership. With our solution, we are easing the administrative burden of payments on universities and allowing students to focus on their studies instead.”

Adam McDonald, President of TouchNet said: “With their global reach and ability to process 134 currencies, we are thrilled to be working with TransferMate to further expand and enhance TouchNet’s international presence. As a leading provider of higher education technology solutions, our work with TransferMate will further our delivery of the advanced and leading-edge payment solutions our customers have come to expect from us.” McDonald added, “Our payment engine simplifies payments acceptance campuswide for tuition, events, sponsor accounts, and more.” 

LiquidityBook, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, announce the hire of Cash Lafferty as Head of Business Development – West Coast.

Based in California, Mr. Lafferty will oversee all sales activities in major West Coast markets including San Francisco and Los Angeles. With 20 years of industry experience across a variety of sales, trading and technology roles, he will play an instrumental role in communicating the value of LiquidityBook’s industry-leading POEMS (portfolio, order and execution management system) platform to fund managers and financial institutions of every description.

After beginning his career as a trader, Mr. Lafferty decided he wanted to be a part of the creation and evolution of cutting-edge fintech systems and moved to the tech side of the business. In addition, he has always played a key role in business development throughout his career both as an entrepreneur and inside the vendor community. The common thread has been working with investment managers to help them organize and select optimal technology solutions that add value and efficiency. Notably, he built and scaled Eze Castle Software’s OMS business on the West Coast from its infancy. His most recent role was VP of Global Sales at Orbital Insight, a geospatial analytics company.

Commenting on Mr. Lafferty’s hire, LiquidityBook Chief Revenue Officer Sean Sullivan said: “As we continue our expansion regionally and globally, it’s difficult enough to find someone with Cash’s skill set. To find someone who not only meets this description but is also a former coworker whom I know, trust and have seen progress as a leader in this industry is a fortuitous event and a big win for LiquidityBook. Cash’s new role as a dedicated West Coast sales leader will be a major driver of our continued expansion, as he brings a deep and diverse resume and well over a decade’s worth of knowledge and relationships in the region. We are excited to have him aboard.”

Mr. Lafferty added: “Helping buy- and sell-side firms learn about the most efficient tools on the market and optimize their technology spend has been one of my primary focuses over the course of my career. I have watched LiquidityBook steadily gain market share over the last few years; their powerful combination of the latest in SaaS technology with rich functionality in a user-friendly and flexible front end was a big factor in my decision to join the team. I look forward to making the case for why our offering is a cut above the rest on cost, stability, service and functionality.”

The addition of Mr. Lafferty is LiquidityBook’s second major hire in as many weeks, coming close on the heels of LiquidityBook naming industry veteran Chris Junge Vice President of Customer Success earlier this month.

Statistics of the P2P lending platform Robo.cash show that the size of the first deposit made by its investors increased sharply in June this year. According to the data, the average first amount which users added to the platform last month was €909. This number significantly exceeds the pre-crisis figures.

Since the launch of Robo.cash in 2017, the first deposit of investors grew from year to year. Thus, in 2017, its average amount was €604, in 2018 - €658 and in 2019 - €772.

At the beginning of 2020, it stayed almost on the same level, equaling  €730 in January and €714 in February. Yet, with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and rising cautiousness of investors, in March and April, it dropped to €571 and €559 respectively. In May, the average first deposit of Robo.cash users started growing again and in June, it reached €909. This sum significantly exceeds the pre-crisis levels.

The starting trend is confirmed by statistics of the platform in July as well. During the first week of the month, investors of Robo.cash who just started investing on the platform, added on average €968.

Analysts of the company comment on the statistics:

“An increase in the average first deposit in June and July can be due to several factors. First, investor sentiment generally improves, as the spread of coronavirus in individual countries of the world slows down, and some regions, including Europe, lift lockdown restrictions. Secondly, during the pandemic, P2P lending platforms had the opportunity to prove their reliability and gain the trust of both existing and new investors. Finally, since the start of the outbreak, many alternative lending platforms improved their investment offers and introduced additional bonuses for users. P2P investors who retain confidence in this segment seek to seize the opportunity and take advantage of attractive conditions on time.”