Payments testing and consultancy expert, FIME has announced its acquisition of CETECOM U.S.’s payment activities. FIME’s expanded expertise and services will enable the U.S. payment ecosystem to define, design, deliver and test innovative, secure and digital payments products.

The acquisition sees key payment experts and state of the art testing equipment incorporated into FIME’s existing San Jose testing and consultancy offerings. The combined teams will support the acceleration of digital payment technologies in the U.S, from authentication solutions around biometrics and EMV^®* 3DS, through to card, mobile and softPOS contactless payments.

“Digital and contactless payments were already gathering momentum in North America and the current crisis has seen projects step up,” comments Lionel Grosclaude, CEO of FIME. “I am really excited about this acquisition to accelerate innovation by providing our clients end-to-end services. FIME is now in position to offer a unique range of testing and consulting services.”

“While we are strategically focusing on providing fast and secure market access for devices with radio technologies, it was important to us that our U.S. payment customers continue to receive the same level of quality of services.” adds Wilfried Klassmann, CEO of CETECOM.

To learn more about how FIME U.S. can support your pioneering payments projects, visit the FIME website.

*EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.

According to recent statistics by Visa, 80% of payments in restaurants are made with a card. Most of the time guests do not have cash on them to tip, and if the venue does not offer any option for cashless tipping, waitstaff are left without tips, which may represent for them a significant loss of income. Restaurants have an additional incentive to make tips cashless – they can keep track of how much their staff receives in tips. 
 
The service sector offers several methods of cashless tipping, but many of them are inconvenient either for customers or for staff. In some countries, the customer adds the tip amount at the end of the bill in writing and the service worker adds this amount to the credit card transaction total. While simple and widespread, this method carries fraud risk since the tip amount can be rewritten later. Additionally, in many cases merchants have to distribute the tips to the staff themselves after they receive the reimbursement from their acquirer. This adds unnecessary complexity to the merchant’s accounting. In other countries, there are tipping apps where a waiter can register and link their bank account. The waiter receives tips to this account. However, the customer must also download the app and register, which can bring inconvenience and friction to the payment experience. 
 
OpenWay enhanced its Way4 Tip Payments solution to enable acquirers to integrate a digital tipping service into the standard card payment process. The customer enters a tip amount into the POS terminal during the payment, and tips are transferred directly to the service worker’s card at the end of the daily shift. Customers do not need to install any additional apps and are not charged a fee for tip transfer. The solution can be used by all service sector workers – waiters, couriers, barbers, beauticians, taxi drivers, and others.
 
Acquirers can set up a fee that will be deducted from the tip amount before the transfer to cover their own expenses of card processing. Tip payments are recorded on dedicated accounts in the Way4 acquiring system and are not transferred to the merchant account together with reimbursements. This allows the tips to be excluded from merchant’s taxable revenue. However, merchants can view tip amounts in statements provided by their acquirer. Transparency in tip accounting allows service sector merchants to assess the quality of service rendered by individual service workers.
 
The solution works with cards of any international payment system. If dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is used during the transaction, Way4 will send an authorization request to the issuer of the customer’s card in the customer’s selected currency and transfer the tip amount to the server’s card in the local currency. 

With the Way4 platform, acquirers can launch value-added services such as Level 3 data processing, tokenization, recurring payments, and loyalty to target different merchant segments, including HoReCa, airlines, marketplaces, subscription services, gas stations and large retail chains. 

Independent not-for-profit standards association, The Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN), today announces the appointment of Chad Ballard of JPMorgan Chase and Rohit Mahna of Salesforce to its executive board. Both come with decades of experience in financial technology and have a shared passion for banking innovation.  

Their appointment comes at a time of significant momentum for BIAN, with 29 new members having joined the organisation in 2019.  With an increasing demand for standards across open banking practices, organizations are looking to BIAN for guidance on how they can offer modern services most quickly and cost-effectively. 

At the end of last year, Deloitte released its ‘2020 banking’ report, recommending that banks should prepare for the new decade by reimagining “the possibilities for how banking is done with big, bold ideas. By hyperscaling their transformation and actively engaging with the ecosystem, new partnerships and alliances can become imperatives for change.” The combination of BIAN’s collaborative working model and the expertise of the wider organization and executive board will enable its members to reimagine the financial sector as we know it.  

It is in this context that BIAN is strengthening its board with Chad's expertise in core banking technology and open banking and Rohit's experience in developing and launching different products for the financial sector. Their appointment will help BIAN and its members to develop innovative solutions for the future of banking. 

PNC’s Steve Van Wyk, who has been chairman of BIAN’s executive board for the last 10 years, and long-standing board members Ian Guy Gillard from Bangkok Bank and Chae An from IBM were re-elected to the board. Members are all in agreement that they have benefited from their continued leadership and passion for banking innovation.  

Newcomer Michael Lewis from Citigroup, who was appointed to the executive board in 2018, was also re-elected. Members cited how impressed they have been by his commitment to BIAN’s causes over the last two years. 

Commenting on the appointments, Hans Tesselaar, executive director of BIAN, said: “It can be an exciting but overwhelming time to be working in the financial services sector with so much changing, from the emergence of new regulation to the shifting needs of the customer. To help our members thrive during this time, I am pleased to welcome both Chad and Rohit to our executive board.”  

Talking of his appointment to the BIAN executive board, Chad Ballard, head of core banking technology at JPMorgan Chase, said: “As an active member for the last three years, I look forward to continuing to contribute to BIAN’s success in this new capacity. As banks around the world continue to look at how they can future proof themselves for the next decade, BIAN will play a leading role in guiding the industry to use open standards to develop innovative banking platforms.”

Rohit Mahna, senior vice president & general manager, financial services at Salesforce, said when asked about his appointment: “I am very pleased to have been appointed to BIAN’s Executive Board. I am passionate about the future of the financial services sector and feel strongly about the role of the cloud in enabling the development of innovative banking solutions technology. BIAN’s reputation for creating service-oriented APIs is second to none across the globe and I am excited to not only bring my expertise to the board but to learn from others”.  

Equiniti Group plc (“Equiniti”), an international technology-led services and payments specialist, is delighted to announce that it is now able to provide an enhanced Know-Your-Customer (“KYC”) service for asset based and invoice finance lenders.

This new solution builds on Equiniti’s experience in both serving invoice finance lenders and delivering its unique proposition as an end-to-end KYC provider.

It comes as new technological developments enable Equiniti to offer lenders a robust, scalable, and highly personalised solution to KYC challenges. Equiniti will provide industry-leading expertise and access to award-winning technology, as well as handling all aspects of the KYC process, from customer onboarding and complex due diligence investigations, through to large scale remediation projects.  

Equiniti’s dual automated and managed service helps lenders efficiently address the increasing KYC demands brought on by evolving regulation. Furthermore, the service provides futureproof access to third-party data sources through universal connectivity. 

Michael Ellis, Head of Commercial at Equiniti Riskfactor, commented: “This enhanced KYC service will be a huge step forward in fraud detection and anti-money laundering in the asset based and invoice finance lending industry. “Equiniti Riskfactor is the go-to provider of risk management and fraud analytics, with over 90% of the receivables finance market using our market leading EQ Riskfactor product. This enhanced KYC proposition complements the existing services we provide for our customers and we look forward to seeing first-hand the benefits it brings them.”

Chris Adams, Head of Product (EQ Digital), commented: “We are delighted to provide a service that is of invaluable use to lenders in the invoice finance and asset based lending facilities. “We are now able to offer our customers improved automation as we further develop our technological capabilities. Our managed service continues to differentiate us within the industry – it proves our commitment to meaningfully reducing risk for our customers and increasing their return on investment.”

CoinCorner, a UK Bitcoin exchange, has launched a new auto buy Bitcoin service which gives customers the opportunity to make Bitcoin purchases on a regular, automatic basis.

Complementing the exchange’s key services of buying and selling Bitcoin, the new auto buy feature is easy for customers to set up - simply create a standing order with your bank, and choose how much and how often you would like to buy Bitcoin. 

Danny Scott, CEO at CoinCorner, commented: “Our newly launched auto buy Bitcoin service is an exciting upgrade for CoinCorner customers, helping them to save time by making buying Bitcoin even easier than before. Daily, weekly or monthly, it’s entirely up to customers how frequently they auto buy Bitcoin. Since founding CoinCorner in 2014, we’ve always focused on services that make buying Bitcoin as simple as possible, and auto buy is no different. Buying Bitcoin little and often over longer periods of time like this also takes any hassle out of following the price movements, a factor that’s often a concern for newcomers to the industry. This is a great reminder that you don’t have to buy a whole Bitcoin either - at CoinCorner, our customers can start with as little as £10.”

Just 9 months after its launch on the market, illimity’s digital direct bank has come out with an absolute first for the sector, illimity Hubs, an innovative collaboration model fully in line with both an open banking and open platform approach. The Hubs are making their debut with two partners of excellence, each of which with technology in their DNA and a vision consistent with that of the bank: MiMoto, the first electric scooter sharing mover which has revolutionised the concept of urban and sustainable mobility, and Fitbit, the company which helps people lead healthier, more active lives by empowering them with data, inspiration and guidance to reach their health and fitness goals.

With illimity Hubs, the bank is endeavouring to go beyond the traditional partnership model in a cross-industry perspective aiming to anticipate and respond to customer needs in an increasingly effective way through a unique and integrated user experience, which for the first time begins and ends on an illimitybank.com platform.

In illimity Hubs customers can utilise the functionalities provided by the partners on the illimitybank.com platform and activate services in synergy with banking operations. Included amongst these, for example, is the possibility of creating spending plans that are linked to the steps that you take, recorded by Fitbit, with the aim of reaching the number required to make your dreams come true or buy specific products. By adding the MiMoto app, for example, users can hire a scooter in the shortest time imaginable thanks to the Geomapping function, obtain expense reports for the journeys they have made or acquire a personalised MiMoto electronic debit card.

In addition, the advanced data analysis and artificial intelligence systems enable personalised advice to be provided by combining a customer’s activity with his or her daily habits and customs.

This innovative model has been developed to encourage the use of new, better informed spending and saving routines based on specific interests and objectives and will be in constant evolution in terms of both services and partnerships.

The illimity Hubs, which are available from today and are initially reserved for the customers of partners opening a new illimity account, will be at the disposal of all the bank’s customers from July.

Carlo Panella, Head of Direct Banking and Chief Digital Operations Officer in illimity, commented: “In full open banking logic we have created a unique platform that enables customers to access the apps of non-financial partners of excellence in an ecosystem that is advanced in terms of both what is provided and the interconnected user experience. Thanks to the debut of illimity Hubs, illimity’s fully digital direct bank is once again showing that it is able to go beyond by redrawing banking frontiers and putting customers and their daily lives at the forefront”.

Gianluca Iorio, Founder & CEO of MiMoto Smart Mobility, stated: "We are pleased with this partnership with illimity and proud of it. The aim of creating an ecosystem of synergic partners in order to provide an even better service to our users has been the objective of our work from the very beginnings of MiMoto, together with the company’s other two founders Alessandro Vincenti and Vittorio Muratore. Our vision has always been to put users at the centre of a system dedicated to them, and hence our payoff "We Move People". We are really excited about the start of this collaboration, one which will enable MiMoto to launch its first co-branded sharing mobility electronic debit card, useful not only for being able to pay safely and securely for mobility services, which are increasingly centre stage at this time of emergency, but also for providing our customers with several direct benefits, promotions and synergies, seeking to satisfy an ever more digital and demanding target”.

Giovanni Bergamaschi, Regional Director of Fitbit for Southern Europe, announced: “With this partnership we want to provide consumers with the possibility of having access to illimity’s services while at the same time continuing to look after their health by constantly monitoring their objectives. For example, from today onwards anyone owning a Fitbit will be able convert their steps into spending plans, meaning that they will be able to keep fit while at the same time purchasing what they desire. This fits in perfectly with our holistic approach to people’s health, by which psychological wellbeing is closely tied to physical wellbeing. Fitbit confirms its strategic commitment by providing consumers with new service models attentive to innovation as a means of capturing the evolving needs of our increasingly modern and informed users”.

___________________________

The new platform will be presented during a streamed event arranged by illimity in conjunction with StartupItalia that will take place on 19 June at 2.00 p.m.

From 2.00 p.m. to 3.00 p.m.

Digital Hubs: cross industry integration

Giovanni Bergamaschi, Regional Director of Fitbit for Southern Europe 

Fjona Cakalli, Founder of TechPrincess

Gianluca Iorio, Founder & CEO of MiMoto

Carlo Panella, Head of Direct Banking and Chief Digital Operations Officer of the illimity Group

Paolo Rohr, Digital Director of Sorgenia

Accreditation and participation at the event via the following link: https://www.facebook.com/StartupItalia.eu/videos/575797039788654/.  

UniCredit has announced its collaboration with Taulia, a San-Francisco-based fintech that provides innovative, digital supply chain solutions for buyers and suppliers, including supply chain finance, cash forecasting, electronic invoicing, and dynamic discounting.

The partnership serves to round out UniCredit’s diverse toolbox of working capital solutions – building on its existing supply chain finance platform by incorporating the capacity to support greater numbers of suppliers with increased international reach, alongside seamless integration into corporates’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

UniCredit clients will have the flexibility to alternate between bank-funded (supply chain finance) and self-funded (dynamic discounting) early payment programmes. Through the Taulia platform, corporates will be able to build resilient supply chains by providing vital working capital stability and transparency to their suppliers.

Commenting on the announcement, Luca Corsini, UniCredit’s Co-Head of Global Transaction Banking, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Taulia, with this initiative coming at a timely juncture. Supply chain resilience and working capital optimisation have become increasingly critical topics for many corporates in recent months, with more and more treasurers looking to execute their processes remotely. As ever, we remain fully committed to developing innovative and efficient solutions for our clients.”

“We are eager to work with UniCredit to extend Taulia’s offering across Europe to help clients digitise and free up working capital. We believe our partnership will make an immediate difference to corporates’ ability to manage liquidity in uncertain times,” added Michael Rieskamp, Managing Director EMEA, Taulia.

The agreement is the latest in a series of additions to UniCredit’s working capital management business. Taken together, these form a set of tools that address a wide range of specific client objectives – helping businesses improve both capital allocation and efficiency across their supply chains, whilst maintaining strong balance sheets and adequate day-to-day liquidity.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the largest commercial bank in Portugal, has chosen Finastra to power its end-to-end treasury and capital markets business. It has selected Fusion Kondor, Fusion Risk and Regulatory Reporting as a Service to support this front-to-back-to-risk transformation. The bank’s users will have access to automated and standardized interfaces which will improve day-to-day operations and will benefit from an enhanced user experience and better reporting functionalities.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos offers a selection of corporate services, including commercial banking, investment banking, asset management, brokerage and venture capital. To keep up with market trends and changing regulations, the bank was looking to transform its current technology landscape to make it more user friendly and more efficient. The chosen solution includes front-to-back treasury, straight-through processing for all asset classes, accurate pricing from the front office to risk, including structured products, collateral management and regulatory cloud reporting.

Fusion Kondor will standardize and integrate the bank’s trading and risk services, whilst Fusion Risk will manage its risk and compliance functionalities. Regulatory Reporting as a Service will enable the bank to manage its reporting in a more automated way, whilst making sure it is keeping up to date with changing regulations such as the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR).

José de Brito, Executive Board Member and CFO at Caixa Geral de Depósitos said, “Quality and customer service are the driving forces behind our bank. With business growing, we were looking for an innovative solution that would help us optimize our treasury function whilst still ensuring a focus on our core commitments and regulatory compliance. We spent a lot of time looking at different market offerings but, in the end, Finastra was able to offer us a solution that aligned closely to our vision and approach. Fusion Kondor and Fusion Risk will enable us to drive innovation into our operations, digitizing previously manual-intensive tasks to help us manage risk and continue our growth. We also believe its open architecture will ease development for us and are impressed with the transparent approach to implementation. We’re looking forward to developing this relationship over the next years.”

“Caixa Geral de Depósitos was seeking the best solutions to optimize its treasury and capital markets functions, together with a trustworthy partner to provide seamless integration and support,” said Pedro Porfirio, Global Head of Treasury and Capital Markets at Finastra. “The treasury, risk management and regulatory reporting solutions chosen by the bank will help support its targets for cloud enablement, digital transformation and future growth as it seeks to expand to new markets.”

Finastra Global Services team is working with Caixa Geral de Depósitos  to deliver the services through the Fusion Adopt best-practice implementation program. The bank has chosen Finastra’s recommended configuration and process models to deliver the solution.