Today, TKP Pensioen and core-banking provider Ohpen announce their cooperation in the DC pensions sector. With this move, the pension administrator is looking to realise its ambitions in this area, while for Ohpen the partnership will allow it to enter the pensions market. Both parties expect a great deal from this win-win situation.

The Groningen-based company is in the process of creating a state-of-the-art digital pension platform for participants and employers in which 'convenience' and 'insight into the financial situation of individual participants' are of paramount importance. TKP had been looking for a investment administration partner that could help them achieve this, and Ohpen was the best choice.

According to Bert Vos, CFO at TKP, Ohpen's cutting-edge core-banking solution fits in seamlessly with the demands and requirements of customers, participants and employers when it comes to the administration of their DC schemes. "In an era in which pensions and wealth accumulation are becoming increasingly intertwined, joining forces within the banking and administration sector is, in our view, the way to go."

"The current administrative core of TKP is a robust and stable system. At the same time, developments are progressing at a rapid speed: technology is offering more and more possibilities, legislation and regulations are changing, pension plan participants are expecting more, and the nature of the Dutch Pension Agreement, which will change the pension system fundamentally, is becoming increasingly clear," adds Vos.

The integrated solution (digital pension platform/ investment platform) is being developed from scratch in the cloud and is therefore easily scalable. The platform enables each participant to have a simple and real-time understanding of their individual pension, accumulation and decumulation possibilities. As a result, they will find making the right choices for the future easier than ever before and will have full control over their pension buckets.

Matthijs Aler, CEO of Ohpen, says: "By integrating both platforms, this originally conservative industry will now have a fully digital and futureproof pension solution at its disposal. A solution focused on the individual but with the advantages of the collective. With years of retail experience in the banking world, we as a fintech company are going to do a lot for the pension world when it comes to digital individual customer service".

Bert Vos says: "The collaboration between TKP and Ohpen is fully in line with our vision for participant and employer service offering as well as our innovation programme TKP Connect, which has ease of use as one of its core aims. With TKP Connect, we help pension funds implement their strategy in a world that is changing rapidly".

TKP will initially use Ohpen's platform for investment account administration, allowing its customers to offer pension participants modern investment propositions.

Ohpen is no stranger within Aegon, having worked with Knab on banking annuities and (deposit) savings since 2017.

Bankify, a Finnish fintech company, and Nets, a leader in the payments industry, have entered into a strategic partnership that enables Bankify’s customers to consume Bankify’s services through Nets’ Open Banking platform. Under the terms of the partnership, Nets customers will also have easy access to Bankify’s portfolio of microservices via the platform. 

Bankify enriches the user experience of existing financial applications to align it with the needs of digital native customers. The services are developed by focusing on customer-centric use-cases using gamification, education, personalisation and social interaction.

Georg Olav Ramstad, Head of Open Banking Sales and Business Development at Nets says: “Bankify is an expert in keeping up with the demands of digital customers. Together, our combined offerings will accelerate the digital transformation of financial institutions. We are really looking forward to an exciting partnership with Bankify.”

The Open Banking Access from Nets provides PSD2-enabled account access to banks with a single-point-of-integration, instead of several integrations to multiple banks. With the solution from Nets, third parties can connect once and then refocus on delivering business value. Nets powers customers’ businesses by delivering an efficient access infrastructure for open API-based services.

Building blocks for future financial applications

Bankify has already launched eight microservices, each of which utilises a simple open API connection to improve the user experience of existing financial applications, and enable a variety of new use-cases, including social finances, gamified savings and group payments combined with a virtual card solution.

Antti Tarakkamäki, Co-Founder at Bankify, says: “With the Open Banking Access from Nets we can connect our offerings via a single integration, providing our customers access to multiple banks in the Nordics. This makes our microservice offering even more relevant, easier to implement, faster and more cost-efficient for our customers.”

Bankify has conducted extensive user research during the last two years with the Millennial and Gen-Z users, globally. These segments require more personalised and engaging features, which represents Bankify’s core area of specialism.

Finastra is investing further in Israel with a new office in Kfar Saba, just outside Tel Aviv. The office, which is home to over 330 employees, offers more space for the Finastra team to grow as the company strengthens its position in the country, and provides an ultra-modern workspace to inspire creativity and facilitate collaboration. The move will help the company support technological and financial innovation in the region, and drive adoption of its open development platform, FusionFabric.cloud.

To mark the opening, Finastra welcomed an audience of banks, fintechs, government bodies and industry partners to a celebration event, with keynote speakers Chemi Peres (Co-Founder, Pitango Venture Capital) and Dr Amiram Appelbaum (Chief Scientist, Ministry of Economy and Industry). Also on the agenda, the ‘Fintech Factor’ showcased four of Israel’s most innovative fintechs - AIO, CRiskCo, Sonarax and Vala  who delivered rapid-fire pitches. AIO, voted as the favorite by the audience, is now integrating its solution to Finastra’s APIs through FusionFabric.cloud.

Eli Rosner, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Finastra said, “Finastra has been operating in Israel for many years, and during the last few, we’ve seen a surge in the number of fintech developments. According to PitchBook data, fintechs headquartered in Israel raised over US$143 million in funding in 2018, 145% more than 2017's $58 million. As we step up the pace of adoption on FusionFabric.cloud, it’s crucial for Finastra to have a more significant presence in the region and help drive innovation and collaboration in the industry. We look to strengthen our collaboration with local financial institutions, academia, fintechs and government bodies to achieve this.”

Sagive Greenspan, SVP, General Manager, Payments and General Manager of Finastra Israel said, “Israel has been Finastra’s main hub for payments for many years. We have developed a team of research and development and global services specialists who deliver payment solutions for some of the leading banks in the world. The new office offers a collaborative environment that will inspire our employees, breed creativity and encourage innovation. Ultimately, this will enable Finastra to increase its footprint with existing clients as well as to grow its customer base by positioning innovative solutions in payments and across other business lines.”

Finastra aims to become the most inclusive and diverse employer in fintech, a key part of which includes ensuring its offices deliver a modern working environment to drive collaboration. To facilitate this, the office in Israel blends some of the most modern technology with fun and creative décor, which includes themed scrum areas and a fully equipped music room.

ICSFS conducted a two-week intensive assessment and training sessions that were held at the Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF) in Manama, Bahrain.

The assessment and training attendees were from HBTF senior executives, where the program covered the latest features of ICS BANKS Core Banking including front and back office branch operations services, Remittances, Credit Facility & Risk Management, Trade Finance, latest Lending products and features, Internal Audit and Control reporting, and part of ICS BANKS Digital Banking products.

The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance management was very impressed with ICS BANKS’ innovative products and features that will nurture their own products and services. HBTF - Bahrain is currently doing UAT for new lending products to be implemented end of January 2020. 

The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance is one of the dominant banks in Jordan, and have established its offshore Bahrain branch in 2003.

The Management Consultancies Association has announced its finalists for the 2020 edition of its annual awards ceremony. A total of 32 firms have been short-listed for the 12 project-orientated prizes, as well as a gong for Best New Consultancy.

Each year, the MCA Awards is hosted by the UK consulting industry’s representative body to recognise the nation’s best consulting firms, projects and consultants. After a record number of entries were submitted for the 2020 edition, the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) has announced the firms to have made the final short-list for its top prizes, which will be handed out on Thursday April 23.

The Awards span 22 different categories, of which 13 laud the contribution of top firms in the UK’s £11 billion industry. As is often the case, the Big Four is set to dominate proceedings, with a collective of 25 award-nods between them for projects in 2019. PwC leads the pack with nine nominations, closely followed by EY with seven, Deloitte with six, and KPMG with three.

The latter two members of the quartet were conspicuous in their absence in last year’s nominations, so the numerous nominations going to Deloitte and KPMG represents something of a bounce back.

While the world’s largest professional services firms look set for a particularly strong performance at the ceremony, however, as was the case in 2019, the short-list is a long way off of replicating the Big Four dominance which has been seen in previous incarnations of the MCA Awards. Indeed, when considering project nominations alone, another 28 firms are represented by the MCA’s short-list.

Notable examples include BAE Systems, whose Applied Intelligence business was listed for four prizes, as was newcomer Arca Blanca – including one for Best New Consultancy. Arcadis, Arup, BearingPoint, Cognizant, IBM, NECS Consultancy, Procura Consulting and Vendigital all picked up multiple selections too.

Elsewhere, the changing landscape of modern business has seen the MCA add a number of new categories to proceedings. In the group categories, this sees the arrival of the Data Innovation Award (contested by Coeus Consulting – which last year was nominated for seven prizes – Arcadis, Carnall Farrar, Cognizant, Deloitte, EY, IBM, KPMG and PwC) and the Data and Innovation in the Private Sector (contested by Chaucer, Deloitte, EY, IBM, KPMG and PwC.

Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive of the MCA, said of the news, “The MCA Awards are a celebration of the outstanding work that management consultants are involved in across the public and private sector and highlight why the UK is proud to have one of the largest and most well-respected consulting sectors in the world. Of course, winning matters but more importantly these case studies put clients centre stage, on the record, championing the collaborative work being done with consultancies to deliver better business results and public services for society.”

Central banks collectively representing a fifth of the world's population say they are likely to issue a general purpose digital currency in the next three years, according to a survey from the Bank for International Settlements.

The Bank of England is seeking a cloud build partner as part of of its One Bank Service Transformation strategy.

London-based B2B cross-border payments outfit Currencycloud has raised $80 million in a Series E funding round joined by blue-chip investors such as Visa, BNP Paribas and Siam Commercial Bank.