New research commissioned by AutoRek, a leading software provider to companies in the global financial services sector, has revealed the most current problems facing payments firms today, as well as their perceptions on regulation, compliance, and payments reconciliation. According to AutoRek’s latest annual payments survey, 84% of UK and US payment firms rely heavily on manual tasks and spreadsheets to perform the reconciliation control process, while 86% say their data lacks the transparency and standardization required.

The findings show that while reconciliations are a fundamental control mechanism for finance and accounting, many firms across the financial services sector continue to rely on Excel spreadsheets to carry out this crucial process. This is especially prominent in the US, where 88% of US respondents acknowledge that their company relies heavily on spreadsheets for critical financial control processes.

As a result, manual processes can lead to inefficiencies, with 69% of US firms noting that the cost of their payment operations rises in direct proportion to increased payments processing. This is also reflected in the UK with 63% of payment firms seeing a direct correlation between back-office costs and payment volumes.

The expansion of the digital economy, rising transaction volume, and ever-changing regulatory obligations mean that spreadsheets are no longer fit for purpose. These findings show the need for more education around reconciliation, and how it can help businesses automate manual processes and achieve 50%+ cost reduction and save 75% of time. Especially when more than half (55%) of transactions are settled instantly within a payment firm in the US, compared to 45% in the UK.

The research also highlighted the number of payments organizations expecting their cost of compliance to increase over the next 12 months has doubled since 2023, jumping from 38% to 80%.

Some 50% of respondents said higher levels of automation would allow them to save time and support growth objectives. And 50% said it would support their growth objectives, while 45% said it would cut operational costs.

AutoRek’s Payments Lead Nick Botha comments: “In the payments industry, there is a clear trend towards streamlining operations by minimizing manual processes, yet significant investments remain to be taken. Our recent payments report supports the persistent challenge posed by legacy systems within the market, a challenge that we see across firms globally. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the requirement for businesses to streamline their operational frameworks to effectively navigate potential disruptions. However, companies need to also ensure that they maximize the profitability of their business, especially in today’s increasingly fast-paced and competitive environment.”

Bottomline, a global leader in business payments, launched enhancements to its technology to help banks and non-banking financial institutions monitor, detect, and prevent fraud from happening inside the business. The enhanced solution supports organizations to better use data visualizations, threat profiles, and advanced case management strategies in fighting insider fraud. 

Already making headlines, Bottomline’s Internal Threat Management Solution (ITM) was recently named the market leader in Quadrant Knowledge Solution’s 2023 Spark Matrix™ for Insider Risk Management. The enhanced solution builds on its “record and replay” screen capture technology for non-invasive insider monitoring by creating dashboards that illustrate critical data and core financial system access attempts and track them back to unauthorized users. It also provides information technology and security professionals with more than 100 potential threat profiles based on Bottomline’s extensive experience in detecting and defending against the scope of insider fraud. 

A bigger challenge than most institutions recognize, data violation, and theft by employees, consultants, and those with access to insider credentials is on the rise. And the ramifications can be devastating. A 2023 report by the Ponemon Institute suggests that companies admitted to underfunding their insider risk programs and spending more money on remediation than prevention. 

“A cultural commitment to insulate our customers from financial crime is a tightly woven component in our business payments DNA,” said Omri Kletter, Vice President of Risk Solutions, Bottomline. “Whatever the motivations, including bad actors plotting ransomware attacks while disguising themselves as insiders, the ever-growing threat is real. Our newly enhanced Insider Threat Management solution brings this reality to the forefront. We work closely with the industry, our customers, and partners to deliver broad fraud prevention capabilities to address increasing use cases across all sectors.” 

Bottomline’s next-generation internal threat technology combines the power of technology and data to provide financial institutions with both on-premise and SaaS-based solutions to tackle fraud. Instead of relying on log files for post-fact manual audits, risk teams can use screen-by-screen record and replay technology along with hundreds of analytical scenario rules. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, in 2022, a typical case of insider fraud lasts 12 months before detection and results in an average loss of $117,000. By combining data from different systems, risk experts can investigate, triage, and report potential frauds within an expansive ecosystem rather than in isolated cases.

Using data enriched by machine learning and years of experience protecting some of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions, Bottomline’s technology helps to rapidly spot anomalies, speeding up investigations by identifying unusual behavior or risks. Whether an internal threat is malicious or unintentional, the technology visually maps connections between unusual activities and users, expediting the detection of insider activity, including external fraud initiated from within.

Smartflow Payments Limited (brand name Sends) got the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification, which is vital for secure payment processing. Smartflow offers financial solutions such as Internet acquiring and multicurrency business accounts, so it must comply with data security policies and procedures.

PCI DSS certification is crucial for securing credit and debit card transactions mitigating risks related to cardholders' data and the potential misuse of their personal information. It safeguards card data by imposing specific requirements. Smartflow Payments Limited must also control access to cardholder data and monitor network resource access to get PCI certified. Achieving PCI compliance is no easy task, but it serves as a straightforward security badge, assuring customers of the business's trustworthiness, while noncompliance can incur both financial and reputational costs.

"Security is our number one priority as a financial institution. Daily Smartflow processes the personal data of thousands of customers, and we are responsible for its safety. That is why receiving PCI DSS certification is an important step for our team", commented Anastasiia Pervushyna, Director/MLRO in Sends.

One of the shareholders Smartflow Payments Limited is Alona Shevtsova, a businesswoman, philanthropist, and active participant in the Ukrainian and UK FinTech community.

“Smartflow Payments Limited has always been driven by the desire to innovate and provide cutting-edge solutions to our customers. As we navigate the digital landscape, security remains at the heart of everything we do. PCI DSS certification is a recognition of our dedication to safeguarding financial transactions of our customers,” said Alona Shevtsova.

All companies handling credit card data, particularly those involved in accepting or processing credit card payments, must comply with PCI DSS. Today, data breaches occur frequently, impacting both large and small companies. The primary objective of PCI-DSS is to prevent such breaches. The information about Smartflow PCI DSS certification can be found on the website.

It is important to mention that Smartflow Payments Limited (Sends) is about to launch the first version of the financial app to the Apple Store and Google Play. The release is planned for April 2024.

Zūm Rails, the all-in-one payments gateway that merges open banking with instant payments, today announced the close of a $10.5 million CAD Series A funding round. The round was led by Arthur Ventures, a Minneapolis-based growth equity firm that specializes in B2B software.

Compared to other markets around the world, the U.S. has been slower to standardize practices around open banking and instant payments. While this is now changing with forthcoming data-sharing regulations and new programs such as FedNow, the options for businesses to offer these experiences to their consumers are still fragmented. This means that businesses have to weave together individual capabilities from across the payments ecosystem in order to provide consumers with a holistic transaction experience that doesn’t compromise speed, flexibility or security.

Zūm Rails integrates open banking and instant payments into a single gateway that powers the entire transaction journey. This includes everything from verifying a customer’s identity to linking directly with their bank account to reduce fraud and failed transactions, to facilitating payments via the method of the customer’s choosing. Zūm Rails’ ‘omni-rail’ approach to payments includes both traditional credit, debit and electronic funds transfer (EFT) options, as well as real-time options through partners such as Visa Direct, Mastercard, MX and Canada’s Interac network.

“Companies that want to move money instantly need to adjust for risk, and open banking is the greatest gift to payments in this regard,” said Marc Milewski, co-founder and CEO, Zūm Rails. “We’ve brought open banking and instant payments together in an omni-rail solution that enables companies to check off all of their payment needs from a single gateway. With Arthur Ventures’ investment, we’re positioned for further expansion of our solution through the addition of Banking-as-a-Service and other new capabilities.”

Since its founding in 2019, Zūm Rails has self-funded its way to profitability, establishing itself as a leading payment gateway across North America. Now, the company is setting its sights on continued expansion in the U.S, where it’s working with financial service providers such as Fiserv to democratize access to open banking capabilities and real-time, FDIC-insured payments for businesses.

“Payments are the lifeblood of every business, but too often, keeping up with the ever-evolving array of services needed to process payments quickly, efficiently and securely stands in the way of success,” said Jake Olson, Vice President, Arthur Ventures. “Zūm Rails’ explosive growth is validation of its ability to solve this problem. Having already transformed the Canadian payments landscape, the company is well-positioned to increase this growth with the investments it's making in its product and scaling its presence across all of North America.”

In addition to scaling its U.S. growth, Zūm Rails will use the funding to further expand its payment offerings, including the introduction of new Banking-as-a-Service features for merchants. The company is additionally working on a forthcoming FedNow offering in the U.S. that will enable businesses to send and receive FDIC-insured payments within seconds.

“From open banking to instant payments, Zūm Rails has been on the front lines of the biggest payment technology advancements before many of them were even a thought in businesses’ minds,” said Miles Schwartz, co-founder and Chief Sales Officer, Zūm Rails. “Our long-term vision, however, goes far beyond the individual capabilities we offer. Integrating these capabilities into a single solution that makes businesses’ lives easier will continue to be our focus as we double down on our expansion in the U.S.”

Zūm Rails processes more than $1 billion in payments through its platform each month for companies including Questrade, Coinsquare and Desjardins, the largest federation of credit unions in North America.

spektr, a Copenhagen-based fintech company, has raised €5 million in a seed round led by Northzone, Seedcamp, and PreSeed Ventures, enabling them to introduce advanced automation to compliance teams worldwide.

spektr was founded by the team that previously developed an entire no-code platform, HelloFlow, for securely onboarding customers globally. Following the acquisition by Trulioo, the leader in global identity verification, the company took a step back to understand the true needs of the industry.

After talking with over 400 compliance and risk experts and drawing from experience in client onboarding, it's clear that companies struggle with ongoing monitoring and risk management after the initial setup of digital onboarding processes, largely due to a lack of automation. Many services still depend heavily on manual monitoring and alert resolution, which can be resource-intensive.

Due to the early trust and support of the investors, the vision of the company to address ongoing due diligence challenges and drive revenue through automation-led compliance measures has become a reality.

"We are incredibly excited to partner with spektr. They are an exceptional team with a very clear product vision, and we believe they will be able to leverage their experience from HelloFlow to build spektr into a category-defining company within the compliance space," says the principal at Northzone, Maxine Rior.

Joining Northzone are PreSeed Ventures and Seedcamp, both backers of an initial venture at HelloFlow. Alexander Viterbo-Horten, General Partner in PSV Tech01, one of the funds in venture house PreSeed Ventures, says: “Their execution power and strategic understanding of the financial compliance market are profoundly impressive.” He adds:

"This makes spektr one of the best bets on a future unicorn out of Denmark. It’s a true testament to that, that we’re several investors from the first journey who decided to invest again."

Tom Wilson, partner at Seedcamp shared the same beliefs in the team and product: "We're delighted to have the opportunity to back Mikkel and Ciprian as they go again with spektr. The HelloFlow journey gave us a taste of the market-leading products they can build, and we're excited to see where they can take spektr, building on that experience".

In response to the rapid growth and escalating costs in the compliance sector, spektr presents a no-code solution that automates risk processes, sets up monitoring, resolves alerts instantly, and integrates easily with vendors.

VC Innovations, a leading marketing services agency with a global community of over 200,000 digital transformation leaders from across financial services, fintech, and a broad range of non-financial brands, has announced the launch of FTT Payments in London.  

Although a launch, the event will be co-located with three well-established brands from VC Innovations: FTT Embedded Finance & Super Apps, Customer Alpha, and Future Identity Customer. The co-located events will bring together 600+ attendees at etc. venues, 155 Bishopsgate, London on 21 May. 

FTT Payments will feature in-depth discussions of the technologies, changing customer behaviors, regulatory drivers, and new business models shaping the future of payments. The topics and experts sharing their experiences will be a delight to all with a passion for payments. 

“Whilst the existing co-located events bring together those who live and breathe a desire to deliver for customers, whether that is in the B2C or B2B space, we believe the addition of the modern payments’ ecosystem rounds off the content and the community in an important way. Payments are central and essential to businesses and consumers, as well as the broader economy”, said Lisa Moyle, Chief Strategy Officer, at VC Innovations. “We are very excited to add FTT Payments to this group of industry-leading events”.  

 Additional benefits of FTT Payments and the co-located events include: 

• Speaking sessions featuring over 120 industry leaders 
• Over 600 attendees made up of a disruptive community of banks, payment processors, payments gateways, payment networks, and other payment facilitators, as well as retailers, manufacturers, e-commerce companies, vertical SaaS providers, insurers, telcos, financial institutions, fintechs and tech innovators.  
• The opportunity to make connections through networking sessions and to apply to be part of the expanded VIP Hosted Meetings Programme.  

 Registration is now open, and the full range of ticket options is available here.

DKK Partners FZE, based in the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), a subsidiary of DKK Partners, a leading FinTech company specializing in Emerging Markets (EM) and Foreign Exchange (FX) liquidity, has been granted Initial Approval by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to offer Virtual Asset Broker Dealer Services. DKK Partners FZE will continue to work towards acquiring a full Virtual Asset Service Provider Licence from VARA.

DKK Partners empowers corporates & institutions in emerging markets with expert FX solutions. They manage currency risk, secure optimal liquidity, & streamline local collections, driving business growth.

The VARA initial approval allows DKK FZE to move forward in the licensing process as they look to offer corporate and institutional customers in Dubai and the UAE access to stablecoin blockchain technology, utilizing USDT and USDC.  

Khalid Talukder, Co-Founder and CEO of DKK Partners, said:

"It is an incredibly exciting time for DKK in the Middle East and securing the VARA Initial approval will enable us to continue making a splash in the region. Our expansion to Dubai last year was a huge success and we’re looking to extend our influence in the market by strengthening our compliance and innovation in the Virtual Asset space. This license is a game-changer for DKK and the digital asset landscape in Dubai empowering businesses to confidently engage in blockchain technology, benefiting from the stability of stablecoins and the regulatory framework."

Victoria Albergini, Head of Partnerships for DKK Partners FZE in Dubai said:

“Since our launch last year, DKK Dubai has gone from strength to strength and is now in a prime position in the rapidly evolving digital asset landscape. The VARA initial approval enhances our ability to serve the unique needs of corporate and institutional customers.”

The VARA Initial Approval furthers DKK Partners’ overarching digital asset strategy, establishing Dubai as a pivotal hub for their operations in the Middle East.

R3, the enterprise distributed ledger technology (DLT) and services firm, has appointed Bob Wigley, to its board as a Non-Executive Director. 

Wigley, who has Chaired UK Finance for the last six years, joins R3 after leading the UK Finance digital tokenization task force, which produced the report Unlocking the power of securities tokenization. Wigley was previously EMEA Chairman of Merrill Lynch where he took a keen interest in market infrastructures as a member of the boards of the Bank of England, Euroclear, and LCH Clearnet. He is an Honorary Fellow at Judge Business School within Cambridge University’s Centre for Alternative Finance. 

In his role at R3, Wigley will strengthen the company’s strategy with his expertise in digital finance and help drive further adoption of R3’s new product offering, R3 Digital Markets, amongst financial institutions across the globe. The company recently launched R3 Digital Markets, an end-to-end suite of digital solutions designed to help firms adopt and drive value across digital assets and digital currencies, from initial exploration to full-scale implementation. The new suite future-proofs asset transfer and integration, instantly adding value to existing systems and enabling quicker, more efficient workflows.

“I’m delighted to join R3 at a time when R3 Digital Markets is transforming the way global financial markets operate,” said Wigley. “R3 is the catalyst behind pioneering CBDC and other real financial asset tokenization projects, and I look forward to working with the team and its customers to continue driving adoption in new geographies and asset classes.”

“We’re excited to welcome Bob to the R3 board of directors. His extensive experience in progressing regulated financial infrastructure is crucial as we build the foundations for interoperable regulated networks,” said David E. Rutter, CEO at R3. “His insight and strong industry connections will be an invaluable addition to our board, at a time when R3 is working with financial institutions and FMIs to digitize global markets.” 

Dyce Energy, a gas and electric provider for UK businesses, has announced today that it will be renewing its relationship with GoCardless, the bank payment company, for another three years. The new contract will see Dyce Energy continue a six-year relationship with GoCardless to collect recurring payments through Direct Debit.

Currently, 96% of Dyce Energy’s customers pay their monthly energy bill through GoCardless. The automatic Direct Debit payments, which pull the funds from a customer’s bank account on the day they’re due, have helped Dyce Energy stay in control of its cash flow through the COVID-19 pandemic and global energy crisis.

The simplicity of managing recurring payments through GoCardless offers Dyce Energy greater visibility and security around cash flow and helps their customer service and finance teams save time. Moreover, customers get a consistent and smooth payment experience.  

Carl Fisher, Managing Director at Dyce Energy, said:  “We’re pleased to continue our partnership with GoCardless to keep providing our customers with fast and convenient Direct Debit payments. GoCardless ultimately gives us more control over when and how we get paid, and the round-the-clock support we receive from the GoCardless team has given us greater confidence in the solution. Getting the tech to do more of the work of managing and reconciling payments is vital to keeping our costs low, so we can offer competitive prices and maximize available resources to invest in growth.” 

Pat Phelan, MD of UK & Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at GoCardless said: “After a transformative few years for the energy industry, we’re proud to have helped Dyce Energy gain more control of their recurring payments, and are excited to continue this relationship. We look forward to supporting Dyce Energy’s growth by helping them not only get paid on time but also to win and retain more customers.”

 This signing strengthens GoCardless’ footprint in the utility industry and its position as an industry player in open banking. By offering both Direct Debit for recurring bill collection and Instant Bank Pay, its open banking-powered feature to collect instant, one-off payments, GoCardless acts as a full-service provider for any merchant who wants to take regular and ad hoc payments.