Flywire, a provider of global payment solutions for businesses and institutions, today announced the appointment of Rob Orgel to the newly created position of President and Chief Operating Officer. In the role, Orgel will oversee the company’s global payment network, business operations, finance, legal, compliance, and corporate strategy and development. He will report to CEO Mike Massaro who will now focus his efforts on the company’s long-term growth plans, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market expansion.

“Flywire is no longer a startup and as we grow, we need to add not only leadership ability, but also demonstrated experience in scaling, developing and shaping an organization for the future,” said Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire. “Rob brings all of that and more with a customer-first mindset from Apple that fits perfectly with our culture here. I’ve had the opportunity to work with him before and know that he’ll add tremendous value to the business and the organization as we write our next chapter.”

Orgel brings an unrivaled view of the payments/receivables ecosystem to Flywire, including hands-on experience in legal, compliance, finance, go-to-market, business development and global operations.

Before joining Flywire, he spent close to 10 years at Apple where he was part of the leadership team that developed, launched and grew the Apple Pay business. Today Apple Pay is available in 49 countries and has processed over 10 billion transactions. Most recently, Orgel was involved in the launch of the new Apple Card, now viewed as one of the most successful ever for a credit card.

He joined Apple in 2010 with its acquisition of Quattro Wireless, an early innovator in the mobile advertising space. Before that, Orgel played key leadership roles at m-Qube, a first-of-its kind carrier billing and payment platform that was acquired by Verisign, and edocs, a leading e-billing and payment solution acquired by Oracle/Siebel.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time to be joining a company on the fast track like Flywire where every day and every decision matters,” said Orgel. “Mike and the rest of the team have created tremendous success and momentum and I’m looking forward to doing my part to help the company accelerate its growth and expand its impact in the payments ecosystem.”

A survey by Compass Plus, an international provider of retail banking and electronic payments software to processors and financial institutions, has revealed that while millennials rely heavily on their mobile phones, they consider them one of the least secure payment methods.

The results show that 93% of consumers under the age of 30 cannot imagine leaving the house without their phone and would rather forget their wallet than the all-important gadget. However, despite this reliance on the mobile device, an overwhelming majority (86% of respondents) believe the mobile is one of the least secure ways to make payments, alongside cheques and contactless cards. Interestingly, when asked what their primary way of paying would be in 10 years, nearly a quarter (22%) of millennials think they will be paying by phone – coming second to multiple methods (39%). The fact that millennials believe they will mainly be paying by mobile in 10 years, even though they consider it to be one of the least secure ways to pay, shows that the age group values convenience over security.

If we compare these results to the 2018 survey, it is noticeable that the millennial generation is still unsure about the security of mobile payments. In 2018, mobile was also voted the second least secure payment method, behind using multiple methods (44%) and almost a third of surveyed under 30s saw it as their primary payment method in 10 years’ time – although this number has dropped to 22% a year later.

Interestingly, the survey revealed a completely different perception of cash by those under the age of 30. Despite not seeing cash as a future of payments (with no respondents believing they would be using it as their primary payment method in 10 years), the younger consumers consider cash to be one of the most secure payment methods. It came 3^rd after credit and debit cards with an impressive trust rating of 75% amongst millennials.

The continued reliance on cash is also reflected in millennials’ regular use of ATMs. Though not the largest age group to actively perform ATM transactions (57% of over 60s use ATMs weekly or more often), millennials still find themselves regularly making a trip to the nearest self-service terminal – almost 40% do it at least once a week.

Compass Plus has been undertaking research into consumer and industry expectations of the payments market since 2011, and this year’s survey took in the views of 200 consumers across the UK, who were asked to describe their current payment habits and how they think these may change in the future.

The flagship Current Account Switch Service, which is owned and operated by the UK’s leading payments authority Pay.UK, today welcomes another brand to join the service.

Unity Trust Bank is the latest to offer consumers a simple, reliable and stress-free means of switching banking provider.

Since launching in 2013, around six million current accounts have been switched by the Current Account Switch Service. Last year, 99 per cent were completed within seven working days, and consumer satisfaction averaged 93 per cent. The service continuing to play a key role in supporting the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) measures to increase competition in the current account market.

Matthew Hunt, Chief Operating Officer of Pay.UK, owner and operator of the Current Account Switch Service, said:

“To continue to see banks join the Current Account Switch Service is a testament to the success of the service since launch, six years and over six million switches ago.  The more bank account providers that join the service, the more people will be able to access the account that suits them, while having the peace of mind that everything will be taken care of throughout the switch.

“It’s great to be welcoming Unity Trust Bank to the service, further improving the choice for end users.”

Unity Trust Bank is a commercial bank with a difference; it only lends to organisations that contribute towards positive economic, community and environmental change. Unity provides a range of 5* Moneyfacts rated accounts and banking services to SMEs, charities, trade unions and other non-profit organisations.

Lindsey Podolanski, Chief Operating Officer at Unity Trust Bank, said:

“We’re delighted to join the Current Account Switch Service as we continually strive to provide our customers with an efficient and value-driven service.

“As Unity Trust Bank experiences significant growth, being part of the service will strengthen our current offering and enable businesses to make the switch to us in the most straightforward way. Ultimately we want to ensure that switching to us is a simple and stress-free service for our new customers.

Independent research firm Forrester has named F-Secure Consulting as a “Strong Performer” in their recent report, The Forrester Wave™: European Cybersecurity Consulting Providers, Q4 2019*. The evaluation is the first to assess F-Secure’s newly-formed consultancy unit. In it, Forrester recognized F-Secure Consulting for demonstrating “superior technical skills.”

Forrester’s evaluation considered F-Secure Consulting’s strategy and service offerings, as well as client testimonies. F-Secure received the highest possible scores in the cyber security focus, technical consulting and assessment capabilities, as well as the research and development initiatives, and customer satisfaction criteria.

The report has been welcomed by F-Secure as an accurate reflection of why customers choose to partner with F-Secure Consulting. For organizations that haven’t worked with F-Secure Consulting previously, the Forrester report finds that they should consider engaging F-Secure Consulting if they are "looking for excellent technical consulting services backed up by active security research.”

Ian Shaw, F-Secure Consulting’s Executive VP, comments that “as a dedicated cyber security consultancy, our clients rely on us to deliver a broad range of technical services and insights to help them overcome new and complex security challenges.”

Shaw comments that he believes Forrester’s findings confirm that F-Secure Consulting’s research-led approach is having a positive impact on the European cyber security industry.

“We’re able to harness the collective expertise of hundreds of consultants, from a range of cyber security disciplines, to find new innovative solutions to our customer’s evolving security needs.”

The report also states that “reference customers praised F-Secure for its responsiveness, deep technical skills in specialist technologies and its ability to support urgent requests.”

“We’re committed to providing our consultants with a collaborative environment that supports research and development,” Shaw says. “Not only does this allow them to develop the deep technical skills and innovative solutions our clients demand to stay at the forefront of their respective industries, it also allows us to attract much-needed new talent into the cyber security industry.”

Shaw’s final point was also something that was recognized by Forrester, which stated in their evaluation that F-Secure offers “one of the most outstanding technical career paths of any firm in this evaluation.”

The regulatory landscape is becoming increasingly complex on the buy-side, with the introduction and evolution of regulations like Solvency 2, PRIIPs and IFRS 9. On a yearly basis, CACEIS needs to produce over 10000 annual and semi-annual reports, for different business lines (Mutual Funds, Private Equity & Real estate Funds) for a dozen of jurisdictions, up to 250 pages long, with around 30 different contributors and in 4 or 5 different languages. The amount of time spent on these reports is not only time consuming, but time-sensitive. When the demand comes from clients or regulators, firms generally have 3-6 weeks to provide the relevant reports.

As a result, CACEIS chose NeoXam to help them automate and ease this complex process. NeoXam’s Impress solution is based on NeoXam’s award-winning DataHub onboarding its Accounting Book of Records (ABOR), ensuring high quality and well-presented Data in all the reports that CACEIS generates.

Ramy El Houayek, Global Head of Operations Fund Services at CACEIS, said: “When it came to winning new business, the ability to provide our clients with tailor-made reports became a huge crunch point. We investigated several reporting solutions, but none offered this level of customisation as well as automation. As a result, we turned to NeoXam to provide a solution which is agile, not only when it comes to responding quickly to regulator demands, but also in providing each new client with a personalised and detailed report.”

Didier Roubinet, Chief Strategy Officer at NeoXam, commented: “We are convinced that the future of reporting is digital. To remain competitive, firms need to be able to tell the whole story behind their figures, rather than just providing a printed snapshot. This is why we created a solution which allows firms to give a dynamic representation of their data, as well as coping with increased reporting demands under new regulations. We’ve worked closely with CACEIS for over a decade, and are happy to continue to support them in their growth.”

The rapidly growing Finnish savings bank, OmaSp, has chosen Nets to enable mobile payments for its customers. Initially OmaSp will offer Google Pay for Visa Credit cardholders, with debit cards on the roadmap for 2020.

By partnering with Nets, banks can offer their customers the freedom to choose their preferred payment method.

Pasi Sydänlammi, CEO of OmaSp, says: “We can now offer a modern, mobile method of payment. It’s important to us that our customers can decide which payment method suits them best: card, cash or smartphone. We want to make our customers’ everyday lives easier and offer new, easy and safe digital payment methods alongside traditional ones. Our close cooperation with Nets, one of Europe’s leading payment service providers, ensures that we can bring the most innovative payment methods to our customers quickly.”

Nets’ LCM services simplify mobile payments for issuers by using one simple API that supports multiple card schemes and services, and managing all compliance elements.

The partnership brings significant operational and strategic advantages to OmaSp. The savings bank secures operational efficiencies, as internal resource spent on compliance, generic maintenance and scheme updates is minimised. This enables the bank to redirect its internal resources towards value-creation and core services.

Sirpa Nordlund, Country Director of Nets in Finland, comments: “Providing easier products and solutions to banks and their customers is at the core of Nets. As such, we are investing heavily in new, innovative payment methods, with security and stability always a priority. We are happy to be able to provide a streamlined service offering, which enables OmaSp to answer customer demand in a world where different payment methods are increasing in variety and popularity like never before.”

Nets’ LCM includes multiple services and can support all current ‘xPay’ services, including Google Pay, Apple Pay and Fitbit Pay. The product has been designed to evolve over time to include future payment methods, effectively future-proofing issuers against changing consumer usage of different payment form factors. All development is carried out by Nets and issuers can benefit from this through the APIs.

Moorwand, a dedicated BIN sponsor that turns compliance into a competitive advantage, has today launched its online acquiring solution for customers – banks, fintechs, processors, PSPs and merchants – across Europe. Moorwand’s Merchant Acquiring provides a single payment gateway with access to multiple global payment schemes, and a multitude of payment methods, enabling businesses to process transactions, profitably.

Moorwand’s acquiring solution encompasses merchant processing and settlement, refund processing, fraud prevention and chargeback management, providing access to multi-scheme acquiring and operating within flexible payment cycles. Its pricing model is simple and competitive. Acquiring across the SEPA region will cost 1.1% per transaction where established rivals are closer to 3%. Merchant customers of Moorwand’s acquiring service are also granted access to the company’s Digital Banking solution, now supporting SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) transfers. Merchants gain real-time settlement of acquired transactions, mitigating cash flow issues by enabling instant access to customer spend.

The new solution, developed by Moorwand’s team of industry experts, comes as a response to growing demand for frictionless ecommerce payment solutions in an increasingly commodified market, squeezed on margin. Customers can expect low operational costs, high-performance, and compliance with industry regulations. This launch is an important milestone in Moorwand’s mission to help its customers meet rising demand for diverse but seamless payment options, at convenience.

“Technological, social and regulatory headwinds are transforming business models across the sector,” said Robert Courtneidge, CEO of Moorwand. “Existing payment providers face rising commodification and they need to explore new ways of driving revenue as transaction fees plummet. Both new and existing providers need new money models that unlock value whilst ensuring compliance. With our Merchant Acquiring service, financial institutions and merchants benefit from offering or using these services simply, securely and profitably. And this is just the beginning. This launch forms part of a wider company strategy that will see our range of services expand over the coming months, including point-of-sale solutions.”

Specialist Regtech provider Shield is proud to announce it has been awarded 'Fintech Innovation: Best Regtech Platform 2019' by Juniper Research’s Future Digital Awards. The award recognises the Shield platform’s contribution to the Regtech sphere, which has become vital to the financial sector in an age of big data and rapidly expanding regulations.

Shiran Weitzman, CEO and Co-Founder at Shield commented, “We are extremely proud to be recognised in these highly respected and influential awards. Financial regulations are evolving faster than ever and coupled with huge increases in data, it means that it is almost impossible to manually process these with full assurance that regulatory compliance is being met. Regtech has never been more important and this award recognises Shield’s excellence in providing our market-leading solution.”

The rigorous judging process of the Future Digital Awards involves a shortlisting from the experts at Juniper Research and then assessment by a panel of independent judges, ensuring entries are thoroughly checked and the winners chosen on merit alone. The Shield entry demonstrated that its platform brings order to the chaos of processing both structured and unstructured data to ensure financial firms meet applicable regulations such as MiFID II, MAR and forthcoming EU ePrivacy.

The awards highlight Shield’s innovative approach, recognising that data can only be effectively managed and investigated once all eComms channels have been consolidated and ordered. Without this, Compliance teams face high levels of false positives which waste time/resources and obscure real issues.

The Shield solution is designed to fully support financial firms with their compliance obligations, as Shiran added, “Our platform evolves to ensure firms are always up to date with the latest changes or updates in legislation and (unlike many Regtech solutions) it is also field proven showing it is highly reliable and usable in the real world. It offers a highly efficient and cost-effective choice which meets any and all potential Regtech needs. In a rapidly changing world (such as the uncertainty of Brexit looming), it’s essential for firms to have complete control and full reliance on their compliance function.”

To benefit an even wider range of financial firms, Shield also recently released Shield for small to medium sized (SME) investment firms - a dedicated new version of its cloud-based, cross-regulation and comprehensive eComms compliance platform that specifically caters for the needs of small and medium-sized financial services firms.

This new version has been developed in response to industry demand for a solution that meets the unique requirements and budgets of these smaller, highly dynamic businesses whilst being highly affordable and simple to deploy and maintain – even for businesses that lack specific technical expertise.

NatWest today brings its business banking customers Apple Pay, which is transforming payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay. With Apple Pay on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac, customers can make fast and convenient purchases in stores, in apps and on websites.

NatWest has launched the new feature across its full range of VISA debit cards to its 1 million Business Banking customers, complementing the existing range of payment options for SMEs.

Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay. When you use a debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.

James Holian, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial and Private Banking, NatWest, said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing the ease and security that Apple Pay offers to our SME customers. NatWest is committed to providing simplicity and flexibility when it comes to how our customers bank with us, and Apple Pay will allow SMEs to make safe, fast business payments with minimal effort, leaving them with more time to get on with doing what they do best – running their business.”

Apple Pay is easy to set up and users will continue to receive all the benefits offered by NatWest’s business banking debit cards – including its online and award winning mobile banking services, and free access to leading accountancy software FreeAgent. 

With iPhone and Apple Watch, customers can pay with Apple Pay in stores, restaurants, taxis, vending machines and many more places. When shopping in apps or on the web in Safari with Apple Pay, there’s no need to manually fill out lengthy account forms or repeatedly type in shipping and billing information. Every Apple Pay purchase is authenticated with just a glance or a touch with Face ID or Touch ID, or a device's passcode.

ACH Alert, an award-winning provider of electronic payments fraud prevention technology for financial institutions of all sizes, announced it is attending the 2019 Hawaii Payments University & Fraud Day for the second year, taking place November 5-7 in Honolulu. The conference is hosted by PacPay, Federal Reserve Bank and PAR/WACHA.

Payments University is an intense, collegiate-style learning environment structured to provide holistic, concentrated payments education. The multi-track agenda provides targeted education through fundamental and advanced courses for both new and seasoned industry veterans, designed to allow participants to choose which sessions to attend based on desired topics.

During the conference, Deborah Peace, CEO of ACH Alert, will participate in Fraud Day by leading the session, Combatting Fraud: The Role of Voice Biometrics in Your Layered Security Program. Peace will also help moderate the interactive session, Advanced Exception Handling and Case Studies, to focus on challenges facing the employees and call centers managing ACH processing. Lastly, Peace will take part in the Payments Risk Management session to explore different kinds of risk each payment channel presents and offer solutions for managing those risks.

“With years of experience and extensive knowledge in the payments industry, we are excited to have Deborah back again to help educate attendees seeking guidance on transactions, trends and challenges accompanying the next era of payments,” said Mary Gilmeister, AAP, NCP, President of WACHA. “Payments University provides an informative, interactive opportunity for operations and treasury staff to learn about the latest trends in payments while also receiving credits for AAP and CTP certifications.”

“As the payments landscape continues to evolve, including the faster payments movement and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow service, treasury and finance professionals will benefit from a higher understanding of all types of transactions touched by their institution,” said Peace. “I look forward to connecting with like-minded attendees to discuss the past, present and future of the payments industry.”