Ebury, one of the world's largest fintech companies specializing in transactions for SMEs, today announced its partnership expansion with Nium, the leader in real-time global payments, to deliver a groundbreaking global remittance service in Brazil.

The announcement follows regulatory approval of Ebury's acquisition of Brazilian fintech Bexs, which includes the businesses Bexs Banco (foreign exchange) and Bexs Pay (payments), in October 2023. The institution is known as Ebury Bank in Brazil, reflecting the local FX banking license held in the country.

Together, Nium and Ebury will enable businesses to send or receive fast, reliable, and affordable cross-border payments to and from Brazil. This builds on the duo's existing partnership in Europe, in which London-based fintech Ebury leverages Nium's global payments infrastructure to send international supplier and payroll payments around the world.

Nium's bulk cross-border payments solution for banks and financial institutions will be integrated into Ebury's high-scale payment flows to improve the speed, efficiency, and cost of international business transactions. The partnership will also enhance Brazil's connection to new emerging markets that would otherwise be out of reach. Currently, Nium's payment network supports payouts in over 100 currencies to more than 190 countries, 100 of them in real-time.

"Our mission is to connect Brazilian consumers to the world and the world to Brazil's consumer ecosystem. And the best way to do this is to use high-technology solutions and global coverage, such as those offered by Nium, which bring security and effectiveness to transactions. This is a game changer for us. The product demos gave our team a lot of confidence and the technological integration process was seamless and conclusive, reflecting a great start for the partnership," said Luiz Henrique Didier Jr., Executive Director at Ebury Bank in Brazil.

Building on its global customer base and breadth of coverage across APAC, the U.S. and EMEA, Nium is focused on LATAM as a strategic growth market. The fintech has been operating in the region for some time but marked its formal entry with the opening of a local office in Sao Paulo in August 2023. Nium's agreement with Ebury is its first bank partnership in Brazil.

Brazil's digital payments market is projected to grow to a total transaction value of US $170 bn in 2024. Government statistics indicate there are over 21 million SMEs in Brazil today, with a total estimated population of over 215 million people.

"Brazil has tremendous potential to set a global example in digital payment innovation. But today, businesses and individuals here continue to face costly hidden fees, significant delays, and uncertainty every time they send or receive international payments via traditional wires or legacy banking systems. We are thrilled to expand our existing collaboration with Ebury in Europe to help Brazil's underbanked SME and consumer population access more affordable and efficient ways to send and receive money. This is another great example of how cutting-edge cross-border payment solutions are having a meaningful impact on the lives of millions of people around the world," said Christina Hutchinson, General Manager, Brazil and Head of Business Development, LATAM at Nium.

Numeral, the payment technology provider, today announces the support of Swift payments, enabling companies and financial institutions to automate cross-border payments with their partner banks to more than 200 countries, in addition to local European SEPA as well as UK Bacs, FPS, and CHAPS payments, from a single platform.

“At Numeral, we enable any company processing large volumes of payments to build the perfect payment infrastructure for its specific needs on top of the partner banks of its choice. Enabling our customers to leverage the Swift payment capabilities of the banks connected to Numeral dramatically expands their payments reach while keeping the benefits of managing all their payments from a single platform,” says Édouard Mandon, co-founder and CEO at Numeral.

With the addition of Swift payments, Numeral customers can now benefit from Swift’s global reach combined with the speed, lower cost, and high local reach of local payment schemes. With Numeral, companies can programmatically manage payments through the banks and schemes that best fit their needs without building multiple integrations.

Numeral capabilities for Swift payments include:

• Sending and receiving Swift payments through partner banks

• Automatic reconciliation of Swift payments with corresponding bank account transactions

• Programmatic access to currency account statements, including latest available balances

“Numeral will pursue this more global, more local strategy in the future. We aim to support more European payment schemes and integrate with more European banks while adding more global payment options to our platform through global networks like Swift and global banks like J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas and HSBC,” says Édouard Mandon.

Finastra has today announced UNITAS as a strategic partner for Finastra’s Kondor treasury solution in South Korea. The combination of Finastra’s best-of-breed trading system with UNITAS’s local expertise and deep experience in providing risk and compliance solutions to financial institutions will enable more banks in the country to digitally transform and grow their business.

“After many years helping banks in South Korea to digitally transform their treasury operations, we are excited to combine our experience with UNITAS – a leading name in South Korea’s financial risk and compliance market,” said Richard Zhu, Managing Director, Treasury & Capital Markets, APAC, Finastra.

“With its experience and reach in the market, working alongside UNITAS will enable us to bring an even more comprehensive offering to Korean financial institutions and help grow their businesses.” “With our common client profile, this partnership presents clear synergies and enables us to offer Finastra’s best-of-breed trading system to our existing and new clients, as well as opening up a new revenue stream,” said Dooho Lee, Director, UNITAS.“We look forward to working with Finastra to help more banks transform their treasury operations.”

Finastra Kondor enables financial institutions to trade high volumes of treasury while offering the flexibility to support more complex derivatives, options, and structured trades. The solution can be easily integrated with existing systems and applications, enabling simplification, lowering costs, and creating a single source of truth – all while ensuring that the organization remains compliant.

CLARA Analytics, which offers a claims intelligence platform, has received an investment from Nationwide Ventures, the investment arm of Nationwide. CLARA has raised a total of $64 million, including its recently announced Series C.

Founded in 2016, CLARA’s product suite applies image recognition, natural language processing, and other AI-based techniques to unlock insights from medical notes, bills and other documents surrounding a claim. Some of its clients include Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies, AmTrust, Amerisure, QBE, and Amazon.

“The Nationwide investment is a huge vote of confidence from a leading voice in the industry. We have more than doubled our annual recurring revenue in the past year as carriers recognize the value of AI in claims management. We expect our rapid growth to accelerate even further as AI becomes a mainstay in modern claims management organizations.” – Heather H. Wilson, CEO of CLARA Analytics.

“Since partnering together in 2022, Nationwide has seen the very substantial benefits that this technology can offer. We’re excited to expand this relationship and look forward to what’s to come between our two companies.” – George Williams, Chief Operating Officer of Commercial, E&S and Specialty at Nationwide.

According to the Intuit QuickBooks Entrepreneurship in 2024 Report, solopreneurs are increasing in numbers as more people leap to work for themselves. Nearly a quarter of U.S. consumers said they plan to start a new business in 2024, and two-thirds believe that starting a business is a better path to building personal wealth, even when compared to buying a house.

“Many solopreneurs are at that critical phase where they need to better understand their business to chart a path to financial stability,” said Michael Hitchcock, vice president, Accounting and Tax, QuickBooks. “QuickBooks Solopreneur is designed specifically for one-person businesses who crave simplicity and don’t yet require an advanced accounting solution. It enables them to get a holistic view of their finances, manage daily operations, and be ready for tax time so they can grow on their own terms.”

QuickBooks Solopreneur includes a suite of intuitive tools and features. With QuickBooks Solopreneur, business owners can:

• Manage books, all in one place: Access transaction management tools that automatically separate business and personal transactions into categories for easy review, and connect bank accounts, and import spreadsheet data for a full view of operations. Plus, customers can seamlessly track mileage, create and send customized invoices and estimates, view reports, and more.
• Utilize tools and insights to drive business decisions: Easily view income, expenses, and profit with simple reports and dashboards to stay in control of cash flow in real-time. Customers can also set up trackable goals, view insights, and see recommended actions to help them to make smarter business decisions and achieve goals.
• Make tax time less taxing: Stay tax-ready year-round with tools that auto-track miles on the go through the QuickBooks mobile app, and easily categorize business trips for accurate tax time deductions for business expenses. Customers can also move seamlessly from books to taxes to easily prepare and file tax year returns directly in QuickBooks, and access expert help through QuickBooks Live Assisted Tax, powered by TurboTax, to help them file with confidence.

Adding to the growing solopreneur community are side-jiggers, who currently run their own business in addition to working a day job. These individuals have set clear financial goals before they plan to commit to solopreneurship full–time. More than half of America’s side-giggers said they won’t quit their day job until their side business earns $50,000 - $100,000, and one in three (33%) say their business is currently making less than $25,000. QuickBooks Solopreneur can help both aspiring and current solopreneurs reach these financial goals, wherever they are in their business journey.

“Being able to seamlessly navigate the features has made a tremendous impact on the financial health of my business,” said Dr. Brenda Sacino PT DPT, owner of Playful Progress in Bedford, NH and a QuickBooks Solopreneur beta customer. “Having started my business less than a year ago, I was worried about having to account for everything myself, but QuickBooks Solopreneur has kept me organized and made the financial management painless!”

Built on the expertise gained from serving self-employed business owners with QuickBooks Self-Employed, which launched in 2015, ​​QuickBooks Solopreneur provides an elevated experience with added flexibility and productivity tools designed for the needs of one-person businesses, to help them set financial goals and further grow. Additionally, QuickBooks Solopreneur will soon offer a more seamless experience across the QuickBooks ecosystem to meet a solopreneur's growing needs, including upgrading to QuickBooks Online and accessing other QuickBooks tools and services.

Klarna, the AI-powered global payments provider and shopping assistant, has revealed UK consumers paid off 97.4% of Black Friday orders on time or early, an increase of 2% compared with last year. The data comes as Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey declared yesterday that the UK’s recession may already be over. Klarna’s Buy Now Pay Later products are always interest-free and, if paid on time, incur no fee.

Over half (51%) of purchases were paid off early, ahead of their due date. In stark contrast, a third of consumers in the UK(1) did not think they would be able to pay off their Christmas credit card bill in full, at a time when credit card interest rates are at their highest in 27 years according to Bank of England data, while banks continue to report their biggest annual profits since the 2007 financial crisis. 

In 2023, Klarna processed a record number of Black Friday orders, as consumers shun predatory credit cards in favor of interest-free BNPL options. Klarna continues to grow, with over 18 million UK customers and its fastest-growing age group being the over-60s, showing that all generations see the benefits of BNPL as a healthier credit option to credit cards. 

The data rebuts numerous warnings from media and campaign groups around the dangers of BNPL and correlates with a recent report published by Experian. Unlike most reports on BNPL, Experian’s is based on real-world transactional data. The report found that those who use BNPL are 13.4% less likely to be over-indebted or behind on all credit payments than people who don't use BNPL.

“Our BNPL products offer a fairer alternative to predatory credit cards, with short-term payment cycles and no ability to revolve. It’s not in our interest to lend to those who can’t afford to repay, which is why we make a new lending decision on each transaction, and restrict the use of our products if repayments are missed. By publishing this data, we hope to show that our consumers are smart and responsible shoppers,” said Raji Behal, Head of Western and Southern Europe at Klarna.

To discourage late payments, in March 2023 Klarna launched a £5 late fee for payments made after a seven-day grace period and a minimum of four friendly reminders. Each fee is capped at 25% of the order value and there will be no more than two fees per order, meaning the maximum fee would be £10. In May 2023, Klarna launched the industry’s first Credit opt-out feature, giving consumers the power to switch off access to Klarna’s credit opt-out products at checkout. These innovations, in addition to the other safeguards, mean that Klarna’s default rate remains below 1%, 30-40% lower than credit card companies. 

Green Dot Corporation, a leading digital bank and fintech providing seamless banking and payment services to consumers and businesses, announced a new partnership with Dayforce, Inc.. Through this partnership, Green Dot will serve as the U.S. banking provider for Dayforce Wallet, the HCM company's on-demand pay solution. Dayforce Wallet is leveraging Green Dot’s BaaS platform – which delivers end-to-end embedded finance solutions for a wide range of partners – to provide employers and their employees a feature-rich suite of services that includes access to earned wages on demand via mobile app, linked prepaid cards for making purchases, and cash withdrawals at a growing network of fee-free ATMs, with more to come.

“At a time when employees crave more wellness support from employers, on-demand pay is a critical benefit that will soon become the norm for many employers and employees across all industries,” said Deepa Chatterjee, COO, Dayforce Consumer Services, Dayforce. “Through innovations like Dayforce Wallet, we’re helping to make work life better for our customers and their people – and we look forward to partnering with Green Dot as our new banking partner for our award-winning on-demand pay solution.”

On-demand pay is an employee benefit and a financial wellness tool offered by employers that gives employees access to their earned wages on demand versus relying on a traditional pay cycle. Providing on-demand pay has proven to be an effective driver of employee engagement and retention based on a survey of Dayforce Wallet users:

• 65 percent said on-demand pay is an employer benefit that is very important to them.
• Respondents said on-demand pay is nearly as important to them as retirement/401(k) (83 percent) and life insurance (79 percent).
• Respondents said that Dayforce Wallet helps them pay most of their bills on time (84 percent), pay off some credit card debt (67 percent), and put money into savings monthly (57 percent).
• Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) say that on-demand pay has had a positive impact on their perception of their employer.

“Today’s workers want flexible, seamless access to their earned wages along with tools that can help with understanding and managing cash flow,” said Simran Singh, Head of Enterprise Business Development, Embedded Finance, Green Dot. “We’re thrilled to partner with Dayforce to better support employers and their employees in making on-demand pay embedded banking and finance solutions available to the huge population of Americans that need and want that flexibility.”

With this new partnership, Green Dot will facilitate banking services for Dayforce Wallet users in the United States, continuing to free up access to earned wages for employees who have access to this benefit. Existing and new Dayforce Wallet users will continue to have access to their earned wages at no cost through the Dayforce Wallet app.

Western Union and Mercado Pago today announced growth in their existing relationship, allowing United States and Canadian customers to send money from Western Union’s mobile app, website, or one of its retail locations to Mercado Pago wallet accounts in Mexico.

"The new capability not only extends the geographic reach and level of choice for the companies’ customers, but also provides speed and convenience. Once sent, the money is credited in Mercado Pago accounts without leaving the comforts of home.

“The growth of our relationship confirms that we are improving a vital transaction for millions of families in Mexico. Our goal is to become the best banking app to receive remittances in Mexico and now with this development, we can also become the simplest option for those who send remittances from the United States and Canada,” celebrated Pedro Rivas, General Manager, Mercado Pago Mexico.

The agreement with Mercado Pago reinforces Western Union’s leadership role in helping Mexicans conveniently send money worldwide over digital and retail channels.

“Western Union and Mercado Pago collectively share a mission to increase customers’ access to digital and traditional financial services,” said Claudia Reyes, Vice President and General Manager, Western Union Mexico. “As we build on growth and innovation across Mexico and its key corridors, we are excited to continue our work with Mercado Pago while providing choice across digital and physical channels for our customers.”

Once customers send money using the Western Union app, Mercado Pago wallet account holders in Mexico can easily withdraw cash for free with a debit card in thousands of ATMs and stores, use the funds to pay for services directly through the Mercado Pago application or transfer funds to others.