Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, and Brightstar, a worldwide leader in device lifecycle management, have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the goal of collaborating in the areas of digital consumer lending, payment acceptance processing and card issuing.

Brightstar is the world’s leading mobile services company for managing devices and accessories, handling over 100 million devices per year, across 50 countries. SoftBank Group Corp., parent company of Brightstar and strategic partner of Wirecard, facilitated the proposed collaboration.

“As a global mobile services company, we aim to bring the latest technology to as many users as possible,” commented David Nanayakkara, EMEA President at Brightstar. “Through our collaboration with Wirecard we plan to expand our already wide-ranging service offering, and continue providing the most innovative services to our customers worldwide. We are excited to work with Wirecard, a company that complements our global reach and digital innovation ambitions.”

“We are looking forward to working together with Brightstar and exploring areas around digital payment and financing where we can cooperate strategically,” added Georg von Waldenfels, EVP Group Business Development at Wirecard. “Together, we expect to bring a variety of new solutions to the mobile services market on a global scale and we anticipate significant transaction volume out of this deal.”

Under the terms of the MOU, digital financial services via the Brightstar platform are expected to be handled by Wirecard as the preferred payment service provider with both companies proactively exploring opportunities for cooperation to support their digitalization endeavors from now onwards.

Technology company Iress today announced that Maybank Kim Eng will provide Iress’ online trading and market data software, ViewPoint, to its online trading community.

Maybank Kim Eng is the investment banking arm of Maybank. ViewPoint will be rolled out progressively to clients across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Iress, an ASX-listed, global provider of software to the financial services industry, has offices in Singapore and has been working with clients across Asia since 2010. Iress has partnered with Maybank Kim Eng since 2015, providing a range of market data and trading software. The expanded agreement will enable Maybank Kim Eng’s customers to research and trade global markets through ViewPoint’s web-based, multi-asset, multi-currency interface.

Maybank Kim Eng’s in-house broking team is already powered by Iress’ trading and market data software Pro – enabling Maybank Kim Eng to take advantage of real-time market data and in-depth analysis across 200 global markets with seamless connectivity to quickly and easily place trades via the Iress Order System.

Mr Jeffrey Goh, Managing Director and Regional Head of Brokerage, Maybank Kim Eng, said: “We chose to partner with Iress because of its well-established global credentials and on-the-ground intelligence as an independent and innovative software provider. After the successful implementation of Iress’ Pro and market data software, we’re pleased to now be offering ViewPoint to our growing customer base to share the benefits of their state-of-the-art tools and capabilities.”

Mr Jason Hoang, Managing Director, Asia for Iress, said: “We’re delighted to further our relationship with Maybank Kim Eng as a key technology partner to support the expansion of its online broking services across South-East Asia. We are committed to working closely with clients to provide them with a competitive advantage across all aspects of trading, data and wealth management.”

Trustly, the online banking payments company, announces today a partnership with Alibaba.com, a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform that serves more than 10 million buyers in over 190 countries and regions. Trustly’s payment solution is enabled for Alibaba.com through Trustly’s partner, Ingenico, the leading global payment service provider, and will provide an additional payment method for Alibaba.com’s European buyers. During its initial stage, Alibaba.com will launch Trustly’s bank payments in 16 European markets.¹

Online banking payments are one of the fastest-growing payment methods in Europe and are expected to surpass credit and debit cards in popularity for e-commerce purchases by 2024.² Trustly’s fast, simple and secure online transactions fulfill European’s growing demand for paying directly from their bank account, as opposed to assuming credit. Merchants benefit from receiving real-time confirmation when the payment is completed, and Trustly’s unique refund functionality helps them reduce costs and administrative complexity when dealing with returns.

Oscar Berglund, CEO at Trustly, said: “Alibaba.com is a force to be reckoned with in e-commerce and we are truly delighted to be one of its chosen bank payment providers for its European customers. Through Ingenico, we can help Alibaba.com offer a localized payment mix, which is crucial for converting new customers and improving loyalty and satisfaction among existing ones.”

¹ Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, UK

² Ovum, “Instant Payments and the Post-PSD2 Landscape,” 2017.

Pegasystems Inc, the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced that leading technology research and advisory firm Constellation Research has named Pega to the Constellation ShortList™ for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for Q3 2019. Pega was named among Constellation’s top robotic process automation (RPA) software solutions for the fourth consecutive time.

Constellation Research selected the top nine RPA solutions after evaluating over 40 solutions in the RPA marketplace. Solutions were judged based on 13 different qualifying metrics, including bot development, attended and unattended features for AI operation, automation management features, server and cloud-based solutions, reporting tools and analytics, resilience, IT automation business process management, and scripted automation. 

According to the report, “When people are faced with mundane or repetitive tasks, their employee satisfaction drops, and the quality of their work suffers. Thankfully there are applications available that can help alleviate some of these tasks, improving the quality of work. These tools are referred to as Robotic Process Automation (RPA).”

Part of the Pega Infinity™ software suite of cloud-based digital transformation solutions, Pega Robotic Automation™ helps enterprises jumpstart their digital transformation journeys by enabling organizations to automate tedious, manual tasks across the organization from end to end. Pega’s bots can be deployed as a stand-alone solution to solve discrete process inefficiencies – such as automating the triage and processing of inbound service emails – or as part of a complete, low-code digital process automation (DPA) solution to further drive continuous operational efficiency, refine workflow orchestration, and optimize work outcomes.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) has announced 7 British FinTech companies have been chosen for the third trade mission to Finnosummit, the largest FinTech conference in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.

The conference, which will have over 3000 entrepreneurs, financial services innovators, financial executives, and international investors in attendance, will take place in Mexico City from 9-13 September, and will offer UK FinTech firms the opportunity to:

• Participate in a Mexico FinTech immersion day, allowing them to have a clear understanding of the Mexican FinTech ecosystem
   
• Network with senior executives in banking, insurance, technology and finance and attend bespoke one-to-one meetings
   
• Attend presentations from industry insiders which will outline the main issues and considerations of doing business in Mexico 
   
• Attend workshops to help them showcase their expertise to business audiences

The businesses were chosen for their cutting- edge financial solutions expertise, in a rigorous recruitment process, which prioritised companies which could meet  the market demands and needs specific to  Mexico.

Mexico City was chosen to host the conference as it is home to the largest FinTech ecosystem, including hundreds of businesses, in the region.

Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade, said:

“The companies chosen for this year’s mission to Mexico showcase the best in class of our world-leading FinTech industry, which continues to attract the highest levels of capital in Europe.

“Whether it’s our comprehensive State of the Nation report, partnerships with FinTech Alliance, or the launch of our new Pilot Bridge Programs, DIT continues to be a firm ally to the UK’s FinTech industry and I am delighted we are supporting this mission to Finnosummit.”

Joanna Crellin, Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner (HMTC) for Latin America, said:

“The strength of the UK’s thriving FinTech sector is rapidly receiving great interest around the world. We are delighted to be supporting these FinTech firms as they offer their innovative solutions to one of the fastest growing ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mexico has taken significant steps in providing an open and collaborative market for FinTech to flourish in supporting underserved businesses and helping to meet the needs of the financially excluded.”

The UK Government is supporting the FinTech industry in Mexico with initiatives such as the Prosperity Fund Mexico programme. This will reach £60 million over 8 years and seeks to support growth in the country/ region, such as through the bolstering of technology and innovation through digital financial services, including the FinTech sector. £11 million of the fund has been allocated for this specifically.

An overview of some of the UK delegates:

Boseman specialises in money management technology through custom FinTech products in the investment and credit sectors, moving away from the use of robo-advisors. 

ComplyAdvantage helps firms make intelligent choices when complying with regulations relating to sanctions, money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing (CFT). Using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to produce higher quality AML risk data on individuals, organizations and associated entities. ComplyAdvantage works globally with some 200 firms in the financial markets and other regulated high-risk sectors.

Duesday seeks to make recurring payments easier through their mobile app. The streamlined platform allows users to view, pay and organise their bills in one place, rather than struggle with many different direct debit payments. Users can even change their date of payment and split bills with others, as well as unlock rewards for paying bills earlier.

Kession Capital Limited provides regulatory hosting services to the financial services sector, working with companies in the UK, Europe and Asia. Their services allow for fast and cost-effective listing of debt securities, open and closed-ended funds, securitisation cell companies, specialist investment vehicles, cryptocurrencies and other exchange-traded instruments for capital raising and investor diversification.

Paymentology works alongside banks and program managers to provide a seamless processing experience. Identifying gaps in the financial market, the company aims to help their clients in the areas of security, flexibility and reconciliation through digital processing platforms.

Rhisco Solutions Limited works internationally with banks and insurers in Latin America to provide risk management and capital services solutions through bespoke technology platforms. Examples include their TEGRA® data management, ALLGOOD® compliance, IBM Algo Credit Management solutions and more.

Yellow Submarine Ltd uses box algorithms that identify patterns in data in order to make machine learning accessible for everyone, including companies that will use the data to outline market trends. 

The European Women Payments Network (EWPN) and the Emerging Payments Association (EPA) are working together to bolster understanding of the diversity issues that exist in the financial services sector. The first output of this partnership is a new white paper published by the EPA today – “Women in Changing Times” – which sets out a baseline in gender equality issues that will allow for the measurement of change over time.

Martha Mghendi-Fisher, Founder of EWPN believes this partnership is crucial to understand the social and structural barriers that inhibit change so that initiatives and action can be taken to more effectively level the playing field. She said: “It is very exciting to be working with the EPA, with its reach and influence in the financial services sector. It is vital that we all understand the barriers that exist, not just from an anecdotal point of view, but from informed insight from across the sector.”

Tony Craddock, Director General of the EPA added:  “The EWPN has been working hard to tackle the diversity issues prevalent in our sector.  The EPA is, therefore, delighted to work alongside this organisation leveraging our own contacts and partners to gather the insight that we can all act on to improve the prospects for anyone who wants to work in the financial services sector.  Sharing insights and knowledge will help bring about change as quickly as possible.”

The EWPN and EPA will continue to work together on other research projects over the coming months.

Flywire and Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) today announced a new partnership that will simplify international tuition payments  for Vietnamese students. Working together the companies are addressing the unique requirements and nuances of the Vietnamese market and ensuring compliance with local regulations while offering students and their families greater convenience and choice.

By partnering with VPBank, Flywire enables Vietnamese students to make their international tuition payments in VND, via their preferred method, including bank transfers, which are very popular in Vietnam. The joint offering also provides an intuitive, digital workflow for the submission of necessary documentation required by local regulations. Previously, this process was highly manual, and student payment options were very limited. 

Flywire is the tuition payment solution of choice for international students and schools, having processed over $12 billion for 2,000+ education institutions around the world. The platform provides a single point of management and payer engagement from billing and payment through reconciliation. Schools can offer students and families a highly-tailored, convenient and secure payment experience – customized by school, country, and currency – while accelerating funds flow and streamlining operational expense.

“Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing countries of origin for international students around the world, and as the country’s economy continues to grow at a rapid rate, so too does the number of Vietnamese families sending children to study abroad,” said Ryan Frere, Vice President of Global Payments for Flywire. “Many of Flywire’s client schools in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia already have large Vietnamese student populations. Our collaboration with VPBank makes it significantly easier for those schools to serve students at higher levels in this important market.”  

The Prime Minister and the State Bank of Vietnam are promoting increased digitalization in the banking sector in the country. This includes a focus on facilitating non-cash payments and streamlining administrative procedures to save time and expense for organizations, individuals and society in general.

“The cooperation with Flywire demonstrates the bank’s dynamic thinking and actions, which reaffirms its advantages in technology, its ability to capture market demand and create the most convenient experience for customers,” said a VP spokesperson.

 Colt Technology Services today announced that it will enable enterprises direct, on-demand connections to Google Cloud globally.

Through the use of Colt’s Dedicated Cloud Access (DCA) offering powered by the Colt IQ Network, customers can connect from enterprise buildings or data centres to their Google Cloud instances with customer-dedicated bandwidth as well as low and deterministic latency.

Coupled with Colt’s On Demand offering, which rolled out further in May, enterprises will now be able to take full control over their network, connecting to Google Cloud in real-time via partner interconnect.

Managed via a rich self-service portal, On Demand networking allows organisations to flex bandwidth requirements up and down in near real-time as well as bypass legacy service delivery processes and lead times.

The Colt IQ Network includes a 100Gbps optimised, owned network, distributed to more than 900 data centres and more than 27,500 buildings around the world.

Colt’s Vice President Product Portfolio, Peter Coppens said: “Facilitating organisations migration and utilisation of the cloud has been a significant priority for Colt over the past few years. This extension of our proposition to allow organisations to connect not only directly to Google Cloud, but also have the connectivity delivered in real-time, ensures Colt can tangibly drive enterprises digital transformations.

“By partnering with Google Cloud to provide direct, on-demand connectivity to its cloud environment, customers get access to a cloud networking experience that helps drive cost efficiencies and increases bandwidth throughput. By being the backbone of such connections, we know that Colt continues to be a key partner in driving organisations forward.”

Enterprises across Europe, Asia and the US can connect to Google Cloud in real-time from today.