Payment solutions platform, Intrapay, has launched its payments Manifesto, discussing the future direction of the payments industry. In perspective: A Manifesto for better payments offers expert insights into the future of payments from five of Intrapay’s executive board members and chief payment experts:

• Director of Client Solutions, Colm Whelan explores the evolution of the payments industry and explains how merchants can manage the impact of change on their business.
• Chief Executive Officer, Koen Vanpraet investigates the scope for improving client intimacy in the payment process in the future.
• Chief Risk Officer, Stephen Buechner, argues that rather than putting a brake on innovation, risk management makes it possible to identify and successfully develop new payment solutions.
• Head of Professional Services, Jay Payne is on a mission to reverse the commoditisation of payments and move the focus back towards the user experience.
• Chief Product and Innovation Officer, Richard Beaton believes the payments industry is moving towards making better use of existing systems in order to improve the user experience.

Commenting on the new manifesto, CEO Koen Vanpraet explained: “The payments industry has transformed beyond all recognition in recent years, bringing exciting opportunities for merchants to grow. With this comes challenges in reconciling the goal of frictionless payments with optimum security. With this manifesto, everyone on the Intrapay team has put forward our vision of the future of the sector, exploring how we can work together as an industry to overcome obstacles and really transform the way consumers interact with businesses. It’s a fascinating read.”

If you would like to talk to one of team features in the manifesto to understand how you can improve the payment experience for your customers, contact: Callum Garner at callumg@skyparlour.com

CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the expansion of its CUSIP Options service to now include futures and options on futures for the North American market. The expansion was made possible through an extension of the CGS 2009 partnership with Euromoney TRADEDATA, a financial information provider specialising in futures and options products. Building on the partnership, CGS will now also assign CUSIPs and CGS ISINs to all standard options on standard futures listed by the major North American exchanges.

Exchange coverage for this new data set includes Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE), Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc (CME), New York Mercantile Exchange - Comex Division (COMEX), Eris Exchange (ERIS), Bourse de Montreal Inc (ME), Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE), Nodal Exchange (NEX), Nasdaq Futures Inc (NFX), ICE Futures U.S. Inc (NYBOT) and New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

By assigning CUSIP IDs to futures and options on futures, CGS will enable market participants to streamline their pre- and post-trade reporting requirements under the MiFID II and EMIR mandates. The use of CUSIP identifiers in this market will also simplify back-office operational processes by introducing the universally recognised and accessible 9-digit CUSIP taxonomy that is ubiquitous throughout financial markets as an alternative to more complex, asset class-specific identification schema that have previously been used to identify futures and options on futures.

“The addition of futures and options on standard futures into the CUSIP Options Service is an important step forward for transparency and accessibility in the futures markets,” said Matthew Bastian, Director, Market and Business Development and West Coast Operations at CUSIP Global Services. “Not only will this new coverage help global firms track futures and options on futures more efficiently, it will help to standardise the identification processes currently being used in these markets. We look forward to working with Euromoney TRADEDATA to make this important data set accessible to the marketplace.”

The CGS partnership with Euromoney TRADEDATA was formed initially in 2009 to launch CUSIP coverage for listed equity, index and ETF options in the U.S. market, and subsequently expanded in 2012 to add Canadian options and again in 2016, to add single stock futures. Building on the success of these initiatives, the two parties have now added options on standard futures to the CGS database.

Today, the CUSIP Options Service provides unique CUSIP IDs for over 500,000 equity, ETF and index options, along with accompanying ISINs and related data elements such as strike price, contract name, exchange code and underlying symbol. Market participants can receive the CUSIP Options Service directly from CGS or via an authorized market data vendor.

“We are delighted to reinforce the longstanding relationship Euromoney TRADEDATA has with CUSIP Global Services by introducing standard IDs for futures and options on futures,” said Mark Woolfenden, Managing Director, Euromoney TRADEDATA. “The addition of this data set to the trusted and long-proven CUSIP numbering system, will provide world class trade and product identification in this demanding asset class.”

Yolt, the smart thinking money app, has today announced it has connected with its first investment partner – Wealthify.

The joint in-app integration will enable Wealthify customers to view their investments within the Yolt money app, creating a new era of empowerment for consumers and enabling users to have one holistic overview of their money in one smart place. Yolt has become the first money app in the UK to show users’ live investments alongside other financial accounts including their bank account, credit card and savings accounts and even pensions.

Wealthify shares Yolt’s mission to empower users to take control of their finances. Both companies want to challenge the way people think about money and help users to make smarter financial decisions in a simple and straightforward way.

The announcement follows Yolt’s most recent news of reaching over 500,000 registered users as it furthers its vision to become the only money app users need. Building on the Open Banking ecosystem, Yolt wants to provide users with the ability to do more with their money across a variety of areas, including utilities & bills, financial products and leisure & experience. This latest announcement follows recent partnerships with pensions consolidation tool,PensionBee, home insurance platform, Homelyfe and life insurance adviser, Anorak.

Frank Jan Risseeuw, CEO, Yolt, comments: " We’re delighted to announce our integration with Wealthify, offering our users an exciting option to view their investments alongside their other financial accounts and working towards our vision of becoming the only money app you need. We are excited to welcome our first investment partner to the app, providing users with seamless access to an investment tool and look forward to working closely with Wealthify and our other partners to encourage a greater number of people to unthink money and empower them to do more with it.”

Michelle Pearce-Burke, Co-Founder & CIO, Wealthify comments: “App-based, Open Banking architecture is one of the most significant and exciting developments in retail banking in the past 10 years and promises to bring transformational changes to the way people manage their finances day to day over the next decade.

“We fully support Yolt’s vision of the future of banking: effortless functionality, complete transparency and seamless access to top quality and relevant products and services, providing more choice and information to better enable consumers to make the right purchase decisions. Open Banking offers a game-changing level of accessibility to banking services that is akin to how our proposition is democratizing investing, by breaking down barriers and making information and choice ubiquitous.

“We’re excited to be working in partnership with Yolt to be able to offer their customers easy access to Wealthify investment services through the in-app Marketplace.”

For further information please visit www.wealthify.com.

This year Lithuania got the spotlight as the country that has piqued the interest of many UK-based fintech companies. Amidst the uncertainty of Brexit, more and more UK companies are rushing to open offices on the continent. To operate in the European Union (EU), fintech companies must obtain a license issued by any member country.

Therefore, The Bank of Lithuania created an e-licensing tool last year to make the submission of information for an operating banking license easier and more efficient. The institution currently offers the quickest licensing in the EU, and e-registration that can be accessed from anywhere on the globe.

The Lithuanian fintech cluster is now composed of upwards of 120 companies. InstaReM, Harbortouch, Revel, TransferGo, Nayax and Monetha are some of the big names using Lithuania not just as a platform for operating across the European Economic Area, but also as a development base.

On November 8 Lithuania will hold an annual international conference in Vilnius – Fintech Inn – to discuss how it could strengthen its leadership in the region. Daumantas Dvilinskas, co-founder and CEO at TransferGo, leading digital remittance and payment provider, will be among the speakers. This Lithuanian company is currently making waves as one of the hottest fintech startups around. The startup recently launched their international free money transfer service, the first of its kind.  Other well-known fintech leaders like widely recognised electronic money economist Jon Matonis, Chief Economist for Financial Products at Bloomberg LP Michael McDonough, and Deputy Head of the Capital Markets Union of European Commission Jung Lichtenberger will also be speakers at the conference.

Please find more information here www.fintechinn.lt.

NEXT Biometrics (Oslo Bors: NEXT), a global leader in fingerprint sensor technology, today announced it has achieved certification from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for its Level-0 (L0) Registered Device (RD) Service for Android. In addition, the company has launched an RD Service microsite for customers that provides downloads and technical support to simplify integration and use of NEXT sensor technology.                 

                  With this recent certification, NEXT is now able to offer it’s unique, large-area fingerprint sensor technology for fingerprint modules and readers using Android software in the Aadhaar ecosystem. Android devices, such as Android-based point-of-sale (POS) terminals, are currently used extensively throughout India for Aadhaar transactions.

                  The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been created with the mandate of providing a Unique Identity (Aadhaar) for all citizens of India. The UIDAI provides online authentication using demographic and biometric data.  Registered devices have unique identifiers so that each biometric capture can be traced back to a device. Captured biometrics are signed and encrypted.  

                  The NEXT L0 RD Service interfaces between NEXT Biometrics’ L0 fingerprint readers and modules and customer applications. Device whitelisting and registration with the RD Management Server (RDMS) is fully automatic.

                  Aadhaar is the largest and most sophisticated biometrics-based government ID system in the world. NEXT received UIDAI hardware certification for its fingerprint sensors in June.

                  To support the RD Service certification, next has launched a microsite at www.nextbiometrics.com/rd. The site provides customers with RD Service downloads for Windows and Android, as well as documentation and other support.  NEXT RD Service for Android can also be installed directly from Google Play.

                  Key customers have already started using NEXT’s RD Service for Android, as well as benefiting from the NEXT RD microsite support capabilities.

                  “Achieving RD Service certification for Android is an important next step as we seek to expand sales of our advanced, large-area fingerprint sensor modules and readers in India,” said Ritu Favre, CEO NEXT Biometrics. “At the same time, offering support on our new microsite gives customers the additional resources they require to quickly and easily adopt NEXT fingerprint sensor technology.”

                  The RD Service supports NEXT fingerprint sensor modules and a NEXT fingerprint reader. The NEXT reader was specifically developed to the requirements of the Indian market. It comes with a standard USB type A cable or micro USB (type B) connector, so that it can be directly connected to mobile devices. NEXT Readers and modules operate with the RD Service out of the box so no manual activation is required.

                  Shortly after NEXT received hardware certification in June to provide its unique fingerprint sensor solution to India’s Aadhaar government ID program, the company received initial orders for government certified fingerprint readers. Products sold in India that use NEXT fingerprint sensors are also Bureau of India Standards (BIS) certified, which provides customers a third-party guarantee of quality, safety and reliability. 

Shield Financial Compliance (Shield FC), today  revealed that it is experiencing unprecedented demand from financial institutions in Germany, with large financial institutions and smaller regional banks turning to the Shield 2.0 Financial Compliance Data Management Platform. Working in collaboration with PwC, Thomson Reuters and as part of the Accelerator Frankfurt, Shield FC is offering these organisations the capability to capture, archiving, record-keeping and investigation of interactions across all electronic communications (eComms) channels, in order to satisfy the federal financial supervisory authority – BaFin.

Germany is renowned for having some of the most stringent regulatory requirements in the EU and many financial institutions are struggling with how to fix big holes in their compliance readiness. CEO of Shield FC, Shiran Weitzman explains: “The accurate and comprehensive acquisition of structured and unstructured data; the ability to integrate and correlate trade and eComms information; how to run sufficient record-keeping and the tools to full reconstruct and investigate trades in a timely manner. These are the issues that keep compliance teams and senior management awake at night, in the wake of MiFID II, MAR, GDPR and other recent regulatory changes.”

The Shield 2.0 Financial Compliance Data Management Platform was launched earlier this year to address and automate these exact issues, as well as future regulatory challenges such as those surrounding. Last week, Shield FC was invited by PwC, to present how the platform could be used to also address record-keeping aspects of blockchain-based financial transactions, in the face of upcoming Blockchain regulation.

Next week in Frankfurt, Shiran will be at the Fin Meets Tech event to address these issues in a presentation entitled ‘Financial Compliance for MiFID II, GDPR, MAR and more’.  Weitzman adds: “In the past it may have been possible, yet not preferable, to manually manage many processes but now, with the volume and complexity of interactions and transactions taking place across voice, email, chat and SMS etc it simply not viable from a cost or compliance perspective. This is why so many large firms are adopt innovative technologies from specialist start-ups such as Shield FC.”

He continues: “Our platform is truly agnostic, meaning firms are able to integrate their existing and future systems without addition cost or complication.”

Shield FC will also use the Fin Meets Tech event to introduce the machine learning capabilities being introduced to the platform. Weitzman gives a preview: “Powerful machine learning algorithms will automatically assess cases Compliance Officers investigate and those they reject. Each time a case is dismissed the platform understands why and consequently, over time they are only presented with investigations that require their expert attention. This saves times means Compliance Officers focus on what matters most.”

Today, SafeCharge (LON:SCH) -- the partner of choice for businesses who demand more from payments technology -- announced it has partnered with World Duty Free at London Heathrow Airport, enabling Chinese travelers to conveniently pay for their goods using WeChat Pay, a widely adopted e-wallet payment solution in China. World Duty Free now relies on SafeCharge’s new mobile POS application, a solution for merchants to easily accept QR code-based payment methods.

According to VisitBritain, over 330,000 Chinese travelers visited the UK during last year alone, injecting over one billion pounds into the economy in 2017. Reflecting this spending power, WeChat Pay conveniently supports Chinese shoppers with higher transaction values, presenting a convenient payment solution for those merchants able to take advantage of it. WeChat also offers effective online marketing opportunities to increase interaction with consumers, with coupons, cash-back promotions and many other features further driving Chinese customers to those shops accepting the payment method.

Commenting on the introduction of the payment system, Tony O’Donnell, UK Financial Controller at World Duty Free said, “Since the initial rollout in Terminal 4 we have seen a steady increase in transaction volumes and are currently in the process of extending this capability across the other Heathrow terminals. SafeCharge has been instrumental in supporting our fast deployment with high level quality support and we look forward to working closely with the team as we continue to expand across more locations and concessions.”

The SafeCharge Point of Sale app is an application downloadable from popular App Stores and available for both iOS and Android devices. Thanks to an intuitive interface, it connects to the SafeCharge Payments Engine allowing merchants to generate a QR code either on the Seller’s side, or a scanning one on the Buyer’s device. The app requires no technical integration and it is a convenient solution to provide a frictionless tap-and-go shopping experience for customers.

“Chinese shoppers are among the most tech savvy in the world, and take the ability to go cashless and make mobile payments at home for granted. With Chinese tourism growing at a 20% rate every year, it has become vital for merchants to adapt to offer these valued customers the service and experience that they expect - and that means accepting Chinese alternative payment methods whether online, in their shops, pop-up stores or outdoor markets in order to remain competitive,” said David Avgi, CEO, SafeCharge. “Our new SafeCharge Point of Sale App has been developed to help businesses serve an increasing number of customers who normally default to QR code-based payments methods, for a better shopping experience and increased revenues.”

 Computop, a leading global Payment Service Provider (PSP), has announced that its payment platform, Computop Paygate, which has been connecting customers, merchants and payment methods for over 20 years,  is  entering a new era with the launch of Version 7.0.

Delivering over 250 payment methods, more than 50 acquirer connections, providing protection against fraud and supporting many other payment transaction services, Computop Paygate has become the central interface for international e-commerce merchants and at the Point of Sale (POS). Version 7.0, which launches today, introduces multiple new features and improvements which include:

• Fraud prevention

Machine learning moves into Paygate with ’Rule Based becoming Risk Based’. In the new version, static settings do not decide whether transactions are blocked. Instead, the probability of fraud is calculated for each individual transaction on the basis of past transactions and a judgement is made as to whether the transaction is executed or rejected. Due to the continuous expansion of the decision basis, the Paygate learns more and optimizes its calculations on a daily basis.

• Data analysis

The integration of geodata, which has also been made available for payments in the past, enables merchants to better evaluate their transactions. The successive integration of additional external data sources delivers more exciting analyses, which help merchants to optimize their payments and address customers’ specific needs.

• POINT OF SALE (POS)

The processing of worldwide payments from POS and e-commerce on a single platform has made Computop a pioneer in omnichannel payment. Alipay, WeChat Pay or instalment purchase by easyCredit are just a few of the innovative payment methods at the POS. Simultaneously, Paygate 7.0 forms the basis for connecting the girocard network, which Computop will have built up by the end of the year.

• GDPR

Version 7.0 includes an API that allows merchants to automatically delete customer-related data when a customer requests it. Transaction-related data is retained anonymously for analysis.

• New payment methods

As with almost every monthly update, new international payment methods and acquirers are added into Version 7.0, with Swish, Calixa, Nordea, b4payment or the TOTAL fuel card being examples.

Computop Paygate Version 7.0 is generally available from 25^th October 2018. Connected customers have been automatically activated. The new version is fully downward compatible, therefore there is no need for adaptation for merchants and banks.

Fidor won Gold in the category of “Best Neobank” at the Efma Accenture Awards for the moneysmart digital community that was launched by ADIB in partnership with Fidor. The awards were held in Lisbon on 17 October.

The awards are part of the Efma - Accenture Banking Innovation Programme, which aims to identify and celebrate the most innovative projects in retail banking. Fidor was chosen for its community based approach, which was made fully shariah compliant for the Middle East region. ADIB moneysmart launched a community in the UAE, similar to Fidor’s European community, and leveraged Fidor’s digital open banking software platform, fidorOS.

Today, the moneysmart community is open and thriving, and is designed to be highly interactive. It will carry articles, blogs, tips and comments from users, who can receive cashable reward points for their input. Independent experts are also on hand to provide their knowledge and objective advice.

Fidor wants to re-establish confidence in banks while empowering consumers with the most relevant services and products. Its new approach to financial services in the digital age addresses issues that challenge traditional banks. Fidor believes in openness, fairness, and a community-based approach to their decision-making. Because of this, it has defined a completely new banking relationship for digitally-savvy consumers and businesses.

Fidor Bank received its full banking licence in May 2009. It launched into the UK in 2015 and has over 800,000 community members globally.

Philip King, Global Head of Retail Banking, ADIB commented: “We’re so glad that ADIB’s moneysmart community has been recognised by Efma. The online community brings openness to the world of personal finance and is in line with our objective to guide people to make better financial decisions. Through the platform, customers can talk about financial issues, exchange advice, and create solutions. Fidor’s technology enables our customers to feel engaged with many aspects of modern living that are tied to personal finance, from smart tips for saving when travelling, to big life decisions, such as buying a house.”

Matthias Kröner, CEO, Fidor Group said: “We’re thrilled to win gold in the category of ‘Best Neobank.’ It’s truly an honour to be recognised as the best new business in the space, and our work with ADIB is the perfect example of how we’re striving to change fintech and bank partnerships, while also making banking more transparent and accessible for customers all over the world.”

Ge Drossaert, Board Member, Fidor Group commented: “Banking should enable consumers to do more, to take control of their financial lives, and it should fit around their lifestyles. We at Fidor pride ourselves on our community - they’re our source of inspiration. Our customers tell us what they want, and enable us to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring we’re always the best in the business.”