GoCardless, the bank payment company, has renewed its commitment to be the official headline sponsorship for the annual JustGiving Awards this September. This follows a hugely successful partnership for the 2023 GoCardless JustGiving Awards which brought in nearly 20,000 votes for 12 incredible finalists.

The sponsorship builds on a two-year relationship which started when JustGiving selected GoCardless to collect recurring donations via Direct Debit. Earlier this year, GoCardless was also named the open banking payments provider for the fundraising platform, enabling the public to make instant, one-off donations through its Instant Bank Pay feature.

Pat Phelan, MD of UK & Ireland and Chief Customer Officer at GoCardless said: “We’re continuously in awe of the amazing fundraisers in the UK, from their creativity to their dedication to the extremely moving reasons why they support their causes of choice. 

“We couldn’t be more proud to shine a light on these unsung heroes by renewing our sponsorship of the GoCardless JustGiving Awards, and to play our part in ensuring that donations are easy to make and manage. We’re particularly excited to offer open banking payments to the millions of fundraisers on the platform. Their supporters now have the option to make immediate, on-the-spot donations without the high fees associated with card transactions, ultimately helping more money go to worthy causes.”

Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager of JustGiving, said: “We’re delighted to announce GoCardless as our headline sponsor for the second year running and very much look forward to working with them again.”

This year’s GoCardless JustGiving Awards ceremony will take place at London’s iconic Roundhouse on Wednesday 18th September 2024, bringing together some of the biggest fundraisers and celebrities in the country under one roof.

Last year, attendees included Bill Bailey, Jamie Laing, Angela Griffiths, Faye Winter, Josh Patterson and Matt Edmondson. 

Responsible lender, Creditspring, provided borrowers with £127m in short-term, affordable credit during 2023.

Given the ongoing financial pressures on households – including increased energy costs – the amount of financial support provided by Creditspring to its members increased by 91% over 2023 compared to the previous year. This has taken total lending to members seeking short-term, affordable credit to almost £250m since launch.

As reliance on credit grows, borrowers are increasingly seeking short-term, affordable credit options. Creditspring’s responsible approach to lending and stringent affordability measures grew the member base by 77% over 12 months – from 256,000 at the start of 2023 to over 450,000 today.

In 2023 alone, Creditspring provided 366,000 loans to members, a 67% increase on the 2022 figure of 219,000.

To provide members with enhanced financial support during the cost-of-living crisis, Creditspring recently launched its new Benefits Finder tool which identifies benefits that members may be eligible for but are yet to claim.

Over 45,000 members have already used the Benefits Finder tool, unlocking £417m in unclaimed benefits. Over eight in ten (82%) members who completed the survey discovered they were eligible for benefits they hadn’t yet claimed, with an average entitlement of £895 per month.

Throughout 2023, Creditspring announced a number of partnerships with other organisations to enhance support for its members. Via those partnerships, Creditspring provides its members great offers on essential spending, such as Daye and their innovative gynae products or even Trainline, which finds the cheapest travel fares for their customers. Recent partners include:

• Trainline - travel booking platform
• Wise – banking and money transfer provider
• Emma – money management app
• Daye - period care and gyno health start-up

Neil Kadagathur, CEO and Co-Founder at Creditspring, comments: “After being battered by the cost of living crisis for the last few years, household finances have reached – and in some cases, long passed – breaking point.

“Rather than entering a new year full of hope, millions are already plagued with debt and face another 12 months of struggling to afford rising essential costs. Low-cost, short-term credit options can provide a lifeline for struggling households – over the last 12 months Creditspring has provided millions in vital affordable and responsible financial support and we expect that demand to continue into 2024.

“For many people reliant on short-term credit options the alternative is to turn to high-cost or predatory lenders which often introduce hidden costs upon borrowers, encourage them to take on extortionate debts and unfortunately, push people into vicious debt spirals they are unable to escape from. These borrowers need a transparent and inclusive solution that improves access to affordable credit options and prevents debt spirals. At Creditspring, we’re committed to growing responsibly, whilst some predatory lenders accept all applications on the basis that they can leverage high costs on any missed payments, our model is aimed at providing a safer credit alternative which empowers members - with an average of 90,000 applications per month, clearly there is high borrower appetite for a responsible, short-term credit option.” 

In 2024, Creditspring will continue to innovate and introduce new products to the market that will enhance support for increasing numbers of customers, to meet the demand for inclusive and affordable credit.

Creditspring provides a new way to access credit safely. FCA-regulated, it is a credit subscription service that responsibly offers short-term, affordable credit to borrowers. Members pay a fixed membership fee every month to allow them to access two no-interest loans per year with clear repayment terms, capped costs and no hidden charges, late fees or confusing interest rates.

Fils, a groundbreaking ESG-focused digital infrastructure fintech, has achieved another milestone in its mission to help more businesses measure and mitigate their environmental impact with a strategic partnership with Telr, the award-winning online payment gateway.

Fils is collaborating with Telr to integrate its end-to-end sustainable infrastructure to make finance and payments more sustainable and transparent. By Integrating Fils Technology, Telr will enable merchants to track their emissions and access voluntary carbon markets to mitigate the emissions’ harm to the environment. They will also be able to demonstrate their positive impact on the environment with robust reporting functionality, reduced greenwashing, and the encouragement of businesses to invest in sustainable initiatives through Fils’ marketplace.

The new capability adds to Telr's existing suite of services, aiming to elevate e-commerce businesses seamlessly and efficiently with a one-stop-shop philosophy. This encompasses a variety of financial and business services, ranging from social commerce and QR codes to digital invoicing, Telr Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and Telr Finance—a dedicated program for merchant financing.

Nameer Khan, CEO and Founder of Fils, said: “Today’s exciting partnership with Telr will make a real impact in tackling the issues of climate change, providing access to carbon markets via our robust and transparent infrastructure. Our technology-first approach to sustainable action enables SMEs, large corporates and other organizations to seamlessly embed sustainability throughout their global operations.”

Telr, the UAE-based award-winning payment gateway solutions provider, facilitates transactions in over 30 currencies and supports over 120 languages. Telr, as a leading payments aggregator, enables businesses to connect to all payment schemes and manage financial and business services as a one-stop shop for e-commerce solutions. Telr’s collaboration with Fils will enable organizations to track and mitigate emissions seamlessly, increasing the sustainability of payment operations across the globe.

Khalil Alami, Founder and CEO of Telr, said: "This partnership underscores our unwavering dedication to driving sustainable finance. By leveraging Telr’s expertise and partnering with exceptional entities like Fils, we aim to reshape transactions.” Alami added: “This effort promotes a more sustainable economy, empowering our merchants with access to emissions calculators to monitor their carbon footprint and emissions-reduction tools. These initiatives align with the 'Net Zero by 2050' strategy and are synchronized with COP28, highlighting our commitment to a brighter, more sustainable future.” 

Fils’s alliance with Telr builds on an impressive year of high-profile partnerships for the fintech company,  with clients such as e& Enterprise, Magnati, Mashreq Bank, Flowcarbon, and AFS.

Based in Dubai and London, Fils is a groundbreaking fintech applying a technology-first approach to sustainable action. Fils has created a game-changing digital ecosystem connecting payment infrastructure, organizations, and impact makers to increase the scalability of their sustainability practices.

Resistant AI, the AI- and machine learning-powered financial crime prevention specialists, today announces that Verto, the cross-border payment platform for emerging economies, has selected its Document Forensics to significantly enhance its document verification process, reduce application review times, and enable further expansion into new markets.

Verto operates across an expanding global financial market, which presents many challenges with swift and accurate customer onboarding. It is necessary to authenticate an extensive range of documents across diverse formats which can include PDFs, images, or scans that originate from multiple countries with unique legal frameworks and documentation standards. Of particular challenge can be account statements or utility bills for authentications from a wide variety of sources. 

Resistant AI’s document fraud detection solution seamlessly integrates into Verto’s existing systems to provide rapid and reliable document authentication and support its growth into new markets without escalating risks. Adopting Resistant AI’s technology has meant that within weeks, Verto was able to authenticate documents from numerous countries in seconds, reducing application review time by 50% by quickly and accurately identifying document tampering and inconsistencies invisible to the human eye. 

In addition to its document forensics, working with Resistant AI has enabled Verto to reshape its entire approach to document verification by establishing a comprehensive compliance policy tailored to handle different kinds of documents. An essential component of this strategy is the deployment of Adaptive Decisioning, which aligns the system’s outcomes with the customer’s risk appetite, ensuring that Verto’s onboarding process remains robust, compliant, and efficient. 

Martin Rehak, CEO and Founder of Resistant AI says, “The complexities of operating within the global financial market are immense, especially for a fintech company like Verto that is constantly exploring new territories. It is a pleasure to work with the team to speedily verify the process of customer onboarding, whilst identifying potential fraudulent threats. All of these efficiency gains enable Verto to expand its global footprint more rapidly without compromising on risk.”

Anthony Oduu, Co-Founder, Chief Technology and Product Officer of Verto says, “Resistant AI has enhanced the speed of our decision-making by rapidly verifying documents from numerous countries, enabling us to efficiently onboard more reliable customers and expedite transaction processing. The way the platform identifies tampered documents in seconds has dramatically accelerated our ability to establish UBO in an international setting.”

Sopra Banking Software (SBS), the global financial technology company that more than 1,500 financial institutions rely on to transform the way they operate digitally, today announced the appointment of Andrew Steadman as its Chief Product Officer (CPO). Steadman joins SBS after holding senior product leadership positions at Temenos, Fiserv, and Accenture, and serving as a Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.

As CPO, he will lead the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product strategy and manage all business functions that contribute to product management and innovation.

Steadman has spent the last two decades carving out a reputation for leading transformational product strategies for large, global companies. He managed the products at Temenos and Fiserv as they transitioned to SaaS business models. During his 20-year tenure at Fiserv, he piloted the product management methodology that became the standard for software at the company. Steadman also spent three years as a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s Financial Services practice, leading the firm’s payments research focus.

In his new role as CPO at SBS, Steadman will reinforce the company’s SaaS product strategy. As the global financial services market continues to take on a SaaS-first mindset, Steadman will transition SBS’s internal architecture to align with the cloud products it delivers to customers. As part of this, he will introduce new product methodology and tooling, scale the company’s product team, and continue to foster innovation for new product development. Steadman will report to SBS Chief Product & Technology Officer Xavier Rebeuf.

“Andrew’s extensive experience in creating and implementing effective product strategies for global banking and finance companies will power him to play a pivotal role in SBS’s SaaS transformation. As we continue to innovate our products to keep our customers competitive in today’s market, we also need to align our internal growth, which is where Andrew comes in. I’m confident that he’ll make an immediate impact.”

said Xavier Rebeuf.

Sopra Banking Software powers the end-to-end digitization of more than 1,500 financial institutions globally with its cloud-native platforms, Sopra Banking Platform and Sopra Financing Platform. The company’s technology offers a composable-based approach to digitization, so financial institutions and lenders can transform at scale without disrupting their existing infrastructures.

“The next chapter of banking and finance is here and SBS is leading the way for banks and other financial institutions with its technology. But it’s clear that change is also on the horizon for the company in order to transform with its customers. It’s an exciting time to join the executive team as we drive forward this change and lay the foundation for the next era of digital business.”

said Steadman.

Steadman joins recently appointed Chief Operating Office Tobias Unger and Chief Commercial Officer Raouf Mhenni as part of SBS’s larger C-suite expansion.

Building upon its initial enrolment in the Mastercard Engage Programme, Episode Six (E6), a leading global provider of enterprise-grade payment processing and ledger infrastructure, announced it has been selected to join the Mastercard Engage Programme for its instalments solution in Europe.

Despite the challenging economic environment and new regulatory requirements adding pressure to the instalment market, the demand for buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solutions continues to grow. And amid growing financial pressures, more customers welcome the ability to break payments into smaller and more manageable instalments. 

Against this backdrop, E6 saw an opportunity to leverage its flexible, cloud-native TRITIUM® platform to enable incumbent issuers to launch new and modern instalment solutions such as BNPL. These new solutions complement issuers’ current offerings without disrupting services on their existing infrastructures.

In turn, traditional issuers can offer these new instalment solutions to banks, enabling them to provide tailored instalment offerings to their customers, thus creating new revenue streams. E6 is one of the few in the market that offers a ready-to-launch payment instalment solution that enables BNPL, instalment cards and loans—and that’s just the surface.

Mastercard Engage makes it simple for partners to build, launch and grow payment solutions for Mastercard’s global network of customers and accelerate time to market for product innovation. Mastercard Engage includes a range of partners that each contribute different components and integration capabilities to enable seamless payment experiences. Participants in the Engage program also receive opportunities to boost their growth, gain access to exclusive resources and perks, and enhance their brand's visibility.

"We’re delighted that Mastercard has decided to include Episode Six's Buy Now, Pay Later technology on its Mastercard Engage platform,” said John Mitchell, CEO & Co-Founder of Episode Six. “We have strengthened our instalments offering to make it fit-for-purpose for financial institutions, providing a seamless, digital-first instalment lending experience that addresses the needs of their customers. Our inclusion in the Mastercard Engage platform reinforces our commitment to revolutionize the payment landscape and address the market's evolving needs.”

Finastra has today announced SYSTEX as a solution partner in Taiwan. SYSTEX will resell Finastra’s Kondor and Risk solutions, creating an offering that combines Finastra’s best-of-breed trading system with SYSTEX’s local expertise and broad technology services capabilities. The partnership will enable more banks in Taiwan to digitally transform and grow their businesses.

“SYSTEX is a market leader in integrated business solutions and technology services, and we are pleased to partner with them to fuel banks’ trading operations in Taiwan,” said Richard Zhu, Managing Director, Treasury & Capital Markets, APAC, Finastra. “Combining Finastra’s leading treasury solutions with SYSTEX’s broad and deep capabilities enables us to bring a comprehensive end-to-end offering to banks in Taiwan, which will fuel digital transformation and business growth for banks in this important market.”

Reese Chang, Vice President of SYSTEX Co., Ltd. said: "This partnership between SYSTEX and Finastra will showcase leading technologies, providing innovative and comprehensive financial information technology services and solutions. Fintech upgrades and transformation require vertical integration capabilities. Through this partnership, we are making a strategic breakthrough in the financial services sector.”

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

Finastra Risk is a fully automated, end-to-end solution that allows banks to manage risk, margin monitoring, balance sheet optimization, and regulatory reporting. With one intuitive dashboard and seamless integration with existing architecture, Risk provides a total risk management system that enables better performance, scalability, and visibility for timely and accurate decision-making.

"At Tonik, we are committed to providing our customers with the best possible digital banking experience. Our collaboration with Xendit is a significant step towards achieving this goal. By expanding our payment options and enhancing our ecosystem, we aim to empower Filipinos to take control of their finances with ease and confidence," Tonik Founder and CEO Greg Krasnov said. 

“Xendit has emerged as one of the leading payment gateways in the country and the region — proving that they’re the best in class, tried and tested. That’s why our sister company, TendoPay, among other prominent companies, works with them too. We’re excited to partner with a fellow fintech start-up that has the same grit as Tonik to succeed,” Tonik Group Chief Financial Officer Todd Esposito said.  

 

“We’re excited to democratize world class payments experiences for the everyday Filipino. Guided by the highest industry standards, we build infrastructure for the everyday products that consumers use — people taking out a loan from Tonik should be able to experience the same quality, scalability of services that someone does in the Western markets or anywhere else in the world," Xendit Chief Innovation Officer Yang Yang Zhang said.