Synechron, a leading global digital transformation consulting firm, today announced that it has been ranked 10^th position on the list of Best Workplaces in 2023 in the Netherlands. This list is based on the Great Places To Work™ survey.

Great Place To Work The Netherlands explores and recognizes the amount of trust, pride and camaraderie within organizations, based on direct employees’ feedback. The highest-scoring companies have been acknowledged with the ‘Best Workplace’ title. The forty highest scoring organizations, out of the 187 participating, have been recognized as Best Workplace organizations.

Of note, this is the sixth time Synechron has been among the top Best Workplace organizations. The company has won multiple Best Place To Work™ Awards since 2017.

Based upon the Culture Audit evaluated by Great Place To Work, Synechron Netherlands scores high on:

• Trust, including the company culture of growing together through Meaningful Values
• Effective Leadership which includes various leadership trainings to ensure everyone is on the same page and an onboarding bootcamp
• An Innovative Culture and inclusive innovation which lies at the heart of Synechron’s DNA
• Maximizing Everyone’s Potential which enables employees, from the very start, to be guided toward fulfilling their full, individual potential

Eveline van Raaij, Director of Synechron Netherlands said of winning this designation, “We are truly honoured to be included among the elite list of Best Workplaces in 2023 in the Netherlands. Our placement at 10^th place is testament to the high-quality workplace that our valued employees experience and create together every day.  At Synechron, we are continuously evaluating and developing new ways to grow together and provide an excellent work culture and environment across many facets of our dedicated employees’ work lives, and beyond.”

René Brouwers, CEO of Great Place to Work the Netherlands said,“The forty Best Workplaces of 2023 have created an organizational culture in which psychological safety is number one. An important theme regarding actual themes such as cultures of fear, transgressive behaviour, and burnouts. Our list is based on feedback from all employees through the Trust Index employee survey. These forty organizations can rightly be proud of this award, and it promises to be a very good starting point for even more success. This year we presented the Awards during Walk Your Talk, an inspiring and activating tour through Utrecht, to walk together for a positive workplace For All. Because it is time for every employer to have a safe work culture as priority number 1. The forty Best Workplaces are leaders in this and show how it can be done.”

CLS, a financial market infrastructure group delivering settlement, processing, and data solutions, today announced that six new members were appointed to its Board of Directors at the CLS Annual General Meeting on 6 June 2023.

The new directors on the Board are Debbie Chin (United Overseas Bank), Alberto Covin (UniCredit), Bruno d’llliers (BNP Paribas), Rodolphe Sahel (Société Générale), Jodi Schenck (Citibank) and Bhupesh Vora (Royal Bank of Canada).

Debbie Chin: Ms Chin is the Head of Global Markets and Custody and Investment Operations for United Overseas Bank (UOB). She provides operational support to UOB’s Global Markets and Custody and Investment businesses, including oversight and ownership of Global Markets and Custody Investment Operations in its subsidiaries and branches.

Alberto Covin: Mr Covin is currently responsible for Group Financial Market Infrastructure Strategy in the resolution framework of UniCredit and on FX-related hedging activities on Group capital ratios, revenues and dividends volatility. He also currently serves as Chair of the EFTERM Oversight Committee, in association with the European Money Markets Institute.

Bruno d’llliers: Mr d’llliers has been the Global Head of BNP Paribas Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB) Operations since 2018, overseeing Global Banking, Global Markets, and Client Management (AML – KYC – Client servicing) operations teams. He is also a member of the CIB IT and Operations Global Executive Committee and Chair of the CIB Global Operations Executive Committee.

Rodolphe Sahel: Mr Sahel is Managing Director, acting as Deputy Head of Group Treasury for Société Générale, being based in Paris, with a worldwide scope of responsibility. During his career at Société Générale, he gained a background in Treasury, Capital Markets and Risk Management, including the management of market, credit, liquidity and operational risks under stressed circumstances. Prior to his current role, he was the Global Chief Operating Officer for Fixed Income and Currencies activities at Société Générale.

Jodi Schenck: Ms Schenck is currently Managing Director, Head of North American Corporate FX Sales and Solutions for Citigroup, where she leads the Corporate FX Sales, Risk Management Solutions, Digital FX Solutions and Transactional FX teams.

Bhupesh Vora: Mr Vora is Managing Director, Capital Markets for the Royal Bank of Canada, where he is responsible for the Quant and Technology group for Capital Markets Europe. He is also Global Head of Architecture for Risk Analytics Modelling Pricing and Positions.

Gottfried Leibbrandt, Chair, CLS, commented: “We are delighted to welcome the new directors to our Board. Their extensive market infrastructure knowledge and leadership experience in financial markets will be invaluable, and we look forward to their contributions as we continue to develop CLS’s services to solve the challenges facing the FX industry.”

UK-based FinTech Stubben Edge Group (the Company), is pleased to announce the launch of its capital arm, Stubben Edge Capital.

The latest move will foster sector-wide innovation while providing a range of financial tools and services that will support established and emerging ventures as well as UK enterprises more broadly.

Stubben Edge Capital delivers across three key pillars:

The first develops and sustains the insurance underwriting balance sheet capacity of our intermediaries, enabling them to access permanent capital in a simple, lean and efficient way.

The second pillar delivers a wide range of wealth management solutions that our partnering IFA network can propose to end-clients, both individuals and SMEs. Providing attractive investment solutions that; deliver critical financing for SMEs, help IFAs attract young talent into the industry, help insurance brokers grow their book of business or build by acquisition, and facilitate the growth and development of fintechs and start-ups.

And finally, the company provides and develops ancillary services to help service our network and wider ecosystem, including investment management, capital management, corporate finance and funding. Stubben Edge already partners with existing players along these lines and continues to develop its own licensed capabilities to provide the most comprehensive approach for our partners, clients, and suppliers – be they insurers, brokers, IFA, fintech and insurtech.

Chris Kenning, CEO of Stubben Edge Group said: "Stubben Edge Capital presents an exciting opportunity for the sector. We are committed to helping insurance brokers, MGAs and insurers grow their businesses. We provide them with the technology, data, analytics, regulatory licensing and now capital solutions. Our AUM business has grown from a standing start in 2021 to £400m and is on track to get to £2bn of AUM by end of 2023. As a leading fintech, we are looking to provide equity, debt and reinsurance solutions to our partners”. 

Newly appointed Chief Investment Officer Frédéric Morlaye, presented the latest Stubben Capital strategy to a pool of investors at the UK Investor Show (UKIS) in London last week.

Google Cloud and UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, have announced an expanded partnership to bring Google Cloud’s generative AI (GenAI) capabilities into the widely adopted UKG human capital management (HCM) suites. UKG will leverage GenAI to create more powerful business insights that transform decision-making and help leaders more effectively manage teams.

UKG is now an early partner using Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade GenAI and large language models (LLMs) through Vertex AI, building applications for unified search AI and conversational AI. By combining Google Cloud’s LLMs with UKG AI models and Great Place To Work® proprietary data, UKG will create more conversational interactions with its HCM solutions, augment employee requests with more relevant business insights, and support people managers with a deeper understanding of how business decisions can impact employee engagement.

“We believe GenAI can be a tremendously powerful tool that changes how people go about analysing information and insights at work,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG. “Our collaboration with Google Cloud will help employees and leaders make better decisions, have more productive conversations, and anticipate how today’s choices can impact tomorrow’s operations and workplace culture overall.”

UKG has a rich history of responsibly using AI across its HCM and workforce management solutions in service of people, including AI-powered analytics, sentiment analysis, real-time recommendations, proactive reminders, long-range forecasting, and payroll anomaly detection.

“UKG’s application of Google Cloud LLMs and GenAI is a great example of how these technologies can streamline important but common processes at work and tangibly improve the day-to-day experience of employees everywhere,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud. “Our partnership to bring GenAI to more businesses will help build great, technology-forward workplaces and ensure that teams have access to the leading technology they want to engage with every day.”

In addition to building new workplace applications with Google Cloud’s GenAI, UKG is now one of the first HCM suite providers in the Google Cloud Marketplace. New and existing UKG customers can now allocate a portion of their committed Google Cloud spend to purchase UKG suites and other strategic UKG solutions through the marketplace.

UKG and Google Cloud have collaborated since 2016 to enable better employee experiences. UKG HCM suites and UKG specialty products run on Google Cloud’s trusted infrastructure and unified data platform, while the UKG FleX technology platform for UKG solutions leverages Google Cloud to support innovation, extensibility, and advanced security.

“Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud is another chapter in our commitment to providing organisations around the world with the opportunity to move from a good workplace to a truly great workplace for all,” said Chris Todd, CEO at UKG. “We are committed to exploring how all emerging technologies, including GenAI, can enhance the workplace experience for everyone.”

Digital Prime Brokerage GCEX (GCEX Group) has extended its partnership with Hex Trust, an institutional-grade digital asset custodian, to include staking.

This latest development, building on the launch of GCEX’s staking services in April 2023, enables the firm to offer an even broader range of assets for staking to brokers, fund managers, hedge funds and professional traders.

Through its partnership with Hex Trust, GC Exchange A/S will offer its institutional and professional clients a further nine new assets for staking, including ETH, HBAR, Flare, Apecoin and more. Further asset types will be added in response to client demand.

Michael Aagaard, Managing Director, GCEX Denmark said, “We have a strong and trusted relationship with Hex Trust, who have been our custody partner for over two years. With the increasing demand for staking services, we are delighted to be extending our partnership with Hex Trust, providing our institutional and professional clients with further choice for earning rewards on their digital assets.”

“Our strategy is to continue to push boundaries through partnerships with highly credible firms in the industry, offering our clients the best possible products and service, with robust technology and secure, segregated custody.”

Giorgia Pellizzari, Head of Custody, Hex Trust said, "We've been providing custody services for GCEX for a couple of years, so it's great to extend our services to include digital asset staking. Hex Trust currently provides staking for several assets and continually assesses which ones to add next. We're proud to offer secure and seamless staking to clients like GCEX through the safety of our custody platform, Hex Safe."

GCEX Group enables institutional clients to access deep liquidity in FX and CFDs on digital assets, as well as digital assets spot trading and conversion as well as a broad range of trading solutions - XplorDigital. Headquartered in London, with multiple offices across the globe, GCEX is regulated by the UK’s FCA, registered with the Danish FSA and as a VASP and currency exchange and has been granted a Virtual Asset Service Provider License for the MVP phase by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. True Global Ventures are investors in GCEX.

The UK’s largest independent invoice financier, Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has appointed Colin Johnson as Corporate Manager – Corporate North as it continues to grow its support for SMEs and their advisors across the North of England and Scotland.

Colin joins BFS with more than 34 years’ experience in the financial services sector, having most recently held the position of Head of Corporate Sales at Novuna Business Finance.

Commenting on Colin’s appointment, Daniel Williams, Regional Head of Corporate North said: “BFS is in growth mode and attracting, retaining and developing leading industry talent is a key focus for us. Colin has a wealth of experience across Invoice Finance, Working Capital and Asset Based Lending, and is perfectly placed to drive forward our business and sales strategies, as we continue to enhance our corporate finance capabilities in the North of England and Scotland.”

Based in Manchester, Colin will join a team dedicated to developing transactions for SMEs with turnover up to £100m supporting a range of funding requirements including working capital and cashflow, growth and expansion, MBIs and MBOs, refinancing, restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions.

Colin Johnson said: “With over 30 years’ experience supporting small businesses, this new role is a great opportunity to shape the future success of a business that I’ve always admired. My existing knowledge will be invaluable to the team, as we continue to expand our offering and product portfolio.”

BFS supports nearly 8,500 SME clients globally through its invoice finance and asset finance solutions. In addition, its product range includes Foreign Exchange, Export and Trade Finance, as well as specialist finance for the construction sector.

Colin Johnson added: “It’s great to be joining at a time when Bibby Financial Services has such breadth and depth to its SME funding capabilities. Following our successful securitisation deal at the end of 2022, BFS has a total funding capacity of more than £1.3bn so we are in a fantastic position to support new and existing clients, helping them to grow and thrive.

“I am looking forward to working with my existing intermediary contacts, as well as continuing to grow my network throughout the North of England and Scotland, to bolster BFS’s support for SMEs.”

Paymentology, the leading global issuer-processor, today announces its continued partnership with Vodafone Fiji as it evolves its M-PAiSA mobile wallet to now issue Mastercard digital first cards to its customers via the M-PAiSA app, enabling seamless cross-border and online payments.

Vodafone Fiji Pte Limited is a 100% locally owned entity, of which 51% is owned by Amalgamated Telecommunications Holdings and 49% by Fiji National Provident Fund. Since the introduction of its inaugural closed loop mobile wallet solution in 2010 it has now evolved into a fully-fledged open-loop payment service platform and is considered one of the largest systemic payment platforms in Fiji. It offers a full suite of features such as utility payments, instore QR payment, remote payments, cross border remittance and internet payment gateway services. 

Paymentology is providing Vodafone Fiji the crucial connectivity to establish a gateway to the Mastercard global network for the issuing of M-PAiSA Mastercard debit cards. The partnership utilises smart APIs and a pre-established technology stack to authorise and process Mastercard payments. With the assistance of Paymentology, Vodafone Fiji can now provide its customers with a secure and seamless payment experience, while managing sophisticated operations by exempting Vodafone from the complexities of global payment connectivity and compliance for faster deployment.

The announcement comes as credit and debit card usage in Fiji lags behind that of developed markets, presenting a significant disparity. Recent surveys have revealed that a considerable proportion of Fijians face difficulties obtaining scheme cards for cross-border payments and participating in a digital economy. Now thanks to the onboarding of M-PAiSA Mastercard, customers have the ability to apply through the M-PAiSA App without the need to visit any of the outlets. 

Deepak Baran Head of Fintech at Vodafone commented on the announcement: "We are thrilled to continue our collaboration with Paymentology as our chosen issuer processing partner, their fundamental platform capabilities such as compliance, speed, data, customisation, and security are unparalleled. Plus, their unrivalled local knowledge and unwavering commitment to financial inclusion have played an essential role in our achievements.  Together, we are shaping a future where financial opportunities are accessible to all Fijians, and making great progress towards fully embracing the flourishing digital economy.”

Emre Durusut Regional Director APAC at Paymentology continued: “We’re incredibly proud to support this next stage of Vodafone Fiji’s financial services evolution. This move has not only diversified their revenue streams but has also reduced their reliance on conventional communication services, which are now considered mature products. Vodafone continues to explore new boundaries in the mobile world, and with our support has not only unlocked new markets but has also made significant strides in promoting financial inclusion.

Build38, a leading provider of mobile application protection solutions that combine AI-powered threat intelligence and the strongest app shielding technology, was announced a winner not once, but twice at the South Summit Madrid 2023 Startup Competition: first as the winner of the “Connectivity and Data” category, and then as the “Most Scalable Startup” in the final round. 

South Summit is a global innovation platform that brings together leaders of the world’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover business opportunities and disruptive trends. Each year, South Summit Madrid hosts a startup competition in which 100 of the world’s most innovative startups are selected to pitch their ideas to a jury of investors and business leaders who choose one winner per category. During the competition, startups are judged on innovation, team, scalability, viability, and more.

After being selected as one of this year’s top ten finalists in the “Connectivity and Data” category, Build38 won the category and went on to receive recognition as the “Most Scalable Startup” in the final round of the competition. Joaquín Fernández, Managing Director of Build38 Iberia and COO, was responsible for the pitch on stage.

“We are honoured to be recognised for our breakthrough technology solutions in mobile security at one of Europe's most important business innovation events,” said Dr. Christian Schläger, co-founder and CEO of Build38. “This accomplishment highlights the growing importance of cybersecurity innovation and further validates our mission to tackle the ever-evolving threat landscape and protect mobile app users and businesses worldwide.”

This recognition represents another significant milestone during a period of rapid growth for the company. After more than doubling in size and revenue over the past year, Build38 recently unveiled its new Barcelona headquarters to accompany its growing team and commitment to digital transformation efforts in Spain. The company was also recognized as the top business project presented at this year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco during the Catalonia reception event, organised by the Secretariat of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation, Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia and ACCIO, and was awarded support for its international expansion efforts.

Today, payabl., a leading payments company, announced the launch of its point-of-sale (POS) solution for in-person payments. Initially to be rolled out in Cyprus with other countries to follow, the payabl. POS terminals will allow retailers to embrace the possibility of omnichannel selling, and accept transactions made with Visa and Mastercard as well as mobile payments like Google and Apple Pay.  

Research from Harvard Business Review reveals that omnichannel shoppers spend 4% more on every buying occasion in store, versus single-channel shoppers. The payabl. POS terminals aim to unlock this potential, by creating an easier omnichannel payment experience for retailers, allowing them to use one provider for both online and in-store payments. The launch of the terminals also acts as a key catalyst in payabl.’s ambition to become a single provider for the entire spectrum of merchants’ payment needs. 

“With the addition of the payabl. POS terminal, we’ve filled in the missing piece of our platform and achieved a full product suite that seamlessly combines card-not-present and card-present transaction processing. This empowers merchants with a unified, omnichannel platform, ensuring convenience and efficiency throughout their operations. The launch is part of our steady progress towards unveiling payabl.one, a new platform which will cater for all financial needs of merchants.” said Ugne Buraciene, Group CEO at payabl. 

Theodoros Hadjistyllis, Head of Acquiring & Cyprus Country Manager at payabl., said “We’re really excited to be launching the payabl. POS terminals today and expanding our offering into the omnichannel space, and it’s fantastic to be doing so in collaboration with Mastercard. Not only is the launch a crucial part of our company’s growth journey, it also supports our mission of fuelling growth for merchants. Launching the POS offering in Cyprus is the first stage of our product rollout ambitions as we plan to expand the offering across the EU later this year.” 

payabl. has a strong presence across the EU, with its headquarters of almost 100 team members based in Limassol, Cyprus. The paytech is addressing a crucial need with the rollout of its POS terminals across Europe, beginning with Cyprus, replacing the outdated, incumbent systems which use a closed loop operating system, with API-based, agile and android POS terminals. 

Isidoros Mezopoulos, Manager at Mastercard, said “We are thrilled to collaborate with payabl. on their new POS terminals solution, which will simplify accepting card payments for retail establishments of all sizes. Payments should be a safe and seamless experience for everyone, therefore we at Mastercard believe solutions like these can assist businesses save time and money and focus on what they do best - serving their customers.” 

Learn more here payabl.’s POS offering here: https://payabl.com/pos-terminal