ION, a global leader in mission-critical trading and workflow automation software, high-value analytics, and strategic consulting, announces three of its products won at the 2023 TradingTech Insight (TTI) USA awards. ION’s Fidessa TCA, FI EMS, and DASH Financial Technologies’ SENSOR solutions took the honours.

The fifth annual TTI USA Awards, hosted by A-Team Group, recognize excellence in trading solutions and services for rapidly evolving capital markets. The three awards won by ION are a testament to the company’s commitment to delivering solutions for both buy-side and sell-side firms to automate tasks, simplify complex processes and boost efficiency. The winning solutions and award categories were:

• Fidessa TCA for Best Transaction Cost Analysis (CTA) Tool
• FI EMS for Best Smart Order Routing Application
• SENSOR for Best Solution for Options Trading

Fidessa TCA is a business module of a cross-asset ION solution. The tool provides post-trade execution performance analytics to buy-side or sell-side investment firms that operate in the equity market, and embedded checks to guarantee the quality of the analysis.

A front office platform, FI EMS features Smart Order Routing (SOR). The platform, launched a year ago, is designed to deploy best execution algorithms across multiple trading venues and support different asset classes with asset-specific routing and execution algorithms. Offering both buy and sell side capabilities, FI EMS caters to increasingly complex regulatory pressures. The platform provides a comprehensive audit trail, and automatically generates client reports.

SENSOR – from DASH Financial Technologies, an ION company – is an SOR and algorithmic trading suite that underpins DASH’s dominant position in the rapidly growing options market. Distinguished in the market by client-defined parameters to maximize performance and functionality, SENSOR includes DASH360, the firm’s award-winning application that offers real-time transparency into every stage of an order’s lifecycle.

Commenting on the wins, Robert Cioffi, Global Head of Equities Product Management, said, “We are thrilled at the recognition for ION’s best-in-breed technology. Against the backdrop of continuously volatile markets, the awards for Fidessa TCA and SENSOR recognize ION’s ability to design, upgrade, and implement technology in anticipation of client needs.”

“We’re delighted that TradingTech Insight has recognized FI EMS’s outstanding capabilities so soon after it’s official launch,” said Tommaso Di Grazia, Head of Fixed Income Product Development. “Our product answers a clear market need for integrated automated solutions in one tool to facilitate market-making. FI EMS eases challenges around selecting counterparties and sourcing liquidity, and exists to digitize the entire dealer-to-customer trading process.

“We work tirelessly to deliver systems with unmatched performance and customization. SENSOR is the perfect illustration of that ethos,” said Stino Milito, President at DASH Financial Technologies. “By focusing on empowering the user, SENSOR has fueled major growth for our options execution business over the last decade. We are proud to be recognized by the industry professionals who voted, and grateful to our clients for their feedback and support.” 

Computop, the international payment service provider (PSP), has today announced that it has been certified by Green Software Design (GSD), an initiative of German IT firm Syngenio. The certification recognizes Computop’s contribution to making its software climate-friendly, including taking resource consumption into account when programming software applications.

After an initial analysis of the basic auditability of Computop’s payment platform Computop Paygate V7, the code was examined for resource efficiency. The "Green Software Expertyzer" from Syngenio was used to carry out this task. The A rating showed compliance with the requirements and paved the way for certification.

"We have always focused very much on efficiency and clear documentation when programming Computop Paygate, which is basically done in-house. This also benefited us when we were certified with the Green Software Design label," said Computop CTO Norman Krieghoff. "We were therefore very pleased to learn that our payment platform met the high standards of this certification right from the first review."

"Computop has fully met the criteria defined by Syngenio for minimising the carbon footprint for software," says Joachim Nübold, board member at Syngenio AG. "Paygate V.7 meets the highest security standards for financial transactions and is climate-friendly at the same time. The award of our Green Software Design label is an expression of the valuable work Computop is doing in the field of sustainable payment solutions."

Computop has been pursuing the goal of climate neutrality since 2019. To this end, the company's CO2 emissions are assessed annually, reduced through a variety of measures and, where avoidance is not yet possible, compensated. The certification of software development is part of these measures.

Retailers who use Computop Paygate have the certainty of resource-saving payment processing through GSD certification. They can make this clear with the button "Climate neutral payment with Computop" on their eCommerce website.

Sezzle, a leader in the alternative payments industry, recognizes the challenges everyday life can throw at people from the littlest everyday expenses to life-changing events. With over 60% of U.S. consumers living paycheck-to-paycheck, Sezzle believes that finding The Responsible Way to Pay^TM is now more important than ever.

Sezzle, the only certified B Corporation in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) industry, is proud to assist people on their journey to financial freedom, and it is the Company’s mission to Financially Empower the Next Generation. With a great payments system, comes great responsibility and Sezzle’s product offerings encapsulate this adage:

• No interest with on-time payments. According to a recent PYMNTS study, consumers would have paid an average interest rate of 19%-23% for purchases with credit cards instead of BNPL.
• One free payment reschedule with each order. With over 60% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, we get it, sometimes life happens.
• No hidden fees. Nothing is more important than transparency for shoppers to know that the price they see at checkout is the price they pay without any surprises.
• Opt-in to build credit. Sezzle is the only BNPL that gives consumers the opportunity to build credit via Pay-in-Four. Consumers elect to join Sezzle Up, knowing that payments will be reported to the credit bureaus. Those making on-time payments while enrolled in Sezzle Up experienced an average credit score increase of 20 points within the first 4 months of reporting.
• Avoiding the debt spiral. Sezzle offers shoppers a grace period as permitted by applicable law for failed payments, and after the grace period if payment is yet to be received, the consumer is no longer allowed to make additional purchases, thus preventing an individual from going further into debt. Meanwhile, other payment options charge interest and can create a cycle of debt, which a consumer may not be able to afford.
• Spread payments out to meet budgets. Sezzle’s broad product offering allows shoppers to choose their mode of payment. Whether it is Pay-in-Full, Pay-in-Two, Pay-in-Four, or long-term monthly payments through referral partnerships with other financial institutions – Sezzle has it.

At Sezzle’s core, it is a stakeholder-centric company that strives to make an even greater impact across its stakeholder groups – consumers, merchants, employees, communities, and investors. Sezzle integrates stakeholder concerns into all decisions made across the business to enhance sustainability, promote equity, and support communities. The Company’s B Corporation commitment to driving change for stakeholders consists of:

• Justice (financial accessibility, diversity and inclusion, employee security and wellness),
• Stewardship (responsible lending, environment and climate action, data security and management),
• Advancement (product innovation, community reinvestment, employee career development), and
• Integrity (governance, control, and reporting, integrated sustainability, workplace culture).

“Sezzle fills an important gap in peoples’ financial lives and when used responsibly, it can open doors to opportunities. Only 44% of the US adult population is considered Prime, while the rest are considered Near Prime, Subprime, Unscorable, or even Invisible,” stated Sezzle CEO and cofounder Charlie Youakim. “We can’t change that dynamic overnight, but we believe the actions we are taking are helping society move one step closer by responsibly expanding access to credit.”  

CellPoint Digital, the global pioneer of Payment Orchestration, today announces it will orchestrate payments for GOL Linhas Aéreas Intelligentes S.A. (translated to ‘GOL Intelligent Airlines S.A.’), the Brazilian low-cost airline based in São Paulo.

In 2022, GOL took 33,7% of the domestic market share in terms of passengers per kilometre flown. This positions GOL as one of the largest domestic airlines in Brazil.

Commenting on the announcement, Kristian Gjerding, CEO at CellPoint Digital said: “More and more airlines across the globe are turning to CellPoint Digital as they recognize our expertise in the complex space of airline payments. We are so excited to welcome GOL as our most recent airline customer and look forward to watching its growth soar as it leverages our world-leading Payment Orchestration Platform.”

By harnessing the capabilities of CellPoint Digital’s Payment Orchestration Platform, Velocity, GOL estimates it can drive monthly transactions up to almost 2 million TRX.

Diogo Lopes, CFO at Smiles, GOL’s Frequent-flyer program, added: “This is a great move for GOL as we look to scale up our operations even further. We have already developed a strong consultative relationship with CellPoint Digital, whose advice on potential payment partners in different countries has been invaluable. Integrating CellPoint Digital’s innovative Payment Orchestration Platform will be powerful in driving efficiencies.”

Today, ConsenSys and Fireblocks announced the integration of MetaMask Institutional (MMI), the web3 wallet for organizations and the first multi-custodial institutional web3 offering on the market, with Fireblocks, an easy-to-use platform to build innovative products on the blockchain and manage day-to-day crypto operations. The integration, which will go live on June 12th, brings together two prominent web3 companies to provide institutional investors and builders with best-in-class wallet security alongside increased access and functionality to DeFi and web3.   

The integration will allow users to access over 17,000 DeFi and web3 dapps such as Aave, Lido, and GMX when they connect their Fireblocks accounts to MMI. Once connected, organizations can trade, invest, lend, borrow, provide liquidity, and bridge assets across EVM chains with MMI, while benefiting from the security of Fireblocks’ MPC wallet infrastructure and Policy Engine for transaction governance and signing. MMI’s suite of portfolio management capabilities and the all-in-one dashboard will also be available for monitoring and reporting on positions across dapps.

In addition, MMI will provide Fireblocks’ users with the following:

• Enhanced web3 portfolio management with digital asset monitoring, protocol allocation breakdowns, and in-depth transaction reporting—all on one dashboard;

• Native token swaps and ETH staking directly from the MetaMask Institutional extension or dashboard;

• Team management settings with automated onboarding, and organization-wide portfolio views; and

• Performance and P&L attribution metrics for all ERC-20 tokens and the largest DeFi protocols.

The integration between MetaMask Institutional and Fireblocks comes as the crypto industry continues to experience promising development that is fueling institutional interest and adoption. 

According to an EY-Parthenon research, institutional investors overwhelmingly believe in the long-term benefits of crypto/digital assets, with nearly 60% making efforts to enter the space. As institutional interest in the crypto market increases, there is a growing need for secure and efficient digital asset management solutions. This partnership provides institutional investors and builders access to the best of both worlds: MMI’s unparalleled access to the web3 ecosystem and Fireblocks’ institutional-grade security and key management.

The integration builds on MetaMask Institutional’s extensive suite of now twelve custodians and custody technology providers that provides choice, security, and operational efficiency for crypto funds, web3 builders, and all organizations seeking exposure to the digital asset class. 

"With the exponentially increasing demand from organizations to enter web3, MetaMask Institutional is focused on providing the most expansive ecosystem access while satisfying the most diverse and rigorous institutional requirements," said Johann Bornman, Global Product Lead for MetaMask Institutional. "Fireblocks is the leading institutional digital asset self-custody platform, and we are truly delighted to be working with the team. This integration brings together two marquee products and further supports our goal to bridge every organization into web3."

“As DeFi and web3 strategies become increasingly sophisticated, Fireblocks is constantly looking to improve our customers’ ability to engage with the space,” said Idan Ofrat, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder at Fireblocks. “We’re proud to be able to work with MetaMask Institutional and provide our customers with an enhanced portfolio management experience that meets the high security and compliance standards our customers have come to expect.”

Prior to today’s announcement, MMI onboarded eleven custodians to serve the needs of organizations with unique key management requirements in different jurisdictions across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions.

PureFacts Financial Solutions, a leader in revenue management solutions for the investment management industry, today announced that its fee and billing calculation engine will be added to the Wove wealth management platform of Pershing X, a technology provider and new business unit of BNY Mellon.

With the addition of PureFacts, wealth management firms using the Pershing X platform will be able to better account for every dollar of value, with less overhead and more automated, accurate, and repeatable workflows.

“The time is right for PureFacts to be collaborating with the team at Pershing X,” said Robert Madej, Founder and CEO of PureFacts Financial Solutions. “The digital transformation underway in wealth management is happening swiftly and during a time when the global financial landscape has undergone many profound changes itself.”

“The combined power of PureFacts and BNY Mellon Pershing X’s new digital wealth platform, Wove, will help ensure wealth management firms have access to the best solutions—like the daily fee reporting and advanced analytics PureFacts provides—through one interconnected experience,” said Noam Tasch, Head of Revenue, BNY Mellon’s Pershing X.

PureFacts’ end-to-end revenue management platform is the only solution that does true daily calculations, providing:

• Automated allocations and reconciliation of transactions, holdings, and / or assets
• Automated calculation of receivable and payable fees
• Automated asset classification and AI-powered error detection
• Customizable solutions able to handle any rule, condition, exclusion, or exception, including flexible rebate and discount management
• Easy-to-understand reports and dashboards, with actionable insights

PureFacts is changing the financial services game globally. This announcement comes on the heels of the company’s spring 2023 acquisition of Xtiva Financial Systems, a New York based technology firm in the wealth management industry.

Lentra, the fastest-growing cloud-lending firm, announced raising $27 Million as a part of their extended series B round led by MUFG Bank and Dharana Capital. The software as a service startup had raised $60mn in the series-B round on November 22 by its existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital with participation from Citi Ventures.

MUFG Bank, through its Ganesha investment fund for Indian start-ups, has invested in Lentra, a leading cloud lending platform that empowers financial institutions and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs). This deal marks the first joint investment by the bank and MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd (MUIP), a corporate venture capital under the MUFG Group. With this collaboration, both the entities are poised to support Lentra to further explore synergies within the Group, including its strategic partner banks in South-east Asia.

Shashank Joshi, Deputy CEO of MUFG India, said “This is a testimony to Lentra’s status as the leading Enterprise SaaS (Software as a Service) Platform and the transformational role it stands to play in the evolving digital lending landscape. This partnership affirms our commitment to be at the forefront of supporting digital innovation in India and its expansion to other geographies.”

“We are proud to back Lentra in its mission to become the one-stop ecosystem across the entire lending lifecycle of leading global financial institutions. The Lentra team has scaled the business in a highly capital-efficient manner and is well positioned to benefit from the tailwinds of digitization across markets," added Vamsi Duvvuri, Founder and Managing Partner, Dharana Capital

Having successfully scaled as the fastest-growing SaaS, Lending cloud provider in India, Lentra extended its presence to Vietnam, Philippines Indonesia and the US by successfully setting up subsidiaries and accelerating GTM (go to market). Lentra has also successfully completed the launch of its Loan management system called 1LMS that enables lenders to fulfill needs of billions of borrowers at accelerated speed and accuracy. In a strategic partnership with Google Cloud, 1LMS was previewed in the Indian markets in an event curated for the leading banks and NBFCs earlier in May.

D Venkatesh, Founder & CEO, Lentra, “We have been scaling at a fast pace and this extended round is a strategic step towards fueling our ambition of empowering lenders globally. We are very excited that MUFG Bank and Dharana Capital are getting added to our cap table alongside our existing marquee investors like BVP, Citi, HDFC and SIG.”

Sverrir Hreidarsson, Head of Fintech at Kvika Bank, comments: “We are extremely excited to launch our new subscription-based services in partnership with Enfuce. Kvika is in a unique position to disrupt Icelandic banking, with a very strong user base and market presence. It was vital for us to work with a strong technical partner to make our ambitions a reality. Finding this partner in Enfuce has made it possible for us to launch the first-ever hybrid Visa card, which combines a debit and credit product on the same digital card, available on Apple Pay and Google Pay.” 

Monika Liikamaa, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Enfuce, says: “It is exciting to be a part of Kvika Bank’s ambitions to reshape the Icelandic financial landscape. With this partnership, Enfuce and Kvika Bank are transforming financial services in Iceland, delivering them with speed, security and style, which is exactly what Enfuce is all about. 

 

“Alongside the launch of the Visa consumer credit card, the Aur app currently has over 100,000 users in Iceland, and is a vital component in Kvika’s commitment to modernise financial services. Together with Enfuce, Kvika Bank will now be able to provide compelling and enjoyable payment experiences, and make everyday life flow for its customers with our innovative modular propositions. Enfuce is the only strategic and collaborative issuer processor partner that visionary leaders need to drive transformative business growth and exceptional customer engagement.”

Denise Johansson, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Enfuce, says: “Kvika Bank’s mission to foster competition, transform financial services in Iceland, and simplify customer finance are perfectly aligned with our own values. We share the same people-first ethos, a hunger for innovation, and a deep commitment to sustainability that is threaded through both of our organisations. 

 

“With most of Aur customers’ daily banking and payment transactions carried out online, Enfuce will provide them with the dynamic, best-in-class, progressive payment solutions available. Enfuce exists to relieve pain from payments and make life flow more easily, and our partnership with Kvika Bank underlines the strength of our proposition, and the scale of opportunities we are creating for like-minded partners. When businesses work with us, they can be confident of getting the very best strategic expertise, compliance strengths, and unmatched levels of customer support.”