CCData, an FCA-authorised benchmark administrator and leading provider of digital asset data solutions and settlement indices, is excited to announce its new partnership with BMLL Technologies, a premier and independent provider of harmonised level 3 historical data and analytics. This partnership brings together two market-leading data providers in their fields, empowering clients with access to advanced data and metrics across both traditional and digital asset markets.

Navigating both the digital asset and traditional financial markets presents a unique set of challenges, including diverse data solutions, varying trading mechanisms, and the volume of data available. This partnership streamlines access to critical data solutions, removing the complexities involved in managing, integrating, and processing large amounts of data for the end user.

The partnership arrives in response to the growing demand for institutionally tailored digital asset data solutions, following the approval of the first spot of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. CCData has established itself as a leading provider of digital asset L1/L2 Order Book data, continually expanding its offerings with new and enhanced metrics to provide insights into the digital asset markets.

BMLL offers financial market participants, academic institutions, and regulators immediate and flexible access to the most granular Level 3, T+1 order book data and analytics to understand market behaviour. By combining CCData's highly accurate and reliable digital asset data solutions with the BMLL granular order book data and advanced pre and post-trade analytics for ETFs and Futures on digital assets, market participants will benefit from highly accurate Crypto and FX data solutions, underpinned by mutual commitment to delivering reliable and accurate data solutions.

The partnership aligns with BMLL’s mission of delivering the highest quality, historical order book data to financial institutions.  BMLL has harmonised Level 3 Data across Equities, ETFs and Futures, including all Crypto ETFs, into a single consistent format, enabling users to seamlessly analyse traditional and digital asset markets.

Paul Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer, BMLL said ‘We are seeing increasing customer demand for high quality historical data and analytics in the digital asset markets. We are delighted to partner with CCData to provide institutional clients with institutional-grade Crypto data from traditional and digital asset markets. Digital asset traders are now able to access historical data and analytics for all Crypto ETFs and Futures from all traditional US Equity and Futures venues in a single consistent format via BMLL, enabling them to better understand traditional market microstructure on the Crypto markets.

"This partnership with BMLL Technologies marks a significant milestone for CCData, enhancing our capability to meet the escalating demand for comprehensive and reliable financial market data. By combining CCData's leading digital asset data solutions with BMLL's expertise in level three historical data and analytics, we are uniquely positioned to empower our clients with access to the advanced data and metrics necessary for navigating the complexities of both traditional and digital asset markets." said Charles Hayter, CEO and Co-Founder of CCData 

PPRO, the leading digital payment platform, has announced the appointment of two senior leaders: Eelco Dettingmeijer as Chief Commercial Officer and Mariette Ferreira as Chief Marketing Officer. These strategic hires come at a time when PPRO is gearing up for a new phase of growth.

Eelco brings over a decade of experience in payments, and over two decades in international sales roles with an impressive track record of driving commercial success. He spent seven years in commercial leadership roles at global payments processor Worldpay, served on the board of Icepay, and then spent three at Nuvei. Eelco's leadership experience is especially focused on EMEA markets, and he is recognized for building robust teams and strategic commercial growth. As CCO, Eelco will be spearheading growth in PPRO’s key strategic markets in Europe and the US, while also expanding its merchant network worldwide.

Mariette Ferreira joins PPRO as a CMO with over 15 years of B2B marketing experience, including ten years within the fintech industry. She has helped scale businesses such as payments platform FairFX (now Equals Group) and most recently served as CMO at fintech consultancy 11:FS. Mariette is poised to deliver a marketing strategy that drives commercial success and advances PPRO’s market position.

Eelco Dettingmeijer, CCO of PPRO said, "PPRO is well positioned to move up the value chain and has a unique value proposition that empowers growth for both payment companies and direct merchants. The payments industry is rapidly evolving, and I look forward to leveraging my experience and network to drive PPRO into the next stage of hyper-growth. There's a vast opportunity for PPRO to deepen relationships, double its revenue and boost commercial success by providing more and better services and products to our existing and prospective customers."

Mariette Ferreira, CMO of PPRO commented, "I am looking forward to taking PPRO to new heights from a marketing perspective. The payments landscape is continuously changing and PPRO has a fantastic opportunity to enhance its competitive offering and serve customers in new and interesting ways.”

Motie Bring, CEO of PPRO added “We’re thrilled to welcome Eelco and Mariette to PPRO. Eelco's extensive sales expertise and Mariette's strategic marketing insights will be instrumental in our mission to simplify access to local payments, and enable the sale of goods and services to anyone in the world using their preferred way to pay.”

Nuvei Corporation, the Canadian fintech company, announced today that it is launching its enhanced omnichannel payments solution for merchants and platforms. Nuvei's unified commerce offering, which is now available to customers operating outside of North America for the first time, is enabling businesses to develop new customer payment experiences with greater control and unified analytics effortlessly.

This proprietary, flexible solution supports merchants and partners by enhancing their payment offerings across various use cases. Businesses from diverse end markets including consumer retail, restaurant and hospitality, travel, and iGaming are leveraging Nuvei's omnichannel technology to offer their customers an enhanced, convenient experience at the checkout specifically tailored for each channel, however and wherever consumers want to pay.

Philip Fayer, Nuvei Chair and CEO, commented on the announcement: "A unified approach to payments across channels is increasingly critical for businesses to meet customer expectations, optimize revenues, and accelerate growth. Combining industry-leading technology in online and retail payments into a single, truly unified solution not only supports our existing customers to meet their growth goals, but also opens exciting new opportunities as we execute on our strategy to develop new use cases for the Nuvei platform and grow our total addressable market."

Nuvei's unified commerce omnichannel solution deeply aligns the best of its card-present ("CP") and card-not-present ("CNP") technology for eCommerce, mobile, and in-store transactions. This enables merchants to unify their online and retail payment acceptance into a single, seamless integration for multiple jurisdictions without compromising the agility required to customize and scale payments effortlessly to facilitate growth.

Additional features of unified commerce for consumers include the ability to buy or add products to the checkout basket through one channel and amend the purchase or request a refund through another. Businesses are also able to run separate pricing, loyalty, and incentive programs for online and physical channels.

Nuvei's platform features a single view of comprehensive reporting analytics and insights for CP and CNP transactions, equipping businesses with the data required to make the smarter, more informed decisions required to optimize their payment function holistically. Other streamlined operations through a common API optimize payments further, including a single consistent developer experience and centralizing payment processing across channels through tokenizing transactions.

Nuvei's flexible approach to retail payments hardware enables merchants to utilize its in-house, semi-integrated cloud solution Verifone Android terminals, or to adopt a 'bring your own device' model. Nuvei's in-house solutions are constructed using the latest hardware technology and are fully customizable, enabling businesses to craft custom value-added applications tailored to their unique needs.

In addition to accessing each element of its full-stack payments technology through the same single integration for multiple geographies, Nuvei's global reach, including local acquiring capabilities in 50 countries and connectivity to 680 alternative online payment methods (APMs), enables businesses to scale their omnichannel payments internationally as they expand into new markets. Nuvei's unique approach to global customer support from integration to geographic expansion simplifies the pursuit of growth further.

Fayer continued: "As businesses expand into new markets, they are increasingly looking to partner with payment providers that can remove complexity while still offering the agility and insights to optimize growth. Omnichannel payments are intricate, so customers must work with a partner that understands their business to optimize revenue and the customer experience. Our omnichannel solution enables businesses to reach customers through payments on every channel effortlessly."

ChargeAfter, the embedded lending platform for point-of-sale financing announced that Citi Retail Services, one of North America's largest and most experienced retail payments and credit solution providers, selected ChargeAfter as a technology provider for its Citi Pay® products, including Citi Pay® Credit and Citi Pay® Installment Loan.    

Citi Retail Services' collaboration with ChargeAfter gives participating online merchants the ability to seamlessly integrate Citi Pay products, which include a digital-only credit card and monthly installment loan, into their point-of-sale experience. Citi Pay products give customers flexibility in their budgets and put them in control of how they want to finance their purchases.

ChargeAfter's Lending Hub for banks bridges the gap between merchants and lending banks by streamlining the complex process from product creation and management to the deployment and distribution of lending products. The Lending Hub for banks also enables swift merchant onboarding and integration for bank lending partners, allowing them to offer various financing options to merchants and their customers at scale.

"We are excited to join forces with Citi Retail Services, leveraging elements of ChargeAfter's Lending Hub to empower and support the Citi Pay family of digital payment products to meet the evolving demands of the merchant community. This collaboration is an affirmation of the capabilities of our Lending Hub for leading payment providers," commented Meidad Sharon, founder and Chief Executive Officer of ChargeAfter. "Our nimble, cutting-edge technology and rapid go-to-market tools for banks position us to support Citi Retail Services in expanding its Citi Pay products and enhance the customer experience at checkout."

"Our collaboration with ChargeAfter enables us to quickly and seamlessly embed Citi Pay products into our merchant partners' point-of-sale, which furthers Citi's more than 30-year commitment to providing merchants and consumers with the secure and flexible payment options they desire," said Terry O'Neil, Head of Connected Commerce and Strategic Growth Initiatives for Citi Retail Services.

Artificial Labs, the leading algorithmic underwriting insurtech, is delighted to announce the completion of an £8M Series A+ funding round. The investment was led by Europe’s premier publicly listed fintech fund, Augmentum Fintech, with participation from existing investors MS&AD Ventures and FOMCAP IV.

In August 2023, Artificial announced its ground-breaking Smart Follow collaboration with insurer Apollo, which has since gone live in the London Market for several lines of business including Marine Hull, General Aviation and Marine Cargo.

The company unveiled its new broker tool, Contract Builder, to the market through its strategic partnership with Lockton in the UK in late 2023 and Placing Platform Limited in January 2024, making significant strides in the Lloyd’s of London market. Implementation with several other large London Market brokers is ongoing. The tool can be easily tailored to brokers’ requirements and generates configurable, structured and Lloyd’s Blueprint Two-compliant contracts.

Since its successful Series A funding round in June 2022, Artificial has achieved several significant milestones. The company has rapidly grown its team and bolstered its leadership with the appointments of Ascot founder Martin Reith as Chairman in 2022 and, in 2023, Deana Murfitt as Chief Operating Officer and Jen Tan as Head of Portfolio Strategy.

The latest funding round will allow Artificial to further its position as a leader in algorithmic underwriting and excel towards its vision of a digital insurance market through product development and continued expansion. It will also enable the acceleration of the development and deployment of innovative AI tools that Artificial is delivering to its brokers and underwriter partners.

David King, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Artificial, commented:

“Our latest funding round is a testament to the exciting work we’re doing at Artificial. We are thrilled to have the expertise and support of the Augmentum team and our committed existing investors on this next phase of our journey.

“This round of funding will enable us to accelerate our growth and continue to innovate in the algorithmic and augmented space. In 2024 we will further the development of our underwriting platform, exciting AI solutions and our Contract Builder product, which is already seeing great traction in the market.”

Reginald de Wasseige, Principal at Augmentum Fintech, said:

“We are delighted to lead Artificial’s latest investment round. We firmly believe that the era of algorithmic underwriting will redefine market dynamics in the insurance space. As more sophisticated 'smart follow' underwriters enter the London Market, we will see a significant transformation in the process of underwriting risk.

"The most adept lead underwriters, equipped with substantial auto-follow capacity, are poised to become highly sought-after by brokers seeking to place business. We look forward to working with David, Johnny and the entire Artificial team for this next phase of their journey. Our investment is a testament to our confidence in their vision and execution capabilities.”

Aro, the UK’s go-to embedded finance partner for brands, has today announced a partnership with Equifax Limited to deliver a new credit card and loan solution for Equifax Marketplace. The solution enables consumers to compare credit cards, secured loan,s and personal loan products simply and find a financial product that suits their needs from the panel of lenders.  

Aro’s data-driven matching platform enhances the chances of customers obtaining the financing they seek via machine learning models. Aro can offer the best possible credit options to its customers from over 70 of the UK’s leading lenders, matching consumers with the most appropriate lending products.

Through soft credit searches, which will not impact consumers’ credit scores, the new partnership with Aro will empower Equifax customers with greater transparency and choice, while promoting a competitive lending environment. This refreshed solution allows individuals to compare a variety of credit products easily; including personal loans and credit cards, tailoring their financial decisions to their specific needs, preferences, and current situations.

By simplifying the comparison process, Equifax encourages responsible borrowing. It assists consumers in making better-informed decisions taking into account the current economic climate as well as their long-term financial goals in a single, seamless marketplace solution.

Emma Steeley, Chief Executive Officer at Aro, explains: "Our new partnership with Equifax will continue to promote financial empowerment and create a transformative experience for more consumers. We’re pleased to be supporting Equifax to embrace innovation, transparency and data-driven insights, which will bridge the gap between lenders and borrowers to drive forward financial inclusion. Our mission is to redefine the lending landscape, ensuring that the power of our personal credit matching technology benefits everyone on their journey towards financial prosperity.”

William Napier, Product and Marketing Director for Consumer Solutions at Equifax UK, said: “Delivering the best value to our customers and empowering them to make the best possible financial decisions is at the heart of everything we do. A partnership with Aro felt like a natural progression for Equifax to deliver a better user experience for our customers. ”

Leading European Regulatory Technology (RegTech) scale-up Salv has broken new ground by becoming the first technology firm in Europe to secure a regulator-awarded licence to operate as a ‘Closed Service KYC Utility’ service provider. 

The licence, granted five years after the standards and regulations were established by the Data State Inspectorate of Latvia in 2019, paves the way for financial institutions to collaborate whenever criminal activity is identified or suspected. By alerting their peers when financial crime is detected, firms can take action to limit or prevent it from escalating across the financial services ecosystem.

To become a trusted, licensed supplier of financial services intelligence data exchange services, Salv was required to prove corporate due diligence and demonstrate ISO/IEC 27001 certification, the highest levels of security, data protection and compliance. The licence will enable financial institutions to leverage Salv’s Bridge platform to help combat financial crime.

In 2023, customers of the four largest commercial banks in Latvia were defrauded of funds amounting to €12.7 million, while the amount of prevented cases reached €9.2 million, according to the data compiled by the Financial Industry Association. Also, more than €5.6 million were obtained illegally as a result of investment fraud €5.5 million as a result of telephone fraud, where customers have approved payments from their accounts. Compared to the previous year, 2023 also saw an 84% rise in investment fraud cases reported by financial institutions in Latvia, indicating a rapid rise in financial crime.

“Collaboration between financial institutions is beneficial for all, but it requires confidence in the security of the process and compliance with a range of regulatory requirements before it can be put into practice. We therefore congratulate all those involved for the work they have done to ensure that the opportunity is realised in practice,” commented Laima Letiņa, Advisor to the Finance Latvia Association. “Salv is the first regulatory technology company to meet the high quality standard and has obtained the Closed Shared KYC Utility licence issued by the State Data Inspectorate, which will enable the Latvian financial sector to fight money laundering more effectively.”

According to Bruno Puriņš, Salv Market lead in Latvia: “In securing this licence and exceeding the challenging security and regulatory requirements set by the Latvian Data State Inspectorate, Salv has proven that our solutions are fit for purpose and our organisation is trustworthy and robust. We are proud to have excelled under independent scrutiny. Our success in gaining this licence assures both current and future clients – in the Baltic States and more broadly across Europe – that it is now possible for the financial services community to unite against financial crime.”

Edgars Pastars, Senior Associate at Baltics legal advisory firm ZAB COBALT, said: “The use of collaborative customer intelligence tools to fight financial crime have been discussed globally for many years. Despite its modest stature, Latvia is at the forefront of innovation and has pioneered the development of standards and regulations that have transformed this concept into reality. We are proud to have advised the Latvian authorities and financial institutions during the initial licence creation process in 2019, and subsequently to have supported Salv in their pursuit of securing the licence.”

Clearwater Analytics, a leading provider of SaaS-based investment management, accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, today announced the appointment of Keith Viverito as Managing Director, EMEA. With over 20 years of experience in high-growth companies serving financial markets, Viverito brings a strong track record of delivering exceptional results and a passion for people and customer success to Clearwater.

Prior to joining Clearwater, Viverito served as a Managing Director at BlackRock, leading Business Development for the Aladdin Business across EMEA. In his new role, Viverito will be responsible for accelerating Clearwater’s global expansion and strengthening its go-to-market strategy. His strategic vision, dynamic leadership, and unwavering commitment to colleague and customer success align well with Clearwater’s existing team and culture.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Keith to the leadership team,” said Sandeep Sahai, CEO at Clearwater Analytics. “Keith has a deep understanding of our industry and is a perfect fit to lead Clearwater’s expansion internationally. While he started his career in North America, he has spent over a decade in Europe and brings a unique perspective to our team. We look forward to his contributions as we expand globally, foster innovation across our comprehensive suite of product offerings, and achieve long-term success in EMEA and APAC.”

“I am honored to join Clearwater at this important time for our international business as we transition into our next phase of growth and accelerate our expansion across EMEA and APAC,” said Viverito. “The success the Company has already achieved with significant wins across these markets where Clearwater displaced legacy competitors provides a very strong foundation for growth. I look forward to partnering with the Company’s strong leadership on the ground in London, Paris, Edinburgh and Frankfurt, which will enable us to move quickly.”

Viverito has held executive and senior leadership roles at IHS Markit, FactSet, Thomson Reuters, and Tradeweb, with a focus on International Markets. Viverito holds a B.A. in Economics from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from DePaul University Chicago.

“Generative AI has provided a huge boost to threat actors’ productivity levels: these tools are relatively low cost, easily accessed, and can be used to create highly convincing synthesized media such as face swaps or other forms of deepfakes that can easily fool the human eye as well as less advanced biometric solutions. This only serves to heighten the need for highly secure remote identity verification,” says Andrew Newell, Chief Scientific Officer, iProov.  

“While the data in our report highlights that face swaps are currently the deepfake of choice for threat actors, we don’t know what’s next. The only way to stay one step ahead is to constantly monitor and identify their attacks, the attack frequency, who they’re targeting, the methods they’re using, and form a set of hypotheses as to what motivates them.”

• A significant increase in packaged AI imagery tools deployed which make it far easier and quicker to launch an attack and this is only expected to advance. 
• There was a 672% increase from H1 2023 to H2 2023 in the use of deepfake media such as face swaps being deployed alongside metadata spoofing tools. Presentation and digital injection attacks may have different levels of impact, but they can pose a significant threat when combined with traditional cyber attack tools like metadata manipulation.  

The EY organization today announces an alliance between MoneyLion Inc., a leading enterprise and consumer FinTech company, and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US), to help drive innovation and growth within the banking sector.

The Alliance leverages MoneyLion's embedded finance platform to help enhance the technological capabilities of traditional banking institutions. By doing so, the Alliance aims to simplify and streamline the transition into the digital realm, assist these institutions in overcoming the challenges of an increasingly fragmented financial landscape and help facilitate their ability to offer a wide range of financial services to consumers through an efficient, user-friendly digital platform.

With MoneyLion's embedded marketplace infrastructure and technology, data insights and content solutions combined with EY US teams' existing core-banking modernization offerings and Nexus for Banking Platform, the Alliance is designed to provide a comprehensive suite of FinTech solutions to help scale acquisition strategies and service models as well as foster organic growth and engagement within financial institutions' customer base.

Nikhil Lele, Financial Services Consumer Banking Leader and EY-MoneyLion Alliance Leader, Ernst & Young LLP, says:

"We are thrilled about the EY-MoneyLion Alliance's potential to transform the banking and financial services industry. Our Alliance brings together deep experience of EY US in technology integration with cutting-edge solutions from MoneyLion, launching a new enterprise strategy for the industry. This will help empower smaller or more traditional banks to scale rapidly and profitably with integrated digital financial solutions."

Dee Choubey, Founder and CEO of MoneyLion, says:

"Our Alliance with EY US represents not only a stride in innovation but a continued commitment to transforming the banking and financial services industry. With the combined strength of MoneyLion's technology and experience, we are setting a new standard for what banks and financial institutions can achieve and helping them change the way they engage with and cater to the evolving needs of today's digital consumer. This marks the beginning of a more adaptive, responsive and customer-focused banking experience, where technology and human-centricity go hand-in-hand to create a seamless financial experience for every user."