N26 announced the appointment of three new senior executives, Carine van der Heijden as Vice President of Brand Marketing, Kertu-Liina Lehismae as Director of Digital Marketing and Global Media, and Nicole Heider as Director of Labor Relations and Employment Law. With the new hires, The Mobile Bank further strengthens its extended leadership team with diverse experience and expertise as it continues to drive sustainable growth with world-class marketing and labour relations. 

Valentin Stalf, CEO and co-founder of N26: “We are very pleased to have brought in three new seasoned professionals, with years of experience in their respective fields to help steer the company towards sustainable growth. Each of the new hires has a clear understanding of our mission to build a bank the world loves to use.”

With over a decade of experience in marketing leadership roles, Carine van der Heijden joins N26 as VP of Brand Marketing, Activation and Content to lead the next stage of N26’s brand development across its creative, production and operational growth functions. Most recently, Carine was Head of Brand Marketing at Booking.com where she spent seven years defining and implementing the global brand marketing strategy, as well as creative ideation, execution and production for the company. 

“It is an honour to join the talented team that positioned N26 as a leader in Europe’s digital banking market,” said Carine. “N26 is redefining the future of banking with its beautifully simple experience and I look forward to bringing this to life through an impactful brand strategy and fully integrated campaigns, and ultimately driving further adoption through every touchpoint people will have with the brand.” 

Kertu-Liina Lehismae joins as Director of Digital Marketing & Global Media, bringing with her over ten years of experience in performance marketing, media and marketing technology. In her role, she will drive sustainable growth strategies, oversee growth and digital marketing, as well as lead all of N26’s global media efforts. Kertu returns to N26 having joined the digital bank in its earlier growth stages in 2018 before going on to lead Performance Marketing at real estate transactions platform, McMakler. Both Carine and Kertu began in their new roles at N26 on 1 April 2023. 

To round out the new additions, Nicole Heider takes on the role of N26’s new Director of Labor Relations and Employment Law. The former Amazon Head of Marketplace and Prime Legal for the DACH region brings 14 years of experience in Employment and Labor Law and various other areas of law. In her role, Heider will oversee N26’s compliance with employment laws and regulations, working closely with its Works Councils to continue building a world-class employee experience. She will join the team in May 2023.

Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection, today announced the general availability of Acronis Advanced Security + Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) for Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. With new capabilities such as AI-based attack analysis, Acronis EDR reduces complexity and simplifies workflows for a more streamlined operation, making it easier than ever for MSPs and the businesses they serve to deploy comprehensive security and data protection. With more organisations turning to MSPs for their backup and security needs, and with a greater need for simplicity and efficiency, Acronis EDR aims to expand the adoption of advanced security capabilities, helping organisations of all sizes better protect themselves.

“With the proliferation of endpoints and increasing frequency of cyber threats, EDR has become a mission-critical tool in incident response and the fight for data protection. But solutions that are difficult to deploy and maintain are an obstacle,” said Research Vice President of Security and Trust Michael Suby at IDC. “The best solutions deliver the advanced security of EDR and meet the needs of the IT professionals who use it. That means easy deployments and rapid detection, response, and recovery with AI and automation on board.”

Acronis EDR offers the broadest number of out-of-the-box recovery options that take advantage of the integration with Acronis Cyber Protect’ backup and recovery, endpoint management, and endpoint security capabilities. Designed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), it allows them to quickly and easily analyse and prioritise security incidents, minimise downtime, and maintain business continuity while keeping their clients safe and protected.

“Other EDR tools can be over-complicated and force MSPs into expensive, time-consuming processes to implement and understand. Acronis EDR delivers a robust EDR solution that is easy to deploy and use while following industry-established standards like the NIST cybersecurity framework and mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK® framework,” said Candid Wüest, VP of Research at Acronis. “By rapidly understanding attack analysis and impact, Acronis EDR users can quickly evaluate a potential threat, gain insight into how an attacker gained access, what damage was caused, and how the attack might spread.”

Acronis EDR delivers:

•             Optimised Incident Analysis to quickly and easily analyse and prioritise security incidents and potential attacks without relying on costly security expertise or time-consuming processes.

•             Integrated Security with Backup & Recovery, for comprehensive protection critical to minimising downtime and maintaining business continuity in the event of an attack.

•             A Complete Cyber Protection Solution in a single agent — simple for MSPs to deploy, manage, and scale — that eliminates the cost, complexity, and security gaps inherent in multiple-point solutions.

"As a cybersecurity expert, I have witnessed firsthand the evolution of EDR and how it has revolutionised the way we approach security,” said Eric O'Neill, former FBI counterintelligence operative. “EDR allows security personnel to efficiently investigate, remediate, and recover from potential incidents while also reducing the attack surface and threat actor dwell time. The latest advances in EDR technology allow for rapid analysis of attack changes, shortened time to respond to incidents, and better business continuity for all organisations.”

Acronis EDR is available through the Acronis Advanced Security + EDR Advanced Pack. MSPs requiring more detailed information or a one-on-one service provider demo can find those resources here: https://go.acronis.com/security-edr-blog 

Award-winning accounting software provider iplicit

Cloud accounting business iplicit has signed accounting industry heavyweight, Damon Anderson, to help shape the growth of its partnership channels, as he did previously with Xero.

Anderson has become a strategic advisor to the rapidly expanding cloud accounting software provider, with a consulting role, which includes the creation of an advisory board to help steer iplicit’s partnership programme for accountancy practices.

Anderson made his debut for iplicit by joining its stand at Accountex, which saw iplicit unveil new tools to handle fixed asset management in accounting software.

Spending five years with Xero, Anderson became a member of its UK board and served as Regional Chief Operating Officer leading operations in the UK and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). 

His 20-year record of building and scaling fintech businesses also includes experience at Experian and Worldpay.

Lyndon Stickley, Chief Executive Officer at iplicit, said: “Damon is a real industry heavyweight who successfully built up the partnership channel at Xero, particularly for UK accountancy practices.

Now he will be helping us drive the growth of a similarly loyal channel with iplicit, but for those practices serving the mid-tier organisations – the primary focus for iplicit’s proposition.

Stickley adds, “From the very first conversation, the disruption to the incumbent market, coupled with innovative technology and a super passionate team, all resonated with Damon – our goal is to achieve what Xero did, on a global scale, but for the organisations with requirements beyond entry-level accounting software.”

Damon Anderson, Strategic Advisor, iplicit, said: “My time at Xero was really special. It was a business that disrupted and transformed its industry, achieving truly great things by assembling teams of truly great people.

During my years there it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it’s quite a surprise to find something equally as exciting with iplicit.” 

iplicit was launched in 2019 by a team which included the founders of Exchequer Software who disrupted the market in the late ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s.

From a standing start launch in 2019, it currently has more than 10,000 users in 72 countries and is continuing to grow at over 100% per year.

Potential partners are currently being reviewed for the iplicit Advisory Board – an “inner circle” of accountancy partners with technical or consultancy knowledge. This handful of partners on the board will have access to iplicit’s technical team and will help shape the evolution of both the proposition and the channel itself.

Anderson adds, “Every exposure I’ve had to iplicit has resonated with me because its journey seems so familiar. It’s on a similar high-growth trajectory to Xero, but this time I’ve come aboard as a strategic advisor at an earlier stage to shape its offering for accountancy partners in particular.”

iplicit expects to reveal more about its advisory board shortly. 

Building on its successful legacy, AAAFx hogged the limelight at the Finance Magnates Africa Summit (FMAS:23) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Soon after Sandton Convention Centre closed its doors on 9 May, the EU and South Africa-regulated broker was crowned the winner in the ‘Best Forex Spreads Africa’ category awarded by the Financial Achievements in Markets Excellency Awards.

“We are thrilled to receive this distinction. The ‘Best Forex Spreads Africa’ award only proves our sustained effort to offer best-in-class trading conditions to our clients in South Africa and beyond. Strengthening our position in the region, it brings us closer to our traders and partners locally,” said Somesh Kapuria, Head of Growth (Global) at AAAFx.

The award was announced at the ceremony following the first day of the prestigious FMAS event attended by leading fintech and financial industry players in Africa and globally. It marks yet another significant achievement for AAAFx, which has already won multiple awards over the past 12 months, including ‘Best FX Service Provider’ at the Forex Expo Dubai 2022 and ‘Best CFD Broker - MEA’ at the UF AWARDS MEA 2023.

"We are honoured to receive the ‘Best Forex Spreads Africa’ award"  said Gurbir Singh, Head of Growth Global, AAAFx. "This accolade is a testament to our commitment to offering the best-in-class services to our clients. We are proud of the trust our clients have placed in us, and we will continue to work hard to provide them with the best possible trading conditions."

With a history rooting back to 2007, AAAFx is a multi-regulated broker headquartered in Athens, Greece. Licensed by the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the company offers a range of trading instruments, including Forex and CFDs on Equities, Indices, Commodities and Cryptocurrencies.

Thanks to its cutting-edge technology, AAAFx provides its clients with access to liquidity from the world's leading banks and exchanges. As it continues to expand its outreach and services, the leading broker remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of excellence and delivering the best possible trading experience to all clients, regardless of their deposit size.

Placing clients at the heart of its operations, AAAFx is also known for its outstanding in-house customer support, available 24/5.

New data reveals that almost half (46%) of women don’t think they have saved enough into their pension pot for retirement, whilst men are much more confident in their retirement savings with only a third (35%) concerned that they haven’t enough saved.

To make matters worse, more than one in four (26%) large businesses report an increase in the number of employees pulling out of workplace pensions, with the numbers expected to rise thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, as more than half (55%) of female employees have cut non-essential spending.  

The new research – from workplace pension and savings fintech Cushon, conducted as part of its new whitepaper – comes at a time when  value for money of pensions is being questioned, with the Government recently consulting on the issue, and its findings due to be published later this year. In its new whitepaper, Cushon is calling on the Government and industry to start listening to employees to drive pensions engagement and ultimately ensure better pensions value for money. 

Interestingly, almost a third (30%) of female employees want higher contributions to help them save for the future during the cost-of-living crisis, while nearly all women (92%) agree that employer contributions are important.

While female employees cited employer contributions as important, they also said that easily understood communications (32%), and a mobile app that allows members to easily check and manage their pension (31%) constitutes as pensions value for money. 

Employers have a role to play in driving value for money by not only increasing their contribution rates, but also making pensions more inclusive and accessible for everyone. If employees don’t believe their pension offers value for money, there’s still a risk that they’ll opt-out or reduce saving which could impact their financial wellbeing in retirement.  

Steve Watson, Director of Policy and Research at Cushon said: “It’s hugely concerning that such a stark gender gap continues to exist in pensions. The research is clear - women understand that a massive factor on the value of their pension pot is ultimately down to how much is paid in. That’s why so many are calling on their employers to up their pension contribution levels. 

“When it comes to what’s important to employees in pensions, as obvious as it sounds, it’s time for us as an industry – and employers throughout the country – to listen to employee concerns and meet their expectations. This will encourage employees to continue saving into their pension and avert a potential retirement savings crisis.” 

B2BTradeCard has become a member of The Payments Association to ensure best practice across its own advertising, incentive and loyalty solutions services, as well as to help drive and inform conversations across the payments industry at large.

Founded in the UK in 2008, The Payments Association is the largest community in payments, operating in the UK, EU and Asia, to help almost 300 companies enhance their commercial interests, solve societal problems such as financial exclusion and evaluate new opportunities for innovation in payments.

Operating as an independent representative for the payments industry and its interests, it drives collaboration within the payments sector, working closely with industry stakeholders such as the Bank of England, the FCA, HM Treasury, the Payment Systems Regulator, Pay.UK, UK Finance and Innovate Finance.

B2BTradeCard CEO Craig Parsons said: “Through its comprehensive programme of activities for members and with guidance from an independent Advisory Board of leading payments CEOs, The Payments Association facilitates the connections that join the industry together and make it stronger.

“As a fast-growing company within the dynamic fintech industry, it’s essential that B2BTradeCard stays at the forefront of thinking and standards across the payments industry.

“Becoming a member of The Payments Association helps assure our customers and referrers of our gold standard practices within the payments sector, while also allowing us to play our part in contributing to thinking and innovation across the industry as a whole.”

B2BTradeCard has just celebrated its seventh year of consecutive growth since its launch in 2015 and recently doubled office capacity at its Chorley premises to manage projected further growth, following a 70% revenue increase last year alone.

Parsons continues: “We have ambitious plans for the coming years that involve looking to recruit nine more people over the next financial year. Having just hired one business development manager, a full stack software developer and a junior developer, we also have an immediate opening for a further business development manager to join our growing team.

“We’re incredibly proud of our strong culture and endeavour to be a great place to work, so we’re looking for ambitious people who would like to be part our long-term vision of being the UK’s leading loyalty solutions and advertising services provider.”

Capital.com, the high-growth global FinTech operating in the leveraged trading industry, is pleased to announce its partnership with veteran trader and educator Bruno Moltrasio. The aim of the partnership is to help Italian traders improve their understanding of financial markets and develop their trading skills through a series of educational initiatives including live events, educational videos, articles and interactive webinars.

The partnership will kick off with a roadshow across Italy, which will start on 29 June and run through to 1 July 2023. During the roadshow, Bruno Moltrasio will share his expertise on trading strategies, risk management and other critical trading skills. The event is open to traders of all levels and will provide an excellent opportunity for participants to learn from one of the industry's most respected professionals.

Commenting on the partnership, Alessandro Capuano, Head of Europe, Capital.com, said: 

"At Capital.com, our mission is to support every trader in their journey to become more confident and we will continue to do this by delivering best in-class educational resources at no additional cost. We are excited to partner with Bruno Moltrasi. His expertise and experience will be invaluable to our efforts to assist traders of all levels, and we look forward to a long and successful partnership."

Bruno Moltrasio is a seasoned trader with over 30 years of experience in the financial industry. He is the founder of the Traders' Club, a community of traders that focuses on sharing knowledge and experience to help traders improve their skills. He also founded BrunoMoltrasio.eu,  Universitrading.com and CulturaFinanziaria.com where he trained thousands of traders over the years. Bruno has a Master's degree in Technical Analysis of Financial Markets and published his first book titled, Dalle Strategie Direzionali allo Spread Trading, in 2007.

Bruno Moltrasio, Professional Trader and Educator, said: 

"I am thrilled to be partnering with Capital.com to help Italian traders improve and develop their trading skills. I believe that education is the key to success in trading, and I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with the traders who attend our roadshow."

Libertex, the online trading platform for retail and professional traders, has just launched an exciting new underlying asset that grants traders a superb opportunity to trade the future of cryptocurrency – Arbitrum CFDs.

Arbitrum is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that runs its own blockchain. Designed to improve upon the base Ethereum functionality that supports smart contracts, NFTs and dApps, Arbitrum is creating a buzz among crypto and institutional investors in the finance world because of the advantages it offers compared to older crypto solutions. These include:

• Faster transactions – Arbitrum can process 40,000 transactions per second compared to just 14 on Ethereum. This makes it much more capable of upscaling than Ethereum and its competitors.
• Lower fees – Due to its highly efficient optimistic rollup technology, transactions that would cost several dollars to complete on Ethereum only cost around two cents on Arbitrum.
• Market share – Arbitrum's appeal is backed up by the numbers. It is the leading layer-2 solution, claiming over 66% of the market in terms of total value locked. There are over 4 million unique Arbitrum addresses and more than 400 Arbitrum dApps, including many popular platforms such as GMX, Uniswap and Camelot.
• Developer-friendly – Arbitrum is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and popular programming languages. It comes with documentation for developers and doesn't need any plugins or extras for developing Ethereum-based apps.
• Governance functionality – Arbitrum tokens (ARB) will be used for governance within the Arbitrum DAO, granting holders a voice and stake in the future of the project.
• Track NFTs in real time – The latest feature to be added to Arbitrum is the ability to receive real-time notifications when an NFT changes addresses, as well as the option to track and follow trends using the Alchemy platform. This makes it especially useful for anyone involved in the NFT marketplace.

Arbitrum continues to add new features that make it an even bigger player in the crypto world. Traders now have a chance to join this project's exciting journey by trading Arbitrum CFDs with Libertex without needing to buy or hold the ARB token itself.

Risk Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 85.9% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. Tight spreads apply. Please check our spreads on the platform. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Westpac New Zealand has deployed a solution from Finastra to accelerate its compliance with the new ISO 20022 financial messaging standard. The solution has enabled the bank to leverage benefits of ISO 20022’s data-rich MX messaging format whilst providing backward-compatibility with legacy messaging formats, without needing to upgrade its entire payments ecosystem.

ISO 20022 is a global standard for the exchange of financial messages, such as payments, and brings benefits including greater interoperability between financial systems, enhanced straight-through processing, and improved data quality. For banks and their customers, ISO 20022 provides the potential for greater efficiency and transparency, faster and more cost-effective transactions, and new services and business models such as real-time payments and enhanced fraud detection.

“With ISO 20022 set to replace the legacy MT financial messaging formats, we were eager to find a fast route to compliance and leverage the richer data offered by the new MX format, whilst ensuring continuity for existing applications,” said John Forrester, Head of Payments, Westpac New Zealand. “Finastra understands our Payments business after working with us for a number of years and was able to provide a solution that solved these challenges, without us needing to upgrade our core payments platform immediately.”

Finastra has a successful track record of implementing its ISO 20022 payments systems globally and is working closely with its customers to enable them to support cross-border and domestic real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) in several major markets already migrating or preparing to adopt the standard.

“The move from the pervasive MT formats and other proprietary standards to ISO 20022 has the potential to provide a step-change in levels of automation, transparency, interoperability, and data insights,” said Arun Kini, Managing Director, APAC, Payments, Finastra. “Finastra’s global footprint, both in terms of customers and clearing system expertise, has enabled us to provide a solution that was quick to deploy but comprehensive in ISO 20022 processing support. We are pleased to have helped Westpac New Zealand prepare for the new standard and leverage all the potential benefits for its end customers.”

Tyro Payments (Tyro) is pleased to announce that its customers in Australia are now able to accept in-person contactless payments seamlessly and securely with Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone¹ contactless payment acceptance technology using the new Tyro BYO App, starting today.   

Tap to Pay on iPhone accepts contactless payments, including Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards and other digital wallets, using only an iPhone and the Tyro BYO App — no additional hardware or payments terminal is needed. At checkout, the merchant will simply prompt the customer to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Pay, their contactless credit or debit card, or another digital wallet near the merchant’s iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using NFC technology. Tap to Pay on iPhone also supports PIN entry, which includes accessibility options.  

Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone technology also uses the built-in features of iPhone to keep businesses’ and customers’ data private and secure. When a payment is processed, Apple doesn’t store card numbers on the device or on Apple servers.  

Tyro CEO Jon Davey said: “Tap to Pay on iPhone is a fantastic simple and secure way for new or existing Tyro customers to accept payments using only their iPhone, anytime, anywhere – without the need for additional hardware. We are excited to provide this new offering to our customers, providing greater flexibility when staff are working on-site or on the move. It couldn’t be simpler. Just download the Tyro BYO App to start accepting customer payments on your iPhone in minutes.”  

Tap to Pay on iPhone enables Tyro customers to use a contactless payment acceptance solution that is easy to set up and use. Merchants will be able to unlock contactless payment acceptance through the Tyro BYO App on an iPhone XS or later running iOS 16.4 or later in two quick steps — simply set up an account in the Tyro Portal and download the Tyro BYO App from the Apple App Store to start accepting payments.  

Australian businesses can also sign up for Tap to Pay on iPhone through distribution partnerships, including through Telstra. Telstra customers can access everything they need to set up their small business by purchasing an iPhone, signing up for Tap to Pay on iPhone and getting started on the Tyro BYO App.  

The Tyro BYO App is a customised SoftPOS merchant application developed with fintech company, Soft Space.