FinTech Global has named identity verification provider ID-Pal as one of the leading innovators in its CyberTech100 for 2023, the annual list of the top 100 global CyberTech organisations improving the cyber defences of financial institutions.
 
The companies that make up the 2023 ranking are proven to offer technical solutions that expertly address challenges faced by financial institutions in the areas of data and communications security, cybercrime, financial fraud, identity and access management, and threat management.

Thousands of firms were vetted by FinTech Global and the final 100 selected for the CyberTech100 were chosen by a panel of analysts and industry experts. Organisations shortlisted must show not only the industry significance of the problem being solved, but also customer traction, the innovation of the solution, and potential cost savings, to be deemed a solution that financial institutions must know about.

ID-Pal is one of just two identity verification solutions selected by FinTech Global for the CyberTech100 ranking. ID-Pal is ISO 27001-certified and enables real-time identity verification, end-to-end onboarding screening and ongoing monitoring. The platform prevents fraud at the source in financial institutions globally and offers an award-winning user experience. ID-Pal is also a member of the RegTech100 2023 and was selected for the AIFinTech100 2022.

Just one year after launching in the UK, ID-Pal’s identity verification solution has experienced rapid adoption and market growth amongst financial institutions, with UK businesses now representing over 30% of revenue. Similar success is already being mirrored in the US, where ID-pal recently launched. FinTech Global’s selection of ID-Pal for the CyberTech100 further reinforces its positioning as one of the most innovative and fastest-growing Regtechs to watch.

Customers of ID-Pal are leaders across over 30 industries seeking the security and fraud prevention built into the solution, including gift cards provider Blackhawk Network (BHN), global payments company and a subsidiary of US Bancorp Elavon, and the recent J.P. Morgan-acquired Global Shares. Strategic partners include Melissa, HID Global, RiskScreen, Sherpa Technologies, Temenos, and Vesta.

On joining this year’s CyberTech100, CTO and co-founder Rob O’Farrell said: “Identity verification can be full of cyber security ‘potholes’ just waiting to trip you up.  At ID-Pal we pave those roads for organisations.  This helps companies avoid thousands of threats, years of study, and save millions in terms of the Total Cost of Ownership. We’re extremely proud of the recognition our simple approach is receiving by joining the 2023 CyberTech100 and thanks to the FinTech Global panel for selecting us for the final 100.”

ID-Pal leverages automated decisioning and smart workflows to deliver industry-leading accuracy in identity verification outcomes, all with data protection compliance built in, helping its customers quickly and securely verify identities.

Commenting on the latest CyberTech100 list, Richard Sachar, FinTech Global Director said: “As challenges such as ransomware, phishing and data breaches still plague financial institutions, there has never been a more important time for businesses to use CyberTech solutions. With the average cost of data breaches being in the millions, it is critical firms look for solutions that can guarantee their protection, particularly as the tough economic climate puts pressure on finances. This year’s CyberTech100 list arms companies with the necessary information to find the industry change-makers who are providing companies with the opportunity to be well protected against these threats.” 

Today, Vantage Markets UK, the multi-asset broker, announces that it has hired a new VP of Institutional Sales to support the growth of its institutional business line, Vantage Connect, which launched in November 2022.  

Tal Dar joins Vantage from PhillipCapital where he was Head of eFX and Derivatives. He brings with him a wealth of experience within the industry having headed up Sales, operations and product functions for various FCA regulated brokers, allowing him to gain a deep understanding of the client journey.  

In his role, Tal will lead the growth and business development of Vantage Connect, working with the rest of the Connect team and using his extensive knowledge of institutional trading needs to tailor solutions to clients.  

On his appointment, Tal said, "I'm very excited to be joining Vantage. The company has expanded rapidly in the UK on the retail side, and I look forward to being part of the team that replicates this on the institutional side. I've been watching their growth from afar and am very impressed with how rapidly they are developing. After conversations with the team, it also became clear that they have a fantastic culture that aligns with what I was looking for, ensuring people feel valued and can contribute to projects like Vantage's ESG initiatives, which you don't get at most brokers." 

David Shayer, UK CEO of Vantage Markets, said, “Tal is exactly what we need. There’s lots of opportunity for Vantage Connect and we want to ensure we bring in people that can steer our growth. We plan to invest in all areas, ensuring our products continuously improve and that Connect ticks all the boxes for UK institutions. Tal will play a critical role in growing our business, adding to our product catalogue, and expanding into new services, such as cryptocurrencies. The goal is to become one of the leading Prime of Prime brokers. 

Nilos, a leading financial platform for businesses operating with crypto-currencies, has launched its new Virtual EU IBANs aimed at companies dealing with crypto in Europe. The move has been made possible by their new partnership with Modulr, a leading payment and card-issuing platform. The solution allows businesses to have a dedicated crypto-friendly payment account, enabling them to create EUR and GBP virtual accounts, make payments across Europe and the UK, and use SEPA and Faster Payment rails.

The crypto market has long struggled to find viable payment alternatives, with traditional banking systems proving unhelpful for businesses dealing with crypto-currencies. Even when these businesses do find banking options, on/off ramps don't work and onboarding takes more than a month and compliance is challenging.

For the first time, Nilos solves these issues by offering customers a modulable payment infrastructure that lets them move from crypto to fiat seamlessly using their own business account.

With our technology, businesses can now seamlessly move funds from crypto to fiat in just 7 seconds, with their name as the originator of the payment. This innovative solution eliminates the pain points associated with slow, compliance-heavy processes and empowers businesses to thrive in the evolving landscape of payments." Said Eytan Messika, Co-founder of the platform.

The company already processed several millions in deposits in the last month and works with all types of companies from big brands like Warner and web3 native companies like DappRadar.

The startup raised a $5.2 million funding round back in April 2022. Viola Ventures and Fabric Ventures led the round, with Mensch Capital Partners also participating. Several business angels also contributed to this round, such as Yuval Tal, Sebastien Borget, Emmanuel Schalit, Benjamin Seror, Didier Valet, Guillaume Houzé, Philippe Suchet and Valentine Baudouin.

Temenos today announced that it has proven integration of its leading banking platform with multiple DLT-based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) technology stacks, successfully executing end-to-end retail CBDC use cases for commercial bank touch points. These included central bank token issuance to commercial bank wallets, customer non-custodial wallet creation, CBDC conversion through orchestration of deposit account updates with on-chain transactions and providing wallet access points for user-to-user transfers on-chain.

Jeremy Boot, Product Strategist, Temenos, said: “Temenos is leading the way in CBDC innovation. By actively innovating and driving commercial bank use cases across multiple different technology stacks, Temenos has proven how its open and flexible banking platform can readily adapt to the digital currency future.”

Temenos worked in collaboration with R3, a global leading provider of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and services to regulated and financial institutions. R3’s Corda – the world’s leading private, permissioned distributed application platform – is being used in a wide number of Central Bank and BIS CBDC projects globally. By leveraging R3’s Digital Currency Accelerator, kickstarting with a simulation in an R3—managed sandbox, Temenos was able to successfully demonstrate a wide range of commercial bank use cases.

Ricardo Correia, Global Head of Digital Currencies, R3, commented: “By leveraging reliable financial networks and introducing decentralized application platforms to issue CBDCs, we can expect a complete transformation of the current global financial system, ushering in a new era of enhanced financial fluidity. Collaborating with innovative companies like Temenos underscores the importance of integrating existing banking systems with cutting-edge technologies, allowing organizations and individuals to conduct cross-border transactions at the same pace as sending an email, and instantly settle payments across the entire global payment infrastructure.”

In the second project, Temenos used Hyperledger Besu, a leading opensource Ethereum client, run as a multi-node private, permissioned network, combined with a modified version of the Norgesbank CBDC sandbox, published by the Norwegian central bank. The sandbox provided a CBDC smart contract token definition based on the ERC-20 standard and web UI. By deploying the smart contract, Temenos was able to simulate central bank use cases, across token minting and on-chain transfers.

Central banks globally are progressing with their CBDC strategies. Commercial banks are expected to play key roles in these emerging systems as distributors of CBDC, handling customer KYC, wallet opening, and providing on-off ramps to deposit accounts. These new networks are expected to become intrinsic parts of countries’ financial systems and commercial banks will need to integrate to them and provide associated services to their customer base.

Temenos today announced that Alex Bank launched its Fixed Term Deposits following a rapid deployment where Temenos and Alex Bank partnered to design, test, and implement over less than four months. This expands its product portfolio, including Personal Loans and Savings accounts – all on the Temenos Banking Cloud.

As the Australian banking landscape continues to evolve, the founders of Alex Bank are challenging the status quo by restoring fairness to the banking industry with their simple products, offering competitive rates and returns, doing away with unnecessary or hidden fees and complex conditions.

Leveraging Temenos, Alex Bank has been offering personal loans with applications that can be completed in three minutes or less and savings accounts which lead the industry in terms of speed and simplicity.

In December 2022, Alex Bank was granted an unrestricted license, allowing it to expand its product portfolio to Term Deposits. At the same time, Alex Bank added collateral management through Transact, enabling security to be registered on personal loans, further enhancing Alex Bank’s lending offering.

Temenos Banking Cloud has provided Alex Bank with an end-to-end digital banking platform that combines Temenos’ onboarding and channel services in the front end with core banking for retail customers in the back. The straight-through processing, embedded with AI, automates processes and generates fast and simple customer journeys.

The agility and scalability of the cloud means that Temenos can scale alongside Alex Bank as it reaches its targets while maintaining reliability and security. Temenos’ SaaS solution gives Alex Bank total control to deploy banking services that are easy to consume, configure and integrate with external applications as it continues to grow its product portfolio and customer base.

Simon Beitz, CEO Alex Bank, commented: “We are thrilled to have received our unrestricted banking license and launched our Term Deposit product to market. The Temenos Banking Cloud has been key to going to market quickly and delivering experiences that are simple, streamlined, and tailored to our customers’ needs. In just under 3 months since launching we are achieving healthy flows of deposits to match fund our lending.

This allows Alex Bank to rapidly grow its balance sheet and improve our cost of funds and margin. Ultimately benefiting our customers as we pass these savings through. In addition, to date we have approved thousands of personal loan applications, worth over $55 million. With Temenos, we can bring together the benefits of technology combined with the power of human connection.”

Craig Bennet, Managing Director – Asia-Pacific, Temenos, said: “Temenos has been proud to partner with Alex Bank having recently been awarded their Australian Banking license with an expanding range of business lines. Temenos open platform for composable banking helps more than 3,000 financial institutions deliver value to their customers. Leveraging cloud-native technology, open APIs, and leading banking capabilities, Alex Bank is quickly growing to offer Australians banking services that will positively impact their daily lives.”

Mastercard today announced its collaboration with travel and spend management firm Getout System to launch its proprietary Spends Ecosystem, the first SaaS-based platform with an integrated marketplace to service all stakeholders in the business travel space. By addressing challenges of cost, compliance, transparency, data control and regulatory constraints, the platform will enable enterprises of all sizes to maximize the value of their spend and improve their financial health and workflows.

The Spends Ecosystem will allow enterprises to make payments which are automatically reconciled with a variety of controls aimed at ensuring risk-free and frictionless transactions. It will act as a one-stop-shop for travel bookings, payments, and compliances, with in-built digital workflows, budgetary and policy adherences, and simplified accounting and expense management. 

Traditionally, business travel solutions have been disparate, time-consuming, and costly, with issues around policy compliance and transparency. However, the Spends Ecosystem, with end-to-end automation of business travel, will automate travel supplier and service provider payments, thereby increasing cashflow and reducing fraud risk for enterprises.

“The collaboration between Getout System and Mastercard will facilitate seamless physical and virtual credit card generation for online and offline payments according to customers’ business needs. The platform will assist its users with spend and budget management, providing them more flexibility and controls in terms of accounting. Further, its integration with an online travel marketplace will ensure a hassle-free experience for enterprises,” said Sanjeev Malhotra, Founder Director & CEO, Getout System.

“Mastercard’s collaboration with Getout System reiterates its larger commitment to promoting innovation and strengthening the Indian startup ecosystem. With a unique marketplace model and exciting offers for all stakeholders, such as banks, intermediaries, travel service providers, and cardholders, the Spends platform will act as a complete travel solution for Indian businesses of all sizes. It will also strengthen Mastercard’s position in the business travel space,” said Mukul Sukhani, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Mastercard.

Temenos, has announced that its core banking solutions are now available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) further to Temenos’ integration of its application on Amazon Web Services AWS). With this, Temenos offers more choices to its clients as the Temenos Banking Cloud becomes one of the industry’s most comprehensive SaaS solutions covering the broadest range of regional and governance requirements, data standards and certifications.

Running Temenos Banking Cloud composable banking services on AWS enables retail, commercial and private banks – incumbents and challengers – to gain greater agility, higher performance, scalability, and security.

This collaboration further increases the regional coverage and availability of the Temenos Banking Cloud across the globe with trusted and scalable banking services. Temenos makes full use of AWS to provide high-availability across various regions and accommodate data sovereignty requirements, without expensive (on-site) redundant infrastructure.

Temenos and AWS started working together in 2019 to integrate Temenos open platform onto AWS and have demonstrated success with banking sector customers since then ranging from tier-one banks to digital banks. In 2022, Temenos made available its onboarding and origination digital banking solutions on AWS to help banks deliver innovative products faster. AWS and Temenos’ relationship also paved the way for ongoing innovation with partners such as Yugabyte and MongoDB, as presented in the 2022 Temenos high-water performance benchmark helping banks scale efficiently. Temenos Banking Cloud’s integration on AWS also helps banks reduce their carbon footprint and support them in achieving their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals (compared to on-premise deployments).

Prema Varadhan, President Product and Chief Operating Officer, Temenos, commented: “We see tremendous growth in SaaS across all regions. We are pleased to extend our leadership in the cloud and strengthen our strategic collaboration with AWS, a leading cloud service provider. We have over 700 clients live on Temenos Banking Cloud across five continents, covering over 30 regulatory jurisdictions, and we take a new bank live on our SaaS platform on average every 10 days. With this collaboration, we offer more choices to our customers and cement our commitment to our multi-cloud strategy, bolstering Temenos Banking Cloud’s existing SaaS capabilities.”

Yves Dupuy, Leader Financial Services Industry Solutions, AWS, said: “Banks are moving to SaaS and cloud to modernize their infrastructure to become more agile and drive business growth. Leveraging the reliability, flexibility, and scalability of AWS, Temenos can deliver high performance and enhanced value through its composable, cloud banking services, supporting leading financial services institutions in their transformation journey to provide enhanced customer experience and become more sustainable businesses.”   

Chung Wing Mok, Chief Technology Officer, WeLab Bank, said: “With Temenos core banking on AWS, we benefit from lower infrastructure and operating costs, while AWS delivers auto-elastic capabilities, making it very easy for WeLab Bank to scale for future business growth."

Reap, the leading financial platform for global businesses, announced the launch of Reap Pay in partnership with Triple-A, a crypto payment gateway licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Through the integration with Triple-A, Reap Pay offers a one-stop-shop solution for Web3 projects to pay fiat business bills quickly and easily. Reap's users can now settle bank transfer payments directly with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC), without the hassle of switching between wallets and bank accounts.

By adopting Reap Pay, businesses can avoid the fees and delays associated with existing crypto-to-fiat conversion processes, which often involve centralised exchanges and incur spread, transaction, and bank fees. Reap Pay enables businesses to pay anyone, anytime using cryptocurrency, making financial transactions fast and seamless.

The increasing number of business transactions between Web2 and Web3 companies has highlighted the importance of a smooth and efficient conversion process for cryptocurrency to fiat currency. The launch of Reap Pay not only meets that demand, but also demonstrates Reap’s dedication to staying at the forefront of emerging technologies to continually enhance its platform's capabilities.

"We're excited to partner with Triple-A to launch Reap Pay, meeting the growing demand for a faster and cost-effective crypto payment process for businesses. This demonstrates our commitment to user-centricity." stated Daren Guo, Co-Founder of Reap.

“Triple-A’s licensed white-label crypto payment solutions enable businesses and consumers to conveniently pay and get paid in crypto. We’re pleased to work with Reap Pay to better serve their web3 clients and allow them to pay anyone, anytime, using cryptocurrency within one business day," Eric Barbier, CEO of Triple-A shared.

Ledgible, the leading institutional and enterprise crypto tax and accounting platform, is joining forces with CryptoCFOs, the premier tax and accounting community for finance professionals in the crypto industry. Leading institutions, firms, and enterprises are looking to understand the evolving world of crypto tax and accounting. The need for reliable, secure, and compliant solutions to account for crypto and digital assets is critical to widespread adoption.

"With the growing adoption of digital assets, accounting and tax professionals need to understand the implications on accounting and taxes as many tax and accounting tools were not designed for the unique needs of cryptocurrency transactions," said Kell Canty, CEO of Ledgible.

Ledgible and CryptoCFOs, will develop courses, resources, and tutorials to navigate the complex and evolving crypto landscape. The CryptoCFOs platform features exclusive access to valuable tax and accounting insights, expert analysis, live events, and up-to-date news on DeFi, NFTs, Web3, and blockchain.

"As the adoption of digital assets accelerates, finance professionals who possess in-depth knowledge and expertise have a clear competitive advantage in a blue ocean niche. By mastering the complexities of the latest crypto regulations and accounting standards, they are poised to offer services that capitalize on the colossally underserved emerging industry," said Taylor Zork, CPA and CEO of CryptoCFOs.

The Ledgible Crypto Tax and Accounting Platform for tax and accounting professionals, enterprises, and institutions supports integrations across major blockchains, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, and professional accounting tools. As the bridge between crypto assets and traditional financial accounting, Ledgible determines crypto tax liabilities and delivers that data to existing and novel TradFi accounting tools. The platform makes crypto data, Ledgible, across the entire crypto vertical, for institutions, enterprises, and large accounting firms.

The Sella group closed the first quarter of the year with high-grade results, thanks to the good performance in all business sectors resulting from the growth strategy based on the quality of customer relations, technological innovation and the fostering of an open ecosystem. Group results as of 31 March 2023 approved today by the Board of Directors of the Parent company Banca Sella Holding recorded a net profit of €48 million, up from €35 million in the same period of the previous year.

Alongside the good overall performance, the result also echoed the non-recurring component arising from the strategic partnership with Sesa Group to strengthen its presence in the open finance services market. The agreement gave rise to two companies: Nivola, controlled by Sella through Centrico, and BDY, dedicated to the marketing of core banking software and application services on the Italian market, 49% owned by Centrico and to which a business unit was transferred.  Net of the capital gain arising from the BDY transaction, the net profit was worth €32.3 million. From an industrial point of view this is higher than in the last year, as evidenced by the growth in the operating income of around €84 million (+23% compared to the same period in 2022) thanks to the growth in the net banking income exceeding that of costs. Compared to last year results, there was a higher cost of credit risk (up from €6.1 million at the end of 2022, or 37 bps, to around €11 million, or 41 bps) and some prudential write-downs on equity investments against last year's capital gains. 

During the quarter, the Group confirmed its significant growth in the net banking income, which increased by €35.5 million (+16.3% compared to the same period last year), reaching € 252.7 million. The net interest income rose to €129.9 million (+60%), mainly due to the commercial component. The Net income from services grew to €101.6 million (+6.6%). Net income from financial activities amounted to €21.2 million (-47.9% because of transactions in the last year involving the sale of securities and tax credits to third parties).

In a global scenario that remains still uncertain and marked by international tensions, inflationary pressures and rising interest rates, the Sella group shows growth in global net inflows, which in terms of market value exceeded the €50 billion threshold (50.5 billion, +3.8% compared to 48.7 billion at the end of 2022). In particular, global net inflows were performing at €933 million, reflecting customer confidence. Indirect deposits grew to €34.6 billion (+8.1%). Direct deposits fell by -4.3%, mainly due to their partial transformation into indirect deposits, in line with the advice given to customers to seize opportunities in a high-interest rate scenario. Lending to support household and corporate activities, net of repos, increased to €10.7 billion (+2.1%).

Credit quality ratios were positive. The annualised cost of credit risk stood at 41 bps (it was 37 at the end of 2022). The net NPL Ratio attained 2% (it was 1.8%) and the gross NPL Ratio reached 3.7% (it was 3.5%). The coverage ratio on impaired loans is 47.6% (it was 49.5%) and the coverage ratio on non-performing loans is 65.7% (it was 65.7%). The Texas Ratio is 27.7% (it was 27.2%).

The sound capital position, already well above the required standards, sees further growth in the ratios: Cet1at 13.27% and Total Capital Ratio at 15.16% (13.21% and 15.12% at the end of 2022). Liquidity ratios are also well above the required minimum limits: LCR at 167%, NSFR at 127.1% (the required threshold is 100% for both).

The effective performance found support by all sectors in which the Group engages and the good diversification and balancing of revenue sources. Specifically, compared to the end of 2022, net inflows from asset management and advisory services grew by €610 million to €22.3 billion. Against the same period of the previous year, revenues from investment services grew by 1.7% to €46.9 million, partly due to the favourable performance of the financial markets, with a beneficial effect on assets under management, worth €305 million. Concerning payment systems, the net banking income grew by 13.2% to €24.6 million, with total transacted volumes related to acquiring and issuing services up 27.4%. Finance and investment banking recorded an effective margin performance of €40.6 million, however, lower than in the same period last year (falling by 32% both due to the implications of interest rate dynamics on the trading earnings and because last year a major sale of securities impacted the result). Revenues from new business rose 11.2% to €19 million, mainly due to corporate and investment banking, open payment and platform services.

As part of the Group growth and development strategy, the commitment to sustainability continues, specifically through further initiatives to steadily reduce gross residual CO2 emissions, and supporting customers with ESG products and services, such as: a loan rewarding companies committed to an energy transition path, envisaging cost reductions upon reaching fixed sustainable targets; a loan to support investments in renewable sources, and a loan aimed at purchasing buildings falling under a virtuous energy class.