Spectrum Markets’ SERIX retail investor sentiment data for the early part of this week shows a mixed response from investors to the news on Monday night that First Republic had been bailed out by JP Morgan. The SERIX value indicates retail investor sentiment, with a number above 100 marking bullish sentiment, and a number below 100 indicating bearish sentiment. (See here for full methodology). 


 

Sentiment towards the three main US indices, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100 and DOW, saw a market uptick on Tuesday perhaps reflecting retail investors’ hope that the bailout would draw a line under recent turmoil in the banking sector. Though by Wednesday, pessimism had returned, with S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 dropping back down to a bearish 97 and 98 respectively. 

By contrast, sentiment towards the DOW, which is less exposed to financial companies, strengthened further to reach 108 on Wednesday. 

The picture for European indices was a little different, with sentiment towards the EUROSTOXX 50 plummeting to 30, likely driven by fears of contagion to European banks which are well represented in the index. Spain’s IBEX saw a similar, but less acute, drop on Tuesday, though both indices recovered on Wednesday. Germany’s DAX 40 and Italy’s FTSE MIB started the week well, but saw sentiment drop off on Wednesday. 

“It’s been a bumpy ride for markets this week, and we continue to see retail investors responding rapidly to breaking news all over the world. The divergent SERIX data suggests that one big question on investors’ minds is whether First Republic’s bailout represents the end of a troubling time for American banks or the start of a challenging chapter for their European counterparts. And alongside this, all eyes will be on the central bank announcements coming out this week and next for a hint of what’s to come,” says Michael Hall, Head of Distribution at Spectrum Markets.

Vantage (or “Vantage Markets”), the global multi-asset broker, is pleased to announce it has obtained a derivatives license issued by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa.

The FSCA is the regulatory authority for financial institutions in South Africa, responsible for licensing, supervising, and enforcing compliance with financial laws and regulations. The new licence marks a significant milestone for the company, to develop a more powerful presence in Africa, demonstrating its commitment to providing high-quality financial services to clients on the subcontinent, while remaining in compliance with the regulatory requirements set by the FSCA.

"We are thrilled to receive our FSCA license," said Marc Despallieres, Chief Strategy & Trading Officer, Vantage. "We have had our sights on South Africa for some time, and we were determined to be able to provide traders with exceptional financial services and products while operating in compliance with the highest regulatory standards."

Vantage’s growing focus on South Africa was marked by the promotion of Ted Odigie to Head of Sales for Africa in November. Odigie joined Vantage in August 2021, with over 17 years of experience in the financial services sector, and a key focus on business development and client management.

Vantage will be exhibiting at the Finance Magnates Africa Summit in Johannesburg from 8 to 10 May 2023. Odigie will be a key speaker at the panel discussion “Market Opportunities: Where's the Alpha in Q2?”, held at the Centre Stage on 9 May 2023.

"Our clients' satisfaction and trust are our top priorities," said Odigie. "With this license, our clients will know we are a reputable and trustworthy global broker - committed to protecting their interests and providing the best-in-class trading services."

TransferMate and Barclays have announced a new collaboration that will bring an international receivables solution to the market, to help UK businesses reduce transaction costs and save time.

Barclays clients operating in GBP will now be able to invoice their customers in their clients’ local currency in over 60+ currencies and 67 countries - receiving the payment back into their GBP account at the exact amount requested. Manual reconciliation is eliminated as all payments are automatically matched to the invoiced amount.

Easy to adopt with a simple registration and set-up process, the solution leverages TransferMate’s proprietary global payments infrastructure. It allows cross-border payments to travel through a single integrated network, and transfers to be processed like a domestic payment. This solution means receivables are more accurate and more cost-effective for everyone on the payment chain, particularly benefiting Barclays clients that operate internationally in GBP.

The solution has already been successfully piloted with Barclays higher education clients, allowing institutions to invoice international students in GBP and international students to pay the institution in their local currency.

“From manufacturing and leisure to education and healthcare, our partnership with TransferMate will enable clients from numerous industries to offer a new payment method to their customers whilst achieving reconciliation benefits and reduced banking fees for their businesses” said Martin Runow, Global Head of Payments, FX and Digital at Barclays Transaction Banking. “This solution is a significant step forward for any business that trades internationally and invoices in GBP – particularly in the consumer to business space.”

“Our relationship with Barclays continues to go from strength to strength, with each organization adding real value to the other” said Sinead Fitzmaurice, CEO of TransferMate. “This innovative solution can help Barclays customers reduce their transaction costs when receiving international payments, eliminate manual reconciliation, and always know the amount billed will be the amount received. It’s another great example of how collaboration between banks and fintech’s can improve the customer experience and redefine how money is moved around the world.”

It's crucial for payment service providers (PSPs) to have reliable and efficient software to handle transactions smoothly. However, many PSPs face challenges when working with big-name white-label payment software providers who may not prioritize smaller clients or provide personalized support. 

In this article, we will elaborate on why switching to a relatively young promising software provider can be beneficial for PSPs of all sizes.

The challenges of working with big software providers

The challenges often stem from the fact that big software providers tend to prioritize larger clients over smaller ones. By larger we mean those that have a turnover of $1 billion+ a year. As a result, smaller clients (even though they are in fact not small at all) may not receive the same level of support and attention as their larger counterparts, leading to frustration and delays in problem-solving. 

What factors can we take into consideration?

High costs and long waiting time

To enter new GEOs, third-party integrations are needed. Moreover, if you want to serve new customer segments you constantly need new features. Developing and adding them is extremely difficult for the ‘big whales’. First of all, their prices do not even closely correlate with the development cost. Secondly, your desired feature needs to be considered relevant to get approved, and rejections are quite often. 

Even if the feature passed the ‘casting’ and you’re ready to pay a lot, also be ready to join a queue. Businesses may find themselves waiting months for their turn to get requested integrations or features, which can hinder their ability to quickly adapt to changing market conditions or customer needs. This means postponing or even losing a business opportunity.

Non-user-friendly interface
 

Design plays a crucial role in the success of any business, including payment processing. A poor design can negatively impact sales, leaving merchants dissatisfied with the performance of their payment page and admin panels. In today's digital age, customers expect a modern and user-friendly interface that is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

When merchants are unable to customize or update the design of their payment processing software, it can be frustrating for both merchants and buyers. A lack of design flexibility can leave merchants feeling powerless, and unable to offer their customers the level of user experience they expect. In turn, this can lead to dissatisfied customers and lost sales.

Poor UX

The technical systems of industry giants have been designed and projected long before new technologies emerged, such as cryptocurrencies, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and QR codes. This surely results in outdated and cumbersome software that lacks the user-friendly features and flows that today's consumers expect. Thus, payment service providers may be forced to use old-school methods that are less convenient and secure than modern alternatives. In the fast-paced world of FinTech, PSPs need to have access to software that is designed with the latest technologies and features to stay competitive and meet the demands of their customers.

Disappointing customer support

Merchants need a prompt reaction. Sluggish support (ticket systems and automatic answers) results in unsatisfied merchants, but that’s what big software providers usually utilize to save time and money in running their businesses. We all know how frustrating it is when you have an urgent problem and no human would talk to you. Especially considering that your problem is about the most valuable part of the business - money. 

Not being able to receive proper customer support is what stresses out the most when working with well-established but big and outdated companies. 

In conclusion, industry giants may not be able to offer the needed level of flexibility due to their size and complexity.

Introducing Akurateco

Akurateco is a relatively young player in the market as it was founded in 2019. However, Akurateco white-label payment gateway was developed by professionals with 15 years of hands-on experience in FinTech that know firsthand all the difficulties PSPs might face. This makes Akurateco a perfect solution for PSPs struggling with ‘bigger fish’ due to the lack of support and flexibility.

How exactly is Akurateco more beneficial?

Akurateco stands out as a superior payment processing solution, providing a wealth of benefits to its users. These include:

• The rapid development of new third-party integrations and features, ensuring businesses have access to the latest technology

• Highly flexible and innovative software that is continuously updated to adapt to changing industry trends and needs

• Extensive customization options, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific requirements

• Dedicated Payment Team support, providing system settings assistance, integration of merchants, consultation on business matters, and risk monitoring

• A growth-oriented approach that enables payment service providers to expand their services and reach new customers

• The option for on-premise setup if required

• Guaranteed uptime of 99.9% with the ability to handle high loads

By partnering with Akurateco, payment service providers can operate with greater efficiency and confidence.

Smooth transitioning to Akurateco

If you're considering switching to Akurateco from your current payment gateway provider, you may be wondering about the process and how difficult it might be. In fact, it’s easy to test it and see how it’s better. 

Akurateco offers an array of services and solutions that can help streamline your payment processing and grow your business. Below, we'll provide you with a step-by-step guide to migrating to Akurateco's payment gateway and show you just how easy it can be.
 

1. Choose at least 1-2 new merchants to integrate with Akurateco

2. Find time for 5 one-hour education sessions with your new external payment team to exchange knowledge 

3. Evaluate the progress. By migrating to Akurateco's payment gateway, merchants and payment service providers can enjoy a better experience in terms of flexibility, support, and speed of entry into new markets, while also benefiting from the cost-effectiveness of integration.

To wrap it up

In conclusion, while big software providers have long dominated the payment processing industry, their rigid systems, lack of flexibility, and impersonal customer support can be challenging for payment service providers of all sizes. However, by switching to a newer, more agile platform like Akurateco, providers can gain access to more personalized support, flexible software, and shorter integration time, all of which can help them stay competitive in the rapidly evolving FinTech landscape.

TabaPay, the leading instant money movement platform, announced today that it's the 6^th largest card-not-present (CNP) acquirer based on total purchase transactions and 5^th by dollar volume. TabaPay was also recognized as the 20^th largest merchant acquirer in the U.S. based on Visa and Mastercard volume. This Nilson Report ranking is based on data from 2022.

The report also recognized TabaPay as:

• One of 11 merchant acquirers with an increase of over 25% in other credit card purchase volume outside of Mastercard and Visa networks in 2022.
• One of 15 merchant acquirers with an increase of over 17% in Mastercard and Visa volume.
• One of 19 merchant acquirers with an increase of over 13% in PIN-based debit card purchase volume in 2022.

The report includes data from the 63 largest portfolios of payment card acceptance contracts with U.S. merchants in 2022. They acquired transactions from American Express, Discover, Diners Club, JCB, Mastercard, Visa, and UnionPay credit, debit, and prepaid cards, as well as domestic-only debit brands led by Interlink, Star, Nyce, Pulse, and Accel. These acquirers also settled transactions on behalf of payment facilitators and aggregators, in addition to more than 1,000 independent sales organizations.

TabaPay moved up a spot as a CNP acquirer and five spots as a merchant acquirer, from Nilson Report’s previous annual rankings. TabaPay attributes the growth to the industry’s shift towards real-time payments and emergence of new fintech models. Since inception, the company has processed over 600 million transactions totalling more than $60 billion and has become a top 3 enabler of Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, and The Clearing House’s RTP network. TabaPay also recently partnered with Visa to help launch its Visa+ service, making digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payments interoperable.

“We remain committed to removing friction from payments and making money movement easier across the industry,” said Rodney Robinson, CEO and co-founder of TabaPay. “We are seeing tremendous growth in transaction volumes as evidenced by TabaPay moving up in the Nilson Report annual rankings. We are on a trajectory to continue growing our leadership in the market.”

Glia, unifying digital, phone and automated customer interactions on a single platform, has created a new executive leadership position, appointing Jay Choi as its first Chief Product Officer. This newly created role oversees product strategy, product management and product marketing under a single product team working closely with engineering leadership to advance Glia's position as the leading Interaction Platform.

“I am incredibly excited to be joining the passionate team at Glia,” said Choi. “Glia truly has the unique opportunity to transform how organizations interact with their customers.  Glia’s unparalleled product differentiation, engaged employee and customer base and deep focus on the financial vertical sets us apart from other solutions in the market. I’m eager to join Glia as we scale up and help drive the next chapter of the Glia Interaction Platform—developing new innovations that enable businesses to deliver personalized service at scale with greater efficiencies.”

Choi officially joins Glia after serving as an advisor over the past 12 months, lending his deep experience in product management, product marketing and the benefit of bringing the two together.

Previously in his career, Jay served as the Chief Strategy Officer and GM at AppFolio where he led the vertical strategy for financial services. Before that, he served as the Chief Product Officer at Qualtrics where he was instrumental in creating the Experience Management category and reaching the top spot in both the Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant. Prior to becoming CPO, Choi led the Employee Experience business at Qualtrics, driving sales from $50M to $350M in annual recurring revenue and improving the renewal rate from 70% to 90%.

“From product innovation to category creation, Jay Choi is a seasoned executive and brings a unique skill set that will be a strong addition to the Glia leadership,” said Dan Michaeli, CEO and Co-Founder of Glia. “We’ve worked closely with Jay over the past year, so he hits the ground running. As we align all product groups into a single, unified team, we can accelerate creating a new category and continually innovate new solutions to help businesses succeed and deliver on the mission of our company.”

G2 has ranked Sumsub as a Leader in Identity Verification Software in its Spring 2023 Report, based on verified client reviews.

“This recognition from G2 highlights our team’s constant commitment to delivering the best product and support to our clients across various industries, including fintech, banking, gambling and more. Sumsub’s performance scores are higher than those of many competitors, and we’re thankful for the reviews from our customers. We’ll do our best to continue enhancing our offering and exceeding market expectations from verification providers”, says Vyacheslav Zholudev, Co-founder and CTO of Sumsub.

G2 rates products from the Identity Verification category algorithmically, based on data sourced from product reviews shared by G2 users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks. Therefore, the Grid® represents feedback from actual software users, rather than analysts. You can learn more about the G2’s methodology here.

Sumsub has been ranked a Leader based on its high Customer Satisfaction Score and large Market Presence. The Satisfaction ratings of Sumsub include Ease of Setup (91%), Quality of Support (96%), Ease of Use (95%) and more. 94% of reviewers rated Sumsub 5 or 4 stars, while 100% of users believe the platform is headed in the right direction. Moreover, 89% would be likely to recommend Sumsub.

Here are some G2 reviews for Sumsub:

“Sumsub plays a role of all in one verification platform and it also secures customers details. It supports straightforward integration. Sumsub was best suits for KYC, KYB, KYT and AML solutions.” – Rajalakshmi S., Data Engineer (enterprise, >1000 emp.)

“Quick and Accurate KYC [Compliance]. As a frontend dev, integrating with Sumsub was extremely straightforward. Being able to handle selfie verification, and document uploading both from a browser iframe has been a great experience.” – Paul M., Engineering Manager (Mid-Market, 50-1000 emp.)

“Top-Notch KYC for Businesses. The services they provide [are] just amazing, backed with competitive people who are always willing to assist.” – Jed Albert C., Media And Communications Manager (small business, 50 or fewer emp.)

“Highly recommended! The solution is very flexible. Setup was quick and easy. The platform is user-friendly and can be integrated or used as standalone. Support was great as well.” – Charitini M., Head of Compliance and Risk Management (small business, 50 or fewer emp.)

G2’s Spring Report follows a string of recognitions for Sumsub this year. In April, Sumsub won the ICA Compliance Awards Europe in the “Technology Partner of the Year” category in partnership with Kriptomat. In March, Sumsub was named the SaaS of the Year at the renowned SiGMA Eurasia Awards 2023, after a vote by iGaming players and professionals. In addition, the company was the Gold Winner at the 19th Annual 2023 Globee Cybersecurity Awards in the “Identity and Access Management” category.

Invenda Group AG, the leader in next-generation automated retail, today announced a new partnership with Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses. The partnership furthers Invenda’s 360-approach to automated retail by incorporating a more efficient, streamlined, and cost-effective digital payments process. Adyen’s advanced technology will be incorporated to enable Invenda Wallet, a download-free web app that enables mobile shopping for consumers.

The new partnership closely follows Invenda’s $19M Series B funding round and will further develop the Internet of Retail (IoR) – a dynamic network of in-person and online financial technology systems. Through the full IoR-connected ecosystem of Invenda Platform solutions, Invenda partners are able to collect unprecedented data into the shopping journey, creating highly customized and engaging retail experiences for consumers while driving sales and insights for brands and operators.

“The automated retail industry has had an if-it’s-not-broken-don’t-fix-it mentality for too long and Invenda’s committed to leading the industry forward,” said Mark Crandell, managing director of North America at Invenda. “Layering these additional services into Invenda's platform allows automated retailers to offer payment options that match today's consumers' expectations.”

“We couldn't be more thrilled to team up with Invenda and bring our payment technology to the forefront of automated retail,” said Niklas Brüning, VP of business development at Adyen. “Together we share a common mission to push the boundaries of what's possible. By combining our expertise in payment solutions with Invenda's innovative approach, we believe we can help drive significant innovation and value for both operators, and their customers.”

Invenda will be exhibiting in booth #1453 at the upcoming NAMA show in Atlanta from May 10-12, and will also showcase its partnership with Adyen at the show’s “Imagination Way".

Linedata, a global provider of asset management and credit technology data and services, announces an extension of its agreement with Refinitiv an LSEG business and the evolution of the Data Hub data management system.

Data Hub is a software solution that offers Linedata customers access to aggregated and powered data sources. Data Hub is easily deployed both within Linedata’s suite of software solutions and with third-party applications, and simplifies choosing a data provider. A proprietary API-driven, cloud software solution, Data Hub leverages the latest technologies and micro-services architecture.

“The new agreement with Linedata is designed to address the challenges of front-, middle- and back-office professionals by covering intra-day pricing as well as closing prices of the markets. The Data Hub also meets the needs of investment funds, providing the daily closing prices observed by customers,” says Kristin Hochstein, Global Head of Pricing and Reference Services at Refinitiv.

“We are excited about the extension of our partnership with Refinitiv. It allows us to facilitate our customers’ access to a new repository of comprehensive data, while strengthening our Data Hub offering. With this innovation, we are enhancing our software portfolio which focuses on three pillars: software, services and data.” Adds Jamil Jiva, Global Head of Business Development at Linedata.