PPRO, the leading digital payments infrastructure provider, has signed a strategic agreement with NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) to offer global partners access to Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s fastest-growing, real-time payment system, for cross-border transactions. Today’s agreement, supported by a new framework co-developed with NIPL, paves the way for the first merchants to go live in the coming months.

By connecting directly to UPI via PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure, international payment service providers (PSPs) enable merchants to tap into India's huge online consumer base easily and securely, without the need for setting up a legal entity in India, settlement to an India-based bank or for uploading invoices to clear funds. For consumers, this means they can seamlessly make cross-border purchases in Indian Rupees using their favourite payment method.  

Launched in 2016, UPI is India’s most popular instant payment system, already processing 60% of all domestic payments. It has over 325 million active users, supports 390 banks and 100 third-party apps within a single mobile application. In March 2023 alone, UPI processed over 8.7 billion transactions, the highest since its launch.

Simon Black, CEO at PPRO, said: “International payment service providers and their merchants can now easily tap into an e-commerce market that is expected to reach an estimated $111 billion next year, and predicted to almost double to $200 billion by 2026. By integrating UPI into PPRO’s digital payments infrastructure through a single connection, we have removed all the operational complexity for our partners to sell cross-border into India at scale.” 

Ritesh Shukla, CEO at NIPL, said: “UPI has revolutionised the digital payments landscape in India and is respected globally for its role in simplifying and democratising payments. By partnering with PPRO, a market leader in the payments infrastructure space, which powers a vast PSP and merchant network, Indian consumers will now be able to shop online with merchants around the world and pay safely and easily using UPI.” 

Today’s announcement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding by both parties in 2021 when PPRO was first mandated by NIPL to enable global PSPs and merchants to expand into India’s e-commerce market by offering UPI.

VigiPay, a Nigerian fintech providing digital payment services, and ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, today announced they will collaborate to protect VigiPay’s growing business against money laundering, sanctions violations, and other financial crime risks. 

Through the agreement, ThetaRay will provide VigiPay the SONAR AML solution, a cloud-based transaction monitoring and screening platform that can detect the earliest signs of sophisticated money laundering activity. The new system will enable VigiPay to achieve safe growth, regulatory compliance, and consumer transaction transparency with the expansion of transaction volumes and value services for both domestic and cross-border payments.

This new collaboration highlights ThetaRay’s continued growth in the Nigerian financial market.

VigiPay is a payment technology platform for cross-border remittances and online B2B payments in Nigeria and across Africa. It provides automated payment collection services, including POS terminals, for local and international payments and auto reconciliations to corporate and government organizations.

“As we expand into the global market, we are committed to enhancing AML compliance.  With the launch of an AI tool for transaction monitoring and screening, we will be able to close transactions with larger corporations all over the world that value automation processes and transaction transparency,” said Oluseyi Oluwabusola, general manager of VigiPay.

“ThetaRay is an excellent partner in achieving this fit. Our efficiency is set to achieve a new all-time high with the addition of automated transaction screening and monitoring, allowing us to better serve our consumers. We are committed to helping clients easily access multiple countries and thereby, grow their business and excel in today's competitive environment.”

The Nigerian government has been driving efforts to move to a cashless society with several initiatives aimed at promoting digital payments including limits on ATM and government accounts.

“We are proud to partner with an innovative Nigerian fintech that prioritizes trust and service to drive financial inclusion in Africa,” said Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay. “ThetaRay AI technology is instilling a new standard of trust into the growing world of online payments, enabling fintechs rapid revenue growth by opening doors to business with new financial partners worldwide.”

ThetaRay’s award-winning SONAR solution is based on a proprietary form of AI, artificial intelligence intuition, that replaces human bias to find anomalies outside of normal behaviour, including completely new typologies. It enables fintechs and banks to implement a risk-based approach to effectively identify truly suspicious activity, including across complex, cross-border transaction paths. This allows the rapid discovery of both known and unknown money laundering threats, and up to 99 per cent reduction in false positives compared to rules-based solutions.

m3ter, the pricing operations platform, today raised $14 million in Series A funding to further its mission to help software companies successfully operationalise modern usage-based pricing strategies to realise their full potential. The investment will support m3ter as it launches new analytics features and expands its U.S. presence, building on impressive traction since the company launched from stealth in 2022. The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Kindred Capital. 

m3ter was founded to support software companies moving beyond simple recurring subscription models to implement hybrid and usage-based pricing (UBP). These models have grown in popularity thanks to the widespread adoption of Product Led Growth (PLG), as well as the rise of APIs and automation. The ability to improve margin control, boost customer satisfaction and retention, and expand revenue through costless upselling has also made this emerging pricing strategy an invaluable lever for growth for modern software businesses. According to the latest data from OpenView, usage-based businesses continue to outperform the market, with annual revenue growth 31% greater than that of their peers while net dollar retention is 9 percentage points higher. Today, 61% of SaaS companies have some form of UBP in place, up from just 27% in 2018. 

Despite their advantages, usage-based pricing models are challenging to deploy and manage because existing pricing and billing tools are not well adapted to them. This leaves companies ill-equipped to handle pricing and billing with any complexity or scale, which negatively impacts revenue, time to market, and customer experience.

Since its emergence from stealth, m3ter has experienced strong demand, growing its customer base by 375% as businesses of all stages look for a way to support hybrid and consumption-based pricing without having to change their existing systems. Customers include cloud infrastructure, payments, fraud detection, and ID verification businesses like ClickHouse, Sift and Onfido – all operating in sectors where a usage-based pricing model is a natural fit, but is difficult to implement and manage without the technology to support it. 

m3ter’s platform is designed to support software companies of all stages and variations of pricing complexity, so they can scale with confidence. It plugs directly into existing systems to capture granular usage, pricing, and account data at scale, and then apply complex pricing configurations to calculate error-free bill items in near real-time. This data feeds systems throughout the stack, including the billing and finance system (to automate billing operations), the SaaS product itself (to deliver billing dashboards to end customers), and Sales CRM and Customer Success platforms (to allow tailored sales deals as well as smart, well-informed, and timely conversations with existing customers). Pricing changes are easy to coordinate across teams, while pricing strategy is guided by concrete data, removing much of the guesswork to identify untapped opportunities and deliver substantial bottom-line benefits. 

In the last year, m3ter’s technology has helped database technology company ClickHouse add usage-based pricing to its new cloud offering, ClickHouse Cloud, within just two months. By working with m3ter, ClickHouse was able to design, iterate and deploy the ideal pricing model for ClickHouse Cloud three times faster than would otherwise have been possible. Clickhouse now has the flexibility to experiment with and adjust pricing in the future, and ClickHouse Cloud customers have full access to their usage and spend data, enabling them to accurately predict costs and adjust consumption as needed.

m3ter has also partnered with leading subscription management platform, Chargebee, to deliver advanced event metering, usage-based pricing, and billing capabilities to businesses around the world. Together, m3ter and Chargebee are helping companies simplify their journey from simple subscriptions to more sophisticated pricing strategies with highly-configurable models. 

Today’s funding will allow m3ter to deliver on its ambition to build an advanced analytics offering to complement its sophisticated reporting capabilities, starting with a new Cost Allocator it is co-creating with a cohort of current customers. The platform will apply data science techniques to identify gross margin performance on a per-customer basis, allowing businesses to take action on low-margin clients via pricing adjustments or cost optimisations. Also under development are Pricing Experimenter and Usage Forecaster products. Pricing Experimenter allows customers to explore different pricing models in real-time with historic or simulated usage data to understand their impact on revenue before implementing them. The Usage Forecaster provides accurate usage and revenue forecasts over multiple horizons. Customers can identify operational issues in real-time, identify end-customers who may churn or could be upgraded to a better pricing plan in the near term, and make financial plans over the longer term. Taken together, these three features lay the foundation for fully automated pricing decisioning. 

m3ter will also use the funding to support its ongoing expansion in the U.S., building on recent strategic hires in the market including the appointment of Craig Irons as VP Sales, North America. Craig joined m3ter from AWS where he led worldwide GameTech business development, strategy, GTM, and operations. Before that, he was the first salesperson at Mirantis, leading the cloud computing company’s sales team until it had annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over $50m. Craig’s team will also be bolstered with key customer-facing hires to support m3ter’s growing customer base in the region. 

Griffin Parry, CEO and co-founder of m3ter, said: “In a more challenging software market, SaaS businesses are balancing growth with profitability, making pricing an ever-more valuable lever. Hybrid and usage-based pricing are now firmly in the spotlight because of their ability to deliver better customer experiences while reducing churn and increasing revenue, and as their popularity continues to grow, the opportunity for m3ter is obvious. Today’s funding enables us to take our ambitions to the next level, making new pricing models accessible for every software business that needs them.”

Jos White, who led the investment from Notion Capital, said: "I’m excited to announce our investment in m3ter. As pricing becomes a strategic priority for more software businesses, the one-size-fits-all approach looks increasingly obsolete. m3ter’s technology will power this transition towards more usage-based and intelligent pricing. Already, the company’s co-founders have laid solid foundations with an exceptional team and product, as well as deep engagement and alignment with their early customers and partners. We look forward to the bright future ahead."

Tanya Bragin, VP Product at ClickHouse said: “Working with m3ter has enabled us to deliver granular usage statements and bills that our customers can rely on. As we evolve our offering, we can adjust, experiment, and iterate on the pricing model on top of the m3ter platform without distracting our engineers. m3ter takes the headache out of this process, so we can focus on building the best database for real-time analytics and offering it as a hosted service.”

HTC Global Services, a US-based information technology and business process outsourcing services company, is proud to announce its strategic alliance with Azentio Software, a leading software products company headquartered in Singapore, to provide cutting-edge digital BFSI solutions. This new partnership will enable Azentio’s clients and channel partners in the banking and financial services industry to become future-ready organizations, and stay ahead of the curve with innovative, world-class solutions to support their core businesses.

In furthering their strategic alliance, HTC Global Services and Azentio will gain advantageous synergy in thought leadership and expertise and will pursue joint business development and sales-related activities to achieve a competitive advantage. It is expected to open new business opportunities for both organizations and will position HTC Global Services and Azentio as partners of choice for clients across locations, to elevate and optimize digital transformation, and speed up time-to-market.

“We’re glad to join forces with HTC Global Services,” said Brijendra Singh, Global Head, Partnerships and Strategic Alliances BFSI at Azentio Software. “Together, we will employ our expertise to better serve banks and financial institutions and retain and delight our mutual clients.”

Azentio’s Senior Vice President, Banking & Capital Markets Practice, Guru L, commented, “As the world continues to digitize and innovate like never before, it is critical that businesses have the tools they need to be efficient and react quickly to the needs of their customers. Our mission is to seamlessly digitalize our clients’ data and systems and support their operations with our joint efforts with HTC Global Services to equip their business for the future.”

Arun Kumarvc, Vice President at HTC Global Services, stated, “This new partnership will certainly revolutionize customer experience, and will result in increased efficiencies such as time savings, and improved operational performance for our clients.”

Furthermore, Ravi R Nair, Senior Vice President and Head of ROW at HTC Global Services, added, “BFSI clients are significantly transforming the way they operate to cope with the ever-evolving industry. Re-imagining digital services to improve client experiences and streamlining business operations to drive efficiencies are key priorities for the sector. This exclusive partnership with Azentio will enable us to help clients transform into truly digital platform players.”

This collaboration with HTC Global Services will ensure greater value for Azentio’s upcoming projects, as more clients will begin to eliminate redundant and old systems. Azentio leverages next-generation technologies, a comprehensive and scalable cloud-based core solutions portfolio, as well as expert-managed professional and support services.

Wayhome, the Gradual Homeownership provider, announced that they have closed a Series A equity funding round of £8m. 

Led by existing investors Allianz X (Stripe, WeLab, CLARK), Augmentum Fintech (interactive investor, Tide, Zopa) and new funders Volution, Love Ventures and Cur8 Capital, the monies raised will provide cash runway to break even point as Wayhome continues to disrupt the conventional home buying space with their unique Gradual Homeownership model.

Part of this strategy will be to forge further partnerships with mortgage brokers and lenders in the coming months as an important part of Wayhome’s continuing growth and expansion.

Wayhome currently boast an annual rate of £100m deployed in customer property purchases and intend that the raise will assist the leadership team in doubling this to £200m per year within 12 months.

Nigel Purves, CEO of Wayhome says, 

“We are delighted to continue to be in partnership with such eminent investors as Allianz X and Augmentum and to be working with game-changing new investors too.

Due to the way that the Gradual Homeownership model works, the rising interest rates seen since September’s controversial mini-budget have delivered even greater demand for our product. With the recent ending of the Help to Buy scheme there are now hundreds of thousands of would-be homeowners seeking alternative ways to access the property ladder.

This significant raise will fuel our ambitions to double the pace at which we can help new homeowners within 12 months.  

Homebuying has been somewhat traditional for centuries. Our alternative is the best of all worlds as a part buy, part rent proposition that allows our customer to buy their ideal home, in their ideal location, today without waiting for years.”

Johannes Walder of Allianz X adds, “It's never been harder to buy a home, but Wayhome is shifting the paradigm with its business model. It is a prime example of creating positive social impact whilst also delivering returns.”

Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech adds, “As an early supporter of Wayhome, Augmentum has long believed in the huge potential of Gradual Homeownership in the UK market. The traction achieved by the team since launching in September 2021 has validated the technology platform and business model, as well as the scale of the opportunity ahead. With the closing of this round Wayhome enter their next phase of growth, remaining on track to become a category-defining company in European Fintech.”

James Codling, Managing Partner of Volution adds, “We're proud to support Nigel and the Wayhome team on their mission to expand access to homeownership. Wayhome is a game-changer for those looking to get on the housing ladder, and we're excited to help them achieve their ambitious growth plans.”

The banking sector’s primary self-regulatory body, the Lending Standards Board (LSB), is urging firms to prepare for the financial struggles customers will face this year, as incomes are eaten away by the higher cost of everyday life. 

In its 2023/24 Business Plan released today, the LSB outlines how its areas of focus for the year will include financial resilience and digital journeys, alongside its ongoing work on the prevention of authorised push payment (APP) scams. 

Emma Lovell, chief executive at the LSB, comments: “The cumulative upwards creep of inflation, prices and taxes present a longer-term issue for individuals and businesses. Even at the point that inflation is predicted to be brought under control later in 2023, the cost of everyday life is unlikely to reduce and will likely ‘reset’ to a higher level. 

“We will all, individuals and businesses alike, need to adjust to a new economic climate of higher prices and we are urging bankers and lenders to join us in our renewed focus on preventing customer harm.” 

Supportive digital journeys 

Much of the LSB’s work acknowledges that banks and lenders need to work with customers in a bespoke manner when they are vulnerable or facing financial difficulty. However, this has become more challenging as customers increasingly engage via digital channels. These channels can bring massive benefits in terms of convenience and user experience, but can also make it more difficult to spot vulnerable customers and those entering financial difficulty, and to provide appropriate support. 

In 2023/24 the LSB will undertake a thematic review of this issue across firms registered to the personal and business Standards and the anti-scam Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code. The review will assess how digitised and data-driven customer interactions are impacting customer outcomes – and where lessons can be drawn for both registered firms and the wider industry. 

Preventing financial difficulty 

Support measures for personal and business customers facing financial distress is an area of emphasis for both the LSB and the financial services industry over the coming year. 

The LSB will be undertaking a significant project cross-cutting both the personal and business Standards that considers the data and metrics available to firms to identify and assess customers at risk of financial difficulty. It will also investigate how firms can use this data proactively to mitigate the risks of financial distress, and to reduce the impact when a customer does fall into difficulty. 

The conclusions will be shared with registered firms to ensure that they are prioritising the protection of customers facing increasing financial distress.

The future of the CRM Code 

The CRM Code is currently the only form of protection for customers which specifically addresses the prevention and detection of, and response to, APP scams. Outcomes for customers have demonstrably improved since the introduction of the Code in 2019 and its oversight by the LSB. 

Yet the LSB recognises that the role and focus of the Code will change as the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) finalises its rules around compulsory reimbursement over the coming year. The LSB will work closely with the PSR, Pay.UK, firms and stakeholders during this period. 

The LSB believes there should remain an independent standards framework for firms capturing the conduct elements of the CRM Code, even once the PSR has introduced new requirements on reimbursement, to ensure work to prevent scams remains the top priority. 

In 2023/24 the LSB will also conduct roundtables following the development of guiding principles for firms resulting from their recent research work in respect of the effective warnings provisions of the Code; make updates to the Information for Practitioners; and continue to share best practice and insights in relation to the Code. 

Ms Lovell comments: “The prevalence and increasing sophistication of fraud and scams looks set to continue. Cross-sector collaboration beyond the financial services industry and a common understanding of the opportunities available to all sectors to protect individuals from fraud are also key to achieving a reduction in successful scams and avoiding the devastating impact of such crimes on customers.” 

MarketVector Indexes^TM (“MarketVector”), a pioneer in the digital assets space, announces a collaboration with Digital Asset Research (DAR). Through this initiative, MarketVector will leverage DAR’s data, underpinned by DAR’s exchange vetting process, to power index methodologies and create robust, transparent indexes for market use.

DAR, based in New York, delivers ‘clean’ data and research focused on quality, transparency, and accuracy. The firm drives data integrity by using rigorous methodologies including quarterly Exchange Vetting which serves as the foundation for its highest-quality pricing data. In addition to Exchange Vetting DAR provides data to manage crypto market risks including Asset Vetting, and Counterparty Diligence.

“We're pleased to be supporting MarketVector as a source of crypto asset pricing, yields, market data, and as calculation agent for MarketVector indexes,” said Doug Schwenk, CEO of DAR. “As one of the earliest firms to publish digital asset indexes and support products, MarketVector has continuously provided leadership and innovation in the space. Our unique Exchange Vetting process resulting in the highest quality data will support them as they go to the next level.”

Pioneering the digital asset market since 2017, MarketVector leads the industry providing a suite of institutional-quality benchmarks across single- and multi-token investable indexes. These Digital Asset Indexes enable investors to measure, benchmark, and capture the performance of targeted coins and categories within the digital asset ecosystem.

”Through the deployment of DAR data, our team is proud to bring to market even more cutting-edge, institutional quality indexes in the digital assets space,” said Steven Schoenfeld, CEO of MarketVector. “The opportunity to leverage high-quality data through DAR is exciting as we develop more opportunities in the digital assets space. We remain optimistic about the crypto sector and expanding our digital asset partnerships with DAR reflects our confidence.”

Glia, the leading provider of Digital Customer Service (DCS), today announced new additions to the Glia Interaction Platform, including an AI voice banking feature and a solution that brings real-time service options to asynchronous secure messages. Announced at Glia’s annual customer event, the enhancements further enable financial institutions to seamlessly and securely interact with customers across phone and digital channels.

“We’re launching major new capabilities for the Glia Interaction Platform at our first in-person conference this week, focused on redefining how businesses interact with customers," said Dan Michaeli, CEO and Co-Founder of Glia. “These new features are the direct result of feedback from our customer community and our commitment to understand how financial institutions can optimize the efficiency and satisfaction of their customer interactions.”

Voice GVAs

One of the new features is a voice banking solution for the Glia Interaction Platform that extends Glia’s turnkey AI-powered Glia Virtual Assistants (GVAs) to support dial-in phone interactions. This allows financial institutions to offer a single virtual assistant across the call center and digital channels to automate both voice and chat interactions.

Replacing legacy, menu-based IVR and phone banking systems, Glia’s Voice GVAs allow callers to simply interact using natural language, removing the complexities of traditional menu navigation. Voice GVAs deliver uninterrupted 24/7 service, adeptly handling after-hours calls and peak demand, while responding to customer questions and transferring them to live support as needed.

“Glia Virtual Assistants are pre-trained to handle 800+ banking scenarios out of the box to improve resolution times and lower costs," said Justin DiPietro, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Glia. “Our customers experience a 50%+ containment of customer engagement on average with some realizing more than 90%. Typically they also realize an 80% reduction in Average Wait Time and Average Handle Time.”

The AI voice banking solution is available immediately as part of the GVA offering. For more information go to Glia Virtual Assistants

Secure Conversations

Secure Conversations is another major enhancement, enabling financial institutions to connect asynchronous messages from their secure banking portal to real-time service options. This allows users to seamlessly transition  from a secure message to a live representative via Chat, OnScreen Voice or Video.

“Secure messaging has been a digital disconnect for customers, locking them into a discrete, detached ‘email-like’ channel separate from all other service options. Responding to a secure message has often meant waiting 24 to 48 hours for an answer,” said DiPietro. “Glia Secure Conversations bridges the gap, allowing customers to opt for a real-time channel from within the secure message to interact with a self-service assistant or a live representative. By making secure messages part of a seamless interaction, Glia Secure Conversations can boost first-time resolution rates, lower abandonments and drive up conversions.”

Glia Secure Conversations is pre-integrated with digital banking platforms, ensuring that a visitor is authenticated and that an interaction can start from a secure portal message and seamlessly shift to a live channel. Because customers need to log into the digital banking platform to access secure messages, they can safely interact and receive real-time support without additional verification. This delivers a seamless interaction that drives to resolution rather than forcing a customer to wait for a secure message response.

Glia is rolling out Secure Conversations with digital banking platform partners. Contact your digital banking platform provider to learn about eligibility and timing for Glia Secure Conversations.

TotallyMoney, the fintech with a focus on the UK’s financially under-served has surpassed the five million customer milestone:

• The free financial app puts people in control of their open banking and credit report data, providing personalised plans, products and insights to unlock a life of more choices
• App engagement reached an all-time high during the first quarter of 2023* —  while data shows that people who use TotallyMoney have a better credit score**
• They’re rated ‘Excellent’ by customers, with 4.5 stars and almost 15k reviews on Trustpilot, 4.7 stars on the App Store, and 4.6 on the Play Store†
• Is recognised by Best Companies as one of the UK’s top employers — 6th in financial services, and the 27th best mid-sized company nationally‡

A leader in collaboration, TotallyMoney partners with industry bodies, fintechs, lenders and credit reference agencies to encourage financial inclusion and better customer outcomes.

Creating a fairer financial world for five million people

With a belief that people’s data should work for them, not against them, TotallyMoney is on a mission to help everyone move their finances forward. It does this by analysing open banking and credit report data, and creating personalised plans, products and insights so customers can unlock a life of more choices.

Last year, TotallyMoney commissioned PwC to carry out research which found that 20.2 million UK adults are financially ‘under-served’ — up 50% in the last six years, while an additional 8.9 million are ‘financially fragile’. These numbers make up one in every two adults — and is who TotallyMoney is focused on supporting§.

TotallyMoney is top-rated across review platforms, driven by its focus on financial inclusion, and fair and positive customer outcomes. Its Customer Operations team has received 70% gold customer satisfaction ratings during 2023, and maintains an average customer first-response time of under one hour‖.

The company management team is dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, where people enjoy what they do and feel empowered to deliver their best work. An independent survey by Best Companies found that 91% of staff “love working for this organisation”, and recognised TotallyMoney as one of the UK’s top employers.

Alastair Douglas, CEO of TotallyMoney comments:

“While we’re delighted to announce that five million people have chosen to gain financial momentum with TotallyMoney, almost 30 million find themselves under-served, or struggling to make ends meet.

“The financial services industry is broken — which is why we’re shifting the balance of power, and putting people in control of their own data to create a system which works for all.

“The past three years have pushed people to the brink, meaning our free service is now more important than ever. This is reflected by the growth in engagement with our app, which reached an all-time high during the first three months of this year.

“What’s more, we know we’re able to make a real difference to our customer’s lives —  with data showing that users of our app have a better credit score. This achievement is a real testament to the people of TotallyMoney —  who day in and day out, show dedication to our mission of helping everybody move their finances forward.

“The next phase of our journey involves the launch of new and innovative features enabled through industry collaboration, which will encourage financial inclusion and help people to unlock a life of more choices”.

On the eve of its 30^th anniversary, Fibank (First Investment Bank) offers its private banking customers the premium Metal World Elite™ Mastercard®, issued in Bulgaria exclusively by the bank.

Once again, Fibank, as a leader in card payments, presents an exceptional product with a modern look, combining the advantages of credit cards with the comfort and refined taste of World Elite™.

Customers of the new metal credit card enjoy access to a rich package of services and preferences, including:

• Mastercard® Concierge: organization of business and tourist trips, preparation of special events and occasions, up-to-date information and assistance;
• Membership in the bank's prestigious EGO Club preferential service program, including a personal banker;
• Priority Pass membership providing VIP access to over 1,300 airport lounges in over 600 cities worldwide;
• Extensive travel and medical insurance coverage.

Mr. Nikola Bakalov, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Fibank, said: “I am happy to announce yet another product offering high-added value for our customers. The World Elite™ Mastercard® by Fibank was initially issued in 2012 and now we launch the metal card, which is a top-class credit card, adding an elegant touch to the busy lifestyle of sophisticated customers. It is a faithful companion for any trip worldwide. I thank our partners from Mastercard and Mrs. Vanya Manova in particular for their trust in First Investment Bank and for our joint efforts to offer a unique product for customers in Bulgaria who deserve the best in the banking market.”

"The Metal World Elite™ Mastercard® combines the most important features of our brand: modern product design with respect for nature, and a range of premium lifestyle privileges, offers and priceless experiences in Bulgaria and around the world. We are glad that Fibank customers are the first to unlock the limitless possibilities of our Priceless program", added Ms. Vanya Manova, Mastercard Manager for Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, also member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Fintech Association.