TrustCommerce, a Sphere company and a leading provider of end-to-end integrated healthcare payments and security software, announced today that it is adding PayPal and Venmo, in the U.S., to its healthcare-focused payments platform, enabling providers to offer patients additional flexibility and modern healthcare payment options.

Through this collaboration with PayPal, patients will have the ability to use PayPal and Venmo to make payments to healthcare providers online, seamlessly within the existing payment experience they are already familiar with.

“In conversations with healthcare providers, we have heard loud and clear that they would like to maximize payment flexibility for their patients by offering new, user-friendly payment options,” said John Welch, Chief Product Officer, TrustCommerce. “We are excited to integrate with PayPal and Venmo to give our clients the ability to further simplify the checkout experience for patients and allow them to use a convenient and familiar payment method while maximizing on collections.”

The collaboration reflects TrustCommerce and PayPal’s shared vision to deliver seamless modern payment experiences that reduce patient friction and help providers increase collections. Together, TrustCommerce and PayPal are providing a solution that gives providers the foundation for ongoing success.

Jack Henry™ announced today that High Plains Bank is leveraging the company’s open technology to create a user experience that caters to Spanish-speaking customers.

Headquartered in Colorado, where the Latino population has grown 72% since 2000, the bank recognized the importance of helping this traditionally underserved market better manage its finances. “We believe everyone deserves the financial services and support to make healthier financial decisions,” explained Brian Otteman, chief experience officer of High Plains Bank. “By taking this approach, we can create a more inclusive financial experience that serves our entire community.”

The bank worked with Jack Henry to enrich its website and digital banking platform with Spanish-language options, making services more accessible for customers in Spanish. These inclusive technology features are complemented by personal bilingual support through the secure, authenticated chat service available on their banking app, HPBGO. This translation capability has significantly increased the usage of the banking app, ultimately contributing to higher levels of customer acquisition and engagement.

“Jack Henry continues to provide the technology we need to customize and build solutions for this growing yet largely underserved population,” Otteman said. “And the results speak loudly. It’s common to find that about 1/3 of our customers at any given branch self-identify as Latinx and/or Spanish speaking – sometimes more. We knew it was time to double down on our efforts to support these communities, which is why we’ve worked closely with providers like Jack Henry to help.”

Jack Henry’s open banking platform also enables the bank’s customers to view all their financial relationships in one place in a secure, well-connected manner – and without screen scraping. Transactions and expenses are enriched and categorized, providing easy visibility into spending habits and patterns. By gaining a better understanding of money flow, customers will further improve their financial health.

To solidify its commitment to creating a safe and comfortable banking environment, High Plains Bank added comprehensive technology to proactively prevent and detect fraud and financial crimes.

“We’re proud to work alongside High Plains Bank. It’s rewarding to see a bank intentional and committed to filling the gaps and making a real impact in underserved markets,” said Stacey Zengel, senior vice president of Jack Henry and president of Bank Solutions. “These efforts differentiate community financial institutions and reinforce their commitment to financial health.”

Ecommpay, a leading international Payment Service Provider and UK and European direct bank card Acquirer, is gearing up for a remarkable debut at the Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) event, taking place from March 12-14, 2024, in Berlin. Ecommpay will present their proprietary full-stack payment solution tailored to the online retail sector addressing the specific needs and pain points of these merchants. 

As e-commerce continues to thrive in Europe, online merchants face escalating challenges. Recent statistics reveal heightened e-commerce fraud in Germany and France, where up to two-thirds of online retailers report a substantial increase. 

Additionally, cart abandonment remains a pressing issue, with a striking 70% average of European shoppers leaving their carts before checkout. Ecommpay’s research highlights the need for innovative solutions across industries, with almost three-quarters of consumers surveyed stating that digital payment service experiences could be improved. Notably, businesses involved in the research also expressed difficulties with keeping up with new payment trends and matching consumer expectations. 

Ecommpay's strategic entrance at MPE 2024 aims to help merchants tackle these and other challenges head-on. Contributing to the overarching theme of payment innovation at MPE, Ecommpay will spotlight a diverse range of products designed to help businesses reduce time to revenue, combat payment fraud, and ensure a best-in-class checkout experience for customers worldwide. 

The showcase includes a myriad of hero products encompassing over 100 Alternative Payment Methods including BNPL, a full suite of Open Banking products with a unique card payment and Open Banking transaction orchestration platform, award-winning fraud prevention tools and risk-control systems, and much more. As Ecommpay prepares to present its comprehensive suite of solutions and their capabilities, the company is thrilled to also be shortlisted at the MPE Awards for its Open Banking Advanced offering.  

Ecommpay is a Payment Service Provider, Principal Member of Visa and Mastercard, and a Mastercard MoneySend and Visa Direct certified partner. The company’s diverse payment service portfolio and global coverage enable it to support fast and flexible payments, as well as individual and mass payouts, in 70 countries and 40 currencies.

Ecommpay is committed to partnering with businesses to offer a comprehensive arsenal of tools, each tailored to the needs of individual e-commerce merchants to enhance their success in the dynamic world of e-commerce.

Looking forward to Ecommpay’s participation at MPE, Karan Johal, Global Head of Sales at Ecommpay, says: "Our debut of the full-stack e-commerce solution at MPE 2024 marks a significant stride for Ecommpay. We're thrilled to showcase a suite of integrated products addressing the evolving needs of online merchants. From card acquiring to advanced Open Banking solutions, Ecommpay is committed to providing a seamless and secure payment experience."

Book a personal consultation at MPE 2024 to meet with Ecommpay’s payment experts and chart the course to enhance revenue through streamlined payment processing.

Kiwibank has successfully gone live with ACI Worldwide’s Enterprise Payments Platform, a managed cloud solution that will process all of Kiwibank’s account-to-account real-time payments.

“Aligned with our vision for transformation and to build a new, modern, flexible tech stack, the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform is vital for future-proofing our payments system. By moving everything to ACI’s platform, we’ve replaced over 50% of the tech underpinning our banking solutions and opened our business up to embrace technology faster, while maximising performance and enhancing security,” said Mark Stephen, Kiwibank Chief Customer Officer.

“We’re the first bank in New Zealand to do this, and we’re really excited about what it means for our customers. Future phases of our migration will include moving domestic and international payment functionality out of our old systems and onto ACI Enterprise Payments Platform as well as offering services like real-time payments,” said Stephen.

Working with ACI to move its infrastructure to the cloud provides Kiwibank access to cutting-edge technology at scale to streamline operation of multiple, and growing, payments services. “This significantly improves our readiness for future innovation. It also means we will be able to implement change at lower cost and lower risk, not having to work around multiple systems, utilising the expertise of the ACI managed service model,” commented Stephen.

“We’re always working to improve our offer of being simple, easy, accessible and providing expertise for our customers, this move will help us deliver on that promise. ACI has helped us provide the tools our customers need in today’s fast-moving society. It’s a really exciting time for us as we continue to grow and gear up for future growth of the bank,” said Stephen.

For ACI Worldwide, this project epitomizes how ACI’s technology and global expertise can help our customers meet the increasing demands of their customers and their markets. “The cloud-native managed service Enterprise Payments Platform solution is a transformative move for Kiwibank to leapfrog the competition. It enables the bank to realize the convergence of all payment rails and offers scalability and flexibility to bolt on additional technology solutions without having to build the architecture from the ground up. We’re very excited to have implemented such an advanced solution for one of New Zealand’s leading banks,” said Leslie Choo, Senior Vice President, Managing Director – APAC, ACI Worldwide.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has urged local banks to pick up the pace in New Zealand's journey towards real-time payments. New Zealand’s economy could benefit from additional economic growth of $271 million, or 0.1%, by 2027 if the country were to introduce a domestic real-time payments scheme, according to a study by the Centre for Economic and Business Research commissioned by ACI and Payments NZ, the payments industry association responsible for the governance of New Zealand's core payment systems.

Kiwibank is a long-standing ACI banking customer, leveraging ACI’s ATM/POS and AI-powered Fraud Management solutions. The strategic partnership with ACI marks a significant milestone in Kiwibank’s digital transformation efforts and sets the foundation to unlock the benefits of real-time payments.

To scale its credit business and streamline the management and operation of its private debt portfolio, NorthWall Capital, a London-based credit investment firm offering private capital solutions, has adopted the Sentry loan portfolio management solution from global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

"As we enter our next phase of growth, the adoption of Sentry will be invaluable in strengthening our current technology infrastructure and empowering our firm to scale its private credit offering," said Ian Lokkerbol, founding partner and chief operating officer, NorthWall Capital. "We were quickly impressed by the superior functionality of Sentry, and we look forward to leveraging it to streamline our investment operations and equip our team with the tools they need to continue building strong, opportunistic portfolios for our clients."

"By automating critical investment management functions and supplying fund managers with technology that allows them to make more informed decisions, Broadridge's Sentry solution is enabling transformation in the private credit industry," said Mike Sleightholme, Broadridge's president of international and head of asset management solutions. "We are pleased to provide NorthWall Capital with our award-winning solution and are excited to see the opportunities it will create for the firm through operational efficiencies and long-term business growth. Broadridge continues to empower high-performance asset managers and alternative investment managers by delivering flexible technology solutions and insights that provide the confidence and the agility to pursue growth in any market climate."

Broadridge's Sentry solution brings greater accuracy and transparency to the private credit process and provides front-to-back-office functionality to increase overall efficiency. Sentry is a scalable web-based solution that captures, calculates and analyses the borrower's KPIs, monitors the pipeline, improves credit selection, and creates reusable covenant rules. Besides managing day-to-day loan administration, Sentry allows users to monitor compliance issues and reconcile and aggregate data.

JustPaid, the AI-powered FinTech company, has just announced new capabilities for its conversational AI financial chatbot. The chatbot is being enhanced to provide more tailored and dynamic insights for users based on their specific financial needs and feedback.

The chatbot will feature custom action tiles and metrics tailored for topics like cash flow, allowing founders and business operators to have more focused conversations. Financial data from sources like QuickBooks and Chase Bank are connected to provide context on where insights are coming from.

Part of JustPaid’s overarching vision for the chatbot is to integrate with Stripe and other tech-leading money movement vendors, allowing company operators, bookkeepers, and accountants to process transactions seamlessly and directly within the chatbot, and thus providing a more straightforward experience for payments and services.

Leveraging new AI technology, the financial chatbot will display interactive components for a richer experience, opening up possibilities to visualize cash flows and other financial data over time in a more engaging format.

“We are committed to creating the best financial experience possible for businesses,” says Anelya Grant, co-founder of JustPaid. “Business operators should be able to interact with financial data and know what is happening in real-time.”

Chat.justpaid.io aims to provide everything startups need for financial management and conversations in one place through its conversational interface. The new features announced today further this mission by enhancing insights, integration, and interactivity.

“We are aiming to have a super context-relevant focused chat, so that when you log in, the chatbot immediately tells you what is happening in your business with real-time tiles,” says Vinay Pinnaka, co-founder of JustPaid. “If something changes in the business, you’ll know immediately.”

Airbase, the leading procure, pay, close software to stop uncontrolled spend, today announced a strategic collaboration with Sardine, the leader in behavior-based fraud management. Airbase and Sardine’s partnership underscores a shared commitment to enhancing customer financial security against a backdrop of soaring vendor and payment fraud.

“Airbase has been an amazing partner to us. Together, we’ve created the safest way for companies to procure, pay, and close their books,” said Soups Ranjan, CEO of Sardine. “We’re excited to expand our relationship with Airbase and help them onboard and serve more legitimate customers in a frictionless way.”

“We are constantly at the forefront, fighting against fraudulent attacks on our customers. Our partnership with Sardine, marked by a deep and seamless integration, significantly bolsters our risk management capabilities,” says Nayeem Mano, VP of Risk Management at Airbase. “This collaboration isn’t just about combining efforts; it’s about leveraging Sardine’s powerful software to enhance the vigilance and effectiveness of our risk team.”

Under the stewardship of CEO and Founder Thejo Kote and CFO Aneal Vallurupalli, Airbase maintains a steady commitment to trust and safety. The company prioritizes long-term strategies over short-term gains, investing in personnel and technology to ensure a resilient operational foundation.

“In a rapidly transforming market, our focus on fraud prevention and our commitment to protecting our customers’ funds will remain steadfast,” asserts Vallurupalli.

Sardine’s unique approach to fraud prevention resonates with Airbase. “Collaborating with Sardine feels like expanding our internal team,” explains Airbase’s Manager of Fraud and Chargeback, Preston Miller. “Their deep understanding of fraud, combined with their flexible product, enhances our ability to offer superior fraud prevention to our customers.”

This strategic collaboration with Sardine underscores Airbase’s commitment to safeguarding customer finances and reinforces its standing as a trusted spend management platform.

Tarabut, MENA’s first and largest Open Banking platform, today announces its partnership with BENEFIT, Bahrain’s leading FinTech company and the national electronic payment infrastructure operator, introducing a new consent authentication method to streamline Bahrain's Open Banking ecosystem.

Through Tarabut’s advanced Identity Verification product, and regulator-approved application programming interface (API), BENEFIT users can consent to accessing Open Banking services directly in the BENEFIT app and others.

The partnership will enhance customer experience by eliminating the scattered customer journeys typified by the need to switch between notifications and bank apps. The Tarabut-BENEFIT collaboration paves the way for a cohesive, enhanced experience, poised to significantly boost user conversions. The integration includes app-to-app deep linking, improving the authentication model for users in Bahrain to quickly link their bank accounts, regardless of the bank. This alliance ensures consistent access to a wider range of financial products, fostering competition and enhancing experiences across all financial services in Bahrain.

Tarabut Founder & CEO, Abdulla Almoayed says about the partnership, “This partnership leverages Tarabut's extensive experience and pre-existing integrations, combined with BENEFIT's widespread adoption and transactional capabilities, to create a synergy that pushes the whole ecosystem forward. What truly defines our integration is the shared capability to not just adapt to the Open Banking evolution, but to lead it for the Kingdom as a whole. By leveraging our resources and expertise, we have developed a groundbreaking solution that sets a new standard, ensuring unparalleled sophistication and user-centric design unmatched by any other offering in the region.”

Abdulwahed AlJanahi, Chief Executive at BENEFIT says about the partnership: “Our partnership with Tarabut is instrumental in unlocking the full potential of Bahrain's Open Banking landscape. By simplifying financial connectivity and harmonizing user journeys, we're forging a enahnced experience that sets new standards. This milestone underscores our mutual dedication to bolstering Bahrain's stature as a pivotal FinTech hub within the region, aligning closely with the national drive towards digital transformation and emergent technologies.” AlJanahi added: “This is part of our solid commitment toward paving the way for innovation in the sector”.

Yousif AlNefaie, Deputy Chief Executive of BENEFIT, says: “This strategic partnership with Tarabut represents a paradigm shift in Bahrain’s Open Banking landscape. By seamlessly integrating our platforms, we're not just redefining user experiences; we're pioneering a new era of financial connectivity. This is yet another testament to our shared commitment to advancing Bahrain's financial ecosystem and propelling it to unprecedented heights." Moreover;” This is a key strategic direction for us and goes in line with the national directions as the financial sector continues to be a remarkable contributor to the economy”.

With the vast number of users, licensing from the Central Bank of Bahrain, and support from some of the top banks in the country, BENEFIT has emerged as a cornerstone in Bahrain's FinTech and Open Banking scene. Elevating this partnership is a crucial step in building customer trust and driving increased adoption and conversion rates within the Open Banking ecosystem. The Tarabut-BENEFIT collaboration paves the way for a cohesive, enhanced experience, poised to significantly boost user activity.

This strategic initiative empowers consumers to select banking services and tools tailored to their preferences, fostering a more inclusive financial ecosystem within the country. This shift holds the potential to significantly improve the financial well-being of millions, representing a development of crucial importance extending well beyond the realm of Tarabut.

 YNAB, an app and set of habits for your money, is among the first to integrate Apple's new FinanceKit API providing direct access to Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings with Apple Card transactions within YNAB.

YNAB helps users align their money with their priorities through a simple set of spending habits; direct access to Apple Card makes it faster and easier for users to view transactions and have total clarity of their spending. Apple Card, Apple Cash and Savings with Apple Card transactions now seamlessly sync with YNAB to reflect real-time spending, making it simple to always be up-to-date.

"We are thrilled to be one of the first apps selected by Apple to bring this feature to life," shares Todd Curtis, CEO of YNAB. "Since 2004, YNAB has been focused on helping people change their relationship with money, and we are excited that this integration will enhance the YNAB experience for Apple Card holders, making it even easier for them to spend confidently, save aspirationally, and even give joyfully."

DailyPay, a proud launching partner for Visa+, announced today that the innovative new service is available to DailyPay's millions of users nationwide.

Launched in late 2023, the mission of Visa+ is to create an interoperable future, where paying across services is as seamless as using any one service, benefiting both consumers and payment app providers.

Now, all DailyPay users nationwide will have the opportunity to deposit their earned wages, prior to a scheduled payday, directly to Visa+ linked accounts where they can leverage other person-to-person digital payment apps. This empowers the DailyPay user to pay bills, spend, invest, or move money to friends/family on their own schedule.

DailyPay currently partners with America's leading employers who offer the financial wellness benefit to their employees. In 2023, DailyPay moved $19 billion on its work tech platform, clearly demonstrating that earned wage access has arrived as an essential benefit for the American worker.

"The future of payments has arrived," said Dekel Beeri, Product Strategy, DailyPay. "We are thrilled to be part of the launch of Visa+, which will allow DailyPay's millions of users to move money quickly, safely, and securely between DailyPay and other world-leading person-to-person digital payment apps, as part of this game-changing new platform."