Ecospend, the leading payments platform in the UK, recently acquired by Trustly, outlines the potential of Open Banking payments to close the VAT tax gap which stands at £10 billion, or 6.9% of the VAT receipts received by the government, for the financial year 2021-22.

Estimates from HMRC have found that Open Banking has been pivotal in closing the VAT gap, which is the difference between the expected VAT revenue and the actual amount collected, for the tax year 2021 to 2022. Falling from 7% the previous year, this signals the existing role that new payment technologies have played in reducing the gap and the crucial function they will have in ensuring that the tax gap continues its current trajectory. 

Baseline reports, made in the financial year 2005-06, reported a VAT tax gap of 14.1%. Since then, there has been an overall downward trend, with only a few exceptions to the rule. 2019-2020, for example, saw a spike in the VAT gap to 8.5%, rising from 6.7% the previous year. Ensuring that the gap is closed, and any anomalous spikes minimised are clear priorities for the Exchequer.

Since 2005, technology has played a crucial role in optimising governmental and public sector payments. Open Banking, as the next stage in the evolution of digital payments, poses a significant advantage in ensuring that the gap can be closed and further tax revenue can be accurately accounted for. With direct account-to-account payments, the transfer of funds is instantaneous and fully accountable.

Ecospend’s ongoing Open Banking relationship with HMRC exemplifies the potential of Open Banking as a means of improving the efficiency of payment processing. As of February 2023, £2.3 billion in Self-Assessment payments were made to HMRC using Ecospend’s ‘Pay-by-Bank’ technology ahead of 2023’s Self-Assessment deadline – 64% more than last year. The total volume of transactions was 47% higher than in 2022, with 869,000 payments having been made to HMRC using the technology.

HMRC’s use of Ecospend’s technology marked the first time an Open Banking payment method had been embedded within a government department. The technology used allows for a simple and user-friendly journey that relies on biometric IDs, encouraging user adoption. The decoupled journey solution employed by HMRC offers a flexible payment experience, reducing the rate of abandonment. The potential of this kind of technology to improve the fundamental infrastructure of government financing is clear.

James Hickman, Chief Commercial Officer at Ecospend, commented:

“The UK is the largest digital payments market in Europe and, in recent years, has seen a huge increase in adoption by new sectors: utilities, retail, consumer and the public sector. As a technology, Open Banking is approaching an inflection point. By accruing more day-to-day usage across different industries, the point of wide spread adoption comes closer to view.

“We’ve already seen Open Banking technologies work wonders for HMRC’s self-assessment regime and there’s no reason why this momentum can’t be carried forward and help in reducing the VAT tax gap and ensuring it stays low.”

Torstone Technology, a leading SaaS platform for post-trade securities and derivatives processing, today announces that Sam Farrell has joined the firm as Head of North America. Based in Toronto, Sam will have oversight of all the US and Canadian operations for Torstone. Sam will continue to expand Torstone’s footprint in North America, further establishing the business as a key provider within the US and Canadian markets.

Prior to joining Torstone, Sam spent the last 35 years in Canadian financial services and brings a wealth of experience to the role, having previously worked at RBC, TD Securities, Scotiabank, and most recently at Credit Suisse Canada as a senior operations leader.

Over his career, Sam has led a number of significant initiatives, including the Credit Suisse migration to Torstone’s Cloud Platform.

Brian Collings, CEO, Torstone Technology, commented: “We are thrilled to have Sam join the Torstone family. Sam's vision and willingness to be an early adopter of Torstone were key to the success of our project with Credit Suisse. His experience, and in particular, with the Torstone migration, makes Sam an ideal person to step in and lead our North American business, bringing with him a unique insight at a time where the North American financial services sector faces momentous change in the move to a T+1 settlement cycle.

We are confident that Sam will drive our expansion in North America, strengthen our brand, and establish Torstone as a leading provider in the US and Canadian markets.”

Sam Farrell, Head of North America, Torstone Technology added: “I am extremely excited to be joining Torstone at this pivotal moment in the industry, especially as we approach the move to T+1 in 2024. I am honoured to be a part of the leadership team that will help drive the firm’s growth and success in the North American markets as the industry looks to modernise its technology solutions with Cloud and SaaS.”

This new hire highlights the continued growth of Torstone and its commitment to providing industry-leading service to its clients. Torstone is dedicated to providing exceptional post-trade solutions for clients globally, and this appointment is a clear indication of the company’s commitment to that goal.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announces that it has further advanced its digital authentication solution, with ongoing pilots realizing a conversion uplift of up to 7%. Engineered to optimize authorization and therefore end revenue, the company’s expanded capabilities include Delegated Authentication, Data-Only, and Trusted Beneficiaries functionalities. By turning regulatory challenges into opportunities, Adyen’s authentication ecosystem combines security and seamless checkout experiences to drive growth for digital businesses.  

“Adyen continues to expand the capabilities of our single platform,” says Trevor Nies, Global Head of Digital Strategy at Adyen. “Our recent authentication innovations show how we’re continuously finding new avenues to help our digital customers grow. As a partner, we identify opportunities to address and simplify regulatory challenges on behalf of global businesses. Our Delegated Authentication, Data-Only, and Trusted Beneficiaries functionalities are the latest ways we are embodying this mindset of turning complexity into conversion, which greatly reduces friction for our customers.”

In regions where Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is required, Adyen has implemented its Delegated Authentication technology as an additional option to streamline authentication while remaining compliant. While many digital authentication flows are full of friction including redirects, Delegated Authentication allows Adyen to fully authenticate the consumer on behalf of the issuer, providing a streamlined cardholder experience while remaining within the merchant checkout page. To maintain the highest security standards while providing ease of use, Delegated Authentication enables shoppers to utilize two-factor authentication, leveraging biometric checks such as fingerprint recognition and facial scans, and device-bound credentials. Delegated Authentication has been expanded from only web browser users to include iOS and Android users.

To further cater to customer needs in regulated markets, Adyen has advanced its Trusted Beneficiaries functionality. Through Trusted Beneficiaries, shoppers in the checkout stage are given the option to simultaneously add a business to their list of trusted companies. After designating a business as ‘trusted,’ shoppers will not need to be re-authenticated when purchasing from them. This again brings added convenience to the consumer and increased conversion to the business.

Even in regions where strict authentication regulations are not in place, Adyen is using its global expertise to improve authorization rates using its Data-Only feature. When a transaction is executed where customer authentication is not mandatory, such as in the US or Brazil, Adyen can share authentication data with schemes in order to help them make more informed authorization decisions. By using Data-Only, businesses have been able to broaden their decision-making resources and increase conversion while reducing fraud.

In line with the company’s long-held approach to building upon its single platform, Adyen is committed to continuously broadening its global authentication capabilities. As technology evolves, businesses can rely on it to optimize authorization in both mandated and non-mandated markets. With Adyen’s expanded solution already driving noteworthy conversion uplift in ongoing pilots, Adyen looks forward to further demonstrating the value of authentication as a strategic revenue driver.

Surecomp® today announced that it is partnering with Contour, one of the global digital trade finance networks, as part of a collaborative vision to drive the digital transformation of trade finance across financial institutions.  
 
Surecomp has over 35 years of expertise digitising trade finance processes and its integration with Contour’s decentralised network of banks and corporates will provide users with a fully integrated end-to-end trade service solution.
 
Through the collaboration with Surecomp’s trade finance platform RIVO™, Contour’s member banks will be able to access digital Letter of Credit workflows directly on Surecomp’s back-office applications, providing straight-through automated processing, reducing costs, improving operational efficiency and optimising profitability.  
 
Trade is the engine of the global economy, but trade financing is complex and traditionally reliant on paper. One pain point for many financial institutions has been the lack of a network to support collaborative workflows within the trade ecosystem, and a lack of interoperability between solutions.
 
The new collaboration between Surecomp and Contour addresses this issue, by streamlining and simplifying trade finance processing, leading to new business opportunities, improved trade productivity and ultimately, a sustainable future for global trade. Both companies are recognised as industry leaders in this year’s Global Finance awards winning ‘Best Trade Finance Software Provider’ and ‘Best DLT Platform for Trade Finance’ respectively.

“This partnership encapsulates Surecomp’s value in driving collaboration rather than competition, by bringing the ecosystem together to facilitate trade and boost economies,” says Enno-Burghard Weitzel, Surecomp’s SVP of Strategy, Digitization and Business Development. “Financial institutions using the Contour network will now be able to automatically process trade finance applications on the back-end providing a seamless, straight-through process for heightened efficiency and customer support.”

Carl Wegner, CEO of Contour, said: “Surecomp shares our vision in ensuring that the trade finance ecosystem is open to everyone, from large financial institutions and MNCs to local banks and MSMEs. Our integration with Surecomp will take us a step further into the future, by accelerating the acceptance of digital trade solutions across industries.”

NextGen IT company Trifork and modular core banking technology provider Tuum have entered into a partnership to provide a bespoke card and financing platform to the Danish financial institution Sparxpres, part of Spar Nord. The agreement covers the creation of the platform and five years of subsequent development and operational support.

Sparxpres offers competitive digital financing and credit solutions for private customers, as well as gift card solutions for local councils and nationwide retail chains. In 2022, Sparxpres facilitated more than 1.4 million transactions for 98 partners at 6,500 locations across 120 Danish cities. The new platform, which is being built by Trifork, using Tuum's card and lending modules and in close cooperation with Nets and Visa, provides Sparxpres with future-proof core systems that enable new products to be easily introduced.

Ole Andreasen, CEO of Sparxpres commented: "Trifork was selected based on its success in developing complex systems for the financial sector, and because of our shared track record of developing innovative projects together. With the new solution, we will have an updated and future-proof platform for our card and finance products, while at the same time we will be able to develop and offer innovative products to new customer groups independently,"

Tuum and Trifork have an integration partnership since July 2021 to strengthen both parties’ banking and fintech offerings.  Trifork has been developing and building innovative digital solutions and platforms for the financial sector in Europe for over 15 years, based on next-gen technologies that can be integrated with legacy systems. Tuum’s SaaS core banking solution is cloud-agnostic and allows financial service providers to quickly roll out new financial products and services, enabling them to better address the needs of their customers.  

Jesper Mygind, Vice President at Trifork commented: "We are very pleased with the confidence Sparxpres has shown in choosing us to develop their main IT system. With a card and loan platform based on Tuum's modular banking platform and integrated with Visa and Nets, Trifork stands with a concept that will be attractive for all banks that want to modernise and future-proof their card platform,"  

Julien Douve, Global Head of Alliances & Partnerships at Tuum said: “We are very excited to help Sparxpres introduce a whole new set of products to the market on a single, modern platform. Using Tuum’s SaaS core banking solution, coupled with Trifork’s expertise in building cutting edge fintech propositions, Sparxpres will be able to launch unique financial products and services faster than ever.” 

With the new platform, Sparxpres will be able to provide both credit and gift card solutions, together with prepaid payment cards that can be restricted to specific purposes. This opens up the possibility for customers such as public authorities to issue payment cards for specific purposes to ensure that the card is only used for the purpose for which it was issued. In addition, cards can be delivered to a wallet, which is where the future lies for this type of product.

GoCardless, a global leader in bank payment solutions, has integrated with Zapier, the leader in no-code automation, to help businesses save time and energy when managing their payments.

Businesses can now build Zaps -- Zapier's automated workflows -- for GoCardless, eliminating manual labour for routine and repetitive tasks, such as creating a new payment mandate or tracking failed payments. Zapier’s platform includes over 5,000 apps, making it easy for businesses to connect GoCardless to the software they use every day.

Seb Hempstead, VP of Partnerships at GoCardless, said: “Our mission is to take the pain out of getting paid. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Zapier, helping businesses tap into real-time information flows to turn manual admin into automated processes. This will give them more time to focus on their top priorities. And it’s simple to use – there’s no code involved.”

Businesses can find the new GoCardless integration on the Zapier App Directory page and learn more on the GoCardless landing page.

The announcement adds another leading name to GoCardless’ roster of more than 350 partners. These partnerships allow businesses to seamlessly integrate GoCardless into the software they already use, managing payment and other business activities in one place.

Cashflows, the platform that makes it easy for merchants to accept payments, today announces the appointment of Philip Harding as Account Development Director.

Philip joins Cashflows following more than 12 years at Barclaycard Payments, where he rose to the Director of International Corporates. In this role, Philip focused on financial services and insurance, following various roles in issuing and acquiring. Philip also has previous experience working at FedEx, where he held the position of National Business Development Executive.

Philip will leverage his multinational processing experience to drive Cashflows’ independent software vendor (ISV) strategy forward and nurture relationships with customers and partners. Following Cashflows’ rapid growth over 2022, he will focus on cementing Cashflows’ best-in-class customer engagement, and further developing Cashflows’ solutions designed to optimise payment acceptance for small and medium financial services, insurance and software businesses.

Hannah Fitzsimons, CEO, Cashflows, comments, “We’re delighted to welcome Philip to the team. At Cashflows, business is always personal, and our team work tirelessly to understand our partners, customers and industries inside out. Philip’s appointment will further enhance these relationships, while enabling us to evolve our offering to corporates in the financial, insurance and software industries.”

Philip Harding, Account Development Director, Cashflows, adds, “Cashflows is uniquely positioned within the payments industry. With vast payments industry expertise across the business, we can maintain our agility and innovative approach to payment processing and acquiring. Joining the team, I have big ambitions to drive significant incremental value to our existing customers and partners, while making a real splash in the financial and insurance industries. I’m beyond excited at what we’re going to achieve.”

With ambitious growth plans, Cashflows will continue to invest in new experienced hires over 2023, particularly across its technology, product and commercial teams.

Participants in the Sell-side Fixed Income Expert Network have a broadly positive outlook for 2023 after an era-changing year in fixed-income markets, according to the latest report produced by Acuiti in association with valantic FSA.  

The volatility that hit markets in 2022 meant sell-side fixed-income traders enjoyed a boost in revenues from their trading operations. Over half of the fixed-income network, a group of senior sell-side fixed-income executives from across the globe, said that last year had been exceptional for their fixed income business relative to an average year. 

The healthy revenues that sell-side fixed-income traders booked in 2022 stand in contrast to the cost reviews and job cuts that are being implemented in other banking desks. Even with uncertainty about the path for inflation and interest rates this year, the majority of the network expect that their departments will increase headcount and investment in technology in 2023. Two-thirds of the network expected technology spending to be higher than an average year, and 14% expected it to be significantly higher.  “The largest investments are expected to be in Data and Analytics, Trading Technology and Risk Management,” according to Andy Browning, Head of Electronic Trading, at valantic FSA.

When considering trends within the electronification of fixed income, network members most expected portfolio trading to continue its growth. US fixed income has been a faster adopter of this trend, but the network expected that it will play an increasingly important role in European markets this year. 

“The increasingly sophisticated client demands for electronic offerings were reflected in the expectation that more would ask for increased cross-asset functionality this year,” continued Browning, “This points to evolution of e-trading capabilities and the increasing confidence that market participants have in executing more complex trading strategies on platforms.” 

The importance of technology spend was also highlighted in hiring intentions, with these the most budgeted for departments for hiring. “Trading and execution skills are in high demand” noted Will Mitting, Managing Director of Acuiti. “There was a recognition that a new generation needs to be brought through on these desks, with many senior staff starting to approach the end of their careers.” 

The report also found that majority of the network (68%) still thinks that consolidated tape is needed in fixed-income markets. However, most think that it will not be introduced in the EU until 2025 or beyond.  

For more insights and detail, the full report is available to download here https://www.valantic.com/fsa/insights/.  

Temenos today announced that Qik Banco Digital Dominicano has launched on Temenos Banking Cloud, becoming the first digital-only bank in the Dominican Republic. Part of Grupo Popular, Qik combines more than five decades of banking experience with the operational agility and cutting-edge digital experiences enabled by the Temenos platform.

One of the largest financial groups in Latin America with operations in the Dominican Republic and Panama, Grupo Popular has assets of more than $13 billion and more than 2 million clients. The launch of Qik on the Temenos Banking Cloud with consultative support from ITSS will enable the bank to quickly establish a presence in the Dominican Republic, planning to onboard up to thousands of people in the first year.

With instant access to packaged banking services via software-as-a-service (SaaS) on Temenos Banking Cloud, Qik can meet the emerging needs of digital customers with the highest technological, security and service standards, built around the way customers live their daily lives. Temenos Banking Cloud also allows Qik to reap the benefits of an OpEx model (versus CapEx) and elastically scale based on business demand. In addition, Qik will be able to measure, reduce and report on their emissions with BI data, so that they can comply with regulation, address the changing needs of their customers and reach their sustainability targets.

The open and flexible platform will empower Qik to quickly design and deliver innovative products and services. The bank will consume Temenos core banking and payments services on a pay-as-you-go basis, as it launches products from debit accounts to savings to personal loans across the Dominican Republic.

Arturo Grullón Finet, CEO of Qik, said: "We wanted to create a bank with agility, flexibility and state-of-the-art technology to improve the banking experience and create availability to banking services to a larger portion of Dominicans. Our value proposition is focusing on people´s needs to maximize their time and resources, which is the demand of today's customers. That´s why we chose Temenos, because its cloud technology has a successful track record across Latin America and we knew that it could help us deliver a digital experience that redefines banking so that our customers can bank smarter, happier and more connected than ever before."

Enrique Ramos O’Reilly, SVP – Customer Success and Partners, Temenos, said: “The banking landscape continues to evolve, with banks adopting new business models to beat the competition and reach new audiences, and fintechs challenging the status quo. Qik brings together the best of both worlds. Leveraging the Temenos Banking Cloud, Qik can quickly and easily experiment, innovate and launch new products to market to drive growth and enhance the customer experience. All while supporting the group’s sustainable vision by reducing carbon emissions by more than 90% compared to using on-premise infrastructure and applications and providing Qik’s customers with tools to measure and mitigate their carbon impact of their transactions. We’re excited to have delivered this project with Qik, and look forward to seeing how they redefine what it means to bank in a world where banking has no walls.”