Tide, the UK’s leading SME-focused business financial platform, which recently launched in India, and WE Hub, Telangana’s state-led incubator for women entrepreneurs have launched the ‘Sarthika’ programme, to bridge the information and last-mile delivery gaps in state and central government schemes for women-led micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Through this initiative, Tide aims to reach women entrepreneurs across India and enhance the ease of doing business by improving access to information and the uptake of public schemes and initiatives.

The Sarthika web portal will work with the cohort at the grassroots level to help them navigate through the application process, eligibility criteria, and other important aspects of the schemes. After the completion of the full KYC process, Tide India and WE Hub will work with relevant government departments to quicken the operationalisation of the schemes.

The programme’s first phase consists of three schemes

1. Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): The scheme focuses on credit subsidies for self-employment.
2. Raw Material Assistance Scheme: This scheme offers access to higher-quality raw materials.
3. Barcode Registration Subsidy: This scheme enables businesses to conform to global standards of trade and commerce.

The Government of India has rolled out a series of measures to boost growth and opportunities for women in business. However, lack of information about eligibility and availability of schemes, poor allocation of resources, and complex processes have led to weak demand from the people these schemes could best serve.

The Sarthika programme comes at a time when W20, under India’s G20 presidency, is focused on realising the vision of women-led development, with women as active change agents of India’s growth story rather than passive recipients of development. The W20 is an official G20 engagement group focused on gender equity.

WE Hub CEO, Deepthi Ravula said, ”Enabling access and opportunity for women to partake in the economic workforce of the nation is of pivotal importance to the growth of the nation. While there have been efforts to ease this process, awareness and handholding support is often amiss. In our collaboration with Tide, we are looking at addressing this problem statement and are positive that this will lead to a monumental change!”

This move also elevates Tide’s India Chapter of ‘Women in Business’ and the company’s plan to work as an incubator to digitally transform women-led SMEs beyond Tier 2 and 3 regions of India.

Kumar Shekhar, Deputy Country Manager, Tide India said, “As India presides over G20, there is an increased need to focus on the inclusion of women in finance and creating an enabling and non-discriminatory ecosystem. Last mile delivery of schemes and incentives is a common challenge faced by governments across the globe. While there is no magic bullet to bridge this gap, we are proud to launch a programme that will not just remove barriers to women-led development but help them realise their full potential.”

Earlier this year, Tide also conducted a mentorship programme for women entrepreneurs to decode the Union Budget 2023 and help them understand how new government policies, tax laws, and funding opportunities may affect their businesses.

Monite, an API-first embedded finance workflows startup, introduces Invoice Payment Links. It is a hassle-free solution that enables invoicing and accounting platforms to earn two to five times per user by helping their clients to get paid 40% faster.

While many SMBs facilitate their customer invoicing with finance platforms, invoice payments are still a hassle since they often arrive in an email inbox in PDF format and need to be paid manually. This usually causes errors, extends the average collection period by up to 90 days, and creates cash gaps.

Today Monite introduces its Invoice Payment Links: the way SMBs can avoid chasing payments, get paid instantly and securely and maintain a cash-healthy business. This product is designed for accounting and invoicing platforms that can improve user experience and earn up to five times more revenue per user by getting additional commission from every invoice payment their customers receive.

Moreover, with Monite, accounting and invoicing platforms can increase payment coverage to nearly 90% by offering their customers the widest range of payment options, based on capabilities provided by the best vendors in the area: card & local payment methods (Stripe), open banking (Yapily), and other payment methods like BNPL coming in the future. Building a similar payment stack in-house usually means partnering with at least one provider per payment method and taking on compliance, anti-fraud, and other functions, while spending around $500k, hiring a specialized payments team and dedicating over 1 year of work. Meanwhile embedding Monite’s solution is easy and takes only six days and the help of two developers.

Invoicing and accounting platforms typically miss revenue opportunities as they only monetize SaaS fees but miss monetizing payments. Adding payments has historically been challenging as the platforms have to risk losing money on some transactions due to the ICC++ model that providers offer. Monite, on the contrary, offers blended rate pricing and takes over the risk of losing money, allowing platforms to earn a fixed fee per transaction. Alongside this, Monite fully takes over compliance and anti-fraud issues, which are crucial for B2B payments.

Ivan Maryasin, CEO and co-founder of Monite, elaborated on the significance of the new product: “Invoice Payment Links is here to let payments become fast and convenient. Companies like lexoffice or sevDesk can now add new revenue streams through reliable and fully compliant payments while saving on margins and benefiting from hands-on advisory and support from Monite. At the same time, SMBs can enjoy the advantages of all payment methods while mitigating the risk and dependency of relying on a single provider.” 

B2Core has just launched an update to its CRM platform for brokers and exchanges with features intended to boost user experience and security. With this upgrade, you can now take advantage of the following new components:

• A feedback section for the Helpdesk

• Time Limits Settings 

• An improved Device Management section.

By making these innovative changes, B2Core has solidified its place as the number one CRM platform for financial institutions.

Section for Helpdesk Feedback

The B2Core team has crafted a user feedback system tailored to the demands of brokers and exchanges. This tool will enable platform owners to gain insight into how they can further enhance their service, resulting in a superior user support experience.

Once the user has received help from the support team, they have the option to close their ticket and leave a review of their experience. This feedback gives companies an understanding of what customers think about their services and where they can focus on improvement areas. Additionally, comments are encouraged so that companies can gain more in-depth knowledge regarding customer satisfaction levels.

If users don't want to leave a comment, they can close the feedback window, and their responses won't be recorded. All user feedback and comments are consolidated in the Ticket Feedback Section of the B2Core admin panel so that administrators can access their support team's performance data and ensure optimal customer service.

Time Limits Settings

Admins can ensure the utmost security of their system by setting up session time limits for B2Core Back Office users. By navigating to System - Settings, admins have an extensive range of available inactive times ranging from 1 to 240 minutes that will automatically log out any idle user within this period to protect all data and admin credentials.

Improved Device Management Section

End users now gain access to the enriched Device Management view in Profile - Security, allowing them to obtain more helpful information on their login device, associated IP address, and approximate location. By having this additional data at hand, they can safeguard their accounts with greater confidence.

To strengthen end-user accounts' safety, the B2Core team has included a new variety of email notifications alongside their improved Device Management view. The back office enables the admin to personalize this email template for end-users with the desired details. 

From now on, whenever an individual login attempt is made from any device, the user will be alerted via email and able to check out which device was used for this activity immediately. If a user suspects that their account is being accessed by someone else, they can swiftly reset their password and end all active sessions to protect their data and finances.

Final Remarks

B2Core has released an update to improve your and your clients' experience. With several new features, such as the Helpdesk feedback module, session time limit settings, and enhanced Device Management security protocols, this CRM solution guarantees to be the industry standard for user-friendliness and safety. The team at B2Core is continuously striving to provide users with innovative solutions that increase their satisfaction and security. This update is just one of many upcoming releases that will bring even more value to brokers, exchanges, and financial institutions. Try out these new features to get the most out of your B2Core platform!

New data published today shows that a majority of the UK public oppose the rising and unregulated costs British businesses face for simply accepting payments. With the cost of doing business at record levels, the report, published by the Axe The Card Tax campaign, urges the Government to clamp down on these hidden fees in the upcoming Budget.

The campaign coalition represents 240,000 businesses and includes major trade bodies.

The most egregious rises are scheme and processing fees, which the campaign estimates have increased by a staggering 600% since 2015. These fees, which are set unilaterally by card schemes, are estimated to cost British businesses nearly £2bn every year. 99% of card payments are made with Visa and Mastercard. Businesses have little option but to accept these hikes or risk not being able to use the card scheme network that makes up over 90% of payments in the UK. 

Data from the campaign coalition showed that 80% of consumers want businesses to keep more of the money they take, and for payment providers to reduce their fees. The data comes as a record number of shops went out of business in 2022, with nearly 50 a day shutting their doors for good.

Hannah Regan, Financial Policy Lead at the British Retail Consortium, said:

“The BRC have long campaigned for greater regulation of the costs associated with card payments. Retailers are facing turbulent times at the moment with inflation and rising energy bills increasing their costs; soaring card fees add yet another dimension to the ever-increasing pressure on the British retailers. 

“Our BRC Payments Survey showed that 90% of retail spending in 2021 was made on cards, so given the dominance of cards in the UK market, it is absolutely crucial that HMT take the time to assess if the market is working competitively, fairly, and if the regulation in place is fit for purpose. 

“In addition, we urge the PSR to freeze all fees to ensure they can conduct their reviews thoroughly and that the market cannot be taken advantage of during that time.”

The Federation of Independent Retailers National President Jason Birks said: 

“Since Covid, small retailers have come under increasing pressure to accept debit and credit cards as payments. However, many of the products purchased from our members’ stores are small ticket items.  Many members are, therefore, reluctant to incur the card processing fees. There are also concerns about the costs of setting up card terminals, rentals, and the card processing costs. The Fed exists to help make members money, save them money, and make business easier which is why we are pleased to support the Axe the Card Tax campaign.”

The campaign’s data also shows that 90% of those surveyed underestimated, or didn’t know, just how much card fees were costing UK retailers. In 2022 alone, the coalition estimates that hidden fees cost British businesses £5bn.    

Last year the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) launched investigations into why fees have risen, including on payments made by visitors from the EU that rose fivefold last year. The British Retail Consortium estimates that this has cost British businesses an additional £36.5m a year. And earlier this year, the PSR published an update to their investigation detailing findings so far that showed Visa and Mastercard have a higher operating profit than Microsoft, Amazon or Apple. This includes dividend increases of over 350% since 2015, the same year scheme and processing fees started to rise to the level they are today.

The campaign is calling for the Treasury to initiate its own review to make sure that regulation works for businesses. This includes promoting healthier competition in the sector to allow innovative UK Fintech’s the chance to thrive - a change that would provide further support to retailers. 

Dom Hallas, Executive Director at Coadec, said: 

“Businesses are facing a range of difficulties at the moment, but the unchecked cost of card fees is something the Government can easily fix. The public agrees with us that Axing the Card Tax is the way to do this - reversing the huge, unchecked rise in fees that cost businesses billions every year. 

“Without a wholesale review and an overhaul of the regulation, British fintechs will continue to lag behind , despite their fairer, more affordable alternatives. If we fix this broken market, we can put more money into the back pockets of businesses and turbocharge exciting young start-ups.”

Association of Convenience Stores Chief Executive James Lowman said: 

“Convenience store retailers are committed to offering a diverse range of payment methods for customers, including card payments, but significant hikes in card transaction fees are putting unnecessary pressure on retailers who are facing increased costs in all areas of their businesses. We must ensure that the card acquiring market is fair for retailers and consumers, and does not unfairly target smaller businesses”.

Pat Phelan, UK MD and Chief Customer Officer at payment company GoCardless, said: 

“This Report confirms what we've been saying for years: cards levy a tax on the economy. We encourage merchants to explore other payment options such as account-to-account payments, especially as they continue to feel the squeeze in this cost of living crisis.” 

"We’ve seen businesses save thousands of pounds after switching from cards, in addition to lowering their incidence of fraud and boosting conversion rates. We urge the Government to champion alternatives like account-to-account payments so companies up and down the country have a true choice when it comes to how they collect their hard-earned money.”

Founded in 2020, Aria has concluded a new €50 million debt fundraising with one of the world’s leading asset management and investment fund management companies, M&G Investments.

AML RightSource, the leading provider of Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”), Know Your Customer (“KYC”), and Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) compliance solutions, announced it has signed a three-year technology agreement with Golden 1 Credit Union, the sixth-largest credit union in the United States. Golden 1 selected AML RightSource technology solutions to mitigate risk, automate investigations, and more efficiently meet AML compliance requirements.

As a result of rapid growth and on-going expansion, Golden 1 sought AI-enabled technology to augment its existing compliance team and boost the efficiency of its enhanced due diligence (EDD) and transaction monitoring efforts. Golden 1 will deploy these AML RightSource solutions to automate its financial crime compliance efforts:

• AML RightSource Automated EDD is an AI-powered solution that automates periodic risk reviews using a financial institution’s customer data as well as screening corporate registries, adverse media, PEP/SOE, watchlists, and more. The solution also screens transactions to spot anomalous activity and produces algorithmic risk scores for focal entities and their counterparties, dynamically determining customer risk segmentation based on a financial institution’s specific risk definitions. The solution presents its findings to AML investigators in highly explainable High-Risk Entity Reports (HRERs) that provide key details including auto-generated case narratives. By reviewing HRERs, investigators can accurately assess and report on significantly more cases each day.

• AML RightSource AI Automated Investigator solution automates the investigation of alerts produced by transaction monitoring systems (TMS). In addition to handling alert investigations at much higher volumes and levels of consistency, investigative results are made fully transparent through AML RightSource Financial Crime Investigation Reports (FCIR), enabling investigators’ time and talents to be applied to more cases, particularly those that involve the most complex financial crime. FCIRs include the supporting documentation needed to efficiently analyze cases and to create suspicious activity reports (SARs) when indicated.

Golden 1 is a longstanding customer of AML RightSource for both financial crime advisory and managed services. It has relied on AML RightSource for FinCrime compliance tasks ranging from TMS selection to supplementing in-house financial crime investigators when alerts surged, or in-house staffing shifted. With the addition of AML RightSource technology, Golden 1 is anticipating a 50% efficiency increase for customer risk reviews and TMS alert investigations. 

“In 2023, Golden 1 Credit Union is focused on making our compliance operations more efficient through AI-enabled automation,” explained Joseph Harrison, Sr. Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for Golden 1 Credit Union. “We have seen that the technology solutions from AML RightSource will bring accuracy, efficiency, and consistency to our compliance program and help our existing team keep pace as we continue to grow and mature, and compliance demands escalate.”

With AML RightSource solutions operating in a secured cloud environment, the IT and compliance teams at Golden 1 appreciate the ease and speed of implementation. In initial demonstrations, the IT team found data extraction to be both secure and streamlined. Golden 1 expects to be fully operational with both AML RightSource solutions in less than 90 days.

“We are excited to bring effective solutions to Golden 1 and other financial institutions dedicated to strengthening AML compliance through innovation,” explained David McLaughlin, Executive Vice President of Technology Sales at AML RightSource. “Our AI-powered solutions will reduce Golden 1 investigators’ need to manually sift through multiple databases and websites to determine customer risk and to clear false positives. Financial crime investigators can now evolve from researchers desperately unearthing relevant data into insightful analysts, with AML/BSA outcomes becoming more consistent.”

With more than $18 billion in assets and 2,200 employees, Golden 1 is one of the largest and most admired credit unions in the United States, proudly serving more than one million members. Golden 1 delivers financial solutions with value, convenience, and exceptional service to its members, and is committed to enhancing the financial well-being of Californians and their diverse communities. 

The Africa Fintech Summit is pleased to announce Flutterwave as the Lead Fintech Sponsor for Africa Fintech Summit in 2023 to be held in Washington DC on the 12th April 2023 and in one African city, to be announced soon, in November 2023. The sponsorship comes at the heels of Flutterwave’s latest licenses issued in Egypt making it possible for Flutterwave to be an official payment service provider in Egypt and expanding its presence in MENA.

Since inception in 2016, the Flutterwave team has been on a mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets, so far processing over 400M transactions worth over USD $25B to date across 34 countries in Africa. It also follows a year of rapid growth for the brand which now serves over 1,000,000 businesses across the globe. 

Flutterwave’s Founder and CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, said, “Once again, we’re happy to be a lead sponsor at this year’s AFTS event. We believe that the AFTS network has been instrumental in developing and shaping the fintech industry in Africa and Flutterwave has been an active enabler of the ecosystem growth. We’re always enthusiastic to work with the Africa Fintech Summit team in engaging stakeholders and partners who help us create endless possibilities. We’re excited for all this opportunity provides as we continue on our vision to connect African countries through payments.  ”

“It is with immense gratitude and great pleasure we are welcoming back Flutterwave as our Lead Fintech Sponsor for both our April & November summits this year. Flutterwave has been – and continues to be an impactful, progressive, and innovative Fintech that enables the wide Fintech ecosystem in Africa and beyond and demonstrating the Africanization of Tech in its global growth trajectory,” said Zekarias Amsalu, Co-Founder of AFTS and MD of Ibex Frontier.

Since its first summit in 2018, the Africa Fintech Summit has become the largest bi-annual financial technology gathering on the African continent. In addition to Flutterwave’s sponsorship, AFTS will be supported by a diverse cohort of partners and sponsors. The 9^th edition of AFTS will focus on fintech regulatory best practices, diaspora banking & remittance, African fintechs expanding globally, cross-border payment movements & use-cases for decentralized finance (Defi), fintech funding trends, cross-border payments under the AfCFTA, US-Africa tech connections, and several other spotlight topics.

Tickets for AFTS Washington DC are on sale now. To learn more or to register, visit http://africafintechsummit.com/.

Delegates get 25% on AFTS tickets by using the discount code $END25 at checkout of registration at http://africafintechsummit.com/.

Glia, the leading provider of Digital Customer Service (DCS), is hosting its third annual DCS Summit on April 24^th-26^th at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa. The event continues to grow and will be in-person this year, representing the world’s only conference focused on Digital Customer Service.

During the two-day summit, hundreds of financial institutions and industry experts will gather to experience the many facets of DCS firsthand and engage with peers to help shape the future of customer service. The event will feature distinguished entrepreneur, Olympic gold medalist and NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the keynote speaker, exploring why interactions are the key to fulfilment and success.

“Enhancing our Digital Customer Service with Glia is an important part of our strategy moving forward," said Grace Bruins, AVP of Marketing for Horicon Bank. "Glia’s DCS Summit gives us an opportunity to connect with other financial institutions, compare strategies and learn from their success."

"I'm excited to network with my peers, hear best practices and learn how to further optimize our member service. It's all about humanizing the digital experience," said Laura Lobetti, Digital Experience Manager for Community First Credit Union of Florida.

The 2023 DCS Summit marks the third event where DCS visionaries have gathered and shared inspiration about their digital transformation journeys. Attendees will hear advice, best practices and lessons learned from transitioning legacy, phone-based support to Digital Customer Service. Some of the additional 20+ speakers and sessions include Kerry Bodine, co-author of Outside In and a globally recognized customer experience expert, and Dan Michaeli, CEO and co-founder of Glia.

“We have created a unique community of financial services providers that are at the forefront of Digital Customer Service,” said Michaeli. “We are excited to come together, discuss important DCS trends and opportunities and collaborate on how to best leverage the power of DCS. Together, we are creating a vision for the future of the customer and member experience.”

Bottomline, a leading provider of financial technology that helps make business payments simple, smart and secure, today announced that its Chief Customer Officer Mandy Killam has been named one of the Most Influential Women in Payments in 2023, by American Banker, the US media outlet covering the global banking and financial services sector.

Mandy is one of 22 honorees selected for this year’s Most Influential Women in Payments. The award recognizes the achievements of phenomenal women in the payments industry who are guiding the future of the global payments industry while examining topics of leadership, mentorship, and inclusion in the advancement of the next generation of leaders.

Having previously served as Bottomline’s Chief Transformation and Operations Officer, Mandy has been instrumental in implementing transformational change following the acquisition of Bottomline Technologies by Thoma Bravo.

“We are proud of Mandy’s recognition and truly delighted that she’s received this well-deserved honor from American Banker,” said Craig Saks, Chief Executive Officer, Bottomline. “From mainframe programmer to M&A integrator, and from P&L owner to sales leader, Mandy has worked in the trenches and led all that it takes to move business payments around the world effectively and efficiently. She’s done this with remarkable servant leadership, enabling and empowering individuals and teams to build the processes that drive business payments to their future—elevating, inspiring and mentoring the talent around her.”

As an annual award, a select committee of American Banker staff members critique submissions based on leadership, teamwork, and personal initiative qualities demonstrated through action. The honorees selected are an inspiration for females within the payments industry as they look to grow, rise, and succeed.

Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology platform provider, announced that the firm has acquired London-based AxeTrading, a leading global provider of fixed income trading solutions. The acquisition marks a significant broadening of TT’s multi-asset capabilities with an expansion into full coverage of corporate, government, municipal and emerging market bonds as well as over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate swaps, strengthening TT’s leading position in fixed income derivatives and U.S. Treasuries. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For more than a decade, AxeTrading has serviced a wide range of global customers with its award-winning platform. In addition to providing connectivity to all major fixed income trading venues, AxeTrading also offers a highly sophisticated, customizable pricing and quote management engine, and automated workflow management tools, delivering substantial benefits to market participants faced with the complexity of pricing, quoting and trading fixed income products across multiple venues and protocols.

Keith Todd, CEO of TT, said: “The fixed income market represents a major opportunity for TT given its size, considerable growth and ongoing adoption of electronic trading. This acquisition is a key element of our strategy to expand beyond listed derivatives and cryptocurrencies, giving us an extensive offering in the fixed income space. AxeTrading and Trading Technologies are both recognized as technology leaders in our respective markets. We are excited to welcome the talented AxeTrading team to TT and to implement our shared vision for the delivery of core fixed income functionality via the industry’s leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.”

AxeTrading CEO Greville Lucking said: “This acquisition represents a significant game changer. The combination of AxeTrading's leading expertise in fixed income markets technology, together with TT’s already established position in listed derivatives and U.S. Treasuries, will provide a comprehensive offering to customers globally. Leveraging the TT SaaS platform to deliver and distribute a true multi-asset offering is exactly what our customers are seeking. We have been extremely impressed with the ambition of the TT team in the fixed income market space, and we are confident that our aligned vision and culture will drive a highly successful future for our customers, partners and employees.”

During 2022, TT acquired RCM-X, a technology provider of algorithmic execution strategies and quantitative trading products, and entered into strategic partnerships with KRM22 plc to expand its risk management product portfolio, Talos to broaden its cryptocurrency offering, ATEO Finance to deliver post-trade allocation services and Bantix Technologies to provide the QuikStrike options analysis software application through the TT platform. TT will further expand its product portfolio and asset class coverage through new strategic initiatives in 2023.