Mobileware Technologies, a market leader offering UPI interoperability, scalable payment solutions, and seamless access to the payments ecosystem to businesses, has received the coveted International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 27001:2013 certification, demonstrating its dedication to security management best practices.

A prerequisite for the ISO certification is establishing, implementing, and maintaining an Information Security Management System (ISMS) in the organization. Mobileware received the prestigious ISO 27001 certification after completing a series of extensive audits by IRCLASS Systems and Solutions. 

Backed by innovation, Mobileware Technologies builds digital payments solutions for the rapidly evolving Fintech requirements of banks, NBFCs, fintech companies, merchants, and consumers. Its cutting-edge platform - TransXT - is a plug-and-play open banking API technology revolutionizing digital payments. Also called ‘bank in a box’ the TransXT platform allows businesses to go live instantly. Furthermore, the platform seamlessly integrates with international regulatory frameworks enabling TransXT to be rolled out to various countries.

Globally the ISO certification is recognized as the highest and most reputable standard an organization can achieve by reinstating its hold over security and data protection systems. ISMS pertains to the physical security of facilities, software product security, financial information, intellectual property, personnel, and management’s commitment to security and safety. ISMS enables organizations like Mobileware to manage the security of these assets.

Commenting on the achievement, the Co-Founder & CEO of Mobileware Technologies, Mr. Satyajit Kanekar, says, “The ISO 27001:2013 certification is a rigorous, independent audit that ensures processes and procedures of the organization are in place to protect customer data and that it is in active use. This certificate reestablishes our commitment to operational and customer service quality. We will continue to get industry certifications to maintain our customers' confidence in our products and our ability to deliver in the future.”

World-leading biometrics company Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints™) and Flywallet, a biometric wearables technology startup, are collaborating to develop and launch biometric wearable products for the European market.

Flywallet has built a range of consumer products that support payments, mobility, access and health use cases in a single ecosystem. Among other uses, its products enable secure payments, ticketing and loyalty services; password-free login to online services; and building and car access control.

The wearable products from Flywallet will now feature Fingerprints’ biometric sensors, software and algorithm benefitting from their ultra-low-power consumption, leading performance, and the company’s years of experience in secure biometrics innovation. Fingerprints’ sensors are designed to be multifunctional to enable usage across a range of different form factors to enhance the security, privacy and user experience.

Roger Carrico, Vice President, Head of Sales for Payment & Access at Fingerprints, commented: “Collaborating with Flywallet will accelerate growth of the biometric wearables market in Europe and improve consumer access to new biometric products that enhance convenience and trust. For Fingerprints, this partnership is further evidence that our sensors can easily be integrated with other hardware devices to support the development of secure and innovative biometrics products.”

Lorenzo Frollini, Founder, CEO & CTO at Flywallet, said: “We are pleased to have established a strong partnership with Fingerprints, where we can share an innovative vision on biometric wearables. Together, we are enabling simple and secure biometric technology that people can use to enhance their everyday lives. In an ever-advancing and hyperconnected world, we believe companies that come together will thrive in providing a smooth and secure user experience to access digital services. Our partnership with Fingerprints follows our goal and direction of building a cyber risk-proof interface to connect physical and digital identities, based on the simplicity of biometrics.”

Demand for wearable devices is expected to continue increasing. Most wearables, however, do not have sufficient security measures required for activities such as making a payment or unlocking a car or front door.

By combining biometric authentication with wearable technology, Flywallet ensures only the owner of the device can use it. This enables new possibilities for wearable technology in verticals such as payments and access – key focus areas for Fingerprints, which has dedicated business divisions for improving the safety, security and convenience of payments and access through biometric technology.

Flywallet and Fingerprints will participate at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona, Spain from 27 February through 2 of March, where they will showcase the proof-of-concept wearable product.

Mastercard and end-to-end fraud protection platform Vesta have announced a new strategic partnership to deliver state-of-the art fraud management solutions for merchants in Asia Pacific.

The partnership will involve the integration of Mastercard’s Cyber & Intelligence (C&I) products and solutions into Vesta’s transaction guarantee platform, and will allow merchants to eliminate online fraud, approve more transactions and grow their business.

Mastercard’s partnership with Vesta also reflects the company’s ongoing investments in market-leading cyber capabilities that bolster the wider ecosystem. The combination of cyber security solutions, including behavioural biometrics, pre-dispute resolution, and identity verification, and Mastercard’s market expertise, will provide merchants with 100% fraud chargeback protection, whilst also incorporating transactional insights such as payment risk scores and pre-emptive chargeback alerts.

According to a recent study from Juniper Research, the total cost of e-commerce fraud to merchants globally will exceed US$48 billion in 2023, from just over US$41 billion in 2022. The study found that Asia Pacific accounted for 22% of global fraud.

With an increasing number of consumers choosing to shop online, verifying identity, protecting against data leaks and tackling fraud in real-time has become a challenge for merchants.

The new partnership will address this problem and help simplify risk management for Asia Pacific-based merchants by providing Mastercard merchants with full protection before, during and after a transaction, while also offering an enhanced digital payment experience for consumers in the region and strengthening overall trust in e-commerce.

The service will be available to merchants in the second quarter of this year.

“The partnership with Vesta is a great example of Mastercard’s commitment to building strategic relationships with key players across the payments and technology ecosystems,” said Karthik Ramanathan, Senior Vice President, Cyber & Intelligence, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “Mastercard is excited to have the opportunity to work together and deliver on the cybersecurity needs of its customers in Asia Pacific, making the region’s digital economy safer, more seamless and secure.”

“We are honoured to partner with Mastercard to innovate in the cyber and intelligence domain,” said Shabab Muhaddes, Vesta SVP and GM APAC. “Through this strategic partnership, merchants will benefit from one integration into Vesta’s decision engine to approve more legitimate transactions with zero fraud chargeback liability, allowing them to focus on growing sales and improving customer experience without the fear of fraud.”

DKK Partners, a leading fintech company which specialises in emerging markets (EM) and foreign exchange (FX) liquidity, has launched a Dubai operation to turbocharge the business economy in the Middle East.

The news comes following circa 60% per cent growth in 2022, surpassing £100 million in revenue, up from £63 million the previous year.

The office, based in the Dubai World Trade Centre, will act as a central hub for DKK in the region granting greater access to the Middle East, Africa and Asia trade corridors. The expansion will be led by senior associates within the region all with Tier 1 banking experience in forex, trade finance and structured products.

The day-to-day team, currently consists of three full-time staff, led by budding entrepreneur Asia Salvatore, with ambitious plans to hire and treble its headcount this year.

DKK’s Dubai operation has already obtained its World Trade Centre Free Zone licence and has plans to bolster with virtual assets licences through VARA (virtual assets regulatory authority) in the near future.

It will begin trading immediately, empowering local businesses and the local economy through access to FX services.

Asia Salvatore, Head of Sales for DKK in Dubai, said:

“We are excited to launch in Dubai and bring our mastery of FX to empower businesses and financial institutions who have previously lacked access to high-quality solutions. Dubai is a land of opportunities and DKK is perfectly poised to get out there and make a splash in the market.”

Khalid Talukder, Co-Founder & CEO of DKK Partners, commented:

“DKK has achieved fantastic growth over the past year and launching in Dubai is a natural step to continue our expansion and evolution as a frontier markets currency trading house. We have a passionate team with extensive knowledge of the local market ready to hit the ground running and deliver high-quality FX services to the region.”

DKK was founded by capital markets specialist Khalid Talukder, formally of UBS, Citi & Deutsche Bank, and Dominic Duru of RBS and Citi, enabling businesses to manage currency risks in frontier markets

Key services including virtual IBAN accounts, allowing customers to access new currencies and territories, as well as EM liquidity to prove direct access to real-time pricing and execution across frontier, emerging and G10 market currencies.

UK fintech start-up ZIPZERO has successfully raised over £1 million in seed funding.

ZIPZERO is a consumer app that allows users to receive cash rewards by sharing receipts from their everyday purchases, which are then used to pay household utility bills. Its mission is to improve the financial well-being of everyday consumers by enabling the transparent exchange and monetisation of individual shopping data.

It raised more than £1 million from a diverse pool of angel investors, one of which includes serial fintech investor and founder of ‘Global Processing Services’ Craig Dewar.  

ZIPZERO, which already has more than 100,000 users in the UK, will use the funding to grow its platform further, secure new partnerships with retailers and brands, and give consumers even greater value and autonomy over their personal shopping data.

More than 30,000 new users signed up to use the app in January 2023 alone, with consumers searching for ways to combat record-high energy bills and double-digit inflation. Many large retailers, including Asda, Boots, Ebay and Sainsbury’s, have partnered with ZIPZERO to support their customers, allowing them to earn cash towards the payment of their household bills each time they shop.

Mohsin Rashid, CEO of ZIPZERO, said: “Our funding success and recent growth underline how critical ZIPZERO’s proposition is as consumers struggle through the cost-of-living crisis. With £1 million and counting secured, investors have recognised the value ZIPZERO brings to consumers and retailers alike: our app offers a truly mass-market solution to rising costs and skyrocketing energy bills.

“Ultimately, our mission is to empower consumers. By delivering cash rewards every time they make a purchase with their favourite brands and retailers, we are allowing them to monetise their own shopping data, creating a fairer retail ecosystem.

“As a team, we recognise that our users rely on ZIPZERO to improve their financial well-being at this difficult time. With funding secured, 2023 will undoubtedly be an important and exciting year for us. We’re looking forward to accelerating our growth; entering new partnerships with retailers and brands; delivering a fairer, transparent exchange of consumer data; and helping more consumers gain cash rewards from their every shopping.”

Varo Bank, N.A., the first all-digital, nationally chartered consumer techbank in the U.S., announced the appointment of Wook Chung as Chief Product Officer.

Global Processing Services (“GPS”), a fast-growing next-gen global payments technology platform, today announced the appointment of Paulette Rowe, Shane Happach, and Lynn McCreary as independent Non-Executive Directors.

Paulette Rowe is one of the most influential women in payments, recognised by American Banker in its annual honours list for three consecutive years, and was formerly CEO of Paysafe’s Integrated and Ecommerce Solutions (IES) division. Paulette brings a wealth of experience across card-based and virtual wallet payment solutions. Prior to Paysafe, Paulette was Head of Payments and Financial Services Partnerships for Facebook and held senior roles in a variety of financial organisations over a 20-year period, including Barclaycard, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Tesco Bank, and GE Capital.

Shane Happach is an experienced global payments executive with strengths in enterprise sales and fintech-led disruption. Shane was recently named as CEO of Singapore-based fintech, Coda Payments. Prior to Coda, Shane was CEO of payments fintech Mollie for two years, and spent more than a decade at Worldpay, where he held a number of senior positions, including EVP, Head of Global Ecommerce and Chief Commercial Officer. Before Worldpay, he worked with GlobalCollect – acquired by Ingenico in 2014 – in business development roles across the Americas and EMEA.

Lynn McCreary brings over three decades of experience in legal, business and executive leadership roles to GPS, having worked at financial services and payments firm Fiserv for 11 years, serving as Chief Legal Officer since 2013. Her responsibilities at Fiserv included directing the firm’s global legal, ethical and compliance activities, as well as taking an active role in coordinating its M&A strategy. Prior to joining Fiserv, Lynn was an equity partner at Bryan Cave LLP, now Bryan Cave Lighton Paisner, where she represented the interests of financial services companies, insurance companies, retailers and others in a broad range of commercial disputes. Lynn is currently Chief Legal Officer of Sportradar.

Gene Lockhart, Chair of GPS:

“Paulette, Shane and Lynn bring a wealth of experience to our Board and will support our team to capitalise on the enormous potential for disruption in the issuer processing space. GPS is committed to investing for the long-term to support our clients in accelerating innovation, diversifying product capabilities and facilitating new payments programmes worldwide.” 

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the number of digital identity apps in use will exceed 4.1 billion globally by 2027; rising from 2.3 billion in 2023.

This represents a growth of 82% over the next four years. This increase will be driven by the use of government-backed digital identities to replace physical identity documents as a source of verification for third-party apps, such as banking and financial services. This will be critical, as businesses aim to reduce identity theft and meet increasingly stringent KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations.

Find out more about the new research: Digital Identity: Solutions Assessment, Regional Analysis & Market Forecasts 2023-2027

Verification Moves to Zero Trust

The research also identified a move away from reliance on passwords for identity verification, with these replaced by biometric verification and MFA (Multi-factor Authentication) under a zero-trust model, where identities are authenticated continuously. This approach is more resistant to traditional hacking methods, such as phishing; reducing the risk of data breaches.

Zero trust will be delivered via SSO (Single Sign On), which allows the user to access multiple accounts via a central, secured system. Critical to SSO is the use of mobile subscriber identity, with the number of mobile devices using their mobile number for SSO predicted to reach 2 billion in 2027; up from 922 million in 2023.

Research author Michael Greenwood explained: “Consumers are highly motivated by convenience; making a streamlining of user experience significant for attracting and retaining them. SSO can achieve this, whilst also appealing to security-conscious users.”

Identity Apps vs Digital Wallets

The primary competition for dedicated digital identity apps will come from digital wallets, which offer payment functionality alongside a digital identity capability. For instance, in some US states, digital driver’s licences held within Apple Wallets are fully recognised. However, these digital wallets will struggle to monetise identity in the same way as they have payments, due to competition from government-run schemes limiting adoption.

Digital Identity market research: https://www.juniperresearch.com/researchstore/fintech-payments/digital-identity-research-report