Vayana Network, one of India’s largest trade finance platform, announced the expansion of their international business operations via their subsidiary arm, Hylobiz. A B2B supply chain network, Hylobiz launched its business in Indonesia in partnership with Accurate and Brankas. This partnership will empower businesses in Indonesia with connected business software, especially accounting & POS (point of sales), and connected banking services for faster cash collections and strong cashflow, enabling steady business growth. With this, SMEs in the Southeast Asia market will have the opportunity to witness positive business transitions and financial stability. 

Through this partnership with Hylobiz, Accurate will act as the SME Accounting-POS Software partner and Brankas will be the Open banking partner to empower MSMEs with improved cash flow and steady growth. Digitization of receivables, collections with payment links, automated payment reminders, automated reconciliations in real-time, and smart tracking of payments are some of the top and most needed features available with connected ERP and connected Banking capability established through the synergy of the trio.

Hylobiz will help businesses to digitise invoices and collections overcoming the crippling issues related to cashflow and business growth. Speaking on the launch of operations in Indonesia, Vishal Gupta, CEO Hylobiz, said, “Hylobiz has been addressing the cash collections, payouts, and real-time reconciliation for the businesses across India, UAE and the USA helping 250K businesses for growth on their cashflows. With Accurate and Brankas we aim to serve b2b SMEs in Indonesia better through ZERO process change, for faster invoice collections and embedded finance for their business growth.”

With Accurate, Hylobiz shares a joint vision to enable Accurate’s SME customers to achieve Cashflow and Compliance automation and thereby offer Credit (Embedded Trade Finance) through partner FIs, with Accurate ERP continuing as the customers’ primary application interface. 

“We (Accurate) are very happy to be partnering with Hylobiz. As we enter the modern era, we believe that everything must be efficient, everything needs to be fast. Hopefully accurate as business software especially Accounting Software & POS can be a solution for SMEs customers with a takeline #Bisnisjadimudah on developing their own business.” said Yosep Stephen as CEO Accurate.

With Brankas, Hylobiz shares a joint vision to enable business growth for Indonesia’s SMEs with cashflow automation by leveraging Open Banking technology.  “Embedded finance is set to have a massive impact on business innovation in the coming years, and we believe the use cases today are only just the beginning. We are excited to see the increasing usage of Brankas APIs by organizations across a variety of industries in Indonesia, and share Hylobiz’ vision to drive faster collections for its customers”, said Husni Fuad, Country Manager Indonesia, Brankas

epay Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned business segment of Euronet  Worldwide, Inc., today announced: Alipay+ will be activated in some 8,000  epay retailers including Australian luxury department store David Jones*. epay Australia’s  retailers will have access to the Alipay+ e-wallet partners including AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, 

China), GCash (The Philippines), Kakao Pay (South Korea), TrueMoney (Thailand) and Touch 'n  Go eWallet (Malaysia) in the first quarter of 2023. 

The Alipay+ marketing solution will also enable merchants the ability to create promotions,  distribute digital coupons and discount offers directly to those e-wallet super apps users in their respective markets – all at the same time to achieve better marketing efficiency and scalability.  

Alipay+ integration offers significant potential for retailers 

With innovative technologies and solutions, Alipay+ brings an easy way to capture digital-first customers and makes it easier and more convenient for merchants to serve users of Asia's leading digital payment service providers. Especially with the one-stop integration feature  provided by Alipay+ payment services and merchants can access all existing and later 

onboarded digital payment methods brought by the solution through a unified interface and standardized business rules without additional technical adaption.  

“Leveraging on our long-standing partnership with epay Australia Pty Ltd and Alipay's established merchant coverage and reputation, we are very happy to introduce Alipay+  solutions to vast merchants in Australia, making it easier and more efficient for them to engage with consumers from Asia,” said Danny Chung, General Manager of Ant Group Australia, New  Zealand and Korea.  

Payment diversity and process efficiency for retailers 

epay Australia retailers can immediately start accepting overseas mobile payment methods powered by Alipay+. "We are very excited to extend our Alternative Payments suite by adding  Alipay+ to the fold, enabling our retailers to take payments from tourists coming from a wide variety of new Asian destinations, including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Korea,  Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines,” said Matthew Blayney, Country Managing Director of epay Australia and China. 

How it works: Alipay+ payment accepted at the point of sale in seconds If customers from Asia want to pay at a participating retailer where the Alipay+ logo is presented, they can simply open their usual digital wallet app on their smartphone and make payment. 

More details about Alipay+: https://www.alipayplus.com/ and the implementation via epay  https://www.epayworldwide.com.au/alternative-payments/ 

Mahalo Banking, a CUSO that provides online and mobile banking solutions for credit unions, today announced the launch of its next-generation digital banking platform. The modernized digital banking platform is engineered to deliver neurodiverse functionalities intended to improve accessibility and better accommodate the cognitive needs of all credit union members.

According to the National Library of Medicine, approximately 15-20% of the world’s population lives with some form of a neurodiverse condition. Mahalo’s redesigned platform features numerous new functionality options that are targeted to cater to these neurodiverse abilities and cognitive distinctions such as dyslexia, autism, ADD, ADHD, epilepsy, visual sensitivity, ASD and more. Among the platform’s new features are left- and right-hand use modes, font options for those with dyslexia or visual impairments and the ability to disable animations for individuals affected by epilepsy. These neurodiverse functionality options demonstrate just a few of the innovations and levels of commitment Mahalo’s team have made in their efforts to create an online banking solution that is inclusive to everyone. The platform also enhances common banking functions including easy account opening, quick transfer and pay options and direct deposit allocation features to ensure an easy, comprehensive banking experience.

"Never before has our industry developed a banking platform for credit unions that is engineered to incorporate the neurodiversity of our memberships,” said Denny Howell, COO of Mahalo.“As a credit union member and one who is color-blind, I know first-hand what it is like to leverage digital banking channels that lack functionality. Mahalo’s goal in reimagining our platform was to deliver digital banking humanized – a robust, high-quality experience for all members, regardless of their unique conditions. We are proud of our next-gen banking platform, but we are equally excited as we continue to enhance our solution to build out more user-centric features that enable additional diverse groups of credit union members to have better digital banking experiences.”

This platform modernizes online and mobile banking solutions exclusively for credit unions. Driven by an appreciation of the credit union movement, Mahalo’s team consists of credit union industry veterans with first-hand experience addressing the common challenges that credit unions and their members face.

Jim Stickley, president and CEO of Mahalo, said, “Up until now, credit unions have not had the ability to truly support their entire member base. While the world continues to move online, up to 20% of credit union members have been unable to properly use existing online banking solutions due to the solution’s lack of support for neurodiversity.  These limitations often leave members feeling forgotten and marginalized. When creating our next-generation solution, a primary goal of Mahalo was to embrace the credit union philosophy of ‘people helping people.’ Our platform has been designed to embrace and support the diverse traits that make up each credit union member and consistently offer a pleasant experience regardless of who they are or what their needs may be.”

The Mahalo platform is built on a superior architecture designed to help all credit unions, regardless of size, achieve a technological advantage. Mahalo’s technology leverages deep integrations into credit union cores that provide security and a robust feature set across all delivery channels. Built with intuitive digital features designed to deliver inclusive accessibility, the platform enables credit unions to strengthen member engagement, increase the use of the application and enhance the banking experience.

iDenfy, a tech startup providing AI-based ID verification and fraud prevention services, announced joining forces with Today’s Crypto, a streaming platform designed for the cryptocurrency community. iDenfy will ensure a frictionless onboarding process without creating compliance risks. 

Video and audio streaming platforms have gained massive support from a great audience looking for convenient, easily accessible information. Statista’s recent report uncovered that 83% of consumers in the USA subscribed to a video-on-demand service last year, which marked an increase of nearly 20% in the past five years. 

iDenfy claims that audio and video streaming services enable legal access to content. Despite that, the increasing user base and the widespread popularity of any streaming content, including the blockchain niche, have created new security risks. Consequently, iDenfy has noticed the need for more robust authentication methods to prevent unauthorized shared account activity, account takeovers, or any other type of fraud that could potentially end in revenue loss for the streaming business. 

Today’s Crypto started looking for a fully automated verification provider to expand and upgrade its security system. Ultimately, the world’s first streaming platform for trusted crypto content chose iDenfy’s full-stack identity verification solution. According to the business, iDenfy offered an intelligent approach to digital identity proofing. The wide document range and the option to customize the verification flow were essential factors in determining a successful partnership with the KYC startup. 

While many digital platforms still rely on traditional ID verification methods, iDenfy’s team sticks to developing AI-powered fraud detection solutions. According to iDenfy, such tools are an absolute must to protect streaming networks more efficiently. Currently, the company’s biometric ID verification ensures that all Today’s Crypto content creators are safe during the account creation process while guaranteeing that only legitimate users access the streaming network. 

During the sign-up, Today’s Crypto content creators are asked to verify their identities by uploading a photo of their ID document and capturing an onboarding selfie. iDenfy’s algorithm scans the user's face and extracts the data from the document in seconds, helping Today’s Crypto mitigate fraud in a safe and timely manner. As claimed by the streaming company, iDenfy’s integration has helped build a straightforward onboarding flow, which was one of the priorities when looking for a new IDV provider. 

According to Today’s Crypto, the platform offers a seamless customer onboarding experience for its customers and partners, resulting in better regulatory risk protection. With the new partnership, iDenfy aims to continue minimizing friction for Today’s Crypto users while reducing fraud rates and providing the right level of trust in the identity verification process. 

“It's important that the identity verification we offer our creators is intuitive and easy to use. After reviewing our options, iDenfy’s solution ticked all of the boxes. We’re happy to have a responsible partner helping us create a simple yet secure and compliant onboarding experience,” — commented Luke Harte, the CEO of Today’s Crypto. 

“Digital identity verification reduces KYC costs while efficiently restricting bad actors from creating unnecessary fraud and compliance risks to both the platform and its users. We’re happy to see our partners choose a proactive approach to fraud prevention,” — added Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy. 

"Our legacy billing and revenue management processes were not keeping pace with the way we needed to do business, so our finance team was forced into a lot of manual effort to reconcile billing data to ensure accuracy and timeliness. This consumed valuable time and inhibited our growth,” said Nick Gilhespie, CFO at Dext. “BillingPlatform will be a strategic piece of our core financial tech stack going forward to support not only our current needs but also has the flexibility to handle new billing models as we continue to grow the business.”

“Dext is another great example of a fast-growing, global company that has selected BillingPlatform to support their complex business models and connect to their key enterprise systems to help automate financial workflows and accelerate business decisions,” said Dennis Wall, BillingPlatform CEO. “We look forward to giving Dext the business model flexibility, scalability and revenue management simplicity to fuel their global growth.” 

Leading global information services company Experian has today announced the appointment of data aggregation and analytics platform Envestnet | Yodlee® as its official Open Data API provider in Australia. The collaboration will enable Experian to integrate the APIs necessary to access data from data holders under the Consumer Data Right (CDR), including the Big Four banks as well as more than 70 leading Australian financial institutions.  

The collaboration comes as Experian submitted its application to the ACCC to become an Accredited Data Recipient under the CDR in December, a critical step in cementing its place in the Australian Open Banking ecosystem.  

As an experienced Open Banking services provider across all regions in which they operate including North America, UK and Ireland, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, Experian’s Australian Open Banking strategy will focus on fast and accurate affordability assessments, which are critical in helping lenders make responsible lending decisions at scale. Powered by Envestnet | Yodlee’s Data API, Experian will bolster its software solutions to enable lenders to draw on Open Data sources to replace cumbersome credit application processes that require customers to print and upload manual statements and enter important data manually. 

The solution accesses transaction data in real-time, it improves accuracy, reducing fraud and data error risks while helping lenders quickly establish whether a line of credit is suitable and affordable for that customer. 

The collaboration will also better enable lenders to proactively manage financial hardship and provide more personalised support to customers at a critical time of inflationary pressures as Experian’s annual Risk Radar report found 100% of the Australian credit risk experts surveyed believe more customers will experience hardship and defaults in the next 12 months. 

General Manager of Experian Digital, Simone Jemmett, said: “Open Data solutions have the capability to solve two of the biggest challenges for Australian lenders: accuracy of data to support responsible lending and streamlining the customer experience to get to a faster decision. For example, lenders can harness insights from Open Data that swiftly and accurately identify income and spending habits, enabling them to make a faster decision on a loan application or offer proactive support, depending on where the borrower is in the loan life cycle.

“The more consumers that opt in to share data through Open Banking, the faster it will deliver the value it has in more mature data markets spurring innovation and greater competition among lenders. The latest figures out of the UK show that 6 million consumers have already benefited from Open Banking. The key being the value consumers see from the various use cases, such as a faster loan decision, or providing the consumer with the means to better understand their financial wellbeing.”

The new collaboration puts both businesses in a strong position as local market adoption increases, with Experian and Envestnet | Yodlee well-placed to capitalise on Open Banking opportunities for their customers, and ultimately the end consumer.

Tim Poskitt, A/NZ Country Manager for Envestnet | Yodlee, said: “We are delighted to be working with Experian in Australia. They are a market leader of innovative decisioning technology, so this is a unique and mutually beneficial opportunity for both organisations.

“Lending is a valuable use case for Open Data with tangible benefits for lenders and borrowers. With Experian coming into the CDR ecosystem, Australian Open Banking is reaching a tipping point and we are ready for adoption to accelerate in 2023." 

Fincrime prevention experts SEON has released its latest report, highlighting some of the most pressing fraud trends of 2023. The report leverages internal data from the company’s fraud prevention platform to provide businesses and individuals with the insights they need to stay safe over the next twelve months.

Key findings from the report include:

• Between October and December 2022, SEON saw a 12.9% rise in suspicious user actions, indicating that fraud is rising.

• From September to December 2022, the company found that the average amount of money fraudsters tried to steal per transaction increased by 300%.

• The average fraudster is now using more sophisticated tech types to hide online.

• Artificial Intelligence is increasingly used by businesses in the fight against online fraud, with SEON’s two machine learning modules seeing a 30% and 46% rise in usage rates since September.

SEON’s new report, released on February 9, paints a worrying picture for businesses and everyday individuals around online fraud. The publication, ‘Fraud Trends 2023: What They Really Mean for Fraudsters and Your Business’, highlights that fraud is not only on the rise across the internet, but that online fraudsters are now targeting higher amounts of money, and doing so in an increasingly sophisticated manner. 

As the report explains, this rise is being underpinned by the advent of powerful AI modules and online fraud tools, which are lowering the barriers to entry around this issue and enabling fraudsters to conduct more sophisticated fraud attempts in an increasingly cost-effective manner. Similarly, the continued downturn in the broader economy is pushing more people towards committing online fraud, at a time when it can be least afforded. 

The good news is that modern fraud prevention solutions such as SEON can mitigate this threat before it grows. The company’s platform utilizes AI technologies, including whitebox and blackbox machine learning modules. Increasingly, SEON’s whitebox and blackbox machine learning modules are relied on to tackle the problem, and have experienced usage increases of over 30% and 46% respectively since September 2022. 

Fresh on the back of its exciting acquisition of Complytron, SEON’s new report provides businesses with important insights, which could be crucial to staying safe on the internet over the next twelve months. Alongside documenting some of the key fraud trends it has noticed on its platform, the publication emphasizes the need for further collaboration between fraud prevention experts.

Speaking on the new report, Tamas Kadar, CEO and co-founder of SEON commented: “Our new publication highlights the evolving nature of fraud on the internet. Clearly, fraud is growing around the world, and those committing these acts are becoming more brazen and refined in their approach. If we’re not careful, nascent technologies, such as AI could be leveraged by fraudsters even more dangerously in the future.

“We are left with a situation where it is truly best to ‘fight fire with fire’. The use of anti-fraud machine learning solutions has now become imperative in the fight to tackle modern day fraud, and early research indicates that fraud managers are already beginning to rely on these systems to tackle the problems they face. Thankfully, with this approach, companies can greatly reduce the fraud risk to their business and their customers.”

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announces that it has broadened its partnership with FREE NOW, Europe’s leading mobility platform, to offer card issuing for mobility. This financial services addition builds on Adyen and FREE NOW’s long-standing relationship, which previously spanned global payments. With Adyen’s issuing capabilities joining FREE NOW’s toolbelt, the company aims to streamline mobility benefits on behalf of its enterprise customers, who will be able to provide corporate cards to employees as an all-encompassing transport benefit. By expanding its mobility offering beyond its own ride-sharing app to include diverse transit methods, FREE NOW is equipped and determined to create the ultimate enterprise travel card.

“Today, companies spanning all verticals are thinking bigger about the services they offer their customers,” says Adyen CCO, Roelant Prins. “Differentiation is no longer just nice to have - the companies who meet more customer needs are the ones poised to succeed. Adyen can enable this competitive advantage with our suite of financial services. As embodied in our growing FREE NOW partnership, we make it possible to unlock entirely new experiences and efficiencies that drive new revenue streams and cater to end customers.”

FREE NOW has a portfolio of enterprise customers utilizing its Mobility Super App as an employee mobility benefit. Even though the app offers ride-hailing, carsharing and micro-mobility options, these are just a few forms of transport employees need. In reality, the breadth of travel methods used includes public transport buses and metros, train travel, ferries and beyond. This diversity of expenses results in companies facing a lack of transaction oversight and control, complex contract set-ups, and labour-intensive invoice management. Through Adyen’s card-issuing solution, FREE NOW has identified an innovative way to streamline this historically convoluted employee benefit.

Fabio Griemens, Director B2B Operations at FREE NOW, says: “The virtual payment card issued by Adyen enables us to offer an even wider range of mobility options to our business clients. It was very important to us to find a trustworthy partner with international reach, so our clients can use their Mobility Budget wherever they are in the world. Adyen’s dedicated and proactive support during the integration phase helped us to launch this project to our customer's across Europe very swiftly & professionally.”

With Adyen’s issued Visa business cards, companies will Anchorretain full control of when, where, up to how much employees can spend on travel. To enable total mobility, the cards will be able to be easily stored in employees’ digital wallets. Once uploaded, employees can use their FREE NOW branded Visa business cards to pay for taxis, train tickets, tap-to-pay metros, buses, trams, or any other transport point-of-sale. It’s a single solution comprising all employee mobility needs, whether that be in their daily commute or during business travel.

“Adyen has been a fantastic partner to Visa over the years,” added Neil Caldwell, SVP Merchant Sales & Acquiring at Visa. “Through our innovative work together, we are pleased to help mobility businesses such as FREE NOW to empower their customers.”

In addition to providing ease of use for employees, Adyen’s issuing capability presents significant upside for FREE NOW’s enterprise customers. Companies will gain rich insights into their employees’ transaction activities, which can better inform their budget allocation. Adyen’s global banking licenses provide international coverage and eliminate third-party dependencies. Through Adyen’s single integration, the same card can be issued at a company’s other locations across the UK and EU. Furthermore, when employees travel abroad, the card can be used in any country where Visa is accepted. With cohesive oversight and simplified reconciliation, FREE NOW’s Mobility Benefits Card is a one-stop solution for company transport administration.