Neonomics, a privately held company registered in Norway, proudly announces Lars Dencker Nielsen as Chief Financial Officer.

Lars brings comprehensive experience in finance and management acquired from his time at various international companies across different sectors. Originally from Denmark, Lars has embraced a global outlook, considering himself just as much a Norwegian or an international citizen after spending his entire professional career outside his home country. Fun fact: His early career took him to Beijing, China, where he spent five adventurous years before relocating to Norway in 2002!

Throughout his career, Lars has played pivotal roles in companies operating within the Nordic and Northern European markets, spanning industries from consumer and business lending, financing and factoring, debt collection, to public deposits and payment schemes. Prior to joining Neonomics, Lars served as interim CFO at BankID BankAxept AS, with previous experience including contributing to the development of Gothia/Arvato into a pan-European player and the successful revitalization of Avida Finans.

Speaking on his new role:

"I’m excited to join the Neonomics team and bring my financial expertise to contribute to the company’s growth journey. It’s a fantastic opportunity to work with a really talented and enthusiastic group of individuals striving to make a difference with open banking and I look forward to driving our financial strategies that propel us toward our goals.”

We are excited to welcome Lars aboard the Neonomics team! If you wish to connect with Lars or learn more about his role at Neonomics, please feel free to reach out to him here.

10x Banking’s commitment to its people, community and planet has earned the firm B Corp Certification, in recognition of using business as a ‘force for good.’

10x Banking, the cloud-native core banking platform, has become one of the first financial services companies to achieve B Corp status and the first core banking platform to achieve the certification, showcasing its commitment as a leader in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy.

As part of its ongoing mission to prioritize people, the planet, and the community, 10x has joined the ranks of over 6,000 Certified B Corporations worldwide. B Corp Certification looks beyond traditional business success by evaluating a company’s entire social and environmental impact, ensuring it meets high standards of performance, accountability, and transparency across various criteria.

‘Impact’ is one of 10x’s core values, alongside transformation and integrity, and Chief Impact Officer and Head of Inclusion, Amanda Jenkins, is responsible for driving this forward.

“10x Banking’s journey to becoming a Certified B Corporation is a testament to our unwavering commitment to making a positive change in the world. We believe that business should be a catalyst for positive transformation, and achieving B Corp certification reinforces our dedication to this vision.” – Amanda Jenkins Chief Impact Officer, 10x

Why B Corp Certification matters

B Corp Certification is a holistic recognition of a company’s commitment to creating value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders. To achieve this esteemed certification, companies must meet rigorous standards, demonstrating exceptional social and environmental performance, and making a legal commitment to stakeholder accountability.

Amanda Jenkins continues: “We chose B Corp Certification because it aligns closely with our core value of ‘Impact’. B Corps envision an economy that benefits everyone and strives for positive change. This harmonizes perfectly with our mission to create a better world through our work and be a force for good.”

10x Banking’s commitment to impact

10x’s ‘Impact’-led approach places a strong emphasis on transparency, ethical business operations, and positive change for individuals, businesses, communities, and the environment.

The company’s approach to ‘Impact’ is organized under three pillars that are at the heart of operations through governance: people, community, and planet. Through its initiatives, the company focuses on promoting diversity, fostering an inclusive workplace, supporting local communities, and addressing environmental challenges. The commitment also extends to measuring, reducing, and offsetting carbon emissions to mitigate its environmental footprint.

Continuing the ‘Impact’ journey

Achieving B Corporation status is just one milestone in 10x Banking’s journey towards creating a more sustainable and equitable world. The company remains dedicated to continuous improvement and plans to elevate its B Corp score with each review.

“We view B Corp certification as a steppingstone, not a destination,” added Amanda Jenkins. “Our commitment to impact drives us to constantly evolve, grow, and enhance our practices. As we move forward, we’re excited to see the positive transformations we can inspire as a Certified B Corporation.”

Spreedly, the provider of the leading Payments Orchestration platform, is proud to welcome Peter Dougherty as president. Peter will oversee all aspects of go-to-market including marketing, sales, partnerships, customer success and support.

“As the industry is in the early stages of adopting Payments Orchestration, Peter is uniquely positioned to lead us in the next phase of our GTM initiatives,” said Justin Benson, CEO of Spreedly. ”He will work at all levels of the P&L to drive growth and deliver innovation to our customers and partners.”

Dougherty joins Spreedly from Lightspeed Commerce, a platform powering omnichannel experiences for 168,000 independent merchants around the world. An early employee, he held multiple roles in go-to-market, serving as GM & EVP of one of two major operating divisions. He has extensive experience leading and scaling global teams to drive new revenue and product innovation.

“Peter has the right experience to build on Spreedly’s leadership position in Payments Orchestration,” commented Adam Margolin, managing director at Spectrum Equity and Spreedly board member. “We’re confident in his ability to help Spreedly realize its full potential.”

“Spreedly’s leadership position, people, and enviably large market opportunity were all drivers in my decision to join the company,” said Dougherty. “As I’ve gotten to know the team and board, and gained deeper insights about the orchestration market, it’s become clear that there is tremendous opportunity for Spreedly’s next phase of growth.”

Today, Visa announced the appointment of Michiel Wielhouwer, previously the Executive Director of Visa’s France, Belgium, and Luxembourg business, to President and Country Manager for Visa Canada. He will succeed Stacey Madge, who served in this role for the past seven years.

Wielhouwer joins Visa Canada at a time of growth and opportunity as the company establishes new secure ways to pay, driven by its innovation and fintech strategy. Wielhouwer will continue to deliver value for Visa’s key clients, partners, and stakeholders while living the company’s purpose to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

“I am honoured to step into the role of President and Country Manager of Visa Canada and plan to use my experience from my time in Europe to add value to our partners and the Visa business in this country,” said Michiel Wielhouwer. “I look forward to working with our talented Canadian employees and our strong network of clients and industry partners across the country.”

Wielhouwer is a Visa veteran with 22 years of experience across five different markets. He brings deep financial services knowledge and leadership to Canada. Originally from the Netherlands and a multi-lingual speaker, Wielhouwer’s global background is a welcome addition to the multicultural and bilingual Canadian market.

Wielhouwer steps into the role following the successful leadership of Stacey Madge. In Madge’s seven years with the organization, Visa Canada has seen tremendous growth through new client relationships, fintech collaborations, product innovations, and acceleration of money movement. Under her leadership, Canada has become a talent hub for Visa and a respected payments leader in the country. In her next chapter, Madge will be dedicating her talents to board, community, and foundation work.

“I am very proud to pass the helm to Michiel. His background and experience will be highly valued by the payments ecosystem in Canada,” said Stacey Madge. “He has the backing of a strong and talented team whom I have been honoured to work with.”

“Stacey is a respected leader in the Canadian payments industry and was instrumental in securing Visa’s current position in the Canadian market,” said Kim Lawrence, Visa’s Regional President, North America. “We want to thank her for the many contributions she has made to our organization and the Canadian market and wish her the best as she embarks on her next chapter pursuing board and foundation work.”

Lawrence adds, “Michiel is a fantastic addition to our North American team, and I am confident that our Canadian clients and Visa team will continue to thrive under his leadership.”

Payhawk, the global spend management solution, today released its Spring’24 edition including more than 15 new platform features, making it even easier for companies to manage and control spending at scale.

“I’m delighted to announce our Spring’24 edition, which is packed with features to make it even easier for businesses to manage and control their spending. The focus of this release was adding more flexibility, control and innovation to our world-class corporate cards”, said Hristo Borisov, CEO and Co-founder of Payhawk. “We remain committed to offering our clients the most sophisticated corporate cards on the market”, continued Hristo.

With the release of Visa credit cards in euros for new customers throughout the European Economic Area (EEA), Payhawk is now a single platform businesses can use to easily issue and manage Visa credit and debit cards in multiple currencies throughout the UK, US and the EEA. All Payhawk cards include automatic reconciliation and built-in spend controls to proactively control spending before it happens. With this release, a greater range of card control options is available, allowing finance teams to define even more flexible and granular controls. For example, businesses can now limit card spending to pre-approved vendors, categories of merchants, countries, regions, times and days of the week.

59 new integrations with HR systems such as Workday, Personio, BambooHR, Hibob and SAP SuccessFactors further increase the control and security businesses have on card spending. The integrations sync your company spending with your master employee data, automating the onboarding and offboarding of employees with the appropriate spending controls, and ensuring compliance is maintained, even at large organisations with frequent starters and leavers.

In addition to the new card features, Payhawk released over 10 features to enhance controls and automation, including scheduling invoice payments for streamlining payment runs, segregation of payment duties to enforce the four eyes principle, and a new custom-built AI model to improve data extraction from documents in more than 65 languages.

Finally, Payhawk has enabled third parties to build vetted connected applications by opening up its platform APIs, and launches its first marketplace integrations with ERP systems Odoo and Exact Globe.

“I’m delighted to announce our plans for a Payhawk marketplace, where third parties can build vetted connected applications for our customers. This ultimately enables us to deliver even more value for clients by working with trusted external parties to rapidly grow the number of use cases we provide. This is critical to best address the needs of our diverse client base and harness the power of developers that can contribute with deep localization features.” said Hristo Borisov.

BMLL, the leading, independent provider of harmonised, historical Level 3, 2 and 1 historical data and analytics across global equity, ETFs and futures markets, today announced the appointment of Niall Cameron as Non-Executive Director to support the strategic development of the business. At the same time, Cameron joins BMLL’s group of investors. 

A former HSBC, IHS Markit and ABN Amro executive, Cameron is an experienced leader in both executive and non-executive roles with a stellar track record that places him at the intersection of financial markets, digital finance, fintech and data. Today, he brings these experiences together at Fintech Connex, a firm he co-founded in 2020, focused on helping companies on their scale-up journey.

Cameron’s appointment follows a period of accelerated growth for the company, fuelled by its recent Series B $26m funding round supported by Factset, Nasdaq Ventures, IQ Capital and Snowflake Ventures. In 2023 alone, BMLL expanded its global data coverage with the addition of more than 30 data sets from global exchanges, including APAC, EMEA and the Americas and entered into strategic, global data distribution partnerships with Snowflake and Exegy. During this time, BMLL also expanded its global footprint by building a presence in New York and adding 15 team members in the US and the UK. 

An expert in financial markets and data, Cameron brings with him extensive experience in strategic positioning, deal-making, and product and commercial advisory for Fintech. His career spans more than three decades. He served as Global Head of Digital Markets (EMEA/MENA) at HSBC, progressing to the role of Global Head of Digital for the commercial and institutional client base, where he implemented a large-scale digital transformation project over several years. Prior to HSBC, Cameron was an executive committee member at IHS Markit, where he served as Global Co-Head of Equities, Indices, Commodities, Risk Management and Economics. He started his career as a trader and then syndicate manager at firms including Merrill Lynch, rising to Global Head of Traded Markets at ABN Amro in the early 2000s.

Cameron said: “I am thrilled to join BMLL as non-executive director. Throughout my career I was fortunate to hold senior executive roles at Markit Group where I learned about the power of financial data. BMLL’s data science capabilities, the depth and breadth of its Level 3, 2 and 1 data are unmatched in the industry. What's more, its collaboration and distribution partnerships are breaking down the barriers to accessing high quality historical data for market participants around the world. I look forward to working with the leadership team and the board in supporting BMLL’s growth strategy going forward”.

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, added: “I am very excited to welcome Niall Cameron as non-executive director and investor to BMLL. Having worked with Niall at ABN Amro and benefitted from his strategic counsel in my career and again in my early days at BMLL, I witnessed his passion for the industry first-hand. His experience at IHS Markit and HSBC will be invaluable for our executive team and in our growth journey. We look forward to working with him as we continue our mission to democratise access to the most granular order book data and help global market participants understand how markets truly behave”.

BMLL offers banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, global exchange groups, academic institutions and regulators immediate and flexible access to the most granular T+1 order book data and advanced pre and post-trade analytics. BMLL gives users the ability to understand market behaviour, accelerate research, optimise trading strategies and generate alpha more predictably.

Global financial technology leader FIS® has today announced that applications are open for the FIS Fintech Accelerator 2024, its flagship program that supports fintech innovation and growth. The program, now in its ninth year, will select up to ten promising fintech startups to participate in a two-week incubation and 12-week intensive program.

Selected companies will have the opportunity to work closely with FIS experts and executives—as well as potential customers and partners—to gain mentorship, refine their product-market fit, enhance their value proposition, and scale their business. Additionally, selected companies will have access to funding to bring their proof-of-concept to life through FIS. The FIS Fintech Accelerator 2024 will be co-located in Jacksonville and New York as two of the leading fintech hubs in the U.S.

“Tapping into the heart of fintech innovation requires not just an idea, but a supportive environment where that idea can be challenged, honed, and brought to fruition,” said Annie Destefano, Head of Ecosystem Banking, FIS. “Our Accelerator program builds this environment—one that connects ambitious talent with over a hundred key financial institutions, potential investors, and industry peers. It is part of FIS’ broader commitment to fostering and connecting the fintech startup ecosystem, and I’m excited to welcome this year’s talent.”

The power of the FIS Accelerator emerges from its unparalleled position in the global financial ecosystem, with FIS’ technology empowering business transactions worldwide. Since its inception eight years ago, Accelerator alumni have collectively raised over $1.5 billion in capital since completing the program, and have been awarded with nine Finovate awards, a spot in the esteemed ‘GGV Fintech Innovation 50’, and inclusion in the Forbes Fintech 50.

As part of the program’s wider mission, FIS also recently launched the FIS Fintech Hangout Series, a monthly initiative that convenes fintechs, investors, financial institutions, and FIS experts to share insights, best practices, and showcase the amazing work of the participating fintechs. The series kicked off in January with a focus on risk and compliance, and the next open event will be held on April 10 in New York.

Today, Visa announced a 7-year agreement with Western Union. Under the new deal, Western Union customers will be able to send money to their family and friends’ eligible Visa cards and bank accounts in 40 countries across five regions.

The agreement encompasses card issuance, Western Union’s integration with Visa Direct, and value-added services delivery including risk products. Western Union customers will also be able to receive Visa prepaid cards in select markets offering an innovative solution that bridges the physical and digital world.

Western Union and Visa are also developing disbursement programs for humanitarian organizations and governments to support the delivery of critical funds during a disaster. The programs are intended to support emergency and humanitarian payouts, cross-border pension payouts, and domestic benefits and disbursement payouts.

“People rely on remittances to send lifeline payments to their loved ones overseas. When we consider the urgency and need for accessibility, secure payment options with added convenience can make all the difference,” said Chris Newkirk, Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions, Visa. “Visa’s global scale and Western Union’s digital capabilities are revolutionizing how customers send funds around the world. We are proud to offer more people fast and efficient solutions for cross-border payments.”

“Aspiring populations around the world rely on Western Union to provide them with innovative and accessible financial services that offer flexibility, value and trust,” said Sam Jawad, Head of Ecosystem, at Western Union. “By strengthening our strategic collaboration with Visa, together we will deliver impactful products and services that can help empower our customers to build a life of opportunity for themselves and their loved ones.”