In 2016, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states signed the Value Added Tax (VAT) agreement paving way for the introduction of the general levy on consumption across the region. The United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia became the first member states to adopt the treaty in 2018, and its implementation meant that for the first time businesses in these territories were required to file VAT returns periodically.

Nadim Alameddine, a UAE resident, says he immediately saw an opportunity in the accounting space as businesses sought to file returns as required by the new law. This inspired him to launch Wafeq in 2019, a startup that initially offered accounting services and later, in 2021, launched a scalable accounting and e-invoicing SaaS solution focused on clients in UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Wafeq is now exploring new growth opportunities in Egypt while doubling down on its existing markets as businesses comply with evolving accounting and financial requirements. The growth plans follow a $3 million seed funding it has secured in a round led by Raed Ventures and participated by Wamda Capital.

“There are regulatory changes happening in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and that is what we are trying to capitalize on at the moment… we are also doubling down on our existing markets, where we already have good traction,” Alameddine told TechCrunch.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia currently require businesses to be e-invoicing compliant, which he says has led to a surge in demand for accounting software, which Wafeq is tapping through its enterprise (API) product.

Wafeq is a ratified provider in Saudi Arabia, and the UAE (e-invoicing is not mandatory there yet). The startup is in the process of seeking approval from the Egyptian Tax Authority too. Alameddine said the North African country offers massive opportunities for the startup as it is home to millions of small medium businesses.

Its accounting platform, on the other hand, makes it easy for clients to generate their VAT returns, manage inventory, payrolls, bills and track expenses. It also generates actionable financial reports and insights for businesses.

“We position ourselves as a full accounting software for SMEs, and we offer three different plans serving businesses looking to send compliant invoices, manage their accounts payable, or those seeking a full accounting solution that includes inventory management and payroll services,” said Alameddine.

Currently, over 630,000 invoices are created every month through its platform, with the total monthly invoiced amounts exceeding $117 million. They anticipate this to grow enormously in the wake of its growth plans.

Commenting on the deal, Talal Alasmari, the founding partner of Raed Ventures said; “We are thrilled to back Wafeq as they solve a problem that impacts thousands of businesses in the region. The digitalization of accounting practices will truly transform how SMEs here operate, increasing operational transparency, creating efficiencies and contributing to economic growth.”

PayEm, which offers spend and procurement management services, has raised $220m in a mix of equity and credit financing.

The funds were supplied by Viola Credit, Mitsubishi Financial Group, Collaborative Fund and others.

With this fresh equity, PayEm plans to scale its credit cards operation and support larger customers with its payments platform. Funds will also support the continued development of the platform.

PayEm is a leader in the procurement and spend management space for mid-market companies that are struggling to balance financial oversight and providing flexible tools to clients. Its all-in-one platform offers a selection of features, including smart procurement solutions, AP automation, expanse reimbursement and smart credit cards.

It also offers a unique solution that supports multi-national entities and cross-border payments. The platform enables finance and procurement teams to drive compliance, help create a culture of accountability and drive efficiencies and savings.

Over the past year, the procurement management platform increased its customer base by 300% and its revenues by 550%.

Viola Credit general partner Ido Vigdor said, “We’re excited to join PayEm and back its growing payments program as it enters its next phase of growth to rebuild and streamline the procurement and finance processes for the new age economy.

“We’re seeing an incredible demand by CFOs for PayEm’s connected finance and procurement platform, even more so during times like these as it becomes a key enabler to streamline and control financial policies within the organisation, while delegating to employees the decisions over their budget.”

In addition to the fundraise, the company has named three major additions to its team. As part of these, former Tipalti CRO Steve Sovik has joined PayEm as its CRO. Whilst serving at Tipalti Sovik helped the company grow sales by 3,250% in 3.5 years.

The other hires are Dorit Bruner as CFO and Gilad Bonjack as VP Product.

Revolut is to roll out a new super-premium membership plan targeting ambitious, affluent individuals interested in a luxury lifestyle.

The new top-tier plan, Ultra, offers users free lounge access at 1200 airports, cashback, and low fees on Revolut investment products. Coming in the Spring, Revolut is inviting new and existing customers to join a waitlist to unlock 5% cashback on purchases made in their first month with Ultra.

The new membership level is coming in spring 2023. The current tiers, Plus, Premium and Metal are charged at £2.99, £6.99, and £12.99 per month respectively. Revolut has yet to reveal the price tag for Ultra.

Tara Massoudi, Revolut general manager of premium products, says: “More of our customers are interested in financial products offering better convenience. This growing consumer market is focused on a new definition of luxury, one that is functional. Although these high-earning consumers are climbing the career ladder and want to build a steady passive income, they also aim to enjoy life, keep up to date with the latest trends and travel multiple times a year."

Halifax has launched a suite of digital accessibility tools on halifax.co.uk to provide an even more inclusive experience for customers on their website. 

14.1 million people in the UK live with some form of disability and often face barriers when using the internet.  

The Recite Me toolbar on the Halifax website removes online obstacles for those with disabilities, visual impairments, learning difficulties, and the population of an older age. 

This new technology allows customers to create a customisable experience that suits their individual needs, and to view services and financial support hassle-free. 

This is one of many steps Halifax is taking as part of its inclusive journey to make services and support accessible to all its customers online. 

James Fulker, Chief Digital Officer, at Halifax commented, “I am thrilled that Halifax customers can now use the Recite Me toolbar on our website. Along with our commitment to ensuring our websites and apps are inclusive for all customers, the toolbar can add a further level of personalisation for those wanting a little extra help when they’re online.”

The accessibility support available on the Halifax website allows users to read aloud text, and change the appearance of website pages, including adjustments to colours, font type, and sizing. Also, improve the ease of reading with additional aids such as a ruler and screen mask. 

Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, today announces that it is sponsoring the Payment Association’s Project Financial Crime Working Group this year, to address the challenges of tackling increasing levels of digital and financial crime in the UK.

As benefactors of the project, Form3 will lead industry collaboration among financial institutions to develop strategies to enable banks to deal with the ever-increasing threat of financial crime. This activity is timely, as UK-based customers lost £583 million to authorised push payment (APP) scams in 2021, up by 39% in 2020.

Nick Fleetwood, Head of Data Services, Form3, commented: “The scale of financial fraud shows no sign of slowing down. This working group will help foster collaboration and shape the agenda and discussion around combating fraud. This activity will also provide insights and opinions for those involved in leading the regulation of UK financial services as they tackle digital crime.”

Form3 felt it was best placed to support the industry in its fight against financial crime due to it being a leader in the payments space with new services being brought to market to meet the challenges of financial crime. This was recognised by the Payments Association, as it sought a leading industry figure that already had strong relationships with major UK and international banks.

In terms of deliverables, Form3 will coordinate the group’s activity to produce insights and research, white papers, webinars and reports offering guidance on tackling UK financial crime in partnership with the Payments Association.

“The only way we solve the problems of payments-related financial crime is if companies support the community’s work.’ said Tony Craddock, Director General, Payments Association. ‘And Form3 is providing this support for the year ahead, acting as a catalyst for coordinated action. That’s leadership, the payments way.”

A majority of financial services firms now view digital transformation as essential to their business and are already looking to the next wave of technology to help get ahead, according to a new report by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. In the 2023 Digital Transformation and Next-Gen Tech study of 500 C-suite executives and their direct reports across the buy side and sell side globally, 71% said artificial intelligence (AI) is now significantly changing the way they work, and 60% agree that within ten years, blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) will become the core of financial markets infrastructure.

Despite a more challenging economic environment, firms are also accelerating their funding of digital transformation initiatives as they anticipate further widescale adoption of new and more powerful technology. Firms now spend 27% of their overall IT budget on digital transformation – a 16 percentage point increase versus the 2022 study.

“A new chapter in digital transformation is emerging,” said Tim Gokey, Chief Executive Officer of Broadridge. “In our work with clients across the financial services industry we see leading firms are already reaping the benefits from digitalization and the use of technologies such as AI and blockchain/DLT, as they adapt to economic headwinds and new competitive dynamics. Firms are now looking ahead to what their customers will require five to ten years from now, and how technology can help them to deliver that vision.”

The study categorized firms as digital “Leaders” versus “Non-leaders”, based on how advanced they are in 10 of the most essential aspects of digital transformation. These aspects include their innovation culture, use of emerging technologies, seamless customer experience (CX), internal skill-building, and adoption of security and privacy protocols.

Digital Transformation Goes Mainstream

Adapting to a digital world and embracing the potential of new technology now underpins organizations’ core business strategies, with more than half of digital Leaders (53%) viewing higher revenue growth as one of the most important benefits of digital transformation.

Investment in next-gen technology is now understood to be essential in preparing for the future. Fifty-seven percent of firms agree that falling behind in digital transformation will hurt their ability to attract and retain talent, further impeding their ability to unlock new and innovative tools and platforms.

The 2030 Technology Landscape

Significant advancements in AI, data analytics, and real-world applications for blockchain and DLT are driving momentum and optimism among leading financial institutions. In fact, 80% of survey respondents say the industry will have modernized its tech stack before we land a human on Mars, a major technology feat currently estimated to happen by the early 2030s.

Respondents expect more nascent technologies to make significant progress as well. Firms classified as Leaders plan to increase investment in quantum computing by 16% on average over the next 2 years; however, firms are only increasing investments in the metaverse by 5% on average, indicating more of a “wait and see” approach before committing funds.

The Digital Divide

Industry incumbents face challenges from new entrants to the market and will need to embrace digital solutions to maintain their market position. The study examined the differences between traditional financial firms and Digital Natives, defined as online banks, brokers, robo-advisors, and digital wealth management firms established in the last 15 years and not part of an incumbent firm.

The report found Digital Natives are more likely than traditional firms to place transformation as their most important strategic priority (78% versus 51%), marked by greater increases in digital investments. Seventeen percent of digital natives also report being at the advanced stages of deploying AI, blockchain, cloud, and other emerging technologies, versus 7% of traditional firms.

The full 2023 Digital Transformation and Next-Gen Tech Study can be found here.

The Citco group of companies (Citco) has moved to streamline the client onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes after agreeing a deal with digital transformation business, Fenergo, to integrate its client lifecycle management (CLM) platform across Citco. 
 
Citco, one of the world’s largest Asset Servicing providers with $1.8 trillion in assets under administration (AUA), provides a broad range of financial services for hedge funds, private equity, real estate funds and more.  
 
The business selected Fenergo’s CLM software as a service (SaaS) platform so it can deliver frictionless end-to-end client journeys through front-to-back office integrations with anti-money laundering (AML) screening providers, and centralized document management. 
 
Fenergo, the leading provider of digital transformation, customer journey and client lifecycle management (CLM) solutions, offers a range of software and services designed to drive operational efficiencies. 
 
Fenergo’s CLM SaaS platform and regulatory rules coverage in over 120 jurisdictions automates perpetual KYC, customer due diligence (CDD) and risk profiling. It also provides compliance teams with the ability to visualise complex entity data structures, and identify politically exposed persons (PEPs) and ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), ensuring regulatory certainty.  
 

Albert van Nijen, Head of Client Lifecycle Management, Citco Fund Services (Curaçao) B.V., said: “As an industry leader, we recognize the importance of continuing to take an innovative approach to increase our service standards in order to surpass clients’ expectations, while also satisfying increasing regulatory requirements. Fenergo’s CLM platform, their community approach to CDD, and their experience with digitalizing customer onboarding, will enable Citco to achieve these objectives whilst ensuring the business continues to meet all current and future KYC and CDD commitments”.  

Stella Clarke, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, at Fenergo, said: “Citco is ahead of the curve with its approach to innovation and we are delighted to support it on its path to digital transformation. We are focused on enabling Citco to transform its client experience and deliver even greater value to its clients with the delivery of our award-winning SaaS CLM solution.”

Simpl, India’s foremost 1-tap checkout network, today announced the appointment of Ashwini Ravindranath as Vice President of the Partner Success team. Ashwini will lead the team to build strong relationships with Simpl’s merchant network and own the P&L of the Pay Later business of the organisation. With this strategic hire, Simpl aims to help its onboarded merchant partners achieve their desired business goals.

With over a decade of rich and diverse experience in retail, Ashwini is a seasoned e-commerce leader with strong category experience. In her earlier stints with Airtel and FlipKart, Ashwini played many key roles in launching and scaling new businesses, with a vision to bring the next 200Mn shoppers online. She has been an integral part of 4 key business launches at Flipkart, while driving the customer and revenue growth of the eCommerce player.

Commenting on the appointment, Nitya Sharma, CEO & Co-Founder – Simpl, said, “We welcome Ashwini Ravindranath as the Vice President of our Partner Success team. With the fintech payments landscape evolving at a breakneck speed, it is indispensable for us to ensure that our merchant partners achieve their desired business outcomes. Ashwini’s intervention will play a vital role in further cementing our merchant partners’ relationships with their customers. She will also be responsible for P&L and sales for our Pay Later business and drive the next phase of its growth. We wish her all the best.”

Ashwini Ravindranath, Senior Director and Head of Partner Success Team- Simpl said, “I am super excited to be on board this exciting journey at Simpl. We want to help our merchant partners build trusted and long-term relationships with their customers, and we will partner with them in this journey by building a transformative customer experience, catering to the category nuances of each of our merchants”

A marketing management student from SPJIMR, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Ashwini is a gold medalist in Academics from Visvesvaraya Technological University. Ashwini is also the recipient of the prestigious "Great Manager Award - 2021', an award that recognizes people managers in the county, conferred by People Business Consulting.

Simpl will continue to expand its leadership team across partnerships and customer service in its mission to democratize the digital transformation in the payments space in India.

8.6 million people in the UK have used fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity in person or online to gain access to goods, services or credit, according to independent research by GBG, the digital identity experts.

The findings have been released following the return to Parliament of the delayed Online Safety Bill, a new set of laws to protect children and adults online, including the enforcement of age limits and age-checking measures to help prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.

GBG’s research asked 2,000 UK consumers if they have ever used fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity, including claiming they are older than they really are to access websites, using fake ID and giving false information such as a fake address.

GBG found:

• 8.6 million people in the UK (16%) have used fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity
• 33% of young people in the UK (16-24) have used fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity to gain access to goods, services or credit compared to 16% of the general population
• 23% of UK males have used fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity compared to only 8% of females
• Higher earners and those who work full-time (22%) are more likely to have used fake, fraudulent or someone’s else’s identity to access goods or services with 26% of people earning £45,001-£50,000 and people earning £55,001 plus saying they have used fake ID compared to 13% of people earning £15,000 or less.

Gus Tomlinson, Chief Product Officer, EMEA at GBG, said: “The use of fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity is not a harmless crime, it is illegal and hugely damaging to individuals and the economy. Underage kids are getting access to gambling, alcohol and porn sites, and also running up huge debts without fully understanding the consequences and, very often at the expense of their parents. There has been an increase in crimes of convenience as a result of the cost-of-living crisis with people using false information and fraudulent identities to apply for goods, credit and services. Criminals are also taking advantage of the economic slowdown to increasingly scam people by, stealing information and the identities of unsuspecting people, especially those in financial difficulty. More sophisticated fraud such as synthetic identity fraud is also on the increase – imported from the US.

“With the majority of identity fraud taking place online, social media platforms and businesses are putting themselves at huge risk of being closed down, fined as well as incurring financial and reputational damage, if they don’t have appropriate identity verification and fraud measures in place. Shockingly, not enough businesses are taking this risk seriously and are not sufficiently protecting themselves or keeping young people and their customers safe.”

The research by GBG also found 94% of business leaders confirmed that businesses are cutting corners and opening the door to identity fraud by not having sufficient measures in place to check and verify identities online. 87% of business leaders confirmed that identity fraud costs are passed onto consumers in the form of increased prices with UK consumers.

Gus Tomlinson concludes: “The technology is here, and with the introduction of the Online Safety Bill and more robust regulation, there is no excuse for businesses not to have identity verification checks in place. The use of fake, fraudulent or someone else’s identity is not a victimless crime, and people need to be much more aware and protective of their own identity to ensure it doesn’t get into unsafe or fraudulent hands.”