Recognizing the need for better innovation and solutions to support community bankers’ small business and commercial lending initiatives, Summit Technology Group (STG), a boutique consulting, services and software practice for community banks, along with a large number of its bank clients, announced the official launch of Lenders Cooperative as a standalone, client-owned platform.

Originally formed in 2019 as a subsidiary of STG, Lenders Cooperative provides a variety of loan solutions and shared services for banks, credit unions and fintech’s offering small business (SMB), Small Business Administration (SBA), and commercial loans to their local businesses and communities. This includes a secure, cloud-based loan origination system that fully integrates with customers’ current systems, offering the same streamlined, end-to-end workflows that were created to support the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during the pandemic.

“Today’s community financial institutions are often under tremendous pressure to stay relevant and competitive while still serving the needs of their local businesses,” said Ben Wallace, CEO of STG. “Summit Technology Group’s core mission is to help these institutions to focus on their true strengths and this same commitment has been baked into the DNA of Lenders Cooperative since its inception.”

In addition to its SaaS technology solutions, Lenders Cooperative also offers staff augmentation including credit underwriting, SBA Loan Service Provider (LSP) support, bank operations and white label call center support, all provided by seasoned experts with decades of proven commercial banking experience. With so many of today’s community financial institutions struggling to recruit and retain talent, these services allow them to staff up and down much more quickly in response to evolving market conditions, while providing them the flexibility to select the services they need to best meet their strategic goals.

Lenders Cooperative is unique within the fintech industry because it is built by lenders for lenders. In addition, Lenders Cooperative also allows interested financial services clients to obtain equity ownership offering them a unique value proposition as both customers of the platform and owners. This unique governance structure is designed to accelerate product development and create a flywheel of customer success.

“As an initial customer of Lenders Cooperative, and a past investor of STG, we have seen firsthand the many benefits of its innovative solutions and services, as well as a strong return on our capital,” said Matt Burke, CEO of Cape Cod 5, a lead bank partnering in the development and launch of the Lenders Cooperative platform. “We are excited to once again partner with STG and others involved in Lenders Cooperative, and we look forward to leveraging this impressive technology and the expertise of the team to modernize our own lending processes to better meet our customer’s needs and continue Cape Cod 5’s innovation journey in support of local businesses and our communities.”

“Customer expectations are constantly shifting for today's community financial institutions, especially for business and commercial loan clients, and it's critical they have the most robust, innovative products and solutions to support them and stay competitive,” said Loughlin Cleary, President and National Sales Director of Lenders Cooperative. “Lenders Cooperative’s unique model not only allows our customers to own the technology they use, but also provides the chance to a be a part of a growing community of bankers that are actively exchanging shared knowledge -- offering users a front row seat to today’s innovation as well as what’s to come.”

Leadership for the new entity will include:

• Cary Cooper, Managing Partner
• Loughlin Cleary, President & National Sales Manager
• Russell Morris, Head of Credit Underwriting
• David Tinsley, Head of SBA LSP Services
• Tim Holder, Head of Bank Operations

eTip, a robust and customizable digital tipping solution, today announced its collaboration with Visa, the world leader in digital payments. Through their work together, eTip and Visa are helping hospitality and service industry clients accelerate the adoption of digital tipping.

While cashless payments and contactless tipping options for restaurant workers soared due to the demands of the pandemic, payment options for hospitality industry staff, such as hotel housekeepers, bellhops, valet attendants, concierges, servers, and other service providers, have remained firmly rooted in the cash-based past.

Though peer-to-peer cash-sharing platforms are used by some, privacy and regulatory concerns mean guests, most of whom are now accustomed to a cashless world, have nothing to give to the person cleaning their rooms, carrying their bags, or valeting their cars.

With eTip, guests will no longer need to feel guilty and run to the ATM to grab cash to tip staff, nor do they need to download an app or share any personal information.

Instead, eTip’s simple and secure QR code & NFC-based tipping solution allows guests to tip using their digital wallet or credit card. Once a guest tips for a service, eTip allows the employee to receive the tip in real-time, directly in their bank account. This transfer of funds is supported by through Visa Direct, which enables real-time payments to eligible cards.

“eTip makes it possible to simply tip with a tap or scan,'' said Nicolas Cassis, CEO of eTip. “Our research shows that staff tend to see an 80 percent increase in tips when the barriers to tipping are removed through our solution, and a five-time increase in the amount being tipped as well. Visa partnering with us shows their commitment to bringing their industry leadership in cashless payments and real time tip disbursements to the most vital part of the hospital industry, its people. By combining Visa’s technology and ours, we are revolutionizing the way tipping is done.”

“We are seeing an increase in market demand for a fast, reliable, and fully digitized tipping experience for hotel guests and employees in the hospitality industry,” said Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, Senior Vice President of Visa Direct. “eTip now offers a digital tipping solution, enabled by Visa Direct, helping to modernize that process for their guests and employees.”

Counting hotels, casinos, resorts, cruise lines, health and beauty services, and sports venues among its customers, eTip not only allows for these companies to accelerate their move toward being cashless, it also reduces their operational costs and makes it easier for them to recruit, retain and motivate talent. For example, eTip’s hotel customers typically save an average of $34,800 per year in turnover costs and reduce turnover by an average of 30 percent.

By digitizing the tipping experience, through digital acceptance and real-time payouts of tips, hotels can increase the overall experience of their guests, as well as the levels of satisfaction among their employees.  According to a survey of 5,000 hotel guests, conducted by eTip, nearly 100 percent of guests reported a five-star experience. In addition, hotel managers report employees having higher levels of engagement and a heightened sense of ownership.

Watch how Visa and eTip teamed up to transform cashless tipping here: https://etip.wistia.com/medias/cib6ox119x

Deko, the multi-lender Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform, has appointed Daniel Lee as Head of Consumer Product. Most recently, Dan was Group Product Manager – Payments, Fraud and Consumer Credit at retail giant Kingfisher plc.

Dan was responsible for product management of the payments estate, integrating and managing the payments orchestration capabilities for the group across multiple markets and currencies. Prior to that he oversaw the go-to-market and distribution channels for the eCommerce product set at Worldpay, the global payment processing and technology provider. And, he is also the former head of Marketing at Judopay, the mobile card payments provider. 

Mike Dawson, CEO, Deko, stated: “Dan is an experienced leader with a fantastic sense for strategic product management and a proven track record of working closely with customers to develop insights, solve business challenges, and create value. Reporting directly to our Chief Product Officer, Rob Fernandes, he will be integral to our leadership team as we continue to build out our vision for Deko as a multi-lender, multi-product platform and further drive profitable growth.”

“Deko has an incredible opportunity and an unmatched technology set to help merchants maximise their sales opportunity using finance.  Critical to that is how effective our product is for consumers at checkout - by using multiple lenders and products to create an effective purchasing experience and unbeatable acceptance promise,” said Daniel Lee. 

“For much of my career I’ve worked to understand consumer buying journeys and with that comprehensive understanding reduce friction at the checkout, maximising consumer engagement, increase web traffic and reduce the cost of sales. It is this approach I will be bringing to Deko.”

“Dan has been a fantastic leader at Kingfisher plc and made incredible contributions to the business ensuring it stayed at the forefront of delivering new innovations and capabilities in the field of retail payments and finance. We firmly believe that he will play a central role at Deko driving our differentiation and extending our leadership in the multi-lending, multi-product space,” concluded Dawson.

Allica Bank, the fintech challenger bank dedicated to supporting UK small and medium businesses, has extended its asset finance proposition to include soft assets to meet the demand from its brokers and customers. The bank is offering financial support to help businesses finance soft assets, which may include the acquisition of IT, telecoms or security equipment, and further increasing the ways that businesses can increase their cashflow.

This launch comes as the bank reaches a £200 million milestone in asset financing since its launch in 2021 and follows its £100 million milestone met just seven months ago.

Allica Bank says that the extension of its asset finance proposition comes in direct response to extensive broker feedback received in Q4 2022, evidencing Allica’s dedication to listening to its brokers and customers, and adapting to a changing economy.

Allica has also been accredited to the new iteration of The British Business Bank’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS), where it had already extended its asset finance offering to include medium assets such as broadcast, garage and textile equipment, robotics and more. Businesses can apply to access Allica’s hard, medium and soft asset finance through the RLS.

Brandon Hall, Head of Sales for Asset Finance at Allica Bank, said this is a significant milestone for the asset finance team: “In an incredibly challenging economic environment, we are pleased to support even more SMEs who have a clear ambition to continue to invest and grow, as evidenced by our reaching £200 million in funding in just two years.

“Through our broker survey we received extensive feedback that soft assets were increasingly important and it’s vital for us to proactively support UK businesses and broker communities with the demand. We are therefore extremely pleased to extend our proposition to soft assets, and especially to provide it through the RLS, allowing us to offer more favourable terms.

“Allica is fast developing into a one-stop shop for asset finance brokers, and we will keep innovating to make sure our offer is centred on their insight.”

India’s leading fintech company, today announced three key appointments in line with its commitment towards building an organization with high levels of corporate governance, compliance and data security. The company announced the appointment of Ambuj Bhalla as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). A respected name in the information security and cyber security domain, Ambuj brings in close to 2 decades of experience in technology with a strong focus on information security, as well as data privacy and protection. BharatPe also announced the appointment of Rahul Bhatia as Head-Internal Audit. Rahul is a renowned name in the Financial Services industry with close to 17 years of experience in the domain of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) in the Financial Services sector. Also, the company announced that it has appointed Ravinder Oberoi as Head-Compliance. Ravinder is an industry veteran with close to 23 years of rich experience in financial services, banking as well as insurance companies.

Ambuj will be responsible for the implementation of robust IT security and cybersecurity frameworks for the BharatPe Group. Rahul will work closely with the Audit Committee and will be responsible for setting up the governance and internal audit framework for the company. Ravinder will be responsible for setting up the Compliance function and strengthening relationships with the regulatory bodies.

Ambuj is a seasoned professional with rich exposure across industries including Banking & Financial Services, Aviation, and Telecom & Technology Services. Prior to joining BharatPe, Ambuj was the Head of Cyber Security at InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. where he led the delivery of critical end-to-end security operations including company-wide network and system security, data protection, vulnerability management, identity and access management. Prior to that, Ambuj worked with Reserve Bank Information Technology (ReBIT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India and was responsible for IT requirements and cyber security needs of the Reserve Bank and its regulated entities. Ambuj has also been associated with Bharti Airtel Limited.

Rahul is a Chartered Accountant and an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). During his career, he has led the Financial Services - Risk Advisory Practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers (North) wherein he has managed Internal, Risk and Management Audits for Banks, NBFCs and Fintechs. Before joining BharatPe, he was heading the Risk and Compliance function for Tide, an SME-focused Financial platform.  He has also worked with KPMG and Macquarie Bank.

Ravinder Oberoi has close to 23 years of extensive experience in Banking, Insurance & Financial Services, covering the entire gamut of Retail Finance - Loans, Credit Cards & Insurance. He has domain expertise in RBI Regulatory Compliances including Digital lending, Internal Audit, Risk Management & Operational processes. Prior to joining BharatPe, he was working with Aye Finance as Vice President and was responsible for managing the Audit, Compliance, Vigilance & Fraud Management functions. He has also worked with Religare,  GE Capital India, ABN AMRO Bank & Max New York Life Insurance in various roles and capacities during his career. Ravinder is a Post Graduate of Finance from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and has completed his Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) from Delhi University.

Speaking on the appointment, Founder, Shashvat Nakrani said, “BharatPe has grown at a rapid pace over the last 4+ years. We have built disruptive products that have been at the forefront of redefining the fintech landscape of the country. As we focus on getting IPO ready, it becomes essential for us to ensure that data privacy, cyber security, corporate governance and compliance are given the highest priority. I am pleased to welcome these experienced professionals in the BharatPe team and I am confident that their diverse experience and in-depth knowledge in their specific domains will enable us to not only build best-in-class fintech products with enhanced security architecture but also ensure strong corporate governance and compliance across the organization. I look forward to collaborating with all three leaders as we build BharatPe as a brand trusted by millions across the country.”

Added Smriti Handa, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), BharatPe, “For BharatPe, employees are the biggest assets and we aim to build a team with exceptional talent that can help BharatPe in its next stage of growth. I am excited to welcome Ambuj, Rahul and Ravinder to the BharatPe family. I am confident that Ambuj’s rich experience in information security domain will guide the BharatPe team to ensure the highest level of security across all our products. Also, Rahul and Ravinder with their in-depth understanding of corporate governance and compliance across financial services companies will enable us to build a business that is IPO ready.”

Eventus, a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, announced today that cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Deribit has selected the firm’s Validus platform to provide market abuse monitoring on the exchange.

Headquartered in Panama City, Panama, Deribit is the world’s largest cryptocurrency options exchange by volume and open interest, with approximately 90% market share in Bitcoin and Ether options. The exchange also offers select futures on cryptocurrencies.

Deribit Chief Legal, Compliance & Regulatory Officer David Dohmen said the exchange considered several trade surveillance systems in anticipation of operating under the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in Dubai and as Deribit looked to expand into additional jurisdictions while maintaining the highest compliance standards.

He said: “Once I joined Deribit and our search for a surveillance vendor was underway, I was able to share that Eventus’ customer service is excellent. I’ve looked at and worked with a variety of trade surveillance systems, including Validus in two of my former roles since 2019. I was most impressed with the dedication and diligence of the Eventus team to continuously work with its clients to help improve how the system can meet our needs and resolve any issues we encounter along the way. They care about getting things done; it’s not just about the numbers.”

Additional factors in Deribit’s selection of Eventus, Dohmen said, were the firm’s extensive experience with digital asset exchanges and competitive pricing, along with the fact that Validus is intuitive and easy to use. Deribit will begin using Validus this quarter.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “We’re delighted to help Deribit achieve heightened surveillance capabilities. As the exchange continues to grow and expand its business to new regulatory jurisdictions, our Validus platform provides the scalable, agile solution the compliance team will need as its volumes increase and regulatory requirements become more complex.”

The global card-to-card pioneer and international payments platform Paysend today announced the appointment of Rupert Bedell as the Chief Marketing Officer. As one of the UK’s most experienced financial services marketers, Bedell’s appointment completes Paysend’s global executive team.

Formerly serving as the B2B marketing lead at American Express for EMEA, Bedell will be responsible for overseeing Paysend’s brand strategy as the company continues to scale its payments solutions globally.

Founder and CEO of Paysend, Ronald Millar, said, “Paysend is on a mission to change how money is moved around the world. We are now a global business enabling consumers in 175 countries to benefit from our market-leading money transfer services. As we strategically expand and integrate our offerings into the global payments market, we are delighted to welcome Rupert to our executive team and look forward to him now contributing to our success.”

Commenting on his recent appointment, Rupert Bedell added, “I’m excited to join this emerging business for what will be a very different kind of challenge. Paysend has incredible potential due to its innovative products and impressive international footprint since its launch in 2017. Although payments is a fast-moving sector, Paysend’s development speed and scalability will give us an advantage in the market. At the same time, my goal will be to elevate Paysend’s brand on the international map as quickly as possible.”

Over the last four years, Bedell oversaw the digital acquisition growth and overhauled the credit card provider’s digital channels while at American Express EMEA. Bedell began his career at Barclays before leading B2B marketing at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he led the recovery of NatWest as a business brand.

Responsible lender, Creditspring, has seen a spike in demand over the last 12 months with 260,000 members seeking credit as the cost of living crisis extends into 2023.

The lender’s membership base has spiked over the last 12 months – increasing from 100,000 at the start of 2022 to over a quarter of a million today. 

Many of Creditspring’s members are classed as near-prime who struggle to access affordable credit – research from PwC estimates that over 20m people are financially under-served with at least 1 in 3 adults experiencing difficulty accessing credit from mainstream lenders, a 50% increase in this group since 2016.

Since launch, Creditspring has lent over £100m to members, £67m of which was provided in support within the last 12 months alone.

Creditspring is currently saving its members £17m in UK borrowing costs by offering a no-interest alternative to high-cost credit options, providing a lifeline to borrowers in the cost of living crisis.

On average, Creditspring’s members are saving £118 each year on borrowing costs as they do not have to seek credit from high-cost lenders.

Creditspring’s subscription model is a fixed-cost, low-risk credit solution that offers customers access to two advances per year, with clear repayments, capped costs, and no hidden charges. By paying a fixed fee to access credit, it is far easier for people to evaluate the true cost of borrowing and since there is no interest rate or late fees attached to the loan, 

People are in increasing need of financial support as the cost of living crisis continues to stretch household budgets. Although inflation dipped slightly in December 2022 (to 10.5% from 10.7% in November), the declining value of real wages alongside surging prices on everyday essentials is causing huge concern. For example, the ONS estimate the cost of milk has increased by 50% in the last 12 months, whilst egg prices are up 30%.

Neil Kadagathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Creditspring, comments: “Given rising costs and falling value of wages, UK households have become hugely reliant on credit to get by. But they need an affordable option that protects them from debt and unscrupulous high-cost lenders.

“With the cost of borrowing rising at a time when people are increasingly forced to turn to credit, the lending industry needs to do much more to provide more affordable alternatives to those in need. Clearly, predatory lenders have no place in the industry and need to be stamped out but all lenders need to ensure they’re improving transparency so borrowers can evaluate the true cost of borrowing.

“We’ve seen a major jump in the number of borrowers approaching us for financial support over the last year and expect this growth to continue. As lenders, we have a responsibility to do all we can to help people reduce their chances of falling into unmanageable debt. Our no-interest, subscription model provides affordable credit without risking borrowers falling into a debt spiral as well as enabling them to build their credit files to unlock access to mainstream credit in future.”

Managing compliance risks can feel intimidating, especially because identity crime and fraud attempts jumped by 36% in 2021 relative to 2020, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. As global regulations and accessibility increase, so do compliance risks. To ensure secure operations and offer a swift onboarding experience for its global users, Pismo, one of the fastest-growing banking and payments infrastructure providers, has partnered with Sumsub, an all-in-one verification platform.

Pismo is an all-in-one, cloud-native financial services platform covering all core banking and payment processing functionalities. Pismo provides next-generation technology to help banks, fintechs, and non-financial institutions offer best-in-class financial products for their global customers. 

“Pismo’s platform processes almost 70 million accounts and 2.2 billion transactions per year. Only a highly robust solution with advanced AI and machine learning technologies like Sumsub is capable of managing identities and preventing fraud at the speed that we require. This partnership contributes to the ever-increasing security level of our platform, increasing its efficiency and positively impacting the quality service we deliver our clients,” says Vishal Dalal, CEO (North America, EMEA, and APAC) at Pismo.

Sumsub is a leading KYC/KYB/KYT and AML compliance provider with over 2,000 global clients across the fintech, crypto, shared mobility, trading and gaming industries. Sumsub helps businesses worldwide efficiently onboard users and effectively fight fraud, preventing more than 50 thousand fraud attempts each month. The company aspires to make the fintech world safer for everyone with AI-powered transaction monitoring and business verification solutions.

"We are happy to offer our all-in-one verification platform to global financial infrastructure providers like Pismo, allowing banking and payments to impact people’s lives positively. With Sumsub’s KYC, KYB, transaction monitoring and AML solutions, it’s easier for businesses to expand to international markets and increase their customer base while staying fully compliant with regulations and securing strong anti-fraud protection," adds Andrew Sever, Co-Founder and CEO of Sumsub. 

Founded in 2016 in Brazil, Pismo has expanded its operations globally. With offices in São Paulo, Bristol (UK), Austin (USA), Singapore and Bangalore (India), and more than 450 employees, Pismo manages over 68 million accounts, processing US$ 195 billion in annual transactions.