Sygnia, a leading cyber technology and services company which provides high-end consulting and incident response support for organizations worldwide, today announced that it has expanded its incident response and proactive security services to include a managed extended detection and response (MXDR) service. Sygnia’s MXDR is technology-agnostic and a 24/7 fully managed security operations service that includes monitoring, threat detection, forensic analysis, accelerated investigation, and a rapid transition to incident response when needed.

The service is operated by Sygnia’s elite teams with extensive nation-state-level cyber warfare knowledge, advanced offensive and defensive capabilities, and decades of experience detecting, containing, and defeating cyber-attacks for the world’s most prominent enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies.

“The service leverages our proprietary XDR, a vendor-agnostic platform for security detection and response that was developed by Sygnia for Sygnia incident responders and has been battle-tested defending thousands of engagements,” said Yanir Laubshtein, Sygnia’s Vice President of MXDR. “Our XDR is designed for rapid deployment, with hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations and a proprietary, light-weight and non-intrusive agent for faster deployment and maximum visibility of the enterprise going forward.”

Sygnia’s MXDR overcomes one of the key industry challenges facing MXDR clients: successful integration of the service. Sygnia takes a tailored approach to MXDR, to ensure precise service alignment with the organization’s cyber fabric, personnel, and policies.

Key benefits of Sygnia’s MXDR service include:

• Accelerated threat detection driven by the latest field intelligence from Sygnia’s IR team into threat actor tactics, techniques and procedures
• Enhanced investigation with complete remote forensics capabilities
• Faster containment and eradication of attackers with a seamless transition from monitoring to response
• Operated by highly experienced A-teams with extensive cyber warfare and enterprise security experience

“Over the past several years, Sygnia has seen the threat landscape evolve to become more dynamic and dangerous,” said Ram Elboim, Sygnia’s CEO.  “With our MXDR, we can support organizations with a holistic solution that transitions from preparation and proactive security services to detection and response across their entire enterprise.”

Register for the webinar: “Achieving MXDR Success: The Power of an IR-Driven Approach” on Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 10:00 am EST | 4:00 pm CET with Sygnia and featuring a guest speaker from Forrester. For additional information, visit Sygnia.co.

MANGOPAY, the platform-specific payment infrastructure provider, today announces figures showing another strong year with more than 35% of growth. Key 2022 figures include:

• Total 2022 transaction value totalling over €11.3 billion
• 243 new customers onboarded this year, nearly 1 customer per working day
• 100 new hires across the business including four C-suite appointments and plans to hire 250 people in 2023       

In April, MANGOPAY announced that Advent International was now the majority shareholder of the company. This was a major milestone supporting MANGOPAY’s ambition to become the leading global payment infrastructure for platforms and marketplaces. As part of this investment, Advent brought 75 million euros of primary capital to drive MANGOPAY’s growth.

In November, MANGOPAY announced the acquisition of AI fraud detection and prevention company Nethone to develop and offer anti-fraud solutions specifically designed for marketplaces, opening a new era for platform about fraud detection and prevention. This partnership empowers platforms to stay ahead of current and future fraud and abuse risks by securing every step of the end-user journey.

MANGOPAY has also made a series of hires to bolster the C-suite executive team, including:

• Luke Trayfoot, Chief Revenue Officer – Luke joined the company in May from Paypal (Hyperwallet) and plays a critical role in helping accelerate international expansion as well as improve revenue streams for the next phase of growth.
• Olympe Leflambe, General Counsel, Legal & Compliance – Olympe brings a wealth of experience to provide strategic advice to the senior leadership team, strengthen our commitment to regulatory compliance and engage with global policymakers and regulators.
• Ronen Benchetrit, Chief Technology Officer – Joining from Bumble, Ronen is focused on strengthening the tech to accelerate product innovation and scalability.
• Carlos Sanchez-Arruti, Chief Financial Officer – Carlos joins the team from Amazon and will play a key role in maintaining the company’s sustainable growth.

Romain Mazeries, CEO reflects on 2022 “This has been a transformational year for the company. Our strong growth is proof that our strategy and product excellence is resonating with platforms and marketplace needs. A strategy that Advent International has embraced and accelerated to become a global leader in the payment industry. Under Advent’s ownership, we have boosted our C-suite expertise and made our first acquisition, which has put us on a path for great success. As we look forward to 2023, I’m most excited about our overall ability to empower platforms to build and scale the payment system that they need with the technology expertly curated to beat the ever-changing marketplace landscape.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has today published Decision Notices against two firms, imposing financial penalties of USD 5,600 and USD 8,400 respectively, after a settlement discount.  Were it not for the settlement, the DFSA would have imposed financial penalties of USD 8,000 and USD 12,000 respectively. 

The DFSA has taken enforcement action against the two firms for their repeated failure to submit annual AML Returns to the DFSA by the specified deadlines, despite several reminders sent by the DFSA.

Ian Johnston, Chief Executive of the DFSA, said: “The DFSA expects all authorised firms to submit AML Returns within the set deadlines and will look to escalate fines against recalcitrant firms. The DFSA will continue to take all the necessary actions to ensure strict compliance with AML related requirements in the DIFC.

Carta Worldwide, the proven global digital payments pioneer and a subsidiary of Mogo Inc., today announced the launch of a new study that reveals consumers are increasingly ambivalent toward their payments providers because they are failing to meet their needs in the economic downturn. 

The study ‘Carta Worldwide Payments Pulse 2023: Why payment providers need to be purpose-driven’ reveals that consumers are focused on saving for the future, paying off debt, and adjusting their outgoings because they can no longer afford their current lifestyle. Yet payment providers are failing to provide consumers the services they want to better manage their money. The study is based on an independent survey of 1,000 UK consumers in November 2022 by Censuswide. 

Key findings include: 

Return to the payments mean 

The pandemic accelerated innovations in digital payments and ushered in significant changes in consumer payments habits, pushing them beyond the mean. Now, the shockwaves of the recession are causing them to peddle back, returning to trusted methods of payment. 

● Cards are still the most popular payment method. Almost all (95%) of consumers said they used either credit (65%) or debit cards (30%). 

● Cash is second only to cards, with 42% of consumers using the payment method on a regular basis. 

● While existing payment methods are preferred, three quarters (75%) of consumers plan to change their payment habits to meet the wider economic downturn. 

● However, more than a third (37%) of consumers believe payments providers aren’t able to help them tackle the demands driven by the cost-of-living crisis and recession. 

Payments with purpose 

Firms must align with customer values and emerging needs, centred around their financial goals, savings, and security. During downturns, values take on heightened importance and it will be the agile payments providers that find innovative ways to help consumers better manage their spending that will be successful. 

Consumer financial goals shift 

● Consumers' financial goals for the new year expectedly focus on saving for their future (36%), paying off debt (26%), and adjusting their outgoings (17%) because they can no longer afford their current lifestyle. 

● 41% of younger respondents (ages 18-34) picked “start to invest” or “invest more” as one of their top three financial goals for 2023, indicating a desire to make money work harder in the current high-interest environment. 

Desire for better experiences 

● A quarter (24%) of consumers wish they had better insight into their payments behaviours so they can meet these goals. 

● Younger respondents were more likely to believe there are areas in which their payments experiences could improve. Only 8% of 18-24-year-olds thought nothing needed to be improved over the next few months, compared to 56% of 55+ year-olds. 

● With the current cost of living crisis in mind, a higher proportion of young people compared to older respondents indicated they would change habits by analysing their spending more (28% vs 16%) and find easier ways to pay across borders (28% vs 13%).

● Security is the most important aspect in the way consumers make payments (41%). There is an opportunity for payments providers to prove their value, utility, and security, to the 42% of consumers who use cash most often. 

Evolution not revolution 

Tough times can lead to profound innovation, but to sustain growth that innovation must happen on top of trusted and more traditional methods of payment and align with consumers’ new preferences. New and disruptive services like “embedded payments” won't gain traction during the downturn, unless they align payments with purpose. 

● Credit is most popular within the 18-24 age range, with 42% of respondents choosing it as a preferred payment method. 

● Over half (51%) of all respondents made no embedded payment purchases in the last three months. 

“The payments industry must now focus on fusing trusted and traditional methods with real purpose to meet the changing needs of consumers in the wake of the cost of living crisis and recession,” said Richard Wray, Chief Operations Officer at Carta Worldwide. “The research clearly shows that there is an emerging demand for purposeful payments from supporting new financial goals, better insights into spending, and more security. With many providers struggling to meet these demands, those that are able to deliver payments with purpose will be in pole position.” 

Obligate, formerly known as FQX, announced it has successfully closed a seed extension funding round, allowing them to scale their blockchain-based platform for bonds and commercial paper.

Blockchange Ventures and Circle Ventures join initial seed co-investors Earlybird and SIX Fintech Ventures – bringing the total seed raise to more than $8.5 million.

With the Obligate platform, companies can issue on-chain bonds and commercial paper to obtain funding from a diverse range of investors. This comes at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional offerings but with the same regulatory certainty, as the instruments are globally enforceable, regulated debt securities. At the same time, investors get access to a wide range of regulated digital debt assets which can be secured with on-chain collateral. Utilizing smart contracts and tokenization in place of intermediaries such as paying and issuer agents, Obligate is able to reduce the costs associated with a bond issuance by 80% and reduce the time needed for an issuance from weeks to hours.

Building on their existing blockchain-based debt infrastructure, Obligate will launch its blockchain-based platform in Q1 2023 and enable end-to-end corporate debt funding in a decentralized and regulated environment.

Wyatt Lonergan of Circle Ventures shares: “Obligate is bringing new innovation to help bridge the worlds of traditional finance and DeFi. Through their platform, Obligate is adding utility and a compliant regulatory framework to the emerging real-world asset (RWA) DeFi market. We are excited to back the Obligate team as they prepare for their upcoming platform launch.”

Benedikt Schuppli, Obligate’s Co-Founder & CEO comments: “This backing from leading TradFi and Web3 institutions proves the value of applying blockchain technology to traditional financial instruments. This investment enables us to build a more accessible and efficient financial system where borrowers and investors are directly connected. ”
 

Dr. Stephan Meyer, Co-Founder and Chief Legal Officer at Obligate, states: “Obligate is an all-in-one bond and commercial paper platform, powered by full automation of the transaction life cycles and a public blockchain. We make bond issuances simple, flexible, and cost-efficient atop a solid legal and regulatory foundation.”

"Like the internet before it, we expect the blockchain will underpin some of the largest businesses out there, including in finance," said Ken Seiff, Managing Partner at Blockchange Ventures. "Obligate's vision of using the efficiency and speed of Blockchain embedded in a structure that still supports the core needs and requirements of existing debt markets is powerful. It takes a team with this combination of background and depth of experience to make this happen."

The Obligate platform will launch in February 2023 on the public blockchain Polygon.

Temenos today announced Microsoft, LTIMindtree Syncordis, OneAston, Synpulse, Xpert Digital and eXate as the winners of its Partner IMPACT awards. The awards recognize the excellence of Temenos partners in driving innovation and customer success on top of Temenos open platform for composable banking.

Ross Mallace, Executive Vice President, Global Head of SaaS and Partner Ecosystem, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to the IMPACT award winners and all our partners that play such a critical role in accelerating growth and opening new opportunities for Temenos, our customers and all participants in our thriving ecosystem. Collaboration and co-innovation are shaping the future of banking, and why Temenos has embraced the open platform model and partner-first approach.”

Technology Partner of the Year - Microsoft

Temenos Banking Cloud runs on Microsoft Azure, powering pioneering banks such as Alpian and Flowe. In 2022, Temenos announced its new Carbon Emissions Calculator that uses the data provided by Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Emission Impact Dashboard services, to report carbon emissions metrics. Putting our combined strengths to work is helping financial institutions worldwide innovate faster using cloud capabilities to grow their business while meeting their sustainability commitments.

Global Delivery Partner – LTIMindtree Syncordis  

LTIMindtree Syncordis continues expanding its client base, capabilities, and certification level globally. As the leading delivery partner with their client-centric approach, they empower banks and financial institutions of all sizes and successfully master digital transformation programs. This includes large core banking transformations, traditional implementations, regulated production support and Banking-as-a-Service platform provisions.

Regional Delivery Partner – OneAston

OneAston has built up a solid client base in North and South America and recently opened a delivery center in Colombia as part of its investment in the region and commitment to developing local expertise. This is in addition to the other five delivery centers it already operates to support Temenos clients globally

Sales Partner – Synpulse

Synpulse has deep wealth management expertise from over two decades of consulting to the banking industry. In 2022, Synpulse led new revenue opportunities in the Middle East and Asia Pacific and was also instrumental in winning a major wealth management deal with a leading US financial institution.

Rising Star – Xpert Digital (XD)

Xpert Digital (XD) specializes in transforming the customer experience by digitalizing customer journeys and optimizing business processes. It has invested in building an expert team to support Temenos Infinity implementations and has a track record of successful go-lives, helping several clients win digital banking awards for their transformation projects.

Exchange Solution Provider – eXate

eXate made its mark by completing the sale of its first integration with Temenos and doing so with a leading US bank. This was the first win in a growing pipeline of shared banking customers for its data privacy and protection platform eXate APIgator.

Tracxn, a leading global SaaS-based market intelligence platform, has released its Fintech India Report - 2022. The report, based on Tracxn’s extensive database, provides insights into India’s Fintech space.

Fintech startups in India raised a total of $5.65 billion in 390 rounds in 2022, a plunge of 47% in terms of funding amount and 29% in the number of rounds when compared with 2021. India is still the third-highest funded country in terms of funding received in the Fintech sector, only behind the US and the UK.  This drop in funding can be attributed to the decline in late-stage funding from $8.3 billion in 2021 to $3.7 billion in 2022, a drop of 56%.

India is currently experiencing a funding winter. Growing inflation and macroeconomic tensions have made investors step back from making big investment decisions. However, Fintech is one of the key sectors in the Indian startup ecosystem and has consistently been one of the top-funded sectors.  It was the second-highest funded sector in 2022, after Enterprise Applications.

The Fintech space in India is expected to continue growing in the long run. The shift towards digitization since the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of Fintech solutions significantly. Digital Payments and Lending, which were previously concentrated only in the major cities, are now becoming mainstream even in Tier II and III Cities across the country.

The convenience of using these services, compared with our traditional financial services infrastructure has also attracted a lot of users. A large unbanked population and rising mobile phone usage are some of the factors that will aid the sector’s growth in the long run.

This year, Fintech startups recorded 13 funding rounds of $100 million+ in value. This is a massive drop of 50%, from 26 rounds in 2021. Y Combinator, Tiger Global Management and Lets Venture were the most active investors in the space, with more than 20 investments in 2022. Only 4 startups in India’s Fintech sector received Unicorn status in 2022, far lower compared with 13 new Unicorns in 2021.

Among the cities, Fintech companies in the Delhi-NCR region (Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon) have raised a combined funding of $14.9 billion till date, followed by Bengaluru ($10.2 billion) and  Mumbai ($4.2 billion). 

MyShubhLife, India's largest digital lending and full-stack financial service platform and India’s leading fintech, MobiKwik have partnered to offer Digital Credit at a nominal rate of interest, with a frictionless experience to MobiKwik customers. With the technology-led partnership, MyShubhLife aims to disburse loans to millions of MobiKwik customers.

The partnership will work towards enhancing the shared goals of the two organizations, which are committed to enabling financial inclusiveness and the economic well-being of retail customers. MobiKwik today has 134 million registered users who can make payments for all their daily life needs, including utility bills, eCommerce shopping, food delivery, and shopping at large retail chains, mom & pop (kirana) stores, etc. across a 3.7 million strong merchant network. Through this partnership MyShubhLife is enabled to serve an important segment of underserved customers with formal credit. Both MobiKwik and MyShubhLife are committed to meeting the customer's unmet credit needs and giving them a hassle-free, digital borrowing experience.

Speaking on the partnership, Monish Anand, CEO, MyShubhLife said, "Financial inclusion is a key focus area for us. By providing accessible and responsible credit to the underserved segment our partnership with MobiKwik will further our effort to democratize credit in India. We are looking forward to tap into MobiKwik's rich customer network to fulfil the dream of a financially inclusive India. We are excited about the possibilities of this alliance."

"The current state of digital credit in India is still in its nascent stages with just 3 to 4 % penetration. Our partnership with MyShubhLife is a step towards fulfilling our vision of bringing digital credit to a billion phones and creating a more inclusive financial system in India. Together, we are committed to leveraging our technology and expertise to bridge the gap between credit seekers and lenders, and empower individuals and small businesses with the financial tools they need to succeed in today's digital economy," said Upasana Taku, Co-Founder & COO, MobiKwik on the partnership.

MyShubhLife has an innovative and robust technology platform using advanced analytics, AI and machine learning built by its Datasciences Centre of Excellence (CoE), to score thin credit files and create simple and efficient micro-lending experiences for its customers, enabling them to secure loans at the click of a button.

Apart from the credit solutions, MyShubhLife has built a complete range of sachet-sized financial products such as SIPs, E Gold, Insurance, Bill Payments, E filing taxes etc to provide more contextual offerings to its customers, the next half billion segment. 

Digital Asset Research (DAR), a leading provider of crypto asset data and research, today announced the release of its January 2023 Crypto Exchange Vetting results. In an environment where cryptocurrencies trade across hundreds of lightly regulated or unregulated exchanges, DAR’s vetting processes apply institutional-level diligence to digital asset markets to meet an industry-wide need for reliable crypto data.

Over 450 exchanges were evaluated to identify 18 Vetted Exchanges. The following exchanges continue to maintain their status as Vetted Exchanges: Binance.US, bitbank, Bitfinex, bitFlyer, Bitso, Bitstamp, Bittrex, BTC Markets, CEX.IO, Coinbase, Coincheck, CrossTower, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, LMAX, Okcoin, and Zaif. Bitfront is no longer a Vetted Exchange.

Ten exchanges are now considered Watchlist Exchanges for potential future inclusion on the Vetted Exchanges list: Binance, Bitrue, CoinEx, CoinTiger, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Huobi, KuCoin, LATOKEN, and Phemex.

The Exchange Vetting process combines quantitative and traditional qualitative due diligence to identify exchanges reporting accurate volumes and eliminate exchanges that are not appropriate for determining an accurate market price.

“Recent market events have emphasized the importance of strong risk management practices and our Exchange Vetting process helps firms identify safe venues as they invest in digital assets or build investment products,” said Doug Schwenk, DAR’s CEO. “Our independent analysis provides unbiased exchange vetting information to institutional customers.”

The Exchange Vetting process follows an Asset Vetting process that was completed in December and evaluated over 1,000 digital assets to identify assets appropriate for various institutional use cases. During the Asset Vetting process, digital assets are evaluated to determine if they meet institutional investor standards for codebase construction and maintenance, community, security, liquidity, and regulatory compliance.

Results of the Exchange Vetting process determine pricing sources used to calculate DAR reference prices for institutional clients, including Bloomberg, Chainlink, FTSE Russell, the FTSE DAR Reference Price, and Refinitiv.

DAR performs its Exchange Vetting processes quarterly. Results will next be announced in April 2023.

Okcoin, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing cryptocurrency platforms, together with crypto investment firm Paradigm, today announced that the companies are partnering on a grant for Bitcoin Core maintainer Marco Falke. Falke—who is one of Bitcoin’s most active developers, having made more individual changes to the network’s code than anyone else to date—will use the money to work on Bitcoin’s software full time for a sixth consecutive year.

Falke is one of six people in the world with the ability to approve or deny proposed changes to the code underlying the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. As a Bitcoin Core maintainer, he reviews proposed additions to the network’s code from contributors, of which there are over 400 currently active. The grant from Okcoin and Paradigm is to provide Falke with a livable income while he devotes 40+ hours per week to Bitcoin Core development — a job without a salary, given Bitcoin’s decentralized structure.

“The work Marco does is integral to the success of Bitcoin and Okcoin is thrilled to support him for a third consecutive year, this time in partnership with Paradigm,” said Okcoin COO Jason Lau. “There are about 30 million active Bitcoin addresses currently, and each one relies on the network functioning properly. Marco’s code maintenance has helped make Bitcoin’s network more secure and scalable, and we look forward to his continued positive impact.”

“Paradigm believes it’s our responsibility to help fund independent Bitcoin research and development,” said Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang. “Since our initial Bitcoin development funding, we have sought to support the most productive builders working to keep Bitcoin Core running. We’re pleased to provide a grant to Marco, who continues to move the network forward with his work.”

Despite millions of people having invested in Bitcoin, only a small percentage know that the individuals who maintain and improve Bitcoin’s code are not paid by default. A 2021 study conducted by Okcoin found that 80% of retail Bitcoin investors were unaware that the only payment the network’s developers receive is that which they secure for themselves through grants, crowdfunding, or otherwise.

Both Okcoin and Paradigm are committed to contributing to Bitcoin Core development through funding, as well as advocacy for increased support from the Bitcoin community. The terms for Marco Falke’s grant from Okcoin and Paradigm give him freedom to choose which area of Bitcoin Core he works on, and the funding is a non-exclusive agreement.