World Fintech Show, a global fintech series managed by Trescon offered Saudi Arabia's fintech industry a platform for significant advancement. The event witnessed the launch of Fintactics Studio and its commitment to shape the future of fintech in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. World Fintech Show, which was held at the InterContinental in Riyadh, aided in establishing strategic alliances aimed at transforming the financial services industry for the foreseeable future.

World Fintech Show played host to the announcement and commencement of numerous partnerships. Here are some exclusive highlights of the event.

Launch of Fintactics Studio and VC Fund:
Fintactics Studio, the first dedicated Fintech venture builder in the region supported by a 150Mn SAR CMA authorized VC fund, will concentrate on supporting internal businesses and investing in cutting-edge, high-growth fintech ventures throughout the kingdom, MENA, and the rest of the world.
Fintactics Venture Builder has emerged out of Revival Lab and is launched under Arbah Capital.

Trescon hosted senior executives from the organizations:

• Mr. Saad AlMoammar, Chairman, Revival Lab 

• Mr. Mohammed Al Maghlouth, Co-Founder and CEO, Revival Lab

• Mr. Haitham Al Sahafy, CEO, Fintactics

• Mr. Hisham Al Rashed, Board Member, Arbah Capital 

• Mr. Mahmoud Koohaji, CEO, Arbah Capital

Partnership Agreement of Fintactics & Aion Digital
Success is contingent on having the ideal partnerships. Aion Digital, a digital banking platform that strives to revitalize banking through customer-centric digital transformations that are adaptable for financial institutions, is working with Fintactics as part of the builder's mission to shape the financial landscape of the future. Both companies will be able to jointly develop and expand important digital products in the GCC and MENA thanks to this collaboration.

The signing included:

• Mr. Haitham Al Sahafy, CEO, Fintactics

• Mr. Mohammed Al Maghlouth, Managing Partner Fintactics

• Mr. Abdulatif Al Rajhi, Chairman, Aion Digital

• Mr. Ashar Nazim, Founder and CEO, Aion Digital

Signing of Reg-Tech (Lezaam) JV agreement
Businesses today require a fully digital onboarding experience to lead customers through their onboarding process as business resilience requirements and consumer expectations have grown. RegTech-as-a-Service with all features and capability required for digital onboarding and eKYC from journey orchestration, compliance and AML screening, and digital forensics is what Leza'am, a new joint venture between Fintactics and Aion Digital, is offering. Retail and corporate customers for GCC and non-GCC nationals with add-on services for fraud and risk management.

The signing included:

• Mr. Haitham Al Sahafy, CEO, Fintactics

• Mr. Mohammed Al Maghlouth, Managing Partner Fintactics

• Mr. Abdulatif Al Rajhi, Chairman, Aion Digital

• Mr. Ashar Nazim, Founder and CEO, Aion Digital

Partnership Agreement of Fintactics & Bitfy Holdings
To accelerate the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technologies in financial and non-financial verticals in the Kingdom, Fintactics has invested in Bitfy Holdings, a Brazilian-based venture pioneering "Blockchain as a Service" to offer tokenization of illiquid assets.
Through cooperation with the relevant regulatory bodies in the Kingdom, CMA & SAMA, Fintactics will be able to localize blockchain tokenization and securitization technologies of physical and illiquid assets. This investment was followed by a partnership at World Fintech Show.

The signing included:

• Mr. Haitham Al Sahafy, CEO, Fintactics

• Mr. Mohammed Al Maghlouth, Managing Partner Fintactics

• Lucas Schoch, Founder and CEO  Bitfy Holdings

Launch of Fintech (Holoul)

Utilizing the opportunity of being preset at World Fintech Show, the launch of the most recent Fintactics Venture, Holoul was announced.
In keeping with the Saudi residents' Vision 2030, Holoul is a digital mortgage platform that focuses on facilitating and enhancing homeownership. In Saudi Arabia, the mortgage market is evolving quickly, and the results are very positive.
There is little doubt that numerous market dynamics and political encouragement from various bodies and ministries were the driving forces behind this. In addition, it's a marketplace where customers can find a variety of luxury home products that suit their demands.

The signing included:

• Mr. Haitham Al Sahafy, CEO, Fintactics

• Mr. Mohammed Al Maghlouth, Managing Partner Fintactics

• Basil Al Shamlan, Founder and CEO  Holul Venture

Jack Henry™ announced today that it has been selected by TIB, N.A. (The Independent BankersBank), the nation’s largest bankers’ bank, to provide technology infrastructure. This technology will allow community banks to continue innovating, supporting their distinct growth strategies, and competing with larger financial institutions and fintechs.

For more than 20 years, Texas-based TIB has been operating on a proprietary core system with highly customizable functionality. The bank, which supports nearly 1,400 community banks in all 50 states, decided that moving to Jack Henry’s fully outsourced technology model would more effectively support its near- and long-term operational requirements, efficiency goals, and growth strategy. The Jack Henry platform also positions the bank to be future-ready with proven capabilities for high-demand consumer and commercial services such as real-time payments.

Michael G. O’Rourke, president and CEO at TIB, said, “It was important for us to find a well-rounded technology company that can support our unique business model and operational requirements with customizable, open, and proven solutions. Jack Henry shares our passion for constant innovation and our vision of the future of banking. Migrating to their platform will provide TIB with greater efficiency and the scalability we need to serve the future needs of our partner institutions.”

Stacey Zengel, senior vice president of Jack Henry and president of Bank Solutions, said, “The modern financial technology delivered by Jack Henry will further empower TIB to serve the growing needs of the financial institutions it serves. We’re excited about the opportunity to power TIB’s technology infrastructure and future.”

Appian announced today that it is named a Leader in the new report, Process Orchestration Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023. According to the report, process orchestration helps business users design, manage, and monitor end-to-end business processes. The report analyzes 18 technology providers across several key capabilities, including:
 
 • Process design and execution
 • Business rules and decision management
 • Low-code/no-code user interface development
 • Hybrid workforce management
 
Appian received a Leader ranking in the report, indicating Appian’s strong vision to enable end-to-end process design and management through a low-code/no-code visual interface. Appian received the highest scores of any vendor across the two categories of “Vision and Capability” and “Market Impact.”
 
Everest Group’s analysis of Appian states, “Clients have highlighted the intuitiveness of user interface, testing features, process monitoring, and insights as the key strength areas for Appian.”
 

Amardeep Modi, Vice President at Everest Group, said, “Appian offers a low-code process orchestration platform with a focus on enabling enterprises to design, optimize, and manage the flow of work across human workers, digital workers, and IT systems. Its position as a Leader on Everest Group’s Process Orchestration Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023 is underpinned by its strong vision and global market presence, depth and breadth of product functionalities, and product’s ease of use.”

“Process automation and orchestration are key to meeting customer experience expectations, wringing inefficiencies out of operations, and simplifying compliance,” said Malcom Ross, Deputy CTO at Appian. “Appian’s unique capabilities for building an enterprise data fabric and orchestrating end-to-end complex processes is ideal for companies in heavily-regulated industries who need to continue driving business innovation in a compliant manner.”

The United States is enjoying a robust startup scene that has resulted in most companies attracting significant valuations backed by external factors like friendly regulations. Indeed, the operating conditions have partly resulted in the U.S. dwarfing other global economies in the number of unicorns.

In particular, data acquired by Finbold indicates that as of November 2022, the United States had the highest number of unicorns at 704. China comes a distant second with 243 unicorns, while India ranks third at 85. The United Kingdom ranks fourth with 56, while Germany ranks fifth with 36 unicorns. Indeed, the U.S. has at least double the number of unicorns compared to both China and Indian combined.

Other countries making up the top ten list with the highest number of unicorns include France (27), Israel (26), Canada (25), South Korea (22), and Singapore (19).

Elsewhere, a breakdown of top unicorns in the United States indicates that the space company SpaceX ranks top with a valuation of $127 billion, while payment firm Stripe ranks second at $95 billion. Instacart ranks third, valued at $39 billion, followed by Databrick's $38 billion valuation. Meanwhile, gaming company Epic Games ranks fifth at $31.5 billion.

Other top-valued unicorns in the U.S. include Fanatics ($27 billion), Chime ($25 billion), Miro ($17.5 billion), Discord ($15 billion) and Ripple ($15 billion).

Drivers of U.S. unicorn dominance 

The research highlighted factors behind the U.S. and China's dominance in the global unicorn scene. According to the research report:

"Notably, the unicorns are spread globally, but the United States and China account for the giant share considering the two countries are the largest economies in the world. However, the U.S. domination can be tied to specific factors like an enormous funding pool, innovation capability and a well-regulated environment. In this case, entrepreneurs can launch different projects without worrying about funding or the government clamping down."

With startups attaining unicorn status, the next possible course of action is to go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However, the prospects of an IPO significantly depend on how the economy performs, considering the stock market remains depressed.

Read the full story with statistics here: https://finbold.com/revealed-the-u-s-has-twice-as-many-unicorns-as-china-and-india-combined/ 

KuCoin, one of the largest exchanges worldwide, announced that it has engaged Mazars, a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm, to provide a third-party factual findings report. 

With an impressive number of top-rank financial and fintech brands nominating themselves for one or more of the now industry-recognised UF AWARDS MEA, nominations are rapidly coming to an end. Have you nominated your brand?

Counting the days to the grand UF AWARDS MEA 2023? Setting the benchmark for excellence in the fintech and financial services sector, the UF AWARDS MEA 2023 are on the industry leaders’ radar as they seek to raise brand awareness and gain recognition in the Middle East and Africa.

Brands eager to achieve industry-wide recognition head over to the Ultimate Fintech website to nominate themselves for a prestigious award in 2023. Nominations close on December 16th, leaving a space of only two weeks for companies that have not nominated themselves yet in any of the categories to do so in the coming days. With most nominations already in, there are only a few slots left. Be sure to nominate your brand before the end date!

Claim your spot at the vanguard of the industry

Some of the titles that can position your brand front and centre include:

Best Multi-Asset Broker - MEA

Best CFD Broker - MEA

Best Newcomer Broker - MEA

Best Customer Support - MEA

Best Trading Experience - MEA

Best B2B Liquidity Provider - MEA

Best Multi-Asset Trading Platform - MEA

Best Copy Trading Platform - MEA

Best Cloud Technology Solution - MEA

Best Automated Performance Tool - MEA

Selected on strict criteria assessing service quality, product range and industry expertise, winners of the UF AWARDS MEA benefit from more than an industry-wide recognised title, a trophy, or a position in the elite. An UF Award MEA confers its winner distinction and a leading position in the financial and fintech sector across the Middle East and Africa. Above all, an UF Award MEA, regardless of the category, helps you raise brand awareness, build customer trust, attain market validation, and, most importantly, stand out from the competition by positioning your brand as an industry leader in the MEA region.

Created by the leading fintech marketing agency, Ultimate Fintech, the UF AWARDS MEA confer the highest recognition an online broker and financial technology provider can achieve locally and internationally.

Nominations are in full swing. Save the date!

Attaining a prominent position in an ultra-competitive industry, such as the financial services and fintech industry is a remarkable performance.

During the Nomination Round, all applications are carefully reviewed, vetted, and approved. This stage will be followed by the Voting Round, the most important phase of the awarding process, during which all industry players are called upon to cast their vote. Votes are then counted and allocated fairly to each participating brand.

The winners of each category will be announced after the iFX EXPO Dubai, as soon as the night falls over the emirate and the city comes to life. Held in a glamorous location, the Award Ceremony will crown the Best of the Best in each category. The venue will be announced soon.

Ready to shine? Nominate your brand and enjoy the spotlight live on stage, as the hosts will call out your brand. The final countdown starts now. Don’t miss out!

Fnality and HQLA^X announce the successful completion of the first proof of concept (PoC) delivery versus payment (DvP) repo settlement across the Fnality Payment System (FnPS) and HQLA^X’s Digital Collateral Registry, bridging the distributed ledger technologies (DLT) of Enterprise Ethereum and R3 Corda, respectively.  

The proof of concept was supported by the project participants – Banco Santander, Goldman Sachs and UBS - and achieved by connecting HQLA^x with the Ecosystem TestNet environment, simulating the Fnality Payment System, built in collaboration with Adhara.

The transactions were atomically settled across the two platforms, meaning that each system’s boundaries were respected (i.e. no collateral was represented on the FnPS, and no cash was represented on HQLA^X’s Digital Collateral Registry) and the swap only completed when both systems confirmed all criteria had been fulfilled. This also demonstrates how platforms running on different DLTs can be linked to deliver enhanced resilience, reduced risks, and reduction of fragmented liquidity.

The success of the test means that Fnality, HQLA^X and their mutual clients can now focus on the use case implementation, bringing the possibility for intraday settlements one step closer to reality.

Manuel Villa Arechaga, head of SecFinance, at Santander said: “We are delighted to play our part in advancing the state of the art with respect to delivery versus payment in the digital financial marketplace infrastructure.”

Amar Amlani, Head of EMEA Digital Assets, Goldman Sachs said: “Efficient cross-chain settlement is going to be fundamental to the scalable development of TradFi on DLT whilst enabling firms to realize the full potential of this innovative technology – it’s exciting to see the successful outcome of the work between HQLA^x and Fnality and we look forward to developing this use-case further.”

Hyder Jaffrey, Head of Principal Investments and Digital Assets, UBS Investment Bank said: “It’s great to see proven evidence of interoperability between Fnality and HQLAx.  Cross chain DvP, enabling a Digital Repo, is critical in the wider delivery of a functioning digital asset market.”

Rhomaios Ram, Fnality International CEO, said: “This DvP PoC is a significant step for Fnality as we enable a single pool of liquidity for our participants. Coupled with PvP, participants can swap their funds from their home currency to execute a DvP settlement with other platforms and business applications. Leveraging the strengths of each platform and ensuring they operate seamlessly is what has been exciting to see. This combination can deliver exactly the type of operational efficiencies that have been promised by DLT. Importantly, HQLA^X, Fnality and its participants are at the forefront of this innovation, applying DLT to transform traditional financial systems.”

Guido Stroemer, HQLA^X CEO, said: “Enabling the seamless execution of DvP involving collateral on our platform demonstrates our commitment to extending the mobility and use of collateral for participants of HQLA^X.”

Julio Faura, CEO at Adhara said: “Building on the success of the Nivaura POC (Bond Issuance) and the Finteum POC (PvP), this is the third collaboration successfully delivered on the Ecosystem TestNet. The adoption of interop standards across different platforms has matured to a level where it is clear that best-of-breed solutions will work seamlessly in this new market infrastructure ecosystem.”  

HashKey Digital Asset Group (“HashKey” or “HashKey Group”) and SEBA Bank AG (“SEBA Bank”) have today announced a new strategic partnership that will see both financial services groups leverage their digital asset service offerings as well as custody and asset management products to accelerate the institutional adoption of digital assets in Hong Kong and in Switzerland. 

The strategic partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), will see HashKey become SEBA Bank’s preferred digital asset trading and market development partner in Hong Kong, while SEBA Bank will be the banking partner of choice for HashKey in Switzerland. Together, HashKey and SEBA Bank will endeavour to bring to market reliable and differentiated solutions and avenues for institutional and professional investors who are seeking to take exposure in the digital asset ecosystem. The two groups are also committed to complying with and embracing the regulatory frameworks of their respective jurisdictions with the highest standards of compliance, Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering policies and measures. 

SEBA Bank is a leading crypto bank in Switzerland having a suite of fully regulated banking and investment services including trading, structured products, bank accounts, credit, custody and staking. By partnering with HashKey, SEBA Bank will strengthen its offering to its institutional clients and partners and solidify its position as a global crypto banking leader, complementing its existing licences and branches in Switzerland and Abu Dhabi. 

HashKey Group, through its subsidiary Hash Blockchain Limited (“HBL”), was recently granted approval from the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) of Hong Kong to operate a virtual asset trading platform, becoming the second company in Hong Kong licensed to provide regulated automated trading services for professional investors in respect of virtual assets. In accordance with the regulatory framework set out by the SFC, HashKey’s virtual asset trading platform, named HashKey PRO, is built to ensure the highest level of client asset protection, in which client assets are segregated and held in custody by HashKey Custody Services Limited, a holder of a Trust or Company Service Provider licence in Hong Kong.   

Franz Bergmueller, Group CEO of SEBA Bank, commented, “With a supportive regulatory framework, Hong Kong is a leading jurisdiction globally in the licensing provision of crypto products and services. It is important that the SEBA group becomes part of this ecosystem as a trusted, secure and transparent counterparty in this regulated crypto environment. We’re proud to partner with HashKey to establish and strengthen our presence in this critical market. As a leading provider of digital asset financial services in the Asian markets, HashKey will play an important role in expanding our presence and network in the region.” 

Michel Lee, Executive President at HashKey Group, said, “Since our inception, HashKey has always prioritised the importance of protecting our clients’ funds and assets under a regulatory-first approach. We are excited to form this strategic partnership with SEBA Bank, a pioneer in the global digital investment market and one of the most innovative financial institutions in the world, who also shares the same ethos and core principles with us on regulatory compliance. Merging HashKey’s ecosystem of digital asset services along with SEBA Bank’s cutting-edge digital banking and finance infrastructure will allow us to offer to our clients the most secure and seamless gateway into the new digital economy.”

Jamie Day, Head of Operational Risk at Arbuthnot Latham said: "The Clausematch platform allows us to avoid a fragmented approach to naming, tagging, structuring and formatting compliance documents thus avoiding risks and keeping everything in a single dynamic repository. An automated audit trail ensures clarity around accountability and it is easily extractable should the regulator’s request it."

Freddie Frith, Head of Sales at Clausematch commented: "We are honoured to be working with one of the fastest-growing UK banks helping them on their journey aimed at the digital transformation of compliance. With a single compliance management platform, it is now possible in a few clicks to run the end-to-end lifecycle of compliance documents, company-wide policies and procedures: they can easily be drafted, reviewed, approved and finalised. The Policy Portal instantly makes it available in a single repository for employees to easily access and attest to."

Global analytics software company FICO has revealed the findings from its latest fraud survey with consumers showing that strong fraud protection can be a competitive differentiator. When asked to rank their considerations in selecting a financial account provider, the top factor for 30 per cent was good fraud prevention. This came above value for money at 26 per cent.

Learn more here: https://www.fico.com/es/latest-thinking/ebook/consumer-survey-2022-fraud-identity-and-digital-banking-uk

Greater levels of checks across the financial services sector in the past year are probably contributing to consumers seeing fraud prevention as important. Some 63 per cent of respondents in the UK reported an increase in identity checks when purchasing online with a card and 52 per cent saw a rise in the number of checks carried out when logging in to their bank accounts.

“Historically there has been a perception that fraud teams are an overhead, a necessity to cut fraud losses,” said Matt Cox, vice president and managing director for FICO in EMEA. “But successful fraud protection can actually increase competitive differentiation. Consumer awareness of scams and the methods used by financial institutions to prevent fraud is rising and with that comes an increased interest in a financial service provider’s fraud credentials.”   

Biometrics take the lead - but customers still want choice

The other issue which has seen a sea-change in consumer attitudes is the identity verification methods used by providers. A few years ago, biometrics were largely unknown by consumers. Today they’re the preferred authentication methods.

When asked about making a payment online with a debit or credit card, 48 per cent of respondents selected fingerprint scans as an excellent way to secure an account. Another biometric data set – face scan – was the top choice to access an account securely for 45 per cent of respondents.

The appetite for receiving one-time passcodes to verify online payments has also shifted as digital engagement through banking apps has increased. FICO’s survey in 2020 found that only 14 per cent wanted to receive notification of a pass-code to their mobile banking app. That percentage has increased to 36 per cent in the 2022 survey.

“It is encouraging to see consumer preferences over identity checks starting to match pace with technology,” added Cox. “It seems that as new security methods become available, people are embracing them.”

 Getting the balance right

There is, however, still some negative experience of verification checks that needs to be addressed by financial account providers. Consumers aren’t tolerant if their experience is poor.  One in four respondents said they had stopped opening a new personal account as the identity checks were too difficult or time-consuming. Similarly, 20 per cent said they had abandoned opening a savings account as the checks were too long and difficult.

“Aiming for a completely frictionless experiences could leave a provider over-exposed, but being adaptive is critical,” concluded Matt Cox. “Our survey shows that financial institutions need to be flexible in how they check customers’ identities. Each customer and situation is unique and catering for that well requires sophisticated orchestration of how identity is checked.”