emerchantpay, a leading payment service provider, today announces a new strategic partnership with Umbraco, an open-source content management system (CMS) platform. emerchantpay is the first payments company to be directly integrated into Umbraco Forms and enables payments for businesses in the UK and the rest of Europe using the CMS platform.

The new partnership will allow businesses to add one-off payments to any forms they create through Umbraco, which are then securely processed by emerchantpay. Once businesses have their emerchantpay account set up, they will be able to create a payment form within minutes and start accepting online payments. For example, a business using Umbraco Forms may sell tickets to an event or accept donations in the form of pre-set amounts. 

Jon Horddal, Chief Product Officer at emerchantpay comments: “Many businesses want to accept one-off online payments, but do not have the means to quickly set this up. By using the emerchantpay integration with Umbraco Forms, businesses can now set up payments and open up new revenue streams, without the barriers of cost, time, and technical knowledge.”  

Jesper Lyngbye, VP of Tech Partnerships at Umbraco adds, “This new integration with emerchantpay further extends the capabilities of Umbraco Forms, already one of our most popular products. This new partnership gives us the ability to offer payment processing in a simple, fast way. It is a major feature for any business that wants to be able to accept one-off payments without a full eCommerce solution.”  

Squirro, the Augmented Intelligence solutions provider, has launched a new app – Allocators Insights – that directly delivers the latest allocation strategy information to users, such as asset, fund, wealth, portfolio, and investment managers.

Allocators Insights is a ready-to-use solution from Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary Squirro’s ‘Out of the Box’ range. It provides the deeper insight into market trends and fluctuations that’s so essential when making investment decisions, particularly Chief Investment Officer (CIO) statements.

CIO statements are rich in insight into an organization’s investment strategy and management changes. They can substantially impact the markets but take the form of unstructured data, making them difficult to manage and work with.

Staying aware of CIO statements and other macro and micro trends in asset allocation is crucial, but doing so has been a manual and time-consuming process. Allocators Insights provides this information automatically, and users can be up and running with it within minutes.

“Anyone working in asset, wealth, or portfolio management needs to be on top of the latest trends and shifts in the market – this includes what CIOs publish about their future investment strategies," said Patrice Neff, Co-Founder, Squirro. "Traditionally, this information has been captured manually, which is time-consuming and ineffective. Allocators Insights brings the power of automation to investment advisory, saving time and delivering deeper insight to improve investment decision-making."

The Allocators Insights app is based on the Squirro Insight Engine. This improves access to information by connecting all data sources and applying natural language processing and machine learning to deliver the right information to users at the right time.

Users choose the allocators they wish to monitor, and the Allocators Insights App provides actionable insight based on CIO strategy changes and macro trends across regions and asset classes. This automatic tracking is presented via easy and intuitive dashboards, helping to improve investment strategy and giving back hundreds of hours previously spent on manual research.

“Sourcing, gathering, and aggregating the statements of the most relevant CIOs is one of the most time-consuming and thankless tasks in finance,” continued Patrice Neff, Squirro. “This is rarely as effective as it should be and means users cannot focus on more high-value activities. The Allocators Insights app is a game-changer, providing deep insight into CIO strategies and macro trends and allowing investment professionals to stay informed in a volatile market.”

Natwest launches three new APIs to support corporate, commercial, and institutional customers' demand for seamless real-time payments and automated reconciliation needs, including BACs payments.

The launch adds to the Indirect Access Payments suite of APIs (Application Programming Interface) which are widely used by Natwest Agency Banks and Indirect Payment Service Providers to process secure bank-grade and non-bank-grade domestic payments, worth billions in value, quickly and easily, plus get real-time status information on those payments.

For commercial and corporate treasury teams, NatWest is supporting the increasing demand for real-time payments and processing with the addition of three new APIs in the bank’s host-to-host solution, Bankline Direct, complementing those already available for financial institution customers.  

Bankline Direct integrates with customers' Treasury Management Systems (TMS) or Enterprise Resource Systems (ERP) and is used for payments and reconciliation activities.

The power of NatWest Bankline Direct APIs lies in their ability to directly connect the Bank with different systems allowing for the secure transmission and processing of payment data in real or near-real time. The APIs use industry-standard security and ISO20022 formats allowing customers to make secure payments.

Jonathan Hall, Head of Digital at NatWest said:

“Our newest APIs use the latest technologies to support our customers’ needs. The result is a seamless and secure transition to real-time payments in the digital, always-on economy. As we continue to innovate, our API products will allow our customers to improve their interaction with us and receive essential data more quickly.”

The three new APIs developed for corporate and commercial customers in direct response to customer feedback include:

·         Make a Payment - customers can directly initiate a CHAPS, Faster Payments and international transfers and receive near real-time payment status notifications

·         Account reconciliation – pull and schedule reports to enable treasury teams to directly access information seamlessly and optimise the power of their data

·         Autopay Direct Bacs API – launch of a new product, aimed at large corporate customers to allow for Bacs payments to be submitted unattended and seamlessly

Today, Kuda, the money app for Africans is launching in the UK as part of a major global expansion drive, following a total investment of over $90 million USD. The launch will enable hundreds of thousands of UK-based Nigerians to combat high remittance costs on large transfers which currently average out at eight percent¹ - significantly short of the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%².  Kuda’s vision is to give all Africans globally access to friction-free and affordable financial services, connecting the diaspora with Africa and increasing financial inclusion.

Kuda is entering the UK market charging a flat fee of only £3 with a transfer limit of £10,000. With over £3 billion³ sent from the UK to Nigeria every year, Kuda is set to save UK Nigerians millions of pounds. Parent company Kuda Technologies Limited was founded in 2019 by two Nigerians, Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha. Its Nigerian business rapidly expanded to become the country’s number one money app, with nearly five million customers.

Remittance accounts for nearly 1% of Nigeria’s total GDP³ but the UK to Nigeria payment rail has been notoriously unreliable, with high fees. Kuda’s digital-only approach and unique local market knowledge has allowed it to launch a service that drives prosperity for both senders and recipients. Kuda operates as a distributor of Modulr, which enables Kuda’s UK entity to offer a mobile wallet, virtual and physical cards, local UK transfers and direct debits. Kuda is also supported by TellMoney, which helps Kuda maintain the open banking standard under Modulr’s requirements.

Commenting on the launch of the UK app, CEO and co-founder Babs Ogundeyi said: “Africans in the UK are faced with barrier after barrier when it comes to financial services - from challenges setting up accounts to prohibitive and inconsistent fees on meaningful transfers. They are forced to limit each transfer to a few hundred pounds to avoid losing money or face escalating exchange rates with bigger transfers.

Technology means the world is getting smaller but the incredible transformation in financial services hasn’t been inclusive. Kuda is changing that - initially for Nigerians, then all Africans in the UK and across the globe.”

The Kuda app will be available on iOS, Android and the web, initially offering UK-to-Nigeria remittance, with plans to expand the remittance service to other African countries and expand the feature portfolio for UK customers in the near future. 

LHV, a leading banking services provider to over 200 fintech and crypto companies, is pleased to announce a partnership with Lightyear, the European investment platform founded by two early Wise employees. LHV will provide Lightyear with real-time EUR payments and other banking services.   

Lightyear was founded by ex-Wise duo Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer to give everyone in Europe seamless, low-cost access to global markets. Traditionally, if European investors want access to international markets, they get hit with transaction and custody fees, but most notably, hidden foreign exchange fees. Lightyear aims to bridge these gaps and lower the fees for international markets for customers.

LHV is the founding member and leader in instant EUR payments, processing 8% of the total Single Euro Payments Area (‘SEPA’) Instant transactions in Europe. The scheme processes the payments in seconds, regardless of the time or day throughout the year. Through offering a wide selection of banking services, LHV aims to become a one-stop shop for all banking needs of its fintech customers.

In addition to SEPA and SEPA Instant payments, LHV will offer Lightyear EUR safeguarding accounts, which separate client funds from the company’s. LHV will also provide EU operational accounts, designed to hold businesses’ operating funds, international SWIFT and payments in EEA currencies alongside virtual IBANs. This partnership powered the new fintech’s recent pan-European launch.

In July, Lightyear announced a $25M Series A round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sir Richard Branson, to power its expansion into 19 new European countries, thereby becoming the first neobroker to unlock most of Europe in one move. With no trading, account and custody fees — charging a small 0.35% for FX — Lightyear entered most European countries as one of the most competitively priced investment platforms on the market.

Andres Kitter, CEO of LHV UK, said: “Lightyear is democratising access investing to retail traders. By utilising Lightyear’s commission-free investment platform, investors can bypass the traditional banks and web platforms, which charge high fees for stock trading.” 

Mihkel Aamer, Co-founder and CTO at Lightyear, said: ”LHV is partnering with fintechs to innovate and build a better financial system for customers in Estonia and now across Europe. We share a similar approach to providing best-in-class customer experience — when it comes to payments and people’s money, it’s key to eliminate unnecessary delays & slow processing times. We’re excited to join forces with LHV to bring real-time EUR payments to investors across Europe.” 

Integral, a leading technology provider to the financial markets, announced today that global brokerage firm Capital.com has selected Integral’s cloud-based FX workflow automation technology, IntegralFX, to offer bank-grade pricing to their retail trader customer base.

The comprehensive end-to-end eFX trading and workflow solution have been specifically built for the broker community, demonstrating Integral’s commitment to democratising financial technology and making it more accessible and efficient to the broker segment operating in the fast-moving online trading and investing space. Integral’s SaaS technology, available at a fixed subscription cost, enables platforms like Capital.com to focus on growing their business without worrying about additional brokerage fees.

Capital.com will benefit from connectivity to Integral’s low-latency market data, greater access to multi-asset liquidity sources, and advanced price distribution functionality to deliver a superior service to their clients.

Harpal Sandhu, CEO, Integral, commented: “Our cloud-based SaaS offering has been built with our customers in mind and enables them to grow and outperform their competition. We’re very pleased to be working with Capital.com and further expanding our client base in the broker segment.”

Christoforos Soutzis, Head of Operations, Capital.com added: “We are delighted to work with Integral and provide our clients with live, real-time FX and metals pricing to help them make more informed trading decisions. This partnership affirms Capital.com’s commitment to combine state-of-the-art technology with timely data and insights to help our clients trade and invest with ease and confidence.”

Tonik, the Philippines’ first neobank, continues to accelerate financial and credit inclusion with the launch of its two new lending products, Flex Loan and Big Loan.
 
Building on the success of its all-digital savings portfolio and the successful launch of its first lending product, Quick Loan, the new products are set to position Tonik as among the pioneering digital lenders in the country with loans catering to every need.

Quick, convenient, and coupled with fixed low-interest rates, Flex Loan empowers customers with both freedom and flexibility to chase their dream purchases and experiences perfect for the start of another year. Tonik’s best-priced unsecured loan yet, Flex Loan offers 2.49% monthly interest for up to 24 months, for a loan of as much as Php 250,000. No collateral is needed as employed customers would only need to provide their latest bank statement and proof of income.
 
A home equity type of loan, Big Loan offers a one-time multipurpose instalment loan that allows a borrower to use the equity value of their home. This property is then pledged to the bank as collateral, securing an amount of up to Php 2,500,000.
 
Relatively new in the Philippines, this type of lending product continues to be popular in more developed markets such as the United States. It is mostly used for home improvement, investment for family businesses, and debt consolidation under a lower-interest product.

With Big Loan, the first fully digitalized collateral product in the market, customers only need to come to the Tonik Hub once to formally sign the loan and mortgage documents. Offering the fastest-in-market approval time in a fully digital manner within minutes of the application, and disbursement of loans in seven (7) business days from submission of documents, proceeds of the loan are disbursed into customers’ Tonik Savings Accounts. No property appraisal fees are charged and no third-party appraisal is required.

“Powered by our purely digital platform and the most competitive market rates, Flex Loan and Big Loan offer accessible, safe, and badly needed credit for the huge underserved market in the Philippines,” shared Tonik Founder and CEO Greg Krasnov.

“With these new loans, we are excited to speed up efforts in accelerating credit inclusion in the country.”

Flex Loan and Big Loan are now available in the latest version of the Tonik app which can be found and downloaded via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

In the UK, Foresters Financial, the mutual financial services organisation, has achieved an outstanding claim pay-out rate of 99.99 per cent for critical illness and income protection, with the help of wellness specialist MorganAsh. 

Foresters have operated across the UK, United States and Canada since 1874, providing life insurance, critical illness cover and investment plans for adults and children. Its UK operation supports more than three million members and customers with £5.7 billion (31^st December 2021) of funds under management.

Its goal is to offer financial solutions to families at every stage of life, with the purpose of enhancing the lives of members, their loved ones and the communities they live in. 

The enviable claim pay-out rate has been achieved with the help of MorganAsh, which provide protection for new business and claims outsourcing including tele-interviewing. This interview process with a MorganAsh nurse takes place at the application stage, separating out the completion of medical information from their team of financial advisers. This helps give peace of mind upfront to their members knowing that if the worst does happen, their loved ones will receive the financial support they planned for.

To continue delivering for their customers, Foresters has also joined the pilot scheme for MARS, the MorganAsh Resilience System. MARS is designed to help advisers identify, monitor and evidence customer vulnerability, in line with the requirements of the FCA’s new Consumer Duty.

To bring a consistent and objective approach to a subjective topic like vulnerability, MARS uses assessments to generate a ‘Resilience Rating’ – much like a credit score. This means the team at Foresters can not only evidence compliance but best understand the needs of the customer.

Andrew Gething, managing director of MorganAsh said: “Foresters has long been a great example of how to successfully sell a suite of protection and financial products while still providing good customer outcomes.

“Foresters’ enviable 99.99 per cent claim payout rate is great for its customers and puts Foresters in a good position to meet Consumer Duty regulations, as they are already demonstrating the support and empowering their customers to take out the right products suitable for their circumstances and needs.  Poor outcomes from poor claims experiences are an issue for many other companies presently selling critical illness.

“We’re proud to play our part in its fantastic achievement, supporting Foresters with its onboarding and extending our longstanding partnership through the pilot scheme of our innovative MARS system.”

Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, CEO of Foresters Financial UK said: “As part of our continued efforts to support customers in achieving financial resilience, it’s important we have the right tools and providers in place to support our products and services. MorganAsh has proven to be an integral partner for more than a decade and a key component in this achievement.

“As we look to deliver the best service to our growing UK customer base and meet the demands of the regulator, we’re also excited to be taking part in a pilot of MorganAsh’s innovative system. This is a positive step forward in eliminating inconsistent outcomes and potential harm for consumers and ensuring that we always provide both the best advice and the best products for every customer every time.”

ASA is an embedded fintech solution that connects financial institutions with customer-facing fintechs in a secure, compliant and easy-to-implement marketplace. The company today announced that its consumer-facing app, ASA Vault, is available in the Apple App and Google Play Stores and the issuance of its patent protects this new open banking technology.

The app allows customers to connect with fintechs without sharing any private or sensitive information, allowing them to try out the newest technology in a safe, risk-free way. ASA has introduced a new version of open banking in which fintechs are contractually prohibited from competing with banks and credit unions. The institutions can leverage this version of embedded fintech to maintain relevance and prominence in their customers’ and members’ lives.

“ASA is transforming the way institutions and fintechs work together, all with the end goal of helping consumers and businesses improve their financial empowerment,” said Lisa Gold Schier, chief strategy officer of ASA. “By decreasing the regulatory risk and the cumbersome one-to-one integrations traditionally associated with bank-fintech partnerships, we are unlocking industry-wide innovation with the first ever exponential growth platform for banking.”

The ASA Vault App includes an asset tracker that centralizes and aggregates all relevant accounts, assets, debt and identity data into a single location. The tracker provides account holders with a comprehensive view of their finances, tracks historical transactions and provides insights into how their net worth has changed over time. Such functionality drives stronger and more frequent engagement with partner banks and credit unions.

“The ASA Vault app helps banks and credit unions better understand their customers and ultimately win more business, all while empowering account holders with deep visibility into their holistic financial picture,” said Landon Glenn, CEO and founder of ASA. “With ASA, banks and credit unions can securely extend their brand into everything their customers and members do in e-commerce. This makes them the hub of financial adoption, maintaining account holder relationships and providing financial empowerment through individualized choice.”

Binance said Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent to acquire its most formidable rival FTX, delivering a surprising twist to a days-long public spat between the world’s two largest crypto exchanges that contributed to several digital tokens taking a tumble Tuesday.

The deal follows Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s months-long clash on social media, which escalated earlier this week.

Zhao said Binance reached the decision after the three-year-old exchange FTX asked the crypto behemoth for help. “To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire FTX and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days,” he said in a tweet.

“Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time,” Zhao, more popularly known as CZ, cautioned. But “the important thing is that customers are protected,” said Bankman-Fried, or as many call him, SBF.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, is the first investor that backed FTX, but as the younger firm grew in popularity, the relationship between the two started to wither. The firms haven’t disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but it is likely not great / utterly terrible for investors of FTX, which was valued at $32 billion in a financing round earlier this year.

The closure of the deal may attract regulatory scrutiny.

The two billionaires have been hurling snarky remarks at each other for several months, but the relationship hit an all-time low earlier this week after Zhao said that Binance was selling its holdings of FTT, the native token of FTX exchange, that it had received as part of an exit from the firm last year.

Zhao said the firm was liquidating its FTT holdings as a “post-exit risk management,” giving some credence to a widely circulated rumour about Alameda Research’s concerning financial health. Alameda and Bankman-Fried had earlier refuted such concerns.

Bankman-Fried also founded the prop trading and market-making firm Alameda, which at least has some exposure to the FTT tokens. FTT token slid to as low as $14.32 from $25.47 earlier on Tuesday as investors lost faith, according to Binance’s trading view. (Hours after the news broke, the token dropped to as low as $2.51 before a slight recovery.)

In a note to clients earlier Tuesday, research firm Bernstein suggested that FTX should consider shutting down Alameda due to the perceived risks.

“Binance is the immediate trigger, but FTX should resolve its relationship with Alameda. FTX cannot carry on its existing ownership structure with Alameda. FTX needs to completely ring-fence itself and potentially shut down the Alameda prop trading business. If Alameda’s trading operations impact FTX’s customer confidence (perception of Alameda trading against users on FTX and Alameda’s state of finances), then there is more downside to running Alameda than otherwise,” a Bernstein analyst wrote in the note.

Bankman-Fried offered a “huge thanks” to Zhao and Binance on Tuesday, adding that the deal was “a user-centric development that benefits the entire industry.”

“CZ has done, and will continue to do, an incredible job of building out the global crypto ecosystem, and creating a freer economic world,” Bankman-Fried said in a tweet.

FTX is working on clearing the withdrawal backlog, he said. “This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. It may take a bit to settle etc. — we apologize for that,” he said.

Binance is the world’s most valuable crypto exchange, estimated to be worth over $300 billion. FTX was valued at $32 billion in its most recent funding round (a Series C) in January this year. The firm counts Sequoia, BlackRock, Tiger Global, Paradigm, Thoma Bravo, SoftBank, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sino Global, Bond and Iconiq Growth among its long list of backers. FTX and its FTX US business raised over $2.2 billion across several funding rounds, according to Web3 Signals, a crypto dealbook.

Tuesday’s announcement shocked the business world and even the crypto community, which has grown accustomed to topsy-turvy developments this year. Bankman-Fried was hailed as a crypto saviour earlier this year after he bought a series of firms. FTX Ventures, the ventures arm of the crypto exchange, is also a major investor in a large number of crypto startups including Aptos Labs, Messari, Sky Mavis, LayerZero, YugaLabs and 1inch Network, according to Web3 Signal.

Bankman-Fried attempted to raise additional capital from investors before approaching Binance, according to a source familiar with the matter. Axios suggests that many existing investors are surprised by the move.

Scores of companies are suffering from this week’s event. Shares of Bankman-Fried-backed Robinhood dropped nearly 20%, whereas crypto exchange Coinbase was down about 10% to the day at the time of publication.

In a statement after the Binance-FTX deal — and the subsequent crypto prices tumble — Coinbase assured investors that it has no exposure to the FTT tokens and “very little” exposure to FTX.

“Currently we have $15 million worth of deposits on FTX to facilitate business operations and client trades,” Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas wrote in a blog post. “We have no exposure to Alameda Research, and we have no loans to FTX. Second, as a publicly traded company in the US, we’ve also built our business in a way that allows us to be transparent about our track record, balance sheet strength, and effectively and prudently manage risk for our customers and ourselves.”