The fast-growing company Bosam selects Vilja's cloud-based banking platform for its unique Credit Application Process for housing co-operatives (in Swedish “Bostadsrättsföreningar”), launched in Sweden on October 28, 2022. Vilja's platform provides a better customer experience through a digital, automated and flexible credit verification process.

Bosam has developed and successfully launched a new financing model for co-ops that enables 50-70% lower apartment prices compared to traditional co-op apartments by reallocating debt from residents to co-ops through loans with fixed interest rates. The mission is to give significantly more people a chance to enter the housing market.

"We, at Bosam, want to change the way you look at the financial sustainability of housing co-operatives, ensuring that all residents, and thereby the co-ops, have healthy and stable finances. Through a smooth and safe process for the financial assessment of future members, we can ensure this. In the development of this digital platform, Vilja has been our preferred partner since the start," says Timmy Andersson, Chief Commercial Officer at Bosam.

"Bosam is an inspiring company with an innovative business model, and we look forward to supporting them on their growth journey. The housing market is changing, and we are investing heavily in offering the best digital platform for housing co-operative loans and other types of mortgage loans," says Fredrik Ulvenholm, CEO at Vilja.

Vilja Mortgage Loans is a complete solution, from the application via credit check to ongoing credit management - designed for self-service and automation. The solution has an adaptable architecture and with the help of microservices, scalability is ensured. The solution is cloud-based and APIs enable unique digital customer journeys based on insightful algorithms.

Integral, a leading technology provider in the foreign exchange market, announces another senior hire, Judy Goh, as Managing Director and Head of Sales for APAC to continue the rapid expansion of Integral’s SaaS technology footprint in  Asia.

Based in Singapore, Goh brings 16 years’ experience in the foreign exchange market, with roles spanning across major financial institutions focusing on the management of e-FX institutional sales and business growth. Most recently, Goh held the role of Vice President of KX’s Trading Solutions in Asia. Prior to this, Goh was regional Sales Director at Deutsche Börse – 360T, She has also held roles at Deutsche Bank and OANDA.                                          

This new hire builds on Integral’s regional development earlier this year. Announced in March, the IntegralFX service is the first complete cloud-based FX workflow SaaS platform made available in the SG1 data center, providing banks, brokers, and other market participants with a complete eFX system for their internal traders and external customers. In her new role, Goh will be responsible for continuing to drive the significant growth Integral has seen in the region.

Commenting on the new hire, Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral, said: “As part of our global growth strategy, we welcome Judy to the Integral team, benefitting from her expertise to support our Asian clients on the ground in Singapore. The need for bank-grade technology in the Asian financial markets provides a sound business case for us to continue our expansion in the region.”

Goh added: “I am looking forward to joining the team at such an exciting time, bringing in my experience to serve local customers as the demand for Integral’s cloud-based SaaS offering continues to rapidly grow on a global scale.”

Silicon Valley Bank UK, the bank of the most innovative companies and investors in the UK and Europe, today announced the closing of financing for UK-listed global technology company Wise. Silicon Valley Bank UK acted as lead arranger of the syndication, with six other banks participating in the new £300m capital facility to support Wise’s future growth plans.

OKX, the world-leading cryptocurrency exchange, is coming to the world's first cross-border FinTech event, Hong Kong Fintech Week. OKX is a Diamond Sponsor for the event.

Taking place from October 31 to November 4 at the Wanchai Expo Center, Hong Kong Fintech Week is Asia’s global financial technology event and attracts thousands of fintech entrepreneurs, investors, regulators and visionaries from over 60 economies. The week-long event will feature multi-track conferences with prominent speakers, the FintechHK Global Final, the Fast Track Programme, exhibitions, deal floors, networking events and demo shows.

Two OKX representatives will speak at the event. On November 1 in a closing fireside presentation, Director of Financial Markets Lennix Lai will deliver a presentation entitled ‘What Hong Kong Should Do to Become the Hub of Virtual Assets in the Future’. Also on November 1, Vice President of Engineering Jerry Le will speak in a panel session on the Web 3 Stage. The name of the panel session is ‘The Role of Crypto in a Fiat World’.

Lennix Lai, Director of Financial Markets, OKX, said, “Hong Kong is a market that has always offered some of the very best tech and finance talent, and that has given rise to some of the most exciting crypto projects. We are very excited to both be participating in this leading global conference, and to see the steps that Hong Kong takes going forward to further provide an environment that is conducive to innovation in the space.”

As part of OKX’s goal to build the world’s most beloved crypto brand, the company is executing on an impactful calendar of events that will help deepen its relationships with a broad range of users and industry contributors.

A sovereign wealth fund led by Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman has launched a $24bn investment fund targetting the Middle East tech sector.

The fund, to be managed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF)  is designed to boost the region's burgeoning tech and telecoms industries.

As part of the fund launch, the PIF will establish five separate investment firms in Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, Jordan and Iraq. 

According to the PIF, the fund will boost regional investment opportunities for its portfolio companies as well as Saudi Arabia's private sector.

The announcement was made at the Future Investment Initiative, a flagship event for the region's financial services industry. 

At the same event, Visa announced it would set up an innovation centre in Saudi Arabia sometime in 2023.

The PIF has become one of the world's most active sovereign wealth funds in recent years as it looks to bolster its assets under management.

Technology has been one of the fund's main focuses as it looks to align with the Kingdom's stated ambition to diversify away from oil-based revenues. 

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to foster an open dialogue and enable the exchange of information between the two authorities to fulfil their respective regulatory mandates.

The MoU was signed by Ian Johnston,  Chief Executive of the DFSA, and Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Chairman of the BSEC on 28 October 2022 in Dubai.

The agreement provides a framework for facilitating cross-border collaboration between the two bodies on supervision and enforcement actions. Under the terms of the MoU, the DFSA and BSEC will enable knowledge sharing on best practices in regulatory, supervisory and licensing in the financial markets. The bodies will also confer closely on money laundering or terrorist financing risks amongst supervised entities and the existing AML/CFT systems and controls within firms.

Ian Johnston, Chief Executive of the DFSA said: “The reinforcement of supervision and regulatory cooperation between the DFSA and BSEC will result in greater market accessibility, ease of doing business as well as strengthened investor trust in both jurisdictions. We are confident that this in turn will encourage registered firms to raise their standards of fair dealing and drive further economic growth.”   

Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam, Chairman of the BSEC, said: "We are very excited that after 50 years of independence and friendship BSEC and DFSA are entering into a relationship anchored in cooperation, assistance, and research amongst other factors. This collaboration will take the capital markets of both our growing and vibrant countries forward. The signing marks a historical day for many reasons and we hope every citizen of each country will enjoy benefits from this engagement”

As the financiers of two-thirds of the European economy, banks bear an important responsibility to propose real solutions to mitigate climate change. This partnership between Swedbank and eAgronom with regard to issuing sustainability-linked loans and leasing will have a significant impact, as agriculture is one of the key sectors in the fight against climate change. After the oceans, the soil is the largest carbon dioxide sink in the world.

During the loan period, farmers must meet specific requirements related to sustainable agricultural practices. These requirements fulfil the conditions set out in the European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the European Union’s Taxonomy Regulation. eAgronom will use a combination of satellite imagery, machine telematics, farm management software, and on-site information to measure this data and issue certificates to farmers. 

Agricultural producers applying for a loan will receive two financing options once they have undergone financial assessment: a regular loan offer and an offer for a sustainability-linked loan. Once the sustainability loan offer has been accepted, the producer will be directed to eAgronom’s platform to sign a contract, after which the collection and evaluation of the necessary data will begin.

According to the CEO of eAgronom, Robin Saluoks, this initiative is a great example of cooperation between two important sectors: “In order for sustainable agriculture to become the norm, it has to be profitable in the short term as well. Providing farmers with better credit conditions will speed up the implementation of steps to combat climate change. We provide tools that enable farmers to choose sustainable farming practices. We ensure that the chosen actions lead to the best possible results through data monitoring; we share the monitoring results with regulatory authorities and the agricultural sector whenever it is necessary to prove those actions. Cooperation with Swedbank perfectly aligns with our views and initiatives, which are to result in direct benefits for farmers from environmentally sustainable management.”

According to Olavi Lepp, Chairman of the Board of Swedbank Estonia, Swedbank is continuously contributing to the development of a sustainable economy: “As the leading bank in the region, we help our customers transition to the green economy. That is why we have put sustainability at the centre of our business strategy; in addition to agriculture, we are developing similar initiatives in all other sectors as well. With the help of eAgronom, we are able to offer beneficial cooperation options to farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, which will hopefully become the standard for the sector.”

According to Mihkel Vainula, owner of an agricultural business in Estonia, this initiative between Swedbank and eAgronom may bring about great change in the sector: “The advantages of sustainable agriculture are clear to everyone: more resistant soil, higher quality of produce, better harvest, and preservation of the natural environment. The main reason why farmers have not adopted sustainable farming practices so far is a lack of capital. Access to more favourable financing conditions and consultation is invaluable and can bring about a complete transformation in this sector.”  

These sustainability-related loans will be accessible for over 120,000 agricultural producers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania initially. eAgronom’s certification fee is calculated based on a hectare. The fee is EUR 0.5 per year, and farmers who register as customers of eAgronom’s software will receive a 50% discount. In addition to eAgronom’s action plan for transitioning to sustainable farming practices, agricultural producers will also be given access to the measuring, reporting, and control tools.

• 28.10.2022 -- 11:25 am

fumopay is excited to announce that small businesses can now integrate fumopay directly into Xero, the global small business platform. This means full access to immediate invoice payments for businesses without the need to register a payee or the need to share card or bank details.

Thanks to fumopay’s pure-play focus on Open Banking, suppliers can pay invoices directly with only a few clicks and your bank’s authentication method quickly and efficiently through the fumopay app, now available in the Xero App Store. Payments of invoices through the fumopay app will now be immediately visible in Xero and ready to be reconciled, tagged or set against invoices to show them as paid.

The process requires no cards and no sharing of financial details; it doesn’t require a payee to have an account with the merchant, so for one-off or irregular payments, the fumopay app and integration with Xero are the perfect tool. Alongside this, no payment through fumopay is ‘rolled up’, meaning you won’t need to spend hours reconciling one monthly credit card amount against numerous payments on the platform. And because we don’t hold payments, each transaction can immediately be reconciled against an invoice.

fumopay is a direct bank-to-bank transfer method. Due to the customer having to pay using strong customer authentication,  there is a reduction in risk against the potential for surprise chargebacks after payment has been made, as can be the case with credit cards or cheques.

Alongside this, the fee for a fumopay transaction is roughly one-fifth that of a regular payment processor—immediate payment for a fraction of the cost. All are integrated seamlessly with Xero.

Kevin Ludford, Founder and CEO of fumopay, says:

“This is the next step in expanding fumopay as a multi-purpose payment provision system. Originally conceived as a peer-to-peer payment platform, as we’ve grown, it’s become more apparent that a pure-play Open Banking service without an alternative agenda is difficult to find. Most of our competitors focus on forex or credit, with a side of Open Banking and payment processing. However, fumopay’s only aim is to democratise payment and make it as affordable and quick as Open Banking was conceived to be. This means less than 1% fees, with no hidden costs down the line; it means immediate transfers and invoices paid in seconds, and now, thanks to our new integration with Xero, it will become a real asset to any small business worried about cash flow. ”