Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc., a digital fintech group powered by blockchain technology, today announced that its Board of Directors (the “Board”) has appointed Alan Curtis, Daniel Kelly Kennedy, Zheng Cui, Qian Sun and Hui Cheng as new directors of the Company effective as of October 9, 2022, among whom Alan Curtis, Zheng Cui and Hui Cheng are deemed independent under Nasdaq Rule 5605(a)(2).

"We are pleased to welcome Alan, Daniel, Zheng, Qian and Hui as new directors to the Board at this important time. We are confident they will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that further strengthen and diversify the perspectives and expertise of our Board as we continue to execute our strategy and enhance value," said Shi Qiu, CEO of the Company. 

About Alan Curtis

Mr. Alan Curtis, age 79, is an American public policy expert. Mr. Curtis served as a public safety advisor to Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter. Since 1968, Mr. Curtis has served on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission. In 1969, Mr. Curtis was appointed as an Assistant Director of Crimes of Violence task force on President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Between 1977 and 1981, Mr. Curtis served as Executive Director of President Jimmy Carter's Urban and Regional Policy Group and as an Urban Policy Advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 1981, Mr. Curtis was named as Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, which identifies, funds, evaluates, and builds evidence-based programs for disadvantaged American youth and families. In 2018, Mr. Curtis published a book titled Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years after the Kerner Report, and Mr. Curtis proposed evidence-based policies for employment, education, housing, community development, and criminal justice. Mr. Curtis holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard, a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of London and a Ph.D. in Criminology and Urban Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

About Daniel Kelly Kennedy

Mr. Daniel Kelly Kennedy, age 38, is an educator, writer and inspirational leader in international business and entrepreneurship. From August 2015 to August 2016, Mr. Kennedy was an Academic English Professor at Moraine Park Technical College in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. From August 2016 to August 2017, Mr. Kennedy was an International Business/Social Media Coordinator at Mozaik Education in Szeged, Hungary. From September 2017 to May 2018, Mr. Kennedy worked as a Yoga/Meditation teacher at the Lodge at Woodloch in Hawley, Pennsylvania. From August 2020 to July 2022, Mr. Kennedy worked as an Academic English Professor at Campus Education in New York City. From June 2021 to the present, Mr. Kennedy has been a Columnist for “Entrepreneur Magazine” in New York City. Mr. Kennedy has been writing and publishing articles on various subject ranging from finance to lifestyle. Since June 2022, Mr. Kennedy has worked at BIT Mining, a leading publicly traded cryptocurrency mining company, as a Marketing Manager responsible for managing social media, public relations, investor relations and maintaining a professional and intelligent public image. Mr. Kennedy holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a Master’s degree in Education from King’s College in Pennsylvania.

About Zheng Cui

Mr. Zheng Cui, age 36, is a sales and marketing professional, advisor, and entrepreneur. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Cui worked at Martinwolf, a M&A advisory firm, as an Analyst providing various analytic and research supports in advisory assignments, including sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions, cross-border corporate strategy advisory and limited finder. From 2014 to 2020, Mr. Cui worked at Beyondsoft, a leading IT consulting, solution and services provider, as a sales and marketing professional responsible for the U.S. and Australia markets. In addition, in 2013, Mr. Cui founded Indeed Consulting Company, an education consulting firm, and built Indeed Consulting Company until 2020, which currently has two offices and over 100 consultants. In 2020, Mr. Cui joined in Mont Bleu Web3 Investment and Advisory as a Partner to provide investment and advisory services to support portfolio and client services for Web3. In 2021, Mr. Cui invested and founded Be Humble, a cannabis investment company. Mr. Cui graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy.

About Qian Sun

Ms. Qian Sun, age 34, has more than 10 years of experience in corporate management and industrial investment. In 2010, Ms. Sun joined Shenzhen Worldunion Group, a publically traded real estate services company in China, as a Project Planner in Northern China, responsible for the project planning and marketing in Northern China. Thereafter, from 2012 to 2017, Ms. Sun worked at Bei Hui United Education, an online education company, as an Assistant to the Chairman and Operation Director respectively, responsible for the development of the company's curriculum and daily operation management. From 2017 to 2020, Ms. Sun worked at Blockchainer, a blockchain consulting and incubation platform company, as a Partner responsible for providing one-stop consulting and incubation services in the blockchain field. From 2020 to 2022, Ms. Sun worked at Consensus Labs, a leading blockchain investment and research firm, as a Partner responsible for industry research and post-investment management. Ms. Sun holds a bachelor's degree in Management from Beijing Normal University.

About Hui Cheng

Mr. Hui Cheng, age 30, is an entrepreneur in the Internet and financial technology industry. From 2016 to 2018, Mr. Cheng worked at IDG Capital, a venture capital investment firm, as an Investment Associate. From 2018 to 2019, Mr. Cheng worked at Qudian Group (NYSE:QD), a financial technology service company in China, as a Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer, responsible for business globalization. From 2019 to 2022, Mr. Cheng worked for Kuaishou Technology (SEHK:01024), a live streaming services and online marketing services provider, responsible for Kuaishou Technology’s global operation, including marketing and localization operations in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Mr. Cheng holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Management from Tsinghua University.

Mastercard has announced a strategic investment in Nclude, a fintech-focused VC investment platform launched in partnership with Egypt’s leading national banks - Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque Du Caire - to further boost Egypt’s vibrant fintech ecosystem and support the country’s digital transformation journey. The partnership will deepen financial inclusion across Egypt by investing in promising early-and-growth-stage fintech and fintech-enabled companies.

The announcement builds on Mastercard’s commitment to supporting the government’s efforts and favourable regulations aimed at transforming Egypt into a digital, financially inclusive society by harnessing the power of technology.

“Our contribution to Nclude stems from our longstanding commitment to accelerate the country’s digital transformation, drive financial inclusion rates and to reinforce Egypt’s position as an innovation hub for the fintech industry in the wider region,” said Khalid Elgibali, Division President, Middle East, and North Africa at Mastercard. “We see a new door for opportunity in our collaboration with Nclude fund, where Egyptian fintechs can be offered an enabling environment to achieve their full potential.”

“Mastercard’s global platform and commitment to fintech is a great complement to the Nclude strategy. We are super excited to welcome their global expertise to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt” said Basil Moftah General Partner at Nclude." Fintech and fintech-enabled companies are witnessing exponential growth in the market and we look forward to partnering with Mastercard to continue to fuel this growth and position Egypt as a Regional center of excellence for fintech innovation.”

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is leading a vision to position the country as an Innovation Hub for fintechs across the Middle East and Africa by upskilling youths to close talent gaps, improving access to capital, and developing technology infrastructure. These efforts are geared to rapidly increasing the rate of financial inclusion to benefit all Egyptians, only over 56% of whom are included in the formal economy. It also focuses on filling the huge SME lending gap in Egypt, as well as elevating the quality of financial services offered in the country to businesses and individuals.

“Having Mastercard invest in Nclude is definitely a milestone for us. This fund will enable us to further support entrepreneurs in Egypt’s vibrant startup ecosystem who are driving fintech innovation and helping transform the country into a digital and financially inclusive economy,” said Eslam Darwish, Founding General Partner at Nclude. "The partnership with Mastercard will also help us provide ambitious founders with the tools they need to succeed and compete at local, regional, and global levels.”

“We are excited to collaborate with the Nclude Fund in continuation of our efforts to increase financial inclusion in key markets like Egypt, underscoring our global goal of connecting one billion people to the digital economy,” said Adam Jones, Country General Manager, MENA Central at Mastercard. “Through this partnership, we aim to empower Egypt’s rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem in order to allow individuals and businesses to have access to quality financial services, thus promoting the growth of the country’s digital and formal economy.”

Nclude was launched in March 2022 upon approval by the CBE, and initially saw an investment of $100 million from the 3 national banks as well as Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) and eFinance. With Mastercard, a pioneer in advancing financial inclusion in Egypt and the world, joining in, Nclude Fund is quickly becoming a go-to fund for fintechs looking to grow their operations and services.

Mastercard’s dedication to supporting financial inclusion globally saw the company pledge to connect 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses, including 25 million women entrepreneurs, to the digital economy by 2025.

B2B payments company Mondu has raised a €20m debt investment round from German bank Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank.

This is the first loan to Mondu, granted to a Luxembourg-based SPV and collateralized. This SPV-set-up allows Mondu to swiftly scale and diversify its refinancing with external investors - both German and International.

In parallel, as part of its growth plans, Mondu is expanding into the Netherlands this October.

Founded in late 2021, Mondu launched a Buy Now, Pay Later for B2B solution for merchants and marketplaces. The company’s solutions are already available to business customers in Germany and Austria, and will now be available in the Netherlands and enabling cross-border commerce between these countries. Mondu’s BNPL and Installments solutions offer business buyers their favourite offline payment methods in B2B and flexible payment terms in an online B2B checkout.

Since the business was founded, Mondu has raised a combined $57m from a Seed and Series A equity round from investors including US-based Valar Ventures, Cherry Ventures, FinTech Collective and angel investors.

Philipp Povel, Co-Founder Co-CEO of Mondu, said “This is another strategic milestone for Mondu. To have VVRB, a member of the distinguished Group of German Cooperative Banks, provide this loan gives a high level of credibility to our business. It’s proof that our payment solutions are appealing to outside creditors. The financing will further support our European expansion and allow us to develop further payment solutions that benefit business customers.”

It is not the first time that VVRB has used this innovative form of lending to diversify its credit portfolio. Ralf Magerkurth, VVRB’s CEO, commented “We see incredible potential in Mondu and its outstanding leadership team. We believe that BNPL for B2B can have a significant impact on SMEs and we were well-convinced by the concept the management team presented to us. We are excited to support Monduˋs growth.”

As part of its expansion, Mondu plans to open a new office in the Netherlands, hire local personnel and invest in local marketing activities. A vast recruitment campaign is currently ongoing in Amsterdam. The expansion to the Dutch market is a logical next step in Mondu’s ongoing growth streak.

Philipp Povel added, “The Netherlands has a modern trade market, with 48 per cent of B2B orders placed online. This year, B2B e-commerce revenue from physical goods alone will hit approximately $38 billion. By 2025, revenues are expected to grow to $54.5 billion. With Mondu’s BNPL solutions, B2B businesses in the Netherlands will be able to increase conversion rates and loyalty by allowing buyers to experience a fast and frictionless B2C-like payment experience with flexible terms. Local B2B Businesses will have better cash flow management, minimize operational workload, and be able to effortlessly expand their operations by selling cross-border to buyers in Germany and Austria without risk.”

In recent weeks Mondu announced the expansion of its C-Suite team with the appointment of Julian Kurz as Chief Commercial Officer and Lauren Hoehlein Joseph as Chief People Officer. Mondu now counts more than 120 Monduneers in its team.

In addition to scaling its team, Mondu has also launched Split Payments. The new solution allows business buyers to divide their purchases into equal, interest-free payments - with no additional or hidden fees.

ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection, today announced that Vatsa Narasimha has been named as the company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Charles Delingpole, the company's founder and former CEO, will transition to become Executive Chairman. Both will assume their new positions effective immediately.

Charles Delingpole has led ComplyAdvantage since its formation in 2014, taking the company from its inception to operating with 450+ employees and more than 1,000 clients worldwide. Charles will remain a key part of the team in his new position.

An inspiring leader and formidable operating executive, Vatsa Narasimha joined ComplyAdvantage more than two years ago from Oanda Corporation, a global leader in online multi-asset trading services and currency data and analytics, where he was CEO

Prior to Oanda, Narasimha spent eight years at The Boston Consulting Group, working with leading financial institutions on a variety of growth strategies, corporate development and operational issues.

Since arriving at ComplyAdvantage, Narasimha has held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO), where his leadership has helped the company experience record growth with ARR (annual recurring revenue) growing by nearly 80% last year. This has been fueled by an expanded portfolio of traditional banking and insurance customers, FinTechs and crypto customers as well as strategic partnerships with world-class BaaS, IDV, and blockchain data providers.

Narasimha has also helped to expand the company’s funding to over $100 million, adding Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and Goldman Sachs to ComplyAdvantage’s top-tier suite of investors that include Index Ventures and Balderton Capital.

In addition to this progress, usage across the company’s AML (anti-money laundering) solution sets has hit record levels with search volumes doubling quarter over quarter for the company’s Customer Screening and Monitoring solution.

The company’s platform has facilitated more than 1 billion searches across 150 million entities that are monitored daily while Transaction Risk Management volumes have increased by four times.

Narasimha’s appointment as CEO comes at an exciting time as the company continues to scale globally, becoming a dominant force in fighting money laundering and related financial crimes using massive amounts of data and advanced machine learning to provide customers with financial risk insights.

Executive Commentary

"Vatsa is an exceptional operating executive who has worked hard and delivered incredible results, earning him the right to become our next CEO," said Charles Delingpole, founder, and Executive Chairman.

"ComplyAdvantage continues to lead the industry in using advanced AI and data to combat financial crime. Vatsa has the right strategic skill sets and experience needed for this next chapter of growth. I want to whole-heartedly congratulate Vatsa, and I look forward to this next chapter in the company's exciting trajectory."

"Since my first conversation with Charlie, it has been obvious to me that ComplyAdvantage was built to solve the large and pressing problem that is Financial Crime detection," said Vatsa Narasimha, CEO of ComplyAdvantage.

”The company’s track record reflects the significant progress we are making against our mission of bringing next-gen tools to help our clients get a holistic understanding of counter-party risk. I am excited to step into this role while continuing to work closely with Charlie as we make a significant impact for the customers we serve around the world.”

“Financial crime detection is in the global spotlight as a result of rising regulation, sanctions and evasion techniques,” Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures.

“This trend has propelled the technology-driven product of ComplyAdvantage to a leadership position in the sector. To position the company for this new phase of growth, Charlie will double down on product and continue enhancing the company’s vision in his new role of Chairman. Vatsa will assume to role of CEO. I cannot think of better leaders to meet the opportunity that lies ahead.”

Already the preferred choice of some of the world's largest banks, enterprises, and high-growth fintechs, ComplyAdvantage uses machine learning to help regulated organizations manage their risk obligations and prevent financial crime.

ComplyAdvantage is also a leader in providing anti-money laundering insights that include the company's much-lauded State of Financial Crime 2022 Report, Evolving Use and, Sanctions, and most recently, the Anti-Money Laundering Guide for Growing Crypto Firms.

In its latest ‘State of European FinTech’ report, fintech venture capital firm Finch Capital forecasts a period of cooling and consolidation across the FinTech sector, as macroeconomic conditions grow more challenging. However, an abundance of undeployed Growth Capital is cause for optimism for Founders and Talent to make a soft landing.

The European FinTech sector has seen significant growth in recent years with fintech funding volume having grown from around $6 billion in 2020 to around $19 billion in 2021. The total number of FinTech exits globally also peaked in 2021 at 966. Over the same period, FinTech investment globally topped US$210 billion, with crypto and blockchain businesses performing especially well.

In their 7th State of European FinTech report, the team at Finch Capital assessed four key trends in FinTech as proxies for the health of the sector. The team assessed: the number of new FinTechs founded; the volume of funding; the number of hires across the industry and the number and value of successful exits.

Investor Ecosystem is Retreating to 2018/2019 levels

Finch Capital’s research reveals that, as economic conditions have become more uncertain over 2022, FinTech investment has slowed. The report shows that new business formation in the FinTech sector peaked in 2018 and, over the last year, has declined by 80%.

Since Q2 2022, Public Tech markets have come down back to 2019 levels after a strong rally since 2020, the private markets are undergoing a similar but slower transition to 2019 valuation levels, wiping out the 200-300% growth in valuations during 2020-2021.

This decline has coincided with a 70% drop in IPO and large venture M&As exit windows dry up as well as venture funding with ‘megarounds’ in particular having declined in equal measure.

In 2021, the top 20 funding rounds in Europe accounted for 50% of the market. Across the investment ecosystem, there has been a 25% decline in funds raised by FinTechs, with like any previous cycle corporate investors retreating in the face of macroeconomic uncertainty.

Caution in the FinTech market is also highlighted by a decline in recruitment, with new hire growth down 50%. Europe accounts for only 10% of total reported fintech layoffs globally, despite receiving 25% of global FinTech funding. 

Cause for Optimism: A Soft Landing for the strongest FinTechs

Nevertheless, the sector is still hiring, with around 10% of FinTech firms currently advertising vacancies. Demonstrating a shift towards a less-well-funded and more competitive landscape, existing vacancies are becoming more focused on revenue generation (such as sales roles), and less on technical skills such as engineering.

Dry powder is at an all-time high with $28bn of undeployed capital among Fintech investors and it is a function of when and at what terms it gets deployed as opposed to if. First signs are that these levels of dry powder are not sustainable with a 40% decline in new funds raised in 2022 vs 2021. As a result, funding is not going to dry up short term for the better companies who show healthy unit economics, opportunity and potential for growth providing the opportunity for a soft landing.

Commenting on the findings Radboud Vlaar, Managing Partner at Finch Capital, said: “After many years of impressive growth, perhaps overheated, there is no doubt that a worsening macroeconomic situation and tightening money supply are weighing on the FinTech sector. This doesn’t mean that funding has dried up, simply that investors are becoming more discerning and price sensitive. In fact, our research indicates that dry powder is at an all-time high, with $28bn of undeployed capital among Fintech investors.

“With investors becoming more cautious about where they put their money, and potentially overinvested start-ups struggling to exit, we are likely to see a period of consolidation in the FinTech space as many verticals are highly fragmented, creating a smaller but more sustainable ecosystem.

“There was always an element of uncertainty around the long-term sustainability of valuations for certain companies, particularly at growth stages. This shake-up, while painful, is also necessary. Consolidation and more competitive investment flows, combined with still significant levels of undeployed capital, will bring maturity to the FinTech sector. And, despite difficult near-term prospects in the economy at large, a new normal level of activity will resume in FinTech over the next 12 to 18 months, with a focus on long-term sustainability," 

Azentio Software is delighted and proud to announce that it has been chosen as the winner of the ‘Best Industry Cloud ERP Provider’ award at the prestigious ICT Leadership Awards 2022, for its next-generation industry cloud enterprise resource planning solution - Azentio ONEERP.

The award was formally presented to Azentio at a ceremony held at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai, UAE on Tuesday, October 11^th. The aim of the award programme, organised by CXO Insight Middle East, is to spotlight organisations that are making smart business decisions with emerging technologies and fueling the growth of the ICT sector in the region.

Azentio ONEERP is a highly scalable industry platform built future-ready with an API-integrated industry ecosystem, delivered and supported with robust customer-focused models. Built on a state-of-the-art cloud platform, ONEERP provides industry cloud solutions that are engineered with best-in-class standards in financial and operational process management. Azentio’s award-winning ERP solution provides integrated insights and visibility, high flexibility, resource optimization, and strong customer service support with best practices; all incorporated in a single ERP system, helping organisations gain resilience and real-time agility, and positioning them for growth.

Azentio’s Chief Executive Officer, Tony Kinnear, commented, “As always, we are proud to see our cutting-edge solutions and products continue to get global recognition. Our winning ONEERP Cloud is a one-of-a-kind robust product that enables one source of truth for real-time data and business information, and automates essential business workflows across multiple industries efficiently.” Kinnear later added, “Evaluating, selecting, and implementing a new Cloud ERP solution is a long-term strategic decision for the growth of any organisation. This win testifies to the strength of our product, its scalable architecture that enables future growth, and our commitment to continuous innovation.”

Jeevan Thankappan, Managing Editor at CXO Insight Middle East, stated, ”An independent panel of judges has chosen Azentio as the top performing industry-fit Cloud ERP solution offering best-in-class features to help businesses meet evolving customer demands, confirming yet again its leadership in the global ERP market.”

Azentio’s newest launch, ONEERP Cloud can be defined as a modern, fully unified and collaborative system that sets the stage for digital transformation. It enables innovation, optimises resources, and streamlines operations.

Being compatible with Industry 4.0, ONEERP Cloud possesses top-of-the-line capabilities to integrate diversified processes, connecting smart machines, logistics systems, production facilities and others. This is managed by linked devices with supporting meaningful data being collected for faster decision-making. ONEERP integrated smart system also utilises the capabilities of other code and no-code systems through integrations to support and extend functionalities. Technically reverberant, the software works with multiple cloud platform-agnostic considering OCI, AWS, and other cloud platforms. The multi-tenancy adds to its benefits by providing exclusive tenancy for a tenant in Azentio Cloud.

Machine learning, language processing, robotics - the artificial intelligence toolbox offers a range of smart instruments that enable machines to act autonomously. The list of destinations in the digitalisation journey is almost limitless, making it crucial for financial institutions to have a clear and focused direction. This enables them to keep pace with the industry’s rapid changes.

Banks face upheavals in process automation, in the first wave of automation, 20 to 30 years ago, they saw how certain processes were removed from branches and transferred to new centralized units. In these units, processes were serialised and trimmed for productivity. With digitalisation and AI, many processes can now be fully automated for the first time. This promises both significant cost advantages and faster processing and thus a better customer experience.

For banks to be successful with digitalisation and the use of AI, a number of prerequisites must be met.

1. Digitalisation requires new skills

New technologies always come with new skill requirements. The management of digital processes and automated decisions requires employees to look at a process the way they would look at a production line – to think about error tolerances, measurement techniques and when to manually intervene with a case. While there’s feedback from human employees about the success or failure of actions, this kind of proactivity can't be expected from a machine.

2. Digitalisation requires agile methods

Banks that are successful with digital processes monitor them closely and adjust continuously. To facilitate a continuous learning loop, banks implement a cross-functional strategy team that reviews the results of the individual process steps jointly with the respective business owners and develop ideas for improvements and test them.

The prerequisite for this agile and quantitative approach is the ability to implement adjustments quickly and largely without the involvement of IT resources. Therefore, the decisioning technology used must enable employees without programming skills to configure rules and communication content independently.

3: AI and operations research unleash additional effectiveness

Which credit offers or limits a customer receives, which marketing initiatives are promising for a target group or how intensively receivables management approaches customers – the decision strategies that guide these actions are generally developed based on business experience. Analytics are frequently used to segment the portfolio — but analytical methods are often underleveraged when assigning decisions, measures or prices to these segments. This leads to considerable opportunity costs. 

I expect that methods from operations research will be increasingly used in the development of price strategies, but also when developing targeted operational processes  – which in some industries, such as manufacturing, has been common practice for decades. With mathematical decision optimization, the dependencies between turnover, profitability and risk goals, for example, can be understood quantitatively, so that decision strategies can strike the optimal balance between competing goals. Not using these methods is expensive: I estimate that insufficient use of mathematical methods in the development of pricing strategies causes European banks to miss out on annual profits between 500 million and 1 billion Euro from instalment loans alone.

4: AI requires effort

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are surrounded by an aura of effortlessness: Problems solve themselves. This assessment is inaccurate. 

Many underestimate that the introduction of AI requires good preparation and regular monitoring and readjustment. This starts with the selection of the appropriate method: not every algorithm is suitable for every problem. And a model is only as good as the underlying data. Accordingly, careful data preparation and cleaning is essential. 

5: AI must be explainable

Automated decisions using AI are highly scalable. This carries the risk that errors and undesirable bias replicate in an automated fashion. Decision logic that represents a black box therefore harbours incalculable risks. It is essential to understand how models work, and you must be able to see and explain which data characteristics dominate a decision — both on a global level and for an individual decision.  This is driving the increasing focus by businesses and regulators on explainable AI.

Artificial intelligence and digitalisation promise to significantly improve the cost structure in retail banking. As with all automation projects, however, it is important to use these tools carefully. But even intelligent technologies cannot magically fix mediocre processes. Therefore, it is worth focusing on the decisions and processes that deliver the greatest value to your organisation. When you do this, AI moves beyond being just another buzzword, and opens up new potential in retail banking.

BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform of choice for leading B2B and B2C businesses, today announced a new partnership with BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services. This product partnership will give businesses the ability to accept and get paid out in up to 15 different cryptocurrencies and seven fiat currencies globally, and supports BlueSnap’s mission to help businesses across the globe increase their revenue and reduce costs.

“As many as 85 percent of major retailers already accept some form of crypto payment, and even small businesses are picking up on the trend with one-third of SMBs beginning to accept crypto. Together, BitPay and BlueSnap will bring this popular payment method to more businesses and consumers globally,” said Merrick Theobald, Vice President of Marketing at BitPay. “We are proud to work with BlueSnap on this partnership, especially as more businesses adopt this growing trend of accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for products and services.”

As a result of this partnership, businesses will be able to accept and get paid out in leading cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), ApeCoin (APE), Litecoin (LTC), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Ripple (XRP), as well as 5 USD-pegged stablecoins (BUSD, DAI, GUSD, USDC, and USDP) and 1 EURO-pegged stable coin (EUROC). Because crypto protocols are global by default, the addition of cryptocurrency acceptance and payout will help BlueSnap’s customers conduct business with key stakeholders around the world more seamlessly. Businesses that accept crypto payments also benefit from lower processing costs, access to a new customer base and no chargebacks. The partnership will also allow customers to accept crypto and be paid out in fiat currencies including EURO, GBP, USD, PESO, CAD, AUD, NZD.

Nihkhita Hyett, EU MD of BlueSnap, said: “Our partnership with BitPay comes at a perfect time. Consumers across Europe, especially those in Ireland are growing more ‘crypto curios’. By working with one of the most well-respected crypto companies in the industry, we’ll be able to make the new payment experience as frictionless as possible. We look forward to making a real impact in this new space - through developing technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrency - as we foster greater innovation in payments, and further our growth across Europe.”

TransferGo, one of the world’s fastest-growing money transfer companies, today announces significant year-on-year growth. Committed to providing hard-working migrants across the globe with access to simpler, better financial services, the fintech, which also supports transfers to Ukraine, has seen soaring customer adoption, transaction growth and an accelerated global market expansion.

While the remittance market has faced a turbulent 12 months with the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruption and talent shortages contributing to general economic uncertainty, TransferGo has remained resilient and continues to post business-wide growth. In fact, the demand for its service is highlighted in its latest milestone of reaching 5M customers. In its first nine years, it gained 3M customers, however, in the last year alone, TransferGo has seen an additional 2M.

Moreover, one year on from its landmark $50m Series C funding, TransferGo has opened new receive markets in West Africa and in the Commonwealth of Independent States, including in Armenia, and Azerbaijan. This has supported a year-on-year transaction increase of 64% as migrants continue to place their trust in TransferGo as the best way to send international payments.

To accompany this network momentum, the company has grown its workforce by almost half (45%) and now has over 20 different nationalities across its teams. In the last 12 months, it has hired a variety of roles, from customer service agents to marketing and the C-suite, with Mantas Žalneravičius notably appointed as its new Chief Technology Officer.

Over the last six months, TransferGo has dedicated a number of services to providing support to its Ukrainian customers, both those in-country and across Europe. This includes organising donation pages, accelerating the development of a bank account solution, and waiving fees for instant transfers to cards and IBANs in Ukraine. It has also ensured services remain operational to keep families financially connected. In addition to this, last week TransferGo’s CEO and Co-Founder Daumantas Dvilinksas,  joined several EU and Ukrainian financial institutions in signing a joint statement with the EU Commission, pledging to #StandWithUkraine through the provision of affordable, accessible, and transparent remittance services to the country.

Commenting on TransferGo’s strong growth, Dvilinksas said: “In the face of geo-political conflict, we have never deviated from our mission to support migrant communities with access to simple, better financial services. I am proud to lead such a dedicated, ambitious and diverse organisation that lives and breathes migrants’ challenges, and works tirelessly to address financial friction - whether that’s in Ukraine or elsewhere across our global network.

“Our year-on-year growth coincides with TransferGo’s 10-year anniversary, and we would simply not be able to mark this milestone without our fantastic employees putting customer needs first. I can’t wait for us to build on this momentum and change the nature of remittances - bringing new innovative products to new markets and further supporting our five million strong, and growing, customer base.”

New research from IDnow, a leading identity-proofing platform provider, has revealed that 64% of Britons believe digital processes such as remote account opening, online banking options or an easy-to-use app were either extremely important or important when deciding who to bank with. This highlights an obvious demand for easy and more efficient banking processes.

On the flip side, almost half (47%) of the 2,001 UK adult respondents were most annoyed by the time constraints involved with banking, including limited opening hours of local branches (22%), lengthy processes (16%) and having to visit a branch to open an account (9%).

This presents a significant opportunity for both traditional and challenger banks to harness the current appetite in the UK for digital-led processes.

Online safety concerns and ease of use remain in the minds of customers

The research also revealed that more than half of those surveyed had opened a bank account online (53%) with the same percentage also stating they felt safe and secure doing so. However, that did leave 47% of respondents feeling it was unsafe, with more than a third (37%) citing digital bank fraud and cybercrime as the main reasons for this.

This highlights the need for banks, both traditional and challenger, to address the concerns of consumers when it comes to fraud, and ensure they have stringent onboarding processes that meet the highest security standards.

Fintech versus traditional banking

Despite continued growth in the fintech sector, only a quarter (24%) of respondents banked with a challenger bank, though in the London city region this figure rose to 32%. Meanwhile, 15% admitted to being concerned about making mistakes in the onboarding process and 13% had either cancelled or abandoned the process of opening a digital bank account, suggesting that banks need to make their onboarding process as smooth and frictionless as possible for their users.

“The past two years have acted as a major catalyst in digital adoption across every sector, and this research illustrates how important digital processes continue to be for consumers,” said Mike Kiely, Sales Director for Financial Services from IDnow.

“It’s interesting to see that the majority of respondents still bank with a traditional bank. The demand for more digital processes remains high though, which presents a huge opportunity for those institutions equipped and prepared to embrace technologies that will enable them to provide the online services that many have come to expect,” he added.

Adoption of digital varies by age

When delving deeper, those aged 55 or over are least likely to have opened a bank account digitally (37%) compared to nearly two-thirds (63%) of 18-24-year-olds and 35-44-year-olds and 62% of 25-34-year-olds, showing a clear age gap in the adoption of digital services. Therefore, banks should provide freedom of choice for their customers, offering them the processes that fit them best. And while digital bank accounts are most popular with 18-24-year-olds, this age group is also the most likely to abandon or cancel opening a remote bank account (24%), suggesting higher expectations for the onboarding process from those most digitally savvy.

Similarly, this young age group also feel the most unsafe when it comes to opening a bank account digitally, with only 41% saying ‘yes’ to feeling safe and secure compared to 60% of 35-44-year-olds.

“The threat for young adults looks set to continue unless businesses up their game and also educate people on the need to protect their own information,” explained Mike Kiely.

“With young people spending so much of their time online, there are naturally more potential touchpoints for fraudsters to target.

Meanwhile, older generations tend to be naturally less trusting of digital, so some fraudsters may see young adults as an easier target.

“Many young adults have a heightened awareness of the potential risks associated with digital activity. This is supported by the statistic which showed that cybercrime is their biggest worry (20%).

“To overcome these concerns and capitalise on this growing market, it’s vital for banks to invest in the right technologies that will deliver the highest levels of security at every stage of the digital banking process while also addressing the demand of a smooth and simple user experience,” he concluded.