eToro, the world’s leading social investment platform, today announced a major partnership with Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure provider OpenPayd to power eToro Money accounts throughout Europe. The partnership offers eToro’s customers a simplified, near-instantaneous payments experience. 

eToro Money connects with an existing eToro investment account so that users can manage their funds in one place, and easily transfer them to and from their eToro investment account—including making instant withdrawals and deposits. 

Teaming up with OpenPayd enables eToro to issue Euro virtual IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers), unique to each of its customers, and gives eToro access to SEPA Instant rails for the first time. The proposition is currently live in 12 countries and is being rolled out across Europe. As a result, eToro’s customers can now make deposits and withdrawals from their eToro Money accounts, quickly and securely. 

OpenPayd’s bespoke API-based solution means that eToro can slash time spent on reconciliations, remove the possibility of human error and significantly speed up payment processing times. All of this is run across OpenPayd’s monitored and secure BaaS infrastructure. 

“This partnership is an example of embedded finance in action; it’s a significant evolution in how we build innovative financial services,” says Kreeson Thathiah, Director of Payments at eToro. “Working with OpenPayd – who’s platform and team has accommodated all of our needs – has been a pleasure. With every customer receiving their own virtual IBAN and access to the real-time European payment rails, SEPA Instant, we can ensure that funds are moving when, how and to whom they’re supposed to.”

“eToro is changing the game for the trading community across the world, which is why we’re thrilled to be powering its product throughout Europe,” says Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd. “Our infrastructure was built for use cases just like eToro Money. We strongly believe that embedding financial services in this way powers business growth, enabling any company to build new products, streamline operations and manage payments globally. This is what the future of financial services looks like”.

Sumsub, a global tech company fighting digital fraud and helping businesses stay fully compliant, today announced a new partnership program. It will allow Sumsub’s partners to engage in one of the three partnership options—Referral, Ecosystem, or Technology—depending on which suits their business needs and growth strategy best.

The Referral partnership is best for consulting firms and independent advisors who’d like to promote Sumsub’s products. The Ecosystem and Technology partnerships, meanwhile, are perfect for SaaS/PaaS companies, cloud banking, crypto and blockchain infrastructure providers, as well as gambling whitelable platforms and CRMs. They also allow businesses to add or embed Sumsub products into their solution, get legal and compliance advice from Sumsub’s in-house experts and engage in joint marketing activities. No investments are required, as both the Ecosystem and Technology partnerships can be based on a pay-as-you-go model.

Over 100 global companies have already acquired scores of new customers, expanded their business internationally and developed fresh revenue streams by partnering with Sumsub. The latest additions to Sumsub’s partnership program will bring even greater benefits, not least because they were designed in collaboration with existing partners.

Partnering with Sumsub is super fast, with the entire integration process taking just one week. And just like Sumsub’s identity verification solution, the new partnership program can be tailored to the specific needs of each partner.

“Our new partnership options offer our partners flexible opportunities to upgrade their product and attract more customers with Sumsub’s all-in-one KYC/AML solution and its many useful features. We are happy to develop mutually-fulfilling partnerships with outstanding companies such as Seracle, Authologic, Mercuryo, ChainUp and Crassula, as well as welcome more companies into our partner network”, says Denis Urazbakhtin, Sumsub’s Head of Partnerships.

Penfold, the leading digital pensions provider, has today announced the launch of an industry-first Adviser Portal and service for business advisers, including accountants, payroll bureaus, IFAs and employee benefits consultants. 

The portal and accompanying service are designed to streamline and simplify the process of managing pension schemes on behalf of SMEs. The first 1,000 advisers to sign up will be able to use the portal free of charge.

Penfold has also recruited a specialist team to launch the portal and service. Steve Ayers, who previously led Private Banking at Lloyds Banking group before supporting the launch of Smart Pension, is joined by Terry Kemp, previously at Creative Benefits and Smart Pension and Michael Groves, previously at Smart Pension and Cushon. The team’s initial focus will be outreach to accountancy and payroll bureaus. 

The new portal automates time-consuming processes to enable fast, easy, and accurate payroll and pension processing, with a particular focus on driving efficiencies associated with salary sacrifice, managing opt-outs, postponement periods, and dealing with employee queries about the scheme. The portal has been designed with input from accountants across the country. 

Users will also benefit from a concierge service from the Penfold customer support team.  

Steve Ayers, Head of Business Development, Penfold commented: 

‘I am thrilled to join the Penfold team and work towards our shared goal of driving efficiency gains across the broader financial services. Financial services professionals have been frustrated at the sector’s slow adoption of tech for many years now, but we’ve listened, learnt, and built with these in mind. We’re confident that Penfold’s new portal and service will bring the developments that professionals want to see, benefitting all parties.’

Pete Hykin, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Penfold added:  

‘We see the launch of our adviser portal as closing the loop on effective auto-enrolment implementation and management for forward-thinking workplaces. Through Penfold, business advisers, employers, and employees will all benefit from our purpose-built pension tech that pulls pensions out of the dark ages and into the modern world of work.’ 

Volt, the leading open payments gateway which enables account-to-account payments for merchants, PSPs and consumers in the UK, Europe and Brazil, has welcomed Asta Ivanauskaite to the team as its SVP of Compliance. Asta brings a wealth of experience in compliance and risk management, as well as global scale-up experience.

Asta joins Volt after three years at Checkout.com, where in her most recent role as Regional Director of Compliance, Europe, she oversaw the company’s compliance and risk management structure at a time of significant change and fast-paced growth in the region. Previously, Asta was a Compliance Officer with Amsterdam-headquartered financial technology platform Adyen, where she acquired wide-ranging expertise in rules and regulations applicable to the payments processing industry.  Her experience with high-growth scale-up businesses in the global payments industry is yet another example of top talent moving into the open banking and open payments sphere which is enjoying exponential growth worldwide. At Volt, Asta will build and develop Volt’s compliance function, which she describes as a “truly exciting prospect and a welcome evolution in role, scope and capability”.

Asta Ivanauskaite: “The regulatory landscape in payments and open banking is ever-changing. Merchants and PSPs are facing significant challenges around scaling processes and services in complex and diverse jurisdictions, and mitigating risk, whilst remaining customer-friendly. I am excited to venture into the world of open banking, building on my previous experience in payments regulation, global expansion and risk. It’s exciting to become part of such an experienced team, which shares the vision of enabling freedom of payments worldwide”.

Tom Greenwood, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Volt, said: “We are delighted to welcome Asta to the team, a compliance leader who joins us from Checkout.com and whose past experience includes Adyen. We pride ourselves on Volt’s ability to attract and nurture some of the best minds of the industry, as we build our vision for real-time payments everywhere.”

Reward Finance Group has helped boost the region’s economy by providing £5.2m of funding to SMEs in the first year of launching in the Midlands, to enable them to unlock growth potential, create new jobs or navigate through a difficult trading period.

Experiencing unprecedented growth since opening its Birmingham office 12 months ago, Reward has tripled its headcount and is looking to further build on its success and expand its broker network in the year ahead.

The company attributes this rapid success to its straightforward and flexible lending products, speed of delivery, and the confidence of an increasing number of SME-size companies to build their businesses post-pandemic.

It is also due to the Birmingham office being led by Steph Brown, who is firmly established as one of the most experienced and well-connected people in the commercial finance market. She has spent over 30 years operating within the sector and is using her local market expertise at Reward to support SMEs with a range of funding needs.

Among the SMEs in the region benefitting from Reward’s support in the last 12 months is a start-up company in the East Midlands which specialises in importing commercial refrigeration products to sell on to businesses ranging from convenience stores to coffee shops.

The company receives high order volumes but needed finance to overcome cashflow challenges caused by the financial delay between importing goods from the supplier and receiving payment from the end trade customer. Reward supplied £250,000 in funding to the firm via its Asset Based Solutions to provide a revolving credit facility and much-needed working capital, in tandem with an invoice finance product.

Another firm to benefit is a Stourbridge-based used car dealership which took advantage of a £200,000 Business Finance facility to capitalise on the current buoyant market conditions and have the flexibility to purchase and sell more high-end vehicles when they become available.

Steph Brown, Reward’s regional director for the Midlands, said: “The first 12 months of establishing any business can be challenging, so to go on such a rapid growth trajectory has been very satisfying. I feel it’s largely down to going the extra mile for clients and the continued hard work and expertise within the team we’re building here in the Midlands. We’re immensely proud to be funding the ambitions of so many SMEs across the region.”

Nick Smith, group managing director for Reward, added: “The phenomenal success achieved by our office based in Birmingham in the first 12 months of trading has completely exceeded our expectations. It’s largely down to Steph and her team developing a deep understanding of our clients’ business needs, ability to move at pace and flexible approach to finding the right finance solution.

“£5.2m is a significant sum to inject into the region’s economy in just 12 months. We’re now looking to the future and providing SMEs with the working capital to seize new opportunities, accelerate their business growth or simply get through a period of difficulty and rebuild a successful company.”

Monevo has announced the launch of credit card products on its UK platform, to help improve access to credit for UK consumers.
 
The leading personal credit platform and API – which is co-owned by Quint Group and TransUnion – empowers credit providers to deliver highly personalised credit offers to consumers via comparison websites and other third parties.
 
Adding credit cards to the products supported by the platform will allow new and existing credit providers to leverage the power and flexibility of Monevo’s platform to host and distribute their credit card products.  
 
Adapting Monevo’s market-leading credit decisioning capabilities has been a crucial part of this development and has driven further integration with global insights and information provider TransUnion. New attributes will be available to providers, including TransUnion’s trended TrueVision data and affordability insights.
 

Dawn Wood, UK territory director at Monevo, said: “Launching credit cards feels like a natural progression for Monevo. It’s a great opportunity for our existing credit providers to widen their avenues of distribution with us, whilst also allowing new clients to take advantage of Monevo’s products and services for the first time. Partners can also increase their offering and develop new relationships with more consumers.”
 

Kelli Fielding, managing director of consumer interactive at TransUnion in the UK, said: "It’s important that consumers have access to credit that’s right for their needs and our latest research shows that of those planning to take out finance in the year ahead, credit cards are the most popular choice, cited by 48%. By supporting Monevo, we’re helping consumers find appropriately tailored pre-approved credit offers, in line with their individual financial situation.”
 

The new TransUnion data insights will give lenders a more detailed, accurate picture of an individual’s financial behaviour over a period of time, helping to ensure consumers are only taking on what they can manage responsibly whilst also supporting finance providers in reducing risk and enhancing customer relationships.
 

Greg Cox, co-founder and CEO of Monevo & Quint Group, added: “Monevo has always been committed to creating fintech that ultimately improves consumers' access to the right credit. Adding credit cards to our platform allows us to continue to deliver on our purpose of improving access to credit for consumers globally while addressing a huge market opportunity that I have no doubt will fuel further exciting growth over the next year.”
 

Monevo’s platform is already used by over 150 lenders and banks globally to manage, optimise and grow the distribution of personal loans, auto loans and other credit products via third-party comparison websites and financial apps.

The CEOs of the most prominent Italian and international fintech companies and unicorns, traditional financial players and authorities will gather to explore current and future fintech trends and evolutions in the financial sector. The Milan Fintech Summit, at its third edition - and its first in-person event since the onset of Covid-19 - will take place at Melià Hotel in Milan from the 5^th to the 7^th of October 2022.

The event, a benchmark for the sector on an international level, is promoted and organised by the Fintech District - the international community of reference for the fintech ecosystem in Italy - and by Business International - Fiera Milano together with FTS Group, with the support of the municipality of Milan via Milano&Partners. Its aim is to strengthen Milan's role as the capital of innovation in the European fintech world and to enhance the Italian fintech ecosystem on an international level, attract investment and talent, and create business-networking opportunities.

Alessandro Hatami, Managing Partner of Pacemakers.io and author of ‘Reinventing Banking and Finance’, is once again confirmed as Conference Chair of the event. Among the 90 participants comprised of distinguished international fintech leaders are Erik Podzuweit, Founder and Co-CEO di Scalable Capital, Alexander Prot, Co-Founder and CEO of Qonto, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, Deputy CEO of Bitpanda, and Riccardo Trubiani, Chief of Staff of Italian unicorn Scalapay. Among the other participants are Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Matthias Kroener, Carlo Gualandri, CEO of Soldo, Giuseppe Vegas Chairman of Arisk and former Consob President, Paolo Zaccardi Co-founder and CEO OF Fabrick, Clément Mauguet Co-Founder of Agicap, and Sergio Zocchi CEO of October Italia and President of ItaliaFintech.

The Summit will also benefit from the presence – with a video - of Omobola Johnson, Senior Partner of TLcom Capital, a venture capital firm specialised in investments in technology companies in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Brett King, best-selling author and host of ‘Breaking Banks’, the first globally recognized fintech podcast, who will be video-interviewed live on the second day of the event. Omobola Johnson was also Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015, when the percentage of people online in Nigeria almost doubled. 

For the first time, this year there will be three important initiatives: a pitch session for fintech firms with Italian and international investors, a face-to-face time with authorities who will answer questions from the audience, and the exhibition area for event partners to present solutions and schedule meetings and demonstrations.

FINTECH CONFIRMS GLOBAL BENCHMARK

The rise of the Fintech industry is accelerating, with global revenues of USD 143 billion and investments of USD 121.5 billion in 2021. An unprecedented expansion was driven by the personal finance and digital payments segments, for which a further 14% growth is expected by 2025. Italy with investment rounds of millions is the leading foremost country in terms of the amount collected, as evidenced by analysis from Cross Border Growth Capital, according to which, since the beginning of 2022, six sizeable funding rounds have already been made in Italy, including those of Scalapay (188.1 million) and Moneyfarm (53 million). 

Italian fintech is experiencing a boom period with boosted growth. The ecosystem of companies is growing steadily, and banks and other players in the financial system have developed new digital channels and services by increasingly leveraging collaboration; Italian consumers and SMEs are showing a greater propensity towards digital and the most innovative financial services every year.

The introduction of PSD2, the new European directive on payment services, has also shuffled the cards, expanding opportunities for start-ups and fintech operators, in an ever more Open Finance based approach.

Milan Fintech Summit aims to promote the Italian fintech ecosystem at an international level and facilitate the entry of international firms and players into the Italian market. The validity and effectiveness of the initiative are demonstrated by the number of fintech companies attracted to the Soft-Landing programme. It’s a programme implemented on the sidelines by the Fintech District and Milano&Partners, which opens the doors of the community to foreign firms not yet operating in Italy, to ease access through the creation of relationships, visibility and structured action plans. Since the last edition of the Summit, Fintech District and Milano&Partners have been in touch with 73 international companies, including 13 unicorns, of which 11 have already become operational in Italy to be joined by a further five in the near future.

Clelia Tosi, Head of Fintech District, commented: "With more than 400 fintechs and an increasing number of scale-ups, the Italian ecosystem is mature and ready to express its potential. Positive signs are coming from the investors since more than 50 per cent of investments come from international VC funds. However, Italy remains lagging behind other European countries: to keep up with international competitors, it is necessary to work as a system and facilitate dialogue among all stakeholders. The Milan Fintech Summit’s specific aim is to achieve this."

Carlo Antonelli, Director of Business International, added: "Creating a culture of financial innovation is not only a great opportunity for Italy, but it is above all a necessity that must not be ignored. In fact, equipping new generations of talent with essential technological and sustainable skills is the only way to find concrete and flexible solutions to the challenges of our globalised world. In this context, thanks to this event, the city of Milan became the epicentre of Italian innovation, promoting the creation of new tech solutions and fostering cooperation among fintech companies.”

Bottomline, a leading provider of financial technology that helps make business payments simple, smart, and secure, today announced its inclusion in a recently published Gartner report “Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions.”

The Market Guide focuses on how the increase in a hybrid or remote workforce, compounded with additional vendor integration, has prioritized risk management as a focus area for security and risk management leaders. It assists in understanding and implementing a comprehensive insider risk management program.

Against a backdrop of working from home and a widely reported increase in insider fraud, it is unsurprising that banks and businesses are looking to vendors to help manage this challenge better. According to Gartner, the market consists of tools and solutions to monitor the behaviour of employees, service partners and key suppliers working inside the organization, and to evaluate whether behaviour falls within expectations of the role and corporate risk tolerance.

“Insider fraud is a trifecta of rationalization, opportunity, and pressure,” said Omri Kletter, Global VP of Product and Strategy for Fraud & Financial Crime, Bottomline. “Unfortunately, the pandemic has exacerbated many drivers of that fraud triangle, creating a perfect storm of conditions that support acts of insider fraud.”

The Market Guide states insider risk may involve errors, fraud, theft of confidential or commercially valuable information, or sabotaging of computer systems. It also quotes organizations have spent an average of $15.38 million in 2021 to deal with insider threats — up 34% from the $11.45 million in 2020.

Bottomline’s recently published 2022 Business Payments Barometer confirms the problem is rife, citing 52% of businesses in Great Britain and almost 2 in 3 businesses in the United States claim to have seen an increase in insider fraud and collusion with more employees working from home. Industry insights from the Market Guide echo this increase stating remote workers are the primary source of criminal prosecutions for insider risk.

Linked to the movement of money and payment messages, Bottomline’s fraud and financial crime solutions help companies evaluate whether users’ behaviour falls within the expectations of roles and corporate risk tolerance, and alerts on any abnormal activity before transactions are completed. Bottomline’s multi-award-winning fraud prevention and financial crime technology already help more than 600,000 companies protect their business from potentially fraudulent activity.

*Gartner, “Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions”, Jonathan Care, Paul Furtado, Brent Predovich, April 18, 2022.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Sphere, the fintech uniting voice and digital trading together on one community platform, today announced the world’s first Liquidity Lake at the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore.

Founded by energy market experts with deep experience in trading technology, Sphere is designed to boost the confidence of traders who operate in increasingly complex, volatile, and fragmented trading environments.

Until now, voice and electronic liquidity pools were isolated from each other, denying traders a clear view of the markets. Sphere enables traders and brokers to trade and sees liquidity from digital feeds, side by side with prices distilled from instant messaging and voice trading together on one screen for the first time. The Sphere Liquidity Lake unites trading and data from all regions and trading venues and in doing so, helps liquidity formation and efficient price discovery.

Ami Katschinski, co-founder and CEO of Sphere said: “The status quo where electronic trading is separated from voice and chat OTC trading has become an unnecessary barrier to liquidity and price discovery. Sphere maximises the benefits of the digital trading infrastructure whilst complementing traditional workflows in markets where liquidity is fragmented and challenged.”

Already in use at the world’s top trading houses, oil majors, energy companies, proprietary traders, and leading energy brokerages, Sphere captures all available liquidity, enabling traders to trade and track the energy derivatives market on one intuitive platform.

Over 90 per cent of refined oil financial derivatives are still traded via voice and IM communications where traders may need to process up to 5,000 shout-downs from around 50 brokers in an average trading day, while simultaneously dealing with more than 20 digitised information sources.

Katschinski added: “Every trader knows their performance can be compromised by the constant wall of noise. Given this intense trading activity is made up of a mix of audio, textual and visual signals, we realised early on that Sphere could add significant value to traders by consolidating this information for them with our patented technology. Now, for the first time in the oil market, Sphere gives traders the option to trade on-screen alongside clear and frictionless access to the fullest array of information available in the market today.”

Proven in refined oil derivatives trading, Sphere’s platform will be applicable to other institutional markets where liquidity and data are often splintered and scant. Sphere solves the impact of fragmentation, limited execution choice, and information scarcity on trading and risk management.

Fintech platform Pomelo today announces preparations to support the expansion of its Payment Platform as a Service (PPaaS) offering with a brand uplift and a wider regional presence in Asia and Europe. The move will enable Pomelo to continue to capitalise on the growing demand for digital payments which has accelerated rapidly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pomelo provides financial institutions and enterprises with a unified B2B payment platform solution to boost revenue and lower costs by increasing payment efficiencies across the financial ecosystem. It offers ready-to-use payment rails, intuitive merchant acquiring infrastructure and access to the latest technology, designed with configurable modular features and microservices.

Pomelo was founded in 2017 in the UK and began by helping businesses digitise their payment infrastructure and take payments from anyone, anywhere at a low cost and without the need for expensive point-of-sale hardware. It continues to provide these solutions directly to businesses in the UK as Pomelo Pay and leverages this experience to enhance its expanding PPaaS offering that can be used on a white label basis by financial institutions and enterprises.

Headquartered in London, UK, with a regional headquarter in Singapore, and offices in Vietnam, Thailand and Hong Kong, Pomelo continues to expand its footprint by working with banks, non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), fintech and enterprises across Asia and Europe. The brand uplift, which includes a refreshed logo and new website, helps support this ambition.

Vincent Choi, CEO and co-founder of Pomelo said: “This represents an exciting new chapter and look for Pomelo and reflects our mission to help businesses propel forward with smart, accessible financial technology solutions. We want to help financial institutions and enterprises address complex or legacy challenges through a unified platform that’s scalable and constantly updated with the latest payment rails and technology the world has to offer.”

“The expansion of our platform business will enable us to capitalise on rapidly growing demand for digital payments that we’ve seen worldwide, particularly in Asia and Europe. We are proud that our technology has helped businesses navigate uncertainty and build resilience by lowering costs and attracting new customers. With more challenging economic headwinds on the horizon, this type of support is going to become increasingly important.”

Cashless payment volumes globally are expected to increase by more than 80% from 2020 to 2025, from about 1tn transactions to almost 1.9tn, and to almost triple by 2030. Asia-Pacific will grow fastest, with cashless transaction volume growing by 109% until 2025 and then by 76% percent from 2025 to 2030 (PwC, 2022).