B2B payments company Mondu has introduced Split Payments, a solution that allows business buyers to divide their purchases into equal, interest-free payments.

Malte Huffmann, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Mondu, said, “We’re excited to introduce an instalment option for Mondu customers to offer their buyers, bringing even more flexibility to B2B e-commerce. We know that businesses want to have the same benefits that they experience as consumers shopping online, and this is the first in a series of new products we’re offering that support our vision to simplify the financial lives of SMBs. Offering payment flexibility is a major driver of any company’s growth. Instalments give business buyers control over their expenditure while allowing them to buy more which equals more revenues for online vendors. The rise in buyers’ expectations from the checkout process means it’s now more important than ever for merchants to provide buyers with a frictionless online payment experience with options.”

• More sales: Increase conversion rates and average order values by letting their business customers choose when to pay at no extra cost. No lengthy applications. Instant online approval with 0 per cent interest.

• Better cash flow: Get paid upfront without delay in settlement, while business buyers enjoy maximum payment flexibility.

• Greater loyalty: Increase buyer retention by delivering a more convenient and flexible payment experience.

• No risk: Offer instalments without any risk of non-repayment. Mondu takes on default risk and handles payment collection, while merchants are paid upfront.

Zimpler, a leading fintech company born in Sweden, has appointed Linda Höglund as their Chief Operating Officer – with immediate effect. Linda will lead a newly created Operations department, which will combine their existing Diversity & CSR, People & Culture, AML and Customer Support teams.

In her new role as a COO, Höglund will primarily oversee operations of the day-to-day business as well as continue the development of internal practices and cross-functional processes. Zimpler’s rapid expansion over the last two years has made this new position both necessary and beneficial, as finding the most sustainable way for the company to grow is crucial.

Linda Höglund joined Zimpler in 2021 as a Chief People Officer, leading the People & Culture department. In her role, she oversaw the company’s growth from 50 to over 200 employees. Before that, she held several roles leading global teams within skills, background and geographical location – most recently at Klarna. Parallel to her new role, Linda will continue to develop the company's People & Culture department.

Linda Höglund, COO of Zimpler, said: “I have been a part of an amazing journey since I joined Zimpler. It is incredibly rewarding to be a part of a company going through such a strong expansion phase – together with people who lift and encourage each other to do their best every day. The reason I wanted to join Zimpler was to be a part of their journey from startup to scaleup - and now here we are.”

Johan Strand, CEO of Zimpler, said: “We have had a tremendous journey over the past two years, growing exceptionally. Not only in terms of turnover but also employees, new markets and segments. As we continue to scale the business, a COO is essential in guiding and mentoring the company through the current phase we are in. Linda has done a tremendous job as Chief People Officer and we are confident that she will continue to take the company to new levels.”

Katarina Bonde, Zimpler’s Chair of the Board, said: “Zimpler is growing fast, so the role of a COO is crucial in ensuring the efficiency of the company. The function also enables the CEO to focus on partner relations and product development. Moving us in an aligned direction forward is a challenge which I’m sure Linda will handle with excellence.”

United Fintech, the fintech one-stop-shop for banks, hedge funds, and asset managers, has expanded its sales team with the appointment of Raj Rathor as Head of Sales for Athena Systems, EMEA. Raj Rathor joins United Fintech from Enfusion, where he was Vice President of Sales. 

Raj Rathor’s 10 years’ experience in the financial technology sector includes product management roles and pre-sales engineering roles at buy-side vendor SimCorp. Before that, he began his career as an OTC execution broker at ICAP covering bonds and swaps.

Athena Systems, part of United Fintech, has developed a highly versatile front-to-back system which is underpinned by a native OMS/PMS, Athena Spark. Raj Rathor’s experience in Order & Execution Management Systems will be invaluable in his new role. 

Tom Robinson, Partner and Head of Sales, United Fintech said, “United Fintech’s mission in transforming the way that financial institutions can accelerate access to fintechs is enabling us to attract the very best salespeople from within the industry. We are delighted to welcome Raj to our experienced sales team as we continue to gain traction with our ambitious plans.”

Raj Rathor said, “I wanted to join United Fintech because of the fresh nature of its approach to solving complex problems around operating models within the investment management community. Athena can really push the status quo within the space in being a cloud-native, open-ended, true full front-to-back solution for buy-side firms.”

Athena Systems provides support for investment managers but also prime brokers with the complete front office and back-office functionality to ensure their trading and portfolio management operations are handled as efficiently as possible. This translates to a state-of-the-art technology stack which is flexible and an integrated platform that includes portfolio analytics, risk (Monte Carlo, historical or parametric), P&L, compliance, order management & full fund/partnership while providing unparalleled security, control, and on-the-fly API integration. 

United Fintech acquires and scales innovative fintech companies in the buy-side and capital markets space, providing banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and brokers with a single point of access to solutions that accelerate their transition to the digital world. In addition to Athena Systems, United Fintech’s platform includes NetDania, TTMzero and FairXchange, all with solutions designed to drive automation, save money, and deliver efficiency within the markets. United Fintech employs over 140 people across six offices: London, New York, Copenhagen, Berlin, Madrid and Craiova.

Simpl today announced a partnership with CCAvenue for a seamless checkout experience. Through this collaboration, millions of customers will now enjoy Simpl’s frictionless checkout and pay later facility on CCAvenue’s vast payment stack. 

Simpl, India’s favourite checkout partner, is a seamless and convenient checkout option to be offered by Infibeam Avenues’ digital payments solution CCAvenue. The digital payment gateway comprises 200+ payment options on its next-gen payments processing platform. 

Poor UX at checkout and speed break the customer’s online journey while bringing inefficiencies to retailers. With this synergistic partnership, both these challenges are resolved. For merchants, Simpl significantly increases cart conversions and reduces shopping cart abandonments. With Simpl, merchants unlock benefits such as:

·         Conversion rate up by 65%

·         Double order frequency

“Merchants love Simpl because we allow unbundling of product discovery. Product discovery takes on new significance as Indian consumers throng e-commerce sites seeking speed and convenience at checkout. Seamless checkout elevates customer’s shopping experience while significantly reducing cart abandonments, decreasing dependence on cash on delivery and removing inefficiencies for retailers,” said Nitya Sharma, CEO & Co-Founder, Simpl.

Losing out at checkout

Indian consumers will continue to prefer online shopping due to the convenience, speed and mobile-first nature of e-commerce. But if e-tailers are unable to provide a frictionless shopping experience, they will experience high cart abandonments. India’s cart abandonment rate is at 51%, and this fluctuates during festive seasons and holidays. For merchants, the situation is exacerbated due to a high dependence on cash on delivery (CoD).

As much as 60% of Indian consumers prefer CoD in urban areas, which can go as high as 90% in rural regions. This implies a trust issue leading to inefficiencies for retailers - high returns and cart abandonment, low transaction volumes and frequency.

UX at checkout and trust are two of the biggest roadblocks to the massive adoption of eCommerce in India. Simpl’s easy-to-integrate SDK enables any online retailer to provide their customers with a seamless checkout and charge after delivery. This significantly increases conversion rates and reduces CoD dependence.

Bangalore-headquartered Simpl provides a full-stack solution for e-commerce conversion. It allows merchants to build deep relationships with their end consumers rooted in trust, one transaction at a time. With more than 20,000 available merchants and millions of approved users pan-India, Simpl provides consumers with an easy, safe, and intuitive user experience.

 "We are thrilled to announce that Simpl is now live on our platform", said Mr. T. Nandakumar Menon, Vice President - Alliances and Operations, Infibeam Avenues Ltd. "Our merchants will now be able to reach out to a larger universe comprising millions of Simpl’s users to drive revenue. They can provide customers with the convenience of a seamless checkout experience and the flexibility of easy repayment later. Seamless checkout is a huge boon for Indian eCommerce businesses, and hence CCAvenue will be adding more such options in the coming months and years."

 “CCAvenue has always strived to provide its mammoth merchant base with the maximum number of payment options, so they do not miss out on any business opportunities”, he added.

Business management software provider Softera has integrated Nordigen’s open banking API connections into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system.

Lithuanian-based Softera is an official Microsoft partner that provides modern business management solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Dynamics 365 Business Central helps optimise business processes, gather information and centralise data under a single system, allowing for higher efficiency, bolstering businesses profitability and bettering customer experiences. With their Microsoft partnership, Softera offers businesses a wide array of specialised services focusing on Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, and Business Intelligence. Businesses can choose software specific to their field and receive ready-to-use solutions that will ease the need for manual input and streamline operations.

One of the solutions the firm offers is Softera.Docu-Bank. The service automates receipt and payment collection and offers integration between any European bank (Revolut, Santander, Barclays, Swedbank, PayPal and others) and the Microsoft ERP system. It includes payment orders, receipt statements, and invoice payments in real time whilst integrating multiple bank accounts. Nordigen’s APIs support this software solution by integrating real-time bank data and facilitating the aggregation of multiple accounts.

"In order to provide the best business management software, we are always looking to be at the cutting edge. The Nordigen open banking integration facilitates increased connectivity and ease for our customers. The data that is accessed through their APIs allows us to continue to build and innovate with the tools enabled by our Microsoft partnership. We are excited to share an elevated, effortless experience with our customers and are looking forward to our continued partnership in the future," explains Edgaras Bencevicius, Product Development Manager from Softera.

“It is wonderful that Softera has chosen to partner with us. They have a great reputation as an international business management software provider and we are happy to see our open banking platform integrated into such a crucial business solution, showing the continued growth and utility of open banking," says Rolands Mesters, co-founder and CEO of Nordigen.

DFM, a financing partner in the Netherlands for enterprises within the mobility sector, has chosen Worldline, a global leader in payment services, to be their Instant Payments and Clearing & Settlement mechanism partner. Following successful implementation within nine months of the signing of this partnership, Worldline now handles Instant Payments and back-office processing services for DFM via its payment licence partner Volkswagen Bank, as part of a five-year contract.

Reducing complexity and lowering costs
DFM and its partner Volkswagen Bank use Worldline’s Instant Payments Clearing & Settlement mechanisms and Instant Payments back-office. The Instant Payments service is part of Worldline’s extensive and modular back-office processing product portfolio, which also handles other payment types such as SEPA, high-value and multi-currency payments. This modular EPC (European Payments Council) and PSD2 compliant portfolio can be used by any bank, large or small and can be implemented within nine months. This short time-to-market allows Worldline’s customers, such as DFM, to quickly reap the benefits of outsourcing and provide their end customers with solid and future-proof solutions.

Outsourcing back-office services stand as a viable solution for companies, including banks, seeking to introduce new operating models for their payments processing business while lowering costs, reducing complexity, and making better use of resources. By partnering with Worldline, companies like DFM can position themselves better strategically to respond to, and integrate with, accelerating digitalisation and evolving customer needs.

Jeroen Notmeijer, Managing Director of DFM and Branch Manager of Volkswagen Bank: "Our industry requires us to work closely with our clients and react to their evolving finance requirements. With Worldline as our partner for processing Instant Payments, we value their flexibility and future-proof services that we can, in turn, use to better support our customers".

Alessandro Baroni, Deputy Head of Worldline Global Financial Services: "This partnership with DFM highlights the benefits of outsourcing back-office services to Worldline. Following the closing of this five-year contract, we have successfully implemented the complete Instant Payments back-office and a connection to the Clearing & Settlement mechanism within nine months. This demonstrates our capability to act as an agile business partner. We look forward to keep supporting DFM’s business operations in the years to come."

Temenos (SIX: TEMN) today announces that SinoPac, one of Taiwan's largest banks, has selected Temenos to advance its digital banking capabilities. Temenos digital banking solution on Temenos open platform for composable banking will enable SinoPac to differentiate in a crowded banking market with seamless and personalized digital banking experiences, helping it attract new customers and grow wallet-share.

SinoPac is already one of the most successful banks in Taiwan for digital account acquisition. Its DAWHO account is the first to combine savings, credit cards, wealth management, mortgages, foreign exchange and securities investment within one app.

What sets the bank apart is a deep understanding of customers' needs and fulfilling their digital journey. With a user-friendly interface, customers can open an account in three steps in just ten minutes. It has garnered around 1.2 million users and has high engagement with over 80 per cent of users active.

Temenos digital banking solutions will enable SinoPac to continue to enhance the digital customer experience while bringing innovation to the market faster and at a lower cost. SinoPac will implement the enterprise suite of Temenos digital banking functionality, covering the entire customer lifecycle from customer onboarding, account opening and servicing.

SinoPac completed an overhaul of its core banking system with Temenos in 2012. Implementing Temenos digital banking on top delivers a complete end-to-end retail banking solution, combining a flexible product engine and world-class front and middle office transactional capabilities.

SinoPac is a top five bank in Taiwan with a net income in excess of NT$11 billion (US$0.37B) and more than NT$2 trillion (US$67Bn) in total assets.

Robert Tsai, CIO, Bank SinoPac, commented: “We chose Temenos to turbo-charge our digital banking initiatives. Customers are showing an increased preference for digital interaction. With our core and digital banking services working seamlessly together on a single platform we can foster innovation and deliver digital experiences to meet our customers' evolving needs and expectations, faster and at a lower cost.”

Craig Bennett, Managing Director – Asia Pacific, Temenos, said: “Temenos has a long-standing relationship with SinoPac and so we are delighted the bank has chosen our digital banking solution to further its digital ambitions. SinoPac has achieved tremendous success with its digital offerings and with Temenos it can take that innovation to the next level. Temenos has built a trusted reputation with leading banks in Taiwan and this new win with SinoPac shows our continued leadership and momentum in the market.”

Cheddar, the bank account-enabled instant payments platform, has announced the launch of its new cashback feature. From today, Cheddar users will be paid cash straight back into their bank account as they spend with partnered retailers.

Following a trial debut at the UK’s biggest food and music festival tour, Pub in the Park, the new feature will allow users to earn up to 50% when making purchases at their favourite retailers both in-store and online. Already a variety of well-known retailers are onboard including Ocado, Joe & The Juice and Sports Direct.

Anyone can sign-up to the app effortlessly for free and use their existing debit or credit cards, Apple Pay or Google Pay to start earning cashback instantly. Once signed-up, users will have access to hyper-personalised offers based on actual spend behaviour from retailers with any eligible cards they’ve linked to the app.

Luke Ladyman, Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder at Cheddar says:

‘As the UK economy heads deeper into recession with inflation soaring to record highs not seen in 40 years, consumers’ shopping and spending habits are changing. At Cheddar it’s important to us, now more than ever, to make everyday spending as easy as possible and our new cashback feature will help our users save money effortlessly while they spend during these challenging times.’

‘For our retail partners, it will help to attract new high-intent customers, increase the loyalty of existing ones, and re-engage lost customers at a time when retail spend is expected to struggle. We’re extremely proud to offer this new win-win solution for both consumers and businesses and are excited to see them reap the benefits.’

Cheddar’s open banking-enabled platform uses customer spend data, via first-party consent, to personalise its cashback offerings for users. The app will track where they spend and how often in order to provide tailored offers from retail partners and ensure maximum benefit for both the retailer and the customer.

As the cost of living crisis deepens, consumers are spending much more cautiously to make ends meet and save money. Cheddar’s new cashback feature will help retailers increase customer loyalty, encouraging them, with monetary incentives, to purchase more frequently.

According to ‘The Tipping Point of Loyalty’ report’ it only takes 13 spends per year, on average, to create a loyal customer which is worth 22x more to retailers than non-loyal customers.

After launching in March 2022, this announcement marks Cheddar’s first expansion of its payments platform offering. Cheddar is also bringing the new cashback offering to Fresher’s Week for students to enjoy at several universities including; University of Bristol, University of Leeds, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham.

The new feature is live in the Cheddar app today, which can be downloaded from the Apple and Google Play stores.