GoCardless, a leader in direct bank payment solutions, has launched Verified Mandates in France. Part of the GoCardless global ‘bank payment’ platform, Verified Mandates combines the Account Information Services (AIS) capabilities of open banking with bank debit to stop fraud before it happens.

This represents a new approach to tackling the age-old issue of payment fraud, whether it stems from identity fraud or “customers” that intentionally try to receive goods or services from merchants without paying for them.

The problem is particularly acute for recurring revenue businesses, with research indicating that  55% of French merchants on this model consider payment fraud a top threat -- or even the primary threat -- facing their business today. Despite this, over half of the businesses (53%) say they still provide goods or services before confirming if a customer’s bank information is authentic and true.

A few clicks, a better way

Until now, businesses that are especially exposed -- including those that invoice, offer free trials or ask for payment after usage -- didn’t have much recourse. But the introduction of Verified Mandates represents a new era of intelligent fraud prevention that doesn’t compromise on customer experience.

Verified Mandates works in a simple, three-step process which can be completed in less than a minute. 

1. A customer who enters a merchant’s checkout flow will be asked to complete a standard bank debit mandate creation form. 
2. They’ll be prompted to choose their bank, log into their online banking platform using their usual method, and authorise the setup of their direct debit mandate. 
3. The merchant will receive instant confirmation of the successful verification and the customer can complete the checkout flow as usual. 

Besides the seamless checkout experience, payers also gain peace of mind: bank-grade security, often with biometric authentication required, is much harder for fraudsters to overcome compared to, for example, using stolen card details.

Alexandra Chiaramonti, General Manager of Continental Europe, said: “Payment fraud is a prevalent issue for merchants, but new technology means you can limit your exposure without reducing conversion or adding a ton of third parties to your supplier roster. Verified Mandates, which use the power of open banking, allow you to authenticate your payers as part of the payment set-up flow. This means you can protect your revenue without adding extra friction for your customers.”

The French launch follows the introduction of Verified Mandates in the US, UK and Germany. Any merchant that collects payments from one of these four markets can now benefit from instant payer and bank account verification.

It also marks another milestone in GoCardless’ open banking strategy. The fintech launched its first open banking-powered feature, Instant Bank Pay, in 2021. In February this year, it raised its Series G funding round to accelerate its growth in the space. Most recently, GoCardless announced the acquisition of Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, to combine broad open banking connectivity with bank payment expertise.

Encompass Corporation, the leading provider of intelligently automated Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, has been announced as the newest member to join the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) Vendor Relationship Group.

The GLEIF Vendor Relationship Group makes it possible for GLEIF to understand market and product requirements of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) data by enabling participating members to express their views on LEI services and important industry developments via an open communication platform.

As part of the group, Encompass, recognising the increasing importance of LEI data and its relevance to the KYC process, will play a role in collectively offering views and expertise from industry leaders, including Cyndi Festa, its Head of Data Sources. The group will also use data points from the Encompass platform to inform GLEIF of bespoke trends and information relating to money laundering and financial crime. Feedback gathered in its sessions, which will ultimately contribute to better outcomes for all users, will also help GLEIF to understand the challenges associated with LEI data and services, so they can be developed accordingly.

GLEIF’s Vendor Relationship Group includes representatives from global technology vendors and service providers. In fact, all participating organisations will usually own or support a significant capability in data and data distribution that is relevant to the GLEIF mission.

Cyndi Festa, Head of Data Sources for Encompass Corporation, commented:

“We are pleased to be joining the GLEIF Vendor Relationship Group, which has a significant role to play in promoting the LEI and helps to inform GLEIF about trends in and needs of the market. By joining with other participating members, Encompass will be at the centre of critical conversations around key future developments, particularly when it comes to what organisations need, as well as how GLEIF’s data can help to meet those needs.”

Stephan Wolf, CEO for GLEIF and GLEIF Vendor Relationship Group co-chair, added:

“We are very excited to have Encompass joining the group and to count on its valuable industry insights and KYC experience. With Encompass, we will have more than 40 organisations in the group, which creates a solid and rich dialogue between GLEIF and major private sector solution providers to further promote the LEI worldwide.”

ION, a global provider of trading, analytics, treasury, and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities, and treasury management announce that ION GTP has won two categories at the 2022 FOW Asia Capital Markets Awards. GTP was named Best New Product – Trading and Execution, and Derivatives Trading System of the Year during an award ceremony in Singapore on 20 September 2022.

Hosted by FOW Global Investor Group, the buy-side-led awards recognize the outperformance, innovation, and achievement of firms and individuals involved in the Asian capital markets. A panel of judges with extensive industry experience selects the winners, presenting 51 awards in 8 categories.

A complete solution for cleared derivatives order management and execution, GTP provides comprehensive follow-the-sun global order management, advanced order execution across multiple asset classes, and high-speed access to the world’s leading exchanges. Its unique, distributed architecture routes orders to achieve optimal execution outcomes, regardless of location.  

GTP won both categories for the innovative offerings introduced over the past year, which reinforced its position as the leading EOMS platform. These include:

• A Bulk Order and Stitch feature, which increases high-touch efficiency for clients. It enables a buy-side client to roll a position for multiple funds, and then send a basket of sell and buy outright orders to their broker.    
• A FIX to Spreader solution, which allows buy-side participants to send multiple FIX orders to a synthetic spread algo, where they are automatically stitched together before the GTP Synthetic Spread execution service executes the resulting synthetic strategy. This removes time-consuming manual, error-prone tasks. 
• A wider range of algos, equipping clients to execute complex orders and achieve best possible execution while monitoring and optimizing execution performance in real-time through sophisticated order analytics. GTP’s advanced trading suite is complemented by a set of third-party algos that are exposed in the front end and that customers can tailor easily via simple parameter configuration. 

“We are pleased to have won these two categories at the 2022 Asia Capital Markets Awards,” said Francesco Margini Chief Product Officer, Cleared Derivatives, ION Markets. “GTP is a fundamental component in our suite of advanced solutions that facilitate cleared derivatives trading. ION is proudly the only provider of a truly integrated front-to-back platform for futures and options trading:  our solution encompasses GTP for the front-office, XTP Clearing for the middle-office and XTP Core – our market-leading real-time back-office platform. ION’s front-to-back offering streamlines end-to-end workflows, leveraging common datasets and native integration between components, ultimately boosting our customers’ operational efficiency and business scalability, replacing complex and fragmented legacy solutions.

ION MarketFactory also won an award at this year’s FOW Asia Capital Markets Awards, namely, Connectivity Provider of the Year. The awards ceremony coincided with Trading Singapore 2022, one of the leading events for derivatives trading and investment in the APAC region.

Building on its recently announced North American expansion, BankiFi has appointed Danny Piangerelli, formerly of Malauzai Software and Sensibill, highlighting the company’s commitment to targeted technology innovation for the North American market.

A leading international provider of embedded banking solutions, BankiFi is on a mission to help over two million SMBs globally by 2024 through partnering with financial institutions to provide technology designed to make business banking better.

Now, the business is illustrating the importance they place on understanding a market’s needs and tailoring its technology to meet this by welcoming Danny Piangerelli as the company’s CTO. Piangerelli will oversee all aspects of technology including engineering, architecture and infrastructure.

Piangerelli has more than 25 years of experience in software engineering and has held multiple senior leadership positions. In 2010 he co-founded Malauzai Software and served as CTO until it was acquired by Finastra in 2018. Piangerelli then served as Chief Architect of Finastra’s North American community markets business, CTO for Sensibill and as a board advisor at ZSuite. He joins the BankiFi c-suite to support the business’ product evolution in North America.

“BankiFi’s embedded banking technology has proven to be highly effective at providing comprehensive open cash management for small businesses,” said Piangerelli. “I was drawn to BankiFi’s approach, which is effectively disrupting the ‘disrupters’ by empowering financial institutions to offer best-of-breed small business solutions directly to their business customers. By partnering with trusted financial institutions, BankiFi is delighting and supporting small businesses around the world, and now including North America, and that’s a great motivator for me.”

The new CTO’s hiring comes swiftly after BankiFi’s North American expansion and its strategic growth funding. BankiFi recently launched its services in North America, adding to its operational markets alongside Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia – having received a $4.8 million investment from previous stakeholders for its expansion into the U.S. and Canada.

“This is a very exciting time for BankiFi,” said Keith Riddle, CEO of BankiFi Americas. “As we’re hoping to grow our business, we’re also striving to make our services better. The nature of our business means that we must be constantly innovating, and we think Danny is the perfect leader for that job. We look forward to working with Danny and seeing how he helps us improve our technology.”

Following on from 12 months of hypergrowth, Brite Payments has hired Lisa Edström, formerly Chief Compliance Officer at Zettle by PayPal, as its new Compliance Director. The recruitment underpins the company’s compliance-first approach to payments innovation.

Brite Payments is a large-scale payment provider with a strong merchant and consumer brand proposition. The second-generation fintech is committed to swift, impactful response to consumer preference; with an approach that both satisfies consumer needs and strengthens the merchant offering. The recruitment of Lisa Edström shows Brite’s commitment to regulatory compliance.

Prior to joining Brite Payments, Lisa held senior compliance positions at payments and financial services businesses including GE Capital, Klarna and most recently at Zettle (ex-iZettle). Lisa’s move highlights her strong belief in Brite’s brand and its unique ability to satisfy the varied needs of modern payment solutions. Backed by her comprehensive experience, Lisa will lead Brite’s global compliance function throughout its ambitious growth strategy.

Lisa joins the Brite team while the business explores new use case development and the establishment of local bases in its markets to deepen relationships and better understand product needs. Lisa’s arrival will be instrumental in Brite’s plans to broaden its product range and in the ambitious plans for market expansion. To support these plans, Lisa will focus on the development of a comprehensive compliance program and building a team of knowledgeable, proactive compliance officers.

Speaking on her new position, Lisa Edström commented: “I’m excited to join the Brite team and to support its continued focus on regulation and compliance throughout its ambitious plans. Brite Payments was created for both merchants and consumers, and I am pleased to be joining a business that is so aware of the role that compliance plays in merchants’ and consumers’ adoption of its products.”

Commenting on the company’s latest arrival, Lena Hackelöer, Founder and CEO at Brite Payments shared: “I first met Lisa when we worked together at Klarna, and I am so pleased that she is joining our team at Brite. Lisa’s arrival is crucial to our expansion plans, to ensure that our solutions adhere to all regulation and compliance requirements. Her move is a testimony to Brite’s second-generation approach, as she contributes a wealth of highly relevant experience in international payments giants.”

Lisa continued: “Open banking is an ever-evolving area, especially now and here in Stockholm. Having seen the development of open banking mainly from the ASPSPs’ perspective, I look forward to seeing the Third-Party Provider perspective and diving into Payment Initiation and Account Information Services.”

Match-Trade Technologies has partnered with Sumsub, a global verification platform, to make KYC processes easier and more reliable for Forex brokers in the company’s custom Client Office CRM.

Match-Trade, recognised as the Best CRM Provider by the Global Forex Awards, is continuously working to improve its proprietary Forex CRM, with a particular focus on KYC.

Sumsub is an all-in-one identity verification platform that fights digital fraud and helps businesses stay fully compliant, with years of experience in KYC verification for the fintech and trading industries.

By integrating Sumsub, Match-Trade’s Client Office CRM allows brokers to run automatic KYC. This includes the verification of identity documents, addresses, telephone numbers, and emails. The platform also checks if the entered data appears on sanction lists or any other records that indicate potential red flags.

The entire process is automated, and traders get instant feedback on whether provided information can be verified. If it cannot be verified, the platform gives instructions on what the trader needs to submit. Altogether, this streamlined solution prevents applicants from dropping off since they don’t have to go through a cumbersome verification procedure. 

Jacek Czarniawski, Head of Product at Match-Trade Technologies:

“We develop our solutions with Broker’s daily operations in mind. That’s why we chose to work with Sumsub. Thanks to the integration with their verification platform, Brokers using our CRM can easily onboard new clients. The KYC process is now effortless, making traders more likely to go through it and start trading without delay. No involvement of the Broker is needed.”

Jacob Sever, Co-founder and Chief Compliance Officer at Sumsub:

“Partnering with Match-Trade Technologies brings us an exciting opportunity to enhance our experience in the international trading industry, and we are very glad to be trusted by a company with a truly global portfolio. We believe that our top-notch verification products will help to ensure seamless onboarding procedure for trading and crypto-market platform clients, to fight fraud and meet compliance standards in any market they are willing to operate.”

Stash, the investing and banking app with more than 2M customers and nearly $3B in assets under management, announced today that it successfully built and launched Stash Core, its new, proprietary infrastructure platform that underpins the service for Americans who bank like investors. Stash Core is a world-class system that unlocks new innovations in banking, and, in the future, new capabilities in credit, savings, lending, and more. It will also allow the company to more easily welcome new subscribers and meet demand. 

Stash’s new banking account experience, built on Stash Core, includes access to an upgraded Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®, enhanced customer support, and refreshed benefits including increased rewards. The Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®is the first and only of its kind, allowing customers to earn stock and invest when they shop (our patent was just approved). To date, Stash has given away more than 59M stock rewards1; going forward, Stashers will be able to earn up to 4x more with the relaunched card. 

“Stash Core gives us flexibility and ownership of every customer touchpoint. It’s the future of inclusive finance and transformative to our business,” says Stash co-founder and CEO, Brandon Krieg. “The entire Stash platform is for everyday Americans who want to build long-term wealth with a trusted partner. With Stash Core and the Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®, we are able to deliver the very best in financial tooling, customer service, and AI-powered, personalized wealth-building for those who want to earn stock and invest as they spend.” 

Stash Core is the latest launch from the fintech leader, which in the past year surpassed $125M in annualized revenue and continues to grow its customer base. Over the past two years, weekly contributions are up by 30%, as everyday Americans rely on Stash to invest and save in today’s rapidly changing world. Stash Core is powered in part by integrations with industry-leading financial and technology partners Mastercard, Stride Bank, Marqeta, Mambu, Alloy, and nearly a dozen others that are top in their fields. 

“Stride Bank is proud to partner with Stash on the development and ongoing support of Stash Core and in issuing Stash’s Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®,” said Jimmy Stallings, President Payments, Stride Bank. “The consumer-friendly features of Stash’s Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®, which allow people to earn stock as they spend, is an extremely unique offering. Together with Stash’s financial education, customers grow their knowledge and diverse investments. Stash’s goal of empowering Americans to build better financial futures makes them an ideal partner for Stride Bank, as we are a leading fintech bank focused on driving financial innovation with integrity.” 

“Today’s digital world requires payment solutions that give people choice, control and empowerment in their financial lives,” said Sherri Haymond, executive vice president, Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. “Mastercard shares in Stash’s vision of delivering an innovative and trusted experience, and we’re excited to work closely as the exclusive network to bring Stash’s Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® to more people and support this next stage of growth.” 

“We’re proud to enable Stash’s new banking platform as they deliver seamless new financial services experiences for their customers,” said Simon Khalaf, Chief Product Officer at Marqeta. “Our partnership with Stash showcases the range of innovative banking and money movement solutions made possible by Marqeta’s APIs, and we look forward to supporting them as they grow and scale Stash Core and the Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® across the globe.” 

“Stash and Mambu worked together to develop a new banking experience with savings goals that will make life easier for customers,” said Robin Smith, Regional VP, North America, Mambu. “The Stash team brought strong technical experience and a collaborative mindset, and it was a pleasure to work with them to build something that will be so useful to millions of people beginning their investing and savings journeys.” 

“We are thrilled to support Stash on the launch of Stash Core both because we are fans of the platform and because it supports our vision to create a more dynamic and accessible financial industry,” said Tommy Nicholas, co-founder and CEO at Alloy. “With Alloy’s identity decisioning platform, new and existing Stash customers can feel confident in the security of their assets.” 

Benefits of the new banking account for every Stash customer include the Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard®; Auto-Stash; zero overdraft fees; direct deposit up to two days early; saving and budgeting tools; advanced mobile wallet capabilities and contactless payments; easy access to more than 55,000 ATMs; FDIC insurance up to $250,000 through Stride Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, plus advanced security features including Mastercard Global Service™ and Mastercard Zero Liability Protection. 

Stash+ Tier customers will also now get 1% Stock-Back on every Stash Stock-Back® Debit Mastercard® purchase.

Quadrant Knowledge Solutions announced today that it has named Bottomline as a 2022 technology leader for the SPARK Matrix^TM analysis in the global Insider Risk Management market.

The Quadrant Knowledge Solutions SPARK Matrix™ includes a detailed analysis of global market dynamics, major trends, vendor landscape, and competitive positioning. The study provides competitive analysis and rankings of the leading technology vendors in the form of its SPARK MatrixTM. The study offers strategic information for users to evaluate different provider capabilities, competitive differentiation, and market position.

According to Hardik Jain, Analyst at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, “Bottomline provides strong Cyber Fraud and Risk Management (CFRM) and Insider and Employee Fraud solutions that help organizations record employee access to cloud-based applications and identify insider payment-related frauds. Bottomline leverages a dynamic risk library, fraud analytics simulation tool (FAST), and machine learning studio to conduct robust investigations, analyze, and fight against any cyber threat. Additionally, the company provides behaviour and transaction analysis and user behaviour monitoring to facilitate the detection and prevention of suspicious transactions and payment frauds on the web and mobile platforms. With overall strong performance across the parameters of technology excellence and customer impact, Bottomline has been positioned among the 2022 technology leaders in the global Insider Risk Management Market.”

“We celebrate achieving this recognition for the second year running,” says Omri Kletter, Bottomline’s Global VP of Product and Strategy for Fraud and Financial Crime Management. “It proudly reflects our business goal of delivering innovative fraud prevention technology to delight customers and, collectively, supports our global fight against fraud and financial crime.”

Quadrant Knowledge solution defines “Insider Risk Management as a holistic solution designed to detect, analyze, protect, remediate, and respond to insider threats in real-time. It provides control and visibility for internal data access and data leakages by end users, such as employees, remote vendors, and contractors, to protect from insider threats like data theft, fraud, and infrastructure damage due to careless users, malicious insiders, or compromised credentials by vicious outsiders”.

Nowadays, digital sophistication is increasing in the business ecosystem, as organizations are consistently leveraging new technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and ML, big data, cloud computing, and others. Due to the adoption of digital transformation, organizations are facing vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, such as ransomware, malware, DDoS attack, and others, as a lot of sensitive IT data is at stake. Organizations are trying to stop such insider risk by identifying insider threats in real-time, as they are investing in tools such as data loss prevention (DLP), privileged access management (PAM), employee monitoring software, compliance surveillance tools, and other solutions. Due to the adoption of cloud infrastructure, remote working, and adoption of BYOD (bring your own device), organizations are not able to secure their infrastructure with traditional technologies. Thus, by adopting the insider risk management solution, organizations can easily identify, detect, and mitigate insider risk in real-time before they harm IT systems.

Organizations are looking for advanced security solutions to secure data aggregation, account sharing, privileged data, snooping of sensitive data, control access, and detect unusual behaviour of the employee or third party. Additionally, Bottomline’s solutions allow organizations to detect intellectual property (IP) theft, code of conduct policy breaches, sensitive data leaks, confidentiality breaches, frauds, insider trading, disgruntled user behaviour, and regulatory compliance issues. Therefore, the adoption of insider risk management allows IT organizations to strengthen their cybersecurity ecosystem.

Ria Money Transfer is now offering zero-fee transactions on all bank deposits to Pakistan, in a bid to help support those affected by the country’s devasting floods. This service will be available via the Ria Money Transfer app and website.

The floods have directly affected over 2.1 million people and put a third of the whole country under water. In its wake, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, forcing people and people to flee the most dangerous areas.

People in Pakistan are now increasingly relying on international remittances and charitable donations for food, shelter, and other basic necessities such as clean drinking water and medicine.

Jose Cabral, Managing Director Europe at Ria said: “The floods in Pakistan have had devastating effects on people, their homes, and livelihoods. We hope that our zero fees offer makes it easier for  families and friends of those affected who are living abroad to send loved one's financial aid and support them through this difficult period.”

As part of Ria’s commitment to the communities it serves, the company is also supporting its global partner Save the Children, with their emergency appeal to help Pakistani children and families affected by the floods. All donations made in a Ria store will be matched by the money transfer company and given to Save the Children. These funds will help the charity provide temporary shelters and distribute household kits and food packs to those that crucially need them.

This zero-fee initiative along with the Save the Children promise will run until the 23^rd of September.

This all marks yet another step in the company’s continued commitment to Pakistan. Through Ria UK & Ireland's CSR Program, they have also been raising funds to sponsor the education costs of the Sarabastall Foundation's scholarship program which supports children in the Hushe Valley. The program enables children, especially young girls, to complete their elementary and secondary studies, empowering them to pursue further education and become engines of development in their community.