NCR Corporation, a leading enterprise technology provider, moved up to #4 on the 2022 IDC FinTech Rankings Top 100, a comprehensive list of the financial services industry’s leading global hardware, software and service providers. NCR celebrates a top 10 ranking as an IDC FinTech leader for more than a decade.

IDC also recognized NCR as a Fast Track FinTech company. Fast Track FinTechs are those companies in the IDC FinTech Rankings Top 100 that have moved significantly up in the rankings from last year.

The annual IDC FinTech Rankings categorize and evaluate technology providers based on calendar year revenues from financial institutions for hardware, software, and/or services. Data is gathered from surveys completed by vendors, as well as original research and market analysis conducted by IDC Financial Insights. These providers supply the technological backbone of the financial services industry.

“NCR is recognized as a FastTrack FinTech in our annual IDC FinTech Rankings based on their impressive year-over-year movement up the list,” said Marc DeCastro, research director, IDC Financial Insights. “As organizations look to grow and expand, NCR has the breadth of products and services necessary to provide their clients with what they need in today's digital-first financial services industry.”

“We are honoured to be recognized as a FinTech leader by IDC,” said Michael D. Hayford, CEO, NCR Corporation. “It is a privilege to provide the software and services that transform, connect and run our customers’ technology platforms around the world, and we are happy to serve them.”

Chipper Cash, a cross-border payments app used by over five million people throughout Africa and its diaspora, today announced its partnership with Highnote, the world’s most modern card issuance platform, to soon launch a new card capability. This new service will empower US-based Chipper Cash customers to access their Chipper Cash digital wallets to make transactions in the US and abroad that require a card payment, such as e-commerce purchases.

Digital money is moving at greater volumes and faster speeds than ever, with cross-border trade expected to grow 5% from 2018 to 2022. Chipper Cash rose to meet the need of its customers across Africa; its easy-to-use, no-transfer-fee, cross-border payment technology propelled it to become one of just seven technology unicorns on the continent. Now, Chipper Cash is leveraging Highnote to meet that need for its customers in the US, which is home to over 2.1 million immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and is the origin of almost 30% of international remittances to the region.

Chipper Cash launched in the US in September of last year, just one month before it achieved its $2 billion dollar valuation. While it has a virtual card product for Nigeria (one of the largest markets in Africa for Chipper Cash), the Highnote card will be its first such offering in the US.

“I moved to the US from Ghana for school,” said Maijid Moujaled, Co-Founder of Chipper Cash. “My father back in Ghana could only send me cash through a system that was slow, frustrating, and expensive. This was the genesis of Chipper Cash: a dream to make cross-border remittances to Africa, the US, and the world easier and economical.”

“Building on this, we want to give our customers in the US the power to use the money they earn or have in their wallets to spend on things they need,” continued Chipper Cash Cards Product Lead Tefiro Serunjogi. “This is why we are so excited to partner with the Highnote team. We believe we have found a partner that can future-proof with us. Highnote offers great capabilities and platform flexibility, which will enable us to expand the Chipper Cash offering and find new ways to bring accessible financial services to people living in Africa and beyond.”

As the world’s most modern card-issuing platform purposefully built for innovative digital enterprises, Highnote is uniquely positioned to offer card capabilities tailored to Chipper Cash customers. For example, the new card functionality will feature a ledger that allows for seamless movement of funds between a user’s existing Chipper Cash digital wallet and their card account. In addition, Highnote’s highly scalable and flexible architecture means Chipper Cash can grow its card program at scale while reducing operational challenges and complexities that come with operating such programs today.

“This partnership highlights our belief that innovative companies like Chipper Cash, paired with modern world-class payments infrastructure, open the floodgates for people to participate in so much of the digital payments revolution from which they have previously been excluded. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Chipper Cash in support of their mission to bring financial inclusivity to millions,” said John Macilwaine, Co-Founder and CEO of Highnote.

Lendistry, the only nationwide fintech CDFI and the largest minority-led deployer of capital in COVID relief funding, announces today that it will power Empire State Development's NY State Seed Funding Grant Program. This $200 million program will provide grants of $5,000-$25,000 to viable small and micro businesses, for-profit independent arts and cultural organizations, and independent arts contractors that were established on Sept. 1, 2018, or later.

"Since 2020, Lendistry has scaled up its platform to help underserved small businesses access the grants they need to keep serving their communities. We've deployed record amounts of state-funded relief in New York, Pennsylvania, California and more states to come," says Lendistry CEO Everett K. Sands. "We know how to get the funds where they're needed most, and we're excited to partner with Empire State Development to continue supporting New York's small business owners."

Empire State Development (ESD) created the NY State Seed Funding Grant Program to support early-stage businesses as they grow in a recovering economy. 

Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, "The pandemic has had profound impacts on our economy and our small and micro businesses were among the hardest hit, especially in New York State. Supporting our State's small businesses has been a priority of Governor Hochul's administration and the steps taken to expand eligibility and get funding out the door has helped countless businesses stay on track. The $800 million Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program and now the new Seed Funding Grant Program marks unprecedented support for New York State's small businesses and for our economic success moving forward."

Lendistry has a proven track record of distributing grants and loans efficiently and fairly. In fact, the majority of the relief funds Lendistry has disbursed through SBA programs and state-funded grants to date have been awarded to underserved businesses, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, and businesses located in low-income areas. An innovator in the small business finance space, Lendistry applauds ESD for making an impact on future influencers in New York State's economy.

Profile Software has reported a significant increase in revenue and after-tax profitability during the first half of 2022, by 33% and 55% respectively. Despite the general geopolitical economic environment, the Group has continued its rapid growth, at home and abroad, presenting new solutions and significant upgrades to the existing ones, leading to the undertaking of new projects, customer loyalty, as well as the undertaking of specialised projects in the Greek State.

 At a consolidated level from continuing operations (excluding the business unit of Ticketing, which was divested on 14/6/2022), the turnover of the Profile Group has marked an increase of 33% and amounted to € 10.2 million compared to € 7.7 million in the corresponding period of 2021. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to € 2.6 million compared to € 2.2 million in the first half of 2021, increased by 18%, Profit before Taxes increased by 38% to €1.5million from €1.1million., while Profits after Tax increased by 55% to € 1.04 million from € 0.67 million. Adding the profits from the sale of the Ticketing business unit, Profits after Tax and minority interests increased in the first half of 2022 by 184% to € 2.1 million from € 0.8 million in the first half of 2021.

It is noted that the adjusted EBITDA of the Profile Group, without the impact of extraordinary and non-recurring events, such as the accounting of the stock options in the executives of the Group, amounted to € 2.7 million in the first half of 2022 from € 2.4 million in the corresponding period of 2021. In the same context, the adjusted Profits after Tax (excluding depreciation of the valuation of the acquired companies’ intangible assets and the profits resulting from the sale of a business unit) amounted to € 1.4 million from € 1.0 million, increased by 37%.

The Group's liquidity continues to be at satisfactory levels, with total cash at the end of the first half of the year at € 16.9 million and net cash at € 10.0 million. Taking into account the value of the own shares, held by the company, cash amounted to € 10.9 million. In addition, the Profile Group maintains its financial strength, with a debt/equity ratio of 27% and a general liquidity ratio of 1,9x, as a result of the effective management of working capital, maintaining the guarantees for seamless financing of the Group’s investment plan, against the challenges of the volatile economic environment.

On an operational level, in the first half of 2022, the Profile Group has presented a dynamic course by closing new agreements and significant expansions with 24 organisations in 12 countries, while at the same time, it received new international awards for the solutions Investment Management (Axia), Digital Banking (Finuevo) and Treasury (Acumen) from World Economic Magazine, International Business Magazine, Chartis, Innovatech Awards and Finance Derivative.

On a product level, the Group has presented "Finuevo Suite", the next-generation banking in-a-box platform, consisting of "Finuevo Core" and "Finuevo Digital". "Finuevo Core" is the evolution of the leading FMS.next banking system, which combines innovative and flexible functionalities for Accounts, Loans, Cards, Payments, etc., based on new technologies, while "Finuevo Digital" provides mobile-first advanced Digital Banking applications for the end user, being the evolution in digital banking.

In addition, the new, etc. have been presented, providing full support in the field of loan portfolio management, Treasury Management and risk management, offering advanced functionalities.

The risk management system for the calculation of capital requirements "RiskAvert" has been upgraded with the addition of new functions, to cover the supervisory requirements for Non-Performing Exposures (NPE Backstopping), as well as for Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book (IRRBB).

With respect to the activity in the Public Sector, various projects are being implemented, such as the Ministry of Justice, the Army Pension Fund, and others, while a number of projects have been contracted, such as the portal of the Economic Chamber of Greece, the portal of the new Social Security Fund TEKA for the Ministry of Labour, the Integrated Portal for AADE (Independent Public Revenue Authority), the Integrated Information System of the Renewable Energy Sources for the Ministry of Energy and the Digitisation of the Land Registry. New projects are expected, which consolidate the Profile Group as an important technological partner of the Public Sector.

The strong and healthy financial position of the Group allows for the seamless implementation of its business plans and gives a comparative advantage over the uncertainty of the international economic environment. The Management of the Profile Group estimates that as long as the general geopolitical conditions are not further burdened, a satisfactory growth rate, comparable to that of last year, will be achieved for the entire year.

BOSS Money, the money remittance and payments brand of IDT Corporation, and Africa Global Bank (United Bank for Africa), a leading pan-African financial institution, today announced a collaboration to expand disbursement options for money transfers from the U.S. to Nigeria. The partnership will enable BOSS Money customers to send U.S. dollars for direct deposit at any of the approximately 20 million United Bank for Africa (UBA) accounts in Nigeria.

“Our collaboration enables BOSS Money customers to send money to the UBA bank accounts of family and friends in Nigeria for receipt in a matter of minutes,” said Alfredo O’Hagan, IDT’s SVP for Consumer Payments. “We are delighted to partner with UBA, a trusted leader in personal banking services, to power convenient, reliable, affordable, and timely money transfers to Nigeria.”

Speaking of the partnership, UBAs Head of Personal Banking, Ogechi Altraide, said, “Our alliance with BOSS Money enables customers to enjoy stress-free, seamless transfers to Nigeria. We are very optimistic that our collaboration will significantly enhance remittances to our millions of customers across Nigeria.”

Through the partnership, BOSS Money customers will be able to transfer up to US$100 to Nigeria for as little as US$3.99 or transfer up to US$2,999 for as little as US$6.99 when using the BOSS Money or BOSS Calling apps.

The highly rated BOSS apps are free on the App Store and on Google Play. Senders utilizing either BOSS app or the bossrevolution.com website for the first time pay no fees on transfers up to US$300. Customers can also send cash directly from BOSS Money retailers across the U.S.

BOSS Money now offers remittances from the U.S. to 50 countries via 1,300 payers at over 315,000 cash pick-up locations in addition to mobile money and direct deposit services.

ComplyCube, the leading identity verification platform, has announced that it has enhanced its Web Portal with the ability to perform seamless customer data outreach without the need for deploying software or writing a single line of code.

The new addition particularly appeals to businesses still conducting identity verification and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks manually, requesting identity documents sent via email, which is highly prone to human error and inherently insecure. The new feature will also be attractive to back-office teams who occasionally request additional customer documents to perform tailored Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD).

With ComplyCube's outreach capability, businesses can now choose, with a couple of clicks, to combine a plethora of checks on a particular client during one KYC session. The platform systematically works out the data that needs to be collected and sends a unique secure link that prompts the client to complete a KYC session. Available checks include AML Screening, PEP Checks, Document proofing, and identity verification.

The Digital Identity firm says the new feature leverages the capabilities of its cloud KYC Solution, Flow™, which securely collects identity documents, biometrics, proof of address, and most importantly, establishes the presence of the document holder - all in less than 30 seconds. Flow™ then automatically conducts extensive checks and sends real-time alerts and rich reports to back-office staff, such as onboarding and compliance specialists.

"We are constantly working to evolve our leading all-in-one verification platform to make it more robust, secure, easier to use, and crucially, more accessible to businesses of all sizes with diverse use cases," says Mohamed Alsalehi, CTO at ComplyCube. "By enabling a truly codeless customer outreach experience, not only we've made our fantastic Web Portal even more versatile, but we are also helping businesses mitigate data privacy and AML risks while reducing the manual burden on back-office operations," adds Adam Benfa, Product Manager at ComplyCube.

The solution is GDPR-compliant and is equipped with frictionless cross-device functionality to enable users to seamlessly continue desktop KYC sessions on their smartphones and tablets upon scanning a unique QR code. It also integrates cutting-edge anti-spoofing and liveness detection technology to ensure that a person is physically present, not a 3D Mask, a printed photo, injected video, or a deepfake, among other sophisticated presentation attacks.

Yellow Card Financial, the Pan-African cryptocurrency exchange, has announced the close of its $40M Series B funding. The round was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Valar Ventures, Third Prime Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, The Raba Partnership, Jon Weiner, Alex Wilson, Pat Duffy, and more.

The funding will enable the company to drive exponential business growth, continue its successful expansion across the continent, develop new product innovations, and advance strategic partnerships across Africa.

Chris Maurice, CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card, says that this raise is the product of relentless hard work towards a common goal.

"For the past three years, our team has worked tirelessly to make this technology accessible to anyone and create a world-class product. This fundraise in this market not only showcases the resilience of our team but also reiterates the appetite and necessity for cryptocurrency in Africa," said Chris.

Since launching in Nigeria in 2019 the team, based across 21 countries, has sought to make Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stablecoins, and other cryptocurrencies accessible to anyone in Africa.

In August 2021, Yellow Card announced its Series A fundraising of $15M. Since then the team has achieved significant milestones including:

• Growing from 12 to 16 countries, launched in: Gabon, Senegal, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
• Making significant hires: Alice Tomdio, Chief Financial Officer; Craig Stoehr, General Counsel and Micha Katz, Chief Information Security Officer;
• Granting stock options to every full-time employee;
• Launching Yellow Pay, a crypto-powered way to send value across borders;
• Surpassing 1 million customers in March.

The significance of this raise, especially in a down market, undoubtedly reflects the level of business confidence expressed by new and existing investors.

"Yellow Card is the best executing team on the continent. We are impressed by the way they seamlessly adjust and adapt to the unique opportunities and demands of the various African markets. We've barely touched the surface of what is possible when it comes to crypto in Africa, and we're excited for what's to come," said Will Wolf, Partner at Polychain Capital.

Yellow Card is committed to continuing its mission to create financial inclusion for all through various activities across the continent.

Adhesion Wealth® won two awards at the eighth annual WealthManagement.com Industry Awards on Sept. 8, taking home honours for excellence in Model Marketplaces in the Technology Providers category, and as RIA Innovator of the Year in the Individual RIA Firm Leaders category for President Barrett Ayers. This is the fourth consecutive year Adhesion has won a "Wealthie" for its model marketplace.

"Being recognized in this way, both personally and as a company, is such an honour and is truly a testament to the incredible team we have here at Adhesion Wealth," Ayers said. "I'm proud to work alongside a group of professionals who are eager to solve problems for advisors, always innovating and improving the services we provide. Through Adhesion's customized investment solutions and outsourced managed account capabilities, we are offering RIAs creative, cost-efficient resources that help them to meet clients' unique investment goals. As outsourcing becomes more prevalent, Adhesion is at the forefront of equipping firms with portfolio construction tools that free up advisors' time to spend with clients and grow assets."

The Adhesion Wealth Manager Exchange is the industry's second-largest model marketplace. The marketplace connects investment advisors to a suite of over 4,000 models from nearly 500 institutional asset managers. Over the past two years, the Adhesion Wealth Manager Exchange launched several new initiatives that have provided advisors with greater access to rapid-level distribution, offering full technical infrastructure with trading, models, reporting and portals.  

Under Barrett's leadership over the last year, Adhesion launched various initiatives: Tax Alpha reporting, which shows investors the value of an advisor's decision to enable active tax management; first to marketability for a fixed income and options overlay within a UMA; Personal Indexes with ESG Overlay, which allows advisors to develop their own Direct Index models that can be run inside a UMA; and lastly, a TAMP solution where managers have a turnkey investment program to distribute their TAMP and models on Adhesion's Managed Account Platform.

For eight years, the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards have honoured the firms and individuals who are bringing new innovations to market that make a real difference to the daily activities of financial advisors. This year, 105 awards were given out to 84 recipients from a pool of 225 finalists. Nearly 1,000 entries were received from more than 350 companies.

The winners of the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards were selected from a panel of independent judges made up of top names in the industry and led by WealthManagement.com editor-in-chief David Armstrong. In the Technology Providers category, Model Marketplaces subcategory, Adhesion was selected out of three finalists. In the Individual RIA Firm Leaders category, Innovator of the Year subcategory, Barrett Ayers was selected out of five finalists.

Curinos, a global data intelligence business serving global financial institutions across lending, deposits and digital banking solutions, today announced that it has placed 74^th on the 2022 IDC FinTech Top 100 Rankings list for the second consecutive year.

The 19^th annual IDC FinTech Rankings categorize and evaluate technology providers based on the 2021 calendar year revenues from financial institutions (i.e., banking, insurance and/or capital markets) or directly to fintech solution providers for hardware, software and/or services. The Top 100 Rankings recognize vendors that derive more than one-third of revenue from the financial services and fintech industries.

"We are honoured that IDC Financial Insights has recognized Curinos on its IDC FinTech Top 100 Rankings list for the second year in a row," said Craig Woodward, CEO at Curinos. "Our firm was built upon providing financial institutions high-quality solutions so they can understand performance drivers and capture sustainable growth. This distinction supports that mission as we continue to innovate with intelligent data, comparative analytics and optimization platforms for our clients."

WeLab, a leading pan-Asian fintech platform, today announced the completion of the acquisition of an Indonesian commercial bank, PT Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ), together with PT Astra International Tbk (Astra), one of Indonesia's largest public companies. The completion is marked by the issuance of acquisition approval by the Financial Services Authority (OJK). For this transaction, a WeLab-led consortium, Welab Sky Limited (WeLab Sky), participated in the acquisition together with Astra's subsidiary PT Sedaya Multi Investama (Astra Financial). The WeLab-led consortium has drawn widespread support from existing and new investors, including Allianz X, Boyu Capital, Horizons Ventures, SCBX Group^[1] and TFB (Taipei Fubon Bank) Capital.

In December 2021, WeLab entered into a Share Purchase and Subscription Agreement with the shareholders of BJJ, and completed a strategic investment for 24% of BJJ. With the acquisition completed today, WeLab and Astra each hold 49.56% of BJJ shares, becoming the majority shareholders and joint controllers of the bank. The transaction is Southeast Asia's largest digital bank M&A transaction in 2022, illustrating the substantial commitment to invest in, and contribute to digitizing Indonesia's banking industry. The shareholders aim to transform BJJ into an innovative digital bank in Indonesia.

Simon Loong, Founder and Group CEO of WeLab, said, "Expanding WeLab's digital banking presence across Asia, first in Hong Kong and now in Indonesia, has been one of our key strategic moves. This partnership with Astra reinforces WeLab's strategic focus on enhancing cross-country and business synergies with partners to increase scale and reach, in order to further strengthen the breadth and depth of the existing pan-Asian fintech platform. We're excited that our long-term partner, Astra will be collaborating with us to deliver the best tech-driven banking services through BJJ in Indonesia. We look forward to bolstering the customer trust level with the collaboration with Astra."

President Director of Astra Djony Bunarto Tjondro said, "Investment in BJJ is in line with Astra aspirations in financial services pillars to become leading retail financial providers in Indonesia and support the growth of financial services industry as well as the economy of Indonesia."

Propel growth and digital innovation with strong synergies between Astra and WeLab

WeLab and Astra are long-time partners in Indonesia's fintech ecosystem. This is WeLab's second strategic partnership initiative with Astra since the formation of a fintech lending joint venture, PT Astra WeLab Digital Arta (AWDA), in 2018. The complementary strengths of the partners, including WeLab's know-how and technology in building and being an operator in digital banking, together with Astra's solid business ecosystem and experience as well as a vast distribution network, are highly synergistic and key success factors to propel BJJ's digital transformation and into an innovative digital bank to serve the digital financial needs of Indonesians with accessible and innovative banking solutions.

Address unmet financial needs and advocate financial inclusion  

The prospect of digital banking in Indonesia is currently on the rise and represents a huge opportunity to provide accessible and innovative digital banking solutions, especially to the retail and MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) segments. The utilization of financial services in Indonesia has the potential to grow, as 77% of Indonesia's 270 million population is either underbanked or unbanked. The country also has a sizable population of 180 million tech-savvy younger consumers, representing a great demand for digital banking services.