Mastercard today named Vivian Zhou as Corporate Treasurer, effective August 15, 2022. She succeeds Alfred Kibe, who will assume the role of CFO of Mastercard's North America region.

Zhou joins Mastercard from American Express, where she was most recently head of investor relations. During her 16-year tenure, Zhou held several leadership positions in global treasury, with responsibilities including balance sheet strategy and planning as well as oversight of the treasury department's global capital markets activities. Prior to joining American Express in 2006, Vivian worked at KPMG LLC in various roles of increasing responsibility.

"Vivian brings deep experience that is well-suited to supporting the execution of Mastercard's strategy," said Sachin Mehra, Chief Financial Officer. "We look forward to having her join the team and leveraging her experiences to drive our continued growth globally."

Zhou earned her MBA in finance and entrepreneurial management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Binghamton University.

Vantage, the multi-asset trading platform for retail and professional traders, today announces the launch of its new social trading product, V Social.

V Social is a professional ‘social network’ that allows traders to auto-copy signals, execute trades, chat and analyse performance. Beginner traders have the opportunity to subscribe to and copy the signals of expert traders, who in return benefit from increased status and a portion of profits.

Vantage hopes the new solution, built using the proprietary technology of Pelican Trading, will attract new market entrants to its platform, expanding its customer base and increasing overall trading activity.

Shunyu Li, Head of Sales and Marketing at Vantage, comments: “Social and copy trading is booming across the financial industry, with features like commenting, resharing and liking posts rendering it intuitive for an influx of next-gen, digital native traders. It’s also beginning to be embraced by more established traders looking for their next trade idea. We’re thrilled to be now able to offer social trading capabilities to new and existing clients in partnership with such an esteemed and established brand as Pelican.”

David Shayer, UK CEO of Vantage, adds: “Following our rebranding last year, Vantage was the fastest growing broker in the UK. Wanting to keep up that momentum, we identified that the thousands of young, ambitious traders newly entering the space post-pandemic represented a huge opportunity. We have long believed that the trading world should be more accessible – not just for experienced traders – and were thrilled to discover a like-minded partner in Pelican. We are now able to offer existing, new and soon-to-be clients a user-friendly, all-in-one platform on which they can execute traders, copy and learn from some of the world’s best investors, and contribute to a growing community of energised, innovative traders.”

OutSystems, a global leader in high-performance application development, today announced it has become an official member of the SAP® PartnerEdge® program, with a Build focus, underscoring its commitment to providing high-value low-code to businesses using SAP® solutions. While twice as many OutSystems customers connect to SAP technologies as any other system of record, the new relationship will make it even easier for additional businesses within the SAP ecosystem to discover and connect with OutSystems.

Through participation in the SAP PartnerEdge program, OutSystems is able to integrate its offering with SAP solutions. The SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified that the OutSystems Platform (OutSystems 11) integrates with SAP S/4HANA® and SAP NetWeaver® using standard integration technologies. The relationship makes it easier for businesses to interoperate with SAP S/4HANA by building new customer experiences, critical customisation and application development capabilities, innovative customer and partner portals, and smooth enterprise system migration. Integration with SAP technologies is one of the most common use cases for OutSystems customers as they look for solutions to unlock business innovation, team productivity, and investments in SAP offerings.

“Enterprise teams face significant pressure to deliver sustainable business results, which means more applications, at a faster speed, with peak performance, and this is what our integration with SAP solutions is doing for companies today,” said Paulo Rosado, founder and CEO of OutSystems. “It’s now easier for enterprises to activate their investments in SAP technologies by building business-critical apps that help improve operations, customer experiences, processes and migrations to SAP S/4HANA. Our high-performance low-code solution gives customers the power to develop, test, and scale applications with less time and expense, creating opportunities for continuous innovation.”

The OutSystems Platform allows businesses to rebuild custom business logic to keep the core clean as they migrate to SAP S/4HANA. Examples of OutSystems’ implementations that have made fast, effective innovation more accessible to developers include:
 • Multibillion-dollar IT distributor Redington Gulf used OutSystems and robotic process automation (RPA) to modernise their SAP instance and build a rebate management system on top of the SAP application in only three weeks.
 • European Supermarket chain COOP created a new Store Operations Application integrated with BAPI®, which saved store employees up to 45 minutes per day on standard procedures like waste registration, ordering and due date checks.
 • Environmental, waste management and recycling technology company ISB Global created and deployed a mobile app that helps field and remote employees record and monitors customer service requests more effectively.
 

OutSystems customers can leverage free, pre-built code components and integrations, including ones built specifically for SAP solutions, in the OutSystems Forge – the company’s open source repository of reusable, open code modules, connectors, UI components, and business solutions that help speed app delivery. New Forge offerings include a UI theme pack for SAP Fiori® to help customers integrate visually with other SAP applications.
 

Developers can try OutSystems with a free trial version and experience these capabilities directly by clicking here.

ACI Worldwide, the global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, today announced that IR, a leading global provider of performance management and analytics for payment ecosystems, has extended its partnership with ACI to include enriched end-to-end enterprise transactions monitoring.
 
Part of the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform, ACI Payments Monitoring powered by IR Transact gives banks and financial institutions visibility into the health of their systems and status of payments in real-time — covering high-value and low-value real-time payments, as well as card payments. The announcement of full enterprise monitoring capabilities follows more than two decades of a successful partnership between ACI and IR.

"Our global customers are seeking new levels of insight and real-time analysis to help them adapt to changing consumer behaviours,” said Sam Jawad, head of Banks & Intermediaries, ACI Worldwide. “By extending our long-standing and successful partnership with IR, we have also further enriched our real-time analytical capabilities, delivering comprehensive and actionable business insights.”

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the trend toward real-time payments around the world. ACI Worldwide’s 2022 Prime Time for Real-Time global payments report forecasts that real-time payments transaction volume will rise from 118.3 billion in 2021 to reach 427.7 billion annually by 2026. As governments and central banks enable the shift towards real-time payments to unlock economic growth, they are providing further impetus for cashless and real-time digital payments. The real-time monitoring capabilities that ACI and IR provide position banks to respond to this change.

“The continuing shift towards cashless payments, the emergence of new payment schemes and growing customer expectations are all putting pressure on organizations to deliver a seamless payments experience,” said David Guiver, Head of Transact and Infrastructure Products, IR. “Through our expanded partnership with ACI, banks and financial institutions benefit from real-time monitoring that helps them glean actionable insights on a single pane of glass. This enables them to continuously optimize their services and resolve issues before they impact customers.”

Customers benefit from end-to-end visibility of their payment systems and are able to monitor their payment engines more efficiently. The partnership aims to further utilize payment analytics to help businesses make decisions backed up by data.

FinTech Festival India, the country’s biggest FinTech event is being held between July 20 and 22 at Pragati Maidan, Delhi, organised by Constellar and supported by Niti Aayog and six central government ministries.

Speaking on the second day of the conference, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, said, “Post 2014, our honorable Prime Minister announced his vision of Digital India where there were three objectives – technology must transform governance; create opportunities for India’s youth, expand digital economy as a part of the overall India’s economy and from being a consumer of technology, be a producer of technology. The citizen’s trust in the government is an outcome of that initiative. India’s fintech ecosystem is a stark demonstrator of the power of using technology in government and digital government and the impact it has on creating the innovation ecosystem.”

“Last year on August 15th while celebrating our country’s 75th year of independence our honourable Prime Minister announced that this is India’s ‘tech-ade’ as there is now a large number of opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs. This decade will be built on the energy, hard work, determination along with innovation and ideas of young Indians all around the country” Mr.Chandrasekhar added.

Talking about the role of technology and few of the recent policy changes, Shri Baijayant Panda, National Vice President & Spokesperson, Bhartiya Janta Party and Former Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha & Lok Sabha), said, “India is no longer just a follower economy. GST is the single biggest economic reform witnessed in the 75 years and it has radically broadened the ambit of formal economy making it accessible and traceable thanks to the fintech revolution. Besides cementing collaboration between the private and public sector, fintech has also emerged as a key collaborator between India and countries like Singapore and the UK.”

“Fintech is already witnessing a hockey stick growth, today may it be eating golgappas or picking a snack from a paan shop, I can seamlessly make a digital payment, which showcases the massive adoption of fintech which is the highest globally at 87%, noticeably higher than the global average of 64%. Today the way we have bounced back economically to become the fastest growing large economy would have just not been possible without the FinTech revolution and the kind of governance and leadership the nation has witnessed”, Mr.Panda added.

Speaking on customer experience in a digital world, Dr. Jasmin B Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, LXME, said, “Banks have evolved with customer experience, be it in the way of measuring customer experience switching from C-SAT scores to NPS to have both macro and micro level perspectives to help improve at all touch points of customers. There is a lot of value in the data that is collected in this process of measuring customer experience. How to perceive and make use of this data, making changes and improvements based on it I think what banks struggle with today. Banks thus need help from fintechs to give exceptional, professional, personalized customer experience via data analytics, machine learning, automation along with data security to establish trust in customer experience. The best thing for customers is to have an omnichannel experience. Customers want to interact with their banks everywhere and I think that’s also where social media comes into play. As an entity available to share feedback in real-time, social media can be a platform for brands to proactively engage with customers as well.”

The two-day conference is being attended by leading industry stalwarts such as Sarbvir Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Policybazaar; Suhail Sameer, Chief Executive Officer, BharatPe; Raghu Ramanujam, Director of Product, Flipkart; Mridul Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, CoinDCX; Santosh Kumar, Innovation Head, Citi Markets India; Hitesh Sachdev, Head – Startup Engagement & Investments, ICICI Bank and Sunit Vakharia, Head - Consumer Banking Technology India, DBS Bank amongst others.

A variety of discussions is being held on macro-economics, sustainable future, crypto & blockchain technology, Web3, InsurTech, RegTech, financial inclusion, CBDC, cloud adoption, metaverse, NFT’s, finance and payment app security and more.

FinTech Festival India is the country’s largest FinTech confluence. It witnessed participation from over 5,000+ attendees, 160+ speakers and 90+ sessions over a period of 8 months.

The conferences are supported by Government of India’s Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME), The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited ( A Government of India Enterprise – Under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting) and Startup India (Department for promotion of Industry and Internal Trade & Invest India). It has also received support from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Government of Karnataka and Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT).

In addition to the government, FFI which aims to unleash the power of FinTech across the country has also drawn interest from industry including Powered By sponsor CoinSwitch Kuber, Platinum Sponsors M2P, Sustainability Partners The Green Billions, Digital Asset Infrastructure Partner Fireblocks, Gold Sponsors BharatPe, LIC, Moengage, Rapyder, Thales, Exclusive Networks, WebEngage, Sales acceleration partner Vymo, Payments partner In-Solutions Global Ltd., Identity verification partner IDFy, Registration Partners CoinDCX, Digital Edition Partners JuicyScore, Spice Money, Experian.

SumUp, the financial partner for over 4 million small businesses worldwide, today announced the launch of SumUp Magic Pay, a QR code payment solution for the hospitality sector.

Hospitality customer behaviour has shifted post-pandemic. As the sector reopened in phases, it became apparent that we had grown accustomed to using QR codes and after two years of life going digital - from work to celebrations, to workouts, and more - we now expect to have everything at our fingertips. On the flip side, the ceremony of dining out, or visiting a new restaurant or bar, is something we still enjoy.

Therefore, in response to this shift, SumUp has launched Magic Pay. Now, at the end of a meal, everyone at the table can receive a copy of the bill, by scanning a QR code on the table. From there, a bill can be split, a tip added, and payment conducted (Apple or Google Pay are both an option). Receipts can be sent via email as well. No app, account or any admin - just scan, split, pay. 

​​During a three-month test phase where over 100 restaurants in the UK trialled Magic Pay, SumUp found that:

1. On average, almost half of guests chose the QR code payment method 

2. Tips for wait staff increased by 38% on average - thanks to the prompt in Magic Pay 

3. Magic Pay saves wait staff about 12 minutes per table - 12 minutes that they can use to provide better service 

4. Only 2 out of over 100 restaurants stopped using Magic Pay, all the others are still going strong

For restaurants, the technology is seamlessly integrated within the UK’s number one point-of-sale solution - making life easier for frontline hospitality staff. The technology makes receiving payment easier and faster and seizes upon customer behaviour changes. 

Joseph Flynn, Head of Order & Pay at SumUp said: “SumUp has spent a decade at the side of entrepreneurs and SMEs. Our mission is to make business life as simple and efficient as possible - and to remove the stress of taking payment. Magic Pay will provide a win-win for merchants and customers alike through its easy integration and user-friendly design - just scan, split, pay.”

Monika Grybauskaite, Manager at Darjeeling Express (as featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table): “Magic Pay is a great system to work with, it's easy and fun to use. Magic Pay saves our guests time when paying the bill, they can even split it with friends without the struggle to calculate. Our team loves it and our guests love it! We are happy to be part of it. “

In recent years, SumUp has also expanded into point-of-sale solutions, and with the acquisitions of Goodtill, Tiller, and Fivestars, the company is rapidly expanding its footprint within the restaurant and retail sectors. In June 2022 SumUp announced new funding, totalling £510 million, that gave the company an enterprise value of almost £7 billion following a decade of rapid growth and global expansion. 

Medius, a leading provider of AP Automation and wider spend management solutions, today announced its new Top Tier partnership status with Microsoft.

This development is part of an ongoing partnership with Microsoft, as Medius was named a Microsoft Gold Partner, for the tenth consecutive year in March 2022.  It is the latest development in a string of successes for the AP Automation company. Medius has driven 25% year-on-year growth in 2022 globally and more than 2,600 customers use Medius solutions across the world, managing transactions worth approximately $180 billion annually.

In joining Microsoft’s seller-facing program catalogue, Medius has actively upgraded the terms of its relationship agreement to align as an ISV partner, helping to secure top-tier status. The move increases Medius’s transactions to the Microsoft community as well as the company's collaboration efforts and visibility across Microsoft’s customer base, as the AP leader co-sells Medius IP together with the Microsoft sales global network.

Matt Rhodus, VP of Business Development and Strategic Initiatives at Medius, comments: “When I started five months ago, it was clear to me what our goal must be, to deepen and widen our relationship with Microsoft. That’s why I’m pleased to announce today that Medius has secured Microsoft’s Top Tier partner status. The partnership is based on our successful joint co-sell volume and is a testament to the hard work by our Medius team and the collaboration efforts with Microsoft.”

InvestCloud, the global leader in digital transformation for the financial industry, today announced it is supporting Rabobank, one of the Netherlands’ largest banks, to provide digital financial planning for all its customers, from private banking to retail clients.

“Rabobank shares our belief that everyone should have access to a financial plan, no matter their level of income,” said InvestCloud CEO John Wise. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with them, helping further their bold ambitions to digitize client services and support millions in the Netherlands to better plan and invest in their futures and to achieve their life goals.”

Online and mobile app Rabobank clients will be able to create highly customizable life plans, allowing advisors to guide their clients to achieve their financial goals without needing to create time-intensive and costly proposals.

Intelligent goal-based financial planning provides clients with a roadmap to achieve their individual life milestones – from early retirement, a child’s education, world travel or a custom goal. Key features include pension data integration, feasibility calculations and graphs and automated recommendations for savings, investing and annuity savings.

The partnership with another major European bank solidifies InvestCloud's commitment to helping drive digital transformation and delivering personalized wealth experiences across the continent. Its next-generation product suite InvestCloud X offers end-to-end digitalization of wealth – from Digital Communication to Digital Planning to a digital Financial Supermarket that transforms the buying and selling of financial products.

Judith Hartley has been appointed CEO of British Business Investments, one of the British Business Bank’s commercial subsidiaries. Judith Hartley, who was appointed acting CEO of British Patient Capital and British Business Investments in September 2020, will take up the permanent role of CEO, British Business Investments when her secondment ends in the autumn.

Catherine Lewis La Torre has been appointed CEO of British Patient Capital, and has also been appointed  Chair of British Business Investments, taking over from Francis Small who recently concluded his term in office. In addition, Catherine has taken on the role of Senior Responsible Officer for the Bank’s other equity schemes.

Welcoming the appointments, Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chair, British Business Bank said: “I would like to congratulate Catherine and Judith on their new roles. The Board is confident that these appointments will continue to strengthen the leadership of the Bank and help us deliver on our mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses.”

Judith Hartley said: “I am delighted to be confirmed as the permanent CEO of British Business Investments. The company has a highly experienced and dedicated team and I’m looking forward to working with the Board and the investment team, to further develop the company and its impact on the UK’s small business finance markets. British Business Investments’ mission will remain focussed upon increasing the supply and diversity of funding for small businesses across the whole of the UK.”

UK-based checkout finance platform provider Divido has announced a partnership with Novuna Consumer Finance, one of the UK’s leading point of sale finance providers, to enable merchants to provide competitive white-labelled finance to their customers.  

The partnership combines Novuna Consumer Finance’s 40+ years of retail finance expertise with Divido’s award-winning technology. 

Merchants will benefit from Divido's seamless checkout finance journeys for in-store and online purchases, now with attractive finance options from Novuna, which can be scaled worldwide by easily adding additional lenders to support new countries. 

Merchants using the Divido checkout finance platform will strengthen their brand and increase conversion rates by having their own white-labelled solution. Divido’s journeys achieve conversion rates of up to 76% with support in-store and online. 

The partnership will allow Divido merchants to benefit from greater choice and flexibility when choosing a lender to provide finance options. Divido will leverage Novuna Consumer Finance’s 40+ years of experience and deep expertise in a wide cross-section of retail verticals to offer competitive lending rates and higher rates of acceptance through their platform. 

Divido forecasts that merchants working with Novuna Consumer Finance through their white-label platform will benefit from an increased volume of sales through retail finance, higher average basket sizes, and greater rates of repeat business. The partnership will allow Divido to offer its retail finance platform to a wider network of large retailers. 

Meanwhile, Novuna Consumer Finance’s portfolio of existing merchants will benefit from Divido’s global platform, allowing them to expand their retail finance offering to international markets. 

Todd Latham, CEO of Divido, said: "This is a landmark partnership for the retail finance sector. With a lender like Novuna Consumer Finance behind the Divido platform, we’ll have the capability to expand our white-label platform to a greater number of retailers in the UK.  

“We look forward to increasing the scope of our partnership to benefit from Novuna Consumer Finance’s established expertise in the market.” 

Brian Flesk, Head of Retail at Novuna Consumer Finance, said: “We are incredibly proud of this exciting new partnership with Divido. 

“Our carefully crafted suite of flexible finance options has been built with customers in mind. Our tailoring options reduce the overall number of declined applications, helping retailers win more customers, as well as maximising on those with high affordability. 

“These and many more services allow our retailer partners to offer customers exactly what they need: flexible finance options with low-cost monthly payments, all at the click of a button on their e-commerce platform, or quickly and simply in-store. 

“With over 40 years of experience, we’re looking forward to continuing to grow within the UK and tapping into a wider international market with the support of Divido.”