Fingerprint Cards AB has been deeply involved in the development of the new generation of Thales Gemalto biometric payment card, which is ready for global volume mass deployment. The new Thales solution, which features Fingerprints’ T-Shape sensor (T2) and biometric payment software platform, offers users advanced transaction speed, improved power efficiency, and enhanced security.

The T2 sensor module, part of Fingerprints’ FPC1300-series, of which it has shipped more than one million units, enables cost-effective production of biometric payment cards. Thanks to dual-row packaging, the biometric sensor has been tailored to allow easy integration using standard automated manufacturing processes. This ensures reduced waste, optimizes production capacity and throughput, and lowers related manufacturing costs. The new card also comes with enhanced security features, including encryption, which adds additional privacy layers to the storage and communication of biometric data. The development of the fourth-generation card is an important milestone for the deployment of biometric payment cards at scale.

As innovation continues to lower market barriers, and consumers make their preferences clear, interest from banks in the biometric payment card continues to grow. Banks that seize the opportunity can leapfrog the competition and enhance customer acquisition, brand reputation, and fraud reduction.

JCB International Co., Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., today announced an extension of its collaboration with global financial technology leader FIS® and its merchant solutions business, Worldpay from FIS, to enable JCB Contactless for its UK merchants in the largest JCB contactless deployment in the UK to date.

In 2023, almost 20% of Worldpay Point of Sale (POS) systems in the UK are now equipped to accept JCB contactless payments. As part of JCB’s mid-term plan, the next stage will see JCB Contactless enabled across on the remaining 80% of Worldpay terminals across the UK, with a full rollout expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

JCB Contactless is JCB’s contactless payment system that allows customers to shop by simply holding their JCB Card or JCB-card-enabled smartphone or other devices over the store terminal. JCB Contactless is based on the global chip standard 'EMV(R),' offering a high level of security.

The recently published Worldpay from FIS Global Payments Report found cash use continues to decline at POS, with contactless payments in the form of digital wallets and contactless cards on the rise. In the UK, cards and digital wallets combined accounted for 86 % of POS spending. As such, more and more merchants in the UK are looking towards a cashless future, with comprehensive contactless payments emerging as a critical function. Enabling JCB Contactless will help Worldpay meet the increased demand for comprehensive contactless acceptance amongst its merchants. 

Worldpay’s UK merchants which enable JCB Contactless will be able to further tap into the sales opportunities of JCB’s 154 million cardmember community. The fast, secure, and convenient payment process for cardmembers, combined with the higher average transaction value of contactless, will help merchants increase their sales opportunities.

Ray Shinzawa, Managing Director for JCB International (Europe) Ltd., said: “We are delighted to see the next stage of this ambitious project come to fruition, further reinforcing our collaboration with Worldpay. We look forward to continuing to work together in enabling JCB Contactless across the entire Worldpay POS ecosystem.”

Nick Fisher, General Manager, UK, JCB International (Europe) Ltd., said: “By offering a greater variety of contactless options to their merchants, Worldpay’s merchants will benefit from an enhanced customer experience. The payment preferences of consumers across the region are changing rapidly, and JCB is proud to be working with leaders like Worldpay to enable the future of payments.”

Chris Wood, General Manager for SMB International, Worldpay Merchant Solutions, FIS said: “With our research showing consumers are switching to contactless payments, we must provide them with the ability to pay with their preferred payment method whenever and wherever they want. Our collaboration with JCB will enable this, simplifying our merchants’ payments acceptance, and accelerating growth.”

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a loan agreement of up to €35 million with the Swedish clean tech company, Exeger, which manufactures the ground-breaking solar cell technology Powerfoyle. The operation is backed by InvestEU, the financing instrument designed to support more than €372 billion in additional investment toward EU policy priorities in the period between 2021 and 2027. 

Exeger has developed the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) into an innovative and patented technology (Powerfoyle) that converts both indoor and outdoor light into electricity and allows electronic appliances with low consumption to become self-powered. The unique product shows superior performance and characteristics compared to existing alternatives on the market in both indoor and outdoor applications. 

Powerfoyle will reduce electronic waste as many products will no longer require charging cables or single-use batteries. The ultra-thin solar cells with flexible design enable companies to integrate self-charging capabilities into their products without compromising on visual aesthetics. 

Exeger is investing in scaling up its production capacity at Stockholm II, the company’s second urban factory. The new industrial-scale factory runs on 100% renewable energy and is located in Kista, outside Stockholm. Once fully scaled, Stockholm II will enable Exeger to produce up to 2.5 million m2 per year of its patented solar cells. 

The factory is designed to expand in modular steps, allowing for a fast-paced increase in production capacity to meet the growing market demand for Powerfoyle. 

“With its pioneering technology, Exeger will increase the generation and utilisation of renewable power and reduce the volumes of electronic waste. From the EIB’s side, we are very proud to support Exeger and its important contribution to a green transition and a more sustainable energy industry in the future”, EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros, says. 

Giovanni Fili, founder and CEO of Exeger, says: “After a long and thorough due diligence into the technology and business, I am thrilled to have the EIB support with debt financing for the expansion of Stockholm II. The loan is approved following great commercial traction during 2023 which has resulted in the market demand for the increased production capacity of Powerfoyle for 2024 and 2025”. 

ESG Book, a global leader in sustainability data and technology, today announced a new partnership with Manaos, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas and modular investment services platform, built to simplify how institutional investors centralize portfolio data, connect ESG information, and report on the sustainability of their investment.

The collaboration combines Manaos' open-architecture platform with ESG Book's comprehensive data suite to empower institutional investors and asset managers to meet complex sustainability requirements and enable enhanced ESG investment decision-making.

Market demand for high-quality, granular ESG and climate data is growing sharply, driven by increasing sustainability regulations worldwide. More than 90% of executives expect to meaningfully increase their spending this year on ESG data, according to a 2023 Bloomberg survey1. The vast majority of respondents believe ESG data investment is required to keep pace with competitors or to develop a competitive advantage.

Through the new integration, Manaos' clients will gain access to a range of sustainability insights for security selection, analytics, and regulatory and client reporting. Covering over 50,000 companies worldwide, ESG Book's performance scores, raw attributes, SFDR data, and emissions datasets will be integrated with Manaos' cloud-based platform, enabling investors to confidently make investment decisions from a seamless and centralized source.

Franck Delbes, CEO of Manaos, said: "ESG Book's exceptional data quality, extensive coverage, and esteemed reputation within the industry constitutes a pivotal element to our aspirations to establish Manaos as the premier ESG data marketplace in Europe."

Dr Daniel Klier, CEO of ESG Book, said: "Driven by fast-changing market requirements and global regulation, demand for accessible, transparent ESG data is increasing worldwide. By combining Manaos' industry-leading investment software with ESG Book's next-generation data, we are arming investors with a powerful toolkit to manage and navigate the increasing complexities of sustainable investing."

Manaos' investment services marketplace enables investors to connect portfolio data with asset managers' fund inventories and ESG providers in a seamless and cost-efficient way to fulfill numerous use cases, including fund look-through, ESG data enrichment, and ESG reporting.

Combining market-leading sustainability and climate data with an ESG disclosure platform that provides access to almost 160,000 corporate disclosures and analytics, ESG Book directly connects companies with financial institutions. The firm's cloud-based sustainability dashboard is used by the world's largest companies and consultants for ESG performance management, peer benchmarking, and regulatory compliance.

Payble, a leading provider of payments workflow and customer  engagement software, today announced it has closed a $3.5 million funding round led by OIF Ventures. 

The new funding will be used to continue to capitalize on strong demand for Payble’s citizen-centric payment solution in its beachhead segment of local government payments, as well as explore opportunities for global expansion. 

Payble Founder and Managing Director, Elliott Donazzan, said that the solution helps local governments increase on-time payments and reduce the administrative burden associated with billing, all while significantly improving community satisfaction. For example, ratepayers can shift from larger annual or quarterly payments to flexible weekly or fortnightly payments at no extra cost, or easily extend or skip a payment without any paperwork. 

“We’re all aware of the cost-of-living pressures facing households, and these impacts flow onto our local councils. 60% of councils expect payment arrears to increase  again this year, and 69% of council rates teams say they’re already feeling under-resourced in their response,” said Mr Donazzan 

“With Payble, councils can now offer a flexible, self-service payment experience to their community that’s designed to keep payments on track. The community benefits because they can easily align payments to their budget without frustrating paperwork or phone calls. Councils benefit too by improving cash flow and saving time not being bogged down in administrative work – not to mention the glow of delivering something that their community appreciates. It’s a win-win solution”. 

“We’re excited to have OIF Ventures on board,” Mr Donazzan said. “With their deep  understanding of enterprise software and prior experience in helping early-stage  companies grow within government, it was a perfect fit.” 

Oliver Darwin, Investor at OIF Ventures said that: 

“We have been following Elliott and Payble since the beginning of 2022, and he has proven to be an incredibly impressive Founder and CEO, who has consistently executed every milestone put in front of him. Elliott has a truly  intimate understanding of the problems faced by his customers and has built a 

world-class team and solution to address them, which is delivering exceptional  outcomes for both councils and ratepayers all around the country,” 

“We’re incredibly proud and excited to partner with Elliott and the Payble  team on this journey.” 

Worldline, a global leader in payments services, continues to expand its services provided in Italy and becomes a PagoBANCOMAT® Centro Applicativo Acquiring.

As part of the process for expanding its services, by leveraging Open and Cloud technology, Worldline further establishes itself as an operator in Italy on the PagoBANCOMAT® scheme, whose regulatory authority is retained by BANCOMAT S.p.A.

This evolution is also enabling the direct management of payment operations on POS and ATM terminals for the company’s clients, ensuring interoperability with third parties according to the connectivity standards defined by BANCOMAT S.p.A.

Financial institutions wishing to offer Acquiring services for the national PagoBANCOMAT® scheme will benefit from the new certified functionality of the Worldline Centro Applicativo Acquiring.

In particular, the company will be able to support the growth of the activity of Worldline Merchant Services in Italy. The segment increased its presence in the country through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta, Banco Desio's e-money portfolio, and by signing an agreement to acquire Banca del Fucino's merchant acquiring business. This service adds up to the Centro Applicativo Pagamenti that Worldline activated on April 8th, 2022 in the Italian market, enabling the company to become an additional player in the exchange and settlement of domestic payments.

Ilario Bolis, Head of Region Italy at Worldline Financial Services said, “We are very pleased to have taken an important step in strengthening our presence in the Italian market in terms of competitiveness and profitability. This will allow us to better serve our customers with particular reference to PagoBANCOMAT® acquirers”.

Stefano Calderano, Italy Country Manager of Worldline Merchant Services added: “Thanks to the Worldline Centro Applicativo, we will be able to be more attractive to financial institutions that are looking for a full-service partner in acquiring, while providing greater efficiency and cost optimization to merchants”.

Binance, the world's leading blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, is delighted to announce the successful completion of the System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II compliance audit for its global platform and technology services. The achievement represents the latest in the organization's unwavering commitment to enhance security standards in the crypto industry.

Conducted by trusted third-party assessor A-LIGN, the SOC 2® Type II audit was completed by Binance following a comprehensive multi-month assessment of the organization's controls and practices in two areas: systems protection and data security. On top of revealing that Binance's controls are well-designed and appropriately implemented, the independent audit also validated the day-to-day operational effectiveness of these controls and is globally recognized.

As a custodian of users' digital assets and data, it is pivotal that Binance establishes and maintains strong security protocols on its platform and products. The SOC 2 audit shows that Binance is fulfilling its responsibility in this regard. The organization is also continuously enhancing its systems, such as through the incorporation of a comprehensive suite of state-of-the-art security measures. These measures include, but are not limited to, stringent access management, advanced encryption, and a resilient incident response protocol.

Jimmy Su, Chief Security Officer at Binance, shared, "Although the crypto industry has grown and matured over the past years, there remains a gap in the understanding and perception. Collective efforts from industry players are required to affect change and Binance, as the market leader, recognizes that it needs to be at the forefront of such efforts. That is why we've dedicated significant resources and effort into demonstrating that crypto platforms are able to meet, and even exceed, the strict standards found in traditional regulated industries. The SOC 2 Type II audit is the latest example, but it won't be our last."

Binance's dedication to continuously build trust, confidence, and reliability in the blockchain ecosystem can be seen through the industry-standard accreditations it has secured. In the past year alone, Binance has already received the ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications for information security governance and privacy information management in four jurisdictions: France, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Turkey. It also completed the less stringent SOC 2 Type I audit, a precursor to the audit announced today, earlier in March. Annual surveillance audits will be done to ensure continued conformity with the standards and requirements set out.

These accreditations were obtained through the efforts of the Security Governance team at Binance, and are instrumental in spotlighting the high standards that Binance has set in a wide range of compliance and security domains.

Xero, the global small business platform, today announced it is partnering with Flinks, a leader in open banking, to give small businesses in Canada and the United States secure access to more than 20 direct bank connections and high quality transaction data.

The increased access for Xero customers to North American financial institutions can help small businesses and advisors to recoup time previously spent on manual data entry and reconciliation.

With the largest network of financial institution partners with live direct bank API connections in North America, Flinks will provide new and secure high quality bank feeds for customers in the US and Canada. For customers this will include, but not limited to, direct bank feeds with the National Bank of Canada and EQ Bank, as well as US based banks.

“Bank reconciliation is essential for every small business, bookkeeper and accountant, but manually entering transaction data takes precious time away from running the business and introduces room for error,” said Faye Pang, Country Manager, Canada at Xero. “Our partnership with a Canadian grown success story, Flinks, is just one more way we are expanding our bank feeds coverage to help provide Canadian small businesses with better visibility of their money coming in and going out.”

“Seamlessly getting data into the Xero platform is very important for small business success,” said Ben Richmond, Country Manager, United States at Xero. “Xero is committed to continually improving US and Canadian bank feeds in response to customer feedback, and tackling the broader industry challenge of getting reliable banking data into accounting platforms in North America.”

Xero and Flinks understand the benefits of open banking and are dedicated to the implementation of solutions that make doing business easier, making the partnership seamless from both a technical and cultural perspective. Both businesses continue to champion the benefits and role open banking will continue to play in guiding the responsible use of data and providing improved outcomes for small businesses — including reliable bank feeds.

“We strongly believe the benefits open banking will provide for consumers and businesses. This partnership is proof of that,” said Frédérick Lavoie, Co-founder & COO, Flinks. “Along with our commitment to expanding our direct bank network, we are excited to work with Xero to empower businesses to take their financial operations to the next level.”

As new banks enter the market or improve their bank feeds, and Flinks makes new API feeds available, the partnership means Xero’s customers can benefit from these faster than ever.

The payments industry is set to celebrate its most prestigious event of the year: The Card and Payments Awards (TCPA) 2024. TCPA announces the shortlist for this spectacular event. Discover the frontrunners. 

 Join the Celebration of Innovation and Success

On February 1st, 2024, join a gathering of industry leaders and innovators at the forefront of payments and financial services. This prominent awards and networking event, TCPA 2024, will host over 1100 attendees from more than 100 companies. It presents a unique opportunity to network with decision-makers from the industry’s most forward-thinking organizations.

Book Your Table Today

To ensure your presence at this exclusive event, book your table now. Availability is limited, and demand is high. Explore our limited Sponsorship options for maximum exposure.

Exclusive Table Packages

• Bronze Table of 10 Package - £4,500 + VAT

  - Champagne reception, 3-course meal, standard drinks, sustainable take-home bag, access to the Winner's Party, half-page colour advert in Awards Programme.

• Silver Table of 10 Package - £6,500 + VAT

  - All Bronze benefits plus preferential table position, branded table place names, half-page advert in digital winner's magazine.

• Gold Table of 10 Package - £8,500 + VAT

  - All Silver benefits plus VIP Champagne Reception, premium table position, VIP drinks, professional photo, award presentation opportunity, digital advertising, social media mentions, full-page adverts in Awards Programme and winner's magazine.

Limited Sponsorship Packages

Enhance your brand's visibility at the TCPA 2024 by becoming a sponsor. Sponsorship includes VIP treatment, marketing exposure, and more. Limited slots are available, so act swiftly to be a part of this grand event.

Contact for Sponsorship and Bookings

- Email: alex@cardandpaymentsawards.com
- Mobile: +44 754829 2018
- Quick Book Link: [Book a Meeting with Alex]

Don't miss out on the opportunity to celebrate with your team, partners, and clients. Book your table through the TCPA website or contact the team for invoicing options.