APEXX Global, (“APEXX”), the multi-award-winning Payment  Orchestration Platform, has partnered with Ryanair to transform the low-cost carrier’s legacy payments infrastructure as Europe continues to reopen borders and international travel returns to pre-Covid levels. APEXX’s pan-European payments solution will boost Ryanair’s conversion rates and lower local and cross-border transaction costs, helping Ryanair continue to deliver its market-leading low-cost delivery. 

APEXX’s payments platform will boost both cross-border and local payment conversion rates, increase efficiencies and reduce the cost of Ryanair’s payments, allowing the airline to take full advantage of the recovery in international travel. Ryanair processes transactions worth millions of Euros a day through its website and via third parties. 

Travel and tourism have been impacted during the Covid crisis after dozens of countries suspended flights and imposed quarantine restrictions. Travel routes have been restored across key markets including the US, UK and Europe, promising a rebound in business trips as well as tourism in time for the crucial summer holiday season.  

Peter Keenan, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at APEXX said: “We are delighted to be working with one of the world's most successful airlines which is at the forefront of digital innovation. Our partnership with Ryanair proves that payment  orchestration has come of age and that payment innovation will remain critical to future  customer satisfaction and cost control.” 

John Norton, Group Treasurer at Ryanair, said: “The entire travel industry has faced huge challenges due to the pandemic, which makes it more important than ever to have a payments process that is as seamless and efficient as possible. APEXX’s approach  prioritises merchants, lowers costs and boosts conversion rates, which means that we are  well-positioned to capitalise on the rebound in international travel across Europe.” 

APEXX combines acquirers, gateways, shopping carts and Alternative Payments Methods into a single API connection. Through their global Payment Orchestration Platform, APEXX  will ensure that transactions can be processed quickly and securely through a single integration. This provides flexibility and connects Ryanair to all relevant payment suppliers.  With its merchants-first approach, APEXX negotiates rates with acquirers and Payments  Services Providers (PSPs) to achieve the best pricing on all products. This is in addition to direct currency conversion, multi-currency pricing, fraud management and local pay-out products. This works to optimise global transactions and boost acceptance rates, ultimately optimising revenue generation. 

Australia’s leading bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), has selected market-leading SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu as the technology foundation of its next-gen digital mortgage brand, Unloan. 

Unloan is set to be a revolutionary force in the Australian mortgage industry, with the new offering able to provide loan refinancing applications in as little as 10 minutes and a discount that increases every year for up to 30 years. 

Mambu is a true SaaS cloud banking platform and has a uniquely composable approach that enables the assembly of independent components, systems, and connectors to meet business needs and end-user demands. 

This approach aligns perfectly with CBA’s goal to understand and anticipate its customers’ evolving needs, utilising next-gen technology like data analytics, AI and cloud to deliver personalised, agile and flexible finance solutions to consumers.

Brendan Harrap, Chief Architect at CBA said: “We’ve selected Mambu to underpin our new home loan brand, Unloan, and look forward to working closely with Mambu as we continue to digitally transform our suite of CBA Group brands.

“Partnering with Mambu is an investment in future-proofing CBA. Mambu’s SaaS cloud banking platform will enable us to bring in best-in-class solutions from other high-performing fintech and vendors, build financial solutions that meet the demands and expectations of our customers, and retain our position as Australia’s leading bank.”

Werner Knoblich, Chief Revenue Officer, at Mambu said: “There has been a profound shift in the way people think about their finances over the last two years, with a significant acceleration in the adoption of digital technologies and greater expectations from consumers. 

“People aren’t content to just get what they’re given anymore; they want personalised customer service and products that are tailored to their circumstances. That’s what Mambu can enable, at a fraction of the cost and much more quickly than traditional banking technology. We are so excited to be working with CBA as it takes this next leap into the digital future.”

Unloan was launched to the Australian market in May 2022.

Paysend, the UK-based fintech with over 7 million customers, today announces the launch of Paysend Business, a new product that aims to accelerate the financial growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing them with the end-to-end payments platform and tools they need to take control of their financial health and to succeed.

Through its new business offering Paysend plans to lead the way in the world of digital payments, creating more opportunities for SMEs around the globe to grow their customer base and diversify their supply chain by allowing them to send, hold and receive digital payments via several different payment gateways and in multiple currencies.

Paysend Business allows SMEs to accept payments online from all major debit and credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) in over 38 currencies globally, including payment gateways Apple Pay and Google Pay, and in over 190 countries at any time. The SMEs can grow, scale globally and be more cost-effective by having the acquisition and settlement of funds from their customers along with the payments platform in a single solution.

In bringing together the ability to receive funds globally, next-day settlement, multi-currency accounts, payouts to cards and instant payments onto one SME platform Paysend Business has removed the key complexities and difficulties of payments for the SME market.

Paysend Business provides all this with a simple low-cost fee structure and a personal account manager to resolve any issues in real-time.

SMEs will also be able to create a seamless checkout experience for their customers through plugin integrations with e-commerce platforms such as Woocommerce.

Ashley Mallett, Head of Business at Paysend, said: “Businesses are looking for more efficient and secure ways of processing payments and managing their wider financial needs. We are addressing this gap by providing a one-stop-shop online financial ecosystem that can offer SMEs fully integrated, affordable and time-efficient financial services.

“With the benefit of faster settlement speeds, quicker transfers and clear pricing through Paysend’s new business offering, SMEs can become more confident, nimble and efficient in their operations, allowing them to focus on serving their customer needs and developing their offerings instead of operational headaches.”

TV shopping channel Ideal World TV has partnered with Clearpay, a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments known as Afterpay outside the UK and Europe, to offer increased payment flexibility and choice to its customers. Joining over 9,500 merchants already partnering with Clearpay, Ideal World is the first TV shopping channel in the UK to offer Clearpay.

Ideal World TV, one of the UK’s leading multi-channel home shopping channels, will also be available to customers online via IdealWorld.TV, allowing them to select Clearpay to spend responsibly and pay for their purchases in four instalments over six weeks. The website will feature on Clearpay’s Shop Directory, exposing the brand to its three million active consumers. 

Rich Bayer, Clearpay’s UK Country Manager, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Ideal World. Nearly two-thirds of our customers are Millennials and Gen Z, and we know that these generations use our product because it is a flexible budgeting tool that helps them to purchase what they need, whether that’s online, in-store or now, via TV shopping. 

“In 2021, our customers saved up to £28 million in credit card fees by making purchases with Clearpay, and our inbuilt protections mean Ideal World TV customers can use Clearpay safe in the knowledge that they cannot build up revolving debt that comes with credit card payments.”

Hamish Morjaria, CEO of Ideal World TV, commented: "We are always looking to enhance the shopping experience for our customers, and we know that they value being able to split payments for their purchases. With its 4.8 out of 5 Trustpilot score and a clear focus on putting the customer first, Clearpay was the obvious partner for us. We’re excited about the opportunities the partnership will bring both in terms of offering value to our customers and reaching a broader customer base.”

Within the partnership, Clearpay will have advertising slots on the Ideal World channel and within its programme when it airs on ITV.   

Five facts about Clearpay: 

• Clearpay is completely free for customers who pay on time;

• If customers miss a payment their account is immediately made unavailable so that they cannot accrue more debt or fall into revolving debt;

• Clearpay does not report to credit agencies and will not impact a customer’s credit score;

• Globally, 90% of Clearpay transactions are made with a debit card; 

• Over the 12 months ended March 2022, 95% of instalments were paid on time and 98% of purchases incurred no late fees. 

• 15.06.2022 -- 11:34 am

International RegTech provider Know Your Customer has today announced its most significant product release to date.

From today, users of the award-winning business KYC (KYB) solution will be able to access, review and download company data and official incorporation documents from 123 countries worldwide, both via Know Your Customer’s highly intuitive user interface and through a single API.

Identifying a company through official government sources and mapping its shareholding structure is one of the most essential and time-consuming steps of any corporate onboarding and know your business (KYB) process. Accessing a company’s filing documents such as the Certificate of Incorporation, Annual Returns, Memorandum & Articles of Association can be a daunting task, especially when onboarding clients registered in a foreign country or with a complex and multi-jurisdictional structure.

By providing real-time access to 500+ local company registries across 123 countries and automated data extraction and shareholder identification from official documents, Know Your Customer enables financial institutions to minimise AML, fraud and financial crime risks. This approach ensures audit-proof documentary evidence to meet financial regulators’ most stringent requirements, ultimately strengthening the global financial system’s line of defence against money laundering and terrorism financing.

To drive meaningful digital transformation and large-scale operational efficiency, Know Your Customer’s proprietary technology doesn’t simply provide access to the registries. The system also extracts shareholder information from filing documents, identifies Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) across jurisdictions using AI techniques and unravels multiple layers of corporate ownership structures automatically. At the centre of the platform is a real-time graph database mapping the relationship of individuals connected to corporate entities under investigation and the result is a holistic picture of each corporate customer’s ownership and control structure based exclusively on real-time and official corporate information.

With this unprecedented expansion, Know Your Customer’s registry coverage now includes 41 countries across the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, in addition to 82 countries across APAC and Europe, including potentially challenging registries for international businesses such as Hong Kong, Mainland China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands (BVIs). As a result, users of Know Your Customer now have access to reliable, up-to-the-minute company information on more than 180 million registered companies worldwide and to 300 million official company documents.

Claus Christensen, CEO & Co-Founder of Know Your Customer, commented:

“Our mission is to streamline business KYC operations and strengthen overall compliance through primary source data. With this coverage expansion, we aim to further support the global growth of our existing and future clients by simplifying and standardising their access to official company data worldwide. We are delighted to announce that this release makes Know Your Customer the Number 1 Provider of real-time international registry connections in the industry, providing seamless business verification in 123 countries globally.”

Indirect industrial cooperation in the acquisition of F-35 fighters will strengthen the cybersecurity of Finnish security of supply. The Finnish Ministry of Defense commissioned Nixu to assemble a cybersecurity ecosystem that includes dozens of companies, higher education institutions and research institutes. Nixu will be working with Lockheed Martin to develop national cyber-capabilities in several projects.

Finland’s acquisition of fighter jets involves EUR 2.5 billion in direct industrial cooperation and EUR 500 million in indirect industrial cooperation between Finnish companies and the manufacturer of the fighters, Lockheed Martin.

Just over two years ago, the Ministry of Defense requested Nixu to coordinate an ecosystem of cyber experts – consisting of companies, higher education institutions and research institutes – well in advance before the fighter manufacturers submitted their bids. Over thirty companies and seven higher education institutions or research institutes were interested in industrial cooperation in the cyber sector, requiring a commitment of several years.

“The goal is that the ecosystem partners will engage in genuine collaboration to create a new product or service that will benefit all of Finnish society in terms of digital security of supply and cyber self-sufficiency,” says Kim Westerlund, Head of Cybersecurity Solutions at Nixu.

“The digitalization of society exposes us to situations in which we must have expertise in areas critical to security of supply under all circumstances. For this reason, it’s very important to bolster resilience – that is, to build capabilities and tolerance to incidents. At the same time, this creates new Finnish business and new jobs in the cyber sector.”

Technology transfer from the United States to Finland

Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the fighters, has now selected the participating organizations and the presented projects (and the Minister of Defense signed the related agreement in February 2022). The company is also a major player in cybersecurity – and provides projects with its own expertise and technological capabilities. This represents a valuable transfer of technology from the United States to Finland, serving to enhance Finnish expertise.

“In the cyber sector, it’s difficult to predict what you intend to develop four years down the line – but everyone had to submit such a forecast to Lockheed Martin. This calls for foresight,” says Westerlund. “We’re grateful to be involved in developing Finnish cyber self-sufficiency and critical digital infrastructure.”

The theme of Nixu’s projects is national cyber resilience in critical digital infrastructure. This involves the development of capabilities in areas such as vulnerability research, the automation of threat intelligence, and advanced attack detection.

Fintech Week London – a week-long series of events celebrating London's innovative fintech ecosystem and global connections – makes a welcome return in July attracting top-of-the-line speakers and delegates from around the world.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will share learnings on how Chicago's commitment to equality and inclusion is helping the US city’s fintech ecosystem realise a more diverse talent pool; while Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor of London for Business will outline how London continues to attract global investors.

Back as an in-person event, Fintech Week London 2022 takes place from Monday 11 to Friday 15 July combining the best of learning and networking and covering the fintech industry’s hottest topics - with a 2022 theme of ‘The coming of age of the fintech industry.

More than 2,000 attendees are expected to attend the week and will be treated to a series of engaging and insightful presentations from other respected industry keynote speakers, including Rich Fox, Director International at the FCA, and Rita Liu, CEO at Mode, as well as lively panel discussions and debates with the likes of techpassport.io, Morgan Stanley, Lloyds Bank, UBS and Zopa.

Content for Fintech Week London is curated and led by an illustrious panel that includes Chris Skinner (Chair), Ghela Boskovich (Financial Data and Technology Association), Susanne Chishti (FINTECH Circle), Leda Glyptis (10x Banking), Theo Lau (Unconventional Ventures) and Huy Nguyen Trieu (CFTE).

The week kicks off with a flagship two-day conference at etc. venues 133 Houndsditch on Liverpool Street. Further activity taking place over the five days includes the Open Source Finance Forum and The FinTech Awards London ceremony at The Underglobe on Wednesday evening, which will recognise and celebrate fintech professionals and companies making a difference in London.

There will be plenty of in-person networking activities, before the week culminates with a virtual event connecting key industry figures from global fintech hubs, including New York, Dubai and Singapore.

Raf De Kimpe, CEO of Fintech Week London, says: “It’s brilliant that Fintech Week London 2022 is back as an in-person event this year with tickets in huge demand. Last year’s hybrid event was limited to 50 per cent in-person capacity but still secured impressive interactivity scores. With high-quality speakers and fantastic sponsors already confirmed for 2022 – and even more, to be revealed – this year’s event is going to be bigger and better than ever before.

“Fintech Week London is more than just an opportunity to ‘show and tell’ using infomercials dressed up as discussion panels, instead we’ll have the industry’s very best delving deep into fascinating, hot topics for an honest reflection on the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of the fintech industry.

“This year will also be far more dynamic, with a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style opportunity for five amazing companies, who will pitch their ideas to a panel of angel investors all in front of a live audience and audience interaction. We can’t wait to showcase some of the best that London and global fintech have to offer.”

Fintech Week London 2022 will focus on six key themes, including:

• Open Banking / Banking as a Service: exploring the momentum and future potential of open banking in the UK and beyond as it hits its four-year milestone in the UK.
• Digital Sovereignty: discussing the impact of a world that is ever more digital and data orientated and will explore the importance of cybersecurity, privacy and fraud prevention in the quest for digital sovereignty.
• Big Tech and Big Banks: Coopetition: highlighting the numerous mergers, acquisitions and partnerships taking place, and how the ‘coopetition’ (collaboration vs competition) between big tech and big banks has never been more relevant as the fintech industry comes of age.
• Trending in Fintech: covering a host of hot topics, from Buy Now Pay Later to Web 3.0, looking into a time of great innovation and the levelling up of the fintech world.
• Crypto: diving deep into the world of cryptocurrency to explore crypto and payments, as well as the ever-popular NFTs that show no signs of slowing down. Also, analysing the arguments for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and examining the opportunities and challenges a UK CBDC would bring.
• Fintech for good: investigating advancements in climate and ethical finance in an ESG-focused world, as well as understanding the need for further change.

Fintech Week London 2022 takes place from Monday 11 July to Friday 15 July. Headline sponsors include Crypto.com, Mambu, Workato, Twilio and The Fintech Power 50. An exclusive recording of the event’s key highlights and the content will also be available to attendees.