ZikZuk Technologies, a leading player in solving credit challenges faced by MSMEs, has been selected by the RBI for the ‘Test Phase’ for MSME lending as part of the third cohort under RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox.

Regulatory Sandbox refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled/test regulatory environment for which the regulators may permit certain relaxations. The Reserve Bank had received 22 applications for the cohort and shortlisted eight for the same.

A cohort for SME lending will be expected to fill the lending gap for small and medium entrepreneurs through the innovative use of technology and data analytics. ZikZuk will be testing its innovative product ‘Business Finance Manager’ to enable an unsecured cash flow-based model that will open up a massive opportunity to enable credit for NTC (new to credit) and thin-file customers.

‘Business Finance Manager’ integrates with MSMEs' accounting software, and banking ecosystem and uses its proprietary analytics engine to empower MSMEs with insights on sales, cash flow, payables, receivables, etc. It also enables lenders to make data-driven decisions to provide their contextual credit to MSMEs.

Tarun Bansal, Co-Founder, ZikZuk, said, “We are honoured that the RBI has selected ZikZuk Technologies for the test phase under Regulatory Sandbox – Third Cohort on MSME lending. We have constantly believed in evolving our products with innovation backed by technology. It gives us great pride that the RBI has found merit in the same. With this feat, we plan to explore more opportunities that will enable us in creating feasible and sustainable solutions for accelerating MSME lending across the country.”

In September 2021, the Reserve Bank of India announced the opening of the third cohort under the regulatory sandbox for MSME lending. The entities that have been selected are ZikZuk Technologies, FinAGG Technologies, Moshpit Technologies, Mynd Solutions, New Street Technologies, Rupifi Technology Solutions, and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and SysArc Infomatix. These entities are supposed to start the testing of their products this month itself.

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P., a leading global asset management firm, and Allfunds Blockchain, the arm of Allfunds (AMS:ALLFG) specialising in blockchain technology, have announced a collaboration to adapt AB’s asset services activities to the blockchain ecosystem.

Allfunds Blockchain’s dedicated funds technology offers the possibility to transform operational processes in the fund industry value chain and provide legacy platforms with efficiency, agility, accuracy, and the increased safety blockchain technology delivers. AB will connect its global operational activity with the Allfunds platform to Allfunds Blockchain, where it will enjoy all the benefits of the solution, as well as Allfunds’ global scale and growing offering. The collaboration will offer Allfunds Blockchain solutions across AB’s EU domiciled-global platform.

Ronit Walny, Head of AllianceBernstein’s Investment Innovation Center, added, “Across multiple departments at AB and in partnership with Equitable Holdings, we underwent a deep exploration of the value that the blockchain technology unlocks. We anticipate that this technology will be transformative to the asset management industry, uncovering significant transactional efficiencies and enhanced transparency as well as operational agility that makes investment solutions available to a broader investor base. We are committed to delivering solutions that our clients prefer today and in the future, Allfunds Blockchain brings extensive fund industry experience and insightful and integrated solutions, and we look forward to partnering with them in our journey to offer solutions across our EU domiciled global platform.”

Karl Sprules, Global Head of Technology and Operations at AllianceBernstein, added, “Our interest in blockchain was born out of an internal, innovative ideation workshop, hosted jointly between AB and Equitable Holdings for employees. In 2021, more than 100 colleagues across both organizations participated in the program, working to increase firmwide knowledge of disruptive technologies and closely examine how blockchain and cryptocurrency can be used in the financial services industry. A year later, we are excited to announce this integrative collaboration between AB and Allfunds Blockchain, which we believe is an important step forward for the future of our firm – and across the industry.”

Rubén Nieto, Managing Director of Allfunds Blockchain, said: “We are very excited to collaborate with one of the leading global asset management firms and deliver our bespoke solutions to such a renowned household name like AB. This emphasizes our clear strategy to team up and help to understand the incredible benefits of the technology and our value proposition to all the actors of the fund industry. It is about the future of the industry vs. the industry of the future.”

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.”