Yolt, Europe’s leading independent and data-driven open banking provider, announces today a partnership with Creditsafe, the multinational business intelligence provider.

Creditsafe, the global expert in credit data and risk intelligence, are the world’s most used provider of online business credit reports covering 161 countries and more than 365 million business. The partnership will see Yolt’s recently launched Cashflow Analyser added to Creditsafe’s business information platform for business and credit professionals. Using Cashflow Analyser powered by open banking, Creditsafe will be able to instantly offer its clients access to a customer’s cash flow data to better assess its risk profile.

Historically, credit assessments involved a complex chain of data access from multiple suppliers, which organisations such as Creditsafe have transformed into swift and straightforward credit checks. With the availability of new and alternative data sources, it is critical that the complexity or length of credit application processing is not increased once again.

Powered by open banking, Yolt’s Cashflow Analyser automates the process of retrieving a customer’s banking data, allowing Creditsafe to deliver superior and real-time affordability data for creditors and business lenders.

Yolt launched Cashflow Analyser in 2021, a solution powered by Account Information Services (AIS) that gives credit underwriters and providers of business services deeper insights into the cash flow of credit applicants and customers to streamline and simplify risk profile and affordability assessment processes. Now with dual banking licenses in the UK and wider Europe, Yolt is offering Cashflow Analyser as a white label product to enable lenders, leasing companies, credit-checking and business intelligence services to utilise open banking to better understand the financial health of their customers.

Nicolas Weng Kan, CEO of Yolt comments “Cashflow Analyser uses Open Banking data to automate and simplify the process. In the lending market alone, we calculate that our technology can reduce processing times on borrowing applications by 85%, saving lenders up to 18,000 hours per year.”

“Our partnership with Creditsafe enables them to add a valuable, reliable, and accurate data source to help their clients optimise their risk profile assessments” added Weng Kan. “And we look forward to helping more businesses in the UK and across Europe to benefit from open banking.

Chris Long, Head of Global Partnerships comments:

“The availability of open banking data has been a positive move for the industry, driving confidence and maintaining the availability of credit lending through these highly volatile and uncertain times. Our partnership with Yolt means we can seamlessly integrate this data into our existing solutions, delivering valuable new insight whilst maintaining streamlined credit decision processes.”

Wearable tech pioneer DIGISEQ has today announced it has secured an undisclosed investment from Rtekk, a portfolio company of Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, to accelerate DIGISEQ’s rapid expansions plans as demand for its ground-breaking mobile provisioning and personalisation service (RCOS™) surges amongst bank issuers, payment schemes and sports venues worldwide.

Established in 2014, DIGISEQ is the world’s first tokenised wearable payments service, enabling wearable tech users to pair their bank cards and make contactless payments or digital ID authentication with a wide range of passive wearable items. 

DIGISEQ’s RCOS™ technology is revolutionising wearable payments by allowing consumers to register and activate their own items using their payment card via their Android or iPhone device, through DIGISEQ’s Manage Mii^TM mobile app, which can be white-labelled with the branding of its clients, essentially making it an invisible payments partner for banks, payment schemes and brands.

Currently, in use with MasterCard, RCOS™ uses secure tokenisation to deliver payment data over the air to the consumer’s wearable item.

As consumer desire increases for more convenience in how and where they pay, issuers, payment schemes and banks worldwide are using wearable tech to extend more contactless device choices to customers, boosting transaction volumes, mobile app engagement, and deepening customer loyalty.

The wearable payment devices market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 29% between 2022-2032, with an estimated market valuation of US$13.43 billion just in 2022 alone. This is being driven by the rapidly growing Internet of Things network connecting payment applications, access control and brand-consumer engagement across an expected 41 billion devices by 2027.

DIGISEQ’s revolutionary wearable contactless payment tech is already being used by globally-recognised banks like ABN AMRO, brands like Philippe Starck and at prestigious events, including the 2019 Golden Globes Awards for payments and secure ID verification.

Over the last 12 months, DIGISEQ’s wearable tech has enjoyed a successful partnership with the Spanish La Liga football club Real Betis. Most recently, DIGISEQ was chosen by the German mobile payment app VIMPay to allow any German bank customers to use their wearable item to make contactless payments worldwide, through prepaid or tokenised payment accounts.

With these partnerships, DIGISEQ’s tech is helping banks and schemes attract and retain customers with wearable tech that combines the convenience of contactless payment and secure digital ID to protect against lost and stolen cards, fraud and ID theft - all in one wearable item that goes wherever the user goes, with no PIN required, and real-time tracking for added security. These are huge business benefits for banks and brands which are looking to streamline costs and incentivise more transactions.

DIGISEQ’s mobile personalisation and tokenisation ensure all provisioned payment data is fully protected, with contactless transactions secured in exactly the same way as a card or phone NFC payments. By promoting the use of wearable tech, brands, banks and issuers can reduce their reliance on producing plastic cards, as DIGISEQ handles the over-the-air personalisation and payment enablement of the wearable item from end to end, saving banks and original equipment manufacturers vast amounts of time and money. Additionally, this also helps to significantly reduce the amount of plastic used for cards, improving environmental and sustainability efforts. 

This strategic investment into DIGISEQ will be funded by fintech-focused backer Rtekk, a portfolio company of Investcorp Technology Partners (“ITP"). ITP has established a market-leading position in investing in lower mid-market technology companies with a specific focus on the data analytics, IT security, fintech and payment sectors. Other past and present portfolio companies of ITP include, among others, Ageras, Avira, Calligo, Contentserv, Fleetmatics, HWG, Impero, OpSec, Skrill, softgarden, Sophos and Ubisense.

Founded in 1982, ITP is recognised as one of the world’s leading managers of alternative investments with $41.2 billion in assets under management as of March 2022 across private equity, real estate, credit management, absolute return investments, strategic capital, infrastructure, and insurance asset management.

This initial backing of an experienced investor, like Rtekk, is the first of many clear signs indicating interest in investing in DIGISEQ’s ground-breaking technology, which can be used in every conceivable scenario where payment transactions and identity verification could be used. The potential use cases for DIGISEQ’s tech span payments, identity and secure access, and digital trust marks for goods like apparel, artworks and collectable items.

The new investment capital will be used to rapidly accelerate DIGISEQ’s disruptive expansion plans, as contactless payments become the norm worldwide, and digital ID initiatives roll out with the support of governments and public service providers to make ID verification and authentication as quick and as seamless as possible.

DIGISEQ connects an entire ecosystem, connecting banks, product creators, retailers, chip manufacturers and service providers with a complete end-to-end stack to remotely provision wearable items through consumers’ Android or iOS mobile device. Globally, there were over 2.5 billion Android users and 1 billion iPhone users as of early 2021, demonstrating the potential market size for wearable tech to become embedded in users’ daily lives.

A game-changer for banks, non-bank issuers and other brands, and unlike any other wearable payments platform, DIGISEQ handles the personalisation and payment enablement of the wearable item from end to end, without the need for the manufacturer, retailer or card issuer to do anything beyond embedding the NFC chip into the wearable item.

Previously, the chip embedded within the wearable would need to go through the cumbersome process of being personalised by the manufacturer or at a retail kiosk before being ready to use.

Terrie Smith, DIGISEQ CEO, hailed the investment as evidence of how disruptive the company’s services will prove to be, saying: “DIGISEQ is truly at the forefront of creating new ways for millions of consumers to connect with their banks, service providers and other brands worldwide. The growth of contactless payments has created the ideal environment for wearable tech to become an everyday part of consumers’ lives. The secure provisioning of payment credentials into a ring, a wristband, a fitness tracker or pretty much any accessory you can imagine, becomes as easy as a tap of a smartphone.”

David Birch, DIGISEQ Chairman commented: “We are thrilled that, with the backing of Rtekk, the benefits of our pioneering technology, which creates the perfect blend of convenience, security and engagement, can be brought to even more people and organisations globally. DIGISEQ’s unique ability to deliver remote personalisation via consumers’ devices such as iPhones completely changes the dynamics of sector.”

DIGISEQ’s wearable tech and services are already being used to great effect in sports and music venues, dramatically speeding up entry times with encrypted ID for secure access. Additionally, DIGISEQ’s wearable items can be provisioned with special promotional offers that can be used in real-time, incentivising even more users and providing a truly immersive and unforgettable user experience.

The strength of DIGISEQ’s value proposition is underpinned by an executive board which includes several respected and high-calibre payment industry leaders, including:

• Terrie Smith, Chief Executive Officer, who co-founded DIGISEQ and previously led the product development of tokenisation at MasterCard in 2014 that supports solutions such as Apple Pay;
• Colin Tanner, Chief Technology Officer, co-founder of DIGISEQ and the visionary inventor of the trailblazing technology RCOS™, who was previously Business Leader at MasterCard developing Mobile PayPass issuance;
• David Birch, Non-Executive Chairman at DIGISEQ, and widely regarded fintech industry commentator;
• Angela Yore, Non-Executive Director at DIGISEQ, and Co-Founder and Managing Director of leading UK fintech PR Consulting Firm SkyParlour.

Commenting on the dynamic growth prospects for DIGISEQ’s technology, Ido Kariti, Head of Business Development at Rtekk, says: “We are delighted to be working with such an innovative and disruptive business. The synergies between Rtekk and DIGISEQ create a wider solution benefitting from each other’s customers and partnerships.

“This is just the beginning of DIGISEQ’s journey, even though they’ve already achieved so much. The pace and the popularity of wearables and invisible payments is only going to accelerate and, with the revolutionary RCOS™ solution, as well as existing partnerships with Apple and MasterCard, we’re excited to bring DIGISEQ’s wearable tech services to banks and other issuers who are looking for new ways to attract and connect with customers, drive up transaction usage and create new use cases.”

Global security print firm, Zunoma, is highlighting the importance of multi-layered overt and covert security features to help save money in the public sector, as figures have shown that the annual loss to the economy each year through counterfeiting and piracy is £9 billion in the UK alone.

The United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention identified counterfeiting as the second-largest source of criminal income worldwide, costing governments $89 billion globally. As such, less public money is readily available to fund schools, hospitals and many other public services.

To mitigate the risk, it is vital that governments and the public sector have effective and secure anti-counterfeiting measures in place, and a multi-layered approach of both overt and covert security features is the most beneficial in tackling counterfeiting.

Overt security features are visible to the naked eye, for example, holograms, foiling and colour-changing security inks. These features are used to authenticate products or documents and are easily identifiable.

Covert features are hidden security features that are undetectable to the naked eye and in many cases require training and expertise to identify. Although covert security offers the highest protection, only certain authoritative figures will be aware of its presence or how to spot these features. For example, rainbow fibres which can be found within bank notes, certificates, stamps and more, are invisible fibres that incorporate multiple fluorescent colours that are embedded into paper and are only viewable using specialist equipment.

With a combined multi-layered approach, these features offer the most protection on high-valued documents, making them as difficult as possible to duplicate. It provides the highest layer of security, that can help to improve user experience and consumer confidence.

The benefit of layered authentication allows instant verification and is a major security choice for currency. For example, in 2021 £2.7 million worth of counterfeit bank notes were successfully removed from circulation, which was easily detected due to low-quality reproductions with no security features.

Zunoma is committed to protecting data and preventing counterfeiting by using a range of modern technologies such as watermarks, taggant inks and camera readers, plus incorporating forensic features such as nano text, nano images, document DNA and substrate analysis to create bespoke, unique and secure documents.

Louis Bartholomew, Production Manager at Zunoma, said: “As one of the largest accredited security print organisations in the UK working closely with the public sector, we are dedicated to protecting critical data and documents by using a range of innovative and technological solutions, ensuring security measures are as reliable and secure as possible.”

Zunoma works with several FTSE 100 companies, governments and worldwide organisations across a wide range of sectors to provide a comprehensive range of products that combat forgery and counterfeiting risks.

Buckzy Payments, Inc., a leading real-time cross-border payments network, today announced it has extended its payments network throughout Central and South America.

The Buckzy network now covers eight countries in the LATAM region – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Uruguay. As part of the expansion, Buckzy will also deliver virtual account capability in the national currencies of each country, for banks, fintechs and other providers to offer to their customers.

Commenting on the news, Abdul Naushad, President and CEO of Buckzy, said, "The pandemic has scaled up the demand for digital financial services worldwide, and Latin America is no exception. This region is viewed as one of the most important in terms of market opportunity with a large percentage of the population currently without access to the digital economy.

“This is a market undergoing major change and our infrastructure and solutions are ideally suited to those neobanks and fintechs looking to break new ground in the region, as well as traditional players looking to enhance their customer experience,” he explained. “There is huge potential to democratize access to financial services in the region and we are now even more well placed to support the rapidly growing financial services industry.”

Buckzy already provides connectivity to Guatemala and Honduras in Central America.  The plans announced today extend the Buckzy network into six more countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay.

“Over the last few years, digital banking in Latin America has experienced extraordinary growth on the back of changing customer needs, rapidly evolving regulatory standards and expanding technological penetration – for example, according to Statista, some 73 percent of adults are forecasted to have a smartphone in South America by 2025, up from 69 percent in 2021, which is transforming the market for financial products and services across the region,” continued Naushad.

“These trends have created a huge opportunity to improve the banking experience through tailored, personalized solutions for every area of money management. Our extensive payments network and embedded finance infrastructure convey real-time cross-border payments, while enabling traditional banks, financial institutions, neobanks and fintechs alike to offer customized, secure solutions delivered through a unique financial services ecosystem and a modern, flexible platform," he concluded.

Leading Banking-as-a-Service provider Contis has revealed plans to increase its headcount by more than 33% over the next 6 months, with the Yorkshire headquartered firm planning to recruit 123 additional roles across the UK, Lithuania and India in line with its ambitious growth plans to increase market share in Europe.

Contis, part of the Solaris group has also committed to increasing its HR-focused investment in current employees by 150% over the next 12 months, which includes more than a £150,000 investment into a growth and development programme that enables all current 210 employees to access an allowance of £750 each to spend on individual training courses, event attendance and mentoring to help further their careers.

In addition, Contis recently opened a larger new London office in Kingdom Street, Paddington with a capacity of 40 people and will soon be opening new larger premises in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India to support the growth in the workforce.

Kate Laidlow, Head of People and Culture said: “It’s vital that as the company continues to expand across geographies, we increase investment in our people to help grow and retain the fantastic talent we have here at Contis. With so many different specialisms in the business, from highly technical roles to client service facing positions we want to ensure people can develop new skills and get access to training that supports them on their own individual career journey.”

The FinTech firm has also recently invested in partnering with a mental health app Thrive, to give employees access to emotional and wellbeing support, while also granting employees employer-supported volunteering leave for one day per quarter in a bid to help people give back to a cause important to them.

Lee Johnstone, Managing Director at Contis said: “Our people are essential to the success of Contis to date and will continue to be as we grow. We are fortunate to have so many great minds across all four regions which ensures a collaborative and diverse atmosphere. The investment we are making across the next 12 months will be crucial to help people grow within the business while also ensuring we continue to recruit some of the best talents in the sector.”

The London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) has today announced the launch of its new 'transparency dashboard' in partnership with impact-focused FinTech Tumelo.

The dashboard, which is integrated directly into the LPFA's corporate website, displays a breakdown of the £6.9 billion Fund's equity investments including the individual company names, logos, and biographies, enabling both members and the wider public to learn more about where the Fund's equity investments are being held. The LPFA is one of the first Defined Benefit and Local Government Pension Scheme Funds (LGPS) to use Tumelo's transparency solution. Equities represent around 45% of the LPFA’s total portfolio.

The launch of the LPFA’s transparency dashboard comes as a direct response to member queries and the LPFA's 2021 Fund Member Survey which found that many of the LPFA’s 93,000 members wanted more information about how the Fund is invested and how it invests responsibly. The dashboard, updated quarterly, will allow LPFA members to check on the Fund’s equity investments.

Commenting on the launch, Robert Branagh, CEO, LPFA said: “How we invest impacts the future of our economy, our environment, our society and therefore our members’ future. Transparency around how our Fund is allocated - particularly within the pooled environment of the LGPS – is important in helping all of us understand how our pensions, our world and our society are interlinked. It's also important that Funds making net-zero commitments can demonstrate evidence of their transition to a low carbon future. Transparency around our equity holdings is the first step.

“The LPFA strives to be a responsible investor and we do play a positive role in society. However, we believe that we can do more, and we hope that this dashboard will start a dialogue with our members about how the Fund is invested. This is intentional as engagement with our stakeholders is important in ensuring that the LPFA is listening to the views of those most important to us.

We’ll also be working with our delegated asset managers, LPPI, to improve how we report on our responsible investment activity.”

Georgia Stewart, CEO & Co-Founder, Tumelo said: "It is important for pension members to know which companies their pension is being invested in as this investment will impact their social, environmental and financial outcomes at retirement. Schemes across the UK are making significant climate commitments and it is fantastic to see yet another Local Government Pension Scheme take the steps to provide this level of transparency to their members using our dashboard. LPFA is clearly leading by example! "

Tumelo's solution presents holdings data in an engaging, easy to find and understand, and easy to use format for both pension members and any member of the public.

Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that it has entered into a technology partnership with Everstream Analytics, the global supply chain insights and risk analytics company, to help organizations better anticipate and navigate supply chain risks and disruptions. Through the partnership, Infor will integrate Everstream’s end-to-end supply chain risk assessment and monitoring data with its Infor Nexus multi-enterprise business network platform.

The Infor Nexus Control Center, an end-to-end supply chain control tower, provides organizations with visibility to orders, shipments and inventory throughout the supply chain — delivering intelligent, actionable insights through its connectivity to carriers, and logistics service providers (LSPs), suppliers and manufacturers.

Everstream’s solution will complement these capabilities by providing data on external events — such as weather, labour strikes, port congestion, cybersecurity, ESG (environmental, social, and governance), and partner risks (physical and financial) — that could impact a company’s supply chain flows and its ability to deliver.

By combining Everstream’s risk monitoring intelligence with the other insights in Infor’s digital supply chain platform, Infor will provide customers with a single supply chain control tower that provides end-to-end visibility and predictive alerts to numerous supply chain events and their impacts, helping them intelligently sense and respond to external events and ultimately deliver shipments on time and in full. 

According to Heidi Benko, Infor vice president of product management, the partnership will help customers boost supply chain agility, resiliency and on-time performance.

“The Infor Nexus network has always connected companies to their supply chain partners and suppliers to provide visibility, collaboration and execution of supply chain processes from source to pay,” Benko said. “Partnering with Everstream gives us the predictive insights needed to identify external risks or disruptions that could impact customer supply chains and the ability to deliver.”

Rick Meyer, head of global sales at Everstream Analytics, said, “Through this partnership, Everstream will provide the risk event intelligence that the Infor Nexus platform can then tie directly to transactions across the supply chain. By applying AI and predictive analytics to our datasets, we can deliver the predictive insights and risk analytics that businesses need for smarter, more autonomous and sustainable supply chains.”

For example, when Everstream Analytics identifies a risk event, such as port congestion or a major weather event, it will notify the Infor Nexus platform, containing the time of the event, the occurrence duration, severity and the location. Infor Nexus Control Center will cross-reference the incident with network data to understand the impact on a customer’s transactions and alert users – providing decision support tools and resolution workflow so they can swiftly take action.

Wealth Dynamix today announces that they are currently providing fully digitalised Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions for the four companies with the top-performing wealth managers in the world - Rothschild & Co, Mirabaud, Rathbones and Cazenove Capital as reported by Spears in which 5 of the top ten wealth managers work for firms using our CLM systems.

As the ONLY end-to-end CLM provider for Wealth Managers, Wealth Dynamix takes CLM to unchartered territories. The Wealth Dynamix solution adds intelligence to client data. This empowers advisors to make the right recommendations at the right time, identify opportunities to grow revenue and boost operating efficiencies, all while ensuring regulatory adherence.

Gary Linieres, CEO and Co-founder OF Wealth Dynamix said: “Wealth managers have a problem. Clients are demanding cutting-edge technology at breakneck speeds. Hyper-personalisation and assisted forms, real-time recommendations, omnichannel experiences, same-day onboarding and seamless access to a large product ecosystem with e-signatures and secure chat to name just a few capabilities - are not just desired by customers but expected. Yet very few firms can offer this”.

“Our technological innovations are transforming wealth management. They boost balance sheets and improve staff satisfaction while attracting and retaining customers like never before. The proof is in the pudding as we now power four companies with the top-performing wealth managers”.

Wealth Dynamix’s technological innovations are transforming wealth management. They boost balance sheets and improve staff satisfaction while attracting and retaining customers like never before.  Here are just some of the benefits our clients have realised when using Wealth Dynamix:

1. 50% increase in productivity

Our CLM solutions prove that a client-centric approach is truly the best way forward, for the whole firm. We’re proud to reveal that since adopting our solutions, wealth managers have reported a spectacular 50% increase in productivity across front, middle, and back offices.

2. From 30 days to same-day onboarding

One of our most powerful improvements is reducing the onboarding time to a mere fraction of what it was. By combining powerful regtech with our client lifecycle technology, we’ve cut the process from 30 days to less than one. This doesn’t just make things quick and pain-free for customers, it liberates compliance teams too.  Our digital-first CLM removes paper from the process and replaces it with pre-filled online documents ready for e-signature at the click of a button.

3. 95% improvement in the consistency of data

Our innovative technology brings together vast swathes of valuable information. From there, it creates highly accurate insights, forecasts and predictions. Since implementing our innovative technology, wealth managers have enjoyed an incredible 95% improvement in the consistency of data.

4. 25% improvement in opportunity conversion

Convincing affluent and High Net Worth clients to opt for a new investment product or service can be highly beneficial for all parties. However, it can be notoriously difficult too. Since implementing our technology however, wealth managers reported a significant 25% improvement. This is an extraordinary achievement and shows the hard-hitting impact of our innovative solutions.

5. 40% increase in staff satisfaction with technology

Since implementing our technology, wealth managers have noticed a boost in satisfaction in the workplace. Employees have better data, less admin and can solve problems much more efficiently. Across the front, middle and back office, clients report an impressive 40% increase in employee satisfaction. 

Founded in 2012 by wealth management technology experts Gary Linieres and Brent Randall, Wealth Dynamix are the first wealth management technology firm to revolutionise the Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) processes with innovative applications. Wealth Dynamix digitises the entire client lifecycle for private banks and wealth managers, from client acquisition and onboarding through to ongoing relationship management and client servicing. Wealth Dynamix identifies opportunities for boosting operating efficiencies and growing revenue, whilst enabling a significantly higher degree of client insight and due diligence. Wealth Dynamix operates globally with offices in the UK, France, Switzerland, Singapore, United States of America, Lithuania and Vietnam.