Partnerships 

Bank of Canada and MIT Partnering on CBDC research

The Bank of Canada has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a twelve-month research project on central bank digital currency. The project will see the central bank and the MIT Media Lab’s digital currency initiative team experiment with potential technology options to establish how a CBDC could work. The Bank of Canada has spent several years working with the country's commercial lenders to explore the construction of a DLT-based CBDC. 

IXOPAY Partners with Hawk AI

The industry-leading payment orchestration platform and white label solution, IXOPAY, has partnered with Hawk AI, Germany’s leading provider of anti-money laundering (AML) surveillance technology for banks, payment companies and fintechs. This strategic partnership boosts IXOPAY’s offering by giving its white-label clients access to state-of-the-art fraud prevention that uses traditional rules in combination with artificial intelligence to detect suspicious behavior.

Moneyhub Partners With Samsung for World-first Open Banking Self-service Payments

Moneyhub, the award-winning Open Data and payments platform, is partnering with leading global electronics manufacturer Samsung to facilitate the world’s first Open Banking payments on a retail self-service point-of-sale (POS) Kiosk. Moneyhub’s award-winning Open Banking payment technology in conjunction with Samsung’s self-service ordering and payment solution will support the digital transformation for many businesses. The sleek and compact Samsung Kiosk will be used by many sectors such as quick-service restaurants, retail stores, stadiums, and other hospitality venues.

Microsoft for Startups and Ansarada Announce new Global Partnership

Microsoft for Startups and Ansarada announced a new global partnership to make it easier and faster for startups to raise capital and grow. Ansarada is the first third party technology vendor to forge a global partnership of this kind with the Microsoft for Startups program and will be a central part of the offer to participants. Microsoft for Startups helps remove traditional barriers to building a company with free access to technology, coaching, and support.

Volume Partners With Yapily to Remove Hidden Online Checkout Fees With Open Banking Payments

Volume, the one-click checkout startup, has partnered with open banking infrastructure provider Yapily to reduce the $100 billion being paid by customers annually in hidden and unnecessary fees at online checkouts. The partnership underpins Volume’s Transparent Checkout, the UK’s first one-click solution to enable direct “account-to-account” (A2A) payments between consumers and merchants, without the need for payment processing intermediaries and expensive third parties. Currently, merchants have to pay between 2% and 8% of every sale to this card, e-wallet, and BNPL facilitators — costs that are ultimately paid by consumers at higher prices.

Ecospend Partners With Anglian Water to Offer the New ‘pay by Bank’ Payment Method

Ecospend has announced its partnership with Anglian Water where it will begin processing customer payments using open banking technology. Ecospend’s pay-by-bank technology will enable Anglian Water to receive an instant account to account payments, which will reduce the utility provider’s processing costs. The partnership will also enable a range of new payment functionalities for Anglian Water customers.

Nuvei Partners with Ledger to Offer Direct Crypto On-Ramp for Millions of Users

Nuvei Corporation announces that it has partnered with Ledger, the leading hardware wallet provider, to enable direct on-ramps for 125+ cryptocurrencies with all the leading fiat funding options via its Simplex by Nuvei solution. Through Ledger Live, Ledger users will be able to purchase cryptocurrencies through Visa, Mastercard, SEPA, SWIFT and over 100 other fiat funding options for various global currencies.

IDnow Announces Partnership with Interpol

IDnow, a leading European provider for identity proofing, has announced a partnership with the International Criminal Police Organisation – Interpol. The 12-month collaboration will see IDnow experts deliver a series of training programs to local law enforcement and immigration departments, starting in Abu Dhabi later this month. Lovro Persen, Director Document Management & Fraud at IDnow, commented: “We are thrilled to be working with Interpol to share our knowledge and expertise on the subject of fraud prevention.

Emerchantpay and Propel Announce Strategic Partnership to Finance Card Payment Terminals

Emerchantpay, a leading payment service provider, and Propel, a pioneering asset finance specialist, have announced a new strategic partnership. This will enable emerchantpay’s partners to offer top-of-the-range card terminals to merchants in the UK, with flexible financing options. The strategic alliance enables emerchantpay to provide financing solutions to companies across an array of business structures for card payment terminals. Propel’s an award-winning platform, Propeller, ensures an optimized sales process for emerchantpay sales teams and partners.

Square Announces Partnership with CodeBase to Boost Entrepreneurship in Scotland

Square, the globally trusted software, payments, and hardware solution for businesses of all sizes, and CodeBase, one of the UK’s largest technology start-up incubators, announced a partnership to provide entrepreneurs with access to Square’s payment ecosystem and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Through the partnership, Square will support CodeBase’s network of start-ups by offering a series of workshops that enable entrepreneurs to learn from leaders in the commerce and payments fields. Square will also offer these start-ups free or discounted hardware to accept payments as well as free payment processing to help kick-start their business.

BidFX and Finastra Partner to Offer Automated Trading Workflow

BidFX, a leading execution management system designed for the 6.6 trillion daily FX market, announced its integration to Finastra’s Fusion Confirmation Matching Service (CMS), ensuring capabilities right through from execution to settlement for mutual clients. BidFX CRO, John McGrath, commented, “Partnering with a market leader like Finastra to offer increased workflow benefits for mutual clients is a win/win project for all parties. As eFX markets become more sophisticated and workflow-based projects become paramount to generating alpha we are happy to work with innovators such as Finastra and the clients they service.

Launches 

LMAX Group to Launch 24/7 Traded Crypto Futures in Partnership with SIX

LMAX Group, the leading operator of institutional exchanges for FX and cryptocurrency trading, has partnered with SIX, one of Europe’s leading operators of Financial Market Infrastructures, to launch cash-settled, centrally cleared crypto-asset futures (“crypto futures”). The launch is expected in Q3 2022, pending regulatory approval, and will initially include centrally cleared USD settled Bitcoin and Ethereum futures, trading 23 hours, five days a week, with the full product roll out to be extended to 24/7 trading.

Versana, Founded by Top Global Banks, Launches to Transform the $5T Syndicated Loan Market

Versana announced its plans to launch a leading-edge, industry-backed syndicated loan platform, joining together banks, institutional lenders and their service providers to bring transparency, efficiency and velocity to this $5 trillion market. Versana's founding members are J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Citi and Credit Suisse. The Versana platform, which is expected to launch later this year, will aim to reduce the corporate loan market's operational challenges by digitally capturing agent banks' reference data directly from its source on a real-time basis. 

Bitbns Partners With Quantinsti to Launch Online Education Platform – Bitbns Academy

Bitbns, the country’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with QuantInsti to launch Bitbns Academy, an all-new dedicated online education platform that offers scholastic tutorials, resources and educational content on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. A comprehensive digital education platform, Bitbns Academy offers globally accredited certified courses that not just teaches the fundamentals of crypto but helps candidates to develop in-depth understanding of the subject. The coherent content has been carefully curated to serve users across the board, inclusive of beginners, enthusiasts as well as mature investors.

Mollie Launches Connect for Platforms to Enable SaaS and Marketplace Businesses to Expand Across Europe

Mollie, one of the fastest-growing payment service providers in Europe, announced the launch of its newest product, Connect for Platforms. Designed for online SaaS and Marketplace platforms, it is the most efficient and easiest way for companies of all sizes to integrate payments, onboard customers and accept and route payments. It also offers dedicated local, multilingual support – vital to Mollie’s customers operating throughout Europe.

Chargebee Launches Industry’s First E-invoicing Service With Spring 2022 Product Release, Also Featuring Increased Automation Capabilities

Fresh off its recent round of funding, Chargebee, the leading subscription management platform, announcedthe industry’s first e-invoicing service for high-performing SaaS and subscription-model businesses as the centerpiece of its Spring 2022 Product Release. The release includes updates geared towards enabling growth and efficiency for Chargebee customers, including taxation and revenue recognition features, and a new Marketplace to automate billing workflows through a library of customizable integrations.

Flashloans Launches DeFi Platform

Flashloans announced it has launched an online platform that enables people without knowledge of Solidity programming to execute a flash loan and profit from arbitrage opportunities. The DeFi tool aims to ensure market discrepancies and premiums paid for certain tokens on digital asset exchanges are eliminated.Flashloans has been designed so that anyone with a Web 3.0 wallet can connect to the platform and gain access to the liquidity needed to execute profitable arbitrage trades. 

Nium Introduces New Global Brokerage Payments Solution to Provide Faster, Lower Cost Alternative to SWIFT Settlement

Nium, a global leader in the modern money movement, introduced a new brokerage payments solution that offers international financial institutions (FIs) a faster and more cost-effective method of settling transactions to select U.S. brokerages enabling customers to easily invest in the U.S. equities. When compared to transactions settled via the SWIFT International Payments Network, Nium lowers settlement costs for Financial Institutions by up to 90% for international brokerage account transactions.

DTCC Launches Enhanced Post-trade Data Analytics Service To Help Firms Analyze And Improve Their Operational Performance

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, announced the launch of its enhanced Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) service, ITP Data Analytics. The new service includes powerful analytical tools that enable Broker/Dealers and Investment Managers to measure and compare their operational performance against counterparties, industry standards and peers.

Robo.cash Launches lLoans from Sri Lanka

The European investment platform Robo.cash introduces new commercial loans, which will be provided by the company of Robocash Group in Sri Lanka. Now platform users will be able to invest in loans for a period of 3 years at 12.5% with monthly interest payments. Robocash Group company Rapidlend (PVT) LTD in Sri Lanka started its work in 2021. It provides instant access to payday loans to employed individuals and selected professionals. At the end of February, the number of issued loans in Sri Lanka reached 708,000 EUR.

Volante Technologies Launches Service to Accelerate ISO 20022 Payments Modernization

Volante Technologies, the global leader in cloud payments and financial messaging, announced the launch of the Volante ISO 20022 Service. This value-added service simplifies the complexity of ISO 20022 modernization for any organization involved in the processing of payment messages, from banks and financial institutions to fintechs and payment service providers (PSPs). Such organizations face significant headwinds in achieving ISO 20022 message compliance, whether for domestic clearing and settlement (TARGET2, CHAPS, Fedwire™, among others) or for cross-border payments (SWIFT CBPR). 

Phos Partners with AZUL to Introduce SoftPoS in the Dominican Republic

Phos, the fintech behind the leading software-only Point of Sale system (SoftPoS), has partnered with AZUL, to launch ‘Tap’, its SoftPoS enabled mobile app in the Dominican Republic and the insular Caribbean. The partnership with  AZUL (the commercial arm of Servicios Digitales Popular part of Grupo Popular,  its parent company ) means phos’ innovative SoftPoS technology will be available to merchants in the Dominican Republic for the first time.

Merger & Acquisition

Data Blockchain Solution WeGro Acquires a Charitable Cryptocurrency, ChariT

WeGro, a groundbreaking cryptocurrency project, announces the acquisition of ChariT, adding to the ever-growing WeGro ecosystem, alongside the first of many charitable gestures with a $5,000 donation to the HOFFA Foundation.  The founder of ChariT, Joe Braun, will now oversee the charitable giving program for WeGro. Braun, who has over 20 years of charitable giving experience in the non-profit world, will guide the upcoming "WeGro…WeGive" program.

Advent International Acquires a Minority Interest in Spend Management Leader Medius

Medius, a leading provider of the source to pay solutions, announced that global private equity firm Advent International has acquired a minority stake in the business. Following the deal, Marlin Equity Partners remains Medius’ majority shareholder. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in Stockholm in 2001, Medius is a global leader in AP automation, payments, sourcing and procurement with more than 500 employees serving thousands of customers across the globe.

Acquisition Strengthens Value Proposition of TT Platform With New Product Suite of Algorithmic Execution Strategies, Trade Analytics, Tca Services

Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global provider of high-performance professional trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, announced that the firm has acquired RCM-X, a technology provider of algorithmic execution strategies and quantitative trading products. TT made the announcement at a session with leaders of many of the largest global financial institutions on the first day of the 2022 International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Both firms are based in Chicago.

Motive Partners Agrees to the Sale of Global Shares to J.P. Morgan

Motive Partners ("Motive"), a specialist private equity firm focused on growth equity and buyout investments in software and information services companies that serve the financial services industry ("financial technology"), announces that it has entered into an agreement, along with other shareholders, for J.P. Morgan to acquire Motive Capital Fund 1 portfolio company, Global Shares, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Motive Partners invested in Global Shares in July 2018, acquiring a c.40% shareholding in the business for c.$25 million.

Apex Group Acquires Majority Stake in Fund Admin Chain

Apex Group Ltd. (“Apex” or “The Group”), a global financial services provider, announces the expansion of its Digital Assets capabilities with the acquisition of a majority stake in Fund Admin Chain (“FAC”), a distributed ledger-based network for launching, distributing, trading and settling collective investment funds. FAC is designed to connect fund investors, fund managers and their service providers in a digital distributed ecosystem. In addition to simplifying and streamlining the investment funds’ value-chain, FAC delivers additional revenue opportunities for funds industry participants.

Job Moves

Government Blockchain Association Appoints Earle G. Hall to its Board of Directors

The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) announced the nomination of Earle G. Hall to its Board of Directors. He will also serve on the Standards and Certification Workgroup. The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) is pleased to announce the nomination of Earle G. Hall to its Board of Directors. He will also serve on the Standards and Certification Workgroup. Earle G. Hall is recognized as a visionary and innovator in several fields of technology and neuroscience. He is the CEO of AXES.ai, a fintech present in more than 40 countries dedicated to the eradication of money laundering, addictive gambling and illicit activities through real-time blockchain-based data collection, artificial intelligence, and cashless technology. 

TrueLayer Appoints Former Amazon Exec David Exposito as VP of EU Sales

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, announces that former Amazon executive David Exposito has joined the firm in the newly created role of VP of EU Sales, where he will manage commercial operations and development, including the company’s European Country Managers. A highly experienced commercial manager, with more than a decade working in payments and eCommerce, Madrid-based David joins TrueLayer as it continues its rapid European growth. The company recently expanded its open banking platform for data, verification, and account-to-account payments with connectivity to leading banks in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Portugal.

Ronn Baker Joins Baton Systems as a Senior Director

Baton Systems (“Baton”), the global fintech digitally transforming post-trade processing using distributed ledger technology (DLT), has announced the appointment of Ronn Baker as Senior Director of North American Sales. Ronn previously served at Wells Fargo, where he was most recently Director of Innovation & Digital Strategy, spearheading the implementation of DLT, cryptocurrencies and digital assets for the FX trading and Capital Markets division. Having been at Wells Fargo for nearly 15 years, Ronn brings vast experience, with his tenure at the company spanning FX technology, eCommerce sales and institutional sales for cross-border payment solutions and services.

Former Deputy CEO at Santander, Tony Prestedge, joins Board of Twenty7Tec Group as Non-Executive Director

Leading mortgage technology provider Twenty7Tec announces that it has appointed Tony Prestedge to its Board as a Non-Executive Director. Prior to his most recent role as Deputy CEO at Santander, Mr Prestedge spent 12 years at Nationwide, occupying a variety of roles including Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO, and has also held the role of Managing Director of Home Finance at Barclays.

Yapily Strengthens Executive Team with the OBIE’s Selene Brett

Yapily, the leading open banking infrastructure provider, announces it has appointed Selene Brett as its Chief Legal Officer, where she will play a key role in expediting Yapily’s strategic growth plans. Selene brings deep financial services, fintech, and open banking expertise to the role following an extensive career to date in legal advisory services. She has previously held positions at Aon, Royal London, consumer champion Which?, and most recently the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) as General Counsel and Company Secretary.

PayPoint Hires Jason Levy to Drive Digital Progress in Charities

To accelerate its investment into the charities sector, digital payments expert, PayPoint, has named Jason Levy to lead the Strategic Development and Partnerships plans. The appointment confirms PayPoint’s ambition to become the market-leading omni-channel payment and donations solutions partner for the charity sector. Levy has considerable experience across the industry, which first began as Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Midlands Air Ambulance Charity. Here he delivered significant and strategic income growth through the development of innovative digital and face to face fundraising campaigns.