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FREETRADE LAUNCHES EIGHTH CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
The day after it emerged that a funding round for Freetrade fell apart earlier this year, the UK stock trading app has gone back to the public with another crowdfunding campaign.
According to a letter obtained by the Financial Times, Freetrade inked term sheets with new investors some months ago to raise capital at a £700 million valuation.
The transaction was, however, abandoned in January amid a larger decline in the tech industry.
According to the FT, the company eventually raised £30 million from its current backers through a convertible loan note in May but decided against seeking a new valuation.
Despite that rise, Freetrade still took action in June to reduce expenses and increase its cash runway by firing 15% of its 300-person workforce.
Pre-registration for Freetrade’s eighth crowdfunding round was made available, giving its 17000+ current investors the chance to invest in the convertible loan note.
“Despite significant headwinds in global stock markets, we’ve seen existing and new customers continue to grow throughout 2022.
“Investors are not wasting the opportunity presented by market volatility and Freetrade, as a business, is doing the same.”
Adam Dodds, CEO, Freetrade.
21.CO RAISES $25 MILLION, BECOMING SWITZERLAND’S LARGEST CRYPTO UNICORN
21.co, the world’s leader in providing access to crypto through simple and easy-to-use products, today announced a $25 million round led by Marshall Wace. This round values the business up to $2 billion, making 21.co Switzerland’s largest crypto unicorn. With this round of financing, 21.co will continue to drive rapid, targeted growth through first-of-their-kind products, key market expansions and strategic talent acquisitions. Other investors in the round include Collab+Currency, Quiet Ventures, ETFS Capital and Valor Equity Partners.
“My co-founder, Ophelia, and I set out with a simple mission to make crypto more accessible,”
“Now, we’re the highest valued and largest tech startup in Switzerland – and we’re still only in the early days. 21.co remains committed to building innovative products that meet investor demand as this asset class continues to gain rapid momentum.”
Hany Rashwan, CEO and Co-Founder at 21.co.
The business revealed its new parent firm, 21.co, in addition to receiving investment. 21.co is a group of businesses, the largest of which is 21Shares, the largest issuer of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) in the world. 21Shares is powered by Onyx, a proprietary technology platform used to issue and operate cryptocurrency ETPs for 21Shares and third parties.
“The success 21.co has experienced over the past four years is truly amazing,”
“We have built an incredibly diverse team, with some of the brightest minds in crypto and brought on best-in-class investors. Our drive to revolutionize the world of crypto and build bridges into the asset class is only just getting started.”
Ophelia Snyder, President and Co-Founder at 21.co.
The fact that this round, raised during Crypto Winter, was the company’s first in more than two years is evidence of both its early success and the rising interest among investors in this asset class. The fact that the company concluded 2021 with a nine-figure revenue run rate and has experienced consistent inflows even during bear markets is evidence of this investor desire. Between September 2021 and September 2022, 21.co added almost $650 million in net new assets, and in November of that same year, its AUM peaked at $3 billion. During this time, 21.co increased its personnel by 75% in order to support this brisk commercial expansion.
“At Marshall Wace, our culture is built around innovation – and we saw an immediate alignment of values when meeting with the team at 21.co. 21co is a first-mover in the crypto industry: the company is focused on growth, and committed to bringing new and innovative products to investors across markets – in a secure, accessible way,”
“Even in the midst of crypto winter, MW believes that 21.co has the potential to revolutionize the industry globally and we’re looking forward to working alongside the team.”
Amit Rajpal, Partner and CEO Asia at Marshall Wace.
Ophelia Snyder and Hany Rashwan created 21.co in 2018 with the goal of bridging the crypto world. Since then, 21.co has made great strides to maintain its position as a market leader by offering investors the most cutting-edge cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs), the widest range of token solutions, a decentralized software platform to create, list, and manage ETPs globally, as well as other forward-thinking solutions, all of which are supported by free institutional-grade research to inform investors about the developing industry.
“When I first met the team at 21.co, I understood their long-term vision and truly believed the company would transform the crypto ecosystem,”
“This round is a testament to 21.co’s early success and its ability to thrive in both bull and bear markets. I’m proud to be a part of the 21.co growth story.”
Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO and CIO of ARK Investment Management LLC, and an independent board member of 21.co.
21.co’s raise follows a year of significant growth and product innovation. Most notably, 21Shares:
- Launched innovative products, like the world’s first USD Yield ETP and the world’s first Bitcoin and Gold ETP on SIX Swiss Exchange
- Released the first crypto ETFs in Australia
- Published the sixth issue of its State of Crypto Report, which explores current trends in the crypto industry and what investors are doing to successfully optimize their crypto portfolios.
- Launched its Crypto Winter Suite, which includes products like the world’s cheapest Bitcoin ETP, 21Shares’ Bitcoin Core ETP, and the S&P Risk Controlled Bitcoin and Ethereum Index ETPs
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH FIRM RECOGNIZES TEMENOS AS A LEADER IN DIGITAL BANKING PROCESSING PLATFORMS FOR CORPORATE BANKING REPORT
Temenos today announced that it has been recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Digital Banking Processing Platforms for Corporate Banking, Q3 2022. Temenos believes that its position as a leader reflects the advances in Temenos open platform for composable banking and the broad set of banking services that cover all areas of corporate banking. According to the Forrester report, “Temenos sets the pace in AI-powered banking capabilities and application architecture”. Temenos was also named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Digital Banking Processing Platforms for Retail Banking, Q3 2022 evaluation.
“The vendor’s [Temenos’] strategy shows no weak spots. […] The [Temenos] product roadmap includes the continuation of an overarching corporate banking rejuvenation program, AI-powered operations, and fine-grain banking services out of the cloud that is aligned with the concept of a lean core.” The report also states, “Its reference customers reported that the system is very modular, could satisfy almost any needs or requirements, and allows a bank to differentiate.”
Jost Hoppermann, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester.
In accordance with their present product, strategy, and market presence, the top 7 corporate banking platform suppliers are assessed using 33 criteria by this Forrester WaveTM. Temenos believes that its success in providing corporate banking services to clients of all tiers, including Commerce Bank, Bank of Queensland, and Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, is evidenced by the fact that it received the highest score in the strategy category and the second highest score in the category for current offerings (SCSB).
“We are proud to be recognized as a leader in the Forrester Wave report for corporate banking. Banks have a renewed focus on corporate growth and are seeking more agile, progressive renovation, targeting quicker gains at lower risk and cost – enabled by SaaS, microservices, and packaged banking capabilities. We believe this recognition as a leader by Forrester shows the maturity of our open platform for composable banking and market adoption. Helping clients of all sizes to reduce total cost of ownership, deliver higher service levels with reduced turnaround times and capture new revenue opportunities.”
Max Chuard, Chief Executive Officer, Temenos.
“Examples of the [Temenos] DBPP’s broad and rich capabilities include functionally rich AI-powered banking capabilities with a strong focus on explainable AI and a state-of-the-art application architecture that has been designed from the ground up to offer choice to banks.”
According to the Forrester report on corporate banking.
According to Forrester’s Global Banking Platform Deals Survey 2022, Temenos was also recently recognized as a “Global Power Seller” and a “Top Global Player” in the study titled “Identify The Winners In A Consolidating Banking Platform Market To Make Informed Transformation Decisions.”
Clients can create solutions using the open platform from Temenos based on granular banking capabilities for all corporate banking activities, such as corporate loans, trade finance, payments, cash and liquidity management, and embedded analytics and compliance. It provides pre-written, front-to-back solutions, and customers and partners can design their own unique financial services utilizing a customized sandbox. On Temenos Exchange, an ecosystem of pre-integrated fintech solutions, all of these can be combined with third-party solutions. The platform can run on-premises, on any private or public cloud, or as SaaS, through the Temenos Banking Cloud because it is cloud-native and cloud-agnostic.
KuCoin ANNOUNCES LISTING ThunderCore’s NATIVE TOKEN TT
Leading crypto exchange KuCoin has announced that it has listed ThunderCore’s token (TT), the native cryptocurrency that powers the ThunderCore network – a high-performance layer-1 chain and burgeoning Web3 ecosystem. Since launching in 2017, KuCoin has made inroads into over 200 countries, with over 600 coins available to buy, sell, and trade. The exchange attracts a large cross-section of traffic due to its low fees, wide selection, and interest-earning functions.KuCoin Announces Listing ThunderCore’s Native Token TT.
ThunderCore is a public blockchain that is EVM-compatible and aims to strike a balance between speed and scalability and enhanced security. Chris Wang, a well-known Silicon Valley software entrepreneur and a former executive at Google and Disney, launched it in 2017. According to DappRadar, the chain offers sub-second confirmation times, extremely low gas fees, and is one of the top 10 most used public blockchains. ThunderCore makes it simple for startups to delegate storage security tasks to the blockchain’s core developer team by providing its own native wallet, TT Wallet. The business is dedicated to continuously enhancing the UI/UX design of the wallet, streamlining numerous “fiat-in” options, and adding new features like NFT capability.
The ThunderCore blockchain has advanced significantly in terms of collaborations, technology, and adoption. Its ecosystem has grown to encompass hundreds of projects and occasionally exceeds 400K daily active users.
RABOBANK AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND INKS DEAL WITH NCINO
nCino, Inc., a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, today announced that Rabobank Australia and New Zealand (RANZ) has selected the nCino Bank Operating System, leveraging nCino’s Automated Spreading solution, powered by nCino IQ. This partnership will benefit the bank’s Australian and New Zealand employees and customers, representing a multi-currency, cross-country commitment to provide a better banking experience.
“By partnering with nCino, we will optimize our financial spreading analysis,”
“This relationship will provide an excellent opportunity for RANZ to support our growing customer base and modernize our systems. We’re delighted that nCino’s technology will enable us to offer our customers and employees a better banking experience.”
Alexa Glynn, Chief Operating Officer at RANZ.
One of Australia’s and New Zealand’s largest agricultural lenders and a significant supplier of business and corporate banking services to the country’s food and agribusiness sector is Rabobank, the world’s top specialized food and agribusiness bank.
By implementing the nCino Bank Operating System, RANZ gets a digital tool that, by utilizing machine learning and optical character recognition, intelligently alters the dissemination of financials (OCR).
“Rabobank’s customers value their relationship managers’ close connection to their business. To effectively build on this connection, Rabobank Australia and New Zealand procured a platform that can leverage artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and analytics to increase data automation and generate meaningful insights,”
“We’re excited to partner with RANZ to help them achieve their goals and enhance their services through digital transformation. This partnership will enhance RANZ’s commitment to creating value for their customers, employees and the communities in which they do business.”
Mark Bernhardi, Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand at nCino.
By drastically reducing the time it takes to spread and process documents with nCino’s Automated Spreading system, RANZ will be able to increase its profitable portfolio through faster and higher-quality credit judgments. The institution will be able to automate low-complexity, high-volume tasks by implementing such solutions, giving its staff more time to concentrate on improving client connections.
FLUTTERWAVE SECURES SWITCHING AND PROCESSING LICENSE, NIGERIA’S HIGHEST PAYMENTS PROCESSING LICENSE
Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company has been granted a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)— widely regarded as CBN’s most valuable payments processing license. This license allows Flutterwave to offer transaction switching and card processing services to customers. Others include non-bank acquiring, agency banking and payment gateway services.
Flutterwave is permitted to facilitate transactions between banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions thanks to the Switching and Processing license. Additionally, the Company is able to handle card transactions, take part in agency banking, and provide a range of payment services directly to customers. Flutterwave was formerly authorized to operate under the terms of its International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) and Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) licences.
“This is big news for our customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. It is an important milestone in our growth story. Building a thriving payments ecosystem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is in line with our goal of developing a world-class and secure payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.”
Olugbenga GB Agboola, CEO and co-founder of Flutterwave.
“We’re thrilled to have been issued this license after fulfilling all of the regulatory requirements. The application process was very rigorous and included a detailed review of our operations as a business. As a switch, we have more responsibilities and will continue to work with Regulators to ensure we meet and exceed their expectations.”
Oluwabankole Falade, Chief Regulatory and Government Affairs Officer, Flutterwave’s.
“The license will allow us to offer more services and explore more payment use cases for our ecosystem. With this license, we can offer more value to our customers while taking more control of our value chain to enable an improved payments experience for our enterprise, medium scale and retail customers.”
Onyedikachim Nwankwo, Head of Product Marketing, Flutterwave’s.
The CBN’s application and assessment procedure were demanding and thorough, looking at every facet of Flutterwave’s operations, including its financial standing.
CELLPOINT DIGITAL TEAMS UP WITH CYBERSOURCE TO HELP MERCHANTS FIGHT FRAUD
CellPoint Digital, the global leader in payment orchestration, today announces it has teamed up with Cybersource, a Visa solution and a recognized worldwide leader in payments management, to provide merchants with a holistic solution for fraud management capable of aggregating transaction data across multiple acquirers.
CellPoint Digital now provides merchants with best-in-class fraud management via Cybersource Decision Manager, one of the largest fraud detection radars in the world. Cybersource Decision Manager uses machine learning to support merchants by automatically classifying transactions as good, bad, or suspicious. Decision Manager assists retailers by helping them raise their acceptance rates, lower their review rates, and increase their bottom line thanks to its sophisticated fraud capabilities and insights from 141 billion+ VisaNet transactions.
“We’re excited to team up with CellPoint Digital to provide customers with a world-class fraud and risk solution. Decision Manager enhances their orchestration platform to simplify the complexities of fraud management across multiple acquirers—helping automate detection, and reduce the operational costs associated with fighting fraud.”
Denise Burkett-Stus, Head of Cybersource Europe.
The collaboration is the most recent example of CellPoint Digital’s dedication to providing simple-to-implement solutions that assist merchants with multiple acquirer connections in resolving operational and technological issues and streamlining back-office complications.
“As a pioneer in payment orchestration, we have long been a proponent of merchants adopting multi-acquirer strategies and have seen the dramatic profit boosts they can drive with our platform,”
“As part of our ongoing commitment to helping merchants simplify back-office complexities, we are proud to team up with Cybersource because their best-in-class Decision Manager fraud management tool simplifies and aggregates data to provide merchants with a critically important unified view,”
“Decision Manager is a perfect fit in our product portfolio as we strive to offer end-to-end solutions that empower merchants to have greater control of their payments ecosystem, turning payments into a strategic business advantage.”
Kristian Gjerding, CEO, CellPoint Digital.
The announcement comes as retailers worldwide deal with an increase in fraud. The majority of merchants did not increase the share of revenue they spend to manage fraud, and nine out of ten merchants have encountered at least one fraud management challenge this year, according to Cybersource’s annual fraud report, even though fraud costs and KPIs increased (or worsened) globally for a second consecutive year.
HIGHLINE AND ARGYLE PARTNER TO INCREASE CONSUMER ACCESS TO CREDIT, REDUCE RISK FOR LENDERS THROUGH PAYROLL-LINKED LENDING
To meet the needs of U.S. consumers who are normally shut out of affordable credit products, payments fintech Highline Technologies and employment data platform Argyle have partnered to bring payroll-linked lending and bill pay capabilities to lenders nationwide.
Payroll-linked lending involves taking money out of a borrower’s paycheck on a regular basis to repay consumer debts. Consumers gain access to lower-cost loans from more respectable, non-predatory lenders; lenders gain access to payroll-linked financing, which lowers default rates by more than half and reduces missed payments by up to two-thirds.
“Our partnership with Highline empowers workers, consumers, and lenders with over 160 granular data points while moving us closer to universal financial access for the underbanked, those with thin credit or no credit history, and those that the financial system has traditionally left out; gig workers, shift workers and creators,”
“Argyle’s data coupled with Highline’s commitment to financial wellness is meaningfully expanding access to financial services and reducing risk for consumers and lenders alike.”
Shmulik Fishman, CEO of Argyle.
The Highline platform is completely integrated with Argyle’s real-time, borrower-permitted service, allowing lenders to use it for a wide range of decisions, origination, and repayment use cases. Lenders can integrate these features with their personal digital experiences. Decision-making may involve the utilization of an applicant’s financial and employment information, including salary and employment history. Consumers can then choose to repay loans through payroll deductions, and Highline controls the flow of money to do so.
“True financial inclusion begins with the recognition that there is a shortage of non-predatory options available for many Americans who need access to relatively small-dollar loans,”
“The team at Argyle recognizes this as well and, like Highline, is committed to helping more consumers gain access to credit in a way that also makes sense for lenders and fits their business objectives.”
Geoff Brown, CEO of Highline.
Wipro Announces the Launch of Capco in the Middle East
Wipro Limited, leading technology services and consulting company, announced the launch of a new Middle East financial services advisory capability. Capco, a Wipro company, will offer strategic management and technology consulting capabilities to financial services firms in the Middle East to enable their transformation, digitization, and business consolidation initiatives.
Regional macroeconomic trends, including diversification away from the oil dollar economy, are driving strong investment in financial services, with a focus on digital innovation, new banking, post-merger integration and fundamental transformation on a large scale. Against this changing backdrop, consulting spending in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region will reach $3.3 billion by 2022 – of which financial services account for about 30% – and is expected to grow. 30% increase over the previous year in the coming time. * With its expertise in successfully driving transformation programs for leading global financial institutions, Capco is well-positioned to tap growth opportunities in the region.
The new consulting capacity will be led by Naim Alame as Vice President, the Middle East. He is from Accenture Middle East and has extensive experience in the financial services sector, delivering digital and physical transformation programs at leading banks in the region.
“Our ambition in the Middle East is simple – for Capco, as a creative, disruptive management and technology consultancy, to support the region’s most prestigious financial services institutions. Capco has always been about pushing boundaries and creating new opportunities, for our business and our people. Our new Middle East presence continues to deliver on that.”
Lance Levy, CEO of Capco and Executive Sponsor of Wipro’s Financial Services Business.
“The success of Capco’s innovative and entrepreneurial approach is recognized across the financial services industry. Capco’s bold ideas and value propositions will allow financial services firms in the region to enhance the scope, accessibility, and attractiveness of their offerings to their customers. I look forward to partnering with Middle Eastern clients to design and implement bespoke, strategic programs that will deliver true value and differentiation.”
Naim Alame, Managing Partner – Middle East, Capco.
“The launch of Capco’s financial services consulting capability will allow us to accelerate our Middle East clients’ innovation plans and end-to-end transformation journeys. The combination of Capco and Wipro capabilities will enable us to offer a front-to-back proposition that addresses our clients’ most pressing challenges and opportunities. We are confident that this new advisory focus will strengthen our growth ambitions in the region.”
Mohamad Hamza, Regional Head of Banking, Financial Services, & Insurance (BFSI) – Middle East, Wipro Limited.
Payments Automation Platform Plooto Raises $20M USD ($27M CAD) in Series B Funding
Plooto, a leader in end-to-end accounts payable and accounts receivable (AP/AR) automation software for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), announced the closing of $20M USD ($27M CAD) in Series B funding. The all-equity round was led by Centana Growth Partners, a specialized growth equity firm that invests in the future of finance, with participation from existing investors FINTOP Capital and Luge Capital.
The money will be used to increase hiring, expand the customer base, launch new product lines, and enable Plooto to tailor its services to the needs of more companies and accounting and bookkeeping organizations.
”Our vision, since inception, has been to enable the advancement of entrepreneurs to reach their full potential without being bogged down by cumbersome and inefficient financial processes,”
“By expanding our platform’s automation, workflows and payment capabilities, Plooto has become the mission control for managing cashflow end-to-end.”
“As Plooto continues to grow, it is crucial to have growth partners that understand the complexities of the industry and share the same vision. Centana’s unrivaled network and experience scaling fintech companies will help us reach more businesses in North America,”
Hamed Abbasi, CEO and co-founder of Plooto.
Small businesses in Canada employ 10.3 million people and contribute 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP). In the United States, small businesses employ more than 61 million people and contribute 43.5% of the GDP. At the same time, poor cash management is the number one cause of small business failure. Less than one in five survived their 10th birthday.
“Beyond their economic contributions, entrepreneurs and SMBs, in general, have largely shaped our modern world and our mission is to see more of them succeed,”
Serguei Kloubkov, CTO and co-founder of Plooto.
At the same time, the biggest reason why small businesses fail is poor cash flow management. Less than one out of five people live to see their tenth anniversary.
“Plooto is the exact kind of forward-thinking company that we at Centana Growth look for in a partner,”
“They solve a real problem for their customers in an innovative way. We look forward to partnering with Plooto and redefining the industry.”
Ben Cukier, Partner at Centana Growth Partners.
“We have been impressed by Plooto’s ability to execute and demonstrate results no matter the challenges of building a payments company and the macroeconomic environment,”
John Philpott, Partner at FINTOP Capital.
“Plooto’s team has built a business with strong fundamentals, in a huge and durable market,”
“They are relentless about delivering an exceptional product experience, and work tirelessly for their SMB customers.”
Karim Gillani, General Partner at Luge Capital.
Plooto formerly raised $6.34M USD ($8M CAD) Series A in early 2021 led with the aid of using FINTOP Capital with participation from Luge Capital and Inovia Capital.
Plooto changed into based with the aid of using Hamed Abbasi and Serguei Kloubkov. While constructing their first company, the founders were skilled in the ache of running a developing commercial enterprise firsthand. In 2015, Plooto started with the aid of using constructing a billing platform for small companies to attain more control, convenience, and visibility over their economic practices at an inexpensive rate point.
Today, over 8500 finance groups in addition to accountants and bookkeepers use Plooto’s cloud-primarily based totally economic solutions. Turbocharged with the aid of using the adoption of remote-first work, Plooto keeps developing at a fast pace.
TerraPay wins “Best Use of Data” award at prestigious Banking Tech Awards 2022
TerraPay, a leader in global payments infrastructure, has received the “Best Use of Data” award from the prestigious Banking Tech Awards for 2022. The Banking Tech Awards, which have been given out for the past 23 years, have celebrated and recognised excellence and innovation in the use of IT in financial services all around the world.
The “Best Use of Data” award honours TerraPay’s dedication to developing cutting-edge payment solutions for partners and giving them access to the power of data, efficiency, security, and transparency. TerraPay launched a comprehensive and focused analytics section in July 2021. The company has made significant investments in this function over the past 1.5 years in order to implement complex reporting and analytics use cases that have significantly enhanced the scope and calibre of decision-making logic, new product development, and assisted in creating customer leadership. thought.
“We are truly excited and honored to be recognized by the coveted Banking Tech Awards for our continued efforts in creating innovative payment solutions”, “I would like to congratulate the TerraPay Analytics team for the numerous efforts they have put into achieving TerraPay’s goals. We look forward to continuing to innovate in the fintech industry as we close the digital payment gaps.”
Mr. Ambar Sur , founder and CEO of TerraPay
“I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Banking Tech Awards for recognizing us. TerraPay embarked on the analytics journey in July 2021 with the aim of increasing productivity, facilitating data-driven decision making in across TerraPay and empower partners with insights to help grow the business. I would also like to thank our partners and the entire TerraPay team, whose support has been the driving force for the analytics function to achieve its purpose.”
Mr. Saransh Verma , Director of Analytics at TerraPay
FinTech Futures, the go-to source for news and analysis about the worldwide fintech business, is the owner of the Banking Tech Awards. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London after being chosen by a panel of seven judges.
Unifimoney and Gemini Enable Credit Unions and Community Banks With Turnkey Wealth Management Platform
Unifimoney Inc. announced a partnership with Gemini Trust Company that will enable credit unions and community banks to trade over 80 cryptocurrencies. The offering is provided through Unifimoney’s turnkey crypto and digital asset management platform, with Gemini providing custody and exchange. Oklahoma-based First Fidelity Bank was the first customer to use the service.
This partnership is designed to help more people access wealth management services through their local community financial institutions and integrate digital assets into their long-term wealth management journey. their.
Unifimoney offers automated advice and commission-free trading on thousands of stocks and ETFs, precious metals, and over 80 cryptocurrencies.
There are 4,973 credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets representing more than 100 million members, and 4,612 community banks with over 180 million customers.
“Digital wealth management represents an approximately $20bn annual non-interest revenue opportunity for community financial institutions,”
“These institutions need to compete with big brand banks and fintech investing apps while driving new member acquisition and member engagement. Credit Unions have a critical role to play in extending access to responsible self-directed innovation and helping more people to protect and grow their wealth over the long term.”
Ben Soppitt, Co-Founder and CEO of Unifimoney.
“Credit unions and community banks are critical to our financial ecosystem and turnkey digital wealth management tools like Unifimoney allow them to evolve alongside their customers. We’re thrilled to be working with Unifimoney to bring cryptocurrency to more credit union and community bank customers.”
Kristen Mirabella, Director of Business Development at Gemini.
Peach Finance Joins Mastercard Engage Partner Network to Help Lenders Develop Installments Solutions
Peach Finance, the leading modern lending and servicing technology platform, has announced that it has joined Mastercard’s Interactive Partner Network as a fintech enabler to help provide consumers with Consume more payment options. The partnership is currently focused on helping lenders develop buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions leveraging the Mastercard installment program.
BNPL is growing rapidly, with an expected e-commerce transaction value of $7.2 billion by 2025. But one of the barriers to growth in the field is the challenge of Seller Acceptance – BNPL providers must establish a merchant acceptance relationship one by one. Mastercard has helped solve this problem by developing a BNPL solution that is available wherever Mastercard is accepted.
The new Mastercard disbursement program brings scalability, flexibility and simplicity to the BNPL space by helping banks, lenders, wallets and fintechs get to market faster, all with the safety of and peace of mind that comes with MasterCard. As an Eligible Interoperability Partner, Peach will provide Mastercard network issuers with the service technology they need to quickly launch highly flexible programs using Mastercard installment.
Another barrier to the growth of BNPL is the challenge of introducing new lending structures like BNPL on top of legacy service technology. That’s where modern care solutions like Peach can help. Peach’s platform is property-type agnostic, allowing lenders to offer virtually any type of loan program, including new construction.
“Servicing technology is arguably the most critical component of the lending tech stack,”
“When novel lending constructs arise, a lender’s servicing tech can either be a competitive advantage or a hindrance. That’s why we designed Peach’s platform around an Adaptive Core, which gives lenders the flexibility to launch virtually any loan type in any asset class and continually refine their lending programs at scale.”
“We’re proud to be part of the Mastercard Engage network, where we can offer our modern platform and deep BNPL expertise to many of today’s top lending innovators. We believe that unlocking lending innovation is fundamentally good for borrowers and for the financial industry, and our partnership with Mastercard has the potential to significantly accelerate this innovation.”
Russell Braden, Peach’s VP of Product.
Peach’s platform is designed to help lenders launch and scale modern lending products. Peach offers a loan management system, an integrated service toolkit, and Compliance Guard™, a proprietary compliance monitoring system. Unlike other lending technology platforms, Peach provides lenders with full configurability both at launch and at scale, so they can adapt to changing technology, markets, and the environment. market, regulations, and customer preferences.
The Mastercard Engage Partner Network is a global program that identifies and evaluates technology enablers that can help Mastercard customers deploy products and services faster and easier.
JG Wentworth Acquires Fintech Lending Platform from Stilt
JG Wentworth is pleased to announce that it has acquired a digital lending platform from Stilt Inc., a personal lending and financial technology company based in San Francisco. Stilt has been backed by leading venture capital firms and has raised $322 million in debt and equity to create a strong end-to-end digital lending and services platform strong.
The acquisition combines JG Wentworth’s nationally recognized brand with an advanced fintech platform, accelerating entry into the consumer lending space and supporting its mission to provide financial solutions to millions. ordinary Americans are looking for ways to improve their situation.
The acquisition adds Stilt’s powerful and proprietary dataset of over $5 billion in loan applications and over 2.5 million banking transactions to JG Wentworth’s existing database of over 25 years of interactions with customers – this database will include in-depth data analysis that provides insights into consumer risk behavior.
The acquisition also allows JG Wentworth to offer customers a hybrid loan origination model, from a fully digital and fully automated experience to the center’s more personalized customer service capabilities. JG Wentworth’s national call, allows consumers to choose the user experience that works best for them. . JG Wentworth plans to start lending in the first half of 2023.
“We’re excited about this new direction for JG Wentworth, and the possibilities it unlocks in our mission to become the leading provider of financial solutions that help everyday Americans,”
“The Stilt platform will provide industry-leading digital capabilities to JG Wentworth’s customers with a user-friendly experience and rapid underwriting decisions. We are now uniquely positioned to provide products that meet the personal finance needs of millions of our customers.”
Randi Sellari, CEO of JG Wentworth.
“This exciting acquisition and our entry into the consumer lending space will allow us to provide more products to the many customers that are already engaging with JG Wentworth daily. Stilt’s digital platform will allow our customers to interact through a mobile app, our website, telephonically or a combination of these options. The Stilt acquisition also provides unique historical customer credit data to JG Wentworth’s data analytics team that, through robust data analysis and credit modeling, will help us make better underwriting decisions that will provide our investors with strong risk-adjusted returns,”
Joseph Toms, President, and Chief Strategy Officer at JG Wentworth.
“JG Wentworth’s strong brand awareness and its unique position amongst consumers provide a powerful customer acquisition engine. With Stilt’s complementary digital platform and proprietary consumer credit data, the Stilt team is excited to be part of JG Wentworth and help launch its lending business.”
Rohit Mittal, CEO of Stilt Inc. and now SVP of Lending at JG Wentworth.
KUCOIN ENGAGES MAZARS TO CONDUCT THIRD-PARTY POR VERIFICATION PROCEDURES
KuCoin, one of the largest exchanges worldwide, announced that it has engaged Mazars, a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm, to provide a third-party factual findings report.
Mazars will provide greater transparency and reporting on whether their in-scope assets are collateralized to KuCoin’s current and potential consumers. It will also give specifics to demonstrate KuCoin’s proof of reserves and client liability, which will account for customers’ primary, trading, margin, robot, and contract accounts, among other things, for BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC.
“As People’s Exchange, we place the safety and security of users’ funds as its top most priority. This move is the next step in our efforts to provide transparency on our users’ funds, highlighting our commitment to transparency and strengthening industry trust. KuCoin has been committed to providing users with safe and easy-to-use platforms and products since day one, while making continuous progress in user protection, transparency, and risk control. It is a great pleasure to engage Mazars, a leading audit, tax and advisory firm, to provide users with a safe and credible platform during the turbulent period of the industry and to promote the development of the industry.”
Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin
“After recent events there is a dire need in the industry for additional transparency and we are confident that Mazars’ PoR service offering to KuCoin and other international cryptocurrency exchanges will aid in building trust through transparency,”
Wiehann Olivier, Partner and Digital Asset Lead.
American Express Launches Amex Business Link
Amex Business Link, a new business-to-business (B2B) payments environment that network issuing and acquiring participants can provide to their business customers, was introduced by American Express. Amex Business Link facilitates domestic and international transactions while taking the card and non-card payments, making it simpler for buyers and suppliers of all sizes to manage payments. The new digital ecosystem interfaces to all API-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and is furnished with tools for reporting and reconciliation.
“Our Amex network participants have access to not only reliable payment rails with the lowest fraud rates in the industry but also our issuing and acquiring expertise, as well as unique Amex benefits,”
“As B2B payments rapidly digitize, we see an opportunity to add a customized solution for our network participants. Amex Business Link modernizes how businesses buy and sell from one another with the flexibility to choose in real-time how they want to pay or be paid.”
Mohammed Badi, President, Global Network Services at American Express.
For network participants, Amex Business Link offers the savings and efficiency of:
- Digital onboarding of buyers and suppliers
- Lending solutions that give buyers and suppliers access to working capital
- Access to more commercial customers on the American Express network
- Hands-on training, onboarding, and service for third-party issuers and acquirers providing Amex Business Link to their business customers
For buyers and suppliers, the solution provides:
- An easier and safer way to manage their payments and connect directly with other businesses through the ecosystem
- Seamless connectivity to ERP/CRM systems via APIs
- Multiple payment methods including card, ACH, wire, check, etc.
- Purchases and sales insights that allow companies to monitor growth
- Access to dynamic reports that allow automatic reconciliation