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WEALTHKERNEL RAISES $7M SERIES A+ TO EXPAND INTO EUROPEAN MARKETS AND BOLSTER API INVESTMENT INFRASTRUCTURE
WealthKernel, a provider of digital investment services and infrastructure, today announces a Series A+ funding round, securing a further investment of US$7m. Already one of the leading embedded investing providers in the UK, WealthKernel will use the additional investment to support its integration of intraday trading and the expansion of its services into European markets.
STOIK COMBINES CYBER INSURANCE PRODUCTS WITH ACTIVE SECURITY MONITORING
Meet Stoik, a new French startup that wants to protect small and medium companies against cybersecurity incidents. The company offers an insurance product as well as a service that monitors your attack surface.The startup recently raised a $4.3 million (€3.8 million) seed round from Alven Capital, Anthemis Group, Kima Ventures as well as several business angels, such as Raphaël Vullierme, Emmanuel Schalit and Henry Kravis.
E.SUN FINANCIAL HOLDING JOINS THE PARTNERSHIP FOR CARBON ACCOUNTING FINANCIALS
E.SUN Financial Holding Company (E.SUN FHC), the first signatory of “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” among banks in Asia, now advances to join the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). E.SUN FHC pledges intermediate targets approved by SBTi, and now advances to join PCAF. (Photo: Business Wire).
MONEYGRAM LAUNCHES PARTNERSHIP WITH JAPANESE FINTECH SMILES TO ENABLE INTERNATIONAL MONEY TRANSFERS
MoneyGram International, Inc. , a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, today announced a strategic partnership with Digital Wallet Corporation, a global fintech company and the owner of Smiles Mobile Remittance (Smiles), a leading mobile money transfer service and digital wallet in Japan. Consumers in Japan can now use the Smiles mobile app – powered by MoneyGram’s global payment rails and near real-time capabilities – to send money to more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
CBANC LAUNCHES ONLINE B2B FINTECH MARKETPLACE FOR CREDIT UNIONS AND COMMUNITY BANKS
CBANC, the financial industry’s largest verified online community of banking and credit union professionals, announced today the launch of it’s comprehensive platform that includes the industry’s largest online marketplace of products and solutions designed specifically to meet the needs of financial institutions.
The new CBANC Marketplace launches with data and information for 1,000 products from over 450 companies providing innovative solutions and services to banks and credit unions. With content provided and powered by the companies who serve U.S. based financial institutions, the CBANC Marketplace offers the industry the most up-to-date, comprehensive catalogue of products and services and enables financial professionals to connect with vendors and service providers that best meet their needs.
ONECONNECT INKS NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH CHENGFANG FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY
OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. , a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions has today announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Chengfang Financial Technology Co. Ltd., (abbreviated as “Chengfang Financial Technology”), a financial technology company established by the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”). Working with shared principles of equal collaboration, joint development, honesty and trustworthiness, both parties will work together to address common pain points in the financial industry, deliver technological innovations, and enhance data processing and governance.
UNIFIMONEY ANNOUNCES INTEGRATION WITH Q2’S DIGITAL BANKING PLATFORM TO OFFER DIGITAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Unifimoney, a turnkey digital wealth management platform, today announced its availability within the Q2 Innovation Studio, making its trading platform pre-enabled to 450+ financial institutions (FIs) on the Q2 digital banking platform.
As banks and credit unions embrace innovative fintech services to better serve their customers and remain competitive, investing and wealth management have become an increasingly critical market where consumer adoption has soared in recent years.
LPL FINANCIAL WELCOMES ELITE FINANCIAL NETWORK
LPL Financial LLC announced today that Elite Financial Network has joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, corporate registered investment advisor (RIA) and custodial platforms. The large enterprise reported to LPL that it served approximately $1 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets,* and joins LPL from Securities America, part of the Advisor Group network of broker-dealers.
Since 1992, Elite Financial Network has served clients in all aspects of their financial lives. Founded by President and CEO Dan Cairo, the Huntington Beach, Calif. team is comprised of 30 independent financial advisors who take a holistic approach to providing personalized services and proactive wealth management. “Our goal is to guide clients through the many financial milestones in their lives, from saving for a child’s college tuition to building wealth to living in retirement,” said Cairo, who serves as both financial advisor and enterprise leader. The firm’s leadership team also includes Craig Wong, managing partner, and Dan’s wife, Cindy Cairo, co-owner and CFO.
CYBER INSURANCE COMPANIES DEMAND GREATER RISK MANAGEMENT POLICIES
Cyber insurance companies are demanding greater risk management strategies from organizations interested in purchasing cyber insurance.
“Insurers want to know there is an organized and proactive effort to manage cybersecurity risk,”
Travis Wong, VP of risk engg. and security services at cyber insurance provider Resilience.
These risk management strategies include multi-factor authentication (MFA), backup, incident response plan, patching, and cyber awareness training for employees.
While listing costs both before and after a cyberattack could be costly for both insurers and customers, both parties may get caught up in trying to fix the situation, overlooking other vulnerabilities that could lead to other costly problems.
“Theft of credentials either through phishing or unprotected assets exposed publicly on the internet remains the predominant approach for cybercriminals to launch an attack,”
Jack Kudale, founder and CEO of Cowbell Cyber.
Once companies already have a good security system and are ready to take the steps to meet security requirements, they can conclude a deal with a cyber insurance company.
Apart from the security requirements, many companies find it difficult to get cyber insurance because of the high costs.
According to the NetDiligence Cyber Claims Study 2021 report, the average cost to the insurer for a cyber incident is $145,000 for small and medium-sized businesses and $10 million for large businesses, with ransomware mitigation costs even higher at $256,000 and $16.6 million respectively.
EVERYWARE AND MX TO DELIVER REAL-TIME PAYMENTS AND OPEN BANKING WITH PAY-BY-TEXT
Everyware, a leading contactless payments, and customer engagement solutions company, announces the expansion of its Pay By Text options by offering real-time payments (RTP) and its open banking approach to financial data.
The RTP and open banking experience, along with security enhancements, are made possible through Everyware’s partnership with MX, the leader in Open Finance. Combining an open banking approach with RTP modernizes the customer relationship and enables better digital access to financial services and data.
Real-time payments enable instant, around-the-clock electronic payments, transferring funds from one bank to another. Paired with open banking best practices, which create a two-way information exchange between personal financial data and connected services, Everyware and MX’s partnership forms direct access to share information both ways. It provides extremely fast, convenient, and safe payments at the consumer’s discretion.
In 2020, more than 70.3 billion real-time payment transactions were processed globally, an increase of 41 percent over the prior year (ACI Worldwide). Open Banking and RTP mean consumers have control over their information and how they want to share it. They can easily pay merchants by text message, with the guarantee that funds are available and instantly transferred.
“We are the only contactless payments company to deliver the RTP payment option, and offer RTP payments to remove a significant level of risk with verified accounts and sufficient balance checks,”
“Together with MX, we’re enabling a convenient, instant, and secure payment experience for our customers.”
Larry Talley, Founder and CEO Everyware.
With the Everyware and MX integration, merchants can easily send secure invoices by text message, which can be paid through an MX-verified bank account containing a confirmed account balance sufficient to cover the payment amount. While maintaining security is the highest priority for Everyware, MX also enhances the Everyware RTP payment experience by enabling customers to quickly look up and connect their bank accounts without having to leave the payment screen. For consumers and merchants, Open Banking and RTP are making payments easy and secure.
“Everyware is a great example of how a seamless account connecting user experience can be powered with our open finance platform,”
“Open Banking involves building a more connected, frictionless, and secure financial ecosystem and we’re proud to team up with Everyware in that mission.”
Brett Allred, Chief Product Officer, MX.
VEEM UNVEILS EXPANDED PAYMENT OPTIONS TO TACKLE SMB INFLATION CONCERNS
Veem, a leading provider of global B2B payment solutions, today announced the rollout of new functionalities including enhanced card options and faster ACH, allowing small businesses more flexibility in how they pay and get paid to manage cash flow.
Credit cards are an essential tool for small businesses to manage cash flow and Veem is expanding its card offerings to allow the small businesses they serve to easily accept cards without having to set up a merchant account. Veem also enabled faster ACH, allowing their SMB clients to easily manage their payment delivery time from three business days to one business day, providing greater control of domestic payables.
A recent survey conducted by Veem in March revealed that 33% of small businesses are cutting back on purchases to keep expenses down and manage cash flow amid inflation. With rising prices affecting small and medium-sized businesses globally, Veem’s enhanced payment capabilities provide flexible domestic and international payment options to give businesses more control over overpaying and getting paid.
“Giving small businesses total control over how to best manage their cash inflows and outflows is a necessity for companies looking to better navigate the current inflation pressures,”
“Amid this current macroeconomic uncertainty, businesses are looking to optimize cash flow effectively and with as much flexibility as possible. Veem’s expanded card capabilities and the ability to select faster ACH, are purpose-built solutions for SMBs looking to take control of their payments and part of our enhanced portfolio of payment options. We are excited to offer small business owners yet another set of tools that simplifies the payments process.”
Marwan Forzley, CEO of Veem.
In addition, Veem and Visa are collaborating to bring more control, choice, and optionality to their cash flow management suite by including Visa credit cards and Visa Direct for real-time money movement and access to send money around the world. Veem’s expanded functionality and work with Visa will be discussed at NACHA’s Smarter Fast Payments Conference on May 3, where Veem CEO Marwan Forzley will be speaking on a panel with Jay Darnell, VP, Head of B2B Fintech Partnerships at Visa Business Solutions and Nicole Stiller, VP, Product Management & Commercialization, Visa Direct. The in-person session, “A New Wave of Global Money Movement for Small Businesses,” will take place at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee on May 3 at 2:00 pm CST. There will also be a Remote Connect Virtual Event on Monday, May 23 at 2:00 pm ET.
OFX COMPLETES C$90M ACQUISITION OF CANADIAN CORPORATE FOREIGN EXCHANGE BUSINESS FIRMA FOREIGN EXCHANGE CORPORATION (FIRMA)
OFX Group Limited (OFX) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Firma Foreign Exchange Corporation (Firma) for a total consideration of C$90m (A$98m). The transaction expands OFX’s capability and presence as a global foreign exchange and payments provider.
“We’re excited to complete our first major acquisition and to welcome our new clients and colleagues. As we bring our businesses together, our priority will be ensuring there is no disruption to Firma clients or employees. We look forward to building on our collective strengths and excellent service culture by enhancing the experience for clients with our digital capabilities.”
Skander Malcolm, OFX Chief Executive Officer, and Managing Director.
Under the deal, OFX will acquire Firma’s product suite and customer portfolio. The acquisition adds 9,600 clients to OFX’s portfolio and delivers 93% of incremental revenue to its Corporate segment1. Firma’s strong commercial expertise and significant addition to OFX’s pre-existing volumes in major currency pairs, such as USD/CAD and USD/GBP, will diversify OFX’s currency flows as well as the industries its Corporate segment serves.
Combining Firma’s service excellence and Corporate expertise with OFX’s service excellence, global platform, including global licenses, and technology will enable clients to benefit when moving money across borders, securely, quickly, and cost-effectively as they conduct business globally.
With combined LTM to September 21 Pro-forma Group revenue of A$186.5m and EBITDA of A$55.1m, OFX will be a leading Corporate cross-border payments provider in Canada.
Completion of the acquisition of Firma’s UK business, Firma Foreign Exchange Corporation (UK) is being finalized and remains subject to regulatory approval.
ELON MUSK REACHES AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE TWITTER FOR ABOUT $44 BILLION
Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion on Monday, promising a more lenient touch to policing
content on the social media platform where he — the world’s richest person — promotes his interests, attacks critics, and opines on a wide range of issues to more than 83 million followers.
“We wanted to own and privatize Twitter because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a platform for free speech.”
“We want to make the service “better than ever” with new features while getting rid of automated “spam” accounts and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust.”
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors.
The more hands-off approach to content moderation that Musk envisions has many users concerned that the platform will become more of a haven for disinformation, hate speech, and bullying, something it has worked hard in recent years to mitigate. Wall Street analysts said if he goes too far, it could also alienate advertisers.
The deal was cemented roughly two weeks after the billionaire first revealed a 9 percent stake in the platform. Musk said last week that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.
Twitter said the transaction was unanimously approved by its board of directors and is expected to close in 2022, pending regulatory sign-off and the approval of shareholders.
Shares of Twitter Inc. rose more than 5 percent Monday to $51.70 per share. On April 14, Musk announced an offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. While the stock is up sharply since Musk made his offer, it is well below the high of $77 per share it reached in February 2021.
Musk has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist” but is also known for blocking or disparaging other Twitter users who question or disagree with him.
KANI PAYMENTS SELECTED FOR MASTERCARD START PATH GLOBAL PROGRAMME
Kani Payments, the disruptive UK data reconciliation, and reporting platform have today announced that it has been selected as a Mastercard Start Path company. Approximately 1,500 start-ups annually are evaluated for entry into the program.
Now, part of the latest cohort of the highly sought-after program, which has only a 2% acceptance rate, Kani Payments will have an opportunity to co-innovate with Mastercard to scale its automated reconciliation platform and advance its global expansion plans.
The award-winning SaaS platform has already reconciled more than €10 billion in processed payments volume to date and will use the unique opportunity to bring automation, accuracy, and compliance to payments reconciliation and reporting to fintechs, acquirers, and financial institutions worldwide. This is at a time when data volumes are surging exponentially, having a massive effect on the data-heavy fintech sector: the amount of data globally is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025, increasing from an estimated 44 zettabytes in 2020.
Having already successfully disrupted the fintech scene in the North of England and forged relationships with a range of companies across the fintech spectrum globally, payment service providers, and other data-intensive businesses, Kani Payments will also have access to a diverse customer base as it executes plans to expand into the US and Asia in 2022.
Founded and led by Aaron Holmes, previously Chief Information Officer for Global Processing Services (GPS), the company takes pride in being an innovative and agile company that has been built from the ground up to transform a fast-paced and exciting sector.
“Joining the Mastercard Start Path Global program is the latest exciting stepping stone in what’s already been an impressive and successful story for our ambitious company. We‘re proud to be trailblazing a fintech hub from our special corner here in the UK while charging into new markets and territories, as well as attracting and retaining a team of top, diverse talent outside the capital.”
“The support, insight, and knowledge we will gain from the team at Mastercard as part of this scheme will not only be of invaluable insight and benefit to Kani Payments but, more importantly, our existing and prospective customers who have come to rely on the efficiencies afforded by our unique platform.”
“We strive to save even more businesses vast amounts of time and help them to tackle the problem of the increasingly complex digital payments, regulation, and compliance requirements so that they can spend more time focusing on building superb fintech products and services.”
Aaron Holmes, CEO & Co-founder, Kani.
Mastercard Start Path is an award-winning start-up engagement program within the Mastercard Developers portfolio, which provides the services and tools fintech innovators need to iterate at each stage of their journey, transform bold ideas and achieve scale at pace to bring more people into the digital economy.
Founded in 2014, the scheme has engaged nearly 300 start-ups globally. Today these organizations are entering the public markets, reaching unicorn status, and entering extended commercial engagements with Mastercard and its customers.
Naresh Ponnana, Start Path Global lead at Mastercard, has mentored more than a dozen start-ups at Mastercard and works with the start-up founders to refine their vision with a deep dive into their business model and product.
“With start-ups, we know they’re juggling concepts for many products, across many markets, and many customers. Through the program, we try to point them to the one unique idea or opportunity to take to market in collaboration with Mastercard and our customers.”
“The Start Path program acts as a springboard for co-innovation with the start-ups, and in some cases, the opportunities tend to realize only after the program ends — either through the continued engagement with their mentors or through the host of other programs within the Mastercard Developers portfolio, from Engage to Fintech Express.”
Naresh Ponnana, Start Path Global lead at Mastercard
With previous success stories including Shieldpay, which utilized the program to build connections and unveil a sister solution called Paycast, as well as Zeta, the banking tech unicorn that launched a global partnership to jointly launch credit cards with issuers worldwide, the Mastercard Start Path Global program promises great things for forward-thinking companies such as Kani Payments.
FISERV ACCELERATES OPEN FINANCE AND ENABLES COLLABORATION AMONG FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND FINTECHS WITH APPMARKET LAUNCH
The fintech solutions available in AppMarket will empower Fiserv financial institution clients to use open finance strategies to address emerging opportunities in crypto finance, gig economy banking, small and mid-size business (SMB) lending, and other priorities. AppMarket will help financial institutions of all sizes to accelerate speed to market, deliver tailored services to target markets and appeal to younger generations.
The adoption of fintech apps is widespread. The recent Expectations & Experiences: Fintech Adoption consumer trends survey from Fiserv found that 86% of consumers use some kind of fintech app. This trend can put financial institution revenue at risk and dilute customer relationships. By partnering with fintechs to quickly incorporate compelling new capabilities into their offerings, financial institutions can expand customer relationships while diversifying and growing revenue.
“The efficacy of financial technology providers is now gauged not just by the strength of their individual solutions, but by the breadth and openness of the ecosystems they provide – by how easy they make it for clients to tap into an array of fintech solutions and providers,”
“Fiserv is enabling its clients to leverage fintechs to differentiate their offerings and appeal to digital-first consumers.”
David Albertazzi, Director, Retail Banking & Payments at Aite-Novarica Group.
One financial institution that has embarked on a new fintech partnership with assistance from Fiserv is The Milford Bank.
“We were looking for a partner to help serve the borrowing needs of small business customers efficiently. With StreetShares and Fiserv, we’re able to provide an easy-to-use platform that supports the lifeblood of the communities we serve – small businesses,”
Jorge Santiago, Executive Vice President at The Milford Bank.
Which has implemented Atlas Business Lending, an end-to-end digital small-business lending solution from StreetShares.
“Last year, Fiserv reached a major milestone in our open finance initiative by publishing normalized APIs across our bank platforms through Developer Studio, giving developers the ability to integrate once and connect across multiple Fiserv cores,”
“The launch of AppMarket is the next big step in fostering innovative collaboration between financial institutions and fintechs, to their mutual benefit, and the benefit of consumers everywhere.”
Niranjan Ramaswamy, vice president of Embedded Fintech at Fiserv.
Fintechs that offer their solutions in AppMarket will gain access to thousands of financial institutions that partner with Fiserv and the millions of consumers they serve. In the future, fintechs will be able to connect with sponsor banks through AppMarket and select Fiserv services to enhance their digital experiences, such as ledger-as-a-service and know-your-customer (KYC) as-a-service.
With AppMarket and Developer Studio, Fiserv continues to help its clients deliver solutions in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life.
INTELLECT GLOBAL TRANSACTION BANKING PARTNERS WITH MICROSOFT
Intellect Global Transaction Banking (iGTB) announced it will integrate Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives of corporate banks.
The collaboration will see iGTB adopt Microsoft as its preferred cloud platform to remove traditional barriers to banking technology adoption, thereby helping banks go to market 3 to 4 times faster with Liquidity, Cash Management, Payments, Trade Finance & Supply Chain Finance cloud offerings to their corporate clients. This collaboration is set to drive sustained banking digitalization, help banks transform their corporate banking business models, modernize their cloud technology stacks, and consume “Banking-As-A-Service” out-of-a-box.
Banks can now get access to bank-grade secure and hyper-scalable cloud infrastructure paired with iGTB’s cloud-native banking technology to fully support burgeoning customer demands and regulatory needs.
Banks earned a colossal almost-$1 trillion from commercial banking, with high and growing demand for SaaS applications. Transaction banks, truly the heart of global commerce, serve over 200 million corporations worldwide with critical needs for unprecedented agility, vital working capital, and for the ability to navigate the shifts in the supply chain. Corporate banks aim to spend by 2025 $9.3bn just on applications, with SaaS cloud spending growing to 25% of it.
To accelerate cloud adoption of transaction banking platforms, iGTB and Microsoft will work together to jointly develop four specific platforms:
- iGTB Liquidity for banks to offer their clients, already deployed in 57 regulated countries, that today sweeps over $4tr cash and pools over $35tr balances per year and recently the only offering rated Best in Class in an independent report from Aité-Novarica.
- iGTB Cash Cloud: A comprehensive cash management platform – deployable with no Capex and resulting in 50% lower TCO with the ability to go live in as fast as 10 weeks, and with three offerings:
- CashNow: bringing innovation to the business banking segment, a ready-to-use platform with a 10-week go-live plan
- CashXtra: rejuvenation of the critical Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME) banking market with an 18-week go-live plan
- CashPower: a comprehensive platform that provides scale to servicing mid-size and large corporations that can go live in as fast as 25 weeks.
- iGTB Payments: Contextual Payments-as-a-Service platform to place banks at the forefront of payments modernization initiatives built on a composable, micro-service, cloud-native architecture for elastic scalability. iGTB Payments today supports volumes of $500bn payments per day at a leading global bank and is available in 43 markets worldwide.
- iColumbus.ai: Bringing Artificial Intelligence to the first and only integrated Trade and Supply Chain Finance platform that runs on an architecture that is built for the cloud. Named after the pioneer whose discoveries eventually opened up the world to truly global international trade, iColumbus.ai today underpins the largest trade finance transformation in Europe and the largest trade & supply chain finance transformation in the Asia Pacific.
“I’m excited to bring iGTB’s capabilities to more banks and their corporates through Microsoft Cloud. I believe the commercialization of corporate banking relies on getting the power of transaction banking platforms into the hands of as many banks as possible, and our collaboration with Microsoft is an important step along that path.”
“This collaboration with Microsoft allows just that: security and worry-free scalability while allowing the bank to launch products 3x to 4x faster, deploy updates and enhance the customer experience quickly and easily. Equally importantly, it frees up capital, lowers the complexities and risks associated with the traditional digital transformation, and significantly reduces time-to-value. We look forward to taking together the “Banking-As-A-Service” proposition to 1000 banks across 70 countries, and helping them dramatically expand their transaction banking business at a lower cost.”
Manish Maakan, CEO iGTB.
“iGTB’s integration of the Microsoft Cloud creates a powerful platform for banks to streamline and modernize their transaction banking business in the cloud. Together, we look forward to delivering a faster path for innovation and responsible growth, with the hyper-scale flexibility and security essential for the financial services industry.”
Bill Borden, Corporate VP of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft.