A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Zogo is excited to unveil a gamified, customizable rewards platform integrated into an FI’s mobile banking app with a focus on increased digital customer engagement.
Features
Reward customers for logging into your mobile banking app daily, completing education modules, swiping their cards, savings, etc.
Increase digital customer engagement
Gain customer loyalty
Why it’s great Zogo is changing the way FIs distribute rewards, allowing them to reward customers for activities that build loyalty and add value to the FI.
Presenter
Bolun Li, CEO Li is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zogo, and has led the Zogo team from an idea in his college dorm room to over 125 financial institution customers nationwide. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Sontiq‘s BreachIQ technology uses artificial intelligence to turn identity fraud risk into a consumer financial health app that drives improved customer engagement, loyalty, and trust.
Features
Determines the unique identity risks of each consumer
Provides tailored guidance to improve security
Available via API or as part of Sontiq’s IIS platform
Why it’s great BreachIQ is the only solution that analyzes each consumer’s entire breach history, looking beyond the ‘Dark Web’, to help fight identity theft, scams, and fraud.
Presenters
Jim Van Dyke, SVP Innovation Van Dyke is SVP Innovation and one of the country’s foremost experts in data breaches as well as fintech. He is a Co-Founder of Breach Clarity and Javelin Strategy & Research. LinkedIn
Al Pascual, SVP Data Breach Solutions Pascual is SVP Data Breach Solutions. A recognized expert in cybercrime, he co-founded Breach Clarity and is the former Head of Fraud & Security at Javelin. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Unblu‘s Conversational Platform solves communication and collaboration challenges in digital channels by offering features to advise and support your customers across the omnichannel, anytime and anywhere.
Features
Meeting Scheduling: pre-schedule a digital meeting
Conversation Recording: archive the entire engagement – audio/video and screen sharing.
Ecosystem Integration: store all engagement elements in CRM
Why it’s great As financial decision-making isn’t easy, and self-service often falls short, Unblu enables financial institutions to deliver both automated and humanized customer service across all channels.
Presenters
Jens Rabe, COO Rabe has held commercial functions in high tech companies (VP Product Marketing & VP Business Strategy at OpenText, CMO at Obtree) and graduated with an MBA from Edinburgh Business School. LinkedIn
Jeremy Barnes, Regional VP Services, North America Barnes’ career has spanned 20 years in various leadership roles in world class organizations, including OpenText. He works closely with clients to realize their business transformation objectives. Linked
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Array provides fintechs and financial institutions with personalized consumer credit, identity protection, and financial wellness tools through its API and library of embeddable components.
Features
Embeddable tools that are easily customizable and create white-label solutions
Access to data from major credit bureaus
Tools that capture actionable customer insights for marketing efficiencies
Why it’s great Fintechs and financial institutions use Array’s embeddable tools to quickly deploy personalized credit solutions that improve customer experience and increase engagement with their platform.
Presenter
Martin Toha, CEO & Founder Toha is a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience utilizing and modifying existing technology to create new markets and develop new businesses. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Finalytics.ai is a data platform for credit unions that uses machine learning to dynamically generate segment of one digital experiences.
Features
Personalization at scale for credit unions
Big data
AI/ML automated
Why it’s great People think that digital banks are winning because of superior user experiences. In reality, they are winning because they use data to acquire new customers. Finalytics.ai brings that to CUs.
Presenters
Craig McLaughlin, CEO McLaughlin is the CEO of Finalytics.ai. Over the last two decades, he has driven segment-of-one experiences for large-scale FIs, community banks, credit unions, and fintech start-ups. LinkedIn
Mark Ryan, Chief Analytics Officer Ryan leads the data team at Finalytics.ai to set and achieve ROI goals, data strategies, digital channel reporting, and establish processes for data analysis for customers. LinkedIn
London-based digital “super platform” Capitalise.com has raised $13.8 million (£10 million) to support a new, integrated risk management service to provide credit insights beyond traditional credit reports. Investors in the round include Experian, QED Investors, Gauss Ventures, Hambro Perks, and Post Finance.
Capitalise.com helps SMEs secure the financing they need in order to grow their business. The company leverages its accountant-as-adviser approach to ensure that small businesses access smarter, more appropriate funding sources and avoid the kind of short-term, ill-fitting financing solutions that often result in high rates and high fees.
Paul Surtees, company CEO and co-founder, pointed to the COVID pandemic as the impetus – at least in part – for the new offering. “Everybody has had to think differently during the pandemic, including us, so we created a virtuous circle in which SMEs and their advisors are shielded from risk and helped to grow.”
With its new risk management service, Capital Reports, Capitalise.com empowers accountants to defend their small business clients from potential and unforeseen risks to their client’s or their supplier’s credit positions. These risks may come in the form of potential defaults, or a company’s need or propensity to borrow, and gives them real-time access to a curated panel of both mainstream and alternative lenders. The service, available as both a paid and a free subscription and powered by credit data from Experian, will be available to approximately 500,000 small businesses through their accountant partners. Capitalise.com stated that an additional 500,000 SMEs will be able to access Capital Reports via API and Open Banking partnerships.
“Managing credit risk is central to lender activity but SME owners typically overlook it,” Capitalise.com co-founder and Chief Product Officer Ollie Maitlaind explained. “This restricts their growth and jeopardizes their survival.” He emphasized the fragility of supply chains as exposed by the global health crisis and noted that, as businesses emerge from the worst of the pandemic, “their ability to recover and protect capital … will be crucial.” Maitlaind added that upon successful launch in the U.K., Capitalise.com plans to bring the service to the South African market later this year “with more countries to follow.”
Founded in 2014, Capitalise.com made its Finovate debut two years later at our fintech conference in London. The company’s total equity funding now stands at more than $18 million.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
FinGoal‘s Link Money connects and uniformly formats your users’ off bank data to the digital banking core enabling secure, universal access for developers to the data at a fraction of legacy costs.
Features
Simplifies and elevates the user experience
More 360 data available for more developers
3x to 5x better economics
Why it’s great Platform banking meets data aggregation the right way.
Presenter
David Nohe, CEO Nohe is CEO at FinGoal. He is ex-Wellfit founder (acquired), ex-Apple, a recovering lawyer, and is based in Colorado. LinkedIn
Leaders across the cash-to-crypto industry, including Bitcoin ATM (BTM) operators DigitalMint and Coinsource, blockchain analysis platform Chainalysis, and others, have announced the formation of the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative (“CCC”). A collaborative association, the mission of the CCC is to create a safer environment for all consumers and legitimise the cash-to-cryptocurrency industry by bolstering compliance standards that are deemed by many to be currently insufficient.
“The nefarious use cases plaguing this industry are well documented by several law enforcement agencies, and include fraud, elder abuse, and drug and human trafficking,” said Seth Sattler, Director of Compliance for DigitalMint and leading contributor of the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative. “While a small number of Bitcoin ATM operators go above and beyond with know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) protocols, others in the cash-to-crypto industry simply turn a blind eye and are complacent to these bad actors by simply applying the bare minimum customer protections, which in many cases allow for completely anonymous transactions.”
Organisations encouraged to apply to the CCC include cash-based cryptocurrency MSBs, regulatory bodies, financial institutions, suppliers, non-governmental and law enforcement agencies. Meeting on a minimum quarterly basis, the CCC will allow members to stay abreast of regulatory updates, new industry standards and research. Moreover, members will share best practices and learn how to collaborate with industry leaders, regulators, and law enforcement on how to enforce deeper and more robust compliance protocols. In addition, the CCC will also look to stay ahead of developments and trends among threat actors, learning how to best mitigate fraud through the application of ever-improving technology and forensic tools.
“Unfortunately, many BTM operators feel that merely asking for a cell phone number is enough due diligence to absolve them of their mandated KYC requirements,” said Bo Oney, Executive Vice President of Operations and Head of Compliance at Coinsource. “Such lax provisions provide a safe haven for bad actors to abuse the machines for nefarious purposes. The CCC is seeking to bolster regulatory requirements for the benefit of all BTM users and operators. This will require input from the most knowledgeable in the industry, all with the goal of making the cash-to-crypto space as safe as possible for consumers.”
Since their first deployment in the US in 2014, BTMs and other cash-to-crypto point-of-sale locations have helped individuals effortlessly access the world of cryptocurrencies. These machines, which resemble a traditional ATM, allow users to purchase cryptocurrencies with cash and, according to How Many Bitcoin ATMs, have surpassed 42,000 installations across the US.
“Lax compliance policies and high rates of illicit activity have long plagued the reputation of Bitcoin ATMs,” said Caitlin Barnett, Director of Regulation and Compliance, Chainalysis. “We are thrilled to support this initiative led by two leaders in the space to build trust in Bitcoin ATMs and promote more financial freedom with less risk.”
According to an independent report conducted by the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation, nearly 75% of the BTM operators with kiosks in the state allowed certain transactions to take place without requiring the customer to provide any information outside of a cellphone number. Over half of these operators allowed for cryptocurrency transactions up to $900 with just a cellphone number, or in some cases, no information at all. Due to the prevalence and accessibility of prepaid cellphones, commonly known as “burners”, simply relying on the collection of a phone number to satisfy FinCEN KYC requirements is not a reliable way for operators to confirm identity and eliminates any reasonable transaction monitoring method to detect agents that assist with laundering illicit proceeds on behalf of nefarious actors.
“We must do better,” added Mr. Sattler. “This isn’t just an industry group – this is a movement. It’s our hope that others heed our call and join this cooperative as we push for enhanced and modernised regulations in the best interest of public safety.”
Fintech firms around the globe are increasingly seeking new ways to meet the needs of the unbanked, and one way in which they’re combatting this is with the use of promising contemporary technologies; such as blockchain.
Ian Kane, Co-Founder, Unbanked
In this guest-authored piece for The Fintech Times, Ian Kane, Co-Founder of the Blockchain-based fintech platform Unbanked, dissects the capabilities of crypto in reaching this underserved demographic. Delving into the pros and cons of the technology, Ian details the benefits of crypto-based payments, alongside areas where improvements are most needed.
Kane has worked in technology & digital media for over 10 years with a heavy focus on business development, sales, and strategy. His diverse professional background enables him to bring unique insight and experience to every challenge he takes on.
With the rise of fintech, it seems as though there is no limit to the potential benefits underserved communities can receive. With just a mobile phone and internet access, people around the world have been given the opportunity to access financial services that they may not otherwise have had before. By adopting crypto debit cards (or bank accounts), these same millions will be able to use existing technology to improve their financial security as well as their financial mobility.
Proponents of fintech believe that with the advent and progression of crypto debit cards, or bank accounts, millions of more people will be able to access financial services. These individuals often lack sufficient access to a traditional bank account. They do, however, have a smartphone that can allow them to engage in online banking.
Why Finance Experts Are Looking to Crypto to Serve the Unbanked
The banking industry has historically been a major player in bringing financial services to those who are unbanked. The unbanked include 80% of Sub-Saharan Africa, 67% of adults in the Middle East, 65% of Latin America, and over 870 million people across Asia. All of whom remain largely without access to banks or other financial institutions that can offer them basic financial services.
Add this number to the 60 million Americans and Europeans who don’t have access to these services and you’ll begin to see the problem in a new light, and why resources for these people are absolutely necessary.
Banks have been reluctant to provide financial infrastructure for the residents of these poorer areas since the inception of modern banks. The costs associated with this endeavor are substantial and there is no guarantee of a return on investment, especially when many of them live near or below the poverty line. All of these factors contribute to the risks bank leaders tend to fear. Though, these fears are often used as excuses rather than explanations.
The allure of blockchain technology lies in its universality. It can turn what seemed impossible a generation ago into a logical enterprise. Bitcoin wouldn’t have taken over our world if not for its underlying framework, and now this same foundation can be seen in other industries around the globe.
Algorithmic stablecoins, for example, have the potential to be a game-changer in international commerce. They offer users an easy way to make transactions using digital money that’s accessible, safe, and protected from the manipulation of other national governments or banks. This would represent a radical departure from how we currently do business and further the development of the digitised economy of tomorrow – where everything can be done online seamlessly, anywhere, and with little risk of fraud.
What is a Crypto Bank Account? How Can this Help Challenge Financial Inequity?
Crypto exchanges have become the new banks for crypto, a viable alternative banking system for people’s money. Another critical component of cryptocurrency is that it can be stored in wallets, which provide lending and borrowing opportunities to those with access to this revolutionary currency.
So how does this help challenge financial inequality? Research from Technical Forecasting and Social Change may have the answer. To begin, blockchain technology can make the financial system more efficient by reducing user costs and risk. The centralised database that banks often invest a lot of money in, for example, is quite expensive to maintain. And bookkeeping work adds additional labor costs and human operation risks. Blockchain’s decentralised ledger not only reduces these expenses but also provides transparency for investors who enjoy easy and instantaneous access to their transactional information.
Blockchain technology can also improve risk management because it provides a way to reliably track loan usage. It also has the benefit of being immune to potential global capital regulation complications that may arise because of its decentralised nature. The asymmetry of information reduces credit risk and improves fund management efficiency overall. This is why organisations are increasingly interested in learning how blockchain technology can manage their assets.
Finally, blockchain technology has been able to circumvent the need for a third-party intermediary, such as banks. Blockchain’s decentralised data, which eliminates the opportunity for conflict and fraud, is largely responsible for this advantage. As these new technologies emerge in finance, people seek ways to integrate them into their lives so as to stay ahead of market competition by generating more revenue streams through blockchain investments.
With all this in mind, the path to full crypto banking adoption is anything but smooth.
What Are the Remaining Challenges for Crypto to Serve the Underserved?
To start, it’s hard to directly address the underserved. Take cell phones, for example; the first mobile phones were primarily found inside high-end automobiles. Now, they are found in almost every pocket on the planet. Therefore, the phone has shifted from being a tool for the wealthy (much like bitcoin is at present) to a tool for everyone. Addressing the early adopter is crucial, and then it can move on to larger swaths of the population with the right support. Unfortunately, this does have the potential for people to distrust your brand.
Research from Technical Forecasting and Social Change tells us that trust may not be the only issue crypto banking may have to overcome. In terms of scalability: Visa processes 24,000 transactions per second while PayPal performs 193. Bitcoin is a lot slower than both of these organisations – processing only 20 transactions every second. Unfortunately, at the moment, that is not nearly enough to manage the millions of dollars in microtransactions created at any given time. The reason this happens is because blocks have a limited capacity, which slows down some smaller payments because miners prefer faster-paying customers who can pay more fees on their behalf.
Technology, however, is not something to be hung up on. As players like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk get involved in blockchain technology, the infrastructure will be forced to accommodate different user groups, not just miners. Similarly, technological improvements should also address one of cryptocurrency’s most divisive topics: security.
Mt. Gox, the world’s first and largest Bitcoin trading platform, announced on February 28th, 2014, that 850,000 bitcoins had been stolen from them and their users; totalling $467 million in stolen funds. The DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) met an even worse fate after hackers snatched $3.6 million out of what was supposed to be a “raid-proof” system—which resulted in a loss of $75 million.
While security incidents, such as these, are obstacles, they are poor counterarguments against crytpo’s ability to serve the Unbanked. Visa, crypto banking’s aforementioned competitor, is currently investing in cryptocurrency and even offers “Crypto Solutions” of their own. If banks are more secure than blockchain, then financial institutions wouldn’t be as proactive as they are in building their own systems. The critical weakness isn’t necessarily the technology, but the people using it.
Blockchain technology has proven to be an irreplaceable and unique asset in the capital market. However, with such security risks on the line, people are dissuaded from investing due to a lack of trust.
Conclusion
The ability to trade, store, and transact in cryptocurrency is a key component of financial inclusion for the unbanked. That is why it is important that we explore how this can be done without compromising security or anonymity. We are excited about the potential applications of blockchain technology and what it might mean for those who have been left behind by traditional banking systems. We will continue exploring these questions, as well as other innovations related to finance, so stay tuned!
The past decade was a decade of digital and social disruption. Businesses, marketplaces, money, discussions, and insights—all became social and online. Social trading networks emerged as one such disruptor as they changed the way online trading is done. They provided low-cost, sophisticated technology-based alternatives to traditional wealth managers.
As social media is becoming mainstream, it is changing the way a number of investors manage their portfolios. Social investing or mirrored investing brings social networking into arguably the most private and important nooks of people’s lives: their investment portfolios.
What is Social Investing or Mirrored Investing, and How Does It Work?
Social investing platforms allow investors to trade online with the help of other experienced investors and traders/peers. Social investing is an online investment strategy that allows investors to foll …
As financial institutions lean on digital channels to keep pace with customer requirements during the pandemic, cyberattackers have multiplied their efforts to gain access to user credentials via phishing attempts.
Image by CanStock
Financial services accounted for eight among the top 25 firms targeted most often by such attacks, according to a recent report from cybersecurity firm Vade Secure. Topping the list of brands targeted by phishing attacks is the France-based $2 trillion Credit Agricole. The list is compiled from Vade’s own detection system, which found 17,755 unique phishing URLs between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year.
Other sectors targeted by phishing campaigns include social media, cloud computing, e-commerce, telecommunications and government websites, the report noted. However, the number of incidences of Credit Agricole being targeted was so high that it inched out tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft as likely targets for impersonation. The list was compiled based on the number of newly created web pages per brand, as detected by Vade, Adrien Gendre, co-founder at Vade Secure, told Bank Automation News.
Vade offers security services for enterprise email inboxes and identified the phishing URLs by analyzing emails and links contained in them. With a phishing attack, usually “the goal is to capture user’s credentials,” Gendre said.
Phishing attacks can also be used to plant malware into a recipient’s computer, Gendre added. Quite often an email becomes the attack vector for such an attempt and eventually redirects the user to a fraudulent web page, designed to look like the original, that will capture the user’s credentials for subsequent use by the attacker. “Phishers continue to rely on recognizable domains from which to deliver phishing emails, with Google being the most popular service,” the report noted.
Overall, financial services companies represented 36% of all malicious URLs detected by Vade. The report noted that some of this increase in phishing activity could be attributed to the rise in loan applications for government-backed credit and moratorium programs established to manage the economic ripple effects of the pandemic.
Of the financial institutions that fall into the top 25 most target companies:
Three types of phishing attacks are usually discovered in operation: generic, customized, and in-between, the Gendre noted. “Some are very generic, they don’t try to customize the [e-mail] blast. Some are very customized and targeted, built for a specific company,” he said.
While the use of additional security measures like two-factor authentication should notionally have helped stem the tide of these attacks, Gendre said Vade has observed attackers absorbing those techniques into their operations and often redirect to pages that ask for the second password layer as well.
Financial institutions can adopt some technical solutions to prevent their domain names from being replicated, “the most effective and long-term way is to the educate [the] user,” Gendre said. Such education should include clear communication on issues like how the bank normally communicates with clients, and that a financial institution is unlikely to request user credentials via email.
The quantity of digital text data has grown exponentially in recent years, and it will continue to grow at an exponential rate for the foreseeable future. ICD estimates for example that unstructured data will make up an astounding 80 percent of all digital data in the world by 2025. There are billions of structured and unstructured data points that offer vital insights into market performance for those who can separate the relevant information from the noise. But making sense of it all is the challenge.
Users should be able to digest all of this data in one place and determine what matters and what doesn’t to properly inform investment decisions.
In light of this, Kumesh Aroomoogan, co-founder and CEO at Accern shares his thoughts on what no-code technology means for the future of finance.
Kumesh Aroomoogan, co-founder and CEO at Accern
When you factor in social media posts, corporate financial filings, GlassDoor, Yelp, and Reddit, not to mention surveys, chats, emails, and more, financial analysts’ biggest challenges lie in manually monitoring various sources and extracting the most relevant data. In the traditional coding world, data scientists would step in with coding tools like Python to program machines to analyse the text from the unstructured data. Once the relevant information is extracted, experts can determine what actions to take. However, the time from data retrieval to insights can take months, sometimes even longer.
Studies show that about 80 percent of a data scientist’s time is spent on cleaning and reorganising huge amounts of data, while only 20 percent is spent on the actual data analysis. In recent years, the question about whether there is a better, more efficient way to find and extract relevant data from the noise and analyse the data to gain insight has risen. With technological innovation at its peak, are coding and programming still the most efficient way for the financial services industry to guide properly informed investment decisions?
Financial services firms have given significant attention to AI and NLP across several applications. AI can be used for text mining or text analytics to extract and analyse information from a vast array of documents. Social media posts, internal and external documents, emails, articles, and online forums, among others, are a few data sources that can be used in text analytics models. Text analytics requires Natural Language Processing (NLP) to translate large volumes of unstructured text into quantitative data to uncover insights, trends, and patterns.
This process has attracted the attention of finance professionals as NLP can cut down in days the time it takes to research and analyse unstructured data. However, training these models requires coding skills and experience to develop, but a no-code approach improves usability.
No-Code
No-code technology makes AI and NLP even more accessible to professionals. With no-code AI, non-technical finance and banking professionals can essentially do what data scientists can do while cutting down on the time to insight. This technology also allows users to access data in one place and determine what matters most, largely due to the fact that it provides access to the key advantages and insights that alternative data can offer, without needing a team of software engineers – which are often in short supply.
In the world of financial services, there are millions of structured and unstructured data points that can be acted upon, and understanding real-time trends is vital. It’s especially important that financial firms are able to sift through these massive amounts of data and be able to quickly make decisions accordingly.
The ability to easily access financial data researched by thousands of professional analysts – and then use the research to deploy AI models – not only provides faster processing and more prevalent use of data but is changing the day-to-day responsibilities of the rank and file within banking and finance.
No-Code Use Cases
In addition to accessing the world of financial data, no-code technology offers a library of use cases that are ready-made for financial services professionals to use immediately. Use cases provide specific insights to specific data sets. At Accern, the most in-demand use cases are ESG and Credit Risk. With the ESG use case, financial professionals can click to specific companies or industries to identify how they’re contributing to environmental, social, and/or governance issues and their sustainability risks. The no-code process cuts down on the time it takes to generate immediate insights into investment risks and opportunities with the click of a mouse.
Lastly, a major misunderstanding about no-code technology is the assumption that there is a lack of customisability when it comes to building AI use cases. Users are often misled especially when it comes to ready-made use cases. However, these use cases are created as a “quick start” tool for financial teams. No-code technology enables users to retrain these ready-made AI models with an intuitive model trainer that creates an efficient way for financial professionals to solve specific problems within the financial services industry.
The process of researching, extracting, and analysing data and then plugging it into AI models and generating insights with no-code technology is accelerated, which gives financial services a major competitive advantage. As the quantity and sources of data grow, the manual processes of analysing data will become obsolete. Quick and accurate data analysis is crucial for financial teams to stay ahead of their competitors. While new challenges are arising in data management and analysis, no-code is the innovative solution that helps the financial services industry maximise the potential of data.
Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.
The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup delivers the latest fintech headlines from around the world.
Appointments
Epos Now, the cloud-based payments provider, has hired Imran Anwa as its new chief financial officer. Anwa previously served as deputy group CFO at The Hut Group. Epos Now said Anwa’s knowledge will be invaluable as it accelerates growth plans towards its anticpated IPO.
Geraldine Goh joins Vantage FX
Vantage FX has appointed Geraldine Goh as global marketing director as part of its global expansion strategy. She will focus on introducing high profile partnerships, promotions and programmes to cover the whole client lifecycle at the multi-asset trading platform.
Meanwhile, ELEMENTARYb, the intelligent financial management platform, has unveiled Shuab Akhtar as director of product. Akhtar will drive the development, delivery and ongoing evolution of the company’s business management software platform. Most recently, he was senior business analyst at Handelsbanken.
John Madsen, chief architect for technology at Goldman Sachs, and Russell Green, head of cloud architecture at Deutsche Bank have both joined the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) governing board as chairman and vice chairman respectively. Dietmar Fauser, chief information officer at Symphony, and Traci Robinson-Williams, head of marketing insights at GitLab, have also joined the board as directors.
Fintech IFX Payments has appointed Tony Brown as its new head of compliance and MRLO. Joining from PayPerform, Brown will continue his role on the advisory board of The Association of Foreign Exchange and Payment Companies. IFX has also reported a 3000 per cent increase in the number of payments it handles monthly, as well as a turnover of £20million.
Research and Insight
Skurio has developed an interactive slider to show a comparison of the financial damage of fraud and how that cash could have been spent, if it was not stolen. Fraud costs the UK economy more than £176,000,0000 each year, it says. That’s the equivalent of 294,106,823 Netflix monthly subscriptions, or 260,992,574 cinema tickets.
Funding and investments
Exclusible, the luxury NFT platform, has closed a €2.2million seed round. Tioga Capital, White Star Capital and Indico Capital Partners co-led the round, with additional participation from Shilling. Once purchased, an NFT can be displayed in the user’s gallery, shared on social platforms, or sold on a secondary market.
Investment analytics platform Aumni has secured $50million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co, with significant participation from Pelion Venture Partners too. Existing investors SVB Financial Group, DLA Piper, Next Frontier Capital, Kickstart Fund, First Trust Capital Partners and Prelude also participated in the round.
TiPJAR, the cashless tipping platform, has raised £1,000,000 from more than 800 investors on Crowdcube. It will use the funds to invest more into its US team as well as ‘turbo charge its trajectory for expansion across the globe’. TiPJAR has now launched in more than 1650 venues across four countries.
Islamic crowdfunding group Ethis Global Sdn Bhd has announced the closure of a RM6.8million pre-Series A fundraising round. The investment follows the appointment of Amran Bin Mohd as chairman. In 2022, Ethis intends to expand its offerings in Indonesia and Malaysia to include agriculture and Waqf issuers and projects.
UAE-based insurtech Hala has closed a Series A round at $5million. The round was led by Entrée Capital, with participation also from Mubadala Investment Company, EQ2 Ventures, Global Founders Capital, 500 Startups and Hambro Perks Oryx Fund. Hala plans to use the funds to expand its new products, as well as grow the company further in the rest of the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia.
Partnerships
Yieldly announces NFT partnership with BOOMEsports and Fact Revolution. BOOM and Fact Revolution fans gain entry to Yieldly’s staking products and no loss lottery. They can also earn customised NFT-based rewards for participation.
There’s also a partnership for payments firm InComm Payments and doxo, the bill pay directory. doxo users can now pay household bills with cash at more than 60,000 retail locations throughout the US. The collaboration lets customers pay bills at retailers, including 7-Eleven, Dollar General and Family Dollar, alongside their regular purchases.
Halal Angel Network partners with Let’s invest in Maldives in order to boost halal, startups and entrepreneurship in the region. The key focus areas include tourism, fintech, foodtech, ethical finance and future technologies. Both partners are open for strategic partnerships with the government departments and local organisation.
Company updates and launches
Cryptocurrency exchange EQONEX has launched cross collateral functionality across its platform. It enables traders to more effectively manage their collateral when trading derivative products. Traders can use US dollars, USD Coin and Bitcoin as margin for derivatives trading. EQONEX also intends to expand the assets eligible to be used as margin including EQO.
Open banking platform TrueLayer has been authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) as a payments institution. The company has now established a European headquarters in Dublin. The Irish operation will be led by Joe Morley, TrueLayer’s VP and general manager for Europe, and new COO for Europe, Leigh-Anne Cotter.
Financial hub Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has formally engaged with the UK department for data protection law. The aim is to reinforce data flows between the jurisdictions and help build better trade relationships. It will also promote high standards of accountability and transparency in businesses that deal with DIFC entities.
LINE Tech Plus has launched a LINE FRIENDS non-fungible token (NFT) collection using LINE Blockchain. LINE FRIENDS NFTs will be given to 600,000 users in Japan who successfully answer a quiz event held on the LINE de Oubo platform
Lending by UK challenger banks reached a record high of £143bn last year, up 11% on the previous year’s £128bn, according to research by accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO LLP.
Lending has doubled in the last five years, from £71bn in 2014/15 to £143bn in 2019/20.
BDO says the rise in the value of challenger banks’ loan books had been boosted by additional lending to businesses through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme (CBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
The increase in residential mortgage lending, triggered by the stamp duty holiday, has also played a role in increasing some challenger banks’ loan books.
Lending to businesses by UK challenger banks jumps 26% in just a year
Leigh Treacy, Head of Financial Services Advisory at BDO, explains that CBILS and BBLS lending have given challenger banks an opportunity to expand further into the business lending market.
Business lending by challenger banks rose 26% in the past year, from £12.2bn to £15.5bn.
Lending to businesses made up 11% of challenger banks’ total loan book, compared to 9.5% in the previous year. While this is still a relatively small proportion of total lending, it shows intent from these banks to increase loans to businesses.
Leigh says: “The hope has been that challenger banks would add an extra element of competition to the business banking market – especially amongst SMEs.
“It appears that the Government-backed loan schemes – much of which has gone through challenger banks – has given some of them a jump-start into the business lending market.”
She adds: “More SME lending will allow challenger banks to diversify away from residential mortgage loans and other products. While some forms of SME lending can be more capital intensive for banks than residential mortgage lending, challenger banks will now be looking to build on those relationships with SME borrowers and keep them as long-term customers.”
Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.
With many bank branches unable to open during the pandemic, financial institutions across the UK had to adapt their services and one of the main consequences was the exponential growth in online banking.
One believer that digital transformation will play a key role in the financial landscape post lockdown is James Berry, CEO of Great Western Credit Union. James has led the credit union since 2007 and is responsible for growing memberships from c1,200 to c20,000 in August 2021. Over the past year, James navigated the merger between the former Bristol Credit Union and Wyvern Savings and Loans in Dorset, creating the biggest credit union in South West England.
James is passionate about the growth of the credit union, which gives people access to low-cost loans and saving plans to serve the local community. In this article, he explains how digital transformation will help the credit union to further improve the financial wellbeing of people across the region.
James Berry, CEO, Great Western Credit Union
In what has been a difficult time for many people across the UK, the pandemic has accelerated changes that were already progressing before March 2020. Whereas before the lockdowns, many people would have travelled to their nearest branch to access their finances, social distancing restrictions made it more difficult for people to do so.
A recent report from the UK Parliament discovered that the number of bank branches roughly halved between 1986 and 2014. The same report cites that around 10% of the rural population lives at least 10 miles from their closest banking branch, leaving thousands without face-to-face access to finances. Whilst there are examples of otherwise profitable branches being closed, it’s more noticeable than ever that the changing customer behaviour is driving this trend and the traditional bank branch is more and more a thing of the past.
The rising demand for fintech
In a world of increasing dependence on technology, people across the UK are switching to digital banking for a faster and more efficient customer experience from their financial providers. For example, a recent study by SRM Europe’s Customer Loyalty research found that 73% of the country’s population has now moved to online banking.
Through this digitisation, there is no longer a need to set up an account based on your location, but instead you can choose an institution that reflects your values, beliefs and ambitions. Other financial institutions now have the chance to compete with high-street banks, allowing consumers to find greener, fairer and more ethical services.
Making ethical finance more accessible
Alongside growth in digital channels for traditional and challenger banks as well as the fintech start-ups, many credit unions, such as Great Western Credit Union, are continuing to evolve and meet their members’ needs through the use of innovative technology. Recent findings from the Bank of England have shown that credit unions have continued to grow in popularity, serving around two million people across the UK, with assets worth almost £4 billion.
We have found that people want to see their money doing good, especially following the ravages of COVID-19 which has widened the wealth divide. Credit unions provide a sense of financial community, knowing that the money saved or spent through them is used to help local people, businesses and economies to thrive.
Our recent Social Impact Report found that almost 3,400 new loans were made in the 2019-2020 financial year and 24% of loan members lived in areas with the highest levels of deprivation. Since our digital platform went live, we have been able to reach more people than ever before across our region as they are no longer bound by location.
In 2019, we secured financial investment from Bristol City Council, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Bank Workers Charity and the Co-op Loan Fund to enhance the credit union’s growth and development. Some of this money was invested in upgrading our digital capabilities, including back-end improvements to enhance customer experiences and accessibility. For new registrations, it can take as little as 20 minutes for an application to be approved. Even face-to-face service can now be delivered online through video chat.
As a key aspect of our future expansions, digital transformation will help us to realise our ambitions of becoming the first choice for ethical and affordable finance in the region. Over the next five years, we will continue to improve the financial stability of people in our communities by providing them with the tools and services that will make a real difference to their financial wellbeing.
Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.
Cultural expectations issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are clear: an evidential culture of compliance and conduct is representative of how seriously financial organisations value their consumers, employees, brand, and overall business operation.
But are all firms successfully assessing and developing their ‘people-based culture’ in practice and where do some of the potential pitfalls currently reside? How can firms ensure they have the objective information needed to identify, improve, and repair human-capital risk issues before they lead to detrimental consumer outcomes and market harm, as well as increased regulatory scrutiny?
Adrian Harvey, CEO of RegTech Artificial Intelligence (AI) provider – Elephants Don’t Forget – believes that there is a compelling case for firms to evaluate the benefits of adopting a continual assessment methodology.
Harvey outlined the case: “The FCA continues to reiterate the need for financial firms to distance themselves from a ‘tick-box’ approach to compliance and analyse Management Information (MI) that enables them to make better decisions to develop positive people-based cultural progression.
“The cultural agenda issued by the regulator is also centred around developing and safeguarding effective ways to make lasting changes in employee behaviours and mindsets too. Quite simply, it is extremely difficult for firms to make the cultural improvements required if their people-based monitoring provisions are not supported by regular assessments.”
The AI provider, who support the continual training and competency programs of financial organisations including Allianz, Aviva, and BNP Paribas, recently hosted a webinar in conjunction with Worksmart exploring key cultural measurement themes, surveying a cross-section of 280 financial professionals on several issues to assess their current cultural progress.
When asked what impact the regulatory cultural agendas have had on their firms, none of the participants could positively state they were entirely confident with their current approach to culture and governance. Worryingly, 15% actively stated that their approach to the agendas has been ‘tick box’ rather than value add. 50% noted that they had enabled them to make ‘some’ positive improvements to their governance and culture, whilst 35% positively asserted that they had made considerable changes across all areas of their organisations as a direct result.
Participants were also asked what work had been undertaken in readiness for the purported regulatory culture audits. 15% stated that they were not even aware that cultural audits were on the radar. Just 6% said they believed their culture to be fine, 54% asserted they have a culture project ongoing, whilst 17% openly stated that they are still yet to launch a culture initiative and are looking to assign time for it in 2021.
Tick box approach to compliance
Harvey commented on the findings: “Whilst we appreciate that our poll results are not indicative of the entire financial sector, they do offer some insight into how culture progression as a theme is still being explored, adopted and implemented by firms.
“It was concerning to see that some organisations are still actively demonstrating a tick-box approach to compliance. A lack of evidential change in a firm’s provisions is figuratively like waving a ‘red flag’ in the regulator’s face. Whilst they obviously appreciate that culture progression is complex and takes budget, time, effort, and commitment, you would certainly expect that they would want to see some changes, and how these now reflect their future operating expectations.
“I look at this way: if the FCA asked me what changes my firm has made from a pre-and post-SM&CR perspective to guarantee we are continually ensuring that our people are trained to give the correct advice and experience for our customers in ever-changing and complex markets, and my reply was simply: ‘we do the same thing as we have always done’, that to me just says ‘red flag’.
“This does not look like an organisation – from the top down – that is genuinely embracing culture behaviour; where all their people genuinely know what they are doing from an ongoing perspective. I would want to know how that firm is realistically identifying knowledge, process, and conduct faults – and modifying them as the regulator requires – on a continual basis, not just annually, via Management Information (MI) that is robust and available for them to access in real-time.”
Culture, strategy and purpose
When participants were asked which key tools and measurements they were already equipped with and utilising successfully, 59% of professionals said that their primary objective was to intentionally align culture, strategy, and purpose; noting their reliance on ‘frequent’ and ‘copious’ communication – combined with ensuring staff and stakeholder participation at every level across their respective organisations – were primary measures currently being deployed.
Whilst 41% stated that they could ‘quantitatively’ measure their cultural values, only 8% said that they were successfully applying ways to manage the development of the responses from their employees. Harvey added:
“In our recent webinar, we extensively reviewed the Bank of England’s Organisational culture and bank risk working paper to glean some valuable insights into how firms could apply the use of obtrusive and unobtrusive indicators. Indeed, the paper concluded that ‘[e]xisting research [into bank culture and risk] has largely relied on employee surveys to measure organisational culture despite the significant shortcomings of this approach’.
With culture being dynamic, it was evident from the research that single point in time assessments – such as employee engagement surveys – cannot provide the continual assessment mechanism required to constantly assess cultural improvement from a people perspective.
Whilst it is certainly positive to hear that some firms have a cultural assessment program ongoing – and some are preparing to launch one this year – it is important that firms take on board information that examines the shortcomings of exclusively using these approaches.
The FCA is aware that cultural change is established from the top and, whilst articulation of values, accountability incentives and expectations are vital, a long-term change program that transitions itself successfully into BAU requires firms to ensure employee aptitude is central to their culture framework. Training & Competence (T&C) is so intrinsically linked to the four pillars of improving culture; it’s not only associated with skills, knowledge, learning, recruitment, induction, and retention of talent, it fundamentally feeds into every single area of a firm.
From an organisational perspective: do all employees have a sound knowledge of all policies, processes, procedures, and governance expectations on an ongoing basis as your market changes – and can you evidence that for every member of your team?
From a relationship perspective: what does the level of training you provide (and the frequency of it) say about your leadership and your genuine commitment to positive cultural change?
From an employee performance perspective: are you predominantly reliant on single point in time assessments, employee engagement surveys, and complaints data to inform wider performance management conversations and strategic decisions?
Cultural change
With a primary objective of the FCA’s cultural agenda looking to secure lasting changes in employee behaviour and mindset, Harvey asserts that it is critical that firms provide staff with ongoing training, resources, support, and incentives to embed long-term change, and that senior leaders can access continual, granular MI to track their cultural progress and identify areas of people-based risk to better inform their future risk-mitigation decisions.
Harvey concluded: “If firms are primarily reliant on single point in time assessments, do these genuinely reflect ongoing culture? Whilst the information generated can be useful, culture is dynamic, so the notion that you can conduct a single point in time audit and define that your provisions are ‘fine’ is highly questionable.
“What is the definition of ‘fine’? Are you scoring yourself 90/100 at that point in time? Are you defining the collective competence of your organisation as ‘fine’ and not assessing it from an individual employee perspective?
“Ultimately, how valuable is the information to you when it comes to measuring, strengthening, and reporting on human capital and risk on an ongoing basis?
“Without a continual assessment methodology, it is arguable doubtful that firms will be able to really understand the drivers behind people-based behaviour and what requires most attention to repair them right now.”
When the first wave of Fintech got rolling after the 2008 financial crisis, the idea of taking on the financial establishment was only a gleam in the eye of the wildest futurists. One Bitcoin was worth small fractions of a US dollar and reaching parity was a massive future milestone that few thought would happen.
In late August 2021, BTCUSD is in mid $40k range and according to research by UBS, Fintech industry revenues will more than triple from USD 150bn in 2018 to USD 500bn in 2030, implying an average annual growth rate about three times faster than the broader financial sector’s. This makes Fintech:
Either A = mainstream aka boring. Fintech is big enough that mainstream media and financial services firms are paying serious attention.
Or B = just getting started aka exciting. Although Fintech is big, as a % of Finance it is in single digits ie just getting started aka exciting.
Or C = both of the above.
I think the answer is C because as Clay Shirky, in Here Comes Everybody, writes:
“Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”
Two boring Fintech technologies are QR Codes and Prepaid Cards. The basics of Social Mobile Analytics Cloud (SMAC) powering Fintech unicorns are also boringly mature.
Yet a quick glance at the Fintech 50 Index of publicly traded Fintech companies shows what a huge impact these boringly mature technologies are having.
Fintech is a big growth market, but what investors want to know is which Fintech companies are best positioned to grow fast and which actually are growing fast (rather than overhyped “growth stocks” with too high valuations). Finding these real growth stocks requires two way levels of analysis – qualitative and quantitative:
Qualitative analysis of how well companies in the Fintech 50 Index are positioned for change.
Quantitative analysis of actual quarter to quarter revenue growth.
In short, investors need both the theory of why a company’s growth should be strong in future and the practical results of actual recent growth.
When this growth comes at a bargain, the M&A guys will soon jump in and buy up the bargains and highly valued “growth stocks” that are not actually growing fast will attract the attention of short sellers. At least that is how capitalism is supposed to work.
As summer draws to a close (sad times), we’ll all start noticing changes. The weather, the kids back to school and so on. These changes may inspire you to make some changes of your own – where your job is concerned of course.
September is notoriously a popular month for people looking for new jobs, and for companies looking for new talent. So now is the time to act if you are looking for an exciting new opportunity…
MarketFinance launched a business loans product that has grown rapidly over the past 18 months with total loans funded exceeding £100 million. They were one of the first Fintech lenders to be approved under the British Business Bank Covid Business Interruption Lending Scheme (“CBILS”) and saw huge demand for the loan product throughout the pandemic.
They are now looking for an experienced product leader to drive the next phase of scaling for this product line. This will involve evolving the product under new Government schemes (such as the Recovery Loan Scheme) and also driving adoption and growth for normal loans lending as the world emerges from the Covid-crisis.
The Product Owner for loans will have complete ownership of the Loans product and work within a cross-functional business unit, with responsibility for key growth and financial metrics. You will report into the Chief Product Officer and work closely with the entire leadership team given the importance of this product line to company success.
At MarketFinance, the opportunity for growth is as big as your ambition. Things move quickly in FinTech and that’s all part of the adventure. Their benefits include a hybrid working model with a split between office and remote working, competitive salary and best-in-class share options scheme and flexible working hours.
Checkout.com is seeking an experienced Assistant Company Secretary to provide a full spectrum of company secretarial services to the group companies. You will support the Deputy Company Secretary in providing support to the parent company and the rapid growth of our subsidiaries globally. As they continue global growth you will play a role in the continued development of the corporate governance framework. The role is broad and varied, providing an opportunity to work within a complex business structure that is ever evolving. This role requires someone who can work both collaboratively and autonomously while seeing the potential of working In a fast-paced and growing organisation. There is a real opportunity to make the role your own and to add value to the function.
You will be joining a rapidly growing team in one of Europe’s most valuable fintechs. The Checkout Legal and Company Secretarial team’s mission is to be a team that exceeds expectations. They do this by providing trusted advice and balancing risk management by fusing high performance, innovation, collaboration and integrity.
The FinTech sector continues to experience impressive growth and recently had an increased level of focus following the Kalifa review by the government. Deloitte are seeking an experienced senior manager to help capitalise on the opportunity. They have recently established a South West hub to serve the whole of the UK and will focus on growing market share of FinTech external audits and assurance. As a recently established hub, they are building out a team and expecting significant growth building on the success to date. Deloitte’s current portfolio includes a range of well known FinTech clients as well as those that are expected to become future household names. As part of a successful team, you will play an important role in winning new business, implementing new audits, developing people as well as developing new market propositions.
As a key member of our senior team, reporting to a Director/Partner, you will have responsibility for supporting and delivering new business proposals; the development and growth of a newly established team along with the development of market propositions.
Rebecca works for our job board partner, Jobbio. Based in Dublin, she has been working as a writer for six years, creating engaging and insightful digital content. She has worked in Dublin, New York and London, and has a Masters Degree in Marketing from DIT.
In this week’s Searching for Mana, TokenGuard CEO and Founder Kamil Gorski joins Mimi Nguyen, Mana Search‘s R&D Head for an enlightening chat about due diligence in blockchain, smart contracts, ICOs and more!
Tokenguard is the first automated rating agency for Ethereum and other blockchains. The technology aggregates the best techniques for ICOs / smart contracts automated verification, allowing investors, VCs and banks to check the project they want to invest in.
Together with Blockhunters – the mother venture of this project, it has previously received a whopping $2.3M grant from the EU European Regional Development Fund for their R&D activities within the blockchain security space. Touching on everything from crypto and DAOs Kamil and Mimi talk everything blockchain has to offer. Then they dig into Kamil’s fascinating past as a hacker and his entrepreneurial journey including setting up a hardware startup.
Find more episodes on blockchain with previous guests from Binance, Kraken, Celsius Network, Gemini, Luno, Eterna Capital and more on searchingformana.com
Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.
Biometrics company, Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints) and Seshaasai, an innovative smart card manufacturer in India with a commanding APAC presence, have entered into an agreement to develop, launch, market, and sell contactless biometric payment cards in India and APAC.
The card will feature Fingerprints’ T-Shape module and software platform, which has ultra-low power consumption and is tailored to be integrated in payment cards using standard automated manufacturing processes.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Seshaasai, being a leading and award-winning card manufacturer, and one of the best tech brands in the BFSI space in India. This collaboration will bring consumers in India a more secure, safe and easy payment experience”, says Michel Roig, SVP Business Line Payments & Access at Fingerprints.
India had 25.5 billion real-time payment transactions in 2020, more than any other country in the world, and digital payment is estimated to account for 71 percent of overall payment volumes by 2025. According to the Reserve Bank of India there were 906 million debit cards and 62 million credit cards in circulation in June 2021.
Contactless and digital payments are growing fast in India, as consumers are choosing touch-free, safe and seamless ways to pay. Adding biometrics to the contactless payment card will increase the security needed to remove the cap, currently at Rs 5,000 (approx. €57), completely and allow for hygienic and worry-free contactless payments for all transactions.
“We selected Fingerprints’ biometric solution as they have the leading technology in the market,” said Pragnyat Lalwani, Founder Director, Seshaasai. “It offers proven biometric performance and the lowest power consumption, features which are of the highest importance for contactless biometric cards. Introducing biometric payment cards offers great benefits for banks, merchants and consumers alike, as contactless payments in India and APAC continue to grow quickly, especially in the post-covid world.“
Polly is a journalist, content creator and general opinion holder from North Wales. She has written for a number of publications, usually hovering around the topics of fintech, tech, lifestyle and body positivity.
