TD Bank is aligning wealth management across physical and digital touchpoints as 2022 steams ahead. TD Bank, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based subsidiary of $1.73 trillion TD Group, released its first roboadvisor solution in 2021, but views its digital tools as a “complement” to the in-person experience, Ken Thompson, TD Bank head of U.S. wealth shared […]

A new trading platform operated by OneChronos Markets LLC will let institutional investors bid for equities in an automated auction, an effort to disrupt the ages-old system for buying and selling stocks.

OneChronos started this month with Bank of Montreal, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and more than a dozen other broker-dealers signed on. The New York-based firm’s technology enables potential buyers to dictate what they think the value of a portfolio or large quantity of stocks is at a given time, known as an “expressive” bid.

“Our system gives investors a greater level of control and detail over how their orders are executed,” co-founder Richard Suth said in an interview. The goal, he said, is to slow down the process and let investors have more say over how trades are executed.

The firm’s software uses artificial intelligence to allow participants to input what they determine is the value of large order, or a collection of stocks, which is fed into a matching engine on a randomized basis. OneChronos then pairs orders from the buy and sell sides through periodic auctions. If values match from both parties, then the trade happens.

Among the early adopters of OneChronos is Bank of Montreal’s electronic trading group.

“Because we can express, under the terms and conditions we really want to trade, it can help us save our clients money and lowers implementation costs,” said Eric Stockland, who oversees institutional electronic quantitative strategy at the Canadian bank.

OneChronos runs roughly 10 auctions per second across all US stocks, said Suth, who spent more than a decade trading equities at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. All matches are made within what’s known as the national best bid and offer, the standard quote that reports the highest asking price and lowest offered price in a security, sourced from all available exchanges or trading venues. If a trade is filled through OneChronos, the fill-size and price is then printed to the public tape.

“We are not trying to take market share from existing players,” said Kelly Littlepage, co-founder and chief executive officer of OneChronos. “We are trying to unlock economic value for investors through mutually beneficial trades that otherwise would have gone unrealized.”

The new platform needs sufficient liquidity from institutional investors to source and execute the best possible trades. The more participants OneChronos has, increasing the overall pool of liquidity, the better the outcome, its executives said.

The field of alternative-trading systems is crowded with new entrants fighting for orders. Many like OneChronos are looking for an edge to attract investors and broker-dealer clients. Last year, Blue Ocean Technologies LLC started its own ATS that lets investors buy and sell equities outside of traditional US market hours.

Read more: U.S. Market Hours to Expand Under New Equity-Trading Platform

OneChronos has raised over $20 million from Y Combinator, BoxGroup, Green Visor Capital and other investors, and the firm’s valuation is roughly $250 million valuation after a financing round this month, according to Littlepage. The company’s third co-founder, Stephen Johnson, is a former senior manager Accenture Plc. Bernard Dan, former CEO of Sun Trading and CBOT will lead the ATS, with a focus on the operations and growth of the platform. Jesse Greif, OneChronos’s chief operating officer, also worked at Goldman Sachs, where he was head of electronic principal liquidity solutions and quant-strategies sales.

–By Katherine Doherty (Bloomberg)

As Pride Month draws to a close, we wanted to take a look at the impact that banks and other financial services companies have on LGBTQ+ communities.

The issues that face LGBTQ+ communities when it comes to financial services are as varied as these communities themselves are. They range from simply allowing cardholders to determine how they will be identified on their own bank cards, to healthcare-related savings and investment planning, to learning which financial institutions respect LGBTQ+ individuals and their values – as well as those institutions who work against them.

We caught up with Chris Luton, Director of Customer Care with Oakland, California-based Beneficial State Bank, to talk about the relationship between banks – especially community banks – and LGBTQ+ communities. We also discuss Beneficial State Bank’s efforts in this regard – as a “values-based bank” – as well as the bank’s own development as a community financial institution in the age of digitization.

Chris Luton: Beneficial State Bank is a for-profit, mission-driven bank whose owners are institutions governed in the public interest. Instead of working to maximize shareholder profits, we work to maximize prosperity for our communities and our clients, while maintaining strong business performance and serving as a model for ethical banking.

The bank was founded to serve a triple bottom line of environmental sustainability, social equity, and prosperity. The intention was to prove that this banking model could be sustainable, and influence the banking system to substantially change its practices. 

All of these qualities differentiate us from most banks. For instance, we invest in and work with community organizations that are often turned away by traditional banks. We offer socially-conscious individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits the unique opportunity to put their money toward causes they believe in. 

Luton: This means prioritizing our values just as much as our profits, which is captured in our triple bottom line of environmental sustainability, social equity, and prosperity. 

In practice, this means that our values guide our investment decisions. All of Beneficial State Bank’s investments are mission-aligned, and we aim for at least 75% of that lending to go toward the highest-impact organizations and initiatives. We then work to ensure that the rest never goes toward projects or organizations that cause harm. 

For example, we invest in environmental sustainability, affordable housing, social justice, and health and well-being. Meanwhile, we never invest in fossil fuels, payday lenders, private prisons, or weapons manufacturers.

Luton: Right now, some of the nation’s biggest banks fund anti-LGBTQIA+ policies through political donations. If the millions put toward these discriminatory policies were instead invested in organizations that protect and uplift the LGBTQIA+ community, banks could make huge progress in a more positive direction. For better or worse, money is hugely influential, especially in our political process. Banks could better serve the LGBTQIA+ community by leveraging this power for good. 

Banks should also consider how their policies and practices impact their LGBTQIA+ customers and employees. At Beneficial State Bank, we strive to create a welcoming and inclusive customer experience — for example, we make it as easy as we can for clients to change their name and gender on any official communications.  

Ultimately, it’s important that banks try to see the big picture on this issue by looking beyond performative celebrations during Pride Month. Members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community are looking for more than just a rainbow logo or special blog post, and the community’s needs don’t suddenly end once Pride month is over. Support for the LGBTQIA+ community should last all year long. Companies should also look at their overall impact to see if it’s consistent with their messaging. For instance, they might claim to support the LGBTQIA+ community while funding discriminatory politicians or having discriminatory internal policies.

Luton: It starts with building a welcoming and inclusive environment where employees feel safe and empowered to be themselves. We make an effort to hold space for connection among our LGBTQIA+ employees and their allies, and host Pride celebrations every year. Benefits and policies should also be inclusive. For instance, we make sure employees can add domestic partners and their children to their insurance plans, regardless of marital status. 

Luton: The first step is transparency. Consumers can’t make better banking choices if they don’t know where their money is going. Unfortunately, a lot of banks aren’t transparent about where their money goes. Banks need to be honest about their investments so consumers can learn, engage, and make banking choices that are more aligned with their values. 

Values-based institutions like Beneficial State Bank are upfront about our investments. For example, our goal is always for at least 75% of our commercial loan dollars to go to mission-aligned businesses – i.e., those working on issues like affordable housing or renewable energy. We also never lend in non-mission-aligned sectors, such as fossil fuel extraction, private prisons, or weapons manufacturing.

Mighty Deposits is a great resource for discovering how your bank is using your money, and what better options might be out there. Beyond the banking sector, Data for Progress has also released the latest version of its Pride Corporate Accountability Project, which looks at how many Pride sponsors and Fortune 500 companies are funding anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns. 

Luton: A big milestone in our own digital transformation was the PPP lending process in 2020. We did a substantial amount of lending that required all hands on deck. This actually gave us confidence in bringing up a new platform quickly and effectively. Since then, we’ve improved our digital and online functions, increased efficiency and speed, and lowered our cost of delivery.  

The bank also recently closed on an equity investment of $218 million from the U.S. Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP), which will support expanded lending to small businesses, and low- and moderate-income consumers. Our first priority is investing in the bank’s capacity so we can better serve our customers. This will include technological capacities like automation and infrastructure. 

Luton: With this recent investment from the U.S. Treasury, we see the next few years as a time of growth and an opportunity to demonstrate the power of values-based banking. We see ourselves continuing our work with marginalized customers and communities on a larger scale, expanding our investments in people and organizations making positive change in the world, and influencing other banks to do the same. 

Our ultimate vision is an economy that restores our planet and extends prosperity to all people. We can achieve this vision if more banks decide that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive.

Photo by Markus Spiske

Here are the three most relevant developments in the world of structured reporting we became aware of in the course of last week. 

1  XBRL Switzerland publishes its response to the climate ordinance consultation

2  XBRL reporting rules for BDCs come into effect as SEC adopts new electronic filing requirements

Reporting requirements with XBRL continue to be expanded, this time to business development companies, which in spite of the generic term are actually a type of closed-end fund investing in private market instruments. Thus limited scope …

Christian Dreyer CFA is well known in Swiss Fintech circles as an expert in XBRL and financial reporting for investors.

 We have a self-imposed constraint of 3 news stories each week because we serve busy senior leaders in Fintech who need just enough information to get on with their job.

 For context on XBRL please read this introduction to our XBRL Week in 2016 and read articles tagged XBRL in our archives. 

 New readers can read 3 free articles.  To  become a member with full access to all that Daily Fintech offers,  the cost is just USD 143 a year (= USD 0.39 per day or USD 2.75 per week). For less than one cup of coffee you get a week full of caffeine for the mind.

In insurance, superior digital customer experience comes from offering services exactly at the time and place the customer needs them most. To appear at the right moment for their customers, companies partner with the right insurance carriers. The path to achieve this requires packaging insurance “as a service.” Insurance-as-a-service (IaaS) models are evolving into SaaS platforms that use transactional APIs.

In Singapore, AXA’s Affiliate Marketing Program allows partners to use AXA’s application APIs. AXA Affiliates offers an IaaS platform to AXA’s global partners, enabling them to deliver customized insurance protection within their portals. The platform incorporates marketing assets, API documentation and plug-and-play widgets, allowing partners easy integration with the insurance process – from prospecting, quotation to policy issuance.

In Europe, Wakam has APIs that developers employ, so businesses can use them to offer insurance products — be it for Yamaha motorcycles or electronic gadgets. Using its ‘Play & Plug platform’, Wakam provides its P&C products as APIs. This has generated strong growth, with 360 million+ data handled every month, 300,000 daily API calls and 600,000+ policies administered on their blockchain. With a 2020 turnover of €417M, Wakam grew at a commendable average rate of 30% over the previous 6 years, with 61% of business outside France.

Wakam currently supports over 370 partnerships. Tailored to the new economy, Wakam’s solutions act as a white-label insurer for companies leading change in their sectors. Last December, Wakam teamed up with Back Market, leading marketplace for refurbished electronic devices, and i-surance (part of bolttech) to launch its device insurance in UK.

One challenge for insurers as plug-n-play insurance expands into different product lines is around building the right partnerships. The key to approaching these partnerships is thinking long term and considering operational challenges that may arise. Another challenge is compliance and regulation, besides the consumer protection element with use of data. Amid multiple considerations, its crucial to develop a sound partner strategy and a shared vision.

New Shape Of Partnerships

The unique partnership between Wakam, Gearbooker and bsurance offers a frictionless media equipment rental experience. Bsurance is a leading B2B2C embedded insurance platform and Gearbooker is Europe’s first Peer-to-Peer equipment hire platform for the creative industry. Professionals who rent products such as cameras, audio gear and drones, enjoy instant tailored cover from Wakam for damage and theft. The tie-up with bsurance is a sizable new revenue stream for Gearbooker as it looks to take international its high-growth business model . Post-launch, the product sold hundreds of policies, with monthly sales growth expected to surpass 20%.

Companies like Wakam aren’t directly investing in startups, but are helping them grow businesses by creating bespoke insurance products. Their strength lies in being able to quickly adapt product attributes based on continuous feedback. While collaborating with young startups, they improvise to make the right product, with the right warranties, at the right price. Those that become fast growing unicorns turn to be a good investment. Zego, which is a UK Unicorn now, was one of the first to work with Wakam at the beginning of their journey.

Data Sharing

Sharing data is important, when carriers work with a partner that distributes their product. This includes the technical and financial data, such as loss ratio. Partners need to access such data on the tech platform with full transparency. If a product isn’t working well and say, claims frequency is excessive, it can be quickly corrected.

Digital insurance can evolve from embedded to platform businesses, with integrated digital marketplaces. Platforms allow carriers to join data-rich customer ecosystems with non-insurance partners. This creates opportunities to lower distribution costs for more customers. Access to better data improves products and reduces underwriting risks. By joining forces with partners to build a seamless experience, greater customer benefits follow.

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• Roostify announced a partnership with Indecomm that will integrate Indecomm’s IncomeGenius technology into Roostify’s Roostify Beyond platform.
• The integration will make it easier for Roostify to calculate income for self-employed borrowers.
• A Finovate alum since 2014, Roostify also announced this week the appointment of Nadia Aziz as its new Chief Operating Officer.

A new partnership with intelligent automation solutions company Indecomm will bring automated income calculation technology to Roostify’s data intelligence solution Roostify Beyond. A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateSpring 2014, Roostify will integrate Indecomm’s IncomeGenius solution, which will add to its current income calculation capabilities – especially when it comes to income calculations for self-employed borrowers.

“Improving loan assembly and processing costs, and timeframes is an imperative for all lenders in today’s environment,” Roostify co-founder and CEO Rajesh Bhat said. “Roostify Beyond already incorporates income calculation and analysis for the most common employment scenarios. With the integration of IncomeGenius, we can now simplify and automate calculations for self-employed borrowers, an increasingly important use case as the gig economy expands.”

IncomeGenius leverages standardized rules and algorithms to minimize the risks associated with manual data entry. IncomeGenius doubles productivity at loan set-up, reduces time spent on income calculations by 60%, and guarantees 100% compliance with audit requirements, including a complete audit trail. Courtesy of the integration, Roostify Beyond’s Analysis Assistant will send self-employment documentation and data to IncomeGenius, which generates a thorough, self-employment income analysis and GSE worksheet – in accordance with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines. IncomeGenius then returns the information to the Roostify Beyond platform for presentation in the interactive Analysis Assistant dashboard.

Roostify launched its Beyond platform near the end of 2021. The latest iteration of the company’s Roostify Document Intelligence (RDI) Service, Roostify Beyond integrates RDI at the start of the lending process, providing borrowers with instant alerts if they upload documentation that is incorrect or illegible without having to engage with a human representative. Roostify Beyond also has data extraction capabilities that allow lenders to highlight data discrepancies, automatically create tasks, and publish document classification and validated information to the loan origination system (LOS).

“When we launched RDI a couple of months ago, we were excited to use data to propel the industry forward,” Bhat said in December when Roostify Beyond was introduced. “Data empowers lenders to spend less time in systems and more time with customers, and we are truly happy to provide our customers with this experience.”

Founded in 2012, Roostify most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage in 2018. In the years since, the company has grown into a mortgagetech leader that helps lenders process more than $50 billion in loans each month. The San Francisco, California-based company counts more than 250 financial institutions as clients and has 150+ employees.

This week Roostify introduced its new Chief Operating Officer, Nadia Aziz. With a focus on home lending, Aziz brings more than 20 years of financial services and fintech experience to Roostify’s C-suite. Before joining Roostify, Aziz was General Manager of Opendoor Home Loans, a digital lending platform for residential real estate.

“Roostify’s goal is to provide lenders with the tools and capabilities they need to deliver an exceptional experience for their customers while ensuring they achieve their business objectives by digitizing the loan origination process,” Aziz said in a statement. “I am excited to help Roostify on this mission and expand our impact on the industry by transforming the home lending journey.”

Photo by Yves Chaput

• FIS is launching its Guaranteed Payments solution this week that boosts merchants’ ecommerce transaction approval rates and guarantees protection against chargebacks.
• FIS is partnering with ecommerce fraud prevention company Signifyd to reduce merchant chargebacks.
• “With this solution, customer retention works hand in hand with fraud elimination to unlock incredible revenue growth opportunities,” said Signifyd CEO and Co-founder Raj Ramanand. 

Core banking expert FIS is launching a Guaranteed Payments solution this week. The new tool guarantees merchants increased ecommerce transaction approval rates and eliminates the financial liability of chargebacks resulting from fraudulent purchases.

Guaranteed Payments, which is available across the Signifyd Commerce Network and integrated into FIS’ Worldpay platform, facilitates increased merchant approval rates and provides guaranteed chargeback protection. The new technology combines machine learning and transaction intelligence to analyze aspects of a consumer’s purchase, including email address and payment credentials. Leveraging that information, Guaranteed Payments can instantly distinguish legitimate orders from fraudulent orders. The reduced fraud helps merchants optimize revenue and fulfill orders more quickly.

“Guaranteed Payments brings together two powerful sources of transaction intelligence—the Worldpay data stream produced from processing 40 billion orders annually and the Signifyd Commerce Network of thousands of merchants worldwide,” said FIS Chief Product Officer Vicky Bindra. She adds that the new tool can “combine fraud protection with increased approvals to enhance payment optimization and the overall user experience.”

Preventing chargebacks is at the heart of Signifyd’s technology. The California-based company helps identify fraudulent product orders using machine learning algorithms that sift through big data, including user behavior patterns, to reduce merchant chargebacks on fraudulent charges and save money on shipping goods on declined orders. In the event an order turns out to be fraudulent, Signifyd reimburses the merchant for the chargeback.

“Merchants using Signifyd experience a 5 to 9 percent increase in top line conversion on average,” said Signifyd CEO and Co-founder Raj Ramanand. “With this solution, customer retention works hand in hand with fraud elimination to unlock incredible revenue growth opportunities.”

FIS’ Guaranteed Payments is launching at a time when ecommerce activity and the fraud the comes along with it are at an all-time high. While the ecommerce market is predicted to grow 50% in the next two years, so is the fraud that comes along with it. In the past year, nine out of 10 merchants lost revenue due to payment fraud. False positives are hurting merchants, as well. Even though fraud currently accounts for about 1% of online transactions, merchants routinely reject as much as 9% of orders to avoid fraud, missing out on $443 billion in potential revenue.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

Analytics software company SAS has completed its acquisition of risk management company Kamakura Corporation, the companies announced Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hawaii-based Kamakura creates data and software solutions for banks and banking enterprises, with a focus on risk management. The acquisition will bolster SAS’ existing risk analytics and software services as […]

The Bank Automation News team is pleased to announce that Michael Beattie, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Kansas City, Mo.-based Lead Bank, will join the speaker faculty for Bank Automation Summit Fall 2022 to discuss how to develop for the cloud in order to enable technology strategy on Monday, Sept. 19, at […]

Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-storage business is on a clear path toward a $3 trillion value, almost triple what the whole company is worth now in the stock market, according to a Redburn Ltd. analyst.

The unit, Amazon Web Services, is so powerful that the company may decide at some point to split it off from the massive, slower-growing online retail operation, analyst Alex Haissl wrote in a 128-page report initiating coverage of the cloud-computing industry. He didn’t say when the $3 trillion value may be achieved.

“Separating AWS may not be on the table for now, but if the performance gap versus the non-AWS parts continues to widen, it could be on the table further down the road,” wrote Haissl, a former head of automotive research at Berenberg and Credit Suisse Group AG who began his career as a police officer in Vienna.

Haissl recommends buying Amazon shares and sees the stock reaching $270 in the next year, the highest target on Wall Street and 150% above Tuesday’s closing price. He also rated Microsoft Corp. a buy, Snowflake Inc. as neutral and has a sell on MongoDB Inc.

Amazon Web Services’ revenue jumped 37% to $18.4 billion in the first quarter even as the company’s core e-commerce business saw a decline in sales. “There is no sugar-coating the weak performance” of online retail, he said, adding that “we do not think the business is structurally broken.”

The Amazon cloud unit is better positioned than rivals run by Microsoft and Alphabet Inc. because it has lower costs and better technology, Haissl wrote. Amazon Web Services accounts for less than 20% of Amazon’s revenue but will contribute all of its earnings this year, he wrote.

However, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Anurag Rana, who estimates the value of AWS at $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion, said “Microsoft could be better positioned than Amazon Web Services and Alphabet’s Google as enterprises accelerate their shift to a hybrid-cloud model, given its strong footprint in on-premise IT infrastructure.”

“Amazon is highly unlikely to spin off its cloud segment, since it’s the source of many funds for the company’s other businesses units,” Rana said.

— By Subrat Patnaik (Bloomberg)

Here is our pick of the 3 most important Stablecoin news stories during the week.

Who controls your stablecoin and what is their interest in you?

This week in stablecoins we look at what is the interest in you by the party issuing your stablecoin or CBDC.

But first, the week got off to a big start with the announcement from Tether that it would be working with UK regulators to create a GBPT. 

Tether, the controversial “stablecoin” that underpins more than $60bn of the crypto economy, is launching a British version to capitalise on the UK government’s desire to make Britain a global cryptocurrency hub.

Like its US dollar counterpart, of which $67bn (£55bn) is actively traded on cryptocurrency markets, the digital asset will be built on the Ethereum blockchain, but its value will be set at £1.

Tether to launch stablecoin tied to pound as UK aims to become crypto hub | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian

Meanwhile, Bermuda which is regulated on very similar lines to the UK is stepping up its game in Crypto.  The collapse of Terra’s terraUSD (UST) made some investors think twice about buying stablecoins. The algorithmic stablecoin, pegged to the U.S. dollar, turned out to be less than stable, and investors in stablecoins as a whole were spooked about being left with nothing.

It’s the exact opposite way of thinking for Bermuda’s premier, David Burt. He said in an interview the Terra debacle highlights the importance of good regulation, vindicating his goal of making his country the world’s home for safe, innovative assets.

Luna Only Makes Bermuda Love Stablecoins More (coindesk.com)

Crypto’s structural flaws make it an unsuitable basis for a monetary system, according to the Bank for International settlements (BIS). Instead, monetary systems could be built around central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are digital representations of central bank money.

The BIS, an association of the world’s major central banks, dedicates a 42-page chapter in its “2022 Annual Economic Report” to laying out a blueprint for the future of the global monetary system. In that vision, there is room for only some of crypto’s underlying technical features, like programmability and tokenization, not for cryptocurrencies themselves.

“Our broad conclusion is captured in the motto, ‘Anything that crypto can do, CBDCs can do better,’” said Hyun Song Shin, an economic adviser and head of research at the BIS.

I guess it is not surprising that the BIS sees itself at the centre of a new money system but interestingly, they don’t think CBDC’s will be much help with payments but rather in the implementation of monetary policy (getting money direct to consumers and controlling how, when and why they spend it). 

CBDCs, Not Crypto, Will Be Cornerstone of Future Monetary System, BIS Says (coindesk.com)

But before we let BIS run the world of CBDC’s a cautionary tale from China which was the first major country to implement one.

China’s bank run victims planned to protest. Then their Covid health codes turned red – CNN

We may grumble about surveillance capitalism when Facebook/Meta and Google read your content and then throw up relevant advertising but that is nothing compared to state surveillance which blocks any activity it perceives as against its political interest.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alan Scott is an expert in the FX market and has been working in the domain of stablecoins for many years.  Twitter @Alan_SmartMoney

We have a self imposed constraint of 3 news stories per week because we serve busy senior Fintech leaders who just want succinct and important information.

For context on stablecoins please read this introductory interview with Alan “How stablecoins will change our world” and read articles tagged stablecoin in our archives. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

New readers can read 3 free articles.  To  become a member with full access to all that Daily Fintech offers,  the cost is just US$143 a year (= $0.39 per day or $2.75 per week). For less than one cup of coffee you get a week full of caffeine for the mind.

• PayPal launched a small business credit card this week.
• The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard is PayPal’s first business credit card.
• PayPal also offers a range of other tools for small businesses, including working capital tools, business loans, risk management support, and more.

Small businesses in the U.S. have gained yet another credit card option this week with PayPal’s launch of its its first commercial credit card.

The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard, which is issued by WebBank, has no annual fee and offers cardholders 2% cashback on all purchases. The rewards are not subject to earning caps nor do they expire. Additionally, the card comes with free employee cards, does not charge a foreign transaction fee, and integrates with PayPal’s merchant platform to facilitate access to transactions, balances, available credit, and rewards.

Once a business is approved for the card, it can immediately begin spending via a virtual card that is automatically integrated into their PayPal account. Businesses can view their account and spending details via their PayPal Business account.

“As small business owners continue to recover from the challenges of the past two years, having multiple financing options to address their capital needs is more important than ever,” said PayPal Vice President of Global Merchant Lending Bernardo Martinez. “The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard provides merchants greater value, more choice, and the increased flexibility they need to manage their business finances, offering among the best value available on no annual fee business credit cards today. This new solution continues PayPal’s commitment to supporting small businesses and offering options to help manage the day-to-day costs of operating their business.”

Founded in 1998, PayPal has long been an ally to small businesses. In addition to the business credit card, the California-based company also offers a working capital solution that has distributed more than $20 billion, as well as payout capabilities, business loans, payment acceptance tools, risk management support, and more. These products have helped PayPal amass 20 million small business customers in the U.S. And this is no small feat, given the fact that there are only 33 million small businesses in the U.S.

The launch of the The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard comes five years after PayPal launched its credit card for individual users in 2017.

Cybersecurity measures are a priority at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), from monitoring and mitigation to solution investment. Banks rarely consider cybersecurity a finished process; the nimbleness of fraudsters and quick development of new hacking technology spur perpetually evolving security measures for risk and anti-money laundering (AML) divisions at most large financial institutions. But keeping […]

When it comes to implementing a large-scale automation project, banks have to learn to walk before they can run. But they’re under intense pressure to accelerate digital transformation and make it easier than ever for their customers. Financial institutions waste at least $5.9 billion every year due to the poor customer onboarding experience. The new […]

• Further, a company that helps democratize investing in VC funds, is launching this week.
• The London-based company enables users to invest as little as £1,000 in startups that are not publicly available.
• The company allows anyone to invest, as long as they agree not to invest more than 10% of their net assets in shares, bonds, or funds that are not listed or sold on a stock exchange.

London-based Further is launching this week to help democratize investing in VC funds. The company enables users to invest in startups that are not publicly available.

The company’s platform enables users to browse, review, and compare funds, and easily invest as little as £1,000. Once the investment is made, Further enlists U.K. fund managers to invest users’ money into startups that are not generally available to everyday investors. Investors receive returns after around five to 10 years when the startup they invest in exits via sale or IPO.

Accessibility is Further’s differentiating factor. The company allows anyone to invest, as long as they agree not to invest more than 10% of their net assets in shares, bonds, or funds that are not listed or sold on a stock exchange.

That limit is in place for good reason– there is significant risk associated with VC investments. However, while many funds fail, others are quite successful. According to Pitchbook, European VC has delivered an internal rate of return of 14% across a 10-year timespan.

At a time when the public markets are in bear territory, Further’s launch comes at an ideal time. “I’d much prefer to be investing in a fund now and getting the valuations VCs are getting now [rather than last year’s],” Further CEO and cofounder Rob Tominey told Sifted. “The early returns will be strong.”

Further makes money in a couple of different ways. The company charges the funds a marketing fee and also charges investors a small percentage. Consumers also face fees from the funds themselves; each fund they invest in charges fees for onboarding and fund management services. Further argues, however, that the tax benefits users receive help to balance out the expense of the fees. “In addition, the company’s website states, “you can receive tax reliefs alongside each fund’s expert knowledge and management. These tax reliefs typically exceed the lifetime fees charged by funds, although this is not guaranteed.”

Photo by RODNAE Productions

• Mobile fraud prevention specialist Incognia, which made its Finovate debut in May at FinovateSpring, has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding.
• The capital will be used to help fuel the company’s growth; Incognia currently has 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries worldwide.
• Incognia leverages location and motion sensors to create a unique “location footprint” for trusted users that rivals other authentication methods in accuracy.

In a round led by Point72 Ventures, mobile identity company Incognia has secured $15.5 million in Series A funding to help fight identity fraud. The investment will help fuel the Palo Alto, California-based company’s continued growth, building on the 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries currently protected by Incognia’s technology.

“Today’s authentication and fraud detection solutions aren’t working for the user, or for businesses, and the market is looking for more innovative technologies,” Incognia founder and CEO André Ferraz said. “Incognia is pushing the frontier of identity assurance and authentication to deliver increased security with minimal user friction.”

Incognia leverages location signals and motion sensors on an individual’s mobile device to help combat identity fraud. The technology creates a privacy-first location identity that is unique to each user and acts like a “location fingerprint” that effectively differentiates trusted users from fraudulent ones. The company says that its solution, which can be deployed in industries ranging from fintech and crypto to gaming and social media, is 10x more accurate than FaceID in terms of uniquely identifying users. Further, Incognia notes that the technology has a false acceptance rate of less than 1 in 17 million.

“We’re emerging as the global location identity leader, effectively combating the increasing fraud on mobile around the world,” Ferraz added. “We’re dedicated to enabling our customers to deliver frictionless mobile experiences without compromising security and privacy.”

Incognia made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in May. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its frictionless fraud prevention solution for mobile apps combats identity fraud without bringing additional friction to the authentication process. The technology’s zero-factor authentication requires no action from the user in order to provide a highly accurate risk assessment with low false acceptance rates.

Founded in 2020, Incognia also recently introduced its new location-based liveness spoofing detection solution module. The offering prevents biometric liveness spoofing during the onboarding process. This particular form of fraud is often used by cybercriminals to create “money mule” accounts for money laundering – as innovative fraudsters have turned to liveness spoofing to get around selfie-based liveness detection algorithms. The challenge of liveness spoofing has become even greater with the availability of cheap – or even free – deepfake video technology. Incognia’s location-based liveness spoofing detection module is designed to prevent these deepfake attacks in real-time.

“As fraudsters advance their techniques to trick liveness detection tools, it is critical that there is a solution on the market that can successfully combat the use of deepfakes at onboarding,” Ferraz said.

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Lisa Christofilos, chief information officer of data and analytics at BMO, recently sat down with Bank Automation News to discuss data and analytics at the bank-level, along with best practices for ensuring data security. Christofilos helps lead data engineering, analytics and architecture efforts for the $805.9 billion bank. What follows is an edited version of […]

• Lokyata, a credit decisioning specialist, announced a partnership with Infinity Software.
• The integration will make Lokyata’s BankAnalyze solution available to Infinity Software’s financial services customers.
• Lokyata, founded in 2017, made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year.

Just over a month after making its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco, California, credit decision solutions provider Lokyata has announced that its real-time, automated credit decisioning tool, BankAnalyze, is now integrated with Infinity Software’s loan management software platform.

Courtesy of the API-enabled integration with Lokyata, Infinity Solutions will give its customers the ability to access key loan decision information. This includes customer-permissioned bank statement analysis such as average monthly net income, minimum balance, average monthly loan payments, and insufficient funds (NSF) notification histories. The integration will also enable lenders to configure both auto-fund and auto-deny rules to bring additional streamlining to the loan decisioning experience.

“At Lokyata, we are always looking to work with innovators in the market and Infinity Software is demonstrating the value of scalable, modern technology in an evolving lending ecosystem,” Lokyata CTO Steve Bireley said. “Increasingly, lenders are looking for ways to responsibly help more consumers gain access to credit, and through tools like BankAnalyze and Infinity Software’s platform, more lenders are successfully meeting that goal.”

With 20 years of experience providing lending solutions and other tools to direct-to-consumer lenders, Infinity Software has helped more than 700 businesses enhance their lending processes. The company uses a configurable loan product engine that gives lenders access to advanced accounting and reporting, as well as a built-in collections suite and access controls. Infinity Software offers a wide range of services to lenders, ranging from website design to optimized loan agreements to automated underwriting waterfalls, as well as a number of additional consumer loan solutions.

“Infinity has worked with hundreds of vendors to meet the needs of lenders in our space,” Infinity Software Director of Products Shannon Lee said. “Lokyata has proven to have a unique product that helps lenders better meet the needs of underserved borrowers and grow their business in a responsible and innovative way.”

Currently headquartered in Washington, D.C., Lokyata made its Finovate debut last month at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, Lokyata’s Bireley demoed the company’s BankAnalyze solution. The technology assesses the bank statements from a loan applicant and then provides an automated credit decision recommendation based on a combination of a weighted rules and a Lokyata score created in collaboration with the client. The company believes that using borrower-permissioned data is a major boon to the lending process, creating a more accurate, and up-to-date depiction of the borrower’s credit status. Moreover, Lokyata says that this approach “primes” near and subprime borrowers by making it easier for financial institutions to lend to “near prime” borrowers without taking on excessive risk.

Lokyata’s other products include ExcelRate, a lending and lead decision platform, and FraudBlock, a real-time identity verification and fraud intelligence solution for financial transactions. With $1.5 million in funding, Lokyata has scored more than 6.1 million loans impacting more than 240,000 customers. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $1.5 million in funding. Santosh Thiruthi is co-founder and CEO.

Photo by Diana Smykova