The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest international fintech stories. This Thursday, we put the spotlight on TransferGo‘s partnership with Visa. Plus, the launch of the EU-Africa: The Post Crisis Journey hackathon.
Partnerships and collaborations
Technology platform Nium is to provide neobank Unifimoney with international remittance capability. Following the partnership, Unifimoney can also send funds overseas to Europe and Asia within the app ‘at a lower FX rate than banks’.
VTB Bank and the Skolkovo Foundation have signed a partnership agreement in order to to ‘solve problems of big data management in the public sector’. The pair will also develop a project strategy in products and services for the cybersecurity market.
Money transfer firm TransferGo has forged a partnership with Visa to bring international money transfers to consumers’ bank cards. The partnership is live in 32 markets, with potential to expand to 178 in the future. Customers can now send payments directly to a card without online banking or an International Banking Account Number (IBAN).
As the service continues to grow, customers could see availability expand further into Africa, Southeast Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Open trade finance network Contour and IT provider Mphasis partner to accelerate the digital transformation of global trade finance. Through partnership, the companies will ‘help banks, enterprises, and ecosystem partners find new and transformative ways to transact with one another’.
Data management firm Proceed Group announces partnership agreement with data transformation company SNP Group. A key part of the agreement allows for the cross selling of SNP’s Test Data Organiser and Proceed Group’s latest decommissioning tool, Proceed Cella.
Job moves
Global financial markets software firm Genesis appoints Martin Sreba as global head of strategic accounts. In addition, to supporting Genesis extend its footprint in the investment management space, Sreba will push adoption of its low-code application platform.
Initiatives and events
Investment Association (IA) is seeking new cohorts for its fintech accelerator and innovation hub, Engine. Two years since launch, the IA has seen more than 130 fintechs join Engine’s ranks. IA says it seeks innovative new technological solutions to increase business efficiency and enhance customer experience.
An African-European online hackathon programme seeks innovative solutions to socio-economic problems that have been further escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic. EU-Africa: The Post Crisis Journey will take place on 10-13 December 2020. The aim is to engage ‘10,000 tech-savvy and socially conscious participants, 300 mentors and at least 100 community building organisations’ from Africa and Europe.
Dubai International Financial Centre hosts inaugural cohort of 50 Emirati students from the Federal Youth Authority’s Young Economist programme. Speakers included H.E. Essa Kazim, governor of DIFC. The aim is to build the capabilities of youth to become future leaders in business and economics.
Meanwhile, Dubai Economy brought together major stakeholders in the cashless economy ecosystem at its latest Future Economy Lab hack. Speakers at the session pointed out that the global acceleration in digital payments calls for the UAE to capitalise on its digital readiness to further boost its digital payments landscape.
Announcements and launches
Fintech Modulr has secured an electronic money institution (EMI) licence from the Central Bank of Ireland. Modulr says it plans to build a ‘truly digital, frictionless payments infrastructure for software platform partners to provide new payment experiences’.
Specialist mortgage lender Enra has finalised its first securitisation with a £268million portfolio. It has priced its first residential mortgage backed securities, backed by a portfolio of buy-to-let and second charge mortgages. The business has also held back around £50million of bonds for public sale.
Liquefy has revealed it is the first company to be granted in-principle approval to operate a private financing platform for the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Once granted in full, Liquefy will be able to offer tokenised securities backed by real world assets to investors in the UAE on its Alternative Global Marketplace.
Personal authentication solution provider MYPINPAD has picked up a Visa-ready certification for its tap-to-phone mPOS solution. It means that MYPINPAD’s solution is now available to all interested Visa acquirers where PIN authentication is required. MYPINPAD’s vision is to replace dedicated payments hardware entirely with software allowing a single, unified experience.
Finally, Fintech Saudi has launched the Fintech Ecosystem Directory. It will offer a comprehensive database of the key support services and partners that fintech companies available in the Kingdom. At the end of November, Fintech Saudi will also be launching Fintech Tour 20, a series of events aimed at increasing public engagement in the fintech industry.
