The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest international fintech stories. As well as recent appointments, this Thursday we feature fintech collaborations, product launches and success stories.
Industry moves
UK fintech TradeCore is embarking on a period of rapid growth with new chief revenue officer Leon Stevens a key appointment. As well as recently launching a platform to connect emerging fintechs with innovative technology, TradeCore is recruiting the ‘best talent to help complement its expansion strategy’.
Marc Concannon is the new chief technology officer for global tech firm Cubic Telecom. In addition to driving growth in Cubic’s product portfolio, Concannon is tasked with delivering customers new software and analytics solutions.
Meanwhile, credit science platform OakNorth has named Raj Cherabuddi as its new VP of engineering. He is helping to build out the credit analysis and monitoring capabilities of the OakNorth platform.
Stjepan Udovicic has joined 9mobile from Axiata Group Berhad as chief commercial officer. The role will task Udovicic with the strengthening of 9mobile’s market position in Nigeria’s competitive telecoms industry.
Product news & website launches
Paymentology has introduced a new global credit card processing solution, under the branding of Credit Works. The UK-based payments processor says that in addition to incorporating full credit management, the platform also runs reward programmes with real-time customer data.
Expanding into Saudi Arabia? AstroLabs has unveiled setupinsaudi.com to help companies set up 100 per cent foreign-owned entity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The online resource aims to simplify the complex business establishment procedure through a 16-step process.
Irish fintech Cambrist has launched a proprietary regtech solution with Alpha Bank in Greece. According to Cambrist, its fxNOTIFY product suite provides Alpha Bank with a solution compliant with the EU’s crossborder payment regulation.
Meanwhile, online investment platform Seedrs has widened its secondary narket capabilities to all private businesses. The move allows founders, employees and early investors to realise secondary liquidity without having to wait for an IPO or exit event.
Industry performance & research
Due to an increase in demand for managed services, such as cloud computing, construction consultancy Linesight predicts a Saudi Arabia push for more storage facilities through data centres. Linesight says it is preparing to increase project capacity in the Kingdom as the demand for data centres increases.
The first half of 2020 witnessed $323billion in corporate fallen angel debt, say credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings. Furthermore, bonds that have been downgraded to sub-investment grade are on track to reach an all-time high of $640billion.
More than two-thirds of people in the UAE would prefer to continue working from home once restrictions are lifted. A Standard Chartered UAE survey also found that Covid-19 means a third of the global population is earning less, and more than half expect the pandemic to further affect their income or employment.
London-based fintech STICPAY says it has identified a surge in demand for cashless transactions and the option to withdraw funds with local bank wire in Asia. In a survey of its Asian e-wallet users, the company says the majority mainly use e-wallet solutions for trading and online gaming.
Working together
Local delivery platform Delivery Hero SE has partnered with Mastercard to fully digitise its payment chain within its ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa. Operating in the region with brands including talabat, Hungerstation and Zomato, Delivery Hero says the initiative spans the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt.
Meanwhile, fintech platform Omnio says its credit union business KESHO is partnering with analytics firm Credit Union Financial Analytics. The collaboration is to create ‘fairer and more flexible lending’. Furthermore, it provides a ‘substantial upgrade to the analytical tools available to the Credit Union sector’.
SaaS solution provider PassFort and ID data specialist GBG are building on their existing partnership in order to bring in a new generation of KYC checks. It means PassFort customers running compliance checks on applicants can build automated ID verification into the workflow.
The addition of the IDscan product allows PassFort to further drive friction-free user experiences. While maintaining global compliance at a time when more and more businesses are migrating to digital processes.
Finally, global payments platform Currencycloud says it is hooking up with business payments platform VoPay Partners. The partnership will see Currencycloud’s cross-border payments APIs embedded within VoPay’s API and out of the box solution.
