The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 19 September 2023
Appointments
Novatus Global, a risk and regulation consultancy and technology solution provider, announced the appointment of Bill Michael as head of strategy and member of the Board. He joins to help the firm accelerate its international expansion and continue to deliver tailored advice and solutions to its financial services clients.
Baird, an employee–owned, international financial services firm, announced that Sebastian Daumueller has joined the firm’s Global Investment Banking business as a managing director in the global technology & services group, and Luca Noventa has joined as a Director in the Global Consumer group.
Mortgage lender Perenna has appointed two national account managers, Tim Sorrell who will cover the South, and Deborah Reeves who will cover the North, to its intermediary team as it prepares to launch with 20-30 year fixed rate mortgages in England and Wales later this year.
Footballer Robert Lewandowski has joined OANDA, online multi-asset trading service provider, as its global brand ambassador. The association with Lewandowski stems from a long-term marketing strategy to drive recognition for the award-winning OANDA brand.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Digital asset platform Bitwave has announced the acquisition of Gilded, a crypto payments and reporting platform to drive innovation, expand its reach, and reinforce its leadership position in the enterprise digital asset finance industry.
Nortal, the multinational strategic change and technology company has acquired Questers, an award-winning distributed software company. Questers will now merge with Nortal’s daughter company pwrteams to strengthen its footprint in North America and the UK, and bolster its existing business of creating cross-border IT and engineering teams for customers globally.
Company updates
Ebury, the global financial technology firm,has announced its sponsorship of NFL team, Jacksonville Jaguars, as they approach their UK fixtures in London this October. Ebury will become the preferred service for all Jacksonville Jaguars UK FX transfers, following on from the previously announced partnership deal with Fulham Football Club
e& money launched a special initiative to support the people of Morocco and Libya in the wake of the recent natural disaster that affected both countries, with customers able to make international money transfers to Morocco and Libya at zero fees and best exchange rates.
A new cross-border payments platform Digit9 has launched in the UAE by LuLu Money Singapore in partnership with Endava. The platform enables BFSIs, fintechs, and FIs to seamlessly execute multi-currency cross-border transactions in real-time.
Partnerships
NatWest Group expands its collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) – including AWS’s generative AI solutions — to more rapidly drive toward its goal of helping 10 million people manage their financial wellbeing per year by the end of 2027.
Silatech, international social development nonprofit, has announced a partnership with BRAC, the world’s largest development organisation, to promote youth income generation through financial inclusion and unlock access to finance for 684,212 youth in Bangladesh to become self-employed.
Commerce technology platform, FreedomPay has partnered with PAX Technology, Inc., one of the largest electronic payment solution providers in the world. Available in Q2 2024, FreedomPay will introduce PAX Technology devices to enable a secure, seamless, and unified checkout experience for consumers while empowering merchants with FreedomPay’s loyalty programs and data analytics capabilities.
Apiture, provider of digital banking solutions, has partnered with debit card providers for kids and teens, Greenlight Financial Technology Inc. to introduce family banking. Through the Greenlight for Banks program, Greenlight’s family finance app is now available with Apiture’s Consumer Banking solution, providing banks and credit unions with a full suite of family banking tools to help improve financial literacy for the next generation.
Money transfer provider, Paysend and Visa, announced a strategic collaboration enabling Paysend’s customers globally to send money in real-time to eligible Visa cards across 170 countries and territories.
The five-year partnership builds on the companies’ initial collaboration announced in Febuary 2022.
More partnerships
Smartphone and web behavioural data analytics platform, Credolab, has announced a strategic partnership with Circulo de Credito, a fast-growing Credit Information Society (Credit Bureau) in Mexico. The partnership aims to bring more financial inclusion to Mexico by providing innovative credit, risk and fraud scoring solutions that benefit clients and financial institutions.
BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform for B2B and B2C businesses, has partnered with BigTime Software, an operating platform for professional services organisations, to bring online payment and financial management capabilities to customers around the world.
Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB), a fintech ecosystem builder, and The Family Office, a wealth management company in the GCC, have partnered to revolutionise the landscape of wealth management in the region.
Enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, Network International has announced its strategic partnership with Alipay+, to enable the acceptance of several prominent e-wallets from across the world on its all-in-one POS terminals for its 50,000+ merchants in the UAE to better serve global consumers.
Bold Penguin, small commercial insurance solution platform, recently announced a partnership with certificate of insurane tracking software, myCOI, enabling myCOI users to seamlessly access additional small commercial insurance needs.
Financial technology company, Jaris, , have partnered with First Internet Bank. The collaboration is poised to expand jaris’ product capabilities and substantially increase its financing capacity to over $1billion annually.
