Delve into The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 24 October 2023 for the latest updates from across the world.
Partnerships
Payhawk, the global spend management solution, unveils a new international payments feature in partnership with Wise Platform. By integrating the power of Wise’s global payments network into the Payhawk platform, Payhawk customers can now reimburse employees and pay suppliers internationally in 50-plus currencies in more than 160 countries.
Thought Machine, the cloud-native banking technology company, has partnered with Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, to add FedNow, TCH RTP and SEPA Instant Credit Transfer connectivity to Thought Machine’s payment platform, Vault Payments. This partnership offers banks and financial institutions an end-to-end solution for seamless real-time payment processing.
Fingerprint Cards AB has extended its collaboration with Infineon Technologies, a provider of semiconductor products, to become a premium partner. This builds on the pair’s existing work to drive collaboration, development and innovation in bringing biometric technologies for authentication into payments, broader IoT applications and beyond.
Fiserv, a provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, is partnering with Melio, a B2B payments platform, to enable financial institutions to better meet the payments needs of small businesses. CashFlow Central from Fiserv, launched with Melio, combines the accounts payable and receivable workflows of Melio with the market-leading biller and merchant network and payment capabilities of Fiserv.
Murex and Rabobank have furthered their partnership in a major global IT transformation journey with the successful go live of back office, operations and finance on the MX.3 platform in Brazil. This replacement project follows previous front office and risk implementations. The collaboration with Rabobank Brazil is a also a continuation of Rabobank’s systems rationalisation history with Murex.
More partnerships
Regtech AMLYZE has teamed up with Shufti Pro, an identity verification service provider, to accelerate trust globally. This collaboration brings together the best of both companies’ expertise to offer clients a suite of anti-money Laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) solutions. AMLYZE will integrate Shufti Pro’s identity verification services.
NET Credit Union has partnered with digital banking provider Bankjoy. The credit union will leverage Bankjoy’s newly enhanced, standalone Online Account Opening solution to drive new member acquisition and deposit growth. By partnering with Bankjoy, NET Credit Union will also enrol new members using the solution.
Alba Bank, the UK’s newest challenger bank dedicated to supporting SMEs, has partnered with ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, to manage payments for its customers. Alba Bank will leverage ClearBank and Mambu’s partnership to offer near real-time payments to its customer base and will be accessing these services via a single API integration.
Thunes, the global B2B payment infrastructure platform, and China Construction Bank (CCB), a commercial bank in China, collaborate on cross-border payments. Thunes will support the bank to enable international payment acceptance for Chinese small to medium-sized businesses as well as introduce outbound cross-border payments for CCB’s consumers, with both products expected to be launched in 2024.
Experian, the global information services company, has unveiled a partnership with what3words. Experian’s flagship address validation solution helps businesses worldwide to achieve trusted data and build a more detailed view of customers by validating, formatting and enriching addresses in real time at checkout. Customers also now have the option to supplement their exact delivery location by typing their what3words address.
Appointments
TaxScouts, the tax and accounting platform, appoints Mal Cowley as its new CEO. The appointment will drive TaxScouts’ growth and expansion in building the largest network of certified accountants in Europe. He takes over from Mart Abramov, co-founder and former CEO of TaxScouts, who will remain on the company’s board.
The Fintech and Payments Advisory Network (TFPA) has unveiled a new CEO – Gregor Dobbie, the former CEO of Vocalink (a Mastercard company). Roger Bracken, founder partner, is promoted to executive chair and Steve Wright, previous founder partner, becomes chief operating officer. Prior to Vocalink, Dobbie held senior positions at Glory, Talaris and De La Rue.
Global law firm Ashurst‘s digital assets practice lead and chair of the bank industry sector, Etay Katz joins the Bank of England and HM Treasury’s Engagement Forum for Central Bank Digital Currency. Katz is a senior partner in the firm’s financial regulatory practice specialising in fintech transformation, with a particular focus on capital markets, payments and financial market infrastructure.
Sir Ron Kalifa has joined Brookfield Asset Management as vice chair and head of financial infrastructure investments. Kalifa served as CEO of global payments platforms Worldpay for over 10 years. Brookfield’s financial infrastructure strategy focuses on identifying opportunities in digital assets and services.
More appointments
Coinbase is strengthening its presence in Benelux and the Nordics. Elke Karskens becomes country director for Benelux and the Nordics, moving from her current role as UK country director. In her new position she will drive growth and innovation. Daniel Seifert, currently serving as VP and regional MD EMEA, has also seen his responsibilities expanded, to oversee Coinbase’s activities in the UK.
Pepper Advantage, a global credit intelligence company, names Narinder Auluck as group CTO. Auluck has over 20 years of experience in the banking and finance sector leading digital innovation strategies at global banks including UBS, Barclays, HSBC and NatWest. Most recently, he served as head of strategic projects at Pepper Advantage and also drove the creation of new software and AI platforms for the company.
ClearBank, the enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking for financial institutions, appoints Jonny Fry as its head of digital assets strategy. Fry brings with him an extensive background in blockchain technology as the CEO of news and advisory service TeamBlockchain.
Funding and investments
UAE-based digital real estate investment management platform Keyper has raised $6.5million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Access Bridge as well as Vivium Holdings. Other participants also included MEVP, Jabbar Internet Group and strategic angel investors. The capital raise will accelerate Keyper’s growth as well as expansion of its rent facilitation and property management capabilities.
Prism Data, a cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform, has bagged $5million in seed funding. The round was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation also from Citi Impact Fund and Core Innovation Capital. The new capital infusion will empower Prism Data to further expand its team as well as enhance its product suite.
Company updates
Ebury, the global financial technology firm headquartered in London, has unveiled its new office with a global training centre in Malaga, Spain, to support the growing demand for its international trade solutions and services. With over €1.2million spent on its renovation, the new facility will act as a hub for Ebury’s global operations as well as provide an attractive centre for technical training opportunities.
