Author: David Penn

PayActiv and Visa Help Workers Access Earned Wages Earlier

PayActiv and Visa Help Workers Access Earned Wages Earlier
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: PayActiv

PayActiv’s campaign to transform traditional payroll and help workers get access to earned pay when they need it just won a big new ally.

The company announced late last week that it was partnering with Visa and will leverage the company’s Visa Direct real-time push payments platform to enable PayActiv’s partner businesses to offer real-time deposits. Earned wages for employees of PayActiv partners will be available in real-time via a Visa debit or reloadable prepaid card – and PayActiv is offering its own branded Visa Prepaid Card for the occasion.

“With financial stress our industry needed earning enlightenment,” PayActiv CEO Safwan Shah said. “The PayActiv Visa Prepaid Card is exactly that – a game changer and a win-win solution. Employers can get better retention, recruitment and engagement, and employees can get on a path of holistic financial wellness with timely access to their earned but unpaid wages.”

PayActiv said that the use of its Visa Prepaid Card can help employees avoid fees that might otherwise lower take-home pay by as much as $200 a month. Accepted anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, the PayActiv Visa Prepaid card has no monthly fees, no fees for loading earned wages on the card, and no cardholder fees when transacting with U.S. merchants or making cash withdrawals from MoneyPass ATMs.

“Visa Direct is helping to power a fundamental shift in how employees access wages they have already earned, outside of the traditional two-week payroll cycle,” SVP for Global Commercialization of Visa Direct Cecilia Frew said. “We are proud to be partnering with PayActiv to offer additional choice and flexibility to employers and employees when managing their financial well-being.”

PayActiv demonstrated the Saving in Units of Time feature of its platform at FinovateSpring 2016, winning Best of Show. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Jose, California, PayActiv announced a partnership with Walmart last fall, adding the retail giant to the number of locations where PayActiv employee members can access earned wages in cash. Also last fall, PayActiv scored a $20 million investment in a Series B round led by Generation Partners that doubled the company’s total funding.

Visa, which celebrated its 60th birthday last year, made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2010. The company is also an alum of our developers conference, presenting its Visa Checkout solution at FinDEVr SiliconValley 2014. The global payments and financial services giant trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “V,” and has a market capitalization of $330 billion.

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Temenos Drives Digital Transformation for Africa’s Vista Bank

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Temenos

Vista Bank, an African challenger bank, has turned to Temenos to power its digital overhaul, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The bank is implementing Infinity, a digital front office solution, and T24 Transact for core banking.

Vista also has selected analytics and reporting, risk and compliance modules, and the Temenos Payments Hub product.

The group was established following the acquisition of First International Bank (FIB) Group in 2015 by the U.S. based investment fund, Lilium Capital.

The bank hopes to be able to introduce new products and services more quickly and support its growth ambition.

“This will help us realize our vision of building a truly pan-African financial institution group that will add value to the African economy and promote financial inclusion,” said Simon Tiemtore, group chairman at Vista Bank. “Temenos is our trusted strategic technology partner and our customers will reap the rewards of its innovative API-first, cloud-native and cloud agnostic software.”

According to Temenos, its regional model bank approach, which includes pre-configured local functionality and best practices, will enable Vista Bank to cater for specific regulatory requirements during its expansion.

Currently operating through a network of 43 branches across Sierra Leone, Guinea and The Gambia, the group’s goal is to expand its footprint into the West African Monetary Union and the Central African market, targeting a presence in 15 countries by 2025.

Temenos demonstrated its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the company also presented its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2015.

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iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera

iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: iSignthis

Ibanera has become the first iSignthis client to integrate core banking (CorePlus), SEPA and Swift interbank network technology (CoreConnect) to prospective customers, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

These products are offered via iSignthis’ wholly owned subsidiaries Probanx and UAB Baltic Banking Service (BBS).The parent company has said it is integrating the products offered by both companies “on a fast track”.

Ibanera will be supplied the CorePlus system, including internet banking module, SMS and email notifications, multi-language pack, IBAN validation and integration to CoreConnect.

As mentioned above, CoreConnect includes connectivity to the SEPA Core, SEPA Instant, SEPA Business and Swift interbank payment networks.

CorePlus and CoreConnect will be delivered to Ibanera by mid-April 2019, and are expected to contribute to revenues this calendar/financial year.

Ibanera is a Lithuanian-licensed electronic money institution. The company offers a range of services for individuals, corporations, and financial institutions through wealth management funds or by advising and facilitating a structure for clients.

Alongside CorePlus and CoreConnect, iSignthis will be offering the rest of its regulated neobanking ISXPay services such as DocPlus (document management systems), PayPlus (payment management), and Paydentity (identity verification) as integrated services by Q4 2019.

iSignthis demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the company trades on the Australian Stock Exchange under the ticker ISX.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, BLUERUSH, Exate, Experian, iSignthis, Minna Technologies, NCR Corporation, NYMBUS, PayActiv, Temenos, VISA

On Finovate.com

  • PayActiv and Visa Help Workers Access Earned Wages Earlier.
  • Temenos Drives Digital Transformation for Africa’s Vista Bank.
  • iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera.

Around the web

  • BioCatch adds touchscreen pressure as a new behavioral biometric value.
  • NCR, Bluefin, and Powertranz team up to support POS card processing for Caribbean quick serve restaurants.
  • Experian launches Singapore-based incubator, Experian X Labs.
  • ETFLogic unveils ETFLogic Pages, a new platform for analyzing exchange-traded funds.
  • Minna Technologies and Exate earn spots in the fourth edition of ING’s FinTech Village.
  • BlueRush deploys its Individeo platform with a large Colombian bank courtesy of a partnership with Bee Concept.
  • Inspire Federal Credit Union goes live with NYMBUS.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Salt Edge Teams Up with UK-Based PFM App Emma

Salt Edge Teams Up with UK-Based PFM App Emma
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Salt Edge

London-based money management app Emma is the latest company to partner with global data aggregator Salt Edge. The integration will enable Emma users to securely connect their accounts – whether for debit, credit, e-wallet, savings, mortgage, cryptocurrency, or insurance – from banks throughout the U.K.

“We started Emma on a mission to help millions of people improve and fix their finances, once (and) for all,” company CEO Edoardo Moreni said. Emma earned its AISP (account information services provider) approval from the FCA a little over a year ago, and its new relationship with Salt Edge is part of the company’s strategy to “expand to new countries, with them, as partners.”

Praising Emma for its rapid growth and development, Salt Edge CEO Dmitrii Barbasura said his company’s familiarity with the money management space was a significant advantage for the integration.

“Having great experience with PFMs, and being very familiar with the nuances, we believe our solution to be a great fit for Emma,” Barbasura said. “We truly believe that working together towards improving the way people manage their financials will bring fruitful results in our collaboration.”

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Salt Edge demonstrated its Open Banking Platform at FinovateEurope 2019 earlier this year. With more than 3,100 connected banks representing 250,000+ daily active end users, Salt Edge’s technology brings thousands of bank APIs into a single gateway. The company adds value during the payment flow by providing data enrichment, financial categorization, financial health check and payee verification, and other services.

The first global data aggregator to join the Temenos Marketplace, Salt Edge announced a partnership with smart money app Yolt last fall. The company was founded in 2013.

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Finovate Global: Jumio Lands in Brazil; TurnKey Lender Raises Capital

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alfa-Bank, Diebold, Finastra, Jumio, Kontomatik, Temenos, Turnkey Lender, Veridium

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Central and South Asia

  • Pakistan-based payment system operator and PSP Mobi Direct selects Worldline for its digital infrastructure platform.
  • State Bank of India partners with Hitachi Payment Services on joint venture to support digital payments in India. SBI also picked Financial Software and Systems to implement its “One Nation, One Card” digital payments program.
  • Inc42 lists 5 Trends in Fintech You Will See in 2019.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Jumio opens office in Brazil and operations center in Barranquilla, Colombia, as part of expansion into Latin America.
  • Mexico’s central bank turns to Amazon for public mobile payment system.
  • Banco Bolivariano of Ecuador deploys mobile banking technology from Diebold Nixdorf.

Asia-Pacific

  • TurnKey Lender locks in new investment from OSK Ventures.
  • United Overseas Bank (UOB) of Singapore launches its Smart Business Transformation Programme for SMEs in Thailand.
  • Malaysia’s Maybank introduces its e-wallet service for cashless payments.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Veridium teams up with Blue Turtle Technologies to drive deployment of biometric technology in Africa.
  • Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) goes live in the U.K.
  • People’s Bank of Zanzibar launches new core banking system with technology from ICSFS.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Russia’s Alfa-Bank joins Marco Polo Network to offer blockchain-based trade and supply chain finance services to its clients.
  • Kontomatik earns license from Bank of Lithuania to operate as an AISP in 11 EU countries.
  • Palestine Islamic Bank to deploy Temenos Infinity and Temenos T24 systems as part of its digital transformation efforts.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Al Taif Islamic Bank to deploy Sharia-compliant, core banking technology from Finastra, Fusion Islamic.
  • Working group supported by TheCityUK and Turkish stock exchange Borsa Istanbul launch joint effort to promote Islamic fintech solutions.
  • Scoop Empire looks at the UAE’s role in foster innovation in fintech, especially with AI.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Jack Henry & Associates Inks Deal with First State Community Bank

Jack Henry & Associates Inks Deal with First State Community Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jack Henry

Missouri-based First State Community Bank (FSCB) has selected Jack Henry and Associates’ Commercial Lending Center Suite for its digital growth plans, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Jack Henry’s ProfitStars division said FSCB already uses the SilverLake System for its core banking.

“We’re looking forward to leveraging a commercial lending platform that will automate manual processes and enhance efficiencies as we continue to scale,” said Ben Wasson, vice-president and senior credit administration officer for FSCB. “We’re not just rolling out new technology, we’re implementing a modern way of doing business.”

The suite is digital loan origination platform that includes automated decisioning and portfolio management workflow.

FSCB is the largest banking organization headquartered in Southeast Missouri. It selected ProfitStars’ lending platform “because of its intuitive borrower experience, data integration and advanced portfolio management capabilities”.

“Commercial lending is often the most paper-intensive process in banking, which is off-putting for both borrowers and bank employees,” added Russ Bernthal, vice-president of Jack Henry and ProfitStars.

Founded in 1976, Jack Henry & Associates demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2015. The company is headquartered in Monett, Missouri. With a market capitalization of $10 billion, Jack Henry trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker “JKHY.”

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Averon, Jack Henry, Jumio, Ninth Wave, Optimove, OurCrowd, Salt Edge, Turnkey Lender, Vymo

On Finovate.com

  • Jack Henry & Associates Inks Deal with First State Community Bank.
  • Salt Edge Teams Up with UK-Based PFM App Emma.

Around the web

  • Fintech solution provider Ninth Wave announces full support for FDX API within its Ninth Wave Platform.
  • Global investment platform OurCrowd marks $1 billion raised milestone.
  • Optimove launches Optimove Streams to give markets insight into campaign performance testing.
  • Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers joins Averon’s advisory board.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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“Hello USA!” eToro Goes Live in America

“Hello USA!” eToro Goes Live in America
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eToro

eToro is taking its social trading platform and cryptocurrency wallet to the States.

“For the first time, Americans can collaborate with other crypto traders when making buying and selling decisions,” eToro CEO Yoni Assia said. “Users can adjust their trading strategies by watching and learning from others on the platform.”

The company, a six-time Finovate Best of Show winner, demonstrated its CopyFunds for Partners technology at FinovateEurope 2017. Now known as CopyPortfolios, the solution enables investors to own a group of assets, aggregated based on specific market strategies. For the U.S. launch, three cryptoasset CopyPortfolios will be available initially.

eToro’s U.S. launch will enable customers in 32 states to trade and invest in six cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRO, and XLM. Additional cryptocurrencies are expected in the new future, with as many as 13 different digital assets and multi-asset trading enabled by the first quarter of 2020.

Left to right: Tal Ben-Simon (VP of Product) and Yoni Assia (CEO & Founder) demonstrating social trading technology at FinovateEurope 2017.

eToro customers can access the wallet feature from their existing eToro accounts, and transferring coins from trading accounts to the wallet is just a one-click process. Users can also securely send and receive cryptoassets via QR code or by sharing their wallet address.

“(eToro) acts as a bridge between the old world of investing and a blockchain-powered future, helping our users navigate and benefit from the transition to cryptoassets for wealth building,” Assia said. “People create the eToro experience and now Americans will play a major role in shaping our community and future.”

With more than 10 million registered users, eToro enables traders and investors to leverage the insights of top traders in the community to make better decisions in the financial markets. The platform supports a wide range of assets, from stocks and ETFs, to currencies, indicies, and commodities – including cryptocurrencies.

eToro makes it easy for traders to follow the best performing traders with its CopyTrader technology, and gives eligible winning traders the opportunity to earn as much as 2% annually on their assets as part of eToro’s Popular Investor Program.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, eToro has raised $222.7 million in funding. The company includes Spark Capital, Social Leverage, BRM Capital, Cubit Investments, and CommerzVentures GmbH among its investors.

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GreenKey Technologies Secures Strategic Investment from IPC

GreenKey Technologies Secures Strategic Investment from IPC
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Green Key Technologies

GreenKey Technologies (GK) and IPC have strengthened their relationship with a strategic investment that gives IPC exclusive rights to GreenKey’s machine learning voice solutions. The deal combines GK’s markets and customer insight extraction technology with IPC’s trading communications background and cloud-based financial ecosystem of more than 6,400 market participants.

“IPC and the OTC market at large have recognized the value in our patented natural language processing solutions,” GreenKey CEO Anthony Tassone said. “GK’s rapidly growing team looks forward to refining the exclusive synergies created by this partnership. He thanked IPC CEO Bob Santella for his “mentorship and guidance through the next phase of GK’s evolution.”

Tassone will become an IPC advisor as part of the strategic investment, with Santella joining GK’s board of directors. Former GreenKey CEO Nader Shwayhat will return to the company’s advisory board.

IPC and GreenKey have a history. The two companies collaborated as recently as last month to develop technology that will convert real-time voice into useable data for financial market participants. GreenKey’s speech recognition and natural language processing platform turns complicated financial jargon and terminology embedded in real-time audio and text into actionable insights. The platform also helps sell side firms automate sales and trading workflows by converting unstructured communication streams into structured data solutions.

IPC will deploy GreenKey’s technology to its IPC Unigy 360 platform to transform voice quotes and trades into a streaming transcript in real-time that is visible on the trader’s desktop. And by matching quotes and trades to conversational text, the technology provides an enhanced real-time price feed that unifies communications among market participants for greater visibility and more efficient trading.

“Our investment in GreenKey is a powerful step in furthering financial services market transformation through artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and data optimization innovation,” IPC’s Santella said.

GreenKey Technologies participated in our developers conference, FinDEVrNewYork 2016, demonstrating its voice software and VoIP network solution. Founded in 2014, and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, GreenKey – in partnership with IPC – won the 2018 American Financial Technology Award (AFTA) for Best Partnership or Alliance in December.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alfa-Bank, Arcanum Technology, Avaloq, CRIF, eToro, Green Key Technologies, Klarna, Ping Identity

On Finovate.com

  • GreenKey Technologies Secures Strategic Investment from IPC.
  • “Hello USA!” eToro Goes Live in America.

Around the web

  • Russia’s Alfa-Bank joins Marco Polo Network to offer blockchain-based trade and supply chain finance services to its clients.
  • Credit and business information systems specialist CRIF acquires majority stake in digital identity firm Inventia.
  • Klarna partners with Canadian e-commerce and in-store point-of-sale financing specialist PayBright.
  • Ping Identity wins Best Identity Management Solution at the 2019 SC Awards.
  • Arcanum Technology named a finalist in the competition for a spot in the TAG FinTech Innovation Challenge’s 2019 class.
  • Avaloq joins the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA).

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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TurnKey Lender Locks in New Investment from OSK Ventures

TurnKey Lender Locks in New Investment from OSK Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Turnkey Lender

TurnKey Lender, a Singapore-based digital solution provider for non-bank lenders, just closed a Series A1 round led by Malaysian private equity firm, OSK Ventures International. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

The company plans to use the capital to support growth objectives in the U.S., Europe, and Southeast Asia. Vertex Ventures, who led the company’s previous $2 million funding round in 2017, and Western NIS Enterprise Fund also participated in the Series A1.

Company CEO Dmitry Voronenko called the funding a “vote of confidence” in TurnKey Lender and its momentum over the past year. Calling technology access the key factor in credit access, Voronenko said the goal of the company was to make it easier for “banks, non-bank lenders, and alternative lending companies around the globe” to access AI-powered digital lending technology.

Founded in 2014, TurnKey Lender demonstrated its SaaS solution at FinovateSpring 2017. The technology supports the complete loan lifecycle, from application processing to collection and reporting, fully automating the process for lenders. The platform readily integrates with both internal and external data sources and services, and leverages advanced scoring of applicants to reduce credit risk.

TurnKey Lender won Best SME FinTech SaaS Software Company in Singapore at Acquisition International’s Business Excellence Awards earlier this year. The company was also named a top auto loan origination platform by HCCResearch. Last month, TurnKey Lender co-founder and Head of Business Development Elena Ionenko was shortlisted for the Women in Credit Awards sponsored by Credit Strategy.

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