Author: David Penn

KlickEx and IBM Leverage Blockchain Technology to Improve Cross-Border Payments in the South Pacific

KlickEx and IBM Leverage Blockchain Technology to Improve Cross-Border Payments in the South Pacific
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: IBM, KlickEx

FinovateAsia alum KlickEx is partnering with public blockchain network builder, Stellar, and fellow Finovate alum, IBM, to improve cross-border payments for emerging markets, particularly in the South Pacific. Already processing live transactions in 12 currency corridors in the region, the solution will use IBM Blockchain to accelerate clearing and settlement on a single network in near real-time for consumers and merchants in countries like Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji.

“This is the first time anyone has made blockchain work at an institutionally viable scale,” KlickEx Group founder and CEO Robert Bell said. Underscoring KlickEx’s experience in facilitating inexpensive, real time, multi-currency payments in the area, Bell said, “this project was a natural next step following our work to create seamless and borderless payments across the Pacific.”

More than 12 banks from Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, and Thailand are participating in the development and deployment process. Stellar.org’s network enables near real time settlement by issuing digital assets that serve as a foreign exchange bridge. KlickEx is the partnership’s founding financial institution for the area, supporting FIs and retail customers on the network. Planners believe that up to 60% of all cross-border payments in the South Pacific’s retail foreign exchange corridors could be processed by the network by early 2018.

In a post at the KlickEx blog, Bell put this week’s announcement in the context of his company’s long-term focus on bringing better payments processes to regions “outside our major global banking corridors.” He wrote: “In the 90s I saw first-hand the need to help Pacific Island nations including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu improve their financial infrastructure.” He added, “We have pioneered the use of mobile apps and other emerging technologies to provide convenient, low-cost and accessible solutions to help Pacific communities with banking transactions.”

IBM presented its blockchain-based technology at our developer’s conference last year, discussing Implementation of the Hyperledger Project at IBM with Blockchain As A Service at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. The company is also a Finovate alum, having recently demonstrated its Customer Insight for Banking solution at FinovateFall 2016, while the company’s security division introduced its cognitive approach to fraud detection, IBM Trusteer Rapport, at FinovateSpring 2017.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New Zealand, KlickEx demonstrated Crypto-Currency 2.0, a new global asset-backed currency for central banks, at FinovateAsia 2013. Remember Finovate returns to Asia next month for FinovateAsia 2017. To learn more about joining us in Hong Kong, November 7 and 8, visit our FinovateAsia page today.

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IBM Partners with Dream Payments on mPOS, B2B Payments

IBM Partners with Dream Payments on mPOS, B2B Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dream Payments, IBM

IBM has teamed up with Toronto-based firm Dream Payments, bringing its cloud and security capabilities to help the firm offer mobile point of sale solutions and business-to-business (B2B) payments, reports Antony Peyton of Banking Technology (Finovate’s sister publication).

Chad Whittaker, CIO Dream Payments, said: “The combination of IBM’s banking and financial services expertise along with the IBM Cloud has allowed Dream Payments to build and scale its cloud infrastructure, right down to bare metal hardware access, maintain bank grade security, PCI compliance, and data sovereignty.”

Dream Payments will also be protected using IBM Managed Security Services, including IBM QRadar on Cloud, a network security intelligence and analytics offering, to detect and take action against cybersecurity attacks and network breaches.

According to IBM, the technology will establish cloud intelligence with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) as a Service to defend the organization’s security infrastructure from threats.

Dream is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and has operations in Stamford, Connecticut. Founded in 2014, the company demonstrated its mPOS solution at FinovateSpring 2015. Dream Payments has raised $15 million in funding – including a $10 million Series A this spring – and counts Fair Ventures, Connecticut Innovations, and Real Ventures among its investors. Learn more about Dream Payments in our Finovate Debut profile.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, IBM, identitii, iSignthis, Jack Henry, KlickEx, TSYS

On Finovate.com

  • KlickEx and IBM Leverage Blockchain Technology to Improve Cross-Border Payments in the South Pacific.
  • Dwolla on Designing a New System for Financial Inclusion: Mojaloop.
  • ACI Launches Payments Risk Management Solution to Boost Fraud Protection.

Around the web

  • TSYS introduces its merchant services company ProPay in Australia.
  • Jack Henry & Associates partners with SAS to bring its cloud-based analytics solution to regional and community banks.
  • iSignthis announces integration of Tradefinancial.com.au into its ISCPay transactional banking platform.
  • Identitii’s Software-as-a-Serice offering goes live on Microsoft Azure cloud.

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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Wave Brings Business Services to Royal Bank of Canada’s Online Banking Platform

Wave Brings Business Services to Royal Bank of Canada’s Online Banking Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Wave

O Canada, indeed! Yesterday we shared the news that National Bank of Canada was joining Toronto-based SecureKey’s Digital Identity Network. Today we learn that Wave – a small, business financial management (BFM) solutions provider also from Toronto – has signed a deal that will integrate its invoicing, accounting, and business financial insights technology into Royal Bank of Canada’s online banking platform.

Pointing to the wide range of responsibilities shouldered by small business owners, Wave CEO and co-founder Kirk Simpson said, “By embedding Wave’s complete small business tools into RBC’s online business banking platform, small business owners now have one single destination to manage their financial life.” Wave’s financial software and services, which include free invoicing, accounting, payment processing, receipt scanning, and more, are currently used by nearly three million businesses worldwide.

Left to right: Wave CEO and co-founder Kirk Simpson and VP of Small Business for RBC Jason Storsley demonstrating Wave embedded financial software for FIs at FinovateFall 2017.

“We’re always exploring how we can use emerging technologies to simplify the complex issues our small business clients face and help them achieve their goals,” VP of Small Business for RBC, Jason Storsley said. “This means a small business owner can spend more time being the CEO of their business and less time being the CFO,” he added. Royal Bank of Canada is the largest bank in the country based on market capitalization ($113 billion). The bank’s 81,000 employees serve more than 16 million retail, business, public sector, and institutional banking clients in Canada, the U.S., and in 35 other countries.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Wave demonstrated its embedded financial software for FIs last month at FinovateFall 2017. The company has raised more than $79 million in total funding, and includes NAB Ventures, BDC IT Ventures, and CRV among its investors. In June, Wave introduced automatic payments for customers living in areas where Payments by Wave credit card processing is supported. This spring the company unveiled a variety of enhancements to its mobile invoicing solution, adding the ability to duplicate invoices, import contacts from your smartphone, and instant address auto-complete.

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Contextual Commerce Platform Omnyway Raises $12.75 Million in Series A

Contextual Commerce Platform Omnyway Raises $12.75 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Omnyway

In a round led by Nyca, CommerzVentures, and CEFIF, augmented digital commerce platform Omnyway has raised $12.75 million in new funding. The Series A will give Omnyway (formerly Omnypay) the ability to launch new services, expand operations, and add to its customer base both in the U.S. and around the globe.

“To keep up in this fast-moving, mobile-first (and soon, mobile-only) world, retailers need tools that speak to how people want to shop and engage today,” Omnyway CEO Ashok Narasimhan said. He added that the funding would enable the company to “continue innovating on today’s fundamentally different retail experience.”

This retail experience involves putting mobile at the center of the shopping experience. The company’s platform helps retailers leverage in-store, online, and in-app interaction channels, as well as virtual aisles and dynamic media to engage customers in a dynamic, digital, and thoroughly omni-channel way. Available as a white-label solution, the technology integrates readily with both legacy back-end systems and existing mobile apps, and has been used by retailers like Kohls to add payment functionality to their apps.

Amitaabh Malhotra, Chief Marketing Officer for Omnyway, demonstrating the Zapbuy plugin for banking apps at FinovateFall 2017.

More recently the company has earned recognition for its Zapbuy service, which the company demonstrated during its debut at FinovateFall last month. Zapbuy enables shoppers to purchase items directly from an advertisement simply by clicking on the ad itself. “Zapbuy utilizes the latest in contextualization, personalization, and frictionless checkout techniques to offer an uplift in ROI from advertising budgets while also maximizing revenue,” Omnyway CMO Amitaabh Malhotra explained from the Finovate stage.

Malhotra showed how the platform guided the shopper from a digital ad they had clicked on to a pop-up window that featured credentialed payment options featured such as a bank as well as a QR code. After making their payment selection, the shopper simply locates and chooses the “Zapbuy” option, which opens up the camera on the shopper’s mobile phone so they can photograph the item’s QR code. A confirmation page provides the shopper with all the information about the transaction – including applied rewards or discounts, points earned, shipping address, etc. –  before they make the final purchase.

“We are allowing financial institutions to participate in a new revenue stream which is associated with affiliate revenue and advertising revenue that otherwise would not have been available,” Malhotra said. “Secondly we are also making their credentials top of wallet for that particular user. So every time they come back to that particular type of ad or interface, they are able to make the purchase again using the same credential and any other financial benefits you want to offer them.”

Founded in 2014, Omnyway is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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National Bank of Canada Joins SecureKey’s Digital Identity Network

National Bank of Canada Joins SecureKey’s Digital Identity Network
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: SecureKey

At the beginning of the year, SecureKey announced that it had won an $800,000 grant from the U.S., Department of Homeland Security in support of the company’s development of a blockchain-based digital identity network. Today, the Toronto, Ontario-based authentication specialist unveiled the latest institution to join that network: the National Bank of Canada.

“Adding National Bank to our digital identity network is critical to the success of our ecosystem and brings us one step closer to ensuring consumers are able to prove who they say they are, in person, online, and over the phone,” President and CEO of SecureKey Technologies Greg Wolfond said. Speaking for National Bank, Lionel Pimpin, SVP of Digital Channels, Personal and Commercial Strategies called SecureKey’s network “innovative in the online verification process,” adding that the company’s “blockchain technology will ensure people connect conveniently and privately to their trusted online services.”

With $240 billion in assets, National Bank joins a handful of Canadian FIs that have partnered with SecureKey, such as BMO, CIBC, RBC, and Scotiabank. When the network is fully operational, consumers in Canada will be able to opt-in to the service with their mobile device and use their trusted digital identity credentials that users have established with their preferred partner institution. SecureKey’s network uses IBM’s Blockchain service on top of open source Hyperledger Fabric from the Linux Foundation.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, SecureKey demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2012, having won Best of Show two years earlier. The company partnered with IT business and consulting firm Levio last month to add identity authentication services to the latter’s digital transformation projects in Quebec, Canada. Named to Planet Compliance’s RegTech Top 100, SecureKey has raised more than $90 million in total funding and includes Blue Sky Capital and Intel Capital among its investors. Finovate Director of Strategy Lisa Moyle highlighted SecureKey in her look at blockchain and digital identity earlier this year.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, BancPass, Doxo, Entrepreneurial Finance Lab, FICO, Finastra, iSignthis, Narrative Science, nCino, Omnyway, P2BInvestor, SecureKey, SpyCloud, Taulia, Trusted Knight

On Finovate.com

  • National Bank of Canada Joins SecureKey’s Digital Identity Network.
  • P2Binvestor Launches Bank Partnership Program.
  • doxo Surpasses 30,000 Payable Billers on its Platform
  • Contextual Commerce Platform Omnyway Raises $12.75 Million in Series A.

Around the web

  • ConnectOne Bank ($4.7 billion in assets) to deploy nCino’s Bank Operating System.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with European clearing and settlement firm, STET, to bring real-time payment solution to PSPs.
  • FICO reports increased accuracy of its Enterprise Security Score when it comes to predicting data breaches.
  • Finastra moves its payments solution to the cloud via Microsoft Azure.
  • Trusted Knight partners with eTECH Channel.
  • CloudTrade and Taulia partner to enable businesses to transition to paperless invoicing.
  • iSignThis’ ISXPay initiates further Australian card acquiring/processing contracts.
  • BancPass announces license agreement with mobile tolling provider PayTollo.
  • EFL a finalist in the 2017 MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge.
  • Datanami article on bot technology features insights from Narrative Science CEO Stuart Frankel.
  • MoneyMarketing highlights SpyCloud in a look at the safety of life and pensions company data.

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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Trustly Teams Up with Emric to Broaden Payment Options for Businesses

Trustly Teams Up with Emric to Broaden Payment Options for Businesses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Trustly

Instant payments and real-time authentication checks are coming to business clients of Nordic software provider Emric courtesy of a new partnership with Trustly.

Emric CEO Pedram Tadayon pointed to Trustly’s strong presence in Europe as a key feature of the new relationship with the Swedish payments innovator. “Our ambition is to act as a single platform provider for online banks and financial institutions and with that comes the demand of pre-existing integrations to leading FinTech providers in Europe, where Trustly is one of the strongest players,” Tadayon said.

Trustly’s technology will help Emric clients – financial institutions that develop and manage loans, mortgages, asset finance, and leases – lower the risk of fraud and missed payments, as well as provide end users with easier application and repayment processes. This will enable these FIs to pursue more aggressive growth strategies, a point noted by Trustly CEO Oscar Berglund. “Emric has grown rapidly over the past few years, bringing new payment solutions to more than 60 businesses in 24 countries,” Berglund said. “Our technology enables Emric’s clients to access a new market with millions of potential new customers across Europe.” Emric is a part of Nordic software and services specialist Tieto, which acquired the company last fall.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Trustly demonstrated its Direct Debit solution at FinovateEurope 2017. The company provides cross-border payments between bank accounts at more than 3,000 banks in 29 markets in Europe, and connects businesses and consumers in verticals including financial services, e-commerce, and travel. In August, Trustly partnered with ecommerce payment provider Qliro, becoming a permanent online banking option for Qliro’s Qliro One. In May, the company announced a deal with Nordic online fashion retailer, Boozt.com.

Trustly has been recognized as one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies by both the London Stock Exchange and The Financial Times. The company has raised more than $27 million (€23 million) in total funding and includes BDC Venture Capital and Bridgepoint among its investors.

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Baker Hill Forges Partnerships with Allied Solutions, Experian

Baker Hill Forges Partnerships with Allied Solutions, Experian
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Baker Hill, Experian

With a pair of newly-announced deals, Baker Hill continues to deliver what company President and CEO John M. Deignan called “the cutting-edge technology and comprehensive analytical intelligence our clients need to compete and win in today’s lending environment.”

Baker Hill has partnered with Allied Solutions, which will refer Baker Hill’s suite of loan origination, risk management and business intelligence solutions to its FI clients. The partnership will also give Allied Solution’s 4,000 clients access to Baker Hill NextGen, the company’s cloud-based, end-to-end loan origination, portfolio risk management and decision support system. “Baker Hill’s platform is designed to accommodate the growing needs of financial institutions, and their consumers, by providing critical business insight and streamlined service,” Allied Solutions CMO Dave Underdale said. “(This is) something that can only empower financial institutions as they continue to grow and evolve their businesses.”

The company has also teamed up with Experian to give its clients access to Experian’s business credit services. Deignan said the partnership would leverage both companies’ strengths with regards to “mitigat(ing) credit risk while enhancing profitability.” Experian Business Information Services President Hiq Lee highlighted FIs’ growing reliance on data and predictive analysis, praising the agreement as a way to “ensure their clients receive comprehensive, third-party-verified information on 99.9% of all U.S. companies.”

Baker Hill serves nearly 600 FIs, including 20% of the top 100 banks and top 25 credit unions. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, the company demoed Baker Hill NextGen at FinovateSpring 2017. In September, the company teamed up with BOLTS Technologies to offer a streamlined account opening solution for FIs. The same month, Baker Hill announced that Kentucky-based People’s Bank and Trust would use its NextGen Statement Spreading to enhance its underwriting process.

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Safe Spaces: The Best of the Authenticators, Verifiers, and Fraud Fighters

Safe Spaces: The Best of the Authenticators, Verifiers, and Fraud Fighters
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AnchorID, BehavioSec, BillGuard, Dashlane, EyeVerify, IDscan Biometrics, Jumio, SecureKey, Silver Tail Systems, SpeechPro, Toopher, Trusona, Zoloz

Left to right: A representative from Alipay joins Tinna Hung, Director of Marketing for EyeVerify during a demonstration of Eyeprint ID at FinovateAsia 2016.

This month we’re highlighting the issue of security in fintech. Our first installment was our interview with ENVEIL CEO Ellison Anne Williams.

Today we use the lens of our Best of Show awards to take a look at companies innovating in the security space for financial services companies and institutions. Three security companies have won Best of Show awards in more than one conference. Biometric specialists EyeVerify and BehavioSec have both earned Best of Show trophies on three separate occasions. Interestingly, both companies won one of their Best of Show awards at FinovateAsia; BehavioSec in Singapore, EyeVerify in Hong Kong. (Speaking of FinovateAsia, remember that Finovate returns to the Far East November 7 & 8.)

Earning two Best of Show awards was Silver Tail Systems (now a part of RSA, the security division of EMC, which acquired the company in 2012). Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Menlo Park, company was a pioneer in leveraging real-time behavior analysis to spot and stop business logic abuse on financial institution websites.

BehavioSec CEO Neil Costigan demonstrating BehavioWeb and BehavioMobile at FinovateEurope 2014.

EyeVerify, which was acquired by Ant Financial last fall, announced in August that it was rebranding as Zoloz. In a blog post at the company’s website, CEO Toby Rush said the new company would be focused on providing a hosted identity platform geared toward the Asian market. “Underserved and underbanked consumers in this region are moving to mobile so quickly that they have leapfrogged biometrics adoption and identity services in other geographies,” Rush wrote. “The platform is centered around the idea that I am me, my phone should just know me, and my apps and services should know me – automatically, conveniently, and securely,” he explained.

Zoloz is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and was founded in 2012. The company most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2017.

BehavioSec, the behavioral biometric innovator, forged a partnership with Gemalto earlier this summer, to provide end-user verification and identity solutions as FIs increasingly embrace digital technologies. “Removing bottlenecks to achieve full digitization of a business goes hand-in-hand with conquering online fraud, through a layered an collaborative approach,” Costigan said. In May, BehavioSec teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Kount, integrating its behavioral biometric technology with Kount’s fraud management platform. A partnership with Appdome this spring produced AppFusion for BehavioSec, a solution that makes it easier for app developers to add behavior-based biometric authentication to their mobile apps.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, BehavioSec was founded in 2009. The three-time Best of Show winner most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2015.

Making it on the Finovate stage as a security solutions provider is one challenge. Taking home a Best of Show trophy as a company dedicated to helping stop fraudulent transactions, prevent unauthorized access, and create truly “safe spaces” in a connected world is quite another. Here is the full list of security companies that have won Best of Show awards at Finovate conferences.

FinovateFall 2017

FinovateSpring 2017

FinovateAsia 2016

FinovateFall 2016

FinovateEurope 2016

FinovateEurope 2015

FinovateFall 2014

FinovateSpring 2014

FinovateEurope 2014

FinovateAsia 2013

FinovateFall 2012

FinovateSpring 2012

FinovateFall 2011

FinovateFall 2010

Finovate 2009

FinovateStartup 2009

  • Silver Tail Systems (demo)

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, additiv, Baker Hill, Bill.com, Call Levels, Experian, Fenergo, nCino, NuData Security, Ondot Systems, Pendo Systems, Ripple, SocietyOne, Thomson Reuters, Xceptor

On Finovate.com

  • Bill.com Discloses September Investment Round, Doubles Total Funding.
  • SocietyOne Tops $350 Million in Loans.
  • Baker Hill Forges Partnerships with Allied Solutions, Experian.
  • Safe Spaces: The Best of the Authenticators, Verifiers, and Fraud Fighters.

Around the web

  • Fenergo announces partnership with four of Australia’s top five banks.
  • ACI Worldwide launches UP Real-Time Payments Solution.
  • Credit Agricole and TransferGo join Ripple’s blockchain network, boosting membership to more than 100 institutions.
  • Thomson Reuters unveils Fixed Income Callouts, a trading app for African bond markets.
  • Ondot Systems to provide two-way fraud alerts for debit cards processed by payments provider, Elan Financial.
  • Pendo Systems adds 25-year banking veteran Bill Woodley as a non-executive director.
  • Megabuyte initiates coverage of Xceptor with “superior” rating.
  • nCino enhances Treasury Management Sales and Onboarding Solution for greater flexibility, configurability and speed.
  • NuData picks up leader award from Javelin Strategy and Research.

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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NYMBUS Launches Digital-First Banking Platform, NYMBUS SmartDigital

NYMBUS Launches Digital-First Banking Platform, NYMBUS SmartDigital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: NYMBUS

With the release of NYMBUS SmartDigital last week, the core banking innovator has made it that much easier for financial institutions to go digital. “With the addition of SmartDigital,” NYMBUS president David Mitchell said, “financial institutions currently running obsolete technologies now have the ability to add a next-generation digital product suite.”

SmartDigital’s open architecture and flexible APIs enable FIs to readily integrate with third-party applications. With customer expectations increasingly driven by their UX with platforms like Facebook, Google, and Apple, NYMBUS’ digital-first banking solution will help FIs compete with both their rival FIs and fintechs. “The scale of digital disruption is unprecedented and digitalization is no longer an option for the banking industry,” Mitchell said. “It’s inevitable and a matter of survival.”

The launch of SmartDigital could also encourage wider adoption of NYMBUS’ flagship technology, its core banking platform, SmartCore.  Transition to SmartCore from SmartDigital is a seamless “turn(ing) on” of the core platform according to Mitchell, who stressed the importance of banks moving away from outdated systems. “We want all financial institutions that have been held hostage on their legacy technology to be able to upgrade and enhance their digital offerings now,” he said. The platform is live with more than 37 FIs around the world with more than 10 million daily end users.

Founded in 2015, NYMBUS demonstrated its core banking platform at FinovateSpring 2016. The Miami Beach, Florida-based company is also a veteran of our developer’s conference, having presented “NYMBUS: The Next Evolution of Core Processing” at FinDEVr New York 2016. NYBMUS has raised $28 million in total funding, including a $16 million venture round in February led by Home Credit Group.

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