Daon Announces Strategic Partnership with Giesecke+Devrient

Daon Announces Strategic Partnership with Giesecke+Devrient
  • Digital identity company Daon has forged a strategic partnership with security technology firm Giesecke+Devrient (G+D).
  • The partnership will combine Daon’s identity verification and biometric authentication technology with Giesecke+Devrient’s digital security product suite.
  • Founded in 2000, Daon made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York.

Digital identity specialist Daon and security technology company Giesecke+Devrient announced a strategic partnership this week. The agreement will combine G+D’s offerings with Daon’s identity verification (IDV) and biometric authentication capabilities, enhancing Giesecke+Devrient’s security product suite and bringing Daon’s IDV and biometric solutions to a broader range of customers.

“G+D has a long history of innovation across a wide range of security solutions ranging from bank cards to Central Bank Digital Currency; they launched the first commercial SIM card and delivered the world’s first commercial eSIM,” Daon CEO Tom Grissen said. “We are proud of Daon’s collaboration with G+D which facilitates the introduction of new scalable, secure identity verification and biometric solutions to millions of users across a wide range of industries and use cases.”

The partnership between Giesecke+Devrient and Daon will provide companies—including those in financial services and in merchant ecosystems—with identity continuity throughout the entire customer journey, from onboarding to recovery. In addition to offering fraud prevention tools like biometric watchlists and technologies such as deepfake detection, the partnership will also enable companies to offer advanced verification and eSIM capabilities to mobile operators. Matching Daon’s TrustX platform with G+D’s eSIM management platform will give mobile network operators (MNOs) a single solution for securing eSIM issuance and portability.

“Security has always been at the core of G+D’s mission. By combining Daon’s leadership in digital identity trust with G+D’s expertise in secure digital transactions, this global partnership delivers more than just protection—it enables seamless identity continuity across all customer touchpoints,” Giesecke+Devrient CDO Gabriel von Mitschke-Collande said. “Our layered approach provides multiple opportunities to detect and prevent fraud, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory and accessibility standards. Together, we’re setting a new benchmark for both security and user experience in digital identity.”

Munich, Germany-based Giesecke+Devrient offers solutions for digital security, financial platforms, and currency technology. An innovator in the card and digital payments industry, G+D orchestrates real world payment and banking experiences with human-centered security technology. With a workforce of more than 14,000, G+D has 123 subsidiaries and joint ventures in 40 countries. The firm counts more than 700 commercial banks around the world and 145 central banks among its partners. Founded in 1852, the company generated a turnover of three billion euros in fiscal year 2023.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, Daon made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York. In the near-decade since then, the company has secured more than two billion identities. Daon conducts more than 250 million daily authentications and serves hundreds of millions of users on six continents.

Daon’s partnership news with Giesecke+Devrient comes weeks after the company announced that it was working with financial services digital transformation solutions provider Digital.FI. Together, the two companies will provide small- and medium-sized financial institutions with enterprise-level identity continuity, enabling them to provide secure, frictionless member experiences across every channel.

Also this spring, Daon reported that it had entered a strategic partnership with conversational intelligence for customer experience (CX) innovator CallMiner. The collaboration will combine advanced identity verification with AI-powered conversation analytics to help streamline the identification process for call centers while providing active fraud prevention via real-time voice analysis and biometric identifiers.


Photo by Andreas Leindecker

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic
  • ACI Worldwide introduced its new, centralized payment hub, ACI Connetic.
  • The new offering integrates the capabilities of major global payment networks including Swift cross-border and RTGS payments into a single, cloud-based platform.
  • Headquartered in Florida, ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011.

ACI Connetic, ACI Worldwide’s new centralized payment hub, was unveiled this week. The solution integrates major global networks’ payment capabilities—including Swift cross-border payments, RTGS payments including Target2, SEPA Instant RT1, and TIPS payments, with more capabilities to be integrated later. This brings account-to-account (A2A) payments, card payments, and AI-powered fraud prevention into a unified, cloud-native platform that gives banks an easier, faster, and more cost-effective way to modernize their payment infrastructures.

“ACI Connetic is not just a new product, it is a new standard for how banks must operate in the digital economy and approach payments transformation,” ACI Worldwide CEO and President Thomas Warsop said. “Against the backdrop of increasing payments complexity, the rise of new technologies and a shifting regulatory environment, ACI Connetic empowers financial institutions to unlock new revenue opportunities and navigate compliance in order to drive growth and financial inclusion.”

Already gaining traction with financial institutions in both the US and Europe, ACI Connetic enables these businesses to consolidate siloed systems and benefit from a centralized approach to processing all payment types. The offering comes as Datos Insights recently championed the benefits of centralized payment processing. In its report, Datos contended that centralized payment processing streamlines operations, enhances efficiency, and helps support growth. ACI noted that it is already working with the world’s leading clearing and settlement systems including the Bank of England, Pay.UK, ECB, EBA Clearing, and Stet, as well as Swift, the US Federal Reserve, and The Clearing House to integrate their payment functionalities into ACI Connetic.

“We built ACI Connetic to give banks a future-proof foundation to meet the ever-increasing demand for faster, smarter, and secure payments,” ACI Worldwide head of product for banking and intermediaries, Scotty Perkins, said. “Built for scalability, intelligence, and resilience, ACI Connetic empowers banks to reduce complexity, accelerate product innovation, and deliver new solutions to their customers in an unprecedented way and at unprecedented speed.”

ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011, when the company joined MShift on stage at FinovateFall in New York. ACI Worldwide is also an alum of our developers conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016. Today, the company serves the top 10 banks in the world, enables 80,000+ merchants directly and through PSPs, and provides services such as billpay and payments intelligence. ACI Worldwide has more than 6,000 customers around the world, and annually processes 25 billion cloud transactions and 225+ billion consumer transactions.

ACI Worldwide’s new product news comes just days after the company announced that CIMB Bank had selected its technology to combine all its account-to-account transactions—real-time, ACH, RTGS, and cross-border—in a single payments platform. CIMB Bank is the second largest financial services provider in Malaysia and one of the leading banking groups in the ASEAN region.


Photo by DΛVΞ GΛRCIΛ

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

As the holiday-shortened week begins, we’re learning that analysts expect UK hiring in fintech to boom in 2025. Meanwhile in the US, is the CFPB about to “86” open banking?

We’ll keep you covered on all the latest fintech news here in Finovate’s Fintech Rundown!


Payments

Fintech platform Adyen goes live with Tap-to-Pay on iPhone in seven European markets.

Flywire accepted into global luxury travel group Virtuoso.

Palla secures $14.5 million Series A funding to drive expansion and innovation in cross-border payments.

DeFi / Crypto

Worldpay teams up with BVNK to offer stablecoin payouts.

Volante Labs launches Volante Card, a Web3-enabled prepaid card for salary payments.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget unveils yield-bearing stablecoin asset, BGUSD.

Garanti BBVA Crypto goes live with its new mobile app.

Investing / Wealth Management

River Valley Credit Union partners with InvestiFi to offer cryptocurrency and securities investing.

Blend360 and Fin Capital partner to accelerate enterprise innovation.

Hidden Road launches digital asset swaps prime brokerage for the US market.

Identity management

Identity verification specialist Sikoia wins the 2024 Innovation Labs programme, along with Credit Canary and Aperidata.

Metro Credit Union partners with Illuma to enhance security and streamline member authentication.

Communications

Eltropy launches office phone to unify telephony for CFIs.

Customer data

Plaid introduces Transactions for Business to help power real-time business tools.

Fraud and security

ParaScript enhances check fraud detection capabilities with advanced endorsement reading feature.

Fenergo launches FinCrime operating system with Agentic AI layer to supercharge productivity.


Photo by Rohi Bernard Codillo

Finovate Global Germany: Funding for Startups and Financing for Sellers

Finovate Global Germany: Funding for Startups and Financing for Sellers

This week’s edition of Finovate Global showcases fintech news from companies operating in Germany.


Aufinity raised $26 million in Series C funding

A specialist in the field of payment management for the automotive market, Aufinity Group announced this week that it has successfully completed a $26 million Series C round of funding. The round was led by BlackFin Capital Partners, and featured re-investments from current investors PayPal Ventures and Seaya Ventures. The German fintech will use the funds to power its European expansion and to help forge partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

“With this round, we are focusing on accelerating our growth across Europe even further, “Aufinity Group Co-Founder and CEO Lasse Diener said. “Through new strategic partnerships with leading OEMs and by continuing our focus on dealerships, we are preparing to redefine the industry standard for the whole of Europe.”

Aufinity Group’s eponymous platform offers car dealers and OEMs a digital payment management solution that is optimized and white-label-capable. The technology serves both vehicle sales and after-sales, and features optimized payment processes to provide faster incoming payments, greater liquidity and efficiency, and a superior customer experience. Founded in 2018, Aufinity Group is headquartered in Cologne; the company pointed to growing demand for its technology and a successful expansion to Italy and Spain in 2024 in explaining its goal to pursue more international markets in 2025.

“Our core business in Germany is already solidly positioned,” Diener added. “However, the high level of interest from the international market has prompted us to push ahead with our expansion into more countries earlier than planned, which is a great market confirmation for our business and platform.”


YouLend and eBay Germany team up to help finance marketplace sellers

Embedded financing platform YouLend has partnered with eBay Germany to provide integrated financing to sellers on the platform. Part of the eBay Seller Capital Program, the partnership will enable German eBay sellers to access pre-approved financing of up to €2 million ($2.26 million). Financing is based on the sellers’ performance data, and does not require an additional, separate application process.

“Sellers benefit from a chain reaction: quicker inventory restocks, improved product listing, or targeted marketing leading to greater visibility, higher sales, and more growth opportunities—all of which can be financed through YouLend,” Leonard Strigel, YouLend General Manager Germany, said. “This cycle of funding, growth, and reinvestment helps increase seller revenues.”

The partnership will give sellers personalized, pre-approved financing offers, informing them of exactly how much capital they are eligible for before they apply for funding. Direct integration of YouLend’s technology into the eBay platform supports a seamless application process that is “simple, digital, and reliable,” Strigel added.

Founded in 2016, YouLend launched in the UK and Ireland in 2018, entered Europe in 2022, and went live in the US the following year. In 2024, YouLend announced a £4 billion financing investment from J.P. Morgan.

eBay has maintained a presence in Germany since the company’s 1999 takeover of auction platform Alando. eBay Germany currently has more than 150 million visits per month.


German expense management platform Circula secured €15 million

An extended Series A round has given Berlin-based, AI-powered expense management platform Circula €15 million ($17 million) to help bring autonomous finance workflows to medium-sized business in Germany and beyond. The investment will enable the firm to boost its AI capabilities and offer additional automation features for finance teams.

Participating in the funding were existing investors Alstin Capital, Capnamic Ventures, Peak Capital, Wenvest Capital, and Storm Ventures. CIBC Innovation Banking also participated in the investment.

“We have a clear goal: to become Germany’s AI-based champion in expense and spend management for small and medium-sized businesses,” Circula CEO Nikolai Skatchkov said. “With hundreds of millions of euros in transaction volume, hundreds of thousands of active users, and the trust of countless tax advisory firms, we are in an ideal position to realize our vision of a seamless workday for finance teams in the coming years.”

Circula, founded in 2017, counts firms such as Aston Martin, DATEV, and Securitas among its customers. The company’s modular SaaS platform streamlines business expense management with features including AI-powered receipt capture, automated tax-compliant data extraction, and real-time booking verification. More than 150,000 workers throughout Europe rely on Circula’s technology to manage their business travel expenses, credit card transactions, employee benefits, and more.

Circula’s announcement comes at a time when less than 9% of medium-sized businesses in Germany report fully automating their expense workflows, according to research from ERP firm Diamant. In contrast, Circula captures 70%+ of employee expenses when they happen, and enables companies to reduce manual work by 80% and reduce monthly closing cycles.

“Circula is transforming traditional paperwork into smart, AI-powered processes—setting new standards in digital expense management,” CIBC Innovation Banking Director Charlotte Goggin said. “We are excited to support this growth.”


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • CIMB Bank, Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider, teamed up with payments technology innovator ACI Worldwide.
  • Singapore-based payments platform Airwallex raised $300 million in Series F funding at a valuation of $6.2 billion.
  • Philippine-based universal bank EastWest Bank turned to Temenos to modernize its core.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Payment infrastructure company areeba and digital banking solutions provider Foo forge strategic partnership to enhance digital payments in the Middle East.
  • Zawya looked at how the Qi card is bringing greater digitization to Iraq’s financial services industry.
  • Egyptian-based digital lending marketplace Qardy agreed to be acquired by Catalyst Partners Middle East (CPME) via SPAC.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean


Photo by anna-m. w.

Talking Fintech: A Preview of Interviews, Q&As and Conversations from FinovateSpring

Talking Fintech: A Preview of Interviews, Q&As and Conversations from FinovateSpring

Over the three days of FinovateSpring earlier this month, Finovate analysts and their partners hosted a number of off-stage interviews with CEOs of demoing companies, keynote speakers, event sponsors, and more. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll begin rolling out these conversations here on the Finovate blog as part of our Streamly Speaker Series interviews.

For now, here’s a quick preview of what we’ve got in store for you:


Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn in conversation with:

John Iannarelli, The Voice of Cyber & Security, FBI John

Rob Thatcher, Founder and CEO, BankShift

Yamini Sagar, CEO and Founder, Instarails

Javier Pérez García, Global Director, VASS Financial Services


Research Analyst David Penn in conversation with:

Bhoomika Ghosh, Senior Tech Product Lead, Amazon Prime

Jim McCarthy, Founder and Chairman, McCarthy Hatch

Jackie Wylie, Head of Marketing, Middesk

Brandon Min, Founder and CEO, Herd Security

Will Dolan, President, TAPP Engine

Aman Kaur, Corporate Sales Manager, Americas, DataSniper

Mohammad Rashid, SVP, Head of Fintech Innovation, Tavant


William Mills, CEO and Creative Director, William Mills Agency, in conversation with:

Adrian Nazari, CEO, Sesame

Christy Wong and Michael Larson, VP of Business Development and COO, covet.life

Sharon Gai, Author, Culture Fluid


Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc, in conversation with:

Christopher Hollins, Global Head of Product Sales and Design, SVB, a division of First Citizens Bank

Alisa Rusanoff, Head of Credit / Trade Finance, Crescendo Asset Management

Stratyfy Teams Up with Parlay to Help SMEs Access Capital

Stratyfy Teams Up with Parlay to Help SMEs Access Capital
  • New York-based credit decisioning company Stratyfy forged a strategic partnership with loan intelligence system Parlay Finance.
  • Together the two companies will help banks and other financial institutions provide a more seamless onboarding and underwriting experience for their small business borrowers.
  • Stratyfy won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2022. Parlay demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2024.

Credit decisioning specialist Stratyfy and loan intelligence system Parlay Finance announced a strategic partnership this week. The alliance will offer frictionless onboarding and underwriting experiences that enable more banks to serve a larger number of qualified small business borrowers. The combination of Stratyfy and Parlay’s technology will also give small businesses actionable insights they need in order to more easily secure funding.

“Our technology is designed to help lenders make better credit decisions by uncovering signals often overlooked by traditional approaches,” Stratyfy CEO Laura Kornhauser said. “Combining that with Parlay’s strength in surfacing opportunities and accelerating small businesses through the loan application process is a powerful match.”

Stratyfy provides AI-powered solutions for credit, compliance, and fraud teams to help them modernize lending. A specialist in decision optimization for financial institutions, Stratyfy helps lenders access new markets, reduce costs, and encourage growth with less risk. Parlay’s AI-powered platform streamlines digital onboarding, verification, and qualification to enable lenders to more efficiently provide Small Business Administration (SBA) and small business loans. The company’s technology integrates with loan origination systems to increase both volume and profitability.

Combined, the two solutions provide an underwriting solution that automates workflows, boosts performance, and enhances risk-adjusted returns. The partnership has already yielded results with teams from Stratyfy and Parlay collaborating on a joint client engagement: a community lender seeking to increase success rates for entrepreneurs who have been historically underbanked.

“Parlay empowers lenders to digitally onboard and verify small business information while providing applicants with personalized financial insights,” Parlay Finance CEO Alex McLeod said. “Teaming up with Stratyfy extends that value through the full credit lifecycle, helping lenders match with and support the businesses they’re best suited to serve.”

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, Parlay Finance demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2024 in San Francisco. The company showed how its embedded fintech software, Parlay Protocol, helps financial institutions generate more high-quality loans and provides technical assistance to small business applicants. Lenders working with Parlay have benefited from a 64% boost in approved loans and an 87% reduction in manual, underwriting workloads. Most recently, Parlay announced a partnership with Mastercard and JAM FINTOP to expand its services nationwide.

New York-based Stratyfy won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its UnBias technology that enables financial institutions and fintechs to discover and undo bias in complex financial decisions including during the underwriting process.


Photo by Chevanon Photography

Quadient and Nuvei Forge Strategic Technology Partnership

Quadient and Nuvei Forge Strategic Technology Partnership
  • Business automation platform Quadient has inked a strategic partnership with payments company Nuvei.
  • The partnership will integrate Nuvei’s advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud-based Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) automation solutions.
  • Headquartered in France, Quadient most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2018.

France-based business automation platform Quadient has announced a strategic partnership with payments company Nuvei. The collaboration is designed to enhance cloud payment capabilities for businesses around the world, and will integrate Nuvei’s advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud-based Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) automation solutions.

“We’re empowering businesses to modernize and take control of their financial processes,” Quadient Chief Solution Officer, Digital, Chris Hartigan said. “With our cloud platform, we’re helping businesses streamline workflows, gain deeper financial insights, and build stronger relationships with customers and suppliers, driving efficiency and sustainable growth to succeed in an increasingly digital and regulated marketplace.”

Integrating advanced global payment capabilities with customer onboarding, pay-ins and payouts, and risk management, Quadient helps businesses better manage cash flow, align payment terms, and move away from manual and siloed processes to streamlined, more efficient workflows. This is a challenge for more than half of small- and medium-sized businesses that rely on fragmented processes to handle their finances. To address this, Quadient offers a unified, scalable, cloud-based platform that automates accounts receivable and accounts payable over multiple currencies, payment options, and geographic regions.

“By integrating our advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud platform, we’re enabling businesses to seamlessly manage transactions across multiple currencies and payment methods through a single, unified solution,” Nuvei Chair and CEO Philip Fayer said. “We look forward to supporting Quadient as it empowers its customers with customized solutions to accelerate their growth.”

Founded in 2003, Nuvei offers modular, flexible, and scalable technologies that enable companies to accept next-generation payments, provide pay-outs, and take advantage of card issuing, banking, risk, and fraud management services. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Nuvei supports 150+ currencies, more than 700 payment methods, and operates in 50+ local markets and 200+ global markets. Philip Fayer is Chair and CEO.

Quadient made its Finovate debut in 2013, as GMC Software. The company rebranded to Quadient in 2017 and returned to the Finovate stage that year and again in 2018. Quadient’s partnership news comes just days after the company reported that it was working with Stasher, a UK-based luggage storage platform. The partnership will help significantly expand Stasher’s network in the UK, giving travelers in major UK cities such as London, Birmingham, York, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, and Manchester secure and accessible luggage storage via 1,640+ Parcel Pending by Quadient smart lockers.

Quadient currently has more than 25,700 smart locker units installed in the US, Japan, and Europe. The company hopes to deploy 40,000 units by 2030.


Photo by Maël BALLAND

Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI

Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI

Temenos has been all over the fintech headlines in recent days. Here’s a look at what’s put them—and kept them—above the fold.

First up, the company announced that UK-based international payments provider Moneycorp has chosen Temenos SaaS to boost operational efficiency and launch new offerings faster—a theme in this roundup of news from the Swiss fintech. Moneycorp will leverage Temenos SaaS for core banking and payments and is specifically looking to take advantage of the technology’s advanced wallet and payments capabilities as it focuses on expanding its products and services globally. Moneycorp currently operates in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

“Best-in-class technology is key to delivering the seamless client experience and personalized service that Moneycorp is known for, so we’re delighted to partner with Temenos, an established global leader in banking technology,” Moneycorp Group Chief Technology Officer Srini Kasturi said. Kasturi praised the company’s multi-geographic support and localization, as well as the SaaS nature of the platform, which he said would help Moneycorp quickly go to market globally and better serve its international customers.

Moneycorp handled £71 billion in trading volume in 2023, serving 11,000 B2B clients, 250 financial institutions, and 23,000+ individual customers. The firm processes more than one million payments a year, reaching 190 countries.

In addition to the new partnership, Temenos also announced new personnel in its C-suite. The company introduced Rohit Chauhan as its new Chief Technology Officer earlier this month. Chauhan will lead development of the company’s overall technology strategy, innovation, research, and development. In this role, he will be tasked with boosting the flexibility of the Temenos platform to advance the company’s core banking and modular solutions for financial institutions large and small. Chauhan was most recently Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Channels Technology at JPMorgan, where he held various leadership positions for more than 12 years.

Accompanying Chauhan’s announcement was the appointment of Eugene Khmelevsky in the newly created role of Temenos Global Head of Architecture and Data. Formerly Chief Mobile Architect at JCPenney, Khmelevsky in his new role will ensure Temenos’ architecture and data foundation support a product strategy that is modular and flexible.

Both Chauhan and Khmelevsky will be based out of the US and report to Temenos’ Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) Barb Morgan.

Lastly, Temenos launched its Temenos Product Manager Copilot this week. The new offering empowers banks to use Generative AI to design, launch, test, and optimize financial products faster. The solution is a Gen AI assistant that is integrated into Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and embedded within the Temenos retail core banking solution. The Copilot provides a straightforward, conversational interface for product, IT, and customer service managers, who can use the technology to review the range of Temenos’ core banking capabilities and insights.

The new offering announcement was accompanied by a report from a recent Temenos study that indicated that 75% of banks are investigating Gen AI deployment. Of those surveyed, 36% had already deployed the technology or were in the process of deploying it. The study also revealed that 73% of those surveyed believed that Agentic AI will be “transformative for the banking industry.”

“Temenos Product Manager Copilot unlocks the full innovation potential of Temenos core banking using Generative AI to help banks deliver better products faster to their customers,” Temenos CPTO Barb Morgan said. “We are excited to bring this game-changing technology to financial institutions globally. In an area where fintechs and neobanks can launch new offerings within weeks, it is critical for banks to accelerate innovation or risk losing relevance in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos has been a Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope 2013. The company is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015. Temenos offers core banking, digital banking, payments, and wealth management services, as well as financial crime mitigation solutions. Temenos has more than 950 core banking and 600 digital banking clients around the world, and is among the largest software companies in Europe. Jean-Pierre Brulard is CEO.


Photo by Anokhi De Silva on Unsplash

Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion

Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion

Atlanta, Georgia-based Entersekt announced a new strategic partnership with paytech solutions provider Stanchion. The partnership will combine Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution with Stanchion’s Payment Fabric Technology. Stanchion’s technology provides advanced integration capabilities that enable issuers to offer new functionalities to help them modernize, transform, and accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency.

“We are excited to partner with innovative fintech leaders like Stanchion,” Entersekt Chief Revenue Officer Marty Overman said. “This collaboration aligns perfectly with Entersekt’s commitment to delivering secure, seamless payment solutions that empower financial institutions and protect consumers globally.”

Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution provides end-to-end transaction authentication across the merchant acquirer domain, the card issuer domain, and the interoperability domain. The company reports that its access control server (ACS) has delivered a 70% reduction in card-not-present (CNP) fraud within one month, and a 54% increase in conversion rates over six months. Additionally, Entersekt’s ACS provided a 149% growth in transaction value within the first year. The technology leverages out-of-band, biometric, and silent authentication to enhance the customer experience with reliable authentication and adaptive risk intelligence. Entersekt acquired the 3-D Secure software technology business from Modirum, a Finland-based security technology firm, in 2023. The move was designed to position Entersekt as an international leader in authentication solutions for financial services companies.

“We are delighted to partner with Entersekt, one of the world’s foremost 3-D Secure providers,” Stanchion Chief Commercial Officer Chris Pappas said. “This collaboration will enable us to offer enhanced capabilities and deliver even greater value to our clients, reinforcing our position as a leader in payment integration solutions.”

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Stanchion offers a range of solutions and services to help firms integrate, manage, optimize, and secure their payment systems. Founded in 2001 and maintaining offices in Australia, the UK, the UAE, and the US, as well as in South Africa, Stanchion’s solutions include Verto, a next-generation integration and orchestration platform for banks and payment providers; and SwitchCare, a proactive monitoring and observability solution. Stanchion also offers Professional Services in the form of platform-agnostic advice and support during the development and integration of new payment environments. Steven Kirrage is CEO.

Entersekt made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. In the decade-plus since then, Entersekt has grown into a leading fraud prevention and payment security solution provider for banks and other financial institutions. Founded in 2010, the company processes more than 2.5 billion transactions for 250+ million cardholders and 450,000+ merchants from nearly 900 banks in more than 70 countries. Entersekt’s flagship solution, its cross-channel Context Aware Authentication platform, secures digital transactions and helps optimize the user experience.

Earlier this year, Entersekt announced that Clare Conway had joined the company as Chief Integration Officer. Conway comes to Entersekt after serving as Chief Operating Officer for partnership automation platform, Partnerize. Also this year, Entersekt announced a new collaboration with Africa-based payment services provider enza. The paytech will leverage Entersekt’s 3-D Secure authentication to bring stronger security, fewer false declines, and seamless payment experiences to banking customers in Africa. Banks in the region will benefit from greater competitiveness, and the ability to expand to new markets and pursue new revenue sources. Schalk Nolte is Entersekt CEO.


Photo by Joey Kyber on Unsplash

eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership

eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership
  • Trading and investing platform eToro has partnered with French life insurance leader Generali to offer life insurance and a French retirement savings plan called a PER to customers in France.
  • The partnership comes days after eToro went public in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
  • Founded in 2007, eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances.

Stocks, bonds, and … life insurance?

That’s the deal that trading and investing platform eToro has struck with French life insurance provider Generali this week. The partnership between eToro and Generali will enable the platform to offer its users in France life insurance and a PER (Plan d’Épargne Retraite), a tax-advantaged French retirement savings plan.

The PER and life insurance contracts available through the alliance with eToro Patrimonie, eToro’s local subsidiary, provide both managed and self-directed options to serve a range of retail investor preferences and risk tolerances. Investors can also build their own investment allocations by choosing from among 500 different mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and dated bond funds.

“Introducing savings solutions for eToro’s users in France and opening a local subsidiary underscore our commitment to strengthen our footprint in a key market for the business,” said Julien Nebenzahl, President of eToro Patrimoine. “With these new products, we want to empower retail investors to build a robust savings portfolio that allows them to grow their wealth for the long-term.”

Among France’s leading insurers and asset managers, Generali France offers a range of insurance solutions including life, property, health, liability, and assistance coverage. The firm also provides wealth and asset management services to its eight million retail, professional, and corporate clients. Founded in 1832, the institution reported a revenue of €19.2 billion in 2024.

“We are delighted to support eToro, a globally recognized investment player, in the launch of its subsidiary in France and its savings offering,” Corentin Favennec, Partnerships Director at Generali Patrimoine, said. “Our 100% digital PER and life insurance products, which complement each other, perfectly fit into eToro’s value proposition to serve the wealth management needs of the French people.”

The launch of eToro’s new insurance offering comes in the wake of a number of product releases announced for the company’s customers in France. Last year, eToro enabled trading in local currency for eToro Money EUR accounts. The company also expanded the number of French-listed stocks from Euronext Paris that could be traded on the eToro platform. The insurance news in France also comes as eToro makes its debut as a public company on the Nasdaq. eToro raised nearly $310 million in its IPO last week, giving the platform a market capitalization north of $5.4 billion. The company’s successful offering was hoped by many to be a sign of resurgent strength for the IPO market.

Founded in 2007, eToro is a trading and investing platform with 40 million registered users in 75 countries. eToro’s customers can use the platform to buy and sell assets from 20 global stock exchanges, as well as trade and invest in more than 70 cryptocurrencies. A pioneer in collaborative investing, eToro offers a CopyTrader feature that enables users to automatically copy the buying and selling of other, more experienced, investors in real time.

eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances beginning in 2011. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2017.


Photo by Martijn Adegeest

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

The UK is looking to regulate Buy Now, Pay Later lenders. Meanwhile in the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reducing fines on previous enforcement actions. It’s a tale of two very different regulatory trends depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

We’ve got the latest regtech news along with the rest of the top headlines in fintech right here in this week’s edition of the Fintech Rundown!


Payments

Ripple reports that Zand Bank and fintech platform Mamo have deployed its blockchain-enabled payments solution, the first UAE-based financial institutions to do so.

French fintech Next Generation chooses enterprise platform Fireblocks to power its payment ecosystem.

Global Payments unveils new POS command center for business operations, Genius.

PayPal launches its Complete Payments service in Singapore.

Albertsons Companies offers invoice-based payment for its business customers courtesy of its partnership with TreviPay.

AAA Life Insurance partners with payments network One Inc. to support digital payment processing.

Digital banking

Finovate Best of Show winner Tuum launches suite of Islamic Banking solutions to enable financial institutions to offer more Sharia-compliant banking products.

Fraud prevention

Money and safety app for families, Greenlight, introduces Family Shield to help caregivers protect seniors from financial fraud.

Identity verification and fraud prevention services provider AU10TIX launches continuous AML risk monitoring.

MRI Software integrates Nova Credit’s Income Navigator into its fraud prevention and application qualification solution.

DeFi / crypto

Non-custodial stablecoin wallet MiniPay is now available as a standalone application on iOS devices.

Investment / wealth management

U.S. Bank Global Fund Services turns to Fenergo to digitize and streamline its investor onboarding and service experience.

Regtech

Risk management company EverC launches its AI-powered risk assessment solution for marketplaces, Smart Scan.


Photo by Martin Damboldt

Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.

The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.

Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.

To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.

Torus most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in February.


What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?

Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.

How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.

Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?

Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.

We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.

Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.

What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?

Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures. 

Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.

We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.

Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.

What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.

Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.

We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
  • Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
  • Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and The Knoble co-launched an anti-scam guide and cost calculator.
  • MENA-based virtual assets trading platform BitOasis expanded to Bahrain.
  • The government of Dubai partnered with Crypto.com to enable crypto payments for government fees.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Forbes profiled Razorpay co-founder Harshil Mathur.
  • Pakistani fintech ABHI partnered with UAE-based LuLuFin to enhance financial inclusion and remittance solutions.
  • Indian fintech unicorn Moneyview readies for an initial public offering.

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash