ShieldPay and Checkout.com Unite to Further Secure B2B Transactions

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Checkout.com and Shieldpay announced a partnership this week. The collaboration will bring Checkout.com's merchant clients more transaction processing options, including digital escrow. This official partnership announcement comes a year after Checkout.com and Shieldpay first started collaborating.

Global payments platform Checkout.com and digital payments solutions provider Shieldpay have aligned this week. The two have joined forces to offer B2B merchants more transaction processing options.

In addition to straight-through processing, or processing transactions without manual intervention, merchants using Checkout.com will have access to Shieldpay's payment engine and digital escrow capabilities. Shieldpay's technology helps businesses add trust, transparency, and extra security when conducting transactions online. In an era when digital payments fraud is at an all-time high, it is essential for both the buyer and the seller to instill trust in the payments process, especially when dealing with high-value transactions.

"Together with Shieldpay, we’re bringing our merchants even more value and flexibility for…

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ACI Worldwide Appoints Thomas Warsop Interim CEO

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news

Real-time payments software company ACI Worldwide has appointed Thomas Warsop as its Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Warsop was formerly the non-executive Chair of the ACI Worldwide Board of Directors. He replaces Odilon Almeida, who was the company's CEO from March 2020 until now. Almeda was named CEO after Philip Heasley - who had served as CEO and President for 15 years - retired. Independent board director Adalio Sanchez will assume the role of non-executive Board chair.

"As ACI advances its vision to lead the real-time payments revolution, the Board is determined that now is the right time to transition to a new leader focused on accelerating our technology transformation and delivering operational excellence across our business," ACI Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair Mary Harman said.

A member of the company's board of directors since the summer of 2015, Warsop became non-executive chairman seven years later in June…

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Q3 M&A Highlights: Deal Volume Down, Number Trending Up

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions

2022 is marking the beginning of an economic downturn. Consumers are feeling the pain associated with high inflation, corporations are seeing decreased stock performance, and startups are experiencing lower funding amounts, lower valuations, and lower M&A numbers.

We recently reviewed FT Partners' Q3 Quarterly Fintech Insights Report to take a look at how M&A activity in the third quarter of 2022 is tracking when compared to years past.

The volume of fintech merger and acquisition activity in the first three quarters of 2022 has so far totaled $116 billion. This is down significantly when compared to the volume the sector saw last year, which totaled $349 billion. In fact, the 2022 year-to-date amount is the lowest M&A volume since 2017, when M&A volumes totaled $90.5 billion.

When it comes to the number of deals, FT Partners found that there have been 998 fintech M&A deals so far this year. This…

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SEON Launches Free Fraud Prevention Tool

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

SEON is giving away its fraud prevention tools for free. The free tier will include up to 2,000 API calls each month at a rate of two queries per second. "We’re determined to tackle fraud head on," said SEON CEO and Co-founder Tamas Kadar. "This version will help us to serve a greater number of online businesses than ever before, and it is a major step towards building a truly fraud free world."

Online fraud prevention platform SEON's mission is to democratize the fight against online fraud for businesses of all sizes. Today, the Hungary-based company is furthering its efforts toward this goal by giving away fraud prevention tools for free.

The Forever Free version of its online fraud prevention software will support up to 2,000 API calls each month at a rate of two queries per second and includes email support from SEON's customer service agents.

"We’re determined…

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FutureTech Friday: Bank of Ireland’s Eco-Friendly Cards; Zurich’s Climate-Focused Fintech Incubator; and More!

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Sometimes "futuretech" means technology that helps ensure that we actually have a future!

This week we're taking a look at recent initiatives in the fintech world to help promote sustainability. These efforts have been growing as more and more companies respond to customer concerns about the impact of their financial behavior on the climate. From technology that helps consumers measure and track their carbon footprint to new payment cards that eschew plastic for renewable, environmentally-friendly materials, businesses in the fintech industry have pursued a wide variety of strategies in support of "climate consciousness."

The news that the Bank of Ireland has begun issuing new bio-sourced debit cards is one of the latest examples of this trend. The cards are made from 82% bio-source renewable materials such as field corn and decompose in months - compared to plastic, which lasts for hundreds of years. The cards will be available to both…

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Fintech Innovation in the Heartland: Our Conversation with JobsOhio’s Ron Rock

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Speaker series

The role of state-based organizations in helping foster fintech innovation in their communities is often overlooked. For years, one such organization, JobsOhio, has helped bring attention to the opportunities available to fintech entrepreneurs throughout the state of Ohio. The private development corporation also works to encourage investment in the state's most innovative businesses - from advanced manufacturing to insurtech. As remote work has expanded in recent years, more and more founders and professionals have turned from Silicon Valley and New York to cities in states like Ohio to launch new businesses and begin new careers.

This year at FinovateFall we sat down with Ron Rock, Senior Director of Insurance/Insurtech with JobsOhio to talk about the organization's role in driving fintech innovation in Ohio, and what the Buckeye State has to offer both fintech entrepreneurs and fintech investors.

Below are a few excerpts from our conversation. Watch the entire interview…

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Moneythor Launches Wealth Management Engagement Solution

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Digital banking solutions provider Moneythor launched a new engagement tool for wealth managers. The new offering is designed to help wealth managers leverage client data to create more personalized experiences that help customers build their wealth. Moneythor was a finalist in this year's Finovate Awards in the "Best Fintech Partnership" category.

Moneythor, a Finovate Awards finalist this year in the "Best Fintech Partnership" category (in collaboration with Standard Chartered), unveiled a new tool for wealth managers this week. The offering is an add-on module to its data-driven personalization and digital engagement solution, and is designed to help wealth managers increase loyalty and NPS, as well as lower the costs and boosting revenues.

Moneythor's digital engagement tool aggregates a sizable range of user data - from retail accounts and payment cards to lending products and investment portfolios, and more. This data is then processed by the Moneythor platform to generate…

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MX and Orum Partner for Instant Money Movement

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MX

Open banking company MX and real-time payments player Orum have formed a partnership. The agreement integrates Orum's money movement API with MX's instant account verification and balance check capabilities. Combining these technologies will enable fintechs to embed real-time payment capabilities into their own offerings.

Open banking company MX announced a partnership with real-time payments player Orum this week that will enable it to provide real-time payments and money movement capabilities for fintechs.

The agreement integrates Momentum, Orum’s money movement API, with MX’s instant account verification (IAV) and balance check capabilities. This combination will enable fintechs to embed instant payments capabilities for transactions in any direction, at any time.

"More than ever, fintechs and verticalized payments companies are looking for innovative solutions that automate and simplify money movement, from unlocking instant and risk-mitigated on and off ramps, to optimizing the customer experience through instant availability of funds and payouts," said Orum…

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Lloyds Banking, Legal & General Take Minority Stake in Open Data Innovator Moneyhub

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Moneyhub

Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group have invested $40 million (£35 million) in open data and payments platform Moneyhub. Along with the equity capital, Moneyhub received an additional $5.7 million (£5 million) debt facility courtesy of Shawbrook. Moneyhub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2015 in London. Samantha Seaton is CEO.

The $40 million (£35 million) in funding raised by open finance and payments platform Moneyhub will give minority stakes to investors Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group. The two backers will leverage their relationship with Moneyhub to enhance their own offerings with Moneyhub's open data technology. At the same time, the capital, along with an additional $5.7 million (£5 million) debt facility courtesy of Shawbrook, will enable Moneyhub to speed development of its products in areas ranging from pensions and payments to affordability and Data-as-a-Service. The funding will also support Moneyhub's plans to further international expansion.

…

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5 Tales from the Crypto: MoneyGram Partners with Coinme, Paxos Earns License in Singapore

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinme, Cryptocurrency, MoneyGram

MoneyGram Lets U.S. Customers Go Crypto

MoneyGram is enabling its customers in (nearly all of) the U.S. to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies via their MoneyGram apps. Three cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) - are the digital assets available courtesy of the new service. MoneyGram expected to offer other cryptocurrencies in 2023.

"Cryptocurrencies are additive to everything we're doing at MoneyGram," Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes said. "From dollars to euros to yen and so on, MoneyGram enables instant access to over 120 currencies around the globe, and we see crypto and digital currencies as another input and output option."

The new service is made possible thanks to MoneyGram's partnership with licensed crypto exchange, crypto-as-a-service provider, and new Finovate alum Coinme. The company's alliance with Coinme extends back to 2021, when the two firms teamed up to expand access to cryptocurrencies by establishing thousands of…

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Bluefin Payment Systems Acquires TECS Payment Systems

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, Mergers & Acquisitions

Payment and data security company Bluefin Payment Systems announced it will acquire TECS Payment Systems, an omnichannel payment solutions provider.

Once the deal is finalized, Bluefin and TECS will serve a combined 34,000 merchants and close to 300 global partners in 55 countries. And for both Atlanta, Georgia-based Bluefin and Austria-based TECS, the acquisition will expand their geographical footprint.

"We are delighted to welcome TECS’ employees, customers and partners to Bluefin," said Bluefin CEO John M. Perry. "This combination brings together two companies that focus relentlessly on meeting merchant needs for next-generation payment processing and management as well as the secure exchange of PHI and PII data with PCI-validated encryption and tokenization."

Bluefin will leverage the purchase to offer its customers omnichannel payments and smartPOS capabilities, which will be integrated into the company’s existing payments and data security suite. TECS clients will benefit from added data security solutions, as well as…

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U.S. Bank Unveils Embedded Payments Solution Courtesy of Microsoft Collaboration

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, US Bank

U.S. Bank launched a new suite of embedded payments solutions within Microsoft Dynamics 365. The collaboration embeds U.S. Bank payment capabilities across Microsoft platforms. U.S. Bank said it plans to embed additional payment capabilities within platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Power Platform.

U.S. Bank's collaboration with Microsoft announced earlier this year has borne fruit: the bank has introduced a new suite of embedded payments solutions within Microsoft Dynamics 365. The integration embeds U.S. Bank payment capabilities across Microsoft platforms. It also makes U.S. Bank among the first financial institutions to take advantage of the opportunity of directly integrating into the popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) and finance solution.

Among the solutions available to businesses using Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the U.S. Bank AP Optimizer. Available directly from their business application, the technology gives treasury management teams the ability to automate invoice processing for both business and consumer…

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