Glia Brings Interactive Technology to NCR Voyix’s Mobile Solution

Glia Brings Interactive Technology to NCR Voyix’s Mobile Solution
  • NCR Voyix has teamed up with customer interactive technology company Glia.
  • Glia will integrate its unified interaction capabilities into the mobile version of NCR Voyix’s digital banking platform.
  • Glia has won Finovate’s Best of Show award 10 times, including in the company’s debut (as SaleMove) at FinovateFall 2015.

NCR Voyix’s mobile banking app just got a lot more interactive.

Courtesy of a partnership with Glia, NCR Voyix will enhance the mobile version of its Digital Banking platform with unified interaction capabilities. Glia’s ChannelLess Architecture enables seamless transitions between multiple interaction channels: from phone calls and digital messaging to chatbots, video chats, and SMS. Now a part of NCR Voyix’s mobile solution, the technology will help banks and credit unions boost customer and member engagement and loyalty.

Glia Chief Product Officer Jay Choi talked about the importance of the mobile channel for a younger, generation of financial services customers. “Forcing customers to exit the mobile app experience to receive guidance or support results in inefficiencies, delays in resolutions, and frustration for all involved,” Choi explained. “With the integration of our digital-first tools into the NCR Voyix mobile app, we are empowering banks and credit unions to overcome this challenge, instead providing instant, personalized and seamless engagement where customers and members already are.”

Among the FIs to deploy the technology are Texas-based 5 Point Credit Union, which has credited Glia’s solution for increasing staff efficiency, simplifying processes, and reducing fraud. The credit union also underscored how the technology enhanced its ability to communicate and engage with its members, improving in-app support.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, Glia won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 (as SaleMove). The company has gone on to win a total of 10 Finovate Best of Show awards, including in its most recent appearance on Finovate’s digital stage in 2021.

Last month, Glia unveiled its responsible AI platform purpose-built for financial services companies called Glia Cortex. The technology provides personalized self-service experiences at scale, helps agents become more productive, and gives managers new insights into agent/customer interactions. Among the solution’s early adopters is Service 1st Federal Credit Union, a Danville, Pennsylvania-based institution founded in 1975.

NCR Voyix was formed in October 2023 when NCR Corporation split into two entities. The company’s ATM business was spun-off as NCR Atleos. NCR Voyix is the successor to NCR Corporation, which demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2016 and again in 2017.


Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Kani Payments Teams Up with CLOWD9

Kani Payments Teams Up with CLOWD9
  • Reconciliation and reporting services provider Kani Payments has partnered with issuer processor CLOWD9.
  • CLOWD9 will leverage Kani Payments’ platform to power its data reporting and reconciliation capabilities.
  • Kani Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023.

Reconciliation and reporting services provider Kani Payments has inked a partnership with CLOWD9. The cloud-native issuer processor selected Kani Payments to power its data reporting and reconciliation capabilities and help the company manage the unique data standardization requirements faced by banks and fintechs alike.

CLOWD9 will use Kani Payments’ SaaS platform to collect and standardize transaction data, including both authorization and settlement data from payment schemes. The platform will enable CLOWD9 to report to clients across the payment value chain faster, as well as provide enhanced and easy-to-understand data customization and visualization via the Kani Payments’ portal dashboard. This will empower clients with the flexibility to configure data as they choose.

“The sweet spot is taking standard data, formatting it for the individual needs of our mutual clients, and accelerating reconciliations with it,” CLOWD9 Chief Product Officer Richard Wray explained. “Kani Payments are the experts in that area and their understanding of the depth, detail, and specializations within the payment data value chain is unsurpassed.”

Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., Kani Payments made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, the company demoed how its automated reconciliation and reporting platform provides fully automated reconciliations, as well as automated legal, regulatory, and scheme reporting. Kani CCO Marc McCarthy used the example of a simple transaction at a coffee shop to explain the myriad actors – issuing bank, network, processor – that play a role in managing the data of even an everyday purchase. “Each one of those organizations has a different version of that event,” McCarthy said. “We here at Kani Payments provide a reconciliation and reporting platform that helps each one of those actors to have compliance, to have validation of their data, and to have insightful reports of what they can see with their information.”

Earlier this year, Kani Payments announced a partnership with core banking platform Pismo. The collaboration makes Kani’s platform available to Pismo’s bank, marketplace, and fintech clients. Vishal Dalal, Pismo CEO for North America, EMEA, and APAC said that the partnership “will unlock useful insights to help (financial institutions) make better, more informed decisions, shaping a new era for banking and payments.”

Kani Payments was founded in 2018. Aaron Holmes is CEO. Holmes co-founded the company following tenures at Flex-e-card, Global Processing Services, and NBS Card Solutions (now Wirecard).


Photo by Daniel Smyth

Mastercard and Thought Machine Advance Their Partnership

Mastercard and Thought Machine Advance Their Partnership
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  • Thought Machine has extended its relationship with Mastercard.
  • The two are advancing their partnership to offer core banking and payment solutions to financial institutions.
  • The two first partnered in 2020, when Thought Machine participated in the Mastercard Start Path startup engagement program.

Core banking platform Thought Machine announced today it has extended its relationship with Mastercard this week.

In this latest venture, the two companies are advancing their partnership to offer core banking and payment solutions to financial institutions. Mastercard is integrating its network and digital solutions with Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform to help banks transition from their legacy core banking and payment technologies to cloud-native ones. Ultimately, the two hope the move will increase their efficiency, reduce costs, and create more integrated, personalized, and customer-centric experiences.

“As we expand our partnership with Mastercard, we plan to leverage their global presence and payment expertise to deliver our core banking and payment platforms to banks worldwide,” said Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor. “We are excited to simplify and enhance the modernization experience for complex banks worldwide and make it even easier for them to deliver sophisticated customer experiences.”

Today’s partnership also focuses on pay-now solutions. Specifically, the two will help financial institutions digitize debit cards linked to current accounts.

“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with Thought Machine, and they’re now our first strategic, end-to-end partner in the core banking space,” said Mastercard Europe President Mark Barnett. “We’re providing leading banks and financial institutions with a comprehensive core banking and card issuing solution that meets tomorrow’s payment needs, and we look forward to scaling our joint capabilities.”

Mastercard and Thought Machine first partnered in 2020, when Thought Machine participated in the Mastercard Start Path startup engagement program. In 2022, the two teamed up to develop Vault Payments, an issuer processing solution that leverages Mastercard’s cloud technology. Vault Payments supports various card and non-card use cases, tapping Mastercard’s extensive payment network with Thought Machine’s banking technology.

U.K.-based Thought Machine has raised $563 million in funding since it was founded in 2014. The company offers two main products: Vault Core, a tool that leverages smart contracts to help organizations design and build new financial products; and Vault Payments, a payments processing platform that enables banks to run all payment types for different payment methods, schemes, and regions across the globe. Among Thought Machine’s clients are Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Curve.


Photo by Mikhail Nilov

MTC FCU Teams Up with Mahalo Banking to Enhance the Member Experience

MTC FCU Teams Up with Mahalo Banking to Enhance the Member Experience
  • Greenville, South Carolina-based MTC Federal Credit Union has turned to Mahalo Banking to enhance its member experience.
  • Mahalo’s technology will bolster MTC FCU’s offerings, including online account opening, Skip-a-Pay, and Savings Jar.
  • Mahalo Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023.

MTC Federal Credit Union (MTC FCU), a credit union based in Greenville, South Carolina with assets of $292 million, has partnered with Mahalo Banking to enhance its member experience. Mahalo’s online and mobile banking solutions will power a range of member-centric features for the credit union, including a number of member-requested tools and services designed to streamline platform navigation and boost engagement.

“Mahalo’s committed member and core-centric focus, alongside their dedication to continuous innovation including security and neurodiversity solutions set them apart from other providers,” MTC FCU President/CEO William H. Love Jr. said. “Mahalo is a true partner in our endeavor to provide a comprehensive digital banking experience for our members while attracting new members looking for a state-of-the-art platform with an outstanding user experience.”

Among the enhanced self-service solutions that will be available to MTC FCU members in addition to online account opening are Skip-a-Pay and Savings Jar. Skip-a-Pay enables borrowers to defer loan payments for 90 days – over November, December, and January – when they make a donation of $36 to the MTC Federal Foundation. The foundation supports health and sustainability initiatives, funding for natural disaster relief, and financial education and scholarship awards. Skip-a-Pay eligible loans include personal, vehicle, recreational vehicle, ATV, motorcycle, and watercraft loans. Savings Jar is a round-up transactions feature that helps make saving an effortless part of everyday shopping.

“Our deep credit union ties enable our team to form strong bonds with the credit unions we serve, and that has been the case throughout our partnership with MTC Federal Credit Union,” Mahalo COO Denny Howell said. “Working with MTC Federal Credit Union allows us to deliver on what we do best, empowering the credit union with a member-centric platform that provides enhanced, user-friendly functionality and meets members where they are.”

Mahalo Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last year. At the conference, the company demoed its online banking solution that fully integrated comprehensive neurodiverse functionality directly into its platform. This innovation enables credit unions to support members who have unique needs ranging from color-blindness to autism, dyslexia, and epilepsy.

Founded in 2018, Mahalo Banking is headquartered in Troy, Michigan. The company’s June partnership announcement is only the latest deal the fintech has forged of late. Just a few weeks ago, the company reported that Texas-based Memorial Credit Union selected Mahalo as “an ideal partner to help transform and improve our digital offerings,” in the words of Memorial CU President and CEO Thomas Rogers. In May, Mahalo Banking partnered with Affinity Credit Union of Iowa. In April, the company announced that it was working with a pair of Michigan-based FIs: Gerber FCU and The Local CU.


Photo by David Martin Jr.

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

A holiday-filled week that began with Father’s Day, continues through Juneteenth, and brings us the first official day of summer.

Don’t be surprised if this week yields a lower than usual fintech news flow as the temperatures rise and the days stretch long. We’ll keep you posted if you decide to step outside and enjoy the season.

Payments

Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal forged a partnership with Lithuanian gaming marketplace Eneba.

eBay adds Venmo as a new payment option.

Qatar-based Doha Bank and Mastercard enter a long-term strategic partnership.

Digital payments platform CleverCards raises $8.5 million (€8 million).

Shift4 acquires a majority stake in Vectron Systems, one of the largest European suppliers of point-of-sale (POS) systems to the restaurant and hospitality verticals.

Cryptocurrency and DeFi

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit unveils support for Apple Pay on its Bybit Card.

Dennis Winter becomes Chief Technology Officer of Boerse Stuttgart Digital.

Velmie and Bitlocus partner to bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi.

E-commerce

E-commerce accounting platform Finaloop raises $35 million in Series A funding.

Digital banking

Spring Labs launched its AI copilot for fintechs, Raia.

Glia brings unified interaction capabilities to the mobile version of NCR Yoyix’s mobile banking app.

nCino unveils its new AI banking tool, Banking Advisor.

BBVA plans to launch a consumer digital bank in Germany according to a report in Bloomberg.

Personetics recognized by Celent as a Global Leader in Personal Financial Engagement (PFE) for Retail Banking.

3Rivers Federal Credit Union taps MeridianLink to enhance the member experience by offering digital lending and account opening.

Apiture launches Data Portal to enable community financial institutions to provide a personalized banking experience.

Lending

Real-time lending and payments solution provider Momnt introduces new CEO Chris Bracken.

Taktile and Ocrolus partner to unlock real-time underwriting for small business lenders.

Nova Credit partners with Royal Bank of Canada to help newcomers to Canada leverage their international credit history in Canada. 

Gynger secures $20 million in Series A funding to revolutionize corporate technology purchasing.

Investing

Brokerage-as-a-Service platform DriveWealth introduces additions to its senior leadership team.

Investment data management firm Finbourne raised $69.8 million (£55 million) in Series B funding.

French wealth management and financial advisory firm Ramify secures $11.8 million (€11 million) in Series A funding.

Identity and fraud management

Digital identity and identity fraud prevention solutions provider Signicat launches Face Authentication on its flagship MobileID product.

Fideo launches to fight fraud using real-time intelligence.

Capital.com partners with Trulioo to deliver customer onboarding.

Compliance

Sumsub and Finastra partner to strengthen banking industry compliance.


Photo by Jonathan Petersson

Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships

Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Egypt.


Egyptian fintech Sahl raised $6 million in funding

An investment of $6 million will help Cairo-based fintech Sahl pursue its expansion in Saudi Arabia. The funds – courtesy of a Series A round led by Ayady for Investment and Development and featuring participation from existing investors Egypt Pay, Delta Electronic Systems, and E-Finance – will also help support Sahl’s mobile bill payment platform.

Sahl enables users to pay for more than 50 services, including electricity, water, mobile bill payments, and more via NFC-enabled, rechargeable prepaid cards. The firm also offers B2B solutions: the company’s Services Gateway serves as a central hub to aggregate billpay services for other payment processors and digital apps, while Sahl’s Acceptance solution helps businesses accept online payments. Founded in 2020, Sahl is among the few Egyptian companies to directly integrate with government agencies and telecom operators.

Ultimately, the company plans to grow into a more comprehensive financial services provider. For now, Sahl’s growth strategy involves becoming the dominant force in the payments market for utilities companies – a market worth EGP 250 billion a year.

“At Sahl, we are committed to addressing the challenges faced by consumers in utility payments, starting with electricity and expanding to water, gas, telecom, and various other essential services,” Sahl CEO Abdullah Assal said. “Our innovative use of NFC technology eliminates the need for consumers to leave their homes to charge prepaid cards, saving valuable time and effort.”

Sahl serves more than 12 million customers a month and 15 million households in Egypt.


HSBC Egypt to launch $31.5 million fund for SME-based fintechs

You don’t have to be Sahl to feel as if good funding fortunes are coming your way. HSBC Egypt will launch a new $31.5 million (EGP 1.5 billion) fund dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses in the fintech sector. The fund, which will be managed by EFG Holding, has secured approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) as well as the backing of financial institutions such as the Suez Canal Bank. The fund is slated to go live in Q3 of 2024.

The focus on fintech is designed to take advantage of the spread of digital banking and payments in the region. But the initiative is part of a grander strategy by HSBC to encourage technological innovation and spur economic growth in Egypt.

Established in 1982, HSBC Bank Egypt supports a network of 100 branches and 20 mini-bank units throughout the country. The largest foreign bank in Egypt, HSBC Bank Egypt has total assets of approximately $7 billion and a market share of 7%.


Banknbox Egypt announced multiple strategic partnerships

Digital services and paytech provider Banknbox Egypt has inked strategic partnerships with banks and fintechs in eight countries so far in 2024. Backed by the Central Bank of Egypt, Banknbox has teamed up with firms and financial institutions in countries ranging from Iraq and Libya to Moldova and a number of African countries.

“We would like to thank the CBE for its continuous support in ensuring that Banknbox achieves its vision of transforming Egypt into a regional hub,” Banknbox Chairperson and Managing Director Bassem Mahmoud said.

Banknbox is a regional payment solutions and processor offering issuing and acquiring services, as well as value-added services such as billpay and fraud management. The company also offers integrated digital banking services, including mobile and internet banking, electronic wallets, eKYC and encoding services, and more. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Cairo, Banknbox began the year partnering with SWFT, a banking and finance platform for SMEs. The strategic partnership will give SMEs a suite of innovative banking solutions and tools for smart cash flow management.

“We believe that by uniting efforts with SWFT, we can revolutionize the way SMEs manage their finances,” Mahmoud said. “It’s a new opportunity for Banknbox to provide more services to the Egyptian market, relying on its regional platform in Egypt to serve companies and banks in the region. This strategic cooperation complements the company’s successes in achieving growth rates in the Egyptian market.”


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • International e-wallet service provider and payment gateway STICPAY integrated with India’s real-time payments system, UPI.
  • Pakistan-based consultancy Dellsons Associates partnered with UAE-based NymCards to expand into Pakistan and the Middle East.
  • Indian digital lending platform Fibe raised $90 million in Series E funding.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • Malaysia-based digital challenger Boost Bank launched its banking app.
  • Talino Venture Studios and Chemonics International unveiled an instant payment system, Higala, in the Philippines.
  • Indonesian B2B fintech Paper.id closed a Series B round led by Square Peg.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Telecommunications and mobile money services provider Airtel Africa teamed up with Network International for payment processing.
  • Central Bank of Kenya to issue payment licenses to fintech startups.
  • Is “passporting” the key to helping advance the growth of fintech in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Payment management solutions provider Paytiko announced expansion to Dubai.
  • ICYMI: Check out our Finovate Global interview with Michal Berdugo of Israel-based Citrusx.
  • Oman Arab Bank launched its direct debit service.

Photo by Tamer Soliman

Credit Karma to Acquire Tech and Employees from Mobility Risk Intelligence Company Zendrive

Credit Karma to Acquire Tech and Employees from Mobility Risk Intelligence Company Zendrive
  • Credit Karma has agreed to acquire technology and assets from Zendrive, a mobility risk intelligence provider.
  • Credit Karma has also brought on certain Zendrive employees, including the company’s CEO Dennis Ellis and its Co-founder and CTO Pankaj Risbood.
  • Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, were not disclosed.

Intuit’s Credit Karma announced today that it has agreed to acquire technology, assets, and select employees from mobility risk intelligence provider Zendrive. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Credit Karma will use the new technology to accelerate development and adoption of its auto insurance product, Karma Drive. Launched in December of 2020, Karma Drive leverages Zendrive to offer customers a telematics-powered, usage-based insurance savings opportunity based on their driving habits. After a 30-day driving trial, during which users receive continuous real-time feedback on their driving, they are offered a potential discount on a new policy from one of Credit Karma’s auto insurance partners.

Since launch, more than 6 million members have enrolled in the Karma Drive program, which has extended more than 4 million discounted policy offers from Credit Karma’s insurance partners. 

“We see opportunities to improve traditional telematics practices that lock consumers into a policy and track driving behaviors in a way that can potentially increase policy costs,” said Credit Karma’s Rory Joyce in a blog post announcement. “We have redefined and simplified consumers’ access to insurance discounts based on mobile telematics data. Karma Drive users can see if they can qualify for a discount from carriers without having to buy a policy or even engage directly with the insurer.”

As part of today’s deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, Credit Karma has acqui-hired certain Zendrive employees, including the company’s CEO Dennis Ellis and its Co-founder and CTO Pankaj Risbood. Credit Karma anticipates the new talent will help it to scale its telematics experience.


Photo by Peter Fazekas

Bud Financial Joins Akoya’s Open Banking Network

Bud Financial Joins Akoya’s Open Banking Network
  • Bud Financial, a data intelligence platform, has joined the open banking network of Akoya.
  • The move will help Bud Financial market its personalization solution and data insights to financial institutions.
  • Bud made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York last year.

Data intelligence platform Bud Financial has joined the U.S. open banking ecosystem of Akoya. The move will make it easier for the company to enable financial services companies to offer their customers hyper-personalized financial experiences. The new resources will also help FIs take advantage of new growth and revenue opportunities.

“We’re really excited to bring together Bud’s AI banking personalization with Akoya’s unique data aggregation capabilities,” Bud CEO and Co-Founder Ed Maslaveckas said. “Banks and fintechs that work with Bud can leverage a full stack solution, bringing all consumer data into one place with access to tools that understand the data. This means anyone within a financial institution can create hyper-personalized experiences or insights, improving cross and up-sell of products.”

The combination of Bud’s AI-powered data enrichment techniques and Akoya’s secure and scalable open finance network of trusted data providers will offer FIs a number of major benefits. These include the ability to offer personalization at scale, enhanced personal finance management, data-driven risk management and cash flow analytics, as well as other efficiency gains that are achievable thanks to deep insights into customer data.

“Increased transparency, enhanced customer experiences, and streamlined operations are just a few of the ways this partnership will deliver real value,” Akoya CEO Behram Panthaki said.

Bud is the second Finovate alum that Boston, Massachusetts-based Akoya has partnered with this year. Last month, Akoya announced a strategic partnership with white-label data platform 9Spokes, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. 9Spokes aggregates permissioned business data from multiple sources to help companies improve financial management and strategic decision-making. The Auckland, New Zealand-based firm was founded in 2012.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York, Bud made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its generative AI platform can transform bank data into a comprehensive financial picture with customer-level, transaction-level, and portfolio-level insights to power better decision-making. Bud securely enriches 300 million transactions a month and boasts that “zero” of its 100+ employees across four countries have access to client data.


Photo by Pixabay

eToro to Publish Investment Education Content on X

eToro to Publish Investment Education Content on X
  • Social investing and trading platform eToro has partnered with social media platform X.
  • eToro will publish investment education content on X, leveraging investment experts and thought leaders from its eToro Academy.
  • Founded in 2007, eToro has won Finovate Best of Show awards on each of its six Finovate appearances.

It may not be a step on the road to making X a payments superapp, but the decision to partner with eToro to publish investment education content on the social media platform is among the most interesting fintech/financial-related moves from X to date.

eToro and X announced this week that they are working together to provide investment content on the social media platform via video, posts, and Spaces. The content will consist of insights and analysis from thought leaders from the investing community who will discuss a combination of breaking financial news, top trends in finance and investing, as well as investment fundamentals live on the platform. The material will be free to all X users and will be available in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UAE.

“We believe that there is power in shared knowledge,” eToro Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia said. “It’s why we created a collaborative, social investment platform, and it’s why we prioritize financial education through our eToro Academy. Having been long-term collaborators with X, we are delighted to extend our partnership to provide more opportunities for financial learning and the sharing of investment insights on X.”

The partnership announcement comes with a renewed agreement for title sponsorship for X’s real-time Cashtag feature. This feature provides charting tools and data from TradingView on stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other assets, as well as the ability to trade and invest with eToro.

“Bringing eToro Academy to X is testament to the strength of the partnership we have built together and the continued growth of the financial investment conversation on X,” the social media platform’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said. “The continued success of our collaboration will bring more high-quality video content to the service, building on our innovation around cashtags and new features.”

To Yaccarino’s point about the growth of what used to be called “fintwit,” it’s worth knowing that there were more than 1.4 billion posts on X last year that were about trading or investing. This figure reflected year-over-year growth of 54%.

“We know that an increasing number of people turn to social media for accessible, relevant financial content,” Assia said. “It provides a forum for many who were excluded by more traditional channels. Partnering with X will enable us to deliver the very best in financial education to a global audience.”

Founded in 2007, eToro supports more than 35 million registered users and investors on its trading and investing platform. The company offers a collaborative investing community to help investors and traders learn the skills and develop the tools they need in order to reach their financial goals, whether through traditional assets or non-traditional assets. One of Finovate’s earliest and most popular alums, eToro won Best of Show in each of its six Finovate appearances from 2011 through 2017.


Photo by @coldbeer

Citi Launches Citi Real-Time Funding for Corporate Clients

Citi Launches Citi Real-Time Funding for Corporate Clients
  • Citi launched Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF), a real time funds transfer tool.
  • The new tool helps commercial clients move funds between cross-border accounts automatically, based on pre-defined rules.
  • Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF) is now available in Australia, Hong Kong, and the U.K.

Citi announced today that it is offering faster funds transfers for some clients. Today, the bank unveiled Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF), a real-time funds transfer tool that helps commercial clients move funds between cross-border accounts automatically, based on pre-defined rules.

Citi RTF is launching as part of the bank’s real-time treasury suite of solutions for corporate clients and is now available in Australia, Hong Kong, and the U.K. Citi plans to expand the capability to additional geographies later this year.

“With the introduction of Citi RTF, Citi continues to deliver best-in-class, real-time treasury solutions to help our clients remain competitive and agile,” said Citi Services Global Head of Liquidity Management Services Stephen Randall. “With the proliferation of instant payments and evolving business models, treasuries must be able to support rapidly growing, 24/7 cash flows. Citi RTF complements our existing treasury products like Real-Time Multibanking, On-Demand Sweeps and Real-Time Liquidity Sharing that are powering our clients’ journeys to real-time liquidity management.”

Because the funds transfer rules are set by the client, clients can tailor the solution to ensure that cash is available when and where it’s needed. Transfers between intercompany accounts can be done 24/7, including intraday, afterhours, weekends, and holidays. The new tool also offers clients complex cash forecasting and a consolidated view of their accounts, including intercompany loans and cash positions, in a single report.

As real-time money movement services become more prolific in commercial banking, they are poised to become indispensable components of sophisticated treasury management systems. The speed of money movement, combined with the increased visibility of real-time funds, offers businesses greater financial agility and strategic advantage.


Photo by Renel Wackett on Unsplash

AuthenticID Launches Deep Fake and Generative AI Detection Solution

AuthenticID Launches Deep Fake and Generative AI Detection Solution

Identity proofing and fraud detection company AuthenticID launched a new solution today to detect deep fake and generative AI injection attacks. 

An injection attack occurs when a fraudster injects a deepfake– which could be a synthetic document, video, facial image, or audio representation– into an identity verification workflow to spoof the system. This works to bypass traditional fraud detection and identity verification methods.

The company noted that it uses three, proprietary algorithms to prevent the majority of digital injection attacks that leverage AI-generated content. The three algorithms include visual fraud algorithms that detect counterfeit and synthetic elements, text fraud algorithms that detect errors within false documents, and behavioral algorithms that focus on activity during the ID capture and submission.

AuthenticID’s automated approach limits human bias and lag time from interfering in the detection and decisioning process. This enables the new solution to stop injection attacks and deep fake attacks in a matter of milliseconds. 

“The widespread availability of inexpensive, easy-to-use tools allows bad actors to create highly convincing fake identity documents and biometrics,” said AuthenticID VP Product Management Alex Wong. “Recent news stories have shown just how devastating these attacks can be to any organization. Our deep fake injection attack solution meets a critical need to determine the legitimacy of a user in this new era of technology.”

Despite the new technology’s level of sophistication, the company notes that its new algorithms are not a “silver bullet” to defend against injection attacks. That’s because fraudsters are perpetually evolving their tactics to circumvent new security methods.

Founded in 2001, AuthenticID offers identity proofing, ID verification, biometric authentication, and fraud shield tools to support the fight against cybercrime. Additionally, the company’s Identity Fraud Taskforce continuously develops new algorithms to improve AuthenticID’s identity decisioning engine to help identify and stop fraud.


Photo by Pedro Vit on Unsplash

Hawk Announces Series B Round Extension

Hawk Announces Series B Round Extension
  • Munich, Germany-based Hawk announced an extension of its Series B funding round this week.
  • The amount of the extension was not disclosed. But the anti-financial crime regtech said that the investment did increase its valuation.
  • Hawk made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2022.

Germany-based regtech Hawk announced an extension of its Series B funding round. The amount of the extension was not disclosed, but the company noted that the investment did significantly boost its valuation. The extension included funding from Rabo Investments, and also featured participation from existing investors BlackFin Capital Partners, Sands Capital, DN, Picus, and Coalition. Hawk will use the additional capital to fuel international growth and to help the firm meet growing demand for its AI-powered anti-financial crime solutions.

“We’re honored that Rabobank has recognized the significance of our technology and joins us in building a global market-leading enterprise, while also benefiting first-hand from our solutions and experience,” Hawk CEO Tobias Schweiger said. “I would also like to gratefully thank our existing investors for their ongoing support and look forward to continuing our partnership.”

Hawk, which rebranded from “Hawk AI” earlier this year, offers anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-the-financing-of-terrorism (CTF) technology that leverages explainable AI to detect more financial crime and reduce false positives. In fact, the company’s AI-powered technology delivers a 3x to 5x increase in risk detection and a 70% average reduction in the number of false positives. Banks, payments companies, and other financial services firms benefit from the ability to combine AML transaction monitoring, payment screening, and (Perpetual KYC) pKYC in a single solution that also includes powerful fraud prevention capabilities.

“Rabobank has been working with machine learning applications for many years,” Rabo Investments Managing Director Martijn Scholtes said. “What impressed us most about Hawk is that they’re delivering compelling results using explainable AI. Their advanced screening, detection, and monitoring capabilities align very well with our mission to build a more secure and robust financial ecosystem.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, Hawk AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demoed its AML Surveillance Suite, which leverages traditional rule-based models and AI to provide financial institutions with next generation AML compliance. “AI should be used to achieve three major outcomes,” Hawk GM of North America Steve Liú explained at the event, “one, finding suspicious and risky behavior that peer rule systems simply cannot; two, decrease the number of false positives drastically by using behavioral profiling on top of existing rules; and third, that all of this is fully explainable for operators and auditors, and available to our users on a platform allowing for secure information sharing.”

Hawk began the year by appointing former HSBC executive Michael Shearer as its Chief Solution Officer. Less than a month later, the company introduced new APAC General Manager Robin Lee, formerly of Napier. In February, Hawk won the XCelent Advanced Technology 2024 award and, in May, the company earned a spot on the 2024 FinTech Global Fincrime Tech 50.


Photo by Leon