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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
From AI-enabled commerce to AI-powered voice agents in insurance, companies across the fintech spectrum are busily integrating AI into their operations to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance the customer experience. It is a holiday-shortened week, so be sure to check in to Finovate’s Fintech Rundown to keep you informed on the latest fintech headlines.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global showcases recent fintech news from three countries in southeast Asia: Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Visa brings Click to Pay to Vietnam
A growing number of Vietnamese banks have become early adopters of Visa’sClick to Pay service. Click to Pay provides a faster, more secure, and convenient checkout experience for online transactions by enabling cardholders to make their purchases with fewer clicks—including relieving them of the need to manually enter card and shipping details. Instead, Click to Pay allows users to identify themselves through their email address or mobile phone number. The service uses advanced security technology—including the Visa Token Service—to keep transaction data secure and is designed to meet EMVCo standards for digital checkout.
“With e-commerce being so prevalent in Vietnam and aligning with the Vietnamese government’s digitization objectives, we are pleased to introduce this solution through our banking partners,” Visa Country Manager for Vietnam and Laos Dung Dang said. “Click to Pay with Visa has the potential to transform online shopping and support the development of a more connected digital economy.”
Cardholders with Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) and Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) can enroll in the Click to Pay service through their banking apps or with participating online merchants. Visa has also teamed up with Vietnamese payment platform Payoo, which will integrate Click to Pay across its merchant ecosystem. Visa announced that cardholders using Click to Pay at Payoo-affiliated merchants will be eligible for exclusive promotional offers “in the near future”. Additional merchants are expected to be added in the coming months.
BNPL provider Atome secures $75 million to support Philippines operations
“The Philippines is a key growth market for Atome,” Atome Chief Commercial Officer Andy Tan said. “This financing reflects the continued confidence in Atome’s ability to deliver inclusive, risk-managed credit at scale.”
Atome is part of Advance Intelligence Group, a fintech and AI platform backed by investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Warburg Pincus, Northstar, and Singapore-based EDBI. This week’s funding comes as the company has been expanding its BNPL offering throughout Southeast Asia, bringing alternative credit solutions to unbanked and underbanked populations in the region. The financing also arrives one year after Atome secured a three-year term loan facility from EvolutionX Debt Capital.
“The launch of innovative and fit-for-market solutions like the Atome Card (PayLater Anywhere) and lending products demonstrates their ability to expand offerings while leveraging local market expertise,” EvolutionX Partner Rahul Shah said.
Malaysia’s KAF Digital Bank goes live with Temenos
The growth of Islamic digital banking is one of the most underappreciated developments in international fintech. Helping power this trend are companies like Temenos which recently partnered with Malaysia’s KAF Digital Bank as the institution launches its new Islamic digital bank in the country.
“Powered by Temenos SaaS, KAF Digital Bank is redefining Shariah-compliant banking with smarter, simpler financial solutions and a seamless, customer-first digital experience,” KAF Digital Bank CEO Rafiza Ghazali said. “The successful go-live and early access customer launch marks a key milestone in our journey, enabling Malaysians to take control of their financial futures with greater confidence.”
Temenos SaaS will enable KAF Digital Bank to offer a range of Shariah-compliant financial solutions that make financial management easier for customers who require or simply prefer Islamic banking. The offering includes comprehensive core and digital banking services with payments, analytics, and Temenos Data Hub on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. In a statement, Temenos APAC Managing Director Will Dale noted the growth and importance of the Islamic banking customer in the country.
“This go-live not only strengthens Temenos’ regional footprint in SaaS, but also shows the unique breadth of functionality and advanced technology we deliver,” Dale said. “With proven capabilities tailored to the Malaysian market and Islamic banking, Temenos SaaS empowers KAF Digital Bank to achieve faster time-to-market, greater efficiency, and drive future growth.”
KAF Digital Bank secured approval to operate as a digital bank at the beginning of the year, and will be the fourth digital bank to operate in the country. The bank was launched by KAF Investment Bank Berhad, in partnership with Carsome, MoneyMatch, Jirnexu, and StoreHub. KAF Investment Bank Berhad was established in 1975.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Saudi Arabian finance app tiqmo partnered with global payments network MoneyGram.
Revolutreported that it has entered talks with the Bank of Israel to expand operations in the country.
MENA-based financial institution Mashreq launched its NEO PLUS Saver Account.
Central and Southern Asia
India-based MSME lender FlexiLoans raised $44 million in an expanded Series C round.
The dust is still settling in the wake of Circle’s “buzzy IPO” in the words of MarketWatch. We’ll see if the fintech headlines can keep up this week!
Digital banking
KAF Digital Bank goes live with Temenos SaaS to bring Islamic digital banking services to customers in Malaysia.
ABN AMRO’s payment app Tikkie has developed a full-service bank, BUUT, that caters to younger customers.
Digital bank N26unveils an updated version of its premium subscription, N26 Go.
Open banking solutions provider Salt Edgepartners with digital banking experience platform Plumery.
Farsightraises $16 million in funding, announces Series A to automate financial workflows and decision-making.
Fraud prevention and identity verification
FrankieOne launches new risk and compliance platform that offers fraud detection and identity verification.
Cybercrime consultancy We Fight Fraud partners with Salv to facilitate intelligence sharing between financial institutions in Europe.
Regtech iDenfyteams up with international hosting provider SpaceCore to bring optimized customer verification to global hosting.
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of England (BoE) collaborate on testing to see if AI can spot fraudulent activity in retail payments data.
AML and CFT solutions provider AMLYZEonboards Advanzia Bank as part of its European expansion.
Veleraadds real-time account validation functionality to digital channels.
Legislation in California moves forward to give the state authority to seize unclaimed cryptocurrency assets held on exchanges after three years of inactivity.
Happy Monday! If you need to step away from the fintech news to finish your income taxes this week, then don’t worry. Finovate’s Fintech Rundown will be here when you get back to make sure you’re informed and updated on the latest in fintech and financial services news.
Digital banking
Zions Bancorporation selectsnCino as its technology platform.
A major sell-off in the stock market is giving investors jitters as August begins in earnest. Funding news for companies in lending and wealth management leads the fintech news this week. Be sure to check back over the next few days for the latest updates and announcements.
Lending
U.K.-based SME lender Shawbrook partners with nCino to automate loan origination.
Alternative financing company for mid-sized SMEs, ThinCats, secures a £75 million mezzanine facility.
AMLYZE, a regtech specializing in combating financial crime that made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year, has forged a strategic partnership with Aura Cloud. Headquartered in Lithuania, AMLYZE offers anti-financial crime solutions for a variety of financial services providers, including fintechs, banks, and cryptocurrency firms. The company’s partnership with Sweden-based Aura Cloud will combine the latter’s expertise in financial crime prevention with the former’s digital banking solutions.
AMLYZE Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships Jekaterina Govina praised Aura Cloud for its “commitment to agility and innovation” which Govina said “aligns perfectly with our mission to provide AML/CFT solutions, built by regulatory insiders who understand customer pain points from the inside out.” Govina added, “Together, we will empower financial institutions to stay ahead of the curve in the fight against financial crime.”
AMLYZE leverages AI, synthetic data, and the power of the network to offer a paradigm-shifting approach to AML. The AMLYZE platform’s use of synthetic data and privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) enables aggressive adoption of AI and machine learning techniques and strategies that do not violate confidentiality or breach data privacy. The company’s technology can be deployed to provide real-time and retrospective transaction monitoring, customer risk assessments, AML/CFT investigations, and PEP, sanctions, and negative media screening. Moreover, AMLYZE’s model facilitates not only effective financial crime detection, but also AI model training, testing of automated solutions, and AML staff training.
“(AMLYZE’s) automated transaction monitoring and customer risk assessment solution provides additional possibilities for our core banking platform customers to have (a) state of the art solution to minimize financial crime and enhance compliance,” Aura Cloud CEO Prem Bhagwat said. “We see this partnership as an excellent addition to our current partnership ecosystem in Northern Europe and beyond.”
Headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, AMLYZE made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. The company has raised $1 million (€1 million) in pre-seed funding, courtesy of an investment round led by Practica Capital, a major venture capital firm based in the Baltics, and FIRSTPICK, a Baltics-based accelerator and venture capital fund.
ShareID is an Authentication-as-a-Service solution tied to government-issued IDs, equivalent to border control with a simple smile and in real-time, without storing any PII or biometric data.
Features
Delivers 99.9% precision rate on document authenticity due to partnership with the French Military Police
Executes 92% conversion rate on the first attempt
Includes liveness and anti-spoofing algorithms
Who’s it for?
Banks, neobanks, fintechs, payment providers, crypto providers, and insurance providers.
Sikoia
Sikoia’s Affordability Insights automatically derives sophisticated analyses from bank statements, open banking and payslips alike, unlocking richer financial insights.
Features
Plug-and-play with multiple types of customer bank data
Consistently recognizes income and expenses in real time
Includes a unique library of data models and templates to recognize anomalies
Who’s it for?
Banks, intermediaries, building societies, and consumer lending platforms.
TradingValley
TradingValley is a robo-investing solution provider in Taiwan, focused on providing AI-powered investing algorithms.
Features
Offers robo-investing technology for both B2C and B2B companies
AI fund manager helps investors screen investing opportunities
Tailor-made for different investing practices within different institutions
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, individual investors, and family office or small asset management firms.
