This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 20/06

Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 20 June 2024 bringing you the latest updates from across the world.

Company updates

Natwest Group has entered into an agreement with Sainsbury’s Bank to acquire the retail banking assets and liabilities of Sainsbury’s Bank which comprises its outstanding credit card, unsecured personal loan and saving accounts. NatWest Group expects to acquire approximately £2.5billion of gross customer assets, comprising £1.4billion of unsecured personal loans and £1.1billion of credit cards balances, together with approximately £2.6billion of customer deposits.

AMINA Bank, a licensed and FINMA-regulated digital assets bank, has launched the AMINA Payment Network (APN). Designed to address the needs of the crypto banking world, APN helps to facilitate real-time payments to other APN members. This new service aims to keep users ahead and connected, ensuring seamless and timely financial transactions.

BitOasis, a Middle East and North African regional cryptocurrency trading platform has received a Category 2 Crypto-Asset Services Licence from the Central Bank of Bahrain, paving the way for expanding its footprint in the GCC. BitOasis Bahrain received its licence shortly after BitOasis reopened its trading platform in Dubai to new retail and institutional users.

Kuda, the money app for Africans, will launch a digital wallet in Canada in the third quarter, as it continues its global expansion, following a launch in the UK in 2022. The digital wallet will enable thousands of Africans in Canada to combat high remittance fees, which currently average 6.2 per cent, according to the World Bank.

Insights

New research from Invessed in collaboration with YouGov highlights a critical challenge facing the wealth management industry: its struggle to engage younger investors. Fifty-six per cent of young investors avoid professional advice due to high fees and outdated approaches. The findings from Invessed’s Defining Wealth for a New Generation report underscore an urgent call for innovation to meet the needs of this emerging client base.

Germans are increasingly turning to prepaid cards and adjusting their spending habits to manage the ongoing cost of living crisis and to avoid debt, according to a new survey conducted by research firm Opinium, commissioned by leading online prepaid payment firm Recharge. The survey of 2,000 German adults (18+) reveals that 26 per cent (one in four) of Germans (18.4 million) use prepaid cards.

Partnerships

Shift4 has forged a partnership with OneMoneyWay, a Nordic and UK-based payment platform, to provide a consolidated business banking and payments solution for SME customers across Europe and the UK. OneMoneyWay will leverage Shift4’s acquiring services and payments infrastructure, enabling it to act as a payment service provider (PSP) and provide customers with acquiring services.

Adyen and SumUp have joined forces in a strategic partnership. Adyen’s single platform consolidates payment services, streamlining pay-ins, reporting, and payouts in real-time, thereby reducing transit times and enhancing financial agility. SumUp offers an end-to-end platform of business tools and financial services for SMEs.

TerraPay has chosen Thredd, a next-generation global payments platform, to power virtual card payments for global suppliers. This strategic partnership aims to develop payment solutions within the travel industry, offering seamless, secure, and compliant virtual card services to intermediaries as part of TerraPay’s cross-border money movement network.

Aviva plc and FNZ, a global wealth management platform, have announced the next phase of Aviva’s platform digitisation through the development of a number of new and innovative adviser tools. This further strengthening of the partnership between Aviva and FNZ is aimed at driving adviser efficiencies, and enabling advisers to more effectively pick and choose the services they use.

ZORRZ has unveiled its strategic partnership with CLOWD9, a B-Corp certified processing platform, to power its BlueAccess Hybrid Credit Card platform. This collaboration aims to enhance ZORRZ’s mission of providing responsible access to credit for underserved communities.

Additional partnerships

Integral, a currency technology provider to the financial markets, has expanded its partnership with Bank of Cyprus to offer real-time pricing and risk management capabilities as part of the bank’s online banking platform. Bank of Cyprus, through this collaboration with Integral, is enabled to deliver highly configurable embedded FX solutions to its customers.

Shieldpay, the payments partner for the legal sector, is working with KPMG Law UK to provide payments services for its high value, complex client transactions. Shieldpay has been supporting KPMG Law’s corporate clients as an escrow and paying agent provider for corporate and M&A deals since 2020. It will now provide a third-party managed account for KPMG Law’s corporate and real estate teams.

Checkout.com, a global digital payments provider, has teamed up with global padel star Alejandro Galán. The 27-year-old athlete from Madrid was number one in the world in 2020, 2021 and 2022, winning more than 80 per cent of the matches in more than 30 tournaments around the world. He currently ranks second in the world. Checkout.com will create Padel Academies in 50+ countries to encourage take-up of the sport.

Appointments

Moneyhub announces three new hires across personal finance technology and decisioning teams as demand for its open finance solutions continues to grow. Jack Goulston has joined the personal finance technology line as one of its two new business development directors, alongside John Parker. Rick Biggs joins the decisioning line and will be responsible for the sales function of Moneyhub’s decisioning capabilities.

The Open Identity Exchange (OIX) has appointed Katarina Pranjić of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, as chair of the OIX board. In her new role, Pranjić will lead the OIX executive committee and board, helping to set OIX’s strategic direction, representing the non-profit organisation’s mission to the market. She will also help to progress OIX’s position on areas of digital ID, such as inclusion, global interoperability and trust frameworks.

Mangopay, a provider of modular and flexible payment infrastructure for platforms, has named Mark Fleming as chief commercial officer. He will join CEO Romain Mazeries’ leadership team to spearhead Mangopay’s international expansion and growth into new client industries, furthering the company’s impact on the platform economy.

Delta Capital, a global capital markets consulting, managed services and technology provider, appoints Bradley Szu-Tu as head of client lifecycle management in APAC. Based in Singapore, he will be responsible for managing and growing Delta Capita’s CLM business across consulting, services, and technology for clients across the financial services industry.

Encompass Corporation appoints Andrew Dunn to lead its engineering function. Based in London, Dunn joins Encompass as part of its executive team and will oversee engineering teams in its technical centres, Glasgow, Sydney and Belgrade. He has previously worked at Arachnys and OpenCorporates.

More appointments

QuantumFy appoints Michael Carter as head of product. This strategic hire supports QuantumFy’s plans to expand its footprint in the Middle East market. At QuantumFy, Michael will spearhead product strategy and development, ensuring the delivery of innovative and customer-centric financial technology solutions. Carter began his career at Mastercard in the UK.

DriveWealth, a financial technology platform providing brokerage-as-a-service, has unveiled promotions of three members of the company’s senior leadership team. Jason Pizzorusso will serve as president; Marcus Anthony has been named chief financial officer; while Emily Ellis has been promoted to chief people officer.

Funding and investments

Zodia Custody, a global institution-first digital asset custodian, has announced an investment from NAB Ventures, the venture arm of National Australia Bank (NAB). The investment now means that Zodia Custody is backed by four major financial institutions around the world, building on previous investments from Standard Chartered, Northern Trust and SBI Holdings.

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