Partnerships 

Validis Partners with Aryza to Power Open Finance for UK Business Lenders

Aryza, expert developers of software solutions for the sectors of insolvency, credit and debt recovery, has announced a partnership with Validis, a market-leading open accounting platform, to develop an open finance solution that will help business lenders obtain better quality financial data from their customers. The partnership was driven by a growing need across the SME lending world for better visibility over SMEs’ cash flow and finances, through real-time data sets.

Uber Partners with Marqeta, Mastercard, and Branch to Launch New Uber Pro Card

Uber announced a new partnership with Marqeta, Mastercard and Branch to power the Uber Pro Card, an enhanced loyalty and payments experience that will help drivers and couriers save on gas, fees, and other expenses. Built for drivers and couriers, the Uber Pro Card offers customized perks including up to 10% cashback on gas and up to 12% on EV charging. The card also comes with a business checking account powered by Branch and designed to enable drivers and couriers to keep more of what they earn.

Lufthansa Group Selects Worldline as Global Payments Provider

Worldline, a global leader in the payments and transactional services industry, has been selected as a partner and payments provider to Lufthansa Group, a global player in the aviation industry. Worldline builds on its strong heritage in the Airlines & Travel industry with comprehensive solutions tailored to fit the needs of some of the largest and most complex airlines in the industry.

SunTec Business Solutions and Whatfix Join Hands to Drive Quick Adoption of its SaaS Products Among Customers

SunTec Business Solutions, the world’s No. 1 pricing and billing company, announced the strategic partnership and integration of its products and solutions with Whatfix, the global leader in the digital adoption platforms (DAP) space, to drive quick adoption of its SaaS products among customers and create a seamless and user-friendly onboarding experience for them.

Liminal is Now the Preferred Custodial Partner for Web3 Aggregator Platform ‘UniFarm’

Wallet operations infrastructure platform ‘Liminal’ announced a partnership with Web 3 aggregator ‘UniFarm’. As a part of this association, UniFarm and its partner projects will get access to Liminal’s Digital Asset custody services to manage their assets and day-to-day transactions.  In addition, Liminal will also be offering benefits up to USD 60,000 to these projects and cohorts associated with Unifarm.

Knab Extends Back-Office Processing Partnership with Worldline

Knab, a Dutch online bank founded in 2012, has extended its existing partnership with Worldline. In addition to the existing Instant Payments back-office service, Worldline will now also facilitate back-office processing for handling SEPA Batch payments and multi-currency payments. The partnership has been extended for a seven-year contract. Knab will continue to have access to Worldline's Instant Payments back-office service as part of this collaboration.

MoneyGram Announces Strategic Partnership and Minority Investment in UAE-Based Fintech Startup Jingle Pay

MoneyGram International, Inc., a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, and Jingle Pay, a financial super-app based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), announced a partnership to enable convenient and fast global money transfers through the Jingle Pay app. Consumers in the UAE can use the Jingle Pay app – powered by MoneyGram's global payment rails and near real-time capabilities – to send money to over 200 countries and territories around the world.

Know Your Customer and HAWK AI Partner to Harmonise Financial Crime Compliance in the Fintech Sector

Know Your Customer, the premier provider of real-time registry links, and Hawk AI, Germany's leading anti-money laundering software provider for banks, payment firms, and fintechs, announced a new strategic relationship. By combining Know Your Customer's digital onboarding and business KYC solutions with Hawk AI's transaction monitoring, companies will have a comprehensive, integrated offering to centralise and harmonise their AML programme.

Mastercard and Ravelin Partner to Reduce Fraud and Create Frictionless Checkout in Digital Quick Commerce

Mastercard and Ravelin, a leading machine learning fraud platform, have joined forces to deliver an enhanced fraud solution. Incorporating digital identity verification capabilities from Ekata and real-time fraud insights from Ethoca, Ravelin will help merchants validate a consumer’s identity without adding friction to the process.During a user’s first transaction, Ravelin will draw on Ekata’s transaction risk API to verify the user’s identity.

CWallet Partners with M2P to Launch Pre-paid and Multicurrency Cards in Qatar

CWallet, an award-winning Qatar-based payment processing fintech startup, has partnered with M2P Fintech, Asia's largest API infrastructure company, to enable prepaid and multi-currency cards in Qatar. This partnership is aimed at promoting financial technology intelligence, financial inclusion, and services not only to the unbanked majority but also to Qatar residents, citizens, and businesses.

Ondato Enters a New Partnership with Radix Malta

Ondato, a company that streamlines KYC and AML-related operations utilizing cutting-edge AI technologies announced that it has partnered with Radix Compliance Ltd, a Maltese company that is a part of the Radix Malta Group and focuses on providing AML and KYC outsourcing, drafts AML-related policies and processes, and conducts Business Risk Assessments and independent AML or Compliance audits.

NORD/LB Partners with Trade Ledger to Bring Fast Finance to Corporates

NORD/LB, one of Germany’s largest commercial banks, is accelerating access to finance for its large corporate customers, in a partnership with Trade Ledger, the global data-driven lending technology provider.NORD/LB will use the Trade Ledger platform to originate and manage receivables finance facilities for large corporate customers. Large receivables secured loans are admin-heavy and required a lot of human labour, limiting their distribution.

Fnality and Finteum Executed the First Cross-Chain FX Settlement Transaction to T+0

The collaboration between Fnality and Finteum has taken a step forward with the announcement of the completion of a successful proof of concept (POC) involving the first test of FX settlement transactions on a Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) basis, across the Finteum Platform, and two Fnality Payment Systems (FnPS), representing two currencies, in under 10 seconds.

Gigable Partners with Weavr For Instant Gig Worker Payments

Gigable, the equitable gig economy platform that connects businesses with flexible workers, is partnering with embedded finance specialist Weavr, to enhance its payments and business banking infrastructure to transform how gig workers access earnings and control finances. The announcement marks a significant advancement in the use of embedded financial technology to boost the gig economy in the UK and Ireland. 

Mumsnet Teams Up with Chetwood Financial to Launch New Family-focused Financial Services

UK digital bank Chetwood Financial has announced a new partnership with parenting forum Mumsnet, with plans to launch a new family-focused financial services proposition next year. Since acquiring a full banking licence back in 2018, Chetwood has focused on creating disruptive financial products for underserved segments of the market. The recent acquisition of Yobota gives the company further opportunity to enable innovative financial solutions through its best-in-class BaaS model.

Ecospend Partners with QR-code-Based Payment Service App Peng

Ecospend, the UK’s leading Open Banking payment provider, announces its partnership with the QR-code-based payment services app, PENG. The partnership will enable PENG’s small business customers to benefit from Open Banking services in the form of free transactions and enhanced security. Ecospend's 'Pay-by-Bank' solution leverages Open Banking for businesses. Ecospend has handled $5bn this year.

CellPay and Klarna Have Partnered to Offer Consumers More Flexible Payment Options

CellPay and Klarna have partnered to offer consumers more flexible payment options. To ensure that CellPay consumers benefit from this changing trend, CellPay has partnered with Klarna, a leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service, to offer Klarna's interest-free, Pay in 4 services at the checkout. The payment option enables CellPay customers to split their payments into four, interest-free payments spread out over six weeks.

Launches 

Afterpay Launches 12-Month BNPL Payment Option

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Afterpay is launching a new monthly payment option that aims to give consumers greater payment flexibility and responsible spending options ahead of the holiday shopping season. Shoppers choosing Afterpay’s monthly payment option can budget purchases over repayment periods of six or 12 months for purchases between $400 and $4,000, according to a press release Wednesday (Oct. 5).

Kyriba Expands Risk Portfolio, Launches Commodities Risk

Kyriba, a global leader in cloud-based finance and IT solutions, has announced the launch of Commodities Risk, which is an expansion of the Company’s portfolio of risk applications. The new solution helps Treasury and Risk Managers mitigate commodities risk and better manage market fluctuations with integrated data, analytics and connectivity into Kyriba Treasury and Risk Management. 

Moneyhub Launches ‘Pension Finder’ that Connects with LinkedIn Profiles to Find Retirement Savings Gaps Ahead of Pensions Dashboard 

Moneyhub, the award-winning Open Data platform and alpha partner to the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP), has launched a new Pension Finder feature that can automatically identify gaps in retirement savings by analysing savers’ career histories on LinkedIn. The UK government has calculated that people will have an average of 11 jobs in their career - each of which now results in them being auto-enrolled into a pension scheme.

EMVCo Launches Contactless Kernel Specification to Advance Payments Acceptance

Global technical body EMVCo has published a new specification to support the evolution of contactless and mobile payments and simplify global acceptance for merchants, solution providers and payment systems. Version 1 of the EMV® Contactless Kernel Specification* has been developed in collaboration with EMVCo Associates and approved for release by the EMVCo Board of Advisors. 

Leading Payments Provider Bluechain Launches in the UK with First Customer, Aggregate Industries

Bluechain, the fast-growing fintech startup that transforms the traditional payments and receivables process, has officially launched in the UK with their first customer, leading construction materials supplier, Aggregate Industries. The objective is to allow Aggregate Industries to digitise the billing, collections and reconciliation process with their SME customers.

Plum Launches New Crowdfunding Campaign with £5M Funding from Silicon Valley Bank UK

Smart money app Plum is to embark on its third crowdfunding round, following a standout year of delivery.Since its last crowdfund 12 months ago, the company has launched commission-free investing, expanded into new European markets, enabled crypto trading and launched a debit card. Following these developments, Plum has grown its customer base to 1.4 million, an almost 50% increase in the last year, and helped people set aside £1.4 billion.

Curve and Fidesmo Join Forces to Meet Growing Demand for Wearable Payments

Curve, the financial super app which empowers customers to understand and master their finances by combining all debit, credit and loyalty cards into one, has announced a partnership agreement with wearable payments​​ enablement leader Fidesmo. Curve is on a mission to give customers financial freedom by simplifying and unifying how they spend, send, see and save money and this partnership furthers that ambition.

THORChain Integrates with Avalanche to Advance Multichain Interoperability

THORChain, a non-custodial decentralized liquidity protocol that enables decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and users to seamlessly transfer their digital assets across blockchains, has integrated support for Avalanche, the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality. Avalanche is a pioneer in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, with over ~$1.6 billion in total value locked on the network.

Payhawk Launches Business Credit Cards to Offer UK Enterprises a Smart Alternative

Payhawk, the fast-growing spend management platform combining company cards, reimbursable expenses, and accounts payable in one solution, announces the launch of a business credit card in the UK. This new release quickly follows its launch of credit cards for US businesses in September this year, as well as year-to-date revenue growth of 520% and an employee headcount growth of over 250%.

Studio Bank Launches Innovative Credit Card Program with Corserv

Corserv, a company that empowers banks and fintechs with payment programs, has implemented a comprehensive credit card program with Studio Bank to provide innovative payment solutions. Pioneered in Nashville, Studio Bank built a digital bank with a local presence – their model is membership-based, tech-savvy and hospitality-inspired. This includes features such as no ATM fees, member networking events, and an omni-channel mobile app with a beautiful user experience.

nCino Launches Enhanced Small Business Banking Solution at American Banker Conference

nCino, Inc., a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, announced that PeoplesBank, an independent community bank based in York, Pennsylvania, is live on nCino’s Small Business Banking Solution. PeoplesBank implemented nCino's Commercial Banking Solution to provide a single, cloud-based platform for the institution and its clients.

InsurTech Lemonade Launches in UK

Lemonade, the insurance company powered by AI and social impact, launched in the United Kingdom. Residents across the UK can now get Lemonade Contents insurance instantly, from anywhere, on any device, as well as file claims and get paid in seconds. The launch follows Lemonade’s previous launches in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Lemonade, founded in 2015, debuted its flagship renters insurance in the U.S. in 2016.

Merger & Acquisition

Cryptyde Completes Acquisition of Forever 8

Cryptyde, Inc. announced that it has successfully closed the acquisition of Forever 8 Fund, LLC, an e-commerce fintech company (“Forever 8”). The acquisition lays the foundation for Cryptyde’s fintech portfolio and positions Cryptyde to generate revenue from the F8 acquisition, beginning in Q4 of 2022. They believe they have a unique offering within the fintech universe, with Forever 8 providing an opportunity to combine machine learning technology with the blockchain to better improve and streamline multiple industries.

Rapid Finance Acquires Digital Lending Technology Provider, Thrive

Rapid Finance, a market leader in helping small businesses find sustainable and customized financing solutions through a fast and simple application process, announced its acquisition of digital lending platform provider, Thrive, at American Banker’s Small Business Banking conference. As part of Rapid Finance’s recent corporate rebrand and restructuring, the Thrive acquisition represents a significant addition to the company’s new Rapid Finance Technology business unit.

Job Moves

BlueSnap Appoints Anthony Carey to EU Board of Directors to Support Growth in European Market

BlueSnap, the Payment Orchestration Platform that helps businesses accept and optimise payments around the world, has appointed Anthony Carey to their EU Board of Directors to further growth across Europe. This appointment comes as part of BlueSnap’s commitment to expand its European presence and establish a highly specialised EU-based team, with a vast amount of industry expertise.

Helen Cook Joins Finastra as Chief People Officer

Finastra announced the appointment of Helen Cook as Chief People Officer. In her role she takes global responsibility for the people organization and advancing the company’s aspiration to be the most inclusive and diverse employer in the Fintech industry. She is particularly passionate about building a curious and well-tooled workforce, supporting employees to develop skills that keep them relevant, engaged and growing.

Jesse Silverman Joins Highline as General Counsel

Continuing its rapid growth, Highline Technologies, the payments fintech that unlocks payroll-linked lending and billpay, announced that Jesse Silverman has joined the company as General Counsel. Silverman brings almost 20 years of legal expertise and industry experience to the team, including leading legal and compliance efforts for several fintechs, including LendUp, Nuula, and Steady.

Napier AI Appoints Industry Leader as Global Head of Corporate Development

Napier, a global end-to-end intelligent compliance platform and provider of advanced financial crime risk management solutions has announced the appointment of Julian Clarke as its new Global Head of Corporate Development. In his new role, Clarke is set to work closely with Napier’s CEO, Greg Watson, to develop a robust strategy for the firm’s global third-party distribution, including partnerships and alliances.

CoreCard Corporation Announces New Board Member

CoreCard Corporation announced the addition of a new board member, Kathryn Petralia, to serve as an independent Director of the Company. Ms. Petralia is the Co-Founder of Keep Financial, a fintech compensation platform that helps employers and employees stay together longer and happier. Kathryn co-founded Kabbage, a financial services, technology, and data platform for small businesses, in 2010.

Mollie Strengthens Supervisory Board with the Appointment of Christoph Röttele

Mollie, one of the fastest growing financial services providers in Europe, announced the appointment of its new supervisory board member, Christoph Röttele, who will help to support and shape the future development of Mollie. Christoph was previously the CEO of price comparison portal, CHECK24, for over six years. In this role, he both founded and supervised C24 Bank, a fully owned CHECK24 subsidiary and BaFin-regulated consumer bank.

EMVCo Announces New Director of Technology

Global technical body EMVCo has announced the appointment of Arman Aygen to the role of Director of Technology. Arman brings proven expertise from across the payments industry, having held senior technology leadership positions in the U.S., Europe and Asia. This includes roles at FIME and UL, where he was responsible for leading payments innovation and strategic relationship management with global payment brands.