Banking Technology April 2019 PDF

The definitive source of news and analysis of the global fintech sector | April 2019 www.bankingtech.
com
FINTECH SPRING IS HERE

Bringing the world colour
FOCUS: FINANCIAL INCLUSION & TECH
Helping African farmers out of poverty
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Hug your innovation team FINTECH FUTURES
IN THIS ISSUE
Challenger banks worldwide

who’s who and what’s their tech
FinTech Futures’ editorial team is keeping its finger on the fintech Contents
pulse with a series of comprehensive and free guides
on the challenger banks and banking services
and their technology in various countries. NEWS
04 The latest fintech news from around the globe:
Visit www.bankingtech.com to read the guides. the good, the bad and the ugly.
FEATURES
15 Spotlight: paytech
Open banking and payments – exciting times ahead!
16 Interview: Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Temenos

UK At the centre of banking transformation.
US
20 Spotlight: strategic messaging
What can banks learn from fintechs?
22 Focus: financial inclusion & tech

FinComEco – helping African farmers out of poverty
SPA
IN and building better finance models.
25 Industry insights
Open banking – progressing to the summit.
LIA 26 Food for thought

TRA
S To go boldly forth or why you should hug your
AU Y
AN innovation team.
RM
GE
30 Focus: open banking
Lessons from the dating apps.
32 Spotlight: diversity
The forgotten faces of diversity – the invisibles.
34 Conference review: HPS PowerCARD 2019

Working together to tackle fraud.
36 Fintech funding round-up

The latest investment action from around the world.
42 Comment
Start-ups and angel investors – a match made in heaven.
REGULARS
44 Appointments – the movers and the shakers.
We’ll be revisiting and updating these guides on a regular basis, as well as adding more countries. 44 Industry events – mark your calendars!
If you have any additions and/or suggestions, please get in touch with
Tanya Andreasyan [email protected]
www.bankingtech.com
April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 01
@FinTech_Futures
WELCOME TO THE
L I B R A R Y
Managing Director & Editor-in-Chief
Tanya Andreasyan
+44 207 551 9010
[email protected]
Deputy Editor
Antony Peyton
+44 207 551 9010
[email protected]
Reporter
Henry Vilar
+44 207 017 5709
[email protected]
Design & Production Manager

Kosh Naran
[email protected] Editor’s note
Head of Sales
Jon Robson
+44 203 377 3327
[email protected]
Business Development Manager “Most losses are recoverable except for brain fire power to explore different
David Wurie time. Once lost, it remains lost forever.” intellectual possibilities, the focus and
+44 207 017 5593 These were words of Mohamed Horani, determination to test options and present
[email protected]
CEO of paytech company HPS, at the you with viable proposals for things never
Marketing Manager opening of the recent PowerCARD done before”, go over right now and give
Irena Andrisevic conference, urging bankers to hurry up them a hug.
+44 207 017 5379
[email protected] with their digitalisation efforts. But if there is no such team – “go out
Time to market is now measured in and hire people who can take you boldly
days and even hours, he emphasised, not forth into the unknown; hire them for
months or years as it used to be. Long- their intellectual prowess and old-world
term visions are now built in agile, small credibility; hire them for their creativity and
increments. insane work ethic; hire them for their fierce
The future is already here, he continued. grace”. (Want to know more? Turn to p26.)
“So we must work individually, but also There is no time to lose. bt
collaboratively – together – to enable the
© Banking Technology 2019
All rights reserved; Banking Technology material future now.”
may not be reproduced in any form without Our team hopes that this latest issue of
the written permission of the publisher. the magazine will inspire you to contribute
towards hastening the digital future, to
Introducing a brand new section on our website, Banking Technology is published ten times a year.
innovate and to make your mark on the
where you can find a compilation of books from the world of business, finance and technology. Address industry.
Maple House
And, as our resident thought
We’ll be adding new books regularly that we feel are relevant, 149 Tottenham Court Road
London W1T 7AD provocateur Leda Glyptis advises, if your Tanya Andreasyan
useful and of interest to you, our readers. UK organisation is already blessed with an Editor-in-Chief
innovation team that “has the guts and Banking Technology
Happy reading! Printer
Hobbs the Printers Ltd
Hampshire, UK
www.bankingtech.com/library ISSN 0266-0865

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Do you know of a book that should be on our virtual library’s shelf? Contact:
Tanya Andreasyan
e: [email protected] April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 03
and we’ll be happy to consider it. If our team deems the book suitable, it will be included in our library for free.
NEWS NEWS
Tide seeks £60m Vista Bank picks Temenos for African StanChart’s new platform connects start-ups and investors
funding following digital expansion SC Ventures, the ventures and fintech “We understand how frustrating it can SC Ventures Fintech Bridge has made
investments unit of Standard Chartered be for fintech start-ups to find the right four commitments: direct connection to
RBS grant Vista Bank, an African challenger bank, inclusion,” says Simon Tiemtore, group Bank, has created SC Ventures Fintech people to take their solution forward. We the right people, no time wasted, funding
has turned to Temenos to power its digital chairman at Vista Bank. “Temenos is our Bridge, a market-first platform to connect also recognise that the best ideas can guaranteed for proof of concepts (PoCs),
overhaul. trusted strategic technology partner and community builders such as start-ups, come from everywhere, not just inside, but and exposure to its markets.
The bank is implementing Infinity, our customers will reap the rewards of its investors and accelerators to the bank. also outside the bank.” The investment arm says SC Ventures
a digital front office solution, and T24 innovative API-first, cloud-native and cloud Through this platform, partners from the Investors can also use the portal to Fintech Bridge is for fintechs who want to work
Transact for core banking. agnostic software.” fintech ecosystem can connect to the bank’s recommend start-ups to the bank for with Standard Chartered Bank and gain new
Vista also has selected analytics and According to Temenos, its regional internal community, where they can propose future collaborations. This simple and fast clients. It is a global platform supported by a
reporting, risk and compliance modules, model bank approach, which includes solutions to challenges posted by the bank’s process means that start-ups can move connected network across Asia, Africa, Middle
and the Temenos Payments Hub product. pre-configured local functionality and best business units or request for investments. from initial application to final selection East, and Europe through the bank’s footprint.
The group was established following practices, will enable Vista Bank to cater for Alex Manson, head of SC Ventures, says: within just three months. Henry Vilar
Image source: Tide the acquisition of First International Bank specific regulatory requirements during its
(FIB) Group in 2015 by the US-based expansion.
Challenger business bank Tide is planning
to raise £60 million from investors,
investment fund, Lilium Capital.
The bank hopes to be able to introduce
Currently operating through a network
of 43 branches across Sierra Leone,
South Africa’s Standard Bank to axe 1,200 jobs
matching the amount it recently received new products and services more quickly Guinea and The Gambia, the group’s goal South Africa-based Standard Bank will further, it will also assist employees with its digital solutions “assisted in driving
along with its partner ClearBank. and support its growth ambition. is to expand its footprint into the West cut about 1,200 jobs and shut down 91 funding to “acquire new skills to improve customer growth”. The number of active
In February this year, the banks got “This will help us realise our vision African Monetary Union and the Central branches as part of its digitalisation plans. their competitiveness in the labour customers grew 11%. Digital transaction
the funding from the RBS Alternative of building a truly pan-African financial African market, targeting a presence in 15 This latest news follows on from market”. No specifics on that yet. volumes increased 34%, whilst branch
Remedies Package, a government-backed institution group that will add value to the countries by 2025. November 2018, when it revealed it Most of the branches will close by June transactions declined 12%. The latter
competition. (Metro Bank also won £120 African economy and promote financial Henry Vilar would be axing 526 jobs. this year. The bank has about 50,000 staff. shows why it is making the cuts.
million and challenger Starling Bank was “This has not been an easy decision to In its latest financial results (ending 31 The bank has a 156-year history in South
awarded £100 million.)
In the latest chapter, Tide is looking
VSoft’s Wings core banking system make,” the bank says.
As part of these cuts, Standard Bank
December 2018), Standard Bank stood as
the largest African bank by assets, with ZAR
Africa and started building a franchise
in sub-Saharan Africa almost 30 years
for more investment and says it has
received interest from 70 venture capital
lands in the US says it will implement a “comprehensive
exit package which significantly exceeds
2.1 trillion ($148 billion).
Headline earnings were up 6% to ZAR
ago. It has an on-the-ground presence
in 20 countries on the African continent.
funds, in addition to its current backers. Financial solutions provider, VSoft, has real-time, batch or a combination of the the requirements as set out in the Labour 27.9 billion ($2.1 billion). However, this is Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
These include Anthemis, Augmentum, launched a version of its core banking two. New products can be configured and Relations Act”. less than half the pace compared to 2017. (ICBC) is a 20% shareholder in the group.
Creandum, Goodwater, LocalGlobe, system, Wings, for the US. launched via parameters, with the ability In an attempt to mitigate the bad news In those results, the bank notes that Antony Peyton
Passion Capital and SpeedInvest. The company, which is based in Georgia as well to add new screens, sections and
Tide, which targets SME banking, is in the US and Hyderabad in India, is best fields in real-time. It is available on an
aiming to capture at least 8% of the SME known for its payment processing systems. in-house, outsourced application services
market by 2023. It says it currently sits at However, it has added to its product suite provider (ASP) or Software-as-a-Service Blockchain outfit SETL files for bankruptcy
around 70,000 customers, roughly 1.2% over the years, with a first US core offering, (SaaS) basis.
of the market. the Java-based Coresoft, in 2011. In the US, VSoft is largely focused London-based payment and settlement has appointed UK business advisory firm Depositories Regulation (CSDR).
“This new investment plan will help VSoft claims Wings was “built from the on credit unions and lower-tier banks. infrastructure provider SETL has brought Quantuma as an independent administrator. The CSD is operational but SETL says it
Tide accelerate its strategy to capture ground up” and already has users. One The Coresoft system gained a handful in an administrator and wants to sell off In short, the firm reckons it needs to is “not sufficiently placed to contribute the
a significant share of the SME banking of these is known to be in India, with an of takers in its first few years, with the its central securities depository (CSD) balance its strategic infrastructure holdings capital required” and is looking for a bigger
market,” says Tide CEO Oliver Prill. implementation in 2017 across 17 District development partner being Carter Bank, platform ID2S. and continue its software development player to take it on.
He adds: “We want to create a genuine Co-op Central Banks, 360 branches and a community bank with 140 branches The firm launched in July 2015 and uses activities “on a business as usual basis”. According to data from Pitchbook, the
scale challenger to the oligopoly that 2600 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies in Virginia and North Carolina. In mid- blockchain technology to enable market Anthony Culligan, SETL co-founder firm has raised a total of $45.7 million.
has dominated and failed SMEs for too in the state of Odisha. 2018, VSoft added Arya, a digital services participants to move cash and assets and largest shareholder, comments: “I am In October 2018, SETL raised £90,000 –
long. SMEs should have the option of a In India, VSoft has a core banking platform for US retail and commercial directly between each other. absolutely satisfied that this is the most placing its pre-money valuation at $14.7
dedicated and focused banking partner system dubbed IRIS, previously branded account holders, claiming 20 takers in the Last year, Citi and Credit Agricole took positive step for the company and will form million. However, that was a major fall as
that will help them grow their business.” as SuVikas, which it launched in 2007 for first year. stakes in the company. Additionally, the basis of a strong future.” seven months before that, the firm raised
Tide currently does not have a banking domestic co-operative banks. One user The company’s co-founder, CEO and Computershare increased its investment. Previously it had established its ID2S £4.2 million for a pre-money valuation of
licence, but is aided by ClearBank, the first is Odisha State Co-operative Bank for chairman, Murthy Veeraghanta, describes These three firms joined S2iEM and and IZNES platforms in Paris. “Of particular $136.1 million.
clearing bank to launch in Britain for 250 380+ branches. VSoft’s Indian outsource Wings as “a functional, flexible core system Deloitte as shareholders in the company. note”, SETL made “significant” capital If you’re looking for more info from the
years. services arm, VServe, has 150+ users, that allows organisations to work more However, things have not worked out contributions to ID2S. company, it’s not happening. SETL says it
Tide says it is planning Series B and C particularly for cheque processing. efficiently and compete at higher levels”. as planned as SETL has started a corporate In October 2018, the platform “will make no further comment in addition
investment rounds in the next two years. Wings is intended to be browser-based VSoft was set up in 1996 and has 1200 staff. reorganisation. completed its T2S connection testing and to this statement”.
Henry Vilar and device-agnostic. Postings can be Martin Whybrow As part of this change, the board of SETL was approved under Central Securities Antony Peyton
04 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 05

NEWS NEWS
NatWest to launch virtual accounts for businesses Ant Financial and Hoperun team for Lack of buyers
NatWest is partnering with Nordic
software company Tieto to offer
monies to comply with industry best
practices and regulatory standards.
the NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland
(RBS) brands from October, followed by
new core banking product puts an end to UK’s
business customers a new client monies
and virtual account management service
By using one centralised platform, the
bank claims that corporate customers
further rollout to its Coutts and Ulster
Bank NI customers from next year.
Ant Financial and Jiangsu-based
Hoperun Information Technology have
DCBP has completed the pilot stage
after running in the core computing
Raphaels Bank
later this year. will be able to reduce the number of The bank hopes to build on its use of unveiled their Distributed Core Banking systems of several banking partners. Despite its long history, UK-based
The platform is designed to support bank accounts they hold, improve their this technology in the coming years to Platform (DCBP), a product designed One of them is MYbank, which private bank Raphaels will soon be
regulated professions – such as legal, processes and achieve greater visibility support further needs from business and to help financial institutions (FIs) shift was able to build its distributed history after failing to attract a buyer.
accountancy and insurance firms – who and control over their liquidity positions. large corporate customers. their business models from transaction- cloud-native capabilities, including Raphaels was founded in London in
need to safely segregate their clients’ The new services will be offered under Jane Connolly oriented to customer-oriented. “immediate disaster recovery” in six 1787 by Dutchman Raphael Raphael.
The platform also aims to help FIs months. The bank was owned by the Raphaels
tackle digital challenges, including This new solution builds on the family until 1983 and has been owned
Mastercard drops Earthport bid for Transfast acquisition distributed development, financial Business-Platform-as-a-Service (bPaaS) by Lenlyn Holdings since 2004. The
product management and accounting product which Ant Financial launched latter has been trying to sell it since
Mastercard has dropped its Earthport capabilities and offer foreign exchange 125 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, liquidation. in September 2018. 2015.
bid and instead acquired cross-border tools. Financial details about the deal were Americas and Australia. DCBP is the first co-developed Ant Financial’s bPaaS offers However, according to sources that
account-to-account money transfer not disclosed. Its proprietary network consists of integrated solution in Ant Financial’s FIs product management, asset spoke to The Times, Brexit uncertainty
network Transfast. Transfast currently supports the integrations with 300+ banks and other technology product portfolio. management, capital verification and and the high price tag meant bids
In February, the bidding war over Mastercard Send solution for business-to- financial institutions for services to its “This is just the first of many full-link pressure tests on a live service from Chinese and Russian buyers had
Earthport intensified as Visa wanted to business and person-to-person payment partners via APIs, SFTP, web and mobile collaborations that we plan to form with basis. dried up, leading to it being wound
see off arch-rival Mastercard with a £247 services. product applications. other talented partners that will enable The firm says it aims to combine down.
million offer. Michael Miebach, chief product officer Transfast is backed by private equity us to provide better technology solutions these capabilities with Hoperun’s Raphaels has customers with fixed-
Mastercard explains: “Prior to this for Mastercard, says: “The addition of investment firms GCP Capital Partners and to the challenges faced by financial experience in the finance industry to rate deposits who will be repaid once
announcement, Mastercard lapsed its Transfast adds to our leading position Apis Partners. institutions,” says Liu Weiguang, vice- develop the DCBP solution. it closes, one source comments.
offer for Earthport in order to focus on the in meeting business, government and The transaction, which is anticipated to president of Ant Financial. Henry Vilar The bank sold its book of loans to
integration and expansion of Transfast.” consumer payments needs – whether B2B, close in the second half of 2019, is subject Paragon Bank in 2018, and has closed
In this new development, Transfast
will be used to improve its compliance
P2P or other flows.”
Transfast’s network provider covers over
to customary closing conditions.
Antony Peyton
Nationwide revives 10x Future down its pre-paid card business. It
still has a network of cash machines in
Technology with £15m funding railway stations and shopping centres.
Banking Technology contacted
State Bank of India selects FSS for one nation of payments Nationwide has invested £15 million in Nationwide has been working with 10x Raphaels for comment.
10x Future Technologies as part of a Series since last summer to test its thinking around Its response was this brief
State Bank of India (SBI) has chosen and Pay (contact and contactless) cards. FFS has 27+ years of experience and B funding round, giving it a minority the account and to scope the requirements statement: “It has been known for
Financial Software and Systems (FSS) to Commuters no longer need to pay is headquartered in Chennai. Its delivery shareholding. for delivery. It aims to deliver the digital some time that the shareholders have
implement its “One Nation, One Card” cash at toll stations and ticket kiosks or channels include ATM, POS, internet, Last year, Nationwide announced that platform towards the end of the year. been looking to divest themselves of
programme for digital payments. lock monies across multiple transit cards. mobile – and back-end functions such it would launch a business current account According to industry rumours, their interests in the bank and to date
The news comes just days after SBI and Rather cardholders can load monies into as cards management, reconciliation, targeting the UK’s 5.7 million SMEs. This Nationwide could receive £50 million funding the motor lending division has been
Hitachi Payment Services unveiled a merchant the store value account and access fare settlement, merchant management and partnership hopes to help build the new from the Capability and Innovation Fund in sold and we are gradually withdrawing
acquiring joint venture (JV) in Mumbai to get funds by tapping their card on the terminal device monitoring. digital platform for this account. the upcoming Pool B round. from other lending activities.
at the digital payments market in India. reader, “improving transacting ease and Recently, FSS has acquired a 46% According to Nationwide, the Jenkins was Barclays former CEO, and he “The bank continues to maintain
In this latest deal, FSS explains that convenience”. stake in South Africa-based Ecentric investment aims to deliver “game- co-founded 10x alongside Brad Goodall (now its existing services at this time and is
traditionally, each transit provider has Suresh Rajagopalan, president, retail Payment Systems, a Standard Bank changing” customer service on the high Banked CEO). Goodall has also worked at a sound, well-managed UK bank who
installed proprietary card acceptance payments, FSS says: “The One Nation, subsidiary. As part of the deal, Ecentric street, and for mobile and online. Level39, Innovate Finance and ENTIQ. are fully able to meet all obligations
solution (e.g. each public transit operator One Card programme, is a significant will deploy FSS PoSabIlity, a “POS driving” It’s worth noting that over the last The deal with Nationwide is good and commitments to their depositors,
in the country deployed its own solution). step in realising the ‘Digital India’ vision and in-store payment acceptance decade Nationwide went through news for 10x since it lost a deal with Virgin customers and partners.”
In an urbanising economy like India, by bringing a critical mass of micro- solution. a lengthy and costly core banking Money last year as a result of CYBG’s Back in August 2016, Raphaels did
the fragmentation has resulted in transactions into the digital fold.” Ecentric has a customer portfolio technology overhaul with SAP. takeover of the financial institution. become the “first new fully operational
“limited adoption of cashless solutions”. The underlying card issuance platform comprising 50+ tier-1 banks and retailers. Antony Jenkins, co-founder and Similarly, another UK banking participating financial provider” of
The National Common Mobility Card powering the programme manages It was founded in 1998. Its payment executive chairman of 10x Future heavyweight, Lloyds Banking Group, has Faster Payments, the UK’s 24/7 real-
programme is designed for interoperability, transaction clearing and settlement. platforms connect over 70,000 retail Technologies, says: “Our digital delivery recently invested partnered with (and time payment service.
so customers can pay for transit services The functionality includes registration, channels to card issuing and payment team looks forward to supporting the invested in) 10x’s rival, Thought Machine. However, on its website the bank
and daily purchases using a single card. verification, card issuance, top-up of acquiring systems across South Africa and a society in setting new standards in Lloyds invested £11 million for a 10% stake has been quiet – with no official
FSS through its prepaid digital solution funds into prepaid wallet, card lifecycle dozen other Sub-Saharan countries. business banking – just as good digitally as in the core banking start-up. updates since April 2017.
has enabled the bank in issuance of Tap management, reconciliation and reporting. Antony Peyton it is in branch.” Henry Vilar Antony Peyton

NEWS
MAIN CONFERENCE:
German savings marketplace Raisin acquires MHB Bank
May 8-10, 2019 Savings marketplace Raisin is bucking the customers, partner banks and distribution range of offers and the availability of its
current trend by buying Frankfurt-based partners.” products in the entire European Economic
ADDITIONAL SUMMIT DAY ON CUSTOMER MHB Bank, its long-time servicer. Raisin provides its customers with Area (EEA). The new acquisition is designed to
EXPERIENCE OR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The Berlin-based fintech says it will access to a variety of savings and expedite this growth.
May 7, 2019 | Hilton San Francisco Union expand its areas of operation and value investment products from across Europe. Along with that, the firm wants to speed
Square, San Francisco, CA chain. While the firm is keen on open It has more than 165,000 customers and up the onboarding process for deposit
banking, it is not that keen on being open. provides over 250 products offered by banks and distribution partners like o2
Financial details were not disclosed. nearly 70 European banks on the fintech’s Banking of Telefónica Germany and N26.
MHB was founded in 1973 and Raisin seven platforms. The acquisition of the shares in MHB is
DELIVERING REAL-WORLD will become the sole owner of the bank,

which since 2005 has been in the hands of
an affiliate of American private equity firm
As its service bank in Raisin’s largest
market of Germany, MHB handles account
management, customer identification and
still subject to final approval by the German
Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
(BaFin) and the European Central Bank (ECB).
SOLUTIONS AND INSIGHTS FROM

Lone Star. financial transactions, “all the preserve of The fintech is doing pretty well as it recently
Raisin CEO and co-founder Dr. Tamaz licensed financial institutions”. closed a €100 million financing round.
Georgadze explains: “Together with In the past few years Raisin says it has In 2017 it took over PBF Solutions in the
FINTECH’S CUTTING EDGE

MHB, we can continue to develop – and expanded the services it provides customers UK, which runs Raisin’s UK branch.
seamlessly integrate – the services we offer and banks, particularly with respect to the Antony Peyton
Iraq’s Rafidain Bank revamps tech with Oracle

Iraq’s largest bank, Rafidain Bank, is replace Finastra’s Fusionbanking core although the name wasn’t revealed.
understood to be implementing a suite of banking system. Rafidain is a long- Neither the bank nor Oracle have
new Oracle software. standing client of Finastra, formerly Misys. replied to our comment requests.
1300+ 60+ 120+

These include Oracle Flexcube It used its legacy Bankmaster system In March this year, Rafidain expressed
Universal Banking for core banking, for many years, and in 2012 signed to its readiness to establish branches in
Oracle Banking Digital Experience for upgrade to Fusionbanking. Iran, said Secretary General of Iran-Iraq
its digital channels, and Oracle Banking Oracle says “a leading Iraqi bank” has Chamber Hamid Hosseini, according to
ATTENDEES. FIRMS EXPERT Payments. chosen to implement these solutions the Tehran Times.
It is understood the new tech will in its Q2 2019 financial results report, Henry Vilar
DEMOING. SPEAKERS.
INSIGHTS AND CONNECTIONS YOU ONLY FIND AT FINOVATE. Tech giant SAS commits to £1bn AI investment in three years
SAS says it is investing $1 billion in artificial comments Laurie Miles, director of The firm cites as an example SciSports,
intelligence (AI) over the next three years analytics, SAS UK and Ireland. “AI can an innovative Dutch sports-analytics
through software innovation, education, bring significant value for organisations, start-up, which is applying computer
expert services and more. but more than that, we believe AI can vision from SAS to data streaming from
SAS aims to continue to partner with deliver great benefit to society – by soccer, or football, matches. SAS AI
technology providers like Accenture, Cisco, investing in the future of analytics, technology running on NVIDIA GPUs
See the Bay Area’s cutting-edge of Deloitte, Intel and NVIDIA. we’re investing in the future of human delivers in-game insights to coaches and
The firm’s current AI capabilities include development.” managers.
fintech via a unique, short-form, advanced analytics, machine learning, SAS is investing in R&D innovation in Customer education and development
demo format. Plus, get actionable
SAVE 20%
deep learning, natural language processing all core areas of AI and embedding these initiatives, such as the new SAS AI
(NLP) and computer vision. capabilities into the SAS Platform and its Accelerator Programme, will focus on
insights from 120+ fintech experts in The $1 billion investment in AI will solutions for data management, customer helping organisations and professionals
a newly expanded program covering focus on three main areas: research and intelligence, fraud & security intelligence get AI-ready at any level.
development (R&D), education initiatives and risk management. Among the many customers using AI
banking tech, payments tech, lending QUOTE CODE FKV2353FFFA addressing customer needs, and expert As part of this effort to boost R&D, SAS and machine learning from SAS are firms
tech, community banking, artificial services to optimise customer return. continues to partner with technology like Connexions Loyalty, Daiwa Securities,
“AI is changing the way society providers like Accenture, Cisco, Deloitte, and Volvo and Mack Trucks.
intelligence and customer experience. responds to all kinds of challenges,” Intel and Nvidia. Henry Vilar

NEWS NEWS
Bermuda allows Bulgaria’s Municipal Bank gets core Finastra core system fuels Mexico mulls
local fintechs to and payments tech from Oracle Al Taif Islamic Bank mobile paytech
play in US Bulgaria’s Municipal Bank is understood to
be implementing a suite of new Oracle FSS
2019, the firm developed banking
digitalisation projects including electronic
Al Taif Islamic Bank in Iraq has chosen
Fusion Islamic, Finastra’s core banking
to develop new features and capabilities
in the cloud either internally or in
with Amazon
New York-based Signature Bank is software. signing of documents, cash operations solution for this market, to “kick start its conjunction with external parties such as Mexico’s central bank is in discussions with
providing a full range of banking services These include Oracle Flexcube Universal optimisation using teller cash recyclers retail business”. fintechs and developers. Amazon to bring in a new government-
to Bermuda-licensed fintech companies. Banking for core banking and Oracle (TCRs), embossing of debit cards, and an The bank is described as a “challenger” Wissam Khoury, MD Middle East and backed mobile payment system offering
This launch comes as a result of the Banking Payments. online platform for client onboarding and but was started 15 years ago as Al Taif Africa at Finastra, adds: “Al Taif Islamic online purchases via QR codes.
Bermudian effort to up the country’s It is understood the new tech will deposit opening. Company for Money Transfer and is part of Bank is the first Iraqi private bank we have According to Reuters, the bank’s
regulation when it comes to fintech. replace CSoft’s VCSBank, which has been in Among its clients, it has Bulgarian Al Taif Group. worked with, and is a great example of a head of payments says this would
David Burt, Premier of Bermuda and place since the mid-2000s. The supplier still Development Bank, EuroBank Bulgaria, and Finastra’s solution is of course delivered forward-thinking organisation ready to be the first time Amazon offers such
MP of the Progressive Labour Party, says lists the bank as a client. Corporate Commercial Bank. with pre-configured Shari’ah compliant embrace digital.” scanning technology in Mexico and could
that the Bermudian government has Oracle FSS says “a major bank in Last year, Liechtenstein-registered fund products. Khoury explains that whilst this deal eventually open a new customer base
been working to promote Bermuda as Bulgaria” has chosen to implement these Novito Opportunities acquired a majority Reda Hamza, CEO at Al Taif Islamic Bank, is initially aimed at the bank’s retail in a nation where more than half of the
“the destination of choice” for fintech solutions in its Q1 2019 financial results shareholding (over 67%) in Municipal Bank says: “Our vision is to challenge the status customers, it has also signed a partnership population has no bank account.
companies. report, although the name wasn’t revealed. from the Sofia Municipality for $35.4 million, quo of the financial services sector in Iraq and with the Al Taif Group’s IT arm (Al Taif The payment system, known as CoDi,
“Signature Bank’s willingness to Neither the bank nor Oracle FSS have and now owns 95% shares in the bank. there is a strong opportunity to offer new Technical Services) to “build skills and is being built by the central bank Banco
consider Bermuda licensed businesses replied to our comment requests at the Novito is controlled by Liechtenstein- services to the unbanked population here. In capabilities to help transfer knowledge in de México (aka Banxico).
for banking services is a significant vote time of the writing. based investment fund CAIAC Fund addition to our branch presence, going digital the growing Iraqi fintech sector, enabling CoDi will let customers make online
of confidence in and endorsement of CSoft is a Bulgarian core banking Management. is the best way for us to reach this market.” us to develop our presence in the region and mobile payments using QR codes.
Bermuda’s efforts to create a leading high supplier headquartered in Varna. During Henry Vilar The bank will also get access to and encourage collaboration”. It aims to bring more people into the
standard regulatory regime for fintech FusionFabric.cloud, offering the chance Antony Peyton formal financial sector. A pilot roll-out was
business,” Burt adds.
Signature Bank is an early entrant FIS acquires Worldpay for $34bn Fears over Bank of Ireland
expected in March.
Amazon and Argentine rival
into the digital asset space, and aims to MercadoLibre have approached the
support “highly regulated players in the Banking technology giant FIS is acquiring This acquisition comes hot on the heels €2bn tech revamp cost bank about adopting the system, Jaime
fintech and digital assets industry”. payments firm Worldpay via a cash and stock of another massive deal in the payments Cortina, Banxico’s director of operations
The bank is the first to launch a New combination – bringing Worldpay’s enterprise space: Fiserv, another US heavyweight and Bank of Ireland’s five-year €900 million The bank embarked on the core and payments, tells Reuters.
York regulator-approved blockchain-based value to approximately $43 billion (including direct rival of FIS, buying First Data. modernisation initiative – aka Project banking system revamp in 2016 – with a “They have also said that they could
platform for managing money transfers the assumption of Worldpay debt, which FIS Worldpay, as it is today, is also the result Omega – is over budget and costs could price tag of €500 million. The offering is implement it relatively quickly,” Cortina
between clients. JP Morgan announced a expects to refinance). of a big merger with Vantiv announced rise to €2 billion. known as Capgemini’s Banking Platform, explains, adding that CoDi was specifically
similar initiative, called the JPM Coin. FIS is spending $34 billion on this back in 2017. Sources close to the project that and is underpinned by Temenos’ flagship designed so that it can facilitate payments
Joseph J. DePaolo, president and purchase. The combined company of Worldpay and spoke to The Times, say there are growing core system, T24. Meanwhile, another online as well as in stores.
CEO at Signature Bank, explains: “Since Under the terms of the agreement, FIS will have pro forma 2018 annual revenue concerns about “scope creep”, with the major consultancy firm Accenture was Amazon declines to comment.
launching at the start of the year, our Worldpay shareholders will be entitled to and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $12.3 plan being changed regularly in a bid to selected as the delivery partner. MercadoLibre confirmed that its payments
blockchain based Signet system has receive 0.9287 FIS shares and $11 in cash billion and $4.9 billion, respectively. keep the lid on costs. In its latest financial results, Bank of arm MercadoPago was in contact with
onboarded multiple clients who are for each share of Worldpay. Upon closing, Upon closing, the combined company’s The budget for the IT project, which aims Ireland says this “transformation” saw an the central bank about digital payment
using it to send each other millions of FIS shareholders will own approximately board of directors will consist of 12 to replace all the bank’s legacy systems, investment of €306 million in 2018 for solutions but declined to comment further.
dollars. Signature Bank is one of the few 53% and Worldpay shareholders will own members, seven of which will come from was increased from €900 million to €1.4 “growth ambitions, improving customer Amazon launched its first debit card
banks in the US that will provide deposit approximately 47% of the combined FIS’ board of directors and five of which will billion in the summer of 2018, including an service and driving efficiencies”. It notes last year, targeting consumers without
accounts and corporate debit cards to company. come from Worldpay’s. extra €250 million allocated for business that €113 million was expensed to income credit cards.
cryptocurrency start-ups but we are The firms say that this combination aims Gary Norcross will remain as FIS restructuring. statements. This latest move is part of Mexico’s
seeing non-crypto businesses signing up to expand and complement FIS’ acquiring chairman of the board, president and As reported in October 2017, Bank of The bank says the “foundations” of desire to boost its fintech sector.
as well.” and payment offerings, while increasing chief executive officer. Charles Drucker, Ireland’s new CEO was understood to be the new core banking platforms are in Last autumn, Mexico’s Fintech Law,
Bermuda launched legislation in 2018 Worldpay’s distribution footprint. Worldpay’s current executive chairman reviewing Project Omega. place, with a new mobile banking app which had been touted for over a year,
aimed at this. Burt says Bermuda now “Scale matters in our rapidly changing and CEO, will serve as the executive vice- At that time, analysts from research launching this year. It explains its “first full came into effect. This law is the nation’s
hosts 66 fintech companies. industry,” states Gary Norcross, chairman, chairman of the board. firm The Davy said in a report that scale customer deliverable” is using new most coordinated effort to tackle
However, the absence of banking president and CEO, FIS. “Upon closing later The transaction is subject to receipt although Bank of Ireland investors have Temenos technology. regulating fintech firms. There was nearly
services for fintech companies has been this year, our two powerhouse organisations of required regulatory and shareholder “digested the cost” of the IT programme, The bank adds: “Our systems two years of debate around it, and the
an impediment to those companies will combine forces to offer a customer- approvals and other customary closing they have not yet factored in its benefits, transformation has made good progress law seeks to regulate four main areas:
who are looking to establish a physical driven combination of scale, global presence conditions and is expected to close in the including that it will “materially improve” with the testing of our first customers on crowdfunding, cryptocurrency, APIs and
presence in Bermuda. and the industry’s broadest range of global second half of 2019. the lender’s cost-income ratio and return the new core banking platform.” data sharing, and sandbox ecosystems.
Henry Vilar financial solutions.” Henry Vilar on equity. Antony Peyton Antony Peyton

NEWS NEWS
nCino lands new customers in Stockholm and Sydney Palestine Islamic Bank goes digital with Temenos to the core
Swedish SME lender DBT Företagslån The partnership announcement This is important, Street explains, Palestine Islamic Bank (PIB) has chosen As part of the deal, PIB also gets later that year, The National Bank (TNB).
is the latest fintech to team up with US highlighted a handful of features of insofar as commercial property lending has Temenos’ Infinity front office platform and Islamic banking capabilities, analytics Via its buy-out vehicle – the National
cloud banking firm nCino. The Stockholm- the Bank Operating System, including unique features that differentiate it from T24 Transact core banking system for its and reporting; and risk and compliance. Islamic Investment Company – TNB
based company will leverage nCino’s Bank the Customer Portal and the nCino most lending systems. The technology’s digital revamp. It is understood the new software will bought 45% of PIB for $70 million,
Operating System to automate and digitise Community. The portal enables integration with Salesforce was another Founded in Palestine in 1995, PIB replace the ICS Banks system from ICS making it the majority shareholder. TNB
its own workflows. customers to interact with staff members strong point for Thinktank, he adds, operates a network of 43 branches, making Financial Systems (ICSFS), which has is already a T24 Transact user (it went
DBT Företagslån CEO Alexis Kopylov says: via the channel of their choice. The enabling the firm to be more efficient and it the largest Islamic banking network in been running in the bank for a decade. live with the system in 2017).
“For DBT, all digital investments are made nCino community provides an online have better control over its data. the country. Interestingly, at the start of 2018, Temenos states that PIB selected
with the single focus on strengthening the ecosystem where users, developers, and Based in North Carolina, and founded Bayan Qasem, general manager at PIB, PIB selected a different supplier and its offerings following a “rigorous,
customer journey. The nCino platform is an analysts can access exclusive content, as in 2012, nCino says average clients says: “We selected Temenos as our technology tech – Oracle FSS’s Flexcube (core competitive evaluation”.
important enabler for this ambition.” well as discuss and share best practices. are experiencing reductions of 92% in partner to future-proof our ongoing growth, banking) and analytical applications. Other users of T24 Transact in
Kopylov credits nCino’s experience Elsewhere, Australian commercial servicing costs and increased account transform the customer experience and The project, however, was shelved Palestine include SAFA Bank.
in both banking and in working with property lender Thinktank has opening completion rates of 127%. achieve operational excellence.” with the arrival of a new shareholder Henry Vilar
fintechs, which he says would help his firm implemented Bank Operating System to It works with more than 200 financial
“challenge the status quo”. automate and digitise its own internal institutions around the world, including
“nCino was the only system that processes. Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest Nymbus banking tech suite is Inspire-d choice
we evaluated that did not feel like a Thinktank CEO Jonathan Street member-based credit union in the US.
cumbersome tool, but a solution that will praises nCino’s background and nCino has raised $133.2 million in funding Pennsylvania-based Inspire Federal Credit we convert to Nymbus.” In addition, it has SmartPayments,
strengthen the customer experience and experience in the banking sector, and to date, and includes Salesforce Ventures and Union has now implemented Nymbus’ Nymbus says its digital-first product which will manage the authorisations and
enable further scalability of our operations,” the fact that the company “shared Insight Venture Partners among its investors. core, internet banking, mobile banking suite allows Inspire to “unify all the transactions for Inspire’s debit card programme
Kopylov explains. (Thinktank’s) financial services DNA”. David Penn, Finovate and payment solutions. required banking functions into one while providing real-time fraud protection.
This follows on from July 2018 when solution, enabling a multi-channel In other news, last year Texas-based
Inspire FCU (formerly Bucks First FCU), a member experience, while automating TransPecos Bank turned to Nymbus for
Personal finance app HyperJar preps for spring launch 15,000-member financial institution founded and simplifying back-end processes and the launch of a standalone digital banking
in 1936, revealed it was making the move to workflows for its employees”. brand – BankMD – that focuses on medical
London-based personal finance app However, it is live with select pilots consultant – senior supply chain finance Nymbus. Inspire is using Nymbus’ full suite of professionals. The operations of BankMD
HyperJar is getting hyped up for its launch and will launch more broadly in 2019. It product specialist at International At that time, president and CEO of solutions including SmartCore, a core will be outsourced to Nymbus via its
this spring. is currently in “stealth mode”. Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington Inspire FCU, Jim Merrill, said: “Inspire will banking platform; and SmartDigital; its SmartLaunch platform.
The start-up says it’s on “a mission to The firm was officially founded in DC. eliminate 15 technology vendors after internet and mobile banking suite. Antony Peyton
wake up the billions of pounds sleep- 2016. Along with its London office, it In addition, Megens has been MD
walking through people’s lives, and put has an accelerator centre in Waterloo, at Mack and Bear in London. This is an
that money to work for them”. Ontario. advisory firm providing fund-raising, New Zealand heads to open banking
It is keeping a lid on its HyperJar and Mat Megens is the London-based general financing and advice to private
comments as it didn’t respond to questions founder and CEO of HyperJar. equity and venture capital firms, and New Zealand is on the path to open Over the past year, it’s been working banks and third parties take time and
on Twitter. Its website is also a spartan He brings plenty of experience to tech start-ups. banking with Payments NZ releasing the on a shared API framework and pilot to technical specifications can be interpreted
affair at present. the table. For example, he’s worked as a Antony Peyton first API standards for payment initiation bring common API standards and an API in different ways.
and account information. standards ecosystem to life. Along with the banks and third parties
As reported in March 2018, governance The objective of this work is to make it above, Wiggins says other working group
French firm PayTrip launches prepaid for relatives abroad organisation Payments NZ unveiled an easier for organisations to partner using organisations – ANZ, Kiwibank and Merco
industry API pilot to test open banking and standards, so they can bring financial – helped.
French fintech PayTrip is launching its prepaid He claims that using PayTrip will simplify “The market for personal money transfers digital payments in the country. services innovation to market “more simply Payments NZ’s new API standards
card in France and Belgium to address the the process and reduce the timeframe from a from France to Africa is estimated to be That pilot was conducted by six and quickly”. service will be opened in a few months’
limitations of sending money to relatives few days to a few minutes – which will benefit between €7 billion and €10 billion per year,” partners – ASB, BNZ, Datacom, Paymark, Wiggins adds: “So what does the release time for organisations to become
abroad. people who want to support their family Bennaceur says. Trade Me and Westpac – a mix of banks of these standards mean? We’ve learned registered standards users.
Bennaceur Kasbi developed the idea during a difficult time or send money home The subscription-based model, starting and third parties. They built and tested a lot over the past year since we kicked Alongside this API workstream,
behind the PayTrip prepaid card. The concept regularly. at €3.49 per month, is open for two types account information and payment off the industry pilot and framework through its “Payments Direction”
was born while Kasbi, an engineer, was living Earlier this year, PayTrip raised €1 million of customers: European residents of African initiation models. development. One of our key insights has programme, it is also working on
in Versailles and sending money home to his from private investors and banks, including descent and families who want to make In the latest step, Steve Wiggins, chief been the value of getting some practical investigating 365-day service availability,
parents in Casablanca. Bpifrance, and has now launched in France money available to their children without executive, Payments NZ, says: “These open experience under our belts.” proxy identifiers, speeding up its payment
Hidden costs, commissions and a lack of and Belgium. PayTrip is an integrated solution opening an account. payments-related standards will be used He does note that the pilot took longer systems, informative transactions and
security prompted him to imagine a better, consisting of a platform, a bank account and A second fundraising round is already as an important building block for new than originally thought. This was because request to pay.
more transparent solution based on prepaid Mastercard international payment cards, with under consideration. innovation which can benefit all Kiwis.” the development and build processes for Antony Peyton
bank cards. funds guaranteed by Barclays. Jane Connolly

NEWS SPOTLIGHT: PAYTECH
Sponsored by
Indian lendtech Spoon readies for launch Why open banking is going to
be so exciting for payments
Spoon is a new Indian micro lending firm in Sasidharan founded Codeister about the hefty interests anymore. We charge
the works, targeting a near-future launch of Technologies, being CEO of the firm. only a small interest. We don’t have any
its mobile app that aims to make micro loans Its first product was an expense tracker hidden charges as well.”
accessible throughout its home country. for the Android app with digital wallet The firm delivers the lent money to
The firm says that it is targeting millennials, support. the user’s e-wallet. Through the app, users You have definitely heard of open banking,
making the service available via mobile 24/7, Codeister Technologies was may upload a selfie and a photo of their a pan-European initiative that is forcing
365 days a year. “acquihired” by CareStack – a tech provider Aadhar Card and PAN Card to complete the banks to create APIs for other technology
One of its cofounders, Vivek Sasidharan, for the US dental market. Sasidharan then application process. companies to integrate and build on top of.
says: “I want to build something that will help became a software engineer for the firm. The loan will get credited to their account The majority of the spotlight has been
a lot of people. You feel something special On its website, the company states: in 48 hours, if approved. shone on the ability of other companies to
when you make someone’s life easy for them.” “With Spoon, you don’t have to worry Henry Vilar access our bank accounts via these secure
APIs.
But what you might not have heard of is
HSBC launches PSD2 developer portal the payment opportunity that is going to
be created from the new regulation.
HSBC has unveiled its PSD2 developer Nadya Hijazi, global head of global company, secured £20 million in funding We sat down with Ben Wakeham, co-
portal designed to allow third party liquidity and cash management digital, from HSBC UK for its SME market founder and CEO of Pollen Technologies,
payment providers to develop products HSBC, says the portal brings “new ambitions. one of the first companies to be regulated
and services across Europe. innovation to the market through an In Singapore, the bank backed insurtech for these new payment permissions.
The bank says this is in line with the UK’s intuitive developer ecosystem”. CXA Group’s $25m funding. He believes that the fundamental changes
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) This testing facility provides Over in the States, HSBC US Commercial in the payment model will benefit both the
Open Data Specifications – and will help the developers with the choice of Open Banking teamed up with Neptune Financial payer and the payee, with the opportunity
bank to meet the requirements of PSD2. Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) to target middle market businesses. stretching to both consumer payments and
The portal is a sandbox environment and STET standards, with work underway While in February this year, HSBC (the much larger, but much less innovated in)
where developers can test APIs for three to include the Berlin Group standards. began beta testing its PayMe System business payments space.
services: account information, payment The bank is usually active in the for businesses, with 15 retailers in Hong And the market insight so far would
initiation and funds confirmation. fintech space. Kong now able to accept payments from seem to agree, with estimates for payment And with the payment surcharging both card payments and open banking
Developers can access mock data from Recently, Proactis, a spend customers using the e-wallet app. via open banking to hit £300 billion of ban now in effect, it is of even more payments, with the mobile phone
retail and corporate payment accounts. management and B2B e-commerce Antony Peyton transactional volume by 2020. importance for businesses to watch their becoming the enabler. This is incredibly
According to Wakeham, these are the payment acceptance fees. important with the notion that for
biggest reasons why this form of payment something as important as a payment,
Flexcube core banking system gains new takers in is going to be so exciting: ■ Direct settlement to bank
The existing card payment model
repeatability creates comfort and trust.
LatAm, Europe and Asia FOR BUSINESSES involves the creation of a merchant bank FOR PAYERS
■ Reduction (even removal) of account, which is separate to a business’ ■ Instant (cheap) credit at checkout
Banco Votorantim in Brazil, Ghazanfar lending, payments and financial analytics Techurate and Deam Computer International transaction fees main bank accounts; and also under the At the point of payment a quick
Bank in Afghanistan, Tamvil in Tajikistan, solutions. Ghazanfar Bank has been operating – assisting with the implementation. Prices for online card payment control of their payment service provider, additional use of the account
Prince Bank in Cambodia, and FEDinvest since 2009, offering conventional and Islamic BPC Banking Technologies is providing acceptance have now become so high not the business. This is so that any information service providers
in Albania are implementing Oracle FSS’s banking services. its SmartVista suite of solutions for cards (+3%) that some merchants had even chargebacks and fees can be taken, often (AISPs) regulation during customer
Flexcube core banking system. Tamvil LLC, a microfinance institution and payments to Prince Bank. Idealink begun adding it on as a separate fee at meaning businesses don’t get access to authentication – in real-time or pre-
Banco Votorantim is the seventh largest in Tajikistan, has also recently signed for Consulting, a local partner of TESS checkout. This is due to the number of their funds for seven or more days. With authorised – would enable an instant
bank in Brazil, operating in the wholesale, retail, Flexcube, to Banking Technology’s knowledge. International and Dow Jones, is providing middlemen taking a slice of the transaction open banking, funds are delivered directly credit option. The revolutionary part,
treasury, asset management and brokerage Meanwhile, another MFI in the country, Finca anti-money laundering and terrorist (issuers, processors, gateways, acquirers). to the businesses bank account with however, is that there is the potential
fields. It opted for the Flexcube core banking Impact Finance Tajikistan, is looking to replace financing (AML/CFT) tools. And finally, With open banking, payments run on instant settlement. Yet again removing for a marketplace model, with banks
system last year. It is understood the bank is Flexcube with another core banking system iFinancial System Services is supplying the Faster Payment network, with banks unnecessary middlemen. competing in real-time to analyse the
replacing the Temenos T24 system, which was and is currently in search mode. cash recycling machines to the bank. not allowed to charge any different to what data and offer the best price.
installed at the bank over a decade ago. In Cambodia, Prince Bank, which In Albania, FEDinvest, a saving and credit they do now, which is nothing. Meaning ■ Omnichannel acceptance If Wakeham and his firm are right
Meanwhile, Afghanistan-based Ghazanfar transformed from a microlender into a association that focuses on financial inclusion companies like Pollen are not only looking The open banking payment model in their thinking, this would be a
Bank is understood to be replacing the iCBS fully-fledged commercial bank last year, has and poverty alleviation in the rural areas of to dramatically undercut the existing card is relevant to both online and physical fundamental change in not only how
core banking solution from Indian banking invested over $10 million in its technology the country, is implementing Flexcube for payment providers, but even potentially payments. The concept of secure customer payments are made, but also the credit
tech firm Virmati with Flexcube. The bank modernisation initiative. It selected Flexcube core and Oracle’s front-end tech for digital not charge for the payment at all, authentication (SCA) is going to affect all and lending industry.
signed for a broad suite of products from for its core banking operations, with two channels, Banking Digital Experience. monetising other data-led opportunities forms of digital payment as of September It’s going to be fascinating to see how
Oracle, including core, digital experience, system integrators and Oracle partners – Tanya Andreasyan instead. this year, aligning the user experience of this plays out over the next few years. bt

INTERVIEW: JEAN-MICHEL HILSENKOPF, TEMENOS
Sponsored by
At the centre Temenos is innovating on all fronts. With

our API-first technology, Temenos Infinity
and Temenos T24 Transact can connect
and Temenos T24 Transact – both are
cloud-native and cloud-agnostic. The
former is a breakthrough digital front-
of banking
in a fast and controlled way between end product and the latter is our next-
products, systems and third parties. We generation core banking product. These
also just launched our Temenos Developer two pre-integrated products dramatically
transformation
Portal with an extensive library of over reduce the cost of software deployment
400 published APIs. This is open to clients, and bring down the barriers for banking
partners and any third-party developers transformation.
enabling them to innovate at speed and
accelerate time to value. Open, API-first Temenos has been extending its
technology, combined with an extensive influence across banking technology
community of developers, massively in the past few years with new product
Ahead of the Temenos Community Forum reduces the cost of deployment. launches and acquisitions. Could you
(TCF) 2019 Banking Technology asked We also introduced the Temenos tell us more about your strategy?
Continuous Deployment SaaS In simple terms our strategy is to
Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, COO and member product, based on DevOps ensure our clients’ success. Temenos’
of the executive committee at Temenos, principles. By adopting a “code vision is to dramatically reduce the cost
about the major themes in banking today. in the morning, deploy in the of deploying software by providing banks
afternoon” approach, Temenos with greater agility and accelerating the
Continuous Deployment can speed of innovation.
Are banks sufficiently prepared for the Which banks have reduce the time required to Traditionally up to 70% of a bank’s cost
digital future and what should be top of successfully applied digital develop, test and release of IT renovation consists of integration,
their agenda? transformation initiatives software changes from deployment, testing and configuration.
End-to-end digital transformation will and what could others learn months to days or hours. The only way to reduce this cost
deliver the ultimate returns for banks. They from them? This dramatically cuts down dramatically and improve functionality
all want it but see a difficult journey ahead. Bank Leumi is a great project costs. significantly is firstly by using integrated,
They understand the urgency but face the example of an incumbent Clearly, AI is also one of open, upgradeable, rich and proven
challenges of cost, legacy systems and bank that has embraced the most exciting emerging packaged functionality combined
agility. transformation. Its digital bank, technologies for banks. It with revolutionary cloud technology.
Only about 20% of banks have started Pepper, was launched in Israel in really will help them innovate Secondly, is by renovating the end-to-
that journey. Yet more and more will, June 2017 and runs on Temenos across the full spectrum of end stack by building a new stack and
as their customers increase pressure on T24 Transact – our core banking operations. At the front end it continuously migrating new products and
them to deliver the types of products and product. Being digital since its will allow banks to deliver highly customers. We call this Build and Migrate
services they want and as they have to inception, there are no hangovers personalised services quickly, and continuously.
respond to competition from newcomers from any legacy systems so it can at the back end it will enable them to We offer integrated, open software
– be that fintechs or tech giants. This will launch new products and services automate processes, bring down costs which operates on the most advanced
force banks to think about the digital issue quickly and efficiently – there is a key and switch investment towards revenue- cloud-native, cloud-agnostic technology.
in its entirety – from the front to the back lesson in that. It’s a parallel bank model and generating activities. But most importantly it is packaged
end. They need to lower their cost base, proving hugely successful, so much so that The other big development building and we invest heavily in its constant
become more profitable, innovate and Leumi has just announced it is exploring how momentum in the industry – but improvement based upon input from our
create new products and services quickly. to launch Pepper in the US. admittedly not an emerging technology client community – the largest in
But digital transformation doesn’t Judo Capital is another example of – is cloud. Temenos has been a leader the world.
need to be complex, lengthy and costly, a neo bank in Australia focused on the and a pioneer in the cloud. We were the We are thought leaders and have been
provided you choose the right technology SME market, which is about to go live first to put core banking in the cloud in at the forefront of innovation. We were
partner. At Temenos we believe in with Temenos Infinity (an omnichannel 2011, and recently we launched two very the first to offer a core banking system
integrated, packaged, open upgradeable platform) and Temenos T24 Transact. The important products, Temenos Infinity with real-time 24/7 capability, the first to
software and we combine the richest bank leverages our Australian model bank launch a core in the cloud, and first with
functionality from 3,000 banks in over 150 and the cloud to launch faster with the MarketPlace, our online digital store with
countries with revolutionary cloud-native, lowest TCO. “We were the first to put core banking over 150 financial software products.
cloud-agnostic technology. Our goal is to We invest aggressively in our product
offer banks a dramatically lower-cost, faster Which emerging technologies do you in the cloud in 2011.” roadmap and constantly ensure that we
route to deploying software, providing see as game-changers and will have the Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Temenos stay at the forefront of innovation; over
them with greater agility and accelerating greatest impact on banking? What is 20% of our annual revenues goes into
the speed of innovation. Temenos doing in these areas? R&D, which is the highest in our industry. >>

INTERVIEW: JEAN-MICHEL HILSENKOPF, TEMENOS
Sponsored by
STAY
INFORMED
and neo banks come at the forefront. The
“Working at Temenos is unlike working Avoka acquisition will be key. It has given
us further momentum, but we’ve also
anywhere else. It’s what we call ‘Temenosity’. recently made some important strategic
deals such as with PayPal, and signed a
It’s about having the audacity to do things top-tier US bank to Temenos Infinity. The
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Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Temenos Varo Money, Commerce Bank and PayPal. on all things tech,
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Temenos recently went through a
management change and has many to your inbox.
new initiatives. What excites you most
Your launches this year include two new Our success goes back to our founding and what can we expect from 2019 and
cloud-native, cloud-agnostic products, principles – to concentrate on delivering beyond?
which you describe as revolutionary. the best integrated, packaged, functionally Working at Temenos is unlike
What makes them so different? rich and proven, open, upgradeable working anywhere else. It’s what we
We are the only banking software banking software possible. We offer call “Temenosity”. It’s about having the
vendor to offer the most complete pre-integrated software so banks can audacity to do things differently; the
functionality combined with most implement a complete stack from Temenos integrity to do it right; and the passion to
advanced cloud-native, cloud-agnostic avoiding the integration costs with home get it done. This is what excites me and
software products. Both Temenos Infinity grown solutions and legacy systems. makes me happy to come to work every
and Temenos T24 Transact have built-in We offer wide, out of the box day.
functionality developed from working with functionality from all segments of banking We’ve got the resources to invest
more than 3,000 banks for 25-plus years – which means that banks don’t need aggressively in our product roadmaps
in some 150 countries. Taken together, to spend time and effort to develop – 20% of our revenues every year go
this means they allow us to take a bank it themselves. And we can deploy the into R&D, more than any of our peers in
through a digital transformation faster software continuously. We offer a “code the market and more than a tier 1 bank
and at lower cost and risk than any other in the morning, deploy in the afternoon” could afford to invest in banking software
vendor. This is what makes them so approach. This results in 100x more innovation. But we’ve also got the agility
different. and faster testing and allows banks to of a start-up, so we always stay ahead of
accelerate innovation and have a faster the market and get things done very fast.
Last year and the first quarter of 2019 time to value. This dramatically reduces I think this is what lies behind our winning
have been very busy for you, and implementation costs and risks. strategy – that and our great team.
you’ve announced several major deals. As for growth, the potential is global. We’re all focused on building the
Are banks worldwide hungry for core Europe is our powerhouse, next is the US future of banking, based on 25 years of
banking transformation? What is the where business is accelerating as banks innovation and excellence, as we enter our
secret of your success? embark on digital transformation projects next phase of growth. bt
Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf is chief operating officer (COO) of Temenos and a member of its
executive committee.
He is one of the original members of the company, having joined in 1993. His deep
understanding of the company, its culture, and passion for delivery gives him the vision to Visit
drive the strategy forward.
Prior to taking up his current role, Hilsenkopf was chief revenue officer. He previously www.bankingtech.com
held the position of managing director for Temenos in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin
American regions, as well as Temenos Cloud, regional general manager for Europe.
for the industry’s top news, in-depth analysis,
Hilsenkopf has also successfully integrated several acquired companies, such as Odyssey expert commentary and world-class intelligence.
and Viveo. Before joining Temenos, he worked as a consultant in the banking sector.
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Contact Jon Robson
18 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019
e: [email protected], t: +44 (0)203 377 3327 @FinTech_Futures
COMMENT COMMENT
What can banks learn a way that minimises risk. There’s nothing
inherently wrong with this approach,
thinking about, and you probably already
have answers to them, but you’re also
three most important aspects of your
fintech strategy? Can you summarise
from fintechs about

but it’s hard to find a unique identity probably not being forced to refine them them into bullet points? Can you explain
when your strategy is dependent on an and articulate them regularly. them easily to others inside and outside
external marketplace, rather than your own Take the exercise to the next level, of your organisation? If you can, do they
strategic messaging?
ambitions. and try coming up with your own set remember them the next day? Next week?
Here’s where that same thought of fintech core messages – what are the Next month?
exercise that pre-Finovate presenters Obviously, most bankers won’t find
undergo can become really useful if you’re
a banker. Rather than trying to analyse
“Talking about how themselves in a position where they need
to give a Finovate-style demo to a room
and understand the entire marketplace, I the technology full of potential investors and customers.
recommend taking a step back from the That said, being able to answer yes to
By Greg Palmer, VP of Finovate tech itself and thinking at a really high level works isn’t enough – these questions will make it easier for
Successful fintech companies of all sizes calls tend to cover, but one of the most how you communicate priorities internally.
about what you’re trying to accomplish.
Start with the really big pieces, like the
successful demos go tech innovators to deliver products you
want, easier for your marketing and sales
tend to spend a lot of time and effort important things that I tend to talk about The number of key business objectives opportunity you’re trying to open up, the deeper level and get teams to make the most of the tech you
crafting a strong institutional identity. This centres around creating and articulating that flow from successfully articulating and threat you’re trying to defend against, bring in, and easier for your customers to
is easy to see at the Finovate conference, a strong set of “core messages” for the maintaining a strong sense of direction is or how you want your customers (or into why it matters understand what you’re doing for them.
where fintech innovators have a very
limited amount of time to get the audience
demo. The idea here is to imagine that the
audience writing down three quick bullet
massive, which is why this is something
that successful fintech firms all seem to
prospective customers) to think about
you. Or, to rehash language from a few
that it works. And of course, later on, when you are
asked to give a speech about how you
interested in their technology. It’s not easy points at the end of your seven minutes on have in common. paragraphs ago, why does it matter if your Greg Palmer, Finovate were able to pull everybody together to
to show what a new solution can do in just stage. In your perfect world, what would On the other side of the industry, banks fintech strategy is successful or not? These deliver a successful digital transformation,
seven minutes, but it’s even harder to make those bullet points say? Or to think of it haven’t been forced to undergo this kind are questions you’re hopefully already you’ll be ready. bt
an audience of strangers care about what another way, if the audience remembers of deep introspection in the same way
that solution can do. And if the audience only three things about your company, that their tech providers are, but that’s
doesn’t care, they won’t reach out to what should those three things be? Talking about to change. Right now, technology
connect. about how the technology works isn’t is dramatically changing the way people
To get the level of interest a fintech enough – successful demos go deeper interact with their money and the financial
needs to be successful, it’s vital to spend a level and get into why it matters that it institutions that they use to store it. Banks
lot of time focusing on messaging. Fintechs works. If you can’t communicate to the of all shapes and sizes are going to need to
need to have powerful, tight, 30-second audience why they should care about what adapt to these changes, and they’re going
summaries of their core value proposition you’re trying to do, they’re not going to to need to engage with technology in a
in order to attract customers, funding, or stick around to see if you can do it or not. strategic, intentional way if they want to
media attention. These are all crucial steps This thought-exercise leads to a survive. But where to begin?
in the lifecycle of any tech company, and stronger demo at a show like Finovate, but One popular option is to explore the
I’ve spent a lot of time working in this area its value goes beyond that. Taking the time market by looking at all of the various
with fintechs of varying sizes. The more to develop clear, high-level messaging kinds of fintech that are out there and
I see of the fintech/FI space, though, the can have powerful benefits when it assessing what looks like it delivers value.
more clear it is to me that banks should comes to marketing/sales messaging, the Once the “best” fintech is identified,
be thinking of their strategic messaging customer segment you choose to target, the goal becomes figuring out how to
in a similar way if they want to engage the partnerships you need to build, and implement it into an existing strategy in
successfully with fintech.
Banks that don’t have (or aren’t
able to articulate) a clear vision will
struggle to engage productively with “Rather than trying to analyse and
new technologies, no matter how
enthusiastically they pursue them. How do
understand the entire marketplace, I
successful fintechs do this well? And what recommend taking a step back from the
can banks learn from them?
If you’ve ever demoed at a Finovate tech itself and thinking at a really high level
event, you know that I offer personalised
demo coaching calls before the event to
about what you’re trying to accomplish.”
help make sure that everybody who gets Greg Palmer, Finovate
up on stage feels prepared and ready.
There’s a wide variety of things that these

FOCUS: FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOCUS: FINANCIAL INCLUSION
Hirander Misra, GMEX Group

There is still plenty of scope for
improvement. In Malawi, the system
financed nearly $10 million worth of
“With viable
receipts in the first year but with adequate underlying market
financing that could have been much
higher, says Misra. data and benchmarks,
Typically, smallholders seek to produce
what they need for their own consumption
it should be possible
and then sell any excess, which generates to create futures
income. “It boils down to, how do I feed
my family and plan for next year’s harvest,” products based on
says Misra. This tends to mean lots of street
sellers at particular times during the year
local indices.”
with too many of the same produce, such Hirander Misra, GMEX Group
as bananas, trying to eek out a living and
with a lot of waste.
NEXT STEPS it is envisaged that other enterprises will

Following on from GMEX’s Malawi project, arise, so that it isn’t only the raw produce
Smallholders, big dreams

FinComEco was launched to ultimately that is exported but also, in time, end
create a continent-wide ecosystem that products as well – so not only tomatoes
is intended to span spot exchanges, but tomato paste, for instance. “This would
warehouse receipt programmes and core increase revenues, reduce deficits and
mobile banking platforms while also mean less reliance on aid,” says Misra.
bringing in partners for finance, inputs, Another example is cocoa from Cote
warehouse and logistics to further scale d’Ivoire, where only the raw material leaves
the venture. the country. “We’re saying, where the raw
An ambitious vision for raising smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa out of Those local warehouses could material is, economies can only sustain
poverty through applying technology and building better finance models is taking also be aggregation points for themselves and increase GDP if there is the
shape. Martin Whybrow talks to Hirander Misra, CEO at exchange trading specialist, education and other services. value-add. It needs manufacturing, to take
GMEX Group, about the considerable challenges and opportunities. Around the warehouses, things to the next level.”
There will be further expansion in Malawi
– which provides a good “test bed” for next
steps – and on a wider scale across the
Financial inclusion and improved price organisations, governments, research bodies village chiefs. They can then use that price to continent, on a country-by-country basis and
ACE training
transparency could make a major and the private sector. For another, there directly negotiate with buyers. In addition, ACE with a vision to eventually link the country
difference to the livelihoods of smallholder is the sheer scale of the task. There are an organises auctions where buyers advertise exchanges to provide a pan-African platform.
farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. A project at estimated 700 million unbanked farmers in what they want to buy and SMS messages are There would probably be regional integration
the Agricultural Commodity Exchange for sub-Saharan Africa and every country has its sent out to farmers, who can respond via rural to start, says Misra, such as for the West Africa
Africa (ACE) in Malawi shows what can be own structures and complexities. warehouses, agents or directly with ACE if they Monetary Union.
achieved but bringing the benefits to the At the heart of the problem, says want to be a part of the auction. Most commodity prices are set on the
wider sub-Saharan Africa involves another GMEX Group CEO, Hirander Misra, is the The receipt aspect of the project European and US exchanges, which leads to
level of complexity. lack of price transparency for farmers for stems from operators being able to issue speculative trading. “With viable underlying
This is the aim of a venture called their produce. Better prices would mean warehouse receipts that guarantee quality market data and benchmarks, it should be
FinComEco. Set up by exchange trading improved income, allowing them to better and quantity. Buyers can purchase these possible to create futures products based
and post-trade technology specialist, afford seeds, fertilisers and other “inputs” and the receipts can then be used to on local indices,” says Misra. The derivatives
GMEX Group, it is seeking to tackle a and opening up credit. secure financing from banks. exchange in Mauritius is an example, he adds.
number of the systemic productivity The solution has had a considerable “We realised that the problem of
challenges that face smallholders in Africa MALAWI ROOTS impact in Malawi, says Misra. Price updates farmers caught in the lack of transparency
by fostering the growth of a financial and How can technology help? In 2015, GMEX are provided at regular times throughout trap was common across sub-Saharan
commodities ecosystem. undertook a business and technology the day and were accessible in the first Africa,” says Misra. FinComEco has looked
The challenges should not be under- study for ACE that led to an electronic year by 47,000 famers. There was an at different models already in operation
estimated. For one thing, there are a lot trading and warehouse receipt project. average 31% increase in income from the but none seem be ideal, he says, typically
of entities that need to be mobilised, Price information is provided via mobile better price transparency and from use of lacking volume and with incomplete links
comprising local stake-holders, development phones to the farmers or to associations or warehouse receipts. to the relevant ecosystems. >>

FOCUS: FINANCIAL INCLUSION INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Sponsored by
Berlin-based OST can provide the

Open banking:
progressing to the summit
blockchain toolkit to allow any website,
app or marketplace to support the
branded tokens and integrate them into
their businesses. Also in the mix are Wala,
a blockchain-powered financial services While the introduction of PSD2 and GDPR last year paves the way for a new era, progress could take
platform, and Dala, a cryptocurrency token several years says Rahul S. Wadhavkar, AVP, global product management at Infosys Finacle.
issuer for emerging markets. Blockchain is
an enabler, says Misra, but the quality of As the era of open banking gets underway, of application programming interfaces
Soya farmer
the data is crucial and there is still the need traditional banks are coming around to (APIs), substantially more reliable than the
to link digital money to physical money so the old maxim that when life hands you old method of screen scraping.
that cash can be withdrawn. lemons you should take the opportunity to
make lemonade. PATH FROM THE FOOTHILLS
“It boils down to, how do I feed my family INTO OTHER COUNTRIES
Mozambique is one of the next countries
To offer a recent example, Lloyds
has announced that it will partner with
So it could be said that traditional banks
and disruptors alike are still trekking
and plan for next year’s harvest.” in focus. FinComEco will work with existing Visa in using local shops to increase the through the foothills of open banking.
warehouses and also local solutions, such as number of locations where consumers can Once consumer awareness of the benefits
Hirander Misra, GMEX Group one which allows farmers to send bagged access cash. It’s an adept move, given the starts to build, so will momentum, but
commodities to those warehouses via the likelihood that cash machine networks it may take some time before we reach
post office. Zimbabwe is also a focus. will continue to contract over the coming the summit – and any major data breach
There have been a lot of assessments years, while retailers will benefit by that occurs in the future could slow the
The proposed FinComEco solution is cryptocurrency called FarmCoin. This in the two countries and many of the receiving the transaction fees that would progress further.
not only about technology and logistics, it partnership aims to provide a massive building blocks are in place. In Zimbabwe, previously have gone to ATM operators. Rahul S. Wadhavkar, The good news is that open banking
is also about building trust. “To instill trust, influx of capital to help unbanked farmers for instance, there is active engagement Although they shouldn’t delay the Infosys Finacle gives financial service providers – and
we have to show them early wins,” says in Africa. with the three farmers unions, which task, banks have some leeway in deciding banks above all – an advantage over
Misra. “There is distrust in the ecosystems A token-based ecosystem would enable help with building trust. In Mozambique, how they maximise other opportunities newer arrivals in the financial services
because there are a lot of bad middlemen, farmers to deploy the profits from the a government-driven country-wide made possible by open banking. Currently arena. Banks benefit from being
and there have been so many promises, so sale of their surplus crops in the wider assessment of warehouses, many of which for many consumers and businesses the “It could be said that recognised and trusted names. If they can
many pipe-dreams before.” economy. The intention is to recruit local
vendors and service providers as well as
are in disrepair, is useful.
There are also moves to address Africa’s
concept is still more of a novelty than an
essential, although within five years that
traditional banks and also reassure consumers on the ability to
keep their data secure, they can build on
IMPROVING FINANCING – medical and educational institutions to largest commodities market, Nigeria. perception will have changed. Both the disruptors alike are that strength.
BLOCKCHAIN AND BEYOND redeem the tokens. There are discussions under way but every Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and The UK’s “big four” have each
The financing aspect is a crucial one. The state has its own government and each the General Data Protection Regulation still trekking through developed their own aggregation app and
experience form Malawi has shown that,
even with the collateral from receipts,
has ambitions for its own commodities
exchange. In this case, acting as a link into
(GDPR) were introduced last year and aim
to give consumers greater control and
the foothills of open we can expect promotional campaigns to
be ramped up over the months ahead to
many local banks are focused on wholesale
“To instill trust, we a greater, aggregated marketplace might protection. The UK’s nine biggest current banking.” promote their use and how they will offer
lending so find it cumbersome to do retail be the best route, says Misra. account providers – aka the CMA9 – were additional benefits to the consumer.
lending. “They price in a way that shows have to show them There is also interest from the African mandated to open up their systems to Rahul S. Wadhavkar, Infosys Finacle However, the Payments Account
that they don’t really want to do it so you Development Bank, which in 2017 released open banking from January 2018. Directive (PAD) requires payment service
see interest rates of, say, 25-30%, which is early wins,” says Misra. a document entitled “Agricultural Market However, evidence suggests that to providers to make their fee structures
obviously uneconomic for the farmers.”
There are discussions with banks, at
“There is distrust in the Access Sub-Strategy for Africa: Commodity
Exchanges, Warehouse Receipt Systems
date the impact has been subdued. The
full impact of PSD2 won’t be felt until
public for greater transparency and
flexibility. The ability for consumers
a local level, with a memorandum of ecosystems because and New Standards”. As the title suggests, September 14 this year, when it becomes to make price comparisons could see
understanding for one country, as well there is plenty of common ground with mandatory. established banks lose some customers to
as with some that operate in multiple there are a lot of bad FinComEco’s vision. In the meantime, European consumers By contrast, there were several the newer challengers.
countries. “But to make a more attractive
finance model we need to open up
middlemen, and there It is clear that the vision is an ambitious
one, with many country level challenges
have been understandably reticent in
allowing fintechs to gain access to their
announcements on the issue of data
privacy during 2018 and while bankers and
Banks are likely to achieve greater value
in the corporate banking market, where
new forms of financing”. This has led to have been so many as well as the wider ones of technology, personal data, given well-publicised working professionals in financial services APIs will assist with cash and liquidity
FinComEco establishing a 50/50 joint logistics and trust. However, the early reports of fraud and hacking in recent are familiar with these developments, management – particularly for companies
venture called Food Asset Commodities promises, so many signs in Malawi are that the model can years. The 2018 Cyber Security Breaches the announcements attracted rather less with operations in several countries.
Ecosystem (FACES) Blockchain with
UK-listed company Block Commodities.
pipe-dreams before.” work and the potential benefits are
substantial, raising incomes and improving
Survey, conducted on behalf of the
government, found that 43% of UK
attention in the general media. Most
consumers are also unaware of the more
This presents a powerful tool for
corporate treasurers. So the established
FACES Blockchain has in turn partnered Hirander Misra, GMEX Group sustainability, at both an individual organisations polled had experienced a demanding security requirements imposed players shouldn’t be afraid, but instead
with Swarm Fund to help raise capital smallholder level and at a country by cyber security breach or attack over the by PSD2, including that of strong customer embrace the opportunities being
using blockchain technology via a country level. bt preceding 12 months. authentication (SCA) and the strengths unlocked in the new era. bt

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOOD FOR THOUGHT
As if your innovation team have the “Do you know what intellectual
power to decide to coast, even if they
might it takes to break away from
To go boldly forth or why
wanted to.
But why let logic stand in the way of a
good story?
what you know, and imagine
you should go hug your

They come in to meet your mocking something that doesn’t yet exist?”
dismissive remarks. And the doubts.
And the snarky commentary. And the Leda Glyptis
innovation team
unrealistic expectations.
They come in with half explored ideas
and big dreams. And they know they
will take a beating. Over risk factors and They need to imagine a future. FIRE POWER
revenue projections, over implementation Do you have any bloody idea what that So courage and imagination is not enough.
schedules and acceptance criteria for the takes? Their ability to withstand and create is
thing that doesn’t yet exist. The ability to move away from the not enough. Because you still mock and
By Leda Glyptis Even when I sat in an innovation function, represented the world to the bank. They come in. Because they remember constraints of what is known, received and challenge, not what they say, but their
even when I was busy building a lab and And not all those sessions were equally what you said when you offered them familiar, and imagine a way of organising right to say it. Their sanity. Their perception.
department, the process and “capability”, friendly. the job. And because you may no longer life and human activity that achieves Their abilities to deduce and interpret. All
and had my organisation’s full support We were paid to find a way into a believe, but they do. the same ends via different means. That the things they do well. All the things you
in doing so, I would caution partners contentious future that costs and hurts as They believe in better, in new, in “viable achieves new ends not previously possible. hired them for.
and vendors (start-ups and challengers, little as possible. And then we were held yet profitable”. Do you know what intellectual might it So courage and imagination are not
designers and researchers) against talking responsible for the cost and the hurt of They believe in the thing you hired takes to break away from what you know, and enough. Because you still mock.
to Innovation. each option, as if both the changing world them for. And they have the guts to come imagine something that doesn’t yet exist? So to stand a chance of landing a
I mean, sure, we will open doors for and the banks’ appetite to still thrive in it in and try to remind you, day in day out. Whether they achieve it through message every now and again. Of getting
you. And that’s not nothing. But neither were our petulant fault and doing. their artistic streak, a solid liberal arts you to understand the why as well as
decisions nor budgets sit with us. We can It’s a thankless task. And yet people do IMAGINATION or experimental science education, a the what. Of getting you to commit
be your friends but we cannot be your it. And those who do it well, actually find a But gumption is not enough. profound engagement with theatre, time, attention, effort, they need some
champions. We can be your allies but we way. They don’t always sit in innovation, in Standing there, like erstwhile guardians volunteer work or travel, they are doing serious firepower. Beyond that of their
cannot be your sponsors. fact, increasingly they don’t. But they are of Hope, is not enough. something that keeps opening their mind their sponsor and patron. They need
Ironically, even though every innovation the same folks. Small teams with diverse They need to build the hope. Give it that allows them to, in turn, open yours. to have big guns of their own. Be it
function was set up to deal with the world, skills and insane focus. Teams hell bent into shape. Give it wings. And you still mock. knowledge, credibility, your respect from >>
that big scary place of rapid change and getting things done, making things better.
mercurial impressions, our job is always And across those teams, there are traits
internal. We were paid to learn, sure. But in common.
the main function was to explain.
We were paid to represent, sure. GUTS
But for every panel showing off our It takes virtue and daring to be free
bank’s latest digital riches, there were a (obscure Greek poetry quote, check).
thousand internal meetings, each a battle, And your guys have the guts to come in,
representing the world. Progress. Change. day after day, and do the thing you mock
Tech. Hope. For every time we represented for being a waste of time. Play time. Just
the bank’s “cool factor” to the world, we marketing.
“It’s a thankless task. And yet people do it. And those who do it
well, actually find a way. They don’t always sit in innovation, in fact,
increasingly they don’t. But they are the same folks. Small teams with
diverse skills and insane focus. Teams hell bent into getting things
done, making things better.”
Leda Glyptis

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
the job they had before, your grudging their fierce grace nor the future they are
acknowledgement of results delivered, the exploring for you.
ability to generate something you want So lift your head from BAU for a second.
Place your brand in front of the

and trade it for something you need but Look back and take stock.
would rather not think about. If you have a team like the one I
And before you say “whatever, our described, go over right now and hug
innovation team has achieved a lot over
the last few years. Actual, tangible results.
Meaningful impact. Traction. So you can’t
“Imagine how much
them. And huddle around a whiteboard
and hear how you can make their life
better so that they can save yours.
high-profile international audience
be right.” And if, in reading this, not a thing
they would achieve
My answer is “exactly”.
They have achieved a lot thanks to guts,
imagination and unbridled fire power. if they also had
sounded familiar go out and hire people
who can take you boldly forth into the
unknown: hire them for their intellectual
with
Imagine how much they would achieve
if they also had your help.
your help.” prowess and old-world credibility; hire
them for their creativity and insane work
Leda Glyptis ethic; hire them for their fierce grace.
FIERCE GRACE Then get out of their way and let
When I resigned one of my innovation jobs them work. bt
(toss a coin, there were only two) one of
my very senior stakeholders came to see
me to tell me I was letting him down. My
ability to fight an uphill battle and not give
up, and still get things done, and still smile,
was what made him see me as a kindred
spirit. It was what earned me his respect. It
was what he thought would keep me there
forever.
The fact that I can work like this doesn’t
mean that I should.
He didn’t get it.
And that saddens me.
But I don’t regret the choice. I only
regret that what changed for me is not
changing fast enough for the industry.
So if you are blessed with a team who As part of the FinovateSpring conference, FinTech Futures is producing an exclusive
have the guts and brain fire power to supplement focusing on key trends and issues affecting the industry.
explore different intellectual possibilities,
the focus and determination to test
The supplement will be produced in print and distributed at the event;
options and present you with viable
proposals for things never done before, it will also be published online and promoted across the
and you still value their tenacity more than FinTech Futures and Finovate digital channels.
the world they bring you on a plate, then,
after all these years, you no longer deserve
Get involved and showcase your news, expertise, products and
services through a range of opportunities:
Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives n Thought leadership n Case studies
and breathes transformation and digital disruption as chief of staff at 11:FS and CEO of
11:FS Foundry. She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the n Interviews and Q&A n Advertising
banking ecosystem. n News and announcements n And more!
All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and
comment!
Follow Leda on Twitter @LedaGlyptis and visit our website for more of her articles.
Contact Jon Robson
Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected]
28 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 www.bankingtech.com
@FinTech_Futures
FOCUS: OPEN BANKING FOCUS: OPEN BANKING
What dating apps

can teach us about trust are some of the harsher realities Superdigital by Santander in Brazil, Azlo
Open Banking
challengers are up against. (the US) and Denizen (Spain and the US)
Take Monzo, arguably the biggest player by BBVA, Mettle by RBS in the UK, and
in the challenger space and valued at £1 others.
billion. The firm reported overall losses of But in banking, like in modern
£33.1 million last year, quadruple that of dating, being big and rich isn’t good
the previous year – luminous coral debit enough; being a provider isn’t good
cards, and all. And though the bank hit an enough. Indeed, many of the big banks
By Roxanne Voidonicolas, Content Marketing Manager, Sensibill impressive one million current account will fail precisely because they’re relying
holders, four in five of those customers don’t on the vestiges of power dynamics,
deposit their salaries with the bank. For now, throwing money at the problem instead
“It’s just a numbers game. Before, I could comfortable shopping around based on it seems that customers are willing to field of listening to their customers’ needs.
go out to a bar and talk to one girl, but price, rate, or features. The result? The their options and stray, but not split from their The firms who win the customer
now I can sit at home on Tinder and talk to average Brit shares their financial life with primary bank altogether. relationship must demonstrate that
15 girls…” three financial institutions. At the same time, customers don't they’re long-term partner material, or
When Vanity Fair interviewed a series of want to contend with multiple financial risk being replaced. For bankers, that
twentysomethings for their article, "Tinder ARE BANKS BEING TRADED IN apps because too many options stress means prioritising:
and the Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse”, FOR A (YOUNGER) NEWER MODEL? people out. Social theories have backed
the resounding sentiment was perfectly Even so, unlike what many industry experts this up for decades, and yet the idea that COMPATIBILITY
captured by that one quote. This “Tinder predict – that the challenger banks are choice is bad for our mental health flies Achieving unparalleled customer fit
Phenomenon” can be explained by going to snag the long-term customer in the face of what we’ve been told about with a specific segment or market,
technology's ability to connect people with relationship and leave incumbents in the Open Banking. How we choose to use instead of an en mass strategy.
endless options, while encouraging people dust – it’s more probable that customers our banking data confers on us freedom,
to commit to, well, nobody. are going to shift to multiple short-term agency, and empowerment. Except for TRUST
In banking, digital is proving to be a relationships, instead. when it also confers on us the personal Trust in terms of data confidentiality
similarly double-edged sword. On one What we’ve learned from dating apps, is responsibility of managing our own and cybersecurity, as well as
hand, digital allows brands to be top-of- that when there’s a surplus of options, the financial security. Choice no longer feels transparency about fees are all make-
mind and to deeply engage with their whole system shifts towards a “hook-up like a luxury, then. or-break. Incumbents have a leg up on
customers. On the other hand, it fuses mentality”. Where historically 15, 20, even challengers in this department, and
short attention spans with too many 30-year banking relationships were the SIZE MATTERS, TO AN EXTENT should continue to leverage their brand
alternatives, creating what can only be norm, in coming years we’re more likely So where is this all going to go? What equity.
described as non-committal consumerism. to see customers engaging with several UX without a sustainable revenue model happens after the democratisation of
providers simultaneously, on a needs-by- doesn’t scream long-term potential. banking data? Will people ever commit to GOOD WILL
IS BANKING MONOGAMY DEAD? needs basis. one provider? And who will they choose? A cultural shift is required in order
Comparing banking to Tinder is fitting Soaring deal activity in the challenger CUSTOMERS STILL WEDDED Incidentally, evolutionary psychology to move beyond a transactional
when you consider how Open Banking has banking space and a superior customer TO HIGH STREET... FOR NOW about dating may help predict the outcome relationship. Banks must act in their
commoditised financial services in Europe. experience makes these entrants seem like Hurdles such as reluctance to switch of Open Banking – in part. That is, in many customers’ best interest, and show that
It used to be that you chose a banking formidable competitors, but an attractive accounts, low recognition, and lower brand cases, the biggest contender with the they’re invested in their customers’
provider based on proximity, and that only deepest pockets will likely come out on financial health.
financial institutions could sell financial top. As investments in digital channels and
products; but today, branchless fintechs, “Customers don't want to contend with capabilities increase, the gap between what SURPRISE AND DELIGHT
big tech, neobanks, and accounting providers can offer their customers will widen. Offering differentiated and superior
platforms are all serious players, too. multiple financial apps because too many We’re already seeing incumbents prove products will keep customers satisfied
Dating apps are the free-market economy
come to sex, and Open Banking is the free-
options stress people out.” that they can afford to absorb trending
business models, launching their own
for years to come.
market economy come to banking. Roxanne Voidonicolas, Sensibill competitive digital-first propositions: May the best suitor win.
As people become more digitally-savvy
about their banking, they’re also more
*Dating theories expressed in this article do not reflect the official opinion of the author.

FOCUS: DIVERSITY FOCUS: DIVERSITY
The forgotten
faces of diversity:
the invisibles and inequality in the workplace because I
was never brought up to think that girls had
the shorter end of the stick. If anything, the
you will be less than, that you will fall short.
Despite the evidence.”
Leda Glyptis
whom, with what colour skin and with
how much money in your parents’ bank
account.”
boys in class hoped they had girls in their As the accomplishments by Ina,
workgroups because they knew that the girls If these female leaders were to stay in their Leda, Puja, Sumathi, and countless other
were such hard workers and were incredibly home country, would the outcome have been successful women have illustrated,
ambitious.” different? If we are more willing to embrace being ethnic minority women in foreign
By Theo Lau We all know the stats. Much has been upbringing, social economic circles, as Ina Yulo, global head of fintech and our differences – visible or otherwise, would countries and to be able to thrive just
written and discussed about the dismal well age, education, skill sets, and most financial services, BrightTalk we have made more progress towards an makes your story that much more powerful
state of gender equality in technology, importantly, thoughts. equitable society? Unlocking the answers – and interesting. As Leda puts it, ever
finance, and start-up ecosystems. To be successful, diversity and “I was born and brought up in India where as to these questions could provide valuable so eloquently: “Being underestimated is
According to the Guardian, barely 3% of inclusion must start from within – and a cultural etiquette and since I was born in insight to an organisations’ diversity and always fun in the end, and the joke is never
the UK’s most powerful and influential people it must be built into the culture and to a big family, was asked to ‘adjust’ and be inclusion efforts. on you.”
are from black and minority ethnic groups. the DNA of the company. Inclusion is ready to adapt to things or people even if we So let us not only celebrate the
Stateside, despite lip service by investors, respecting your colleagues’ religious are not ok with it or we don’t agree to their “Growing up between two cultures has similarities that bring us together (on
the progress towards gender equality has belief and family obligations and views. been an interesting experience. You have the recent International Women’s Day
pretty much stalled. Per the latest from The how that might impact their ability to “As I grew up this became norm; both to navigate and respect the heritage of and beyond) – but to also embrace and
Information’s VC Diversity Index, “the typical participate in work sessions. Inclusion personally and at work. Though this attitude generations before you while balancing respect our differences, so as to become
founding team was a two person, all male, all is ensuring your diverse group of helped me to grow professionally in India to another culture less familiar to you but better citizens of our societies. Getting
white, US university-educated team residing employees feel welcome by creating work as a team; as I grew up the ladder, I had one you happen to be growing up in. to diversity is like peeling an onion: It is
in Silicon Valley”. gender-neutral Lego figures in your to mould myself to express myself irrespective These perspectives have shaped who I painful (at times tearful), with many layers,
One thing we do not lack was marketing materials, as in the case of age difference or bureaucracy. Especially am today both in the workplace and at but the goal is not unattainable. Reaching
awareness. But does awareness translate of Meniga. Inclusion is the ability to in a country like UK, where kids are taught home. Sometimes this has meant flexing the holy grail will require consistent and
into action? If not, what could be hindering learn from each other, and give voice to be open/express their views at an early muscles I am not used to or that are very conscientious efforts by all parties and all
the effort? to those who are not being heard. This age; it was a truly new experience for me uncharacteristic of the culture I identify with. genders.
Now consider the following dialogue: is especially true in the age of artificial professionally to change myself as a person; “Overcoming any cultural barriers It is only through appreciating what we
“Where are you from?” intelligence, where human biases and to be authoritative and assertive.” is an art of communication and open- ALL bring to the table – that we can thrive,
“Washington, D.C.” lack of representative data sets can Sumathi Thirumalai mindedness.” as a community, a country, and as a species
“No, where were you born?” creep into the design of algorithms, and Puja Samuel, head of external – together.
“New York City.” where homogeneous life experiences TALENT IS EQUALLY DISTRIBUTED; innovation, New York Life Ventures Thank you to Ina, Leda, Puja, and Sumathi
“But. Where were your ancestors from? can inadvertently lead to discriminating OPPORTUNITY IS NOT for their valuable insights for the article.
They surely were not from here.” solution design and results. In both technology and financial services, As Sarah Smarsh wrote in her book Special thanks to Daya Nadamuni for being an
Such scenes (or variations of it) play out Which begs that question: How much there are many successful women who Heartland: “The American Dream has inspiration and shining light – and all the men
quite often – especially for the people who does one’s culture and upbringing affect have lived and worked in different cultures a price tag on it. The cost changes and women out there, constantly pushing us to
look physically different than those around their behavior at the workplace? and workplaces. Amongst them is Dr. depending on where you’re born and to be better versions of ourselves. bt
them. It could stem from curiosity. It could Leda Glyptis, 11:FS chief of staff and CEO
also stem from an unconscious bias – since “Unbeknownst to many, the Philippines 11:FS Foundry, who has a doctoral degree
you don’t look like me, you must be from tops the WEF’s gender equality rankings in in politics, and has lived away from her About the author
somewhere else. Asia and ranks 8th in the world. Growing country of birth for the past 21 years. Theodora (Theo) Lau is a speaker, writer, and advisor, whose
But that’s just that – a physical attribute up, I went to an all-girls school where work seeks to spark innovation to improve consumer financial
– something that is visible. learning how to code was part of the “Entering lecture theatres and meeting well being and health.
Image: Sharon McCutcheon, Unsplash

mandatory curriculum. I had to know how rooms as a woman from somewhere else, She is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, which
THE INVISIBLES to do HTML, JavaScript, C++, and Flash with a bit of an accent and opinions, has focuses on developing and growing an ecosystem of corporates,
What about the invisibles? Surely, before I could graduate high school! never been easy. East or west, being a woman entrepreneurs, and VCs to better address the unmet needs of
true diversity goes beyond gender; “It was so strange for me to come to and a foreigner always signal you out. But consumers, with keen interests in women and minority founders.
it also includes ethnicity, culture and the UK and hear about gender pay gaps funny enough the expectation is always that

CONFERENCE SPOTLIGHT CONFERENCE SPOTLIGHT
cybercrime and cybersecurity topping the

list of priorities for most banks, it stands to
reason that a solution would be to work
together to identify patterns of behaviour,
coordinate on systems and solutions.
The answers from the panel were mixed.
Robust cybersecurity is seen as a competitive
advantage at banks, according to HPS’
Smaili, they are loath to share, what is seen
as a proprietary solution. However, most
cybercrime experts will tell you, fraudster
rely on the interconnected network of
the financial ecosystem – merchants, card
companies, banks, individuals – to exploit
vulnerabilities and move money quicker than
law enforcement can track it.
Some sort of nudge from a regulator HPS PowerCARD2019
could provide the impetus for banks to

start working together to combat a global lead a collaborative activity. They urged fraud are not local issues, they are
problem. Holscher, himself, predicted if the banking industry develop clearer global, growing and interconnected. The
banks were to work collaboratively to data, develop a common approach on banking and financial services industry
combat fraud, it would have to be market responding to reported APP scam and itself shouldn’t wait from a mandate
HPS PowerCARD 2019: led, rather than a regulatory mandate.

There is evidence that global regulators
are experimenting with a “nudge” approach
Develop a common understanding of
the information that can be shared under
current law and identifying any legal
from a regulator. As evidenced by the
question from the PowerCARD delegate’s
question, the industry is asking for
working together to tackle fraud

to enable financial ecosystem collaboration. barriers to sharing. more collaboration and less proprietary
In the UK the Payments Services Regulator All of the above point to a greater need fragmentation across the board. bt
responded with consultation paper on a 2016 for the sharing of data and strategies to
Which? Super Complaint concerning push identify patterns and create solution to By Liz Lumley,
payment fraud and how it was acerbated by stop nefarious actors from ever reaching director of fintech, VC Innovations, and
Faster Payments. the consumer. Cybercrime and payment lead curator, FinTECHTalents Festival
An audience member stood The talk touched on everything from in as deposits, it is sent out as loans and it Push Payments fraud is when a
consumer is tricked into making a
up to ask a question of consistent and secure customer is moved around the world as messages
experience, the impact of “Generation that enable payments. payment, online, that turns out to be
the opening panel of the Glass” (those under the age of 18) to Holscher outlined the evolution of fraudulent (for example, purchasing
recent PowerCARD User cybercrime. The audience member asked a online payments that travelled from 2000 an item that does not exist). When that
Conference organised by question related to fraud. (with online, closed loop payments from payment reaches the Faster Payments
network, which is meant to resemble
HPS in Marrakesh. The “We have user groups on SEPA (Single the likes of Amazon or PayPal) to 2020 and
Euro Payments Area) Credit Transfers, but beyond with a connected and networked the speed and simplicity of a person to
panel, which featured we don’t have a working group on fraud. world of autonomous vehicles and virtual person cash payments, that payment is
Abdeslam Alaoui Smaili, CEO Why aren’t the banks collaborating or reality. All of these innovations are aimed irreversible and effectively gone. The Super
of HPS, and Jeroen Holscher, working together to combat fraud, should at making payments simpler, more Complaint asked what banks were doing
to protect, and in some cases, re-reimburse
head of global payments the regulator get involved?” efficient and, eventually, almost invisible
It is a fair question and one that hits to the consumer. However, wherever consumers for fraudulent payments.
practice, Capgemini, at the heart why innovation is so hard for there is money, there will people looking The PSR found that the way banks
focused on new trends in most large incumbent banks to achieve to separate it from its owners. Fraud worked together to respond to scams
the payments arena. successfully. The default position of and crime have found fertile ground in needed to improve and the data available
most banks is proprietary, insular and exploiting the holes and vulnerabilities on the type and scale of scams was of poor
risk adverse. For the most part there are that sometimes occur in the midst of quality.
very valid reasons for this – regulatory digital transformation. The PSR agreed a programme of work
mandate, customer trust, massive global So, getting back to the audience with Financial Fraud Action UK, which itself
threat from cyber-criminals – all factor into members question: why is there a working works with the UK payments industry to
an environment that is closed, but more group on SEPA Credit Transfers, but not
importantly secure and protected. Banks fraud? And does the regulator, in whatever
deal with money – your money – it is taken country, need to get involved? With Liz Lumley moderated the “New Trends in the Payments Arena” panel at the HPS PowerCARD User Conference.

FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP
Fintech funding round-up

Xinja Bank, an Australian mobile Quint Group, a UK-based fintech group operating in the consumer finance market, has
neobank, has closed its second equity secured a £16.5 million financing deal from NatWest.
crowdfunding campaign with almost Quint has a portfolio of fintech businesses in the consumer credit sector and is
AU$2.6 million ($1.84 million) raised. The behind the UK’s credit comparison site MoneyGuru. It also owns European personal
amount raised from the sale of shares on loan marketplace and platform Monevo, consumer credit reporting and financial
the Equitise crowdfunding platform is the management app Credit Angel, and data business Infinian.
largest achieved from any crowdfunding Founded in 2009, Quint has operations in the UK, US, Australia, Poland, China and
Whether it’s Chime having a good time or Shift shifting up a gear, campaign in Australia. South Africa.
welcome to another gathering of healthy investment action. This follows the bank’s previous Quint’s businesses are proprietary technologies, infrastructure and data assets,
record of AU$2.44 million ($1.72 million) which aim to connect and provide services to consumers and credit providers.
set by Xinja in its first campaign early The new revolving credit facility will be used to refinance its existing facilities with
last year. This second round launched in Tosca Capital and provide access to further funding for growth via acquisitions.
Wefox, a Berlin-based insurtech firm, has raised $125 million for its Series B round, San Francisco-based mobile banking mid-January of this year.
led by Mubadala Investment Company’s newly created European Ventures Fund. challenger Chime is now valued at Xinja now has over 2,500 investors
Among the new supporting investors is Creditease, which signals Wefox’s $1.5 billion thanks to its latest raise combined between both rounds. The Shanghai-based credit card outfit Shuhe Technology has secured $30 million
intention to expand into China. of $200 million. bank says the majority are aged 24-44 Series B funding from Sina.
The funding will be dedicated to boosting the firm’s expansion into the European The funding round was led by (a pretty wide age range, so not very According to Shuhe, it will use the investment to develop its capabilities around
broker market. Wefox has also said it aims to apply data analytics to create an all-in- venture capital firm DST Global with surprising there). data, traffic, technology and products. The firm serves the online consumer credit
one insurance platform in which “all interactions are personalised”. participation from new investors The equity crowdfund campaign needs of credit card people. Shuhe says its core team mainly comes from China
This is the first investment for Mubadala’s European Ventures Fund, which comes General Atlantic, Coatue, ICONIQ saw that 15% its investors were repeat Merchants Bank credit card centre and other well-known financial institutions.
on the back of Wefox’s announcement of its launch in the Asian market following a Capital and Dragoneer Investment investors. The shares were offered at Sina aims to grow its market competitiveness in terms of acquiring customers,
partnership with SBI (formerly SoftBank Investment). Group. Existing investors Forerunner AU$2.04 ($1.44) this time around, and improve data and technology capabilities, and optimise operating costs.
“Wefox is tackling an industry problem with an innovative and elegant solution by Ventures, Cathay Innovation, AU$1.20 ($0.85) in first campaign. Xu Zhigang, Shuhe CEO, says: “We will jointly establish an expandable cooperation
enabling and empowering key stakeholders in the value chain,” says Ibrahim Ajami, Menlo Ventures and others also The bank already has an app and model to provide users with appropriate, convenient and efficient inclusive financial
head of Mubadala Ventures. participated. prepaid travel card in market, and a services under prudent risk control.” He adds that a financial business is like “long-
The firm says this investment is the largest Series B round for an insurtech company. This follows on from June 2018, restricted banking licence. It has said it is distance running”, because it is “common sense to be stable and lasting”.
Wefox was founded in 2014 and has grown its revenues to around $40 million. when it raised $70 million in Series C currently applying for a full banking licence. Founded in August 2015, Shuhe has more than 25 million registered users and
In previous rounds, Wefox has been supported by investors like Target Global, financing led by Menlo. It uses SAP Cloud for Banking, which recorded over 6.6 million transactions.
idinvest, Horizons Ventures, Speedinvest, Seedcamp, Mountain Partners, Salesforce The firm will use the investment went live on November 2019. Shuhe is part of the advertising network Focus Media, with Sequoia Capital as a
Ventures and Sound Ventures, the VC of Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher. to launch new products in credit It has Brett King as a board advisor shareholder.
building and short-term lending, and Tesla engineer Thomas Vikstrom, Sina operates China’s social media platform Weibo and recorded a 26% year-on-
chief executive and founder Chris on the board. Jason Bates, co-founder year increase in revenue in the third quarter of 2018, reaching $554.6 million.
Britt told Reuters in an interview. of neobanks in the UK, Monzo and
Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions provider Shift Technology It currently offers checking Starling, is also a Xinja board advisor.
has closed a C-round investment of $60 million, bringing its (current) and savings accounts, and Xinja has issued over 10,000 cards,
total investment to $100 million. a debit card. and overall more than 25,000 people
Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined In another interview with CNBC, have signed up for its products.
by previous investors including Accel, General Catalyst and Chime explains that it also plans to
Iris Capital. expand its current 120-person team
The investment will support its expansion plans for its US to 200 by the end of the year. In
headquarters in Boston and its offices in Tokyo. It also plans the past year the bank hired Brian Proactis, the spend management and B2B e-commerce company, has secured £20 million in funding
to hire for positions including data scientists, developers, and Mullins, the former head of risk from HSBC UK for its SME market ambitions.
sales and marketing staff. ops at Square, and Aaron Plante, The firm says the funding will allow it to roll out proprietary technology to deliver “frictionless cash
The firm was founded in 2014. It has more than 200 employees in its headquarters in the former business unit leader for flow” between businesses. It aims to accelerate and incentivise payments, helping SMEs with improved liquidity.
Paris and offices in Boston, Tokyo, London, Hong Kong, Madrid, student loans at SoFi. Anthony Persse, financial solutions director at Proactis, says: “There is a disconnect in the current payment culture that benefits
Singapore, Toronto and Zurich. Chime has no minimum deposit neither buyers nor suppliers. It stymies investment as well as working capital.” He adds: “We have been exploring technologies that
Shift’s fraud detection solution, called Force, analyses and charges no monthly service can improve access to working capital by accelerating payments to suppliers.”
hundreds of millions of claims to identify potential fraud. The fees. There are also no fees for The technology also aims to help larger businesses to manage their supply chains, easing the impact on working capital and
company has 70+ clients in over 25 countries. Some of the transfers and foreign transactions. It improving their relationships with suppliers.
names include AXA Spain, CNA Financial Corporation, Credit says it has more than three million New CEO of Proactis, Tim Sykes, says the firm is reviewing the US and European operations to make sure resources are focused
Agricole Pacifica & Spirica, Covéa, Harmonie Mutuelle Groupe bank accounts. on the opportunities in those territories.
VYV, Liberty Mutual, Macif, MS&AD Insurance Group, P&V It was founded in 2014 and Wayne Shadlock, global relationship director at HSBC UK, explains that the bank began working with Proactis over 15 years ago
Group, the General Insurance Association of Singapore, and offers its banking services through a and its “business is well positioned to drive widespread access to liquidity for SMEs”.
the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers. partnership with The Bancorp Bank. Later this year, Proactis will launch its “Accelerated Payment Facility”. >>

FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP
London-based loyalty start-up Upgrade Pack has launched a £2.25 million funding round New York-based Socure has scored
with a £500,000 seed round through investment platform Seedrs. $30 million in new funding in a round
The raise is planned to drive expansion in the US and Asia, while extending Upgrade led by Scale Venture Partners.
Pack’s AI capabilities. This second round follows a £1 million raise in pre-seed funding “This funding will enable us to
earlier this year. grow our footprint in new strategic
“From £1 million raised in our pre-seed funding round, to Upgrade Pack becoming the US market sectors that are in need
first UK tech company to give all employees equity within six months. This is the next step of accurate, automated identity
FinTech BankingTech PayTech RegTech WealthTech LendTech InsurTech on our exciting path towards launch in April,” comments Craig Unsworth, founder and verification technology, including
CEO of Upgrade Pack. healthcare and the public sector,”
He adds: “Our beta offering means that these investors will also be our customers, Socure CEO Tom Thimot says. “We
providing an important additional connection beyond the investor/investee relationship.” will invest in the talent required to
The funding round on Seedrs launched on 4 March and will run for 60 days. continue innovating and expanding
Investors will be able to access Upgrade Pack’s beta app on a sliding scale relative to our machine learning-based predictive
investment – from one year to a lifetime membership. This product will give them access analytics platform.”
to exclusive flight and hotel upgrades. The round also featured participation
Upgrade Pack aims to help bank and financial services firms retain “high value” from Commerce Ventures, Flint Capital,
customers. Initially available as part of premium bank account or credit card offering, or as Two Sigma Ventures, Synchrony, and
an employee reward, it works on a cost-per-user subscription basis, enabling its clients to Sorenson Capital. The Series C round
reward their most valued customers. takes the company’s total funding to
The firm’s closed marketplace technology connects airlines and hotels with travellers, $57.5 million.
900,000+ 42,000+ 50,000+ so they can afford to purchase discounted premium seats and rooms.
Through AI capabilities, the technology integrates with banks’ existing systems as a
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model.
Socure’s platform leverages AI
and machine learning techniques to
analyse trusted on- and offline data
AVG. MONTHLY PAGE VIEWS NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS CONTACTS IN CUSTOMER DATABASE from email, phone, IP, physical address,
social media and the Internet, and
Denver-based Cloud Elements has got $25 million in new funding to promote provide real-time authentication.
its API integration platform for software providers. The technology helps drive financial
The Series C round was led by Mercato Partners, inclusion, boosting acceptance rates for
39,000+ 3,400+ 2,200+ with additional funding from existing investors millennials and other thin-file applicants
Access Ventures, American Express Ventures, by as much as 40%.
Grotech Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Socure’s platform also supports CIP/
Ventures, and Upslope Ventures. The new round brings KYC programmes and AML compliance,
Interested in placing your brand in front of FinTech Futures’ extensive global audience? Cloud Elements’ total capital raised to $46.2 million. lowering fraud by up to 80% and cutting
“APIs are a great way to make software work together, but developers manual review costs by up to 90%.
We can help you raise your company’s awareness through: now have to deal with hundreds or thousands of APIs to automate basic business “Companies from banks to
processes. Point-to-point integration can’t scale to address this challenge,” says Mark insurance carriers to healthcare
n Exclusive interviews and thought-leadership features Geene, CEO and co-founder, Cloud Elements. providers struggle with just how
He adds: “We virtualise and simplify API integration to make all APIs work slow, expensive, and inaccurate
n Product reviews together, look the same and operate the same – using industry standard protocols. today’s identity verification services
n Webinars We put your application at the centre of a digital ecosystem, based on common can be,” Scale Venture Partners’ Rory
language and unified data models. As our customers like to say, it’s integration that O’Driscoll says. “Socure offers them
n Videos starts simple and stays simple.” better accuracy and fraud detection,
Cloud Elements will use the funding to add new capabilities to its platform, and delivered through an easy-to-
n Industry surveys and white papers for its sales and marketing capabilities in the US and Europe. implement API connection.”
Its customers include software platform companies like SAP and IBM; O’Driscoll, who will join the
n Advertising independent software vendors like Axway, DoubleDutch, FinancialForce, company’s board of directors as
Microstrategy and Sage; fintech providers such as Danske Bank, FIS, PaySimple and part of the investment, calls Socure’s
n Sponsorship opportunities and more! Western Union; and digital business units of enterprises like Dun & Bradstreet and technology “a compelling proposition
Xerox. that explains why this company has
Request your copy of FinTech Futures media pack for more information Cloud Elements says its platform has 170+ pre-built integrations, common data
models and normalised capabilities for authentication, discovery, search, workflows,
been so successful so fast”.
Socure finished 2018 with 3x gains
error handling and API maintenance. in annual revenue and more than 100
The company recently landed its most “significant” deal to date – a global OEM deployments with banks, lenders, and
Visit www.bankingtech.com/media-kit or contact partnership with SAP to embed Cloud Elements in SAP Cloud Platform Open Connectors. payment providers. >>
Jon Robson
Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected]
@FinTech_Futures
FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP
Southeast Asian mobile platform Grab has video, in partnership with HOOQ; digital
secured itself a massive $4.5 billion in its healthcare, in partnership with Ping An
current Series H funding round. The firm has Good Doctor; insurance, in partnership
grabbed the attention of some big names as with ZhongAn International; and hotel
the Softbank Vision Fund has just injected $1.46 bookings, in partnership with Booking
billion in fresh funding. Holdings.
Other investors in this round include Toyota In 2018, Grab Financial Group says it
Motor Corporation, Oppenheimer Funds, became the only platform to have access
Hyundai Motor Group, Booking Holdings, to e-money licences across six of the
Microsoft, Ping An Capital, and Yamaha Motor. largest Southeast Asian economies.
Supported by
Anthony Tan, Grab’s co-founder and It’s in a good place at present, as since
CEO, comments: “The investment is a clear its launch in March 2018, Grab Financial
statement of belief in our vision to grow says it has seen its monthly transactions
Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem as the region’s number grow by almost five times to December 2018.
one super app.” The “super app” also inked partnerships with Thailand’s
Grab’s intentions are very clear. It plans to expand in sectors Central Group and Kasikornbank; Indonesia’s OVO, Bank
such as financial services, food delivery, parcel delivery, content and BTN and Bank Mandiri; Singapore’s United Overseas Bank;
digital payments, and roll out new services announced in 2018. Philippines’ SM Investment Corporation; Vietnam’s Moca; and
Built on its GrabPlatform, these services include on-demand Malaysia’s Maybank.
TurnKey Lender, a Singapore-based previous $2 million funding round in companies around the globe” to access AI-
digital solution provider for non-bank 2017, and Western NIS Enterprise Fund powered digital lending technology.
lenders, has closed a Series A1 round led also participated in the Series A1. Founded in 2014, TurnKey’s technology
by Malaysian private equity firm, OSK Company CEO Dmitry Voronenko calls supports the complete loan lifecycle, from
Ventures International. The amount of the the funding a “vote of confidence” in TurnKey application processing to collection and
investment was not disclosed. and its momentum over the past year. reporting, fully automating the process
The company plans to use the capital Calling technology access the key factor for lenders. The platform integrates with
to support growth objectives in the in credit access, Voronenko says the goal of both internal and external data sources
US, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Vertex the company was to make it easier for “banks, and services, and leverages advanced
Ventures, which led the company’s non-bank lenders, and alternative lending scoring of applicants to reduce credit risk.
In a round led by Capital Mills, Dutch training purposes. No downloads or

video conference firm 24sessions installations are required, and users
has raised $1.1 million (€1 million) in can participate in video calls with any
new funding, The Series A investment mobile or desktop device. Video calls
will help the company expand can be branded and embedded into
internationally, and takes its total capital the customer journey, as well.
to more than $1.4 million. “Until now, most enterprises have
24sessions’ CEO Rutger Teunissen struggled to roll-out video calling as a
says: “In the last year, we tripled our major customer interaction channel,
revenue, doubled our team, and grew to even though the ROI potential is
a leading position in the Benelux.” tremendous and customers expect
24sessions video conference such a service,” says 24sessions’
technology supports one-click video CTO Konstantin Goncharuk. “This is
chat and both screen- and filesharing. because their existing systems, such as
Scheduling is done via the platform’s Skype and Webex, are simply not built
automated self-service scheduling Google, Office365, and Outlook. for customer interaction.”
functionality that includes embeddable The platform also provides meeting Founded in 2015 and based in
booking forms for leads and clients, analytics and the ability to record the Amsterdam, 24sessions’ customers
as well as calendar integration with video conference for compliance or include Rabobank, ING, and Aegon. bt

COMMENT COMMENT
Why fintech start-ups

and angel investors are “Ultimately, an early-stage fintech
company needs more than just
a match made in heaven capital investment to get its
products off the ground.”
Tim Mills, Angel CoFund
By Tim Mills, investment director, Angel CoFund
Fintech is one of the UK’s fastest growing between angel investors and the thriving
sectors both in terms of the number of fintech sector that has blossomed over the
successful start-ups emerging within it, past decade or so.
and the amount of funding it has attracted So what drives this pairing of fintech
to drive development. start-ups and angel investors? There the regulatory landscape, and can connect to break through and make good returns.
According to Innovate Finance (an are a number of reasons, and the most to the right people in partner businesses, However, what makes angel investors so
independent association representing important are rooted in the structure of the are an extremely valuable resource for advantageous here is that they are more
the UK’s fintech community), the UK fintech ecosystem itself. companies in the early stages of setting up. willing to take more nuanced or harder
fintech landscape experienced a record The banking and financial services They need investors who and can dedicate to quantify risks and can be more patient
year for funding in 2017, attracting $1.8 community is actually smaller and time and advice, as well as funds. This is when it comes to returns. Furthermore,
billion of venture capital (VC) investment. closer knit than most might think, and where the deep networks and operational many angels are by nature more interested
That’s a 153% increase on 2016. But an entrepreneurs in this space are looking to knowledge of angel investors often has a in funding teams in the crucial early stages
interesting aspect of this sector, which establish businesses in a highly regulated, clear advantage over venture funds. where their capital has most impact and
often gets overlooked, is how much of that fast-moving and often esoteric field. According to research from the British is key to setting the course of operations
innovation is supported by angel funding. Additionally, the fintech industry has Business Bank, the average active angel and delivering core R&D. This combination
Insights from analytics firm FinTech regulatory challenges and complexities devotes a substantial amount of time of more speculative investment combined
Global show that angel investors have that simply do not exist in most other – on average 1.6 days a week – to their with deep involvement is something few
consistently made up about a third of the markets and such hurdles cannot be investment activities and supporting institutional funds are able to commit to.
total number of active fintech investors overcome without the help of individuals their portfolios. This means high-potential Ultimately, an early-stage fintech
since the beginning of 2014, with angels who have a deep understanding of the fintechs are able to draw on the mentoring company needs more than just capital
backing over 1,000 ventures globally. This industry inside out. and specialised insights they need to grow investment to get its products off the
trend is by no means a coincidence. It For these reasons, advisors who their businesses. ground. They’re going to need the
reflects the growing, positive relationship understand the business dynamics, know Fintech companies also have to deal considered advice, expertise and contacts
with the challenges of launching into necessary to nurture growth beyond that
mature markets where they are seeking initial concept. That’s why angel investment
to displace offerings from well-funded is such a good match – the best angels tend
incumbents. Early-stage fintechs aren’t to be successful individuals from a given
“The banking and financial services just competing against other start-ups, sector who have done it before and also
community is actually smaller and but they are often disrupting the models
of well-established giants like the banks,
have the time and resources to help you and
your business out.
closer knit than most might think, and large insurance companies and others in So if you’re an early-stage fintech on
the financial services industry. With these the hunt for investment, find yourself an
entrepreneurs in this space are looking to challenges it can be difficult for even the angel that has gone through the journey
establish businesses in a highly regulated, most innovative of fintech start-ups to

stand out and make a strong case as to
themselves. They are the most likely to
understand your vision, the challenges in
fast-moving and often esoteric field.” why they will succeed, especially when the market, and have the knowledge to
seeking funding pre-product launch. help with both – while offering the crucial
Tim Mills, Angel CoFund Of course, all investors are on the initial capital you need to take those first
Tim Mills, lookout for companies with the potential few steps. bt
Angel CoFund

Movers and shakers EVENTS CALENDAR
Real-time operational
control and proactive
exception management
Aiaz Kazi joined Banco Santander as chief holds an equity stake in Instimatch. He is May
platform officer – a newly created role – “to based in Zurich. 13-17: QuantMinds International,
support the bank’s transformation to become Julia Scheidwimmer is now heading Vienna
an open platform for financial services”, says sales in Germany. She is based in Munich finance.knect365.com/quantminds-
the Spanish banking heavyweight. and moves from brokerage firm MGW international
Based in San Francisco, he will München.
be working with Santander’s global Alice Fitton joins Instimatch in London 13: CPPO Prepaid Symposium,
technology division and teams across the as UK sales manager from a venture capital Toronto
bank’s ten core markets in Europe and the firm, Octopus Investments, where she cppo.ca/prepaid-symposium
Americas. worked as a senior business development
Kazi joins from Google, where he was manager. 15: FinTECH4Life,
head of platform ecosystem for Google Founded in 2017, Instimatch says it London
Cloud, following a long stint at SAP, where “aims to change the way money market fintech4life.com
he launched, shaped and helped grow transactions take place by digitalising
enterprise platform SAP HANA. traditional voice brokerage and by moving 21-22: ICT Spring, Luxembourg
from local to global execution”. Its cloud- ictspring.com
Sunil Madhu, founder, CEO and chief based network has 60+ institutional
strategy officer of ID verification firm users internationally, including bank and 21-22: Self-Service Banking Europe,
Socure, is leaving the company. corporate treasuries, pension funds, asset London
“After spending the last six and a half managers, insurance companies and rbrlondon.com
years building the most accurate identity municipalities.
verification AI platform and growing Socure June
into a mini unicorn, I’ve left the company and Jason Tooley has joined Veridium, 14: Real-Time Payments Summit,
our amazing team in the capable hands of an international provider of biometric Sydney
my friend and CEO Tom Timoth to scale the authentication software, as chief revenue rtpsummit.com
business while I start a new venture, currently officer. Previously, he was VP, Northern
in stealth,” Madhu says on LinkedIn. “Gotta do Europe, at Veritas Technologies for around 19-20: The AI & Big Data Expo Europe,
the serial in serial entrepreneur.” three years. Amsterdam
The announcement comes hot on the ai-expo.net/europe
heels of Socure’s latest funding round – State Street Corporation has named
Series C – which brought $30 to the New Lou Maiuri (previously head of State 24-27: FundForum International,
York-based tech firm, led by Scale Venture Street’s global markets and exchange Copenhagen
Partners (see p36). businesses) as COO. Since re-joining State finance.knect365.com/fundforum-
Socure’s predictive analytics platform Street in 2013, Maiuri has held a number international Our customers tell us that they need to use transformative digital strategies to
combines machine learning and AI with of senior roles and was “instrumental” in remain relevant in today’s challenging financial landscape. Strategies that will
digital, offline and social identity data to the recent acquisition of Charles River 25-26: MoneyLIVE: Digital Banking, allow them to improve operational control, reduce costs, build new revenue
deliver know your customer (KYC), identity Development, the company says. London streams, mitigate risk and comply accurately with regulation.
verification and fraud risk prediction solution. Prior to State Street, he held various marketforcelive.com/money-live To help you make the journey towards digital transformation, we provide a
roles at BNY Mellon. Earlier in his career, range of solutions for the transaction lifecycle. AI and Blockchain technologies
Instimatch Global, a Switzerland-based he was CEO and COO of Eagle Investment are now embedded in all of our solutions, which are also available in a variety
digital network for institutional money Systems and worked at Fidelity Investments. Banking Technology is a prominent of deployment models.
market lending, has made a spate of More than 20 years ago he served as a VP in media partner of many financial services, Digital transformation. Reaching the summit just got a little easier.
appointments. technology at State Street. insurance and payments technology
Bobby Bhakar is the new CTO, based Meanwhile, Liz Nolan, currently CEO for events worldwide. If you are interested in a
in London. He moves from money market State Street in EMEA, will assume responsibility media partnership with us and marketing
brokerage, BGC Partners, where he held for global delivery. Nolan succeeds Jeff opportunities, please contact:
senior roles in product strategy and IT Conway in this role, who is leaving the firm
delivery for over a decade. after a more than 30-year career. Nolan will Irena Andrisevic, Marketing Manager
Marco Rüfenacht has joined as MD retain her EMEA CEO and UK responsibilities Tel: +44 (0) 207 017 5379
from Vicenda Asset Management, which until a successor is appointed. bt Email: [email protected]
44 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019

5 JULY 2019, THE HAC, LONDON
Align your brand with excellence and innovation
EXPLORE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

WITH PAYTECH AWARDS 2019
This is your chance to make headlines and position your brand in front of
top-level executives, decision makers, stakeholders and influencers.
n Network with an engaged audience of senior executives in the payments industry
n Benefit from our extensive marketing programme
n Increase your brand awareness
n Entertain your clients, prospects and team at the spectacular awards event
n Highlight your brand as a leader in the global paytech sector
WWW.BANKINGTECH.COM/PAYTECHAWARDS
Get in touch to find out how you can benefit from this summer’s premier industry event!
Jon Robson
e: [email protected], t: +44 203 377 3327
@FinTech_Futures
#PayTechAwards

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The definitive source of news and analysis of the global fintech sector | April 2019 www.bankingtech.

FINTECH SPRING IS HERE

Challenger banks worldwide

16 Interview: Jean-Michel Hilsenkopf, Temenos

22 Focus: financial inclusion & tech

LIA 26 Food for thought

34 Conference review: HPS PowerCARD 2019

36 Fintech funding round-up

Design & Production Manager

www.bankingtech.com/library ISSN 0266-0865

04 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 05

06 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 07

DELIVERING REAL-WORLD will become the sole owner of the bank,

SOLUTIONS AND INSIGHTS FROM

FINTECH’S CUTTING EDGE

Iraq’s Rafidain Bank revamps tech with Oracle

1300+ 60+ 120+

April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 09

10 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 11

12 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 13

14 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 15

At the centre Temenos is innovating on all fronts. With

16 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 17

Interested in advertising and marketing opportunities?

from fintechs about

20 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 21

Hirander Misra, GMEX Group

NEXT STEPS it is envisaged that other enterprises will

Smallholders, big dreams

22 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 23

Berlin-based OST can provide the

24 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 25

you should go hug your

26 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 27

Place your brand in front of the

What dating apps

30 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 31

Image: Sharon McCutcheon, Unsplash

32 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 33

cybercrime and cybersecurity topping the

could provide the impetus for banks to

HPS PowerCARD 2019: led, rather than a regulatory mandate.

working together to tackle fraud

34 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 35

Fintech funding round-up

36 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 37

In a round led by Capital Mills, Dutch training purposes. No downloads or

April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 41

Why fintech start-ups

By Tim Mills, investment director, Angel CoFund

establish businesses in a highly regulated, most innovative of fintech start-ups to

42 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019 April 2019 | www.bankingtech.com | 43

44 | www.bankingtech.com | April 2019

Align your brand with excellence and innovation

EXPLORE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

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