Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 5 December 2023.
Partnerships
CODIX, a global software provider, has entered a strategic partnership with Lenvi, a fintech specialising in B2B consumer and commercial lending software and solutions. This collaboration aims to empower finance firms and fintech companies in identifying fraud trends and meeting compliance requirements. By integrating Lenvi’s Riskfactor into CODIX’s all-in-one commercial finance solution, iMX, the goal is to enhance effective risk management for over 50,000 iMX users across 50 countries.
LHV Bank, one of the UK’s newest licensed banks, reveals its Personal Savings products are now available on Flagstone, the UK cash deposit platform. The Flagstone platform will be a key channel to market for LHV Bank ahead of the planned launch of its consumer savings offering via its own channels in 2024.
The Italian Ministry of Tourism, together with Nexi, the European paytech and Nomisma, an independent company offering sectoral and territorial studies, have joined forces to enhance information and data analysis on tourism in Italy, to strengthen knowledge as well as promote development through coherent policy decisions. Insight so far reveal the most present and highest-spending tourists in Italy come from the US, France and Germany.
Zodia Custody, a digital asset custodian with shareholders including Standard Chartered, SBI Holdings and Northern Trust, has integrated its custodian solutions with Fireblocks, an enterprise platform to manage digital asset operations and build innovative businesses on the blockchain, enabling clients to access and transfer assets securely via the Fireblocks Network.
UK-based lender The Stafford Railway Building Society (SRBS) has partnered with climate-tech company PropEco, enhancing its ability to assess energy performance and anticipate the potential impacts of climate change across its mortgage portfolio. Through the partnership, PropEco will provide a range of data-driven tools and services that help SRBS assess and manage current and future climate risks.
More partnerships
Halfords Group PLC, a UK motoring and cycling products and services provider, has selected Kriya, the embedded finance provider, to power payments and credit for its trade account customers. Under the partnership Kriya will embed its financial tools across Halfords stores, customer teams, and online.
There’s also a partnership for emerchantpay, a global payment service provider and acquire, and fintech company Rubean AG. This partnership enables the two brands to further strengthen their solutions to merchants and partners in regions across the UK and Europe. With this solution, emerchantpay’s partners can reap the additional benefit of using PhonePOS with their existing Android app.
Taulia, a provider of working capital management solutions, has added the Bank of China London Branch, and BNP Paribas to its global multi-funder network. The addition of the two major global banks is the most recent in an already large and growing network of funders available to Taulia’s global customers, enabling businesses to access an increasingly broad and diverse funding pool.
Mondu, the B2B payments company, has forged a collaboration with Mangopay, a modular and flexible payment infrastructure provider for marketplaces and platforms. Through the partnership, the two companies will offer marketplaces across Europe a proven, modular payments infrastructure which can be tailored to meet their needs, with popular B2B payment methods and flexible payment terms.
Insights
Lucinity, an AI for financial crime prevention company, estimates that the recent advancements in generative AI can save the banking industry $27billion annually in training and staff costs. Lucinity’s analysis suggests that a Tier 1 bank has the potential to achieve annual savings ranging from $15million to $36million on training and recruitment expenses.
Meanwhile, Daemon, a UK-based digital transformation consultancy, has conducted a study examining how businesses navigate the digital transformation landscape. It surveyed 150 UK senior business decision makers and found that almost all organisations (98 per cent) have some vision for the use of AI, and many are already working on using AI to support analytics (60 per cent), automation (51 per cent) and personalisation (40 per cent)
Appointments
BCB Group, a provider of business accounts and trading services for the digital asset economy, appoints Jerome Prigent as MD of BCB Europe. He is responsible for leading and driving the business development for Europe and executing the strategy for BCB Group’s expansion into the region. Prigent’s previous roles include GM France, for CashDirector.
SEI has revealed the appointment of David Hinton as chief operating officer of SEI Investments (Europe) Limited (SIEL). Hinton is responsible for managing SIEL’s operations and technology, as well as the delivery of services. Hinton most recently served as deputy COO for FNZ Group, where he was responsible for managing strategic platform operations.
Salmon has appointed Franchette Chingcuanco-Cardona as its chief marketing officer for the Philippines. She has previously held roles at GCash, UnionBank of the Philippines as well as Wing Bank, Cambodia’s premier financial services provider. She also worked at BDO Network Bank (BDONB), a subsidiary of the Philippines’ largest bank.
Got You Covered, the fintech insurer, has named Rob Cornish as head of household insurance. This strategic move aims to capitalise on the company’s successes in catering to customers with non-standard requirements. Cornish joins Got You Covered from Esure, where he spearheaded relationships with leading price comparison sites.
NoOnes, the financial communication super app connecting people of the ‘Global South’ (the regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Asia) to the world’s financial systems), has appointed Ray Youssef as CEO to champion the startup’s mission to achieve a billion daily active users of Bitcoin within the next seven years.
