Fintech
This Week in Fintech: TFT’s bi-weekly news roundup 05/23
Welcome to The times of fintech Bi-weekly news roundup Thursday 23 May 2024, with the latest updates from around the world.
Partnerships
Private money 3 (P3) is strengthening its established partnership with ClearBank, a cloud-based clearing bank. In collaboration with ClearBank, Privat 3 Money introduces a multi-currency account, which supports transactions in EUR, USD, CHD and CAD, all with a single IBAN. This simplifies domestic and international transactions, eliminating the need for multiple accounts and reducing the complexities of foreign exchange.
Zopa Bank has entered the UK renewable energy market, making available its suite of regulated BNPL and retail finance products Octopus Energy customers across the UK. The deal will see Zopa finance the purchase and installation of Octopus solar panels for the energy giant’s millions of UK customers, spread across up to 84 installments over seven years.
Non-financial, an international group of fintech companies, has signed a partnership agreement with JSCB Microcredit Bank (MKBANK), a commercial bank in Uzbekistan to establish a microfinance organization in the country. The partnership will combine UnaFinancial’s experience in developing fintech solutions and Microcreditbank’s strong position in the local market.
ZainCash, a subsidiary of March estate and a payment services provider in Iraq, collaborated Temenos core banking and payments to fuel the growth and innovation of its digital payment services. ZainCash will use Temenos’ technology architecture with open APIs, to launch a range of new services, including instant lending, and provide customized products for specific groups, such as families and students.
Window, a provider of software applications and financial markets, has partnered with LGT to launch instant payment services in Austria and Liechtenstein, with other markets to follow. LGT will implement Finastra’s payment hub using a model banking implementation approach, to accelerate its readiness to meet the EU’s instant payments regulatory timelines.
Partnerships
Fintech sandboxa non-profit organization that helps the fintech sector by providing free data access to startups, welcomed Kaleidoscope as a new data partner. Kaleidoscope provides API access to a range of pre-built, searchable securities datasets that have been extracted and aggregated from US and Canadian registered filings, including public companies, investment firms, funds, investment advisors and insiders to US jobs.
CREALOGIX AND Tuum, a next-generation core banking provider, today announced a strategic partnership aimed at revolutionizing the banking and finance landscape in the GCC region. Customers will benefit from a full suite of services including accounts, cards, payments, cash financing, microfinancing and car financing solutions.
Appointments
Mangopayprovider of modular payment infrastructure for platforms, has strengthened its team in the UK and Ireland with the appointment of Jonathan Greenland as new sales director. Greenland joins from Airwallex, where it established its corporate sales function in the UK. Previously, Greenland worked in enterprise sales for GoCardless, where he created global solutions for clients.
AI (Blue Flame), names generative AI platform for alternative investment managers Ed Chu as head of technology. Chu will lead the company’s technology strategy, direction and ongoing innovation and oversee the engineering teams. Chu comes from Kepos Capital, LP, a quantitatively focused hedge fund.
THE FTMO Group announced the preparation of its own brokerage division of the company with Michael
Kamermann assuming the role of CEO. Prior to his role at FTMO, Kamerman was Group CEO of Skilling, a high-growth Scandinavian CFD broker. The co-founders of FTMO, Otakar Suffner AND Marek Vasicek they remain in their roles as CEO and CTO of the FTMO Group.
Kani Paymentsthe global data reconciliation and reporting platform, has added two new hires to its senior leadership team. Carol Connolly joins as head of finance and human resources, while Roger Binks joins as sales director. Kani has reconciled over €24 billion in payment volume processed for startups and scale-ups across the fintech spectrum, including Sodexo, Transact Payments, Osper, IDT, Moorwand and Paysafe.
Bitget, cryptocurrency exchange and Web 3 company, he named Grace Chen as the new CEO, succeeding Sandra Lou, who leaves the platform to pursue their business objectives. In June 2022, Chen joined Bitget as its first CEO, leading Bitget’s growth strategies as the platform accelerates its global expansion plan.
Other appointments
WealthKernel, appoint a digital investment infrastructure provider James Dingwall as a new strategic regulatory consultant. He is the founder and former CEO of Thistle Group, regulatory consultancy in the financial services sector. Dingwell will focus on developing and implementing strategic plans to ensure smooth interactions between WealthKernel’s designated representative’s clients and regulators.
Understanding Corporation he named Nynke Postma, the founder and former CEO of Blacksmith KYC, to its leadership team. As head of business development for Asia and the Middle East, based in Singapore, Postma will work to maximize the potential and enhance customer experience across Encompass’ CDI product propositions. His appointment follows Encompass’ acquisitions of Blacksmith KYC and CoorpID.
WineFithe fintech platform for investments in fine wine, he named Oliver Thorpe as director of operations. Thorpe, who previously led operations at Sequoia-backed start-up Nomio, previously worked alongside WineFi Callum Beccaccia. WineFi has seen revenue growth of more than 800% since the beginning of 2024.