Switching to the Satoshi standard and Lightning Network connectivity makes Bitcoin more tangible and easy to use. AAX has made the first move in the crypto space, already providing BTC to SAT
Mastercard and Coinbase partner to let people buy NFTs with cards
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Mastercard is joining forces with Coinbase to enable people to buy NFTs with their debit and credit cards.Coinbase recently joined the NFT party, outlining plans to build a decentralised marketplace where users can mint, collect and trade non-fungible tokens.
However, the firm acknowledges that the process of buying an NFT can be daunting for novices, requiring them to open a crypto wallet, buy crypto, then use it to purchase the NFT in an online marketplace.
The firm is working with Mastercard to classify NFTs as “digital goods” and unlock a new way to pay using cards.
Raj Dhamodharan, EVP, digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships, Mastercard, says: “We’re working to make NFTs more accessible because we believe tech should be inclusive.
“When more people are included in new technologies, it spurs innovation, helps economies grow and expands choices for consumers.”
UK BNPL fintech Zilch to launch in Europe
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UK buy now, pay later outfit Zilch is preparing to launch its retailer agnostic digital card offering to European consumers.Zilch only opened in beta in 2019, looking to distinguish itself in the crowded BNPL arena by connecting directly with customers and using soft background credit checks performed by Credit Kudos via Open Banking to determine affordability.
With the BNPL market booming, Zilch has racked up 1.7 million customers across the UK and is intent on expanding across Europe and into the US market.
The firm in November raised $110 million in a Series C funding round at a $2 billion valuation, with plans to use the funding for a move into the US, where it recently acquired debt funding platform Neptune Financial to fast-track its launch stateside.
The push into EU markets comes via an extended partnership with Mastercard, enabling customers to shop wherever Mastercard is accepted and spread their payment over six weeks for zero interest and zero fees.
Philip Belamant, Zilch founder and CEO, said, “With our partner Mastercard we remove acceptance as a barrier and enable our customers to pay overtime anywhere, instantly.”
NatWest Markets sets up blockchain team
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NatWest is to formalise its blockchain strategy with the launch of a new digital team in its capital markets business.The new team will be led by Chris Agathangelou, who has been appointed head of digital capital markets. The unit will be charged with delivering credit and rates products via digital channels and currencies and underpinned by blockchain technology.
“Distributed ledger technology will increase transparency, minimise costs, lead to faster execution and increase capital efficiency for NatWest Markets’ clients,” Natwest said in a statement.
Agathangelou joined NatWest Markets in 2017 from Nomura. As head of flow credit syndicate he was most recently driving data visualisation projects with external partners across the fintech community.
MENA: Region’s Fintech Association launches the Sustainable Fintech Alliance
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The MENA Fintech Association (MFTA), the leading voice of the Fintech community in the region, has launched the Sustainable Fintech Alliance, with the mission of helping its members create positive impacts in the face of the increasingly urgent environmental and social challenges of today.
The world is at a critical juncture and the MENA region is set to take the centre stage in the quest for resolving the most defining issue of our time, climate change. After the recent conclusion of COP26 in Glasgow, the torch is in fact being passed to Egypt and the UAE as hosts of COP27 and COP28 respectively.
Sustainability is broader than climate change. It is about enabling a society where future generations can thrive, and everyone needs to contribute their fair share.
By joining the Alliance, members commit to gradually implementing credible and transparent sustainability strategies within their organisations, which contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and also the Net Zero pledges made by several countries across the region.
Companies are at different levels of maturity when it comes to embed sustainability within their organisations, and Fintechs are no different. This is why education and awareness will be central to achieving the Alliance’s mission.
MFTA passionately believes that the Fintech community has a critical role to play in finding solutions for the most urgent issues we face as a society. This is why, in addition to helping members embrace sustainability within their organisations, the Alliance will also enable collaboration between the Fintech community and policymakers within the financial sector and beyond, with the aim of putting technology at the service of purposeful change.
Launching the initiative, Nameer Khan, Chairman and Founding Board Member of MFTA said: “We are extremely excited to be launching the Sustainable Fintech Alliance as part of MFTA’s core initiatives. We see momentum picking up in the region and, as an Association that brings together stakeholders from across the region, with excellent relationships with central banks and regulators, MFTA has a key role in supporting the transition towards a more sustainable society. We want to help Fintechs embrace sustainability as part of their organizations’ culture and values, and ensure they have access to high-quality knowledge and resources. Problem-solving is built into the DNA of Fintechs, and we believe they are also uniquely positioned to think creatively and collaboratively to bring sustainability front and centre in consumers’ lives. I am personally invested in harnessing technology and innovation to reimagine financial services from the lens of sustainability, and I am committed to making this a core priority of MFTA’s engagement with Fintechs and regulators going forward”.
Christian Kunz, Head of Group Strategy and Innovation at DIFC Authority, and Chair of the Dubai Sustainable Finance Working Group said: “We are proud to be a member of this founding group and a part of the Sustainable Fintech Alliance, aiming to create a positive impact with the help of the different partners, beginning with education. In line with the UAE’s recently announced strategic initiative to achieve net zero-emission production by 2050, we recognise the importance of sustainability and are committed to being at the forefront of important issues such as this in the region. Today, the market capitalisation of ESG-inspired Sukuk and bonds is growing at a high pace in DIFC, now making up over 11.7% of the total outstanding bonds, in excess of USD12.15 billion. At DIFC, we are continuing our efforts to cement our position as the leading innovation ecosystem in the UAE, unlocking future growth through the Future of Finance and Future Economies.”
Mercedes Vela Monserrate Head of Sustainable Finance at ADGM: “ADGM is committed to working in line with the UAE’s vision to achieving its Net Zero by 2050 strategic Initiative. The Sustainable Fintech Alliance serves as a significant contributor to the progression of innovative sustainable solutions to unlock and catalyse multiple sources of financing in alignment with ADGM’s FinTech and Sustainable Finance Initiatives. It is with pride that ADGM ascribes to the Sustainable Fintech Alliance as a founding member and we look forward to supporting the collective effort towards a sustainable future for tomorrow’s generation.”
Commenting on the initiative, Kareem Refaay, Managing Director, The London Institute of Banking & Finance MENA said: “At LIBF, we are the lifelong partner in financial education, and as such, designing and developing a programme centred around sustainability in finance and fintech is at the core of LIBF. With our research centres in both niches, our expert faculty and industry practitioners, it is our pleasure to be part of such an initiative in partnership with stakeholders. The launch of the sustainable fintech alliance and financial education programme accredited by LIBF, will be a driving change in the MENA region.”
As part of the Sustainable Fintech Alliance founding members team, we find the reputable brands Checkout.com, YAP, Mastercard, M2P Solutions, Marshal, Codebase Technologies, BPC, Taptap Send and GPS.
Securrency Capital appoints new board advisor
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ADGM-based Securrency Capital announced that Dr Ryan Lemand has joined as a board advisor to the institutional DeFi (or “decentralized finance”) brokerage. Dr Lemand brings decades of financial services experience and a proven track record of leading innovative and diverse investment teams around the world.
Dr Lemand will share his extensive knowledge and unique experience in financial services to advise the board of directors in setting the strategic direction for Securrency Capital. Securrency Capital is a blockchain-enabled brokerage focused on being a regional and international leader in providing access to trading in traditional and digital assets.
“I’ve long agreed with Securrency Capital and its leaders that Blockchain technology has the potential to improve lives and build a more trustworthy and secure financial system,” Dr Lemand stated. “It’s an honour to join Securrency Capital as board advisor and to be a part of a values-driven firm that is constantly innovating to enable and enhance the way we invest.”
“Dr Lemand has long been a visionary leader in the financial services, asset management, and brokerage industries, applying his extraordinary insight, experience, and passion for capital markets to the cause of improving lives and fostering a more secure financial system,” added Amir Tabch, Chairman and Senior Executive Officer of Securrency Capital. “We’re delighted to welcome him as a board advisor to Securrency Capital, and I’m confident that we will all benefit from his leadership and knowledge.”
Dr Lemand is the former senior executive officer and board director of ADS Investment Solutions (ADSI), the ADS Securities group’s wealth and asset management company, which he founded on behalf of the group and grew to become one of the largest companies in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
Until 2015, Dr Lemand was the senior advisor and head of risk management at the UAE Securities & Commodities Authority, the UAE’s federal securities regulator. In this capacity, Dr Ryan led and contributed to initiatives which gave way to the development of several fundamental financial regulations in the UAE including the collective investment scheme regulations as well as regulations on financial analysis and consultancy services, market making and others. He was principally responsible for leading the funds and investment management team that handled the licensing and approvals for local and foreign mutual funds and investment managers. Additionally, he helped develop a risk management framework for UAE licensed brokers.
Prior to that, Dr Lemand served as the lead portfolio manager at Fortis Investments in Europe, where he was responsible for managing a 14.6-billion-euro portfolio of assets, namely in the space of credit derivatives.
Dr Lemand is a sought-after speaker and contributor to major financial market discussions and events in the UAE and the wider MENA region.
Dr Lemand holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Financial Econometrics from the École Normale Supérieure, France, and is the author of two books on financial contagion, as well as several research articles on financial correlation. Dr Lemand also taught financial econometrics courses at Paris II-Assas University and Paris IX-Dauphine University in Paris, France.
Securrency Capital Limited is a blockchain-enabled brokerage. It is registered in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and has received an in-principal approval from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority as a prudential category 3A broker and is in the process of obtaining its financial services permission. Securrency Capital deploys Securrency’s proprietary asset tokenization technology, which automates multi-jurisdictional compliance and financial services and enables the movement of regulated value at the speed of tomorrow.
sync. app now ensures global bank connectivity with Salt Edge’s open banking solution
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sync. – the smart open banking app, partnered with Salt Edge, the leader in providing open banking solutions, to significantly boost its open banking offer and enable users to link their bank accounts from a wide number of new countries, including Australia, South Africa, and Hong Kong.
With open banking gaining more and more popularity, consumers are getting the taste of better control of personal finances and associated personal data. Recent surveys show that pandemic has shifted the way people approach data privacy and control, which is enforced by the expansion of the services underpinned by APIs. Consumers are not asking for open banking specifically. They are asking for control, safety, and convenience, which is exactly what sync. app has been offering ever since its launch back in 2020.
sync. uses open banking channels and allows consumers to connect their existing bank accounts and credit cards alongside their sync. current account directly in the app, making it easier to effectively manage money and budget. Throughout its development, the company behind the app found it critical to offer as wide a coverage of open banking-based services as possible, beyond Europe. And since Salt Edge has the fastest-growing and broad global connectivity, sync.’s choice was obvious, and achieving its goals meant leveraging Salt Edge’s global data aggregation solution.
Partnering with Salt Edge helps us achieve our vision of leading the way in open banking and providing real benefits to our users. We were obviously aware of SaltEdge as one of the leading open banking aggregators in the world and it was clear that the breadth of connections they had developed meant they were a clear market leader.
Ricky Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of sync.
Salt Edge’s award-winning global bank connectivity with up to 5,000 banks from more than 50 countries worldwide is contributing to sync. offering its users the chance to fully control their finances, manage and track their money, tailoring its solutions with customised insights.
End-users may not really care about the name of the technology backing-up the services they’re using. What they do care about is the safety of their data, the commodity of having it all aggregated in one single app, and the coverage they get, by connecting as many banks as possible, from as many locations as possible. We are thrilled to be able to work with sync.money on achieving that and ensuring that their users get truly the best out of open banking while staying secure.
Cristian Gheorghita, Open Banking Expert at Salt Edge
Red Dot Payment selects Radar Payments by BPC to take on global eCommerce fraud prevention
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Next-generation payment processing company, Radar Payments by BPC, has been selected to tackle eCommerce fraud prevention by Singapore’s largest home-grown online payment solutions fintech Red Dot Payment (RDP), an e-commerce enabler focused primarily on serving the e-commerce and hospitality verticals.
RDP has selected the Fraud Risk Management and Prevention solutions delivered as a SaaS model from Radar Payments after reviewing other fraud detection systems. Their choice was influenced by its peerless technological capabilities and ease of integration, as well as its affordability and excellence in account management.
Established in 2011, RDP was founded by Randy Tan, who is still leading the company as its CEO. Initially starting in Singapore, RDP has expanded to other regions, with local offices in Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand, and further expansion provisionally planned in Japan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. In July 2019, the fintech and e-payment business PayU took a majority stake.
RDP was ranked #35 out of 500 companies in the Financial Times’ special report on high-growth companies in the Asia Pacific after demonstrating phenomenal revenue growth of 171% CAGR. They were also ranked Top 10 Fastest-growing firms in Singapore by the Strait Times in 2020.
Earlier this year, RDP became a principal member with both Visa and MasterCard. They are already an acquirer for AliPay, Diners Club International, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay, with a payment suite that includes AMEX, PayPal, PayLah and PayNow (SGQR) and many other alternative local payment methods in the respective countries they operate in.
RDP selection of Radar’s Payments Fraud Risk Management and Prevention service comes at a time when the number of online cybercrime rises due to digitisation around the world. The technology developed by Radar Payments was not only singled out for its best in class performance but also its proven track record in helping financial institutions and businesses of all sizes to tackle vulnerabilities within the digital ecosystem for consumers across regions.
David Owyong, COO, Red Dot Payment, commented: “We believe that conquering eCommerce fraud requires a global perspective, and we pride ourselves on working closely with our merchants to help them harness the power of payments. As we overcome the turbulence of the past 24 months, we believe that the hospitality sector is the next industry where we’ll witness huge advances in eCommerce. With the help of Radar Payments, we’ll continue to support local merchants in this field as well as create a secure environment for international companies with ambitions to serve consumers in Southeast Asia.”
Terry Paleologos, COO at BPC said: “We are thrilled to be helping one of Singapore’s fastest-growing companies to grow even faster, through ensuring that they have best-in-class fraud prevention service which comes with unparalleled expertise and local insights that do help remove any friction to the customer payment experience.”
eToro expands crypto offering with Celo and The Sandbox
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Social investment platform, eToro, has just announced the addition of two assets to its crypto offering: The Sandbox and Celo. This brings eToro’s offering to 42 crypto assets.
“We’re seeing huge demand for DeFi and metaverse tokens, and we’re delighted to be able to offer more of these assets to our customers,” said Doron Rosenblum, vice president of business solutions at eToro. “The addition of these new tokens to the platform demonstrates the breadth of choice available to investors in the cryptoasset market today. We will continue to grow our crypto offering to enable users to diversify their portfolios with a broad range of cryptoassets.”
The Sandbox is a virtual game that combines blockchain technology, decentralised finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a 3-D metaverse. With design tools, it allows players to create and customise their games and digital assets. The virtual goods created can then be monetised as NFTs and sold for SAND tokens – the native token of The Sandbox.
Celo, meanwhile, is a DeFi platform that makes it easier for cryptoasset users and investors to settle transactions via their mobile phones. Investors in the token can vote on initiatives, such as making the CELO blockchain carbon neutral.
For now, the SAND and CELO tokens are not available to US users.
This news rounds off a busy year for eToro, which in the last quarter alone launched the eToro Money program for UK users, opened a DeFi portfolio, and appointed of Lule Demmissie to the role of US CEO.
MENA: Open finance is a ‘step change’ according to new report
The MENA FinTech Association (MFTA) Open Banking Working Group, in collaboration with the Arab Regional FinTech Working Group, has today published a landmark report Open finance: A framework for the Arab region is more than a question of scope.
This report on open finance is a product of collaboration between the Open Banking Working Group of the MENA FinTech Association and the Arab Regional Fintech Working Group.
The report explains why open finance is a step change for the finance sector, and why it offers unique opportunities for the Arab region but also brings challenges for both regulators and firms alike.
The report foresees the need for a change in the way firms think about and use data and it argues that open finance may require cultural shifts around the globe. That is because open finance, the report says, is not just about a bigger or broader version of open banking. It is a fundamentally new development.
Nameer Khan, Chairman & Founding Board Member, MFTA said:
“Unlike open banking, open finance brings together a host of participants across financial services. Any hierarchical notion of data providers and third-party recipients is long gone. In its place is a level playing field where all parties may share or receive data as part of a collaborative ecosystem.”
Hakan Eroglu, MFTA Open Banking Working Group Lead, and Global Open Banking Lead, Advisors at Mastercard, said:
“Yet open finance is more than open banking with a broader scope. Where an open banking framework is designed to spur the innovation of products and services, open finance takes those products and services and then connects them across a shared framework as well. The result is a consistent and richer customer experience regardless of the businesses involved.”
Kareem Refaay, Managing Director, The London Institute of Banking & Finance MENA, said:
“As part of our mission to contribute to the region, we are proud to support MFTA in developing and publishing the new Open Finance Report. Along with contributions from stakeholders, the report will ensure access to regional insights and knowledge sharing across open finance.”
Open finance: A framework for the Arab region is more than a question of scope was presented at the annual Fintech Abu Dhabi 2021 festival (22nd – 24th November 2021), and launched on 6th December 2021. It follows the publication last year of MFTA OBWG’s first report Open banking: A vision from the Arab world.
Open finance: A framework for the Arab region is more than a question of scope includes the insights of many regional and international experts:
- Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)
- Arab Monetary Fund (AMF)
- Arthur D Little
- Codebase Technologies
- Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC)
- The London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF)
- Mastercard
- OneConnect Financial Technology
- Tarabut Gateway
Download a copy of Open finance: A framework for the Arab region is more than a question of scope
Australia’s Westpac buys MoneyBrilliant app
Australian bank Westpac has agreed terms to buy money management app MoneyBrilliant. Financial details were not disclosed.MoneyBrilliant is a budgeting and cashflow tool that helps users manage their money by providing practical insights and displaying their financial accounts in the one place.
The firm’s technology will ultimately be integrated into Westpac’s own app.
Chris de Bruin, chief executive, consumer and business banking, Westpac, says: The acquisition of MoneyBrilliant is another important step in Westpac’s digital strategy. In recent years we’ve seen demand grow for simple and practical digital tools to help customers manage their personal finances.
“We look forward to further building on MoneyBrilliant’s existing capabilities and making these available to our customers.”
The bank is buying the app from AMP Limited and management shareholders, with the deal slated to be closed next month.