IBS Intelligence Podcasts

US FinTech Securrency successfully raised $17.65 million in its Series A round earlier this year, led by strategic investor WisdomTree investments. Securrency is a pioneer of blockchain-based financial markets infrastructure technology centred on its identity and compliance framework to support global digital securities transactions. Now, the FinTech has partnered with Saudi investment management and banking firm, Musharaka Capital, to develop a compliant platform for issuing digital securities in Saudi Arabia.

 Sunniva Kolostyak, reporter at IBS Intelligence, speaks to Signicat’s John Erik Setsaas about how Scandinavian countries are using verified digital identities in most aspects of their digital lives, about entering the Benelux market and its recent acquisition of Connectis, and how collaboration is an important element of fighting cybercrime, particularly in a COVID-19 environment. 

 In a single home today, it’s not uncommon to find more than a dozen devices connected to the internet. As people connect more, it is only a matter of time before we see a huge increase in unauthorised purchases being made via these technologies. The Internet of Things (IoT) has great potential but there are questions to be resolved over how payment systems interact with IoT, warns Steve Durney of Ethoca. Acquired by Mastercard in March 2019, Ethoca is a provider of collaboration-based technology solutions for merchants and card issuers. 

Middle East and Africa (MEA) retail banks are the strongest believers in a cashless society, prioritizing digitalization to drive financial inclusion, according to a study released by Temenos. The report, prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit, reveals that the Middle East is poised to encourage digital financial inclusion, with young populations and smartphone use predicted to hit 74% by 2025. Of the 65 senior bankers in the region who responded, 6 in 10 think cash will dip below 5% of retail transactions in the next five years, compared to 48% globally.

 The “new normal” has placed an added importance on digital workers needed to automate mission critical tasks. Robotic process automation (RPA) pioneer, Blue Prism has been helping UK group Leeds Building Society handle the upsurge in customer enquiries over the deferral of mortgage payments. Payment holiday requests exceeded 2,000 a day and this is all now being handled by the RPA solution developed by Blue Prism for the building society. So, how should companies be managing their customer relations in the face of Covid-19? 

 Finastra has $1.9 billion in revenues, 10,000 employees and over 8,500 customers, including 90 of the top 100 banks globally. The firm’s focus in recent years has been very much centred around platform development and getting the customer experience right. Anand Subbaraman of Finanstra explains how platformification is evolving from its original focus on retail banking. 

 Pelican offers an open API interoperability hub and is seeing increasing interest from banks in this area as they look to capitalise on the opportunities of open banking. The firm believes a highly functional API development and deployment environment is essential for banks to provide innovative solutions. In this interview Pelican’s Founder and CEO, Parth Desai, and the firm’s Sales Director, Abhinav Desai review the state of play in open banking in the UK and across Europe.

 Small businesses represent 43% of the US economy, yet many are struggling to access Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, under the US Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Many US banks are unable to offer services to new small business customers in a timely manner, due to the complex nature of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) rules and obligations. Fenergo has launched a plug-and-play solution that allows US business and commercial banks to digitally onboard new clients, while digitally satisfying Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and BSA requirements, reducing the time to onboard and rapidly process new PPP loan applications. 

The password is a dying breed, and biometrics and digital identities are taking its place. However, consumers are still cautious when it comes to using fingerprints, facial recognition and voice to authenticate payments. In this episode, reporter Sunniva Kolostyak speaks to Daniel Kornitzer at Paysafe about embracing the benefits of biometrics and raising awareness. 

Most people in the UK still use a traditional bank as their primary account, with digital banks typically used for other secondary activities. However, in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, we’ve seen people turning to FinTech apps, with usage increasing 72%. The disruption of the global pandemic will expose the gaps in traditional banks’ digital infrastructure and could see many providers accelerate modernisation plans to meet the demand for digital service. Since the outbreak began, cash usage has halved, and consumers are increasingly opting for other methods of payment such as Apple Pay. The rise of the contactless payment limit mirrors these behavioural changes, but does this really mean the death of cash in the long term?