ANNOUNCEMENTSCinchy, a pioneer in the dataware space, received Canada's Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Companies-to-Watch 2021 award. The program spotlights emerging companies that exhibit strong growth and show potential to be future candidates of the Technology Fast 50 award. “Our mission is to enable organizations to quickly create and deliver the software and apps they need to run their business without compromising control," Cinchy CEO and co-founder Dan Demers said upon receiving the award.
"We pledge to maintain our commitment to expanding the reach of dataware with new technologies that enhance fundamental business processes related to integration and collaboration.”
FaceTec, a provider of 3D biometric face liveness detection, filed a lawsuit against UK company iProov Ltd. for alleged patent infringement, breach of contract and intentional interference with contractual relations. The lawsuit alleges the defendants are willfully infringing on FaceTec's patented technology by adding features copied from FaceTec to its Liveness Assurance software.
Further, FaceTec alleges iProov improperly incorporates aspects of FaceTec's technology that iProov learned through participation in FaceTec’s $100,000 Spoof Bounty Program, which requires acceptance of strict terms and conditions. In addition, FaceTec alleges that iProov, without authorization, used the FaceTec software for its own purposes outside the scope of the Bounty Program and broke confidentiality provisions.
Fingerprint Cards AB’s second-generation T-Shape sensor module and software platform for biometric payment cards have achieved compliance with Mastercard’s new fingerprint sensor evaluation process. Having passed the former specifications in 2021, Fingerprints secured this updated approval to simplify the process for card manufacturers to launch second generation biometric payment cards, Fingerprints stated. The company expects this step will minimize time to market, lower related costs, and facilitate deployment of biometric payment cards at scale, supporting greater convenience and security for consumers making in-store purchases.
Merchants Payments Coalition reported it called on the Fed to finalize its proposal making it clear that merchants can choose which payment networks process debit card transactions and to update its out-of-date debit card swipe fee regulations.
"We’re quickly coming up on a year since the Fed acknowledged that big banks and the big payment networks are standing in the way of competition over online debit card processing that could save retailers and their customers billions of dollars,” stated Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel. “During that time, the number of transactions that the banks won’t allow competition on has continued to increase, and merchants and consumers have continued to suffer. It’s time for the Fed to act.”
W Technologies Inc. changed its name to Descrypto Holdings Inc., filing an amendment to its articles of incorporation with the State of Delaware. About the rebranding, Descrypto CEO Howard Gostfrand stated, "We are very excited to be developing a leading blockchain, NFT, crypto infrastructure holding company. While we await FINRA processing of our new name we are diligently building the pillars of Descrypto Holdings Inc. to provide investors an opportunity to invest in a diversified platform through our acquisition strategy."
RESEARCHA new Arizent report for American Banker, conducted with Thought Machine, Demystifying Digital Transformation in Banking, details the digital transformation practices banks are embracing and the challenges they face as they seek to accelerate transformation and lead the next era of consumer finance.
Researchers found that banks are embracing some common elements across digital transformation initiatives but are often missing two critical areas in their roadmap: cloud strategy and core modernization. In fact, Arizent noted, just 56 percent of banking executives surveyed reported having core banking modernization as part of their digital transformation strategy, and fewer than half (44 percent) have a cloud migration plan.
DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies, leveraged its network of 11,000 agencies to gain quick insights "QuickSights" on trends surfacing in tech today. Among the emerging trends noted were that digital payments will continue to expand worldwide; Google's Trusted Web Activity will improve performance of hybrid apps; and neumorphism, an approach that makes embossed user interfaces, will be 2022's design trend.
Mercator Advisory Group’s A Guide to Payments Orchestration report provides insight into payments orchestration and explains what every merchant needs to know about it. "The strategy that drives orchestration is nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way that merchants view payment service providers," Mercator stated.
"Rather than conduct due diligence to select a 'best of breed' service provider for each functional area within payments, orchestration leverages technology to utilize multiple providers, coordinating the utilization of each provider based on business conditions and/or transaction attributes." Managing multiple service relationships across multiple payment service categories can strain a merchant’s operating resources, so more and more merchants are leveraging an orchestration strategy to deliver both a strong ROI and a superior customer experience, Mercator added.
Specialized payments platform Paysafe released research revealing that 55 percent of crypto owners—rising to 60 percent of 18 to 24 year olds—would rather receive their salary in cryptocurrency. Reasons for this include seeing cryptocurrencies as a smart investment, believing they’ll likely get paid in crypto soon anyway, and greater financial flexibility.
As reported in Inside the crypto community: Plotting the journey to mass adoption, researchers surveyed a cross section of 2,000 crypto owners living in the United States and U.K. about their perspectives on the future of decentralized finance. Fifty-four percent of crypto owners agreed cryptocurrency is the future of finance and will take over as the dominant form of international currency. However, 70 percent of respondents admitted to having doubts about investing in crypto, with 49 percent having cashed out some or all of their cryptocurrency assets at some point.
PARTNERSHIPSComputer Services Inc., a provider of end-to-end fintech and regtech solutions, partnered with bitcoin company NYDIG to offer a full suite of turnkey bitcoin services to community financial institutions. Powered by NYDIG, the new offering allows banking customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin directly within CSI’s digital banking platform, creating a safe and efficient way for users to manage their digital transactions, CSI stated.
According to a 2021 survey commissioned by NYDIG, CSI added, 81 percent of respondents said they’d be interested in purchasing bitcoin from their bank if the service were available, and 71 percent of those who already owned the digital asset said they’d switch their primary bank to one that offered bitcoin-related products and services.
Nord Security, a provider of cybersecurity solutions, formed a strategic partnership with Telarus, a privately held technology services distributor in the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, the Telarus partner community will now be able to harness Nord Security’s business products: NordLayer, which is an adaptive network-access security solution; NordPass, a ISO-certified business password manager; and NordLocker, which offers advanced data encryption and an end-to-end encrypted cloud service. Nord Security’s globally recognized suite of cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions combined with the trusted experience and extensive partner network of Telarus will help both organizations grow and provide business customers with exceptional products, the partners stated.
ParkMobile is expanding its parking app services to Clarksville, Tenn., by offering reservations and zone parking. Users will be able to reserve monthly parking permits through the ParkMobile app and/or pay for daily on-demand street or garage parking. Through the partnership, ParkMobile will be available at 234 on- and off-street spaces throughout Downtown Clarksville. Users will be able to reserve monthly parking permits through the ParkMobile app and/or pay for daily on-demand street or garage parking.
Mobile payments provider Judopay said it is partnering with Mastercard on its Secure Customer Authentication-compliant Click to Pay solution. Click to Pay offers consumers and merchants a more convenient and secure guest checkout experience supported by intelligent recognition, and makes it easier and safer for consumers to check out online without having to manually enter their card details every time or store them with multiple merchants, Judopay stated, adding that the collaboration demonstrates Judopay and Mastercard’s commitment to improving the ecommerce experience, providing rich native components for customers to use within their mobile apps.
ACQUISITIONSGreenBox POS, a blockchain ledger fintech company, said it entered into a binding agreement to acquire Roark Holdings Ltd, a U.K.-based licensed payment institution, in an all-stock transaction. Roark Holdings (trading name paysos.com) is a UK payment institution that allows the licensor to process debit and credit card payments in addition to local payments within the UK. Through this purchase, GreenBox stated, it will accomplish a strategic objective to expand across multiple markets, made possible with Roark's technology.
Repay Holdings Corp., a provider of vertically integrated payment solutions, acquired Payix for up to $115 million financed with cash on hand and available revolver capacity. Repay also noted the upsizing of its revolver capacity by $60 million, increasing its existing $125 million revolving credit facility to $185 million.
Payix is an omnichannel payment technology platform providing solutions to facilitate payments, data exchange and communication to support customer service and collection efforts in loan repayment verticals. Payix’s software supports a range of payment options and modalities, and integrates into loan management systems and dealer management systems by providing an SaaS approach to collections. APPOINTMENTS Selim Aissi joins Blackhawk Network Blackhawk Network named information security executive Selim Aissi as its chief information security officer. He will lead the company's cyber security, including security strategy, engineering, infrastructure and governance, business continuity, and third-party risk management.
Aissi brings more than 20 years' experience in leadership positions in the technology and financial industries. Most recently, he was senior vice president and chief security officer at ICE Mortgage Technology, where he was responsible for security engineering, operations, strategy, cyber resilience, GRC and third-party risk. Previously, he served as vice president of global information security at Visa, where he led a number of company-wide security initiatives.
iCheckGateway.com today expanded its technology leadership team by hiring Jose Compton, Sanjeev Kuma and Shashank Chauhan. Compton is iCG's quality assurance specialist team lead responsible for the QA of products and services deployed on all environments. Kuma joined the company's laboratory team as the payment portal and IVR developer support member.
He reviews developer content from his team, giving thoughtful feedback before updates or releases publish to the live servers. Chauhan, a QA specialist, brings expertise to iGC's hosted payment portals, IVR integration and plugins.
International payments platform Paysend appointed Jairo Riveros as its managing director of the United States and Latin America. Former head of the company's office of strategy management, he is now responsible for defining and implementing the regional business strategy across the United States and Latin America; building a world-class fintech team; and securing additional regulatory approvals, licenses and partnership deals across the Americas. Previously, he was the head of market models and business strategies for Mastercard Worldwide and its advisory unit, Mastecard Advisors.
He also advised clients through Artemis Worldwide and served as a director in Deloitte’s Financial Services Strategy practice.
PCI Pal, a provider of cloud-based secure payment solutions, appointed Tim Watts as vice president sales for Canada, where he will be responsible for leading the sales growth strategy. Watts joins PCI Pal with more than eighteen years of sales leadership that includes country management and high levels of individual contributor sales in the customer engagement space, PCI Pal stated. Directly prior, Watts worked at Uniphore, a U.S. provider of conversational AI and automation where, as sales director, he drove revenue, customer success, networking and relationship building within the local contact center community. He has also held roles in several companies in the business communications and contact center space.
ParkStash, a one-stop-shop for parking management, stated that its CEO, Sameer Saran, was accepted into Forbes Technology Council, "an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives." Sameer Saran was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his experience, the company noted. Criteria for acceptance included a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.
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