Zafin, a Canada-based provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) core modernisation and transformation solutions for banks and credit unions, has announced a strategic leadership transition which will see Al Karim Somji step down as company CEO after more than two decades in the role. New Zafin CEO Charbel Safadi (Image: LinkedIn) Somji, who also founded the company in 2002, will remain as a member of Zafin’s board of directors, offering support to the company’s new CEO, Charbel Safadi, who assumes the role with immediate effect. Having served as group president of Zafin for the last five mont ..read more

Former Tesla executive Tim Newell has reached an agreement with climate finance company Aspiration Partners to spin off its consumer financial services division. Tim Newell will lead the new standalone company (Image: LinkedIn) The new standalone company will continue to operate under the Aspiration brand name and will now act as an independent neobank offering environmentally sustainable products. Commenting on the transition via a post on LinkedIn, Newell, who will act as the spin-off company’s CEO, states that he has “completed a management buyout” with Aspiration Partners. The move ..read more

London-headquartered paytech myPOS has appointed former Mastercard exec Mario Shiliashki as its new CEO. New myPOS CEO Mario Shiliashki (Image: myPOS) Shiliashki, who will also join the company’s board of directors, brings nearly three decades of industry expertise to his new role. Prior to joining myPOS, Shiliashki served as an independent director at Swedish biometrics firm Fingerprint Cards and Crown Agents Bank. He has also held leadership roles at industry giants including Goldman Sachs, PayPal, and Mastercard, complemented by his tenure as CEO of Dutch paytech PayU Global Payments. Fou ..read more

Bank of Jordan (BOJ) is implementing a new core banking system, ICBS G5, at its new subsidiary in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The system is provided by the bank’s long-standing partner, regional banking technology provider BML Istisharat. BML Istisharat gains new core banking system clients in Lebanon and KSA BOJ, one of the oldest banks in Jordan having launched in the 1960s, has been working with BML Istisharat for three decades. It was an early adopter of the vendor’s flagship core banking system, ICBS, to power its operations at home and subsequently in Palestine, Syria, Bahrain ..read more

Mumbai-based fintech firm Aurionpro has acquired a 67% majority stake in Arya.ai, an AI-powered, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) start-up with a focus on the banking and insurance industries, for $16.5 million. Aurionpro acquires Arya.ai for $16.5m The all-cash transaction is comprised of shares held by the existing shareholders of Arya.ai and a commitment to deliver new equity capital into the start-up. Founded in 2013 and also based in Mumbai, Arya.ai offers a cloud-based PaaS that enables enterprises to develop their own AI solutions, with offerings including an AryaXAI module for AI governa ..read more

OakNorth is launching a commercial card programme for its business banking clients through the card issuing platform of Marqeta. UK challenger OakNorth to launch commercial cards The offering will extend to the digital commercial bank’s small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers in the UK and will be joined by deposit accounts and automation tools for bill payments. OakNorth says it intends to democratise services that are “typically only available to commercial banking customers”, as part of a larger effort to help SMBs “plan for rising costs and thrive amid economic uncertainty”. An a ..read more

Wealthtech start-up Midas, which specialises in democratising retail investing, has secured $45 million in equity funding to expand its product portfolio. Midas bags $45m Series A The Series A was led by Toronto-based VC Portage, which also co-led a £25 million Series A funding round for UK-based startup Zilo earlier this year. Additional support came from Earlybird Digital East Fund, International Finance Corporation, Spark Capital and Revo Capital, which previously participated in the start-up’s $11 million seed round back in 2022. The new funding will enable Midas, which hit profitability ..read more

My friend’s little boy came home from school really agitated a few weeks back. Some things are only solvable by people in the chair who have power, resources and reach He was restless, he was preoccupied, he was not his usual bubbly self. By bedtime there were tears. The teacher had told his class that the planet is ailing and we need to save it. We all need to save it. We all have a responsibility to save the planet. But he is so small, and it all felt too big, and he didn’t feel up to it. He felt like he was going to fail and then it would all be his fault. He was inconsolable and act ..read more

Temenos, a core banking software heavyweight, has concluded its extended search for a new chief executive officer (CEO) with the appointment of Jean-Pierre Brulard, effective 1 May 2024. Jean-Pierre Brulard, new CEO of Temenos. Image source: LinkedIn Brulard moves from VMware, a US-based cloud computing and virtualisation technology company, where he spent 14 years in various leadership roles. Most recently, he was executive vice president (EVP), worldwide sales and a member of the firm’s executive committee. VMware was acquired by Broadcom last year. Prior to VMware, Brulard was senior vice ..read more

Axis Bank has selected Moneythor’s personalisation engine to increase engagement and provide personalised insights to its customers in India. Axis Bank taps Moneythor for digital engagement solution The private sector bank has deployed its partner’s digital engagement platform to produce “real-time contextual nudges” and to encourage increased customer engagement in its mobile banking app through “animated year-end wrap solutions”. It intends for the integration to increase its capacity to process data in real-time, manage larger amounts of information and access transactional ..read more