Payments giant Mastercard is expanding its existing partnership with Thought Machine, the cloud-native banking technology firm, to deliver high-quality payments and core banking capabilities to financial institutions looking to modernise their technology stack. ‍By pairing Mastercard’s global network and digital solutions with Thought Machine’s core banking and payments platform, the two organisations hope to help financial institutions accelerate the transition from legacy core banking and payment technologies to cloud-native ones and provide their customers with efficient, seamless ban ..read more

Terra Invest, the investment firm, has launched in the City of London and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to tackle some of the biggest investment pain points, such as addressing the demand for clean energy and creating a positive global impact. The platform will focus on improving sectors like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and health and life sectors. Terra Invest is backed by Mount Row Partners, a group of financial and public policy veterans from a variety of sectors and several large family offices in the Asia Pacific (APAC) market. With this support, the platform plans to buil ..read more

Danish investment bank Saxo Bank is conducting a strategic review to boost its growth in Asia. The bank aims to form new partnerships in the region, utilising its current offices in Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Founded by CEO Kim Fournais in 1992, Saxo launched one of the first online trading platforms in Europe in 1998 and is on a mission to become the preferred bank for investors, traders and institutional partners in Europe, with a strong presence in MENA and APAC. New partnerships in Asia will enable organisations to leverage Saxo’s multi-asset infrastructure and platforms while ..read more

Emirates Development Bank (EDB), the financial engine of UAE economic development and industrial advancement, and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), the UAE-based bank, are joining forces to enhance international trade services. This collaboration will combine the client base and financial operational capabilities of the Emirates Development Bank with the advanced trade finance expertise of the Commercial Bank of Dubai, in an effort to unlock new growth opportunities for businesses across the UAE. As part of this strategic alliance, CBD will deliver a comprehensive suite of trade finance product ..read more

According to research from fraud prevention platform Ravelin, the UK economy and businesses that reside within it are at great risk, as the UK’s online fraud presence has increased the most out of 10 countries surveyed in the past 12 months. In its fourth edition of the Fraud and Payments Survey Ravelin has revealed that 84 per cent of UK merchants have confirmed an increase in online fraud. Australia saw an 83.4 per cent increase while Spain saw an 81.3 per cent increase. In the 10 countries surveyed (including France, Germany, Italy, America, Brazil and Mexico), fraud has increased for ..read more

Radia Accelerator, a programme created to help women with operational tech experience build and advance their companies, is now welcoming applications for its 2024 cohort. The accelerator programme, created by AlbionVC and Speedinvest, will run from September to November 2024 and offer female co-founders access to extensive networks, and knowledge-sharing opportunities, and provide practical know-how through a mix of in-person half-day workshops and virtual sessions. Of the 450 unicorns in Europe, only 38 have a female co-founder and only 11 are in SaaS. Radia’s mission is to accelerate the g ..read more

Stratyfy, a women-led fintech company, has revealed that its advanced AI technology can significantly enhance credit decisioning processes for small to midsize banks.  Leveraging Equifax credit data, Stratyfy developed predictive models and strategies to show how its Probabilistic Rules Engine (PRE) compares to traditional decisioning methods in the US. According to its study, Stratyfy’s approach can identify nearly twice as many pre-qualified loan applicants compared to traditional methods, while also reducing the overall rate of bad loans. This indicates a potential for financial insti ..read more

Doha Bank and Mastercard have formed a major long-term partnership to boost the commercial bank’s payment solutions and support Qatar’s digital transformation goals. This collaboration is designed to bolster Doha Bank’s leadership in customer service and innovative payment solutions, while aligning with its ‘Himma’ roadmap – aimed at redefining how it operates and serves its clients. This strategic alliance, one of the most significant deals in Qatar’s financial sector, highlights Doha Bank’s commitment to digital transformation. The agreement, completed in record time, reflects the shared vi ..read more

Australia’s Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has teamed up with MongoDB to modernise its core banking technology. The bank is using the MongoDB Atlas multi-cloud developer data platform to accelerate customer-focused innovation. According to the pair, the bank chose MongoDB Atlas as the underlying platform for its tech stack because of the high levels of security and reliability, its ability to manage the bank’s real-time operational data on a unified platform, and because of an “intuitive developer experience”. In under three months, the bank modernised its Agent Delivery System, a legacy retail ba ..read more

This June at The Fintech Times, we’re focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). No longer just a trending topic but an essential consideration to not only your business operations but in your offering as well, this topic feels more relevant now than ever before. The fintech industry is known for its innovative, agile reputation, and yet it still faces a significant diversity problem that threatens to halt its growth and stop that innovation moving. But what’s in it for fintechs? Other than it being the right thing to do of course, how can implementing DEI make your company better? We ..read more