The FinTech Five – 6th May 2022 

Welcome to the FinTech Five, the part of the week where we take a closer look at the best articles, news, and features from over the past week from our FinTech Wales members.

1. FinTech Wales Foundry completes its second accelerator programme, with new jobs, new deals and investment in the sector

First this week, FinTech Wales Foundry, the flagship accelerator program created by FinTech Wales, completed its 2022 programme this week with a pledge to create, between them, more than £70 million in revenue in the next three years and create 100 jobs in Wales.

Sponsored by Principality Building Society, Admiral Money, and Cardiff Capital Region City Deal, the accelerator programme offers places to eight start-up businesses from across the UK and Europe.

Just six months since the last programme, the Foundry launched with its second season, bigger, and bolder than before. Thanks to lifting of Covid restrictions the program ran in person, with world leading master classes, engaging Fireside Chats with world-renowned entrepreneurs, and support to help founders validate their early stage ideas, raise investment and create a plan to scale!

The Foundry is a 12-week no equity programme backed by FinTech Wales and is the only accelerator of its kind in Wales.

Over 150 companies from across the UK and Europe applied to take part in 2022, of which eight companies were invited to take part in the programme, entitled The Foundry: Validate Raise & Scale.

Click here to read more information on this year’s programme. 

2. Acquis Data Services launches industry wide asset finance register to aid lending decisions and help tackle fraud

Next, Acquis Data Services this week announced its intention to launch Acquis Lumia, a register of asset finance borrowing which will provide a clear view of a company’s current asset finance arrangements to empower confident lending decisions.  

Developed with the cooperation of lessors from across the industry, Acquis Lumia will assist asset finance providers to identify suspicious or irregular balance sheet borrowing on a large scale and therefore provide a clear insight into a customer’s lending exposure; alerting the lender to possible fraudulent activity.   

Drawing upon Acquis’ market and data expertise gained from working with over 120 leasing companies, the platform will be available to lenders in the leasing industry for a modest subscription fee with no charge during 2022 and until Acquis Lumia has sufficient reach to deliver real value. 

The solution is unique in the asset finance industry, having been born out of industry wide consensus to tackle the fraud problem, and will bring together a wider selection of lending data to address the issue than ever before. Acquis Lumia has been developed in consultation with a working party of leading players in the UK’s asset finance industry.  

Nick Leader, CEO, Acquis said: 

“Recent high profile fraud investigations have underlined what we all know is an unfortunate reality in the asset finance industry. Fraud is an ever-present threat. It’s estimated that as many as 50 asset finance lenders recently fell victim to a major financial crime of this nature, many now facing significant financial losses. There are tools and processes in existence to help avoid and reduce fraudulent activity but the reality is none provides a wide enough view across the asset finance lending market and more needs to be done to tackle the issues and offer asset finance lenders better insight and visibility to counter it.”  

Click here to read the full announcement on Acquis’ website. 

3. W2 Partners With Visa To Provide Compliance Solutions & Tools For UK Business Cardholders

Next this week, W2, global provider of regulatory compliance software including Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solutions through a single access point, today announces a collaboration with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, to offer enhanced compliance solutions and tools for UK Platinum and Infinite business cardholders.

The new W2 offering will allow businesses operating in regulated sectors, (including payments, FinTechs and professional service providers such as accountancy) who hold Visa Platinum and Infinite business cards, to access W2’s customer onboarding and monitoring compliance solutions at a heavily discounted rate as part of a loyalty reward.

This perk will help Visa Platinum and Infinite business card users to simplify management of compliance matters through a single access point, helping to navigate stringent regulations set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Warren Russell, Chief Executive Officer & Founder at W2 commented: 

“We are absolutely delighted to be able to offer W2’s services to Visa Infinite and Platinum cardholders in the UK. We have certainly seen a shift in the past few years from businesses carrying out manual compliance, to having the requirement to automate onboarding and ongoing monitoring of customers.

We are looking forward to being able to demonstrate the value of W2’s single access point and how it can dramatically reduce customer drop-offs within onboarding, as well as saving users time and revenue by removing the need for manual intervention.”

Click here to read the full announcement on W2’s website here.

4. Delta Capita insights: Why digitise your structured product distribution? 

Next, in a recent article, Delta Capita’s Head of Due Diligence, Oliver Perry discusses several recent regulations, their aim to push up disclosure standards in structured products and why issuers are finding this an ongoing challenge to respond.

“Several recent regulations aim to push up disclosure standards in structured products, and issuers find it an ongoing challenge to respond. The rules include the UK’s new Consumer Duty principle and Europe’s revised Markets in Financial instruments Directive (Mifid II). Regulators will continue to raise expectations on due diligence and the exchange of the necessary data and MIbetween structured product manufacturers and their counterparties.

Product issuers need the agility to respond and comply with new regulations like these and staying aligned with emerging best practices. Digitisation and technology-driven shared services help them do this.” the article reads. 

The article continues to share insights on the benefits of digitisation, the benefits of working with a third party, and how Delta Capita inSPire can help.

Click here to read the full article on Delta Capita’s website. 

5. Chetwood Financial acquires Yobota to expand BaaS capabilities

Last but not least this week, Chetwood Financial recently announced the acquisition of core banking provider Yobota to extend their Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) capabilities.

Founded alongside Chetwood Financial in 2016 and developed as a separate entity, Yobota is a London-based technology company that has built a fast, flexible, cloud-native core banking platform. The platform allows companies to create and run innovative financial products, and manage them independently.

The acquisition will create a more collaborative and compelling BaaS proposition as Chetwood Financial continues to grow their customer base and enable businesses to develop their own financial offerings, such as lending and payment services, using its regulated infrastructure.

Following the acquisition, Yobota will continue to deliver the core banking system (CBS), on which businesses can run fully compliant financial services whilst leveraging Chetwood’s banking licence. The combined strength of the businesses will increase operational efficiencies and facilitate the delivery of a full end-to-end BaaS offering with greater ease.

Andy Mielczarek, CEO and Founder of Chetwood said: 

“Chetwood and Yobota have common shareholders and shared purpose, and there is pre-established trust from knowing and working together. The acquisition is set to bring greater value to investors as well as strengthen our existing BaaS proposition, helping clients create better end-to-end journeys for their customers by handling both the regulatory and technological complexities involved in embedding financial services into existing propositions. Clients of both firms will benefit from our complementary offerings that will enable responsive, dynamic products and solutions not yet seen in the industry.”

Click here to read the full announcement on Chetwood Financial’s website. 

Until Next Week

And that’s it for the FinTech Five this week. Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to join us next week for more of the best content from across our FinTech Wales membership.

If you want to join our dynamic FinTech Wales community, then click here to learn more about the exclusive benefits FinTech Wales membership has to offer.