Scottish fintech iDelta launches Open Banking Insights app
Edinburgh-based fintech iDelta announced the launch of its Open Banking Insight app to traditional banks combat the rapid rise of online challengers.
Last year, the implementation of Open Banking required the UK’s 300 banks and 45 building societies to release customer bank transaction data to authorised third parties with customer approval. Customers can therefore access their bank accounts using new solutions that make it easier to see several accounts in one place.
Scottish fintech iDelta developed a new app that provides retail banks with data driven insights on all aspects of business and infrastructure performance.
The iDelta Open Banking app allows incumbents to gain visibility on whether or not they are satisfying their customers needs. Indeed, with iDelta they can analyse and understand the interactions their customers are having with other providers.
“Open Banking is intended to increase competition in the marketplace, and in a competitive environment you get innovation. While challenger banks and other financial third parties are revolutionising the marketplace, there is still huge opportunity here for the incumbent banks to drive forward innovation, using insights gleaned from existing customer data to develop customer-focused products”.
“Our app gives the market a low-cost, highly efficient and extensible way of providing a business with a central view of their customer banking channel. Banks that choose to fully use the data they are generating, with the app we have built, will position themselves at the forefront of this new channel of business.”
Stuart Robertson, director at iDelta
The app uses an abstraction layer to deal with the fact that every bank will have different technology stacks. This allows its dashboards and reports to work with each bank’s systems with minimal customisation.
Money Dashboard and Wealthify to team up
Money Dashboard, the Scottish fintech that helps people manage their finances has just announced an integration with robo-investor Wealthify. This integration will let users view their investment accounts alongside the other current, credit and savings accounts they hold.
The Money Dashboard app lets people aggregate their various accounts and understand their spending habits to help them save and budget. Wealthify are the first investment integration rolled out by the app.
Wealthify provides an an online investment service. People can easily start investing with as little as £1. The investments are made via investment products such as ISAs, General Investment Accounts, and Junior ISAs and soon-to-be-launched Self Invested Personal Pensions.
This announcement follows Money Dashboard’s recent collaborations with leading challenger banks including Monzo, Starling Bank and Revolut.
“Our mission is to help people from all walks of life master their money, so we’re delighted to be rolling out integrations with innovative FinTechs such as Wealthify and making it simple for users to track their investments as well as their day-to-day spending and saving. Having complete visibility over one’s finances in real-time makes it much easier for people to understand their overall financial situation and to progress to where they want to be. This integration is one of a number of exciting new connections we’ll be making with providers across the financial landscape in the coming months”.
Steve Tigar, Money Dashboard CEO
“At Wealthify, we aim to make investing as simple, accessible and transparent as possible. Our integration with Money Dashboard is a fantastic fit for both brands, allowing our customers even greater visibility and control of their money. We are thrilled to be the first digital wealth management platform to partner with Money Dashboard ”“ our values are closely aligned and we have great respect for what they are doing.”
Richard Theo, Wealthify CEO
Fintech business leader named 2020 AccelerateHER Awards Rising Star
Monika Ohashi, CIO of Edinburgh-based fintech business PolyDigi Tech has been named as the Rising Star for this year’s AccelerateHER Awards, an accolade which recognises a female company founder with the best early stage business idea.
Monika co-founded PolyDigi in 2012. The company has already gained recognition from Bank of China’s Hong Kong division for its SIM card authentication-focused patent.
As the Rising Star she will benefit from a package of in-kind support from AccelerateHER’s network of professional partners. She will also have the opportunity to further showcase her business at the awards finals in March where 12 aspirational female company founders have been shortlisted.
This year’s programme called for applications from businesswomen whose companies fit into one of four specific categories: CleanTech and Climate; Disruptive Innovation; MedTech and Science; and FinTech and Cyber Security. Three companies from each sector made it onto the 2020 shortlist.
The three finalists from the CleanTech and Climate category were Jacqueline Morrison of Cedeco Contractors, developers of an offshore wind turbine installation solution; Aslihan Penley of Nomad Engineers, a green wave energy business; and Elaine Galston of Tubular Sciences, creators of a low carbon pipeline connection system.
Shortlisted under the Disruptive Innovation category were Fiona Gillies of content creation market disruptors SMASH; Chantal Epp of performance sports music licensing solution ClicknClear; and Tersha Willis of Terrible Merch, an app-supported music merchandising business.
Among the MedTech and Science category winners was Diane Harbison of health data platform Decipher Analytics. The other category finalists were Claudia Freigang of Hearing Diagnostics, developers of hearing screening technology; and Lise Pape of mobility equipment supplier Walk the Path.
The FinTech and Cyber Security category finalists were Sheila Hogan of Biscuit Tin Planning, developers of a digitally secure data storage vault; Dr Tayyaba Nafees of CyberShell Solutions, developers of a cost effective cyber security system; and Kiran Bhagotra of ProtectBox, a cybersecurity comparison web service.
The short-listed companies were announced following pitches by 24 semi-finalists to the AccelerateHER Awards judging panel. Four winners, one from each category, will be revealed at the finals event on 26 March at Barclay’s Eagle Lab within Edinburgh’s Codebase. Each winner will secure a free slot on a market-building trade mission to Europe or North America to showcase their business to industry contacts and global investors.
“I’m delighted to announce Monika Ohashi as the Rising Star for this year’s AccelerateHER Awards. While PolyDigi may not be quite at the right stage to benefit from winning a place on our market building missions just yet, we join others in seeing its huge future potential. This latest accolade for Monkia will help in their growth journey.“I would also like to congratulate our 2020 finalists. We’re delighted to have received so many great submissions from technology, life sciences and environmentally-focused companies. It is encouraging to see so many innovative businesses being developed across four core sectors which are firmly on the radar of the global investment community.”
Jackie Waring, CEO of Investing Women
AutoRek signs Nationwide as a new client
AutoRek, the Scottish fintech and leading software solutions provider for financial controls, data management and regulatory reporting, have just announced that Nationwide Building Society had joined their list of clients.
The initial contract of 3 years (with option of another 2 years extension) will see Autorek provide Nationwide with their cloud-based financial controls and data management platform.
Nationwide selected Autorek for their ability to deal with a number of reconciliation and attestation challenges. The project will be implemented in a multi-phase approach and will include Mortgages, ATMs, Payments, Cards & Substantiation.
“I am really pleased to welcome an organisation of Nationwide’s calibre to our list of clients. We are looking forward to building a good working relationship with the team and providing them with our experience in helping leading financial services firms better understand their transactional data. This is a landmark deal for AutoRek and the result of an extraordinary team effort on both sides”
Gordon McHarg, AutoRek’s Managing Director
“After a thorough tender process, we were impressed with the quality of the AutoRek tool, it’s speed, adaptability and robustness. We noted that with its cloud functionality that we could face into future with confidence on scale and volume.”
Ian Williams, Director of Financial Control & Operations at Nationwide Building Society
Blockchain Technology Partners brings smart contracts to Amazon Quantum Ledger
Scottish Fintech Blockchain Technology Partners(BTP) has made available its integration of DAML.
Amazon QLDB is now supported by Sextant for DAML in the same way Hyperledger Sawtooth and Amazon Aurora are. The solution simplifies the deployment and management of DAML enabled ledgers.
“There are plenty of scenarios where there is a trusted centralised operator or a natural authority but there is still a requirement to ensure data is not tampered with. DAML on Amazon QLDB addresses these use cases combining the expressive power of DAML with the resilience of AWS.”
Kevin O’Donnell, Co-founder and CTO of BTP
DAML is an open source platform-agnostic smart contract language designed for use in multi-party processes. DAML abstracts away the underlying complexities of blockchains, distributed ledgers, or traditional databases, allowing developers to focus on the business logic of the applications while giving clients deployment flexibility as well as application portability.
“Businesses need to stay nimble to compete and thrive while also maintaining high standards of security and auditability. BTP’s Sextant for DAML with QLDB makes it seamless to run distributed applications without the operational overhead or compromising security,”
Shaul Kfir, co-founder and CTO of Digital Asset.
The integration of DAML on Amazon QLDB is commercially supported by BTP’s management platform, Sextant for DAML, which was launched on the AWS Marketplace at AWS re:Invent in December 2019.
Fintech Zortrex launches Zortrex Token Vault
Scottish fintech Zortrex launched Zortrex Token Vault yesterday.
The Zortrex Token Vault was created to assist organisations with reducing the cost and complexity of protecting against data breaches, ensure customer privacy and compliance with ever-changing regulatory requirements.
The Token Vault tokenises messages in-line, removing and storing sensitive data such as credit/debit card information at the boundaries of an organisation.
Zortrex’s growth plans are very ambitious wishing to become the tokenisation vendor of choice within the financial sector.
Zortrex Token Vault addresses unique requirements of the financial sector, dealing with sensitive data and financial messaging standards, including ISO 8583/20022, DB and Hadoop, ensuring quick and easy deployment into payment environments.
This flexible solution seamlessly integrates with clients’ legacy services and systems, allows organisations to evolve how they manage sensitive information.
Zortrex Token Vault operates from a centralised control point allowing companies to create or amend token masks as well as safely and securely de-tokenise data, in instances where the original data is required, via a web portal. The platform can be deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) in the cloud, in a hybrid cloud/on-premises model or entirely on a customers’ premises.
Zortrex Token Vault can be used with any data or string of data. Tokenisation doesn’t rely on encryption keys so organisations don’t have to worry about managing sensitive data – security travels with the data.
“Technology is driving transformation within the financial services sector, and tokenisation is changing the way sensitive information is handled, controlled and disseminated throughout organisations,”
Zortrex CEO – Steve Clarke
Fintech HubSolv moves to new office as company further expands
Scottish fintech, HubSolv Limited, is moving today, Friday 14th February, to a new office in Glasgow City Centre to accommodate growth ”“ as the company further expands into the insolvency and debt management sector.
The team at HubSolv are moving from their previous setting in Glasgow, where they’d been since 2017. The last year saw the company expanding significantly in head count and being recognised as one of the top 50 fastest-growing tech companies in the UK by an influential ranking based on revenue growth.
The new office is in the heart of Glasgow city centre; a stone’s throw from the previous premises, and it is more than double in size totalling 2,896 square foot.
HubSolv recently launched a tool for creditor communication and enhanced its product offering with integrated open banking for the assessment of individuals’ affordability. The software company has ambitious plans to lead digital transformation across the insolvency space and further sectors, with technology solutions that can streamline traditionally paper-based processes in the industry.
Fraser Hamilton, Director of HubSolv, said “We are delighted to be expanding and moving into a much-needed bigger office space, to accommodate our sustained growth. The new office benefits from a central location within our home city of Glasgow, and it’s ideally built for client meetings and training days. We’re looking forward to making the most of the space.”
The new location forms part of the renovated office spaces within The Reel House, an iconic art deco building and former cinema venue in West Regent Street, Glasgow.
All phone numbers and email addresses remain the same, however the new address is:
Hubsolv Ltd
3rd Floor, The Reel House
7 West Regent Street
Glasgow
G2 1RW
Scottish fintech Autorek selected by Bank of England for their automated reconciliation and data management solution.
Following a competitive tender the Bank has chosen Scottish fintech AutoRek for the automation of their reconciliation processes. The main objective is to increase efficiencies.
Thanks to Autorek, the Bank of England will have access to a centralised platform for their daily and monthly reconciliation tasks.
The key business benefits of Autorek include:
Ӣ Enhanced control
Ӣ Accurate matching at transaction level mitigating risks Ӣ Better insights into processes
Ӣ Best in class automation tools
Ӣ User configured dashboards
“It is a testament to the whole AutoRek team that we have been able to successfully engage with an institution such as the Bank of England. As we enter our 25th year of operations we have and continue to work with a broad range of leading Insurance, Investment Management and Banking organisations. I look forward to AutoRek delivering value and efficiencies for the Bank as we move into the implementation phase.”
Gordon McHarg, Managing Director
ShareIn on a roll with the announcement of new client win
Edinburgh-based fintech and FinTech Scotland member ShareIn recently announced the win of a major global client, Shojin Property Partners, who have re-launched their property investment website using ShareIn’s modular approach to online investing.
Autumn 2019 saw the launch of ShareIn’s CASS-compliant payment solution, ShareInPay. Combining this with ShareIn’s direct investment technology solution and Innovative Finance (IF) ISA service allowed Shojin to consolidate their previous multiple software providers into a single, unifying supplier in ShareIn.
Shojin Property Partners’ Igor Gorbatsevich, Head of Digital, says: “Due to a combination of circumstances, notably rapid increases in the number of global investors, regulatory change and desire to further streamline our operations, it was the logical step to transition across to ShareIn. Their technology has provided us with a much more integrated infrastructure and enables us to deliver an enhanced investment experience, with more frequent feature updates to our online investment platform.”
ShareIn’s expanded offering comes along with the growth of its team, with plans to increase its headcount to 40 members in 2020.
New Edinburgh Office for Autorek
Scottish fintech AutoRek recently announced the opening of their new office in Edinburgh at Apex One in Haymarket.
Following a very important recruitment push in 2019, a new office was deemed a priority for the 25 year old successful company which provides financial controls, regulatory reporting and data management software solutions.
The new office is just over 5,000 square foot and equipped with the latest technology. It’s ideally built to accommodate for training courses, helping their customers make the most of of their solution.
This follows another move to a new office in Glasgow and 2020 should see their London team being relocated to a bigger office to prepare for growth as the demands from the industry is also rapidly growing.
“After years of sustained growth we are excited to be able to move into a much-needed bigger office space. Apex one in Haymarket is a great location with amazing views. The space is best in class, and we look forward to welcoming our clients to the along for meetings and training days”.
Gordon McHarg, Managing Director