EedenBull now with PSD2 licenses – ready to drive change in commercial payments through Open Banking

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has formally approved EedenBull’s PSD2 extension to their E-Money Institution (EMI) license, and the FinTech is now a fully licensed PIS and AIS provider, enabling the access of data and the initiation of payments from bank accounts throughout Europe.

The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) was introduced in Europe in 2018 and regulates payment services and providers in Europe. PSD2 enables open banking by allowing customers to use the services of third-party providers to access account information or initiate transactions on their behalf. PSD2 gives providers a regulated, open market to compete in, while providing customers more payment options and increased security.

Says Nicki Bisgaard, CEO of EedenBull:

New technologies, new regulations like PSD2 and new players entering the payments space changes forever the way consumers and businesses think about payments. At EedenBull, we’re not only embracing change, but seeking to work with our partner banks to drive change and leverage the opportunities provided. With our E-Money License extended to include the right as an Account Information Service Provider to pull data from our customers’ bank accounts and as a Payment Initiation Service Provider initiate payments directly from bank accounts, we are in a unique position to develop and launch truly unique payment services.’

EedenBull was founded in 2018 and has recently launched it’s Q Business® programme with 65 banks in the Nordics and are now expanding the platform to include full commercial cards issuing capabilities across all segments from small business to large corporates and across all B2B spend categories. EedenBull is a fully licensed and regulated e-money institution under EU/EEA legislation, AISP & PISP licenses and is uniquely also holding principal issuing licenses from Mastercard, Visa and UnionPay. The company is targeting bank partners in select markets around the world and are aiming to launch programmes in multiple regions over the coming 12-24 months.

Further information:

Nicki Bisgaard ”“ nicki@eedenbull.com

Photo: Nicki Bisgaard, CEO EedenBull

Photo by: Debra Hurford Brown

Announcing 2020 Scotland’s Fintech Festival

FinTech Scotland confirmed today the programme for the third Scotland Fintech Festival.

The September festival will see a diverse range of fifty plus events throughout the month sharing fintech developments in Scotland and from around the world.

The festival will build on the successful events from the last two years which has seen it grow in popularity welcoming thousands of people

The 2020 edition will be different with events being held online and the virtual nature of this year’s festival will provide the opportunity to reach an even broader global audience.

The large number of events range from very focussed one-hour sessions to full day generalist digital conferences involving a diverse set of contributions from participants.

FinTech Scotland has worked in close collaboration with the teams at Scottish Development International and Visit Scotland to showcase the very best in innovation with a strong global emphasis.

The fintech cluster in Scotland is maintaining the momentum despite the current economic uncertainty. In many respects, the challenges of the pandemic have driven an accelerated adoption of fintech innovation, very much reflecting the creativity and adaptability of fintech entrepreneurs and SMEs.

This year’s festival will offer plenty of occasions for the innovative firms in the community to share their propositions as well as the collaborative and inclusive approach to reinventing the financial world and more.

Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop said:

“I’m pleased to be supporting the FinTech Festival, an event which will demonstrate yet again the collaborative and innovative approach of the sector.

“We want the tech sector to play a key role in our economic recovery, and this festival will be a chance to discuss how FinTech can lead the way in supporting growth and creating jobs.”

Stephen Ingledew, Chief Executive at FinTech Scotland said:

“More than ever before this year, we have appreciated the valuable engagement and collaboration of our strategic partners and friends in hosting events on such a broad range of themes. From fintech firms , citizen groups, the regulator, student associations, universities, financial firms, global enterprises, government bodies and many others all reflecting the inclusive nature of Scotland’s fintech cluster.”

All events can be accessed on www.scotlandfintechfestival.com where new events are being added daily.

Follow the festival on social media #ScotlandFintechFestival

Zumo launches crowdfunding campaign via Seedrs

This article was written by Nick Jones, CEO at Zumo. Fintech Scotland doesn’t give financial advice and only help Scottish fintech firms with relaying their messages. As with all investment your capital is at risk.

Approved by Seedrs.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re working with Seedrs on our crowdfunding campaign.

This is an exciting investment opportunity and we’ve already had a lot of interest from investors from all walks of life. We’d love it if you could join us for this limited opportunity to own a piece of Zumo!

You can access the pre-registration page here.

Here’s a recap of the opportunity:

Our digital wallet has already gained significant recognition in the form of funding, user feedback and extensive press coverage in the UK. Further funding will enable us to expand our marketing efforts to make Zumo available to everyone, everywhere and to start rolling out our B2B offerings – the ZumoKit software development kit and our payments platform, ZumoPay.

Our main source of revenue is our in-app currency exchange. We charge users 0.5% for any exchange transaction, across all currencies available within the Zumo wallet. This makes us one of the most cost-effective as well as secure ways to buy and sell cryptocurrency.

Our convertible debit card, which is planned for launch next month, will allow users to make card payments in both cryptocurrency and GBP. As time goes on, we’ll be adding more traditional and cryptocurrency options.

If you know of anyone else that might be interested, we would appreciate it if you could share the link.

Zumo: Smart Money for Everyone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUuyI40dxDE&feature=youtu.be

Scotcoin announces the launch of its new ERC20 token

Scotcoin’s new token uses the Ethereum blockchain, the second largest distributed ledger network in the world by market capitalisation after Bitcoin. Adoption and use of the Ethereum blockchain assures that Scotcoin remains a bona fide distributed ledger cryptocurrency whose future sustainability is not in the hands of a few.

Temple Melville, CEO of The Scotcoin Project CIC said:

“I am delighted that we have finally reached this milestone in the evolution of Scotcoin. We have worked hard to meet the condition laid down by our stakeholders and funders that the durability and sustainability of the token would never be in the hands of the few. Use of the Ethereum blockchain assures that that objective is met”.

The Scotcoin Project is a not for profit community interest company that seeks to educate and inform the public on digital currencies and blockchain technology. It occupies the ethical space and is developing a program of initiatives designed to help improve the personal and financial prospects of those with the fewest opportunities afforded by the current economic landscape.

Moving to an ERC20 token means that our coin is basically acceptable on any exchange, and in fact we will be having an IEO (Initial Exchange Offer) over the next year. The move will enable us to engage with nearly everyone who has an interest in digital currencies. As an aside, digital currencies are most definitely now an asset class but are also a hedge against the massive quantitative easing that has taken place world-wiide during the Corvid-19 pandemic. We are already seeing inflation creeping into our daily lives in contrast to the mildly deflationary effect of digital and crypto currencies.

For further information please contact Temple Melville on temple@scotcoinproject.com

DirectID Launch Collections & Recoveries Solution

Scotland based FinTech, DirectID just announced the launch of its Collections & Recoveries solution.

DirectID has built a solution to make the collections process easier and faster in collaboration with the UK’s leading banks, lenders and debt collections agencies,

Using Open Banking data, agents will be able to access accurate customer’s financial statement and an assessment on their disposable income, and how much they can afford to repay.

The new solution combines DirectID’s categorisation engine with the categories defined within the Standard Financial Statement.

For individuals who have built up large amounts of debt, it removes a lot of the stress and uncertainty. The use of bank data negates the need for them to supply lots of details around financial commitments with existing creditors.

Currently, collections agents can spend a large volume of time with a customer assessing how much income they have, and what their discretionary and non-discretionary spend looks like. This process is also prone to customer error, downplay spend, or deliberately mislead, in an attempt to keep repayments low.

DirectID’s product circumvents the often unpleasant collections process from a period of weeks to just minutes.

Collections & Recoveries uses an individual’s bank data to help lenders streamline the collections process. This supplies the lender with an up-to-date and accurate view of an individual’s debt commitments and subsequently their capacity to repay debt.

DirectID’s Collections & Recoveries solution identifies income streams; expenditure; insight into a customer’s profile; including discretionary and non-discretionary; and summarises payments to lenders.

James Varga, CEO of DirectID, said:

“I am immensely proud to be today launching our new Collections & Recoveries solution. This is an extremely important proposition which will help both collections agents and their customers, during which can be a difficult process.

“With the launch of this product, and because of the impact of bank data, DirectID now covers the whole customer lifecycle, from onboarding, portfolio management, and now Collections & Recoveries.

The launch of DirectID’s Collections & Recoveries product marks an important step for DirectID, as we not only launch our first product of this year, but the first of several that we have completed, or are near to completion. Now that we can cover the whole product lifecycle with bank data, we are in a position to work with businesses across industry, and differing needs and challenges.”

LendingCrowd approved for accreditation under CBILS

Scottish fintech LendingCrowd, just announced it had been approved for accreditation by the British Business Bank as a new lender under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

This accreditation will allow the fintech to distribute UK government-backed loans to SMEs impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. LendingCrowd will provide loan product from £50,001 to £250,000 across either a three or a five-year term to SMEs who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to cashflow difficulties.

SMEs will have nothing to pay for the first 12 months so they can focus on bringing back their company to a healthier position.

Stuart Lunn, founder and CEO of LendingCrowd, said:

“We appreciate the stress and struggle that SMEs are going through and that time is of the essence in providing support. Our agile and flexible approach means that we can distribute funding responsibly to those who need it quickly. We have already spoken to every existing borrower, implemented repayment holidays for qualifying borrowers and changed repayment dates to better suit their cashflow patterns at no cost. In offering CBILS loans, LendingCrowd can play its part in supporting the survival and resurgence of as many SMEs as possible.”

If you’d like to apply for CBILS funding through LendingCrowd go to https://www.lendingcrowd.com/cbils

LendingCrowd will begin offering CBILS loans imminently and they will be available to new and existing borrowers, subject to eligibility.

EedenBull and Mastercard Asia Pacific partnership

Mastercard and Scottish fintech EedenBull have announced the extension of their strategic partnership from Europe to the Asia Pacific region to support the fintech’s new digital platform launch. The platform will allow banks and businesses to process spending and payments more efficiently.

Building on a partnership in Europe, this relationship will enable Eedenbull to tap into opportunities in the Asia Pacific business-to-business payments market.

For banks and their business customers, the new service provides innovative commercial payments services, including EedenBull’s spend management platform Q Business® that offers a sophisticated yet easy-to-use solution to digitise the slow and costly processing of checks and cash. With Q Business now offered by a network of banks in the Nordics, more than 10,000 registered businesses are benefitting from the process efficiencies and control of spend provided.

Yunsok Chang, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Asia Pacific, Mastercard said:

“Following Europe, Mastercard is delighted to partner with EedenBull in Asia Pacific and to support its unrivalled expertise to leverage the commercial payments space in the region. With Mastercard’s leading advisory experience, sophisticated commercial solutions and wide network of customers and partners, Mastercard will be able to help EedenBull thrive in this market of significant opportunities.”

The extension of the partnership beyond Europe is a testament to Mastercard’s strategy of working with fintech firms to drive innovation and create opportunities for other partners in the Asia Pacific region. As a frontrunner in payments technology, Mastercard is continuously developing new solutions catering to the evolving demands driven by rapid digital transformation.

Nicki Bull Bisgaard, CEO of EedenBull said:

“At EedenBull, we uniquely combine specialist commercial payments expertise with tech-savvy talent, making us the ideal partner to banks. While payment products and services are now more user-friendly, product management is growing more complex and requires access to specialists in marketing, revenue management, IT, legal, regulatory and many other areas. Selecting Mastercard as our preferred partner to support us in creating real value for our partner banks and their customers and to support our expansion in Asia Pacific was easy as we share the same view on what businesses require and how we can best meet those requirements in an ever-changing world.”

Significant Funding Boost for Scotland’s FinTech Cluster

The growing international role of Scotland’s fintech cluster was given a further significant boost today with the announcement of £22.5 million innovation funding for the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence (GOFCoE) to be established in Edinburgh and the Central region.

The news was confirmed by UK Research and Innovation, the Government research funding agency, as one of seven proposals being funded by the Strength in Places Fund aimed at supporting innovation and economic growth.

GOFCoE will provide a trusted environment for participants from around the world to research and develop innovative solutions aimed at delivering social and economic benefits through open banking and financial data.

For example, the initiative will present opportunities to conduct research into public earning, spending and saving to allow innovative enterprises to create citizen focussed financial services as well as enable policy makers to understand the economic and social impact of policies and regulations before implementing them.

The ground-breaking concept and the development of the initiative over the last two years has been led by the University of Edinburgh, FinTech Scotland, the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA) and Scottish Enterprise with the support of a broad range of organisations.

The announcement will further bolster the global recognition of Scotland’s fintech cluster, following on from the formal European cluster excellence accreditation earlier this year, by providing the opportunity for greater research and development in financial innovation to support sustainable economic development.

Commenting on this news, Stephen Ingledew, Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland said,

“The news reinforces the value of cluster collaboration between the diverse range of entrepreneurial enterprises, academics, large institutions, government and citizen groups in embracing the role of data in driving financial innovation to benefit all.

With engagement across Scotland, UK and globally, the initiative will further reinforce the inclusive international approach in developing the fintech cluster which is focused on delivering better consumer financial outcomes and sustainable economic growth through innovation.

I would like to pay tribute to my colleagues Kevin Collins and Damien McGarrigle of University of Edinburgh, Gavin Littlejohn of FDATA , Nicola Anderson of FinTech Scotland along with the rest of the GOFCoE project team for their terrific leadership over the last couple of years in securing this funding opportunity.”

Ivan McKee, Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, said:

“I have had the pleasure of working with all of the proposals from Scotland in this competition. Each one demonstrates our appetite for innovation and desire to translate this into benefits for people and places across Scotland.

“I am delighted that the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence is one of the two projects from Scotland that have received funding from this highly competitive fund. This project will unlock the benefits of open banking and will enhance Scotland’s position as a top destination for fintech.”

The University of Edinburgh’s Senior Vice-Principal, Professor Jonathan Seckl said:

“Using real financial data for social good and allowing governments, companies and people to make better economic and financial decisions is at the heart of the Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence.

Never has there been a time of greater need for data-driven insights into the UK economy. The award from the Strength in Places Fund will allow us to make a unique contribution to the economic recovery from Covid-19. The Centre will be a world-first, providing leadership, coordination, research and capability to develop the benefits of Open Finance and to safely unlock the potential of customer data as a force to improve lives.”

Philip Grant, Chair of Scottish Financial Enterprise, said:

“This is great news for the continued development of the fintech cluster in Scotland and a credit to all the partners involved. The collaboration so evident in this initiative is now recognised as the driver of the continued growth and success of financial services as an important part of the Scottish economy.

SFE and our members will continue to support the important work of FinTech Scotland and its ambition to be one of the top five fintech clusters in the world.”

Linda Hanna, Managing Director of Scottish Enterprise, said:

“This award is excellent news for the Fintech sector in Scotland and for our economy as a whole. The Centre of Excellence project sets out to help Scotland maximise the societal benefits of Open Finance, such as enabling quality financial services in disadvantaged areas ”“ in line with SE’s increasing focus on inclusive growth and tackling inequality.

“FinTech is fast becoming one of Scotland’s key sectors and, particularly in the current climate, it is crucial that we continue to build our digital capability and our use of data, making our mark on the digital industries. The project will further boost the recognition of Scotland’s distinction in this field internationally, following on from our recent accreditation as a European Cluster of Excellence.”

ATLANT Women in Fintech 2020

ATLANT is hosting a Scholarship program ATLANT Women in Fintech 2020 – a two-month program focusing on the professional and personal development of women in the field of computer technology.

Recent studies show that women make up less than 30% of Fintech industry workers in the United Kingdom. Harvard Business Review study noted that without gender diversification in leadership, women are 20% less likely than men to receive support for ideas, which ultimately costs companies crucial market opportunities and inhibits career growth.

ATLANT wants to empower women to help bring up a new generation of female leaders – the firm has an international team across 3 continents which actively supports initiatives aimed at diversity as well as attracting and developing women in the IT industry and Fintech.

Participants in the program will receive training and advice on their career from ATLANT team members, including CTO Denis Donin, one of the leading experts in blockchain technology, co-author of several crypto exchanges and IT projects as well as Julian Svirsky, CEO of ATLANT, a serial fintech entrepreneur, who will mentor the participants in business development and finance. Individual and group mentoring sessions by the ATLANT team will help participants build a successful career not only in Fintech but empower them to change the world.

Each participant of the ATLANT Women in Fintech 2020 program will receive a scholarship of â‚¬5,000. Further, based on the results of the program, those who have demonstrated exceptional results will be offered an opportunity to work at ATLANT full time.

ATLANT Women in Fintech 2020 program will begin in July. Training will take place at the company’s offices located in Singapore and Gdansk (Poland). We encourage all of our readers who are aspiring fintech entrepreneurs to apply for the program ASAP.

ATLANT are looking for:

Computer science, computer engineering, informatics or closely related technical ï¬eld – female students and recent graduates;
Strong desire for professional and personal development;
Commitment to the program for the entire duration.

Next steps:

June 4th – Applications Open

July 6th – Applications Close

July 8th – Commencement ATLANT Women in Fintech 2020

September 10th – Program Wrap-up

APPLY – https://www.f6s.com/atlantmentorshipprogram/apply

ABOUT ATLANT

Revolutionary Fintech/Proptech firm – developers of digital securities exchange uvas.com and home rentals platform karta.com. Additional details at atlant.io.

Paul Forrest joins Blockchain Technology Partners

Scottish fintech Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), just announced it had appointed Paul Forrest as its first chairman.

Paul has been advising many FTSE 100 and Global 500 businesses in the past 25 years including Ford Motor Company, Wal-Mart, Virgin Galactic and AkzoNobel. Paul is also on the board of Glasgow based recruitment firm MBN solutions and is involved in the Virgin Startup Programme as a mentor. Always interested in blockchain he founded the IdeaGist Blockchain Incubator.

Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP said: “Paul understands the potential for growth in enterprise blockchain adoption, having been involved in this space for several years and at the cutting edge of successive waves of innovative enterprise technologies throughout his career. We are delighted Paul has decided to take up this role and help us scale the business and lay the groundwork for future investment.”

Paul Forrest said: “I am excited to be joining BTP at a pivotal point in their journey. Their management team has demonstrated an ability to develop a scalable product and close early enterprise deals. Given the present circumstances I was particularly impressed by their ability to secure a contract with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to deliver their innovative blockchain-based securities lending platform.”

Paul was involved in BTP’s latest angel funding round which was led by Aberdeen Asset Management co-founder Martin Gilbert and former deputy Andrew Laing.