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Westpac promotes Anthony Miller to CEO amid Peter King’s departure
Anthony Miller has been promoted to group CEO and managing director of Westpac, effective 16 December 2024.
He will succeed Peter King, who has been CEO since 2019 and is retiring after 30 years with Westpac.
Miller joined Westpac four years ago, first as CEO of institutional banking and later heading the business and wealth unit.
His previous roles include CEO of Deutsche Bank Australia and New Zealand and a managing director at Goldman Sachs for over 16 years.
Westpac’s board selected Miller for his customer focus, performance track record, and deep understanding of the Australian market.
Miller aims to grow Westpac safely and sustainably, focusing on customer trust, risk excellence, and technology simplification (via the UNITE program).
Westpac, founded in 1817, is Australia’s oldest bank, part of the “big four”, with over 13 million customers and 36,000+ employees worldwide.
Paymob secures $22m Series B extension to continue GCC roll-out
Paymob, an Egypt-based B2B merchant financial services platform, raised $22 million in a Series B extension led by EBRD VC (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development).
Existing investors PayPal Ventures, British International Investment (BII), Dutch bank FMO, A15, Nclude, and Helios Digital Ventures participated, with Endeavor Catalyst joining as a new investor.
The extension builds on a $50 million Series B in 2022 and an $18.5 million Series A in 2021, bringing total capital raised to nearly $90 million.
Funds will support expansion, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
Paymob holds several key licenses, including:
Payments Facilitator licence from Egypt’s Central Bank since 2018.
Payment technology service provider (PTSP) certification from the Saudi Central Bank in 2023.
Payment service provider (PSP) licence from the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) in January 2024.
Founded in 2015, Paymob enables nearly 350,000 merchants across MENA to accept 50 payment methods, including digital wallets and QR code payments.
Form3 bags $60m Series C extension with new investor British Patient Capital
Form3 closes a $60 million Series C extension with British Patient Capital as a new investor.
Funding will be used for product and service development, focusing on growth in key markets: the UK, Europe, and the US.
Form3 completed certification for the Federal Reserve’s FedNow instant payment system in 2023.
This extension builds on a $160 million Series C raised in 2021, supported by Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, Barclays, Mastercard, and led by Goldman Sachs.
Visa made an undisclosed investment last year as part of a commercial partnership.
Form3 processes real-time account-to-account (A2A) payments for banks and institutions, including Klarna.
Mansfield Building Society in core banking tech overhaul with TCS
Mansfield Building Society partners with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to modernize its software.
The society will migrate from its on-premise system to TCS Bancs cloud-based core banking system and Digital Home Lending solution.
The new platform replaces the legacy Mortgage and Savings Suite (MSS) from Sopra Banking Software.
Sopra Banking Software was recently acquired by Axway for €330 million.
Iain Lister, Mansfield’s IT executive, praises TCS for its experience and alignment with the society’s values.
Mansfield Building Society, founded in 1870, has £485 million in assets, four branches, and around 70 employees.
TCS has been operating in the UK for nearly 50 years, serving clients such as Nationwide Building Society and London Mutual Credit Union.
Form3 bags $60m Series C extension with new investor British Patient Capital
Form3, a UK-based paytech, raised $60 million in a Series C extension round.
British Patient Capital, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, joined as a new investor.
The funding will be used for product and service development, with a focus on growth in key markets: the UK, Europe, and the US.
Form3 completed certification for the FedNowSM instant payment system in the US in 2023.
This raise follows a $160 million Series C in 2021, supported by investors such as Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, Barclays, and Mastercard, with Goldman Sachs as the lead investor.
Visa also invested in Form3 in 2022 as part of their commercial partnership.
Form3’s platform provides account-to-account (A2A) payment processing for banks and financial institutions, including Klarna, which uses Form3’s Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology for instant payments in Europe.
Enfuce to launch dual-function E2 card in UK, France and Germany with Mastercard
Enfuce, a Finnish issuer processor, has partnered with Mastercard to expand its E2 card offering to Germany, France, and the UK.
The E2 card combines both debit and credit primary account numbers (PANs) into one card, allowing cardholders to switch between accounts at the point of sale.
The card supports payment preferences and allows for custom card designs when stored in a digital wallet.
Card issuers can leverage the E2 card to create customised card products with unique limits and controls, aiming to increase cardholder loyalty by adapting to changing consumer spending patterns.
E2 is already live in the Nordics, where it has become “an industry norm,” according to Enfuce co-CEO Denise Johansson.
Johansson highlights that the E2 card addresses a gap in the market for both banks and consumers, boosting the fintech ecosystems in the UK, France, and Germany.
The expansion is part of Enfuce’s strategy to bring Nordic innovation globally, as described by Monika Liikamaa, Enfuce’s other co-CEO.
Enfuce was granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in February 2023 and appointed former Revolut COO Laurence Krieger as chairman of its UK board.
LendInvest extends JP Morgan debt financing agreement to £1.5bn
LendInvest has extended its funding agreement with JP Morgan by £500 million, increasing the total value of the account to £1.5 billion.
JP Morgan has supported LendInvest since 2021, starting with an initial £500 million investment and a prior purchase of its £125 million mortgage portfolio.
With this extension, LendInvest’s funds under management have surpassed £4.55 billion, driven by investor interest in asset-backed property finance amid current macroeconomic conditions.
LendInvest plans to use the new funding to expand its mortgage offering, which began in 2019 with £200 million in funding from HSBC. Other major backers include Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Lloyds, National Australia Bank, Wells Fargo, and Chetwood Financial.
The company operates an online marketplace for property finance, offering buy-to-let mortgages, development finance, and bridging loans.
LendInvest has been publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange since 2021, with over £7 billion lent since its founding in 2008.
JP Morgan declined to comment on the extension.
UniCredit buys 9% stake in Commerzbank as German government looks to offload shareholding
UniCredit has acquired a 9% equity stake in Commerzbank.
Of this, 4.49% was purchased through an accelerated book building offering for $775 million, actioned on behalf of the German Federal Republic.
The German government holds a 16.49% share in Commerzbank through the Financial Market Stabilisation Fund (FMS) since the 2008 financial crisis. The government recently announced plans to reduce its stake.
The remainder of UniCredit’s stake was acquired through market activity for an undisclosed amount.
UniCredit plans to submit regulatory filings to potentially increase its stake and collaborate with Commerzbank to explore value-creating opportunities for stakeholders.
Commerzbank emphasized that its management and supervisory board will act in the best interests of shareholders, employees, and clients.
Commerzbank CEO Manfred Knof announced he will step down at the end of his term in December 2025 and the bank will begin searching for his successor.
Payment processor Clowd9 hires former Thredd tech lead Paul Hansford as new CTO
Paul Hansford joins Clowd9, a UK-based cloud-native decentralized payment processing platform, as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Hansford comes with six years of experience at UK payments firm Thredd, where he held roles such as Head of Software Engineering, Head of Software Development, and CTO.
Clowd9 CEO Suresh Vaghjiani highlights Hansford’s extensive fintech experience, global team-scaling expertise, and leadership style as key assets for driving issuer processing innovation.
Hansford joins Clowd9 at a “critical juncture”, according to his statement, following a career break after leaving Thredd in January.
Clowd9, launched in 2022, offers a real-time payment processing platform for banks and fintechs and is live with institutions like London-based fintech start-up ZORRZ, supporting their BlueAccess Hybrid Credit Card offering.
Paylocity to acquire spend management platform Airbase for $325m
Paylocity has finalized a $325 million deal to acquire Airbase, a spend management platform, to expand its HR and payroll software solutions.
The deal is expected to close in fiscal 2025, funded through Paylocity’s revolving credit facility, pending regulatory approval.
Paylocity will integrate Airbase’s finance and spend management software into its Human Capital Management (HCM) platform.
Airbase, founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, serves companies with 100 to 5,000 employees, offering automated invoice processing, expense management, procurement, corporate cards, and workflow automation.
Paylocity, based in Schaumburg, Illinois, serves around 40,000 clients with unified payroll, benefits, and talent management software.
Toby Williams, CEO of Paylocity, highlights that the acquisition will offer an integrated platform for businesses to manage operational spending.
Paylocity has been publicly traded on the Nasdaq since 2014.
Swiss fintech Yapeal unveils new CEO alongside fresh capital boost
Michael Eidel has been appointed as the new CEO of Yapeal, succeeding Thomas Hilgendorff, who will transition to the role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
Eidel will focus on expanding Yapeal’s embedded finance solutions for corporate and consumer customers.
Yapeal, headquartered in Zürich, offers app-based account services and embedded finance solutions across Europe. It was among the first in Switzerland to obtain a fintech licence in 2020.
Eidel’s career includes leadership roles at Raiffeisen Switzerland, Credit Suisse, and Commonwealth Bank. He also helped launch Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) in 2018.
The appointment follows Yapeal’s successful financing round, supported by investors including Abacus, with new anchor investors Markus Granziol, Dominik Bollier, and Christoph Burkhard, the latter two joining Yapeal’s board of directors.
Lloyds Bank taps Cleareye.ai to streamline trade finance documentation processing
Lloyds Bank has partnered with Cleareye.ai, a California-based AI and machine learning company, to enhance trade finance documentation processing and compliance checks.
The bank will implement ClearTrade technology from Cleareye.ai, marking a UK first in trade finance digitalization.
ClearTrade uses optical character recognition (OCR), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) to improve data extraction from trade documents, both digital and paper-based.
The technology will also automate examinations of documents based on International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Rules and conduct trade-based money laundering (TBML) checks.
Lloyds had previously completed a fully digital documentary collection in February, using electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs) and digital Promissory Notes (dPNs), under the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA).
Cleareye.ai’s ClearTrade technology was also adopted by JP Morgan for its Trade and Working Capital Group in 2022.
Home equity fintech Unlock bags $30m Series B funding
Unlock Technologies, a US fintech founded in 2019, has secured a $30 million Series B equity investment from D2 Asset Management, Saluda Grade, Second Century Ventures, and Reach (the venture arm of the National Association of Realtors).
Unlock provides home equity agreements (HEAs), allowing homeowners to access lump sums of cash in exchange for a share of future home appreciation, offering an alternative to traditional loans.
CEO Jim Riccitelli says the funding supports Unlock’s vision of democratizing home equity to help homeowners meet financial goals.
In addition to equity funding, Unlock has secured a $250 million capital commitment from D2 to support origination growth and expand operations across the US.
Unlock currently operates in 14 states and plans to use the new funding to expand product offerings tailored to segments like homebuyers, retirees, and those excluded by traditional lending.
The fintech will also invest in technology, focusing on data analytics to better understand customer behavior and preferences.
Visa prepares for 2025 launch of Visa A2A in UK
Visa A2A will launch in the UK in 2025, offering account-to-account (A2A) payments for greater consumer control and protection via bank transfers.
It aims to improve existing pay-by-bank processes by introducing:
A formal dispute resolution process.
More payment options directly from bank accounts.
Easier management of payment permissions and limit settings.
The system will operate as an open system, leveraging Visa’s infrastructure and Pay.UK’s Faster Payment System for near real-time settlement.
Collaborations with UK fintechs like Banked, Modulr, Moneyhub, Salt Edge, Vyne, and Yaspa have helped design these enhancements.
Visa A2A will be available for banks and businesses from early 2024, with features supporting subscription management for services like streaming, gym memberships, and food boxes.
Mandy Lamb, Visa’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, notes Visa A2A will bring modernized pay-by-bank methods with similar protection to card payments.
The aim is to modernize bank payments, which have remained mostly unchanged since the creation of direct debit 60 years ago.
Ghana’s Fido raises $30 million in debt and equity to extend AI-powered lending services across Africa
Fido, a Ghanaian fintech, secured $30 million in debt and equity funding to expand its digital lending services across Africa.
The raise includes a $20 million Series B led by BlueOrchard Finance and Dutch development bank FMO, along with $10 million in debt from Stanbic Bank Ghana and Growth Investment Partners.
This funding matches the $30 million from its 2022 Series A and brings its total raised to $68 million.
Founded in 2014, Fido operates a mobile app providing instant credit loans in Ghana and Uganda, using its AI-powered Fido Score to assess credit risk and detect fraud.
Fido has distributed $500 million in credit to over 1 million customers and offers additional services like savings accounts, mobile phone financing, and bill payments.
The funds will support Fido’s mission of making financial services accessible to the unbanked, expanding into new markets, and enhancing product offerings, including small business loans, savings, and personalized insurance.
Alternative investment platform CAIS hires Kan Kotecha as CTO
Kan Kotecha has been appointed as CTO to lead CAIS’s engineering team and focus on building a unified operating system for the alternative investment lifecycle.
CAIS is an alternative investment platform offering access to private equity, debt, real estate, infrastructure, hedge funds, and structured notes. It centralizes purchases and assists advisors with customized fund vehicles.
The platform reached unicorn status in 2022 after raising $225 million and has facilitated $35 billion in transactions for over 34,000 independent advisors since its launch in 2009.
Kotecha brings experience from previous roles at Gale Healthcare, Google, and Morgan Stanley, where he was the CTO of wealth management.
CAIS CEO Matt Brown sees this hire as key to furthering the fintech’s vision of creating the most connected alternative investment operating system.
The hire follows the appointment of Chris Zuczek as chief product officer in December 2022.
Anthony Watson steps down from role as CEO of The Bank of London
Anthony Watson is stepping down as CEO to become a senior adviser at the bank. He will remain a non-executive director and shareholder of the group’s holding company.
Stephen Bell, the bank’s chief risk and compliance officer, will become the new CEO, pending regulatory approval.
Watson described this decision as “challenging” but believes it is the right time after eight years leading the company.
The Bank of London, founded in 2021, provides clearing services to over 4,500 businesses in the UK and aims to expand in the EU.
The bank applied for an EU banking licence in July 2022 and pledged to invest €200 million in Luxembourg and the region, though no updates have been provided regarding the application.
Axway completes €330m acquisition of Sopra Banking Software
Deal Overview: Axway acquired SBS from Sopra Steria for €330 million.
Financing: Axway raised €131 million through a share capital increase and secured €200 million in new credit facilities from banks.
Regulatory Approval: The deal has received regulatory approval, and integration of the two companies has begun.
Transition Period: From late 2024 through 2025, SBS CEO Eric Bierry will transition to deputy CEO of Axway, with a rebranding of SBS set for October.
SBS Background: Founded in 2012, SBS supports around 1,500 financial institutions with digital banking, lending, payments, and compliance software.
Axway’s Vision: Axway sees the acquisition as a development opportunity to solidify its position as one of France’s top enterprise software publishers.
Strategic Goals: The acquisition aims to strengthen offerings and technologies while creating significant value for stakeholders through a larger, more capable group.
EU financial services analytics maturity report
Current State of Analytics: Evaluates the existing analytics capabilities of EU financial services providers.
Impact of Privacy Legislation: Examines how privacy laws like the GDPR influence analytics practices in the sector.
Emerging Trends: Discusses Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and the integration of AI in financial services.
Roadmap to Analytics Maturity: Provides a guide for financial institutions to evolve their analytics capabilities.
Balancing Compliance and Competitiveness: Offers strategies for maintaining regulatory compliance while remaining competitive.
Opportunities in Compliance: Explores how financial services can use compliance requirements to enhance ethical data stewardship and build customer trust.
Objective: The report helps financial services transform compliance challenges into opportunities for privacy-focused innovation.
MidWestOne Bank taps Temenos for digital onboarding solution
Partnership: MidWestOne Bank, based in Iowa City, has partnered with Temenos to implement its Digital Onboarding solution to improve customer acquisition and retention through digital channels.
Technology: The solution is deployed as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on Amazon Web Services (AWS), managed by RCG Global Services, Temenos’ North America delivery partner.
Features: The solution includes data collection, e-signature, and workflow management tools, allowing customers to open accounts in approximately two minutes.
Performance: Temenos reports that previous users have seen a 52% faster onboarding, 68% higher cross-sell rate, and 24% higher customer-to-employee ratio.
Impact: MidWestOne Bank, which serves 140,000 customers across several US states, reports a significant increase in digital customer satisfaction and the percentage of accounts opened digitally.
Future Plans: The bank plans to continue enhancing the account opening experience with Temenos.
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