Several companies have shown interest in collaborating within the realm of financial technology, exploring new concepts across various solutions, industries, and markets.
Card payments innovation
During Q4 2023, financial institutions focused on designing and incorporating new technologies, aiming to provide optimised payment methods to align better with the needs of their customers, as well as with their sector-specific business requirements. In a highly demanding and fast-developing industry, banks prioritised providing sustainable solutions that adapt to multiple schemes and meet the regulatory requirements of the market as well.
Across the developments and strategic deals announced in the APAC and MENA regions, the banking and fintech space saw partnerships through which companies aimed to launch new products or expand their product portfolio. These collaborations took place in several areas of the industry, such as healthcare, environmental impact, and financial inclusion.
As the Reserve Bank of India reported a 20% year-on-year increase in credit card usage within its network by September 2023, Q4 2023 became a fruitful period for three major Indian financial institutions, showcasing their exciting collaborations and product launches. At the beginning of November 2023, SBI Card announced its partnership with retail company Reliance to launch a co-branded credit card on India’s RuPay payment network. The deal marked Reliance’s foray into the credit card space. In addition, Axis Bank announced its collaboration with Fibe to launch a numberless credit card, aimed at tech-savvy Gen Zs in the region of India. At the end of December 2023, PayCraft collaborated with NSDL Payment Bank and NPCI, intending to launch a transit card entitled One Nation Corporate Card. The product was developed as a tax benefit tool for corporate employees and had a corporate expense management platform for employers to manage their funds and expanses digitally.
In November 2023, Jebgealth announced its partnership with Airwallet Singapore and Visa, focusing on launching corporate health and employee benefits payment cards. By implementing the Helix Health Card and J World Card into its suite of solutions, the three institutions also prioritised the global effort in healthcare’s overall digital payment expansion and development.
Another significant development unfolded when the Egypt-based card issuing platform MDP announced its collaboration with Mastercard to release a Carbon Calculator in the country. This aims to give customers and clients the possibility to know the environmental impact of their purchase.
Earlier in October 2023, Al Etihad Payments and NPCI signed a strategic partnership to optimise the overall development of the national Domestic Card Scheme in the region of the UAE. The DCS is scheduled to launch in early 2024, focusing on facilitating the growth of ecommerce and overall digital transactions in UAE, being expected to encompass promoting financial inclusion, aligning with the nation’s digitalisation strategies, improving the area’s competitiveness, reducing the costs of payments, as well as increasing alternative payment methods. Open Banking applications in ecommerce
Open Banking has gained popularity in the last couple of years across multiple regions around the world and is expected to bring even more innovative and optimised solutions to the banking industry. By relying on secure and efficient networks instead of centralisation, Open Banking was developed to improve the way financial services clients share their financial data with other FIs. In addition, using networked accounts, Open Banking allows lenders to get a more detailed and accurate picture of a user’s financial situation, delivering a more profitable suite of loan terms and a strengthened fraud prevention strategy.
During Q4 2023, multiple partnerships centring on the adoption and development of Open Banking were announced, as companies, banks, and financial institutions across several regions focused on implementing the Open Banking benefits in their suite of solutions.
For example, the collaboration between Gala Technology, Nuapay, and the digital wallet Apple Pay was launched on a global scale, aiming to optimise how businesses perform digital transformation through a payment gateway. As firms and enterprises are on a constant lookout for improved solutions to simplify their operations and deliver clients an overall optimised experience, the collaboration focuses on the development of a payment gateway that enables businesses to have a secure and efficient digital transformation journey.
Focusing on regional advancements and collaborations, Q4 2023 witnessed a flurry of activity in Europe. The spotlight shone on key areas including open technology, the expanding realm of Open Banking, and the evolution of embedded payments and transactions, painting a picture of innovation and progress.
Throughout Q4 2023, TrueLayer engaged in a series of strategic collaborations aimed at enhancing its Open Banking capabilities, refining its instant payment solutions, and optimising customer experience. Kicking off the quarter, the company partnered with Stripe's Payment Element to integrate its European Open Banking payment option, enabling merchants across the UK and EU to incorporate TrueLayer as a payment method. In November, the company allied with gaming operator William Hill to streamline pay-ins and payouts for UK players through instant payment solutions supported by Open Banking technology. Wrapping up the quarter, TrueLayer teamed up with Lunar in December to elevate the payments landscape in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Throughout these announcements, TrueLayer is expected to continue its strategy of development, while also improving customer experience and contributing to the growth of the financial landscape by designing optimised products and focusing on efficient partnerships.
The UK represents one of the geographical regions where Open Banking adoption and development are accelerated, as the solution evolved into a common banking practice. The Open Banking ecosystem in the region is estimated to comprise more than 330 regulated firms and companies, made up of over 230 third-party providers and approximately 90 payment account service providers. This represents approximately 95% of current accounts.
Moreover, Open Banking secures positive outcomes for clients, SMEs, and institutions, while also focusing on improving competition in retail banking. As the solution is developing in an accelerated manner across the region, multiple companies and financial institutions partnered during Q4 2023 to incorporate Open Banking in their suite of solutions and access its benefits.
In November 2023, Form3 announced its assistance in Klarna’s European payment capabilities with overall SEPA connectivity. Form3 is expected to provide Klarna with direct technical access to STEP2 and RT1 using its cloud-based, single APU A2A platform. This is set to enable the firm to process transactions directly instead of depending on third-party banks.
Other companies that focused on the development of Open Banking payment solutions in the region were Alipay+ and Yapily, which aim to accelerate the application of the service on several mobile payment platforms. Moreover, in November 2023, Yapily signed another strategic collaboration with Openpay, focused on facilitating cross-border, P2P money transfers across the continent.
Ecommpay collaborated with GoCardless, aiming to include direct debit capabilities in its suite of payment methods and offerings. Following this partnership, Ecommpay traders and merchants can tap into direct debit solutions in over 25 countries, as businesses can develop their markets and expand into additional verticals and use cases where bank payments are preferred. Earlier in the same month, Nuvei announced its partnership with American Express, allowing its UK merchants to incorporate the Pay with Bank Transfer tool and access its Open Banking-enabled payment methods.
In the American space, Open Banking is set to evolve as an industry-driven initiative. US banks will have the opportunity to leverage expertise and solutions tailored to enhance technical capabilities and client experiences through data-sharing and APIs.
This trend towards collaboration and innovation was exemplified by the partnership between ACI Worldwide and Mexipay, which aims to increase the overall access to digital payment innovation in the region of Mexico. Mexipay is set to leverage the ACI Enterprise Payment Platform and the ACI Low-Value Real-time Payments in the process of promoting new real-time transaction services in the country.
In December 2023, fintech provider of lending software servicing Lenvi announced its collaboration with payments specialist Acquired.com, aiming to deliver tailored payment processing solutions and digital banking services to its clients. CBDC, crypto, and Web3
During Q3 2023, the industry saw multiple developments surrounding Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins, as well as a wide interest in cryptocurrency, Web3, and tokenised deposits space.
Banks, financial institutions, as well as multiple companies and enterprises globally focused on designing new products and services included in the crypto verticals, as well as accelerating their development in this industry area. For example, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered were one of the first to announce a collaboration to test a system that is expected to allow blockchain-based transactions, stablecoins, as well as CBDCs to communicate with one another securely. Another partnership focused on the expansion of the financial services landscape is the one between TransFi and Volt, which aims to enable accessibility and secure ramps to Web3.
Likewise, multiple markets around the world have shown an interest in collaborating on joint crypto initiatives, as the market evolves and customers globally are getting more interested in the industry. One of the biggest partnerships that took place in Q4 2023 involves the regions of Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, and the UK, as The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced its strategy of developing new digital asset pilots with the European and Asian markets. This initiative not only marks a leap forward in MAS's strategic agenda but also serves as a cornerstone in Singapore's ongoing asset tokenization project, recognised as Project Guardian.
In Europe, Q4 of 2023 started with Lloyds Bank’s collaboration with Black Rock, to launch an exchange-traded fund solution for the retail investor market. The product is expected to provide 16 UK-listed ETFs to do-it-yourself investors. Later, HSBC also announced its partnership with Metaco, aiming to establish a secure digital-asset custody service for international clients. The solution is scheduled to go live in 2024, as it was developed to complement the bank’s Orion platform for digital asset issuance.
The focus on digital assets continued to evolve through Q4 2023, as multiple banks prioritised their design and mass adoption. For example, in December 2023, Deutsche Bank’s asset management bank arm DWS also signed an agreement with Galaxy Digital and Flow Traders, aiming to issue a EUR -dominated stablecoin. By forming AllUnity, the financial institutions focus on accelerating the mass adoption of digital assets and tokenisation as well.
Financial institutions and banks are not the only enterprises that took an interest in the crypto industry, as the primary factor that drives the market’s growth and overall development is represented by ledger technology and the overall rise of digital investments in venture capital.
Multiple companies also focused on the development of Web3 crypto services. For example, eToro announced its partnership with decentralised autonomous organisation Index Coop, planning to design and release a new Web3 crypto Smart Portfolio, encompassing four core sectors of cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and the Metaverse.
Throughout Q4 2023, other institutions and firms prioritised the development of new liquidity projects, crypto payments services, and tokenisation processes, as well as accelerating their growth and solidifying their position in the industry. In an ever-evolving market, companies and financial institutions prioritise the needs, preferences, and demands of their customers, while also focusing on remaining compliant with the regulatory requirements of their local industries.
Amidst this period of industry-wide innovation and customer-centricity, November 2023 was marked by strategic collaborations aimed at driving further progress. Banking Circle announced its collaboration with Ant Group, working on the development of a new liquidity management project, which is set to focus on technology innovation related to tokenised deposits. Later in the same month, HAYVN Pay signed a strategic deal with Akurateko to optimise the crypto payments development in The Netherlands, as well as give clients the possibility to navigate the landscape of digital transactions.
Another important partnership related to cryptocurrency and blockchain services was held at the end of November 2023, when BBVA Switzerland collaborated with Metaco to solidify its overall position in the digital asset sector.
HSBC made waves in the APAC region by announcing the successful testing of leverage on tokenized deposits in collaboration with Ant Group. This collaboration, based in China, aims to accelerate the overall development of corporate treasury management. Remaining in the same geographical area, Standard Chartered made headlines in December 2023 by announcing its decision to offer exchange services for China’s CBDC, the digital yuan. This was expected to provide customers with access to the digital yuan’s interconnection platform, as well as the possibility to benefit from recharge and redemption.
Other banks and financial institutions focused on the development of Web3-based solutions, such as the Bank of Ghana, which announced in December 2023 its partnership with the Central Banking Infrastructure company EMTECH to deliver a 12-week CBDC Hackathon as a pilot.
As the popularity of digital currencies such as Bitcoins, Litecoins, or Ethers is expected to drive the market in the forthcoming years, multiple fintech companies implemented crypto products and tokenisation solutions into their suite of services, aiming to meet the trends of the industry. The stances on crypto are represented differently in multiple Asian countries, and the governments and financial watchdogs are expected to regulate the market and prevent illicit transactions through secure compliance requirements.
Across Q4 2023, several firms and fintech in the region of Singapore focused on their development in the crypto vertical, the country being one of the largest crypto-friendly jurisdictions in Asia. One of the earliest partnerships to be announced was launched in October 2023, when digital asset solutions provider Cobo collaborated with Alibaba Cloud to offer enterprise-grade wallet infrastructure to Web3 organisations. At the same time, Alchemy Pay focused on improving its crypto payments service, and by collaborating with the financial services tech provider Worldpay from FIS, it gained access to the latter’s Visa and Mastercard transaction rails on Alchemy Pay’s On & Off-Ramp. This process is expected to offer clients an increased efficiency and optimised experience in buying and selling crypto with credit and debit cards.
Singapore-based private jet company Logic Jets also focused on developing and improving its crypto transactions. The firm announced its strategic deal with Triple-A, aiming to enable crypto payments into its suite of services and optimise its user experience. Later in December 2023, Triple-A partnered with STX Corporation to introduce digital currency payments on the TROLLYGO platform and to enable citizens of South Korea to make cryptocurrency transactions through globally secured licenced institutions.
The development of a secure and efficient circulation of cryptocurrencies and digital assets represents an important factor in the overall crypto industry, as it provides customers with the security of a fast and protected experience. The global financial technology company Circle announced its collaboration with SBI Holding , aiming to support the overall circulation of USDC in the region of Japan. In addition, the partnership also focused on Web3 services, and it aligned with the government’s revisions to the Payment Services Act in June 2023.
Shifting the focus on the MENA region, amongst the most important partnerships that took place in the crypto market was announced in November 2023, when Ripple and Onafriq aimed to enable cross-border digital payments from Africa. The payment network is expected to use Ripple’s crypto-enabled payment technologies to open up three new payment corridors between Africa and the rest of the world.
The overall government of the US region is currently balancing customer protection and digital currency technology by focusing on regulating crypto platforms, not cryptocurrencies. The Biden administration is also pushing for the development of a CBDC, while multiple international regulators are prioritising protecting clients from illicit uses of cryptocurrencies, by launching several regulations across countries.
One of the first partnerships announced across the American crypto industry was the one between Ripple and the National Bank of Georgia’s (NBG) digital GEL pilot project. The pilot is developed to experiment with Ripple’s CBDC technology and evaluate the overall practical use cases to gauge potential benefits for the public sector, retail users, and businesses.
Companies and firms in the region also took an interest in Web3-focused tools, including Curios, which integrated with Stripe’s payment solutions to design and launch NFTs and digital content for its customers.
Moving on to the Latin American region, at the beginning of December 2023, Brazil-based financial services platform Nubank announced its partnership with fintech Circle to increase the overall access to the Digital Dollar for Brazillian clients. Financial crime and fraud prevention
As financial crime and online fraud have evolved in the last couple of years, fraudsters represent a challenging thread for companies and customers alike. Thus, multiple banks, financial institutions, and firms announced several partnerships during Q4 2023, as an effort for the development of fraud prevention capabilities. These included different aspects of the industry, such as improving customer identification processes and optimising the onboarding processes, ensuring their compliance with AML and KYC standards, as well as implementing AI capabilities in combating fraudsters and identity thefts.
Talking about the worldwide developments, one of the first collaborations announced during Q4 2023 was between Ficerv and Plaid. Both companies focus on enabling secure and reliable data shared through APIs for FIs and clients. At the same time, Mastercard announced its collaboration with Cyber Monks to launch a cyber marketplace which aims to simplify the acquisition of cybersecurity solutions. The tool is expected to be tailored to address the requirements and issues faced by SMEs. Mastercard had another important partnership later in November 2023, this time with Feedzai, focusing on expanding its crypto fraud prevention for clients and users globally.
Still on the development of fraud management and fraud prevention services, J.P. Morgan Payments announced its partnership with Trulioo, aiming to enable global identity verification solutions for its customers, while also providing a more simplified and safe payment experience. Later in December 2023, Trulioo announced another collaboration with Syngrafii. The strategic deal integrated the Trulioo Identity Document Verification into Syngrafii’s VSR platform to optimise its identity verification processes.
Multiple businesses in the industry operate in several countries around the world and accept different payment methods and processes which can induce the need to be wary of any issues, risks, and difficulties that might jeopardise their operations. Many companies also focus on the expansion of their fraud prevention solutions. UK-based payment orchestration company BR-DGE, for example, announced its collaboration with digital trust and safety solution provider Sift in order to offer merchants fraud management solutions and the overall possibility to protect themselves from online threats. At the same time, Vesta and Stripe announced their strategy to expand their fraud prevention and risk protection solutions to merchants and traders worldwide.
AML legislation represents a response to the overall development of the financial industry, as well as the growing ease of conducting large and complex chains of financial payments. A large number of companies and financial institutions optimised their AML services during Q4 2023, prioritising the security of their solutions and their customer base.
One of these companies, AMLYZE, partnered with Shufti Pro to optimise the latter’s AML, as well as its compliance services (along with KYC and KYB technologies) and its AML solutions. Another partnership that prioritised AML compliance was set between OTTO Payments and HAWK:AI, as the latter’s transaction monitoring and customer screening technology was leveraged to ensure effective and secure AML compliance.
Later in November 2023, Neema announced its collaboration with ThetaRay, as both companies focused on optimising AML transaction monitoring and sanction screening capabilities, using AI-powered technologies. Alongside this partnership, Feedzai and CoreCard also implemented the use of AI in their strategic deal, as the firms were expected to safeguard the processing market against fraud by using a suite of AI-powered defense systems.
The identity tech and biometric solution provider IDEMIA also announced an important partnership at the beginning of December of 2023. The company expanded its collaboration with INTERPOL, aiming to provide an optimised Multibiometric Identification System to support its 196 member countries in the fight against financial crime.
In the European space, financial institutions and companies focused on meeting the needs and expectations of their clients, while prioritising the process of remaining compliant with the regulations of the industry. Regarding this process, at the beginning of Q4 2023, the FCA and Modulr agreed to impose customer onboarding restrictions for the payments fintech. The FCA issued a restriction for the company in order to prevent it from bringing new partner customers who use payment infrastructure for cards or accounts.
Furthermore, there were multiple partnerships and integrations that revolved around the development and expansion of fraud management services. One of the first collaborations of Q4 2023 focused on the optimisation of fraud prevention capabilities, as Rabobank and SurePay were expected to increase data coverage so that IBANs from more EU countries could be checked. Both firms also aimed to introduce a Fraud Risk Indicator.
Continuing the trend of strategic partnerships, BNP Paribas and Lenvi joined forces to improve risk management and operational capabilities for users across the continent. Shortly after, NetGuardians incorporated its AI-based financial fraud prevention services on the Google Cloud platform, as a SaaS offering.
Other financial institutions and enterprises focused on optimising their AML solutions and their overall onboarding processes. For example, at the beginning of October 2023, Savy announced its collaboration with AMLYZE. Savy is expected to integrate AMLYZE’s core modules, as well as encompass its customer risk assessment, retrospective transaction monitoring, case management, and international sanctions screening.
One of the first collaborations that focused on combating fraud and protecting the privacy of customers in Q4 2023 in the MENA region was announced between the Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB) and Mastercard. Both enterprises aim to provide increased access to secure digital payments across Saudi Arabia. The partnership also aligns with the country’s Vision 2023 and its strategy of developing an improved digital economy and a 70% cashless society by 2030.
In October 2023, real-time payment service provider ACI Worldwide announced its partnership with BaaS-enabled NymCard, aiming to combat fraud and financial crime. In addition, the card issuer also sought to improve its AML controls and protect its clients from the increasing threat of financial fraud. Also focusing on AML services, UAE-based fintech noqodi selected the UK-based regtech Napier as its AML platform for digital payments in the region of the UAE.
In the APAC region, more specifically Australia, one of the first partnerships that was announced was between the digital identity ecosystem ConnectID and Ping Identity, focused on simplifying the integration of customers into existing systems, as well as on the adoption of a new client base. Later in December 2023, the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and Vodafone collaborations focused on the privacy and security of clients, as both institutions designed a new intelligence-sharing pilot to help customers avoid rising SMS scams.
Fraud management and fraud prevention capabilities represent an important step in the overall strategy of keeping fraud and other online threats from emerging and affecting the privacy and development of firms and FIs. As the industry continues to evolve, fraudsters still represent a big challenge for companies. Across the American space, banks and institutions continue to optimise their strategy of delivering secure fraud detection and prevention offerings, aiming to improve their user customer experience and to keep their data and information protected.
Following this trend, in October 2023, Riskified announced its collaboration with Plaid, aiming to improve its risk protection capabilities for ACH bank payments. Online merchants and traders, marketplaces, and trading platforms are expected to be enabled to approve ACH transactions securely, as well as safeguard against fraud and the overall risk of insufficient funds.
Still focusing on the development and incorporation of fraud prevention offerings, Bankjoy and Fraud.net collaborated to deliver a real-time fraud prevention tool for financial institutions and banks. Conclusions
Following the multiple developments and partnerships that occurred during Q4 2023, several banks, financial institutions, and firms announced partnerships in order to accelerate their growth in certain verticals of the industry, while also remaining compliant with local regulations and providing customers with an improved and secure experience. Despite economic challenges, difficulties, and uncertainties, the financial sector continues to attract multiple partnerships and integrations across several sectors of the market. The industry saw a combination of the focus on digitalisation that is present in the case of banks and financial institutions, as well as the overall impact that the economic crisis had on M&A. Thus if companies can make investments, they merge their strategies on collaborations. Moreover, strategic deals can give firms the possibility to build credibility, reduce development costs, and improve customer experience, in addition to leveraging a new suite of solutions and developing their business.
With a clear focus on digitalisation, Open Banking implementation and development, together with the incorporation of alternative payment methods, cryptocurrencies, and fraud prevention capabilities, institutions are on a constant lookout for new, optimised, and safe services that can be designed with the needs and expectation of customers in mind, as well as the regulatory requirements that appear in the ever-evolving industry. In order to access more information on the global developments that emerged during Q4 2023, be sure to follow The Paypers Global Quarterly Analysis series. This also includes partnerships, acquisitions, and contributions surrounding the investments and M&As that took place during this period.
Sînziana is a Junior News Editor with a keen focus on fintech, payments, and digital identity. With a passion for unravelling the complexities of the rapidly evolving technological landscape, Sînziana is dedicated to delivering insightful news that keeps her readers informed.
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