The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | June 3rd

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Risk functions of payments

Forward, a technology partner empowering SaaS companies to integrate and monetise payments has announced $16 million in seed financing.

The round was led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund, and Fiserv. The capital will enable Forward to meet accelerating demand from software partners while applying artificial intelligence to the risk functions of payments to dramatically improve the client and merchant experience.

The company, founded by software industry veterans, partners with SaaS companies to increase their revenue by two to three times by adding payments as a product. “Most software companies get the technical part right, but fail to achieve their business goals,” said founder and CEO Brandon Lloyd. “We believe many software companies who have ‘integrated payments’ should be generating greater revenue from these products, and Forward is here to help them do that.”

Global IT company FPT Software has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ant Digital Technologies.

The partnership focuses on digital solutions for financial infrastructure and is expected to fortify FPT Software’s offerings in the finance services sector across Southeast Asia. The MoU signing ceremony took place in Hanoi, Vietnam.

This marks FPT Software as Ant Digital Technologies’ IT partner, headquartered in Vietnam. The two companies will join forces to introduce Ant Digital Technologies’ flagship products into FPT Software’s service offerings, including the cloud-to-end mobile development platform mPaaS, AI-powered digital identity verification solution ZOLOZ eKYC, and SOFAStack, a one-stop solution for financial-grade distributed middleware.

Leveraging FPT Software’s robust technical expertise, delivery capabilities, and highly skilled talent pool, this partnership also targets the IT firm as a regional ISV partner of Ant Digital Technologies. Additionally, both sides will consider expanding collaboration regarding application maintenance, research, and development in identity security, anti-deep fake, and carbon tech across Southeast Asia, fueling the region’s burgeoning digital economy with more solutions.

Dynamic commercial payment solution

Mastercard has joined forces with HSBC Middle East to launch Mastercard Wholesale Program in the region.

The partnership aims to advance automation of buyer and supplier payments for HSBC’s travel merchant customers. By leveraging virtual cards to digitize the way travel organizations pay each other for the various elements that make up a consumer’s trip, the collaboration will boost liquidity and enhance security across the travel value chain.

“Card payments continue to power the travel economy, providing essential cash flow and payment security. Our expanded partnership with HSBC in the Middle East is focused on meeting the specific needs the travel sector has today, as it captures all potential growth. By leveraging Mastercard’s virtual card innovation, this initiative provides HSBC’s travel customers with a dynamic commercial payment solution to boost operations and support the sector’s overall recovery,” said Khalid Elgibali, Chief Operating Officer, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard.

Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) and Visa have announced a partnership with a cooperation agreement on developing digital payments.

This cooperation aims to facilitate SeABank’s delivery of solutions, improve data capacity and increase expertise to open new opportunities for advancement, thereby accelerating SeABank’s payment services development strategy.

Accordingly, Visa and SeABank continue to implement effective strategies to promote digital payments through 5 main pillars, including:

• Improving customer experience journey on digital platforms
• Improving card products and services
• Optimizing the card service ecosystem on digital platforms
• Improving efficiency and creativity in marketing and communication activities
• Improving risk and fraud management in card issuance and payment.

Stephen Karpin, President of Visa, Asia-Pacific Region, said, “We are honoured to cooperate with SeABank in actualizing our commitment to enhancing Vietnam’s digital payment ecosystem. Partnerships are the key to our journey of supporting banks in improving customer experience and strengthening risk management capacity. Visa is committed to partnering with SeABank to obtain the bank’s long-term goals and make further achievements.”

What is the buzz

ABN Amro, one of the leading banks in the Netherlands, has struck a deal with Fosun International to acquire Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe (HAL), a historic German private bank established in 1796, for €672 million.

ABN Amro aims to strengthen its position within the top three wealth management firms in Germany by merging HAL with its existing German private banking unit, Bethmann Bank. The combined entity is projected to manage around €70 billion in assets, with HAL contributing €26 billion in assets and €2 billion in loans.

ABN Amro sees HAL’s private banking expertise and strong foothold in Germany as a perfect match for enhancing its current client portfolio and expanding its geographical reach.