The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | September 25th

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.

Direct Remit Service

Standard Chartered Americas (the “Bank”) has announced that it has entered a trade finance partnership with Truist Bank that will enhance Truist clients’ ability to conduct global business.

Through this strategic partnership, Truist Bank and Standard Chartered aim to create a seamless and efficient business environment for importers and exporters in the US Standard Chartered will provide centralised processing, analytics and tracking services by leveraging the Bank’s unique network, local expertise, infrastructure, and technology.

Truist’s corporate and commercial clients will benefit from Standard Chartered’s ability to fulfill their trade finance needs in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

“Many of Truist’s corporate and commercial clients operate in the global economy and require solutions that allow them to complete transactions effectively across borders and throughout the supply chain,” said Chris Ward, Head of Wholesale Payments at Truist. “This partnership will allow our clients to more efficiently achieve their goals, scale their business, invest in their teams and build their communities.”

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), a Qatar-based digital bank, has announced the expansion of its Direct Remit Service to Egypt to upgrade its money transfer service and meet its customers’ growing needs.

Customers can easily initiate a money transfer by logging into the QIB Mobile App, selecting their desired destination, and adding the intended recipient to transfer money faster with competitive exchange rates to the beneficiary’s bank.

D Anand, QIB’s General Manager – Personal Banking Group, said,  “Adding Egypt to the list of countries available in our direct remit services via QIB Mobile App demonstrates our steadfast commitment to delivering a seamless, secure, and efficient banking experience for all of our customers. We aim to solidify our regional leadership in digital banking through innovation and customer-centricity. Our customers can rest assured that we will be continuously exploring opportunities to expand the reach and value of our services.”

After a successful launch in India, Pakistan, Jordan, and the Philippines, QIB has collaborated with one of the leading Bank in Egypt to include Egypt in its expanding list of countries within the QIB Direct Remit network, with plans to include more countries in the future.

Boosting FinTech sector

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has inked an agreement with the Digital Lenders Association of India (DLAI) to boost the country’s fintech sector. SIDBI and DLAI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to this effect.
The MoU aims for collaborations with SIDBI to develop standard protocols to expedite the adoption of digital lending partnerships including alliances between banks and Lending Service Providers (LSPs), co-lending collaborations among others, according to a statement.

Under the agreement, SIDBI and DLAI will explore partnerships for its “Prayaas” Scheme for informal enterprises, co-lending, GST Sahay, Express loan, green financing, and other direct credit schemes.

“This partnership signifies an important step in India’s FinTech journey for enhancing their role in financing the MSME sector. Both organisations are committed to leveraging our combined expertise and resources to put the sector on a high growth trajectory with responsible lending with innovation embedded therein,” DLAI CEO Jatinder Handoo said.

As part of its Series B funding round, ZayZoon, a provider of earned wage access (EWA) for small and medium-sized businesses, secured $34.5m in debt and equity. The round was led by Framework Venture Partners, with co-investment from Export Development Canada (EDC), and participation from ATB Financial as well as existing shareholders.

Founded in 2014 and based in Canada and the US, ZayZoon specifically focuses on SMBs, allowing their employees to access earned pay “whenever, however”. “This financing will fuel our mission in being a true partner in financial health and workplace engagement to small and midsize businesses,” said Darcy Tuer, co-founder and CEO of ZayZoon.

“Not only does ZayZoon act as a substantial competitive advantage for the business, but it helps the millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck get by between paydays and plan for the future.”

What is the buzz

Japanese technology giant Fujitsu is set to trial the use of Generative AI (GenAI) across its banking operations.

The Tokyo-based tech vendor is set to conduct the experiments alongside Hokuhoku Financial Group, in a bid to identify promising use cases for the technology.

As part of the trials, the companies will leverage generative AI technology, including an AI module for conversational AI Fujitsu is offering via its Fujitsu Kozuchi – AI Platform, in the banking operations of Hokuriku Bank and Hokkaido Bank to respond to internal inquiries, generate and check various business documents, and create programmes.

The companies anticipate that Fujitsu’s generative AI technology will enable the partners to conduct trials in a fast and agile manner, without the need to set up a specific testing environment.