Finance

Fintech Galaxy, a financial innovation firm, has announced the addition of a team of global Open Banking/Finance experts as it seeks to expand its product offering and presence throughout the MENA region. The Open Finance experts have joined Fintech Galaxy to help it achieve its mission of increasing financial inclusion and bringing open banking and finance to the MENA region through its fast, secure, and developer-friendly proprietary platform www.thefinx.io. Open Finance is the next step in the evolution of Open Banking.

“Our new solutions have been built in response to growing demand from FSIs around the world for cloud products capable of accelerating their digitalization and enhancing the customer experience,” said Raymond Xiao, Head of International Industry Solutions and Architecture, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. “By leveraging our extensive cloud capabilities and industry know-how, we have developed a comprehensive suite of solutions to advance growth and innovation in the finance sector".

The Direct Debit Marketplace platform, which is available to organizations that take recurring fees in any industry, is bank agnostic, which means it does not affect the merchants' relationship with their banking services provider. The platform provides users with peace of mind because direct debits enabled by the platform are integrated with and regulated by the UAE Central Bank. Payers benefit from cancellation control as part of their contractual terms.

Legacy hardware and software are two of the most significant impediments to FinServ architecture upgrades. Organizations are forced to use obsolete technology due to the prohibitive cost of refactoring and re-platforming their core systems. Companies no longer need to be stymied by legacy technology. The Nutanix Cloud Platform has been demonstrated to provide a staggering 477% ROI in 5 years while lowering TCO by two-thirds. This entails maximizing the company's investment in on-premises infrastructure in the near future.

Veracode, a global provider of application security testing solutions, released data revealing that the financial services industry ranks among the best in terms of overall flaw percentage when compared to other industries, but has one of the lowest fix rates for software security flaws. The sector also ranks in the middle of the pack for high-severity flaws, with 18% of applications containing a serious vulnerability, with 18% of applications containing a serious vulnerability, implying that financial firms should prioritize identifying and remediating the flaws that matter the most.

Businesses in the UAE are doubling down on mobile apps in an effort to increase customer engagement and spending, and the overall number of mobile app installs in the country is up 23% in H1 2022, compared to the same period last year. While finance apps were the most successful, with installs increasing by an astounding 183%, other categories that experienced significant app install growth included entertainment (31%), travel (36%), social (30%), and food & drink (15%).

Tribal Credit, a Silicon Valley-based global company that provides integrated financial solutions for startups in the Middle East and emerging markets, announced that it has hired Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), a Shari'a Advisory firm based in the Gulf Cooperation Council, to review, certify, and supervise Shari'a compliance for its new corporate cards and working capital products in Islamic markets.

UnionPay International (UPI) has enabled card acceptance in 180 countries and regions, with issuance in more than 70 countries and regions, through partnerships with over 2500 institutions worldwide. UPI offers the world's largest cardholder base high-quality, cost-effective, and secure cross-border payment services, as well as convenient local services to a growing number of global UnionPay cardholders and merchants.

Since its inception in 2018, OPay's active users have risen to 15 million across the dozens of markets in which it operates. On average, the company processes millions of transactions per day. Users in Nigeria, where OPay has a significant market share, have saved billions of dollars in the last four years through credit-linked savings accounts from their mobile wallets.

The report also discovered that once cybercriminals gain access to a financial organization, they are no longer looking for wire transfers or capital, as was previously assumed. Cybercriminal cartels are now looking for non-public market data such as earnings estimates, public offerings, and significant transactions. In fact, two out of every three (66 percent) financial institutions were subjected to attacks aimed at market strategies.