FIS announced plans to pursue a tax-free spin-off of its Merchant Solutions business to strengthen its strategic and operational focus, capitalize on growth opportunities and unlock shareholder value. The two companies expect to maintain a strong commercial relationship, preserving a key value proposition for clients of both businesses. FIS expects the spin-off to be completed within the next 12 months. FIS’ Board and management determined as part of their previously announced and ongoing strategic review that a spin-off of Merchant Solutions, to be named Worldpay, offers the best path to enhance shareholder value, including by: Increasing strategic and operational focus…

Deutsche Börse and Google Cloud have announced a new strategic partnership to enhance, economize and concentrate Deutsche Börse’s cloud adoption. Specifically, Deutsche Börse will leverage Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure and leading data and analytics capabilities to accelerate the development of its digital securities platform D7, innovate its digital asset market operations, and enhance its data distribution and data use cases in the cloud. With its hybrid, multi-cloud strategy, Deutsche Börse Group has already successfully set new standards for cloud innovation within the financial services industry. Google Cloud will become Deutsche Börse Group’s preferred partner for cloud consumption for the next…

The Swiss fintech company Numarics AG is merging with the multiple award-winning fiduciary company a&o kreston ag. The startup Numarics, founded in 2020, thus completes another important growth step in the still short history of the company. a&o kreston is number four in the category 50 to 249 employees and thus one of the leading fiduciary companies in Switzerland. Numarics was founded by fiduciaries, auditors and experts in technological process automation as a fintech company focused on increasing efficiency in the accounting sector through the optimized interaction of fiduciary experts and digital ecosystem. Just a few weeks ago, Numarics announced…

Hawk AI, a Munich-based provider of anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud prevention technology for banks and payment companies, announced $17M in Series B financing to accelerate product development and global expansion. The funding round was led by Sands Capital from Washington D.C., with participation from new and existing investors, including DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital. Hawk AI helps financial institutions fight financial crime. Powered by Explainable AI and based on flexible cloud infrastructure, the company’s surveillance platform helps financial institutions detect and prevent the financial crime that other systems miss while it supports efficient investigation of…

The team at Accounto, the Switzerland based fiduciary software specialist, is gaining an experienced industry expert. Thomas Koller, former long-standing Chairman of the Board of Directors of OBT AG and General Manager of the Fiduciary & Business Consulting Division at ExpertSuisse, is the latest addition to the Board of Directors. In order to further strengthen the strategic, industry-oriented development of Accounto, the Board of Directors has recommended the election of Thomas Koller to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting. “With Thomas Koller, we are gaining a proven expert in the fiduciary industry for our mission. He complements…

Together with major Swiss banks, the Swiss stock exchange BX Swiss is taking the financial market infrastructure for tokenized securities to the next level. In a test, trades on BX Swiss were settled for the first time directly in Swiss francs via a decentralized public-blockchain. The test was conducted as part of a proof of concept under the auspices of the Capital Markets Technology Association (CMTA). In the process, structured products were issued by the Swiss banks Credit Suisse, Pictet and Vontobel in tokenized form as ledger-based securities on the Ethereum test blockchain and subsequently traded via the BX Swiss…

Der Bundesrat hat anlässlich seiner Sitzung vom 9. Dezember den Bericht «Die Akzeptanz von Bargeld in der Schweiz» verabschiedet, der in Erfüllung des Postulates 18.4399 von Nationalrätin Prisca Birrer-Heimo verfasst wurde. Bargeld erfüllt wichtige Funktionen für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Der Bundesrat erachtet deshalb eine aufmerksame Beobachtung der Entwicklungen im Bargeldbereich als notwendig. Die im Postulat vorgeschlagene zwingende Bargeldannahmepflicht lehnt der Bundesrat aber ab. Diese wäre ein starker Eingriff in die Vertragsfreiheit und in das Grundrecht der Wirtschaftsfreiheit. Der Nationalrat hatte am 17. Dezember 2020 das Postulat Birrer-Heimo mit dem Titel «Die breite Akzeptanz von Bargeld auch in Zukunft sicherstellen» angenommen.…

On 9 December, the Federal Council elected Aude Pugin, CEO of APCO Technologies, and Sergio Ermotti, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Swiss Re Group, to the Board of Directors of Innosuisse. The new members will take up their duties on 1 January 2023. They will replace Nicola Thibaudeau and Thierry Calame, who will step down at the end of 2022. The Innosuisse Board of Directors welcomes Aude Pugin and Sergio Ermotti, both top names in the business world who can contribute their long-standing experience. As CEO of APCO Technologies, Aude Pugin brings in-depth personal experience in innovation in…

Mastercard and Vesta, an end-to-end fraud prevention platform for digital purchases, announced a new strategic partnership to provide a state-of-the-art fraud management platform for merchants across Latin America and the Caribbean. As the need and interest from consumers to shop online increases, merchants are challenged to verify identities and manage evolving fraud threats in real time. Through this partnership, the organizations join forces to not only meet merchants’ security needs, but also address a broader effort to enhance the consumer ‘s digital experience and strengthen their trust in ecommerce. The fraud management solutions resulting from this collaboration will unite resources…

grape, the neoinsurer for employee insurances, has raised CHF 1.7 million in a pre-seed funding round to expand its digital insurance product and grow the team. The round is led by Swiss venture capital firm Wingman Ventures, with participation from the FinTech funds Tomahawk.VC and DD Venture Capital. The Insurtech startup grape provides their own digital employee insurances to enterprise customers. Their insurances are bundled with a B2B SaaS product that saves the insured companies time managing their coverages and claims. Moreover, grape is the first insurer to directly reinvest into prevention services supporting the health of their customer’s employees…

IDnow, a leading identity proofing and digital identity provider based in Munich, has successfully arranged a new debt facility from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock that provides up to €60 million in financing. The debt facility will enable IDnow to leverage its existing market-leading identity platform. The company intends to use the capital to scale investments across a range of strategic initiatives including the introduction of new identity proofing solutions, continued geographic expansion, and potential acquisitions. IDnow was founded in 2014 in Germany and offers a comprehensive suite of identity proofing solutions addressing a wide range of mission-critical use…

Nexi announced yesterday a strategic collaboration with Microsoft aimed at innovating digital payments solutions and helping digitalization of SMEs, Corporates, Public Administrations and Financial Institutions across multiple European markets through vertical value-added solutions to respond to specific needs as easy to adopt one-stop-to-digital packages for small businesses, secure scalable payment cloud-based infrastructures for public entities to serve citizens, for corporates to optimize payment and cash operations and for financial companies to leverage new digital native scenarios for their customers. As a result of the agreement, Nexi has been selected as one of the main payment providers for e-commerce acceptance in…

Denmark based Ageras Group announced that it has acquired Kontist, a Berlin-based neo-bank focused on the complex accounting and banking needs of Germany’s growing populations of microbusinesses and self-employed workers. “This acquisition is a critical step in Ageras’ growth,” said Ageras Co-founder and CEO Rico Andersen. “Kontist has created the best product in Europe’s largest market. It’s a one-stop financial shop for approximately 50,000 German small business owners today, and it’s perfectly positioned to become the go-to financial platform for future generations of small business owners in need of modern banking and accounting tools.” Founded in 2016 by fintech veteran…

Das Österreichische Fintech-Unternehmen Coinpanion hat sich zur Abwicklung seiner Paymentprozesse für die Zusammenarbeit mit dem internationalen Zahlungsdienstleister Checkout.com entschieden. Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Checkout.com kann der Kryptobroker seinen Anleger:innen nun zahlreiche Optionen für Ein- und Auszahlungen anbieten, von Kartenzahlungen über Google und Apple Pay bis hin zu Wallet-Transaktionen. Das seit 2020 im österreichischen Markt erfolgreiche Fintech-Startup konnte im Herbst letzten Jahres weitere hochkarätige Investor:innen für seine Geschäftsidee gewinnen. Coinpanion ist als europäisches Unternehmen registriert und unterliegt allen dort geltenden Vorschriften. Vor der Zusammenarbeit mit Checkout.com war Coinpanion Gründer und CEO Alexander Valtingojer bereits länger auf der Suche nach einem geeigneten…

As part of its future-orientated approach, Netcetera announced the switch to a cloud platform using leading hosting service providers. The first step of going cloud is the finalized migration of its 3DS services to a new cloud hosting environment. This switch promises to deliver modernized infrastructure that more easily meets rapidly changing customer behavior and expectations, and drives business growth. The change is part of the payment player’s dedication to achieving sustainability and responsibility towards society through ongoing efforts to improve its core industry. “High-quality and high-availability solutions are an important part of our success, as are the long-term relationships…

SumUp has raised a €590 million funding round that gives the company an enterprise value of €8 billion following a decade of rapid growth and global expansion. The round was led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, with participation from funds managed by BlackRock, btov Partners, Centerbridge, Crestline, Fin Capital, and Sentinel Dome Partners, among others. This latest round is a combination of debt and equity and brings SumUp’s total capital raised to €1.5 billion. SumUp was founded in 2012 to help small merchants start, run and grow their business through a fair, easy, and reliable payment solution. Today, its financial…

Der Bundesrat will den Standort Schweiz für Startups weiter stärken. Er hat am 22. Juni 2022 einen Richtungsentscheid zugunsten eines branchenneutralen Schweizer Innovationsfonds getroffen. Dieser soll die Finanzierung von Start-ups insbesondere während der Wachstumsphase und namentlich in den Bereichen Dekarbonisierung und Digitalisierung verbessern. Bis anfangs 2023 sollen die konkreten Eckwerte erarbeitet werden. Die Schweiz soll auch mittel- und langfristig zu den produktivsten, wettbewerbsfähigsten und innovativsten Standorten der Welt gehören und langfristig Arbeitsplätze, Wertschöpfung und Steuersubstrat sichern können. Im Ausgang aus der Covid-19-Krise prüfte der Bundesrat neue Ansätze zur Erreichung dieser Ziele. Im August 2021 hatte der Bundesrat deshalb das WBF…

Citi announced yesterday that it has selected Switzerland-based METACO to develop and pilot digital asset custody capabilities. This collaboration brings together METACO’s technology and digital solutions with Citi’s expansive custody network to develop a platform to enable clients to store and settle digital assets seamlessly and securely. Citi intends to fully integrate METACO’s bank-grade digital asset custody and orchestration platform, Harmonize, into its existing infrastructure, to develop and pilot digital asset custody capabilities. “We are witnessing the increasing digitization of traditional investment assets along with new native digital assets. We are innovating and developing new capabilities to support digital asset…

The core-to-digital solution suite provider, New Access SA, is very proud to announce the signing of a new license agreement with Swiss Private Bank BERGOS AG. Bergos is an independent Swiss Private Bank specialized in wealth management, offering investment solutions in all liquid and non-liquid asset classes. The bank focuses on asset management and advisory, offering services beyond money such as Art Consult and Multi Family Office Services. Active in the Swiss financial center for more than 30 years, it operates internationally with more than 100 professionals dedicated to the company’s success. Bergos AG has been recently awarded with the…

AMNIS Treasury Services,  a Zurich-based fintech founded in 2014 with the goal of reshaping international banking for SMEs, announced the closing of a Series-A investment round of CHF 8.6 million. The funding round, led by Lansdowne Partners, will enable further market expansion and product development. Amnis provides SMEs with an international banking solution to transfer money abroad, exchange currencies and collect payments on a single cost-effective platform. Committed to transparency and efficiency, the platform focuses on the needs of SMEs, giving them the opportunity to enter the global economy with a competitive edge. During the last 12 months, the company…