What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 2 | Back office processing for real-time payments

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast features Jack Baldwin, CEO at financial software provider BHMI.

We discuss the share price offered by NCR for Cardtronics stock and unpack Visa’s failed merger with Plaid. We also talk about buy now, pay later (BNPL) firms as the San-Francisco based Affirm almost doubled its value after its initial public offering (IPO).

Baldwin provides us with a bit more background on BHMI’s “Best Real-Time Payments Solution” award at the 2020 Paytech Awards, and how its Concourse technology addresses back office processing for real-time payments.

Tune in to find out his head-scratching banished buzzword in another exciting rendition of “Fintech Jail”!

WTF? |S.2 Episode 2 | Back office processing for real-time payments

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Special Guest – Jack Baldwin, CEO at financial software provider, BHMI.
Hosted by – Alex Hamilton, Deputy Editor, FinTech Futures
Co-Hosted by – Sharon Kimathi, … Read the rest

GameStop's dizzying share price rise means it's game over for the short-sellers | Nils Pratley

The retailer has gone from $19 to $33o thanks in part to amateurs taking on the hedge funds

If you find trading bitcoin insufficiently hair-raising, try GameStop. It is the Texas-based video games retailer that will be hard to out-do as the stock market story of 2021. The share price was $19 at the start of this month but reached $330 in mid-afternoon on Wednesday in New York. There have been a few downwards lurches along the way, but the overall direction has been unsustainably upwards.

It must be unsustainable because nothing of note has happened to improve GameStop’s commercial prospects so radically. Exciting PlayStation and Xbox releases may lie around the corner, but the company is still a bricks-and-mortar retailer struggling in an online age. Instead, punting on GameStop has become a video game in itself.

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Mastercard plans to raise fees for UK purchases from EU

Mastercard will increase fees more than fivefold when a British shopper uses a debit or credit card to buy from an EU-based company.

According to the Financial Times, the announcement is sparking alarm among companies that rely on online payments and concern among MPs over higher consumer prices.

Mastercard and Visa levy an “interchange” fee on behalf of banks for every debit or credit card payment that uses their networks.

The EU introduced a cap in 2015 after concerns the hidden fees were leading to hundreds of millions of euros in costs for companies and higher prices for consumers.

Since Brexit came into effect this year, Mastercard told merchants that the cap no longer applies to some transactions, because payments between the UK and European Economic Area are now deemed “inter-regional”.

From 15 October, Mastercard will charge 1.5% of the transaction value for every online credit card payment from the … Read the rest

Ovo to launch 'half-price' electric vehicle charging tariff

New Drive Anytime rate bids to mirror rivals’ off-peak tariff with savings of 60% a year, supplier claims

Ovo Energy plans to launch an electric vehicle charging tariff, at half the usual price, to compete with typical off-peak rates even when electricity demand is at its highest.

The UK’s second-largest energy supplier will set the tariff at a flat rate of 6p per kilowatt-hour no matter what time of day their customers choose to charge their vehicle, in direct competition with suppliers which offer cut-price charging during set hours overnight.

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Wealthtech Elinvar raises €25 million funding

Toscafund, Goldman Sachs, finleap and Ampega invest EUR 25m in wealthtech Elinvar

Berlin-based wealthtech Elinvar has raised €25 million funding to scale its offering in a round led by Toscafund Asset Management.

The round also included existing shareholders Ampega Asset Management, finleap and Goldman Sachs.

Elinvar was founded in 2016 in Berlin, with “the vision to connect the entire wealth management ecosystem”. It exclusively focuses on business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) and provides a multi-tenant solution on a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) basis. It employs 100+ people.

“While Elinvar delivers the technological infrastructure, banks, discretionary portfolio managers, third party providers and all other users of the Elinvar platform can efficiently execute new business models, access new value chains, optimise their costs and utilise their core competencies,” the vendor states.

It claims a number of major German private banks, discretionary portfolio managers and Germany’s largest liability umbrella, Fondsdepot Bank, among its users. This is done … Read the rest