Salesforce is partnering with TikTok to make it easier for Commerce Cloud merchants to engage with the TikTok community, including advertising to users and making their products more discoverable. This partnership is the latest Commerce Cloud platform investment to help businesses reach social-media-savvy shoppers. Driving the news: Nearly one in 10 purchases are now made on social media, and that number is only increasing. With social commerce becoming an increasingly important channel, this partnership presents an opportunity for businesses to understand today’s social shoppers and curate highly-personalized content for TikTok’s 1 billion monthly users, giving consumers multiple opportunities to engage with…

LevelField Financial, the premier U.S. financial services firm uniting digital assets and traditional banking services in one trusted platform has selected Switzerland-based METACO, a specialist of digital asset custody orchestration technology to complex, global financial institutions. LevelField is deploying its institutional digital asset management operations on IBM Cloud in order to leverage the confidential computing capabilities of IBM’s digital asset infrastructure. Founded by banking executives with decades of global experience, LevelField is in the process of acquiring a federally chartered bank in the United States. To launch its digital asset offering, LevelField will use METACO’s digital asset custody and orchestration…

Huobi Global announced the acquisition of Bitex, one of the first regional cryptocurrency exchanges in Latin America, as it moves to expand its footprint in the fast-growing region. The terms of the deal are confidential and were not disclosed. Founded in 2014, Bitex has an extensive network in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Huobi Global plans to integrate Bitex’s exchange operations with Huobi Global’s platform, enabling users in Latin America to trade all digital assets available on Huobi Global. Post-integration, Bitex will retain its branding and continue to be independently run by its current management team. With a population of…

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions announced that it has launched its OmniVault for Real Estate Finance solution. OmniVault for Real Estate Finance uses the company’s eVault technology to support digital home equity lending, both HELOCs and home equity loans, in addition to already supported conventional, U.S. government and jumbo first mortgages. Wolters Kluwer’s technology enables institutions to originate digital HELOCs as a Digital Original®, rather than just a PDF or a paper document. When a HELOC is created within the OmniVault for Real Estate Finance offering, it establishes the Digital Original® of the HELOC, ensuring verifiable ownership and control, and enabling the sale, transferability,…

Habi, a Colombian data-driven residential real estate platform, announced that it has raised US$200 million in equity in its Series C funding round, The company said that it is the first proptech unicorn with a female founder and CEO in Latin America. The funding round was led by Homebrew and SoftBank Latin America Funds, with participation from Banco Mercantil del Norte, S.A., Institución de Banca Múltiple, Grupo Financiero Banorte, Tiger Global, Inspired Capital, Clocktower Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Henry Kravis, among others. Habi said that it will use the capital raised in its Series C round to continue to expand…

LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which is a part of RELX, has announced the acquisition of BehavioSec, an advanced behavioral biometrics technology provider. Founded in Sweden in 2008 with a presence in the U.S., Canada and EMEA, BehavioSec provides a highly predictive behavioral biometrics solution that uses behavior analysis for continuous authentication to establish identity trust and help prevent fraud. Solutions from BehavioSec will become a part of the Business Services group within LexisNexis Risk Solutions and enhance its device and digital identity-focused offerings, such as LexisNexis ThreatMetrix. BehavioSec brings the ability to convert complex mobile signals from touchscreen and sensors into…

Decrypt Media has just announced its successful spinout from ConsenSys Mesh, the blockchain accelerator and incubator, after raising US$10 million in funding on a US$50 million post-money valuation. The fundraise was joined by Hack.VC, Hashkey Capital, Canvas Ventures, Protocol Labs, SK Group, as well as four DAOs (Global Coin Research DAO, Own.fund, Honey DAO, and Orange DAO) and a number of strategic individuals. Decrypt was co-founded by magazine veteran Josh Quittner (Time Inc.), Ilan Hazan, and Ryan Bubinski during the “crypto winter” of 2018. It was launched inside the ConsenSys Mesh incubator program with the aim of helping the world…

OKX, formerly known as OKEx, announced a major multi-year partnership with McLaren Racing, becoming the Official Primary Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team and McLaren Shadow esports Team from 2022. The partnership unites two global brands who value innovation and accessibility. As Official Primary Partner, OKX will be the largest partner to McLaren Racing, the home to one of the most successful Formula One teams and greatest drivers of all time. As the world’s second largest exchange by trading volume, OKX is on a mission to supercharge the experience for McLaren’s global audience, elevating the team and its fans…

Mastercard on Monday announced the launch of an enhanced identity solution designed to improve the online shopping experience and tackle digital fraud in a new collaboration with Microsoft. Now more than ever, delivering a frictionless shopping experience is critical as retailers look to shift window shopping and price comparison visits to confirmed sales. And, while consumers enjoy the convenience of shopping online, fraudsters also seek to develop new methods to use these same channels for ill-gotten gains. One of the growing types of digital fraud is first-party fraud, where a legitimate purchase is made online but later disputed. First-party fraud is…

Amazon announced Buy with Prime—a new benefit for Prime members that will extend the convenience of Prime shopping to online stores beyond Amazon.com. Buy with Prime will initially be available by invitation only for merchants using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and will roll out through 2022 as merchants are invited to participate, including those not selling on Amazon or using FBA. Expanded Shopping Benefits for Prime Members Buy with Prime will allow millions of U.S.-based Prime members to shop directly from merchants’ online stores with the trusted experience they expect from Amazon—including fast, free delivery, a seamless checkout experience, and…

The Haas F1 Team has announced a worldwide partnership with TransferMate Global Payments – an Ireland-based B2B payments infrastructure as-a-service provider. TransferMate will provide cross-border payments services through its global payments infrastructure. The company’s logo will also be featured on the Haas F1 Team’s VF-22 car and the apparel of drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher throughout the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Over the past decade TransferMate has built a payments network that allows businesses and individuals to make cross-border payments easily. Operating with multiple currencies, TransferMate said that it works faster and more securely than traditional banking…

Financial services software and cloud solutions provider Finastra announced a Banking as a Service (BaaS) collaboration with Microsoft to bring new lending options to thousands of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Finastra’s SME embedded finance solution on Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be integrated with open APIs through Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud platform. The solution is expected to go live in summer this year, with initial focus on North American customers. SMEs using Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be able to access and unlock vital financing offers without leaving their business management platform. With consent from the SME, the solution will use information an…

Feedzai, the world’s first RiskOps platform for financial risk management, has released its quarterly Financial Crime Report, The RiskOps Age, based on an analysis of over 18 billion global banking transactions throughout 2021. The report identifies trends in consumer spending and fraud attacks and compares transactional intelligence from 2021 with the previous three years to provide insights from the pre-pandemic era vs. the first and second years of the pandemic. One of the main conclusions is that while online transactions grew 65%, online fraud attack rates grew by 233%. “The shift from in-person transactions to online transactions, along with the…

Volante Technologies, a global leader in cloud payments and financial messaging, and KPMG are joining forces to offer financial institutions comprehensive ISO 20022 and real-time payments (RTP) readiness diagnostics. The strategic alliance will offer banks a winning combination of cloud-native payment solutions and related advisory, enabling banks to modernize their payments processes and operations faster than ever. As a result, banks and payment service providers can start their real-time payments journey immediately with The Clearing House RTP®, and prepare for new instant payment schemes such as the FedNowSM Service as they become available. More so, financial institutions will be able…

The USA has one of the world’s biggest fintech markets. Throughout the years, US fintech companies have continuously led the world in fintech innovation, startup funding, valuation and exit activity. Out of the current 235 fintech unicorns that operate around the world, more than half (121) are headquartered in the US, showcasing the scale of the US fintech industry and its leadership position on the global scale. Given the US’ burgeoning fintech industry, plenty of fintech events and conferences are being organized each year in all parts of the country to allow professionals and stakeholders to network, build meaningful connections…

The planning for Brazil’s central bank digital currency, the Real Digital, is entering a new phase. The Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) has selected Giesecke+Devrient’s CBDC solution Filia for its dual offline payment capability in a challenge that evaluates use cases of a digital currency in the South American country. The central bank’s digital currency (CBDC), the Real Digital, is to be launched in Brazil as early as 2024. This would position Brazil among the first major countries to have a CBDC as a complementary alternative to cash. In preparation for this major step, the Brazilian Central Bank in partnership…

Stock trading and investment app Robinhood announced that it has rolled out a new cash card for its customers. Robinhood said that the cash card builds on its mission to democratise finance for all by giving debit card customers the same benefits and rewards that were once reserved for credit card holders. When customers invest in themselves, Robinhood Money will give them a bonus of 10-100% (capped at US$10) on their weekly round-ups. As they spend, customers can choose to round-up their change to the nearest dollar and invest it in their choice of assets. Additionally, customers can set up…

OneSpan, a digital identity verification and e-signatures solutions provider, announced that Eric Hanson has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer and will be reporting to Matthew Moynahan, President and Chief Executive Officer. Hanson combines more than 30 years of experience across roles in marketing, sales, and product, helping organisations drive transformation, build market momentum, and grow industry recognition. Most recently Hanson served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Fuze where he was responsible for setting the company’s global marketing strategy and leading demand generation, brand, product and customer marketing. During his tenure, he helped lead strategic initiatives with other…

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has collaborated with Bitcoin company NYDIG to launch the Bitcoin Risk Assessment. The Risk Assessment evaluates a financial institution’s control environment related to its participation in the NYDIG Bitcoin platform. As part of the assessment, clients receive a report on how the findings fit within a range of established, relevant controls, providing clients a clearer picture of their Bitcoin activities. This helps the financial institution understand if its current controls will allow it to fulfill the relevant regulatory standards for offering Bitcoin products and services. Wolters Kluwer is a NYDIG Preferred Consultant for risk assessments conducted…

U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an Executive Order outlining its approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology. The order lays out a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities; consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit finance; U.S. leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation. The Executive Order calls for measures to: 1. Protect U.S. consumers, investors, and businesses by directing the Department of the Treasury and other agency partners to assess and develop policy recommendations to address the implications…