Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 7 November 2018
Tieto acquires Swedish Meridium
The Nordic IT services and software company Tieto announces it has acquired Meridium AB, a Swedish company employing about 60 digital customer experience professionals.
With the acquisition of Meridium AB, Tieto strengthens its presence in Sweden and enhances its capabilities to serve Nordic customers in developing ways to interact with their customers in the digital world.
Digital customer experience is one of Tieto’s strategic growth areas and the company now employs more than 500 specialists in the area globally. Tieto provides customers the whole customer experience spectrum including digital strategy and design, eCommerce and online services, digital marketing systems, advanced analytics and data science. With Meridium, a focused player in the Swedish market with Episerver technology as its core, Tieto takes another step in its strategy to strengthen its position as a recognized and leading partner in the customer experience area in the Nordics.
“We are very delighted to join forces with Meridium. Together we can offer our customers even stronger capabilities, expertise and local presence in the digital customer experience area” says Jaakko Hartikainen, Vice President, Customer Experience Management, “In addition, there is a good cultural fit; we share the believes in transparency, low hierarchy, respect for every individual and have customer in the centre. I warmly welcome Meridium employees to our Tieto team.”
Wirecard brings digital financial technology platform services to Australia and New Zealand
Wirecard, the global innovation provider for digital financial technology, announced its platform expansion in Australia and New Zealand.
The Wirecard platform is now available in New Zealand for e-commerce services and Australia for omnichannel solutions. With this expansion, Wirecard is extending its ecosystem of real-time value added services around innovative digital payments in Oceania.
This leverages on the global Wirecard strategy of digitizing payments worldwide as Australia is leading innovation in areas such as contactless payments, bill payments, digital commerce, and point-of-sale applications, and the market is ready to make the next transformation. Research and Markets found out that the Australian payment mix is shifting heavily toward electronic payments. Consumers are continuing to switch to electronic payment methods from paper-based methods – like cash and checks – for their purchases. The dominant payment method in Australia is cards: more than 50% of consumer payments in 2016 were made with cards. The rapidly increasing use of contactless card payments, the development of new digital cash substitutes, such as mobile P2P payments, and the high adoption rate of smartphones (89% in 2016) position Australia as a strong candidate for a cashless society.
Experian to Offer a New Trended Data ‘Multi-Dimensional View’ of UK Consumer Finances with the Launch of Credit 3D
Experian is launching a new range of services to help lenders evolve their approach to making consumer credit decisions, so businesses can make more informed decisions and deliver fairer, more affordable outcomes for their customers.
It’s now be possible to take a multi-dimensional view of a borrower’s financial health with Experian Credit 3D.
Knowing a consumer’s credit information at a single point in time only offers a snapshot of their financial behaviour. However, by using innovative trended and alternative data sources via Experian Credit 3D, businesses can access an unparalleled set of insights, enabling faster decisions based on a more rounded picture of affordability.
Using Experian’s extended trended and alternative data capabilities provides a more granular and predictive insight into a consumer’s payment behaviour. Drawing on the largest and deepest data source in the market, Experian Credit 3D will also offer an ‘on-the-spot’ summary of key data points for faster customer decisions.
They can also access a new set of value added data blocks to overlay Experian’s risk scores, containing summarised views of more than 50 key data attributes, evaluating payment behaviour over a period of up to six years. They’ll also be able to combine rental, utilities, council tax, property and mobile data, to provide a view of predictive behaviour and affordability – all derived using advanced analytics.
Visa and Billtrust team on digital B2B payments
Visa and Billtrust announced that they are collaborating on Billtrust’s Business Payments Network (BPN), which is designed to streamline the delivery of electronic B2B payments to suppliers.
As a unique supplier-driven B2B payments network, BPN provides a transparent registry of suppliers who accept digital payments, giving buyers and financial institutions the necessary access to automate what has historically been a complex process. BPN makes it easier than ever to harness the increased efficiencies, greater security and lower costs associated with processing digital payments, without needing to make significant changes to existing infrastructure.
“As businesses evolve, digital payments will play an increasingly important role in B2B commerce,” said Kevin Phalen, global head, Visa Business Solutions. “Collaborating with Billtrust on the Business Payments Network will allow us to improve the experience for suppliers on the receiving end of the payment, while enabling our financial institution clients to streamline the B2B payments process for their corporate customers and provide a better way for buyers and suppliers to realize the benefits that digital payments provide.”
