Pride and Payments: The Latest Unmissable Open Banking and Finance News

Open Banking Excellence (OBE)?is an inclusive community all year round. We have been inspired by?Mastercard’s?launch of?Belle Block, which is focused on “educating and empowering” women and non-binary individuals to benefit from Web3 technology and crypto.?

Mastercard’s Jorn Lambert says Belle Block is an “exciting and forward-thinking journey to together bring more women and underserved communities to the table” - a journey OBE has been passionate about since our inception.?

Our hearts are still with Ukraine, so we urge you to use the link at the bottom of this email to make a donation. You can also?sign the Fintech Without Frontiers manifesto?to help displaced people find work at fintechs who need help on their own growth journey.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Open Banking Pioneers

?How do you make payments sexy? OBE discovered the answer to that question in Amsterdam during a revealing conversation with Tracey Davies, President of Money 20/20. We also found out what happened at the?M20/20 “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” stage as well as hearing from our friends at Mastercard, Token, and Wise. You can watch the interviews on our YouTube channel to relive all the action of M20/20.?

We will also be sharing the films across our social channels. To make sure you don’t miss this content and more, please follow us on LinkedIn.

In June, we were thrilled to welcome Trovata to the UK and EU with a SkyNews exclusive secured by our talented PR team…what a way to launch! So it’s a massive thank you to Becci, who heads up our global Press Office. Read on to find out how OBE can help get your news and thought leadership in front of your target audience.?

We’re always excited to meet up with our Brazilian familia to hear more about its incredible, fast-paced journey from Open Banking to Open Finance and beyond. A link to register will follow soon but in the meantime, make sure you save the date for our next Brazil-focused campfire, which takes place on September 27th at 2pm UK time. Watch this space!

OBE is Opening Up

Our new coaches Stuart Rimmer MBE?of Inner Mountain Coaching and Charlie Morley, author of Wake Up to Sleep: 5 Powerful Practices to Transform Stress and Trauma for Peaceful Sleep and Mindful Dreams, have started offering coaching and wellbeing services as part of our new Open Up community health programme. Stuart recently delivered a led coaching session with the OBE team in London - and we’re all feeling even more inspired to keep on pushing things forward. Get in touch to see how Stuart and Charlie can help you!?

OBE Founder Helen Child has been out and about on a global scale, spreading the word about Open Banking and Finance as well as meeting the pioneers and industry leaders defining the future of our industry. Helen appeared virtually at Apidays Dubai & Middle East 2022 and chaired a discussion closer to home at the FinTech North Future of Payments 2022 conference. During a busy month, Helen hosted a panel at the Festival of Finance, with some of the comments she made during the event published in an Alt-Fi article that discussed the UK reaching the landmark of six million Open Banking users. We’re always working to stay red-hot relevant and it is a great honour to enjoy conversations with our illustrious peers!

Your Industry needs you!

Open Banking Excellence (OBE) has embarked upon a truly historic endeavour which will give you a chance to fly the flag for your country.?

We have partnered with leading organisations including Accenture, the UK Government, the Department of International Trade (DIT), Innovate Finance, NatWest and The University of Oxford, to develop a first-of-its-kind global Open Finance Index.?

This pioneering global research project will enable us to assess 27 countries’ implementation of Open Banking and Open Finance, paint a picture of each nation’s ecosystem and then place it within an international context.

We have been hard at work gathering data from hundreds of pioneers around the world. Now we would love to extend an invitation to you, a valued member of the OBE community, to?COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE and make your important contribution to the world’s first Open Banking Index.

???From the OBE Community

Ozone API has partnered with Visa and Finerio Connect, a Mexican FinTech, together to support financial institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean as they implement Open Banking. The three companies will offer an “end-to-end set of tools and capabilities enabling rapid implementations – according to market readiness and compliance requirements”. This is a collaboration that’s worth watching!?

Enfuce, a fast-growing European fintech, has chosen Konsentus Verify to protect its customers from unauthorised or fraudulent third parties gaining access to funds and account data. The Konsentus Verify platform enables Financial Institutions to transact safely and securely within the Open Banking and Finance ecosystems. Security is a non-negotiable in Open Banking and will be crucial to driving adoption. Another exciting partnership…

Say hello to Growth

OBE is pleased to introduce a new member of the team:?Gunjan Devtale, who is our new Marketing Consultant.

Gunjan holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management. She is a Certified Event Manager with a strong media and communications background and a history of working with globally renowned brands. If you’ve got industry news to share, make sure you let Gunjan know so she can share it with our community.

Blog of the Month

Mike Haley, Chief Executive Officer at Cifas, shared a blog on Open Banking and fraud, which you can read here. “Open Banking can be a means to improve security and reduce fraud and financial crime, in particular in relation to digital identities and KYC checks,” he wrote. We couldn’t agree more!

Michael Huffman, Director of Fraud at GoCardless, also wrote a blog for the OBE website that focused on payment fraud prevention. “Solving fraud is critical in enabling scalable and organic growth for payment processing companies,” Michael warned. You won’t want to miss what he has to say, because security is key to driving adoption of Open Banking.

Campfires

Our June Campfire dealt with security and fraud - which is a hot topic right now after UK Finance revealed that criminals stole more than ￡1.3bn from Britons last year. The amount lost to APP fraud also soared to ￡583.2m in 2021, a 39% increase in 2020. For some great ideas on how to tackle this growing problem, be sure to watch the campfire here.?

Upcoming Campfires

Don’t miss our next Campfire - Consumer Duty - which takes place on July 21st powered by Moneyhub & hosted by Carmen Reichman, Multimedia Editor of FT Advisor.

PR Services

OBE is behind some of the biggest global stories in Fintech. We’re at the heart of the Open Banking and Finance community and have the edge when it comes to positioning you as a leader in the sector. We can create bespoke packages tailored to your strategic PR requirements to keep you red-hot relevant and build your brand. Get in touch?>>>>> HERE

Our stories in the press

Our friends at The Paypers have published an excellent rundown of our Buy Now, Pay Later campfire, which explored the future of a sector which is only just starting to feel the force of regulation. Change is coming to BNPL. To get ahead of the curve,?read the article here for a summary of the discussion points and watch the entire Campfire on the OBE website. Watch now - and it will definitely pay later. ?

We’re here to help you shout about your innovations and successes in Open Banking. Get in touch to find out how our bespoke PR services can turn your thinking into thought leadership and bring your message to the world.

Best Wishes,

Helen Child & your OBE team