Icon Solutions Lands New Investment from Citi

Icon Solutions Lands New Investment from Citi
  • Icon Solutions received a strategic investment from Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions.
  • The amount of the recent investment, as well as the amount of the company’s 2020 funding round, are undisclosed.
  • Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions also announced it will expand its use of Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to enhance its ecosystem.

Payments technology and consultancy services company Icon Solutions recently announced it received a new funding installment from Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS).

This marks Icon Solutions’ second funding round since it was founded in 2009. Prior to this round, the company received a Corporate Round in 2020 that was led by JP Morgan Chase. The amounts of both today’s round and the company’s 2020 round were undisclosed.

Citi TTS holds banking licenses in over 90 countries and manages a global network with membership in over 270 clearing systems. Clients use Citi TTS to make payments in 145 currencies. As a key part of today’s partnership, Citi TTS will expand its use of the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to enhance this ecosystem. Icon Solutions’ IPF is a low-code based framework that enables banks to develop their own payment processing solution.

“We are on a journey to unlock the full potential of the Citi network and respond to the need for a streamlined and efficient payment processing system,” said Citi TTS Head of Payments Debopama Sen. “Through this relationship, we are removing platform complexity across our multiple products by following a process of ‘de-platforming’ common business services and creating reusable and extensible services that can be orchestrated using the IPF framework.”

Part of this “de-platforming” will help Citi remain flexible and accelerate its ability to respond to changes in infrastructure, regulation, and evolving customer expectations. “Our new approach will empower our engineering teams to respond quicker and more efficiently to industry developments, such as ISO 20022, and deliver high-quality innovation and functionality for our clients,” Sen added.

Icon Solutions delivers payment and technology solutions to banks and financial services organizations across the globe, including BNP Paribas, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, and HSBC. The company’s payments platform, IPF, is used by Tier 1 banks to help them accelerate their payments transformation and roll out instant payments around the world.


Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash

Virtusa Partners with Payments Consultancy and Technology Provider Icon Solutions

Virtusa Partners with Payments Consultancy and Technology Provider Icon Solutions
  • Payment consultancy and technology provider Icon Solutions announced a strategic partnership with Virtusa Corporation.
  • The partnership combines Virtusa’s payments implementation expertise with Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF).
  • Icon Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017.

U.K.-based Icon Solutions announced a strategic partnership with data strategy, data engineering, and IT services and solutions provider Virtusa Corporation. The collaboration will bring Virtusa’s payments implementation expertise to Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF).

The goal of the partnership is to create an ecosystem in which banks and other financial institutions can achieve their payment transformation objectives. Icon’s IPF offers a low-code, cloud-native, open-source framework that empowers FIs to build their own payment processing solutions. IPF’s software development kit and optional modules give financial institutions the ability to take advantage of Icon’s payment strategy and architecture without the danger of being “locked-in” to a given vendor’s technology.

“Icon is committed to empowering banks to regain control of their payments and transform with confidence,” Icon Solutions Sales Director Liam Jeffs said. “With Virtusa, we are expanding our partner network to provide even more rich, collaborative opportunities to equip global banks with unique infrastructure that both streamlines their payments processing capabilities and helps them grow revenue streams.”

Founded in 2009, Icon Solutions made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateEurope. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helped institutions in the U.K. adopt and deploy instant payments. Via its IPF platform and its team of advisors, Icon Solutions enabled financial institutions that did not have the budgets and platforms of their larger rivals to successfully upgrade their payments technology and transition to instant payments.

Since then, the company has grown 20% year-on-year. The firm also has partnered with financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, and HSBC. Tier 1 banks around the world use Icon Solutions’ IPF to accelerate their payment transformations and introduce instant payments to their customers.

Last month, Icon Solutions appointed Donal Fleming as its new Chief Technology Officer. Fleming brings more than 25 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry to the company. He previously served as CTO for Credit Benchmark and payments company Modulr.

Virtusa was founded in 1996. The company serves businesses in life sciences and health care, as well as in banking and financial services. Virtusa has more than 220 clients, and operates in more than 25 countries. Baring Private Equity Asia acquired the Massachusetts-based firm in 2020 in an all-cash deal valued at $2 billion. Virtusa co-founder Kris Canekeratne is Chairman and CEO.


Photo by Expect Best

Icon Solutions Lands Strategic Investment from JP Morgan

Icon Solutions Lands Strategic Investment from JP Morgan

U.K.-based payments technology provider Icon Solutions is getting a boost today from U.S. banking giant JP Morgan in the form of a strategic investment.

The amount of the investment, along with specific terms of the deal, remain undisclosed.

“We’re excited to support Icon with this strategic investment as they look to continually build a simplified, collaborative payments ecosystem, driving emerging payments rails and innovation,” said Sara Castelhano, EMEA Head of Payments, Digital, and Solutions at JP Morgan Wholesale Payments.

As part of today’s deal, Icon has added Castelhano, to its Board of Advisors.

Icon will use the funds to expand development of its Instant Payments Framework technology, a collaborative, open source payments platform that helps clients process instant payments.

To facilitate these instant payments for U.S. clients, Icon has teamed up with The Clearing House to offer an accelerated route to accessing The Clearing House’s (TCH) real-time payments system. The company has also partnered with Featurespace to facilitate integration and block fraud attacks at scale and in real time.

“We will directly benefit from the support, scale and insight of a global banking leader and one of the most visionary technology companies in the world, while retaining our flexibility and independence,” the company said in a blog post. “We can now accelerate our strategic roadmap, invest more in our technology and team, and expand our geographic reach.”

The investment comes at a pivotal time in the U.S. payments scene. The U.S. Federal Reserve is lagging behind the rest of the globe in launching a real-time payments and settlement service, anticipating a delay until 2024. As the current speed of payments fails to meet consumer expectations, which have evolved to demand the delivery of everything from messages to groceries in real time, private players are coming to the market with their own solutions.


Photo by Elena Putina on Unsplash

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Cardlytics Becomes the First Fintech to Go Public in 2018.

Around the web

  • The Banker’s Tech Talk interviews FinanceIT CEO Michael Garrity.
  • Tinkoff Bank launches development hub.
  • Icon Solutions announces strategic GDPR partnership with Digital Control Room.
  • Larky expands partnership with Sharetec.
  • Zebpay adds support for Ripple’s XRP.
  • Pindrop helping PSCU block $1 million in fraud in one month.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Stronger Together: Fintechs, Techs, and FIs Collaborating on CyberSecurity

Stronger Together: Fintechs, Techs, and FIs Collaborating on CyberSecurity

Image Designed by Freepik

Ready for some good news on the cybersecurity front?

Most of the time cybersecurity appears in the headlines, it is a report of a breach that just occurred or a new threat to guard against in the future. Caught between the hack that caught us unaware and the certainty that it won’t be the last, we can lose sight of the fact that there are hundreds of cybersecurity firms with thousands of security professionals that are working around the clock to make our lives online a lot safer. And many of these companies are Finovate alums specializing in service to the financial industry and its customers.

Ted Ross, founder and CEO of SpyCloud, demonstrating the company’s Best of Show-winning platform at FinovateFall 2017.

Importantly, not only are these companies working 24/7/365 to fight cybercrime, but also many of them are teaming up and partnering with financial institutions, retailers, and each other to test their technologies, make key improvements and enhancements, and ultimately get their fraud-fighting solutions to market.

With that in mind – and in line with our October focus on cybersecurity – here’s a look at the partnerships, agreements, and collaborations forged by our cybersecurity-related alums so far in 2017.

October

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Mitek partners with handwriting-based biometric authentication service Asignio to deliver IDaaS solution.
  • Avoka extends strategic partnership with Mitek for digital identity verification solutions.
  • ThreatMetrix and ID.me partner to deliver ID verification for government and commercial digital services.
  • Ledger partners with Intel to boost blockchain app security.
  • BioCatch to power behavioral biometrics for Samsung SDS America. 
  • SecureKey collaborates with Intel to enable consumers to access its blockchain-based digital identity technology via traditional web browsers.
  • Zighra launches flagship continuous authentication product.
  • Kony to launch digital banking solution leveraging Daon biometrics. 
  • iSignthis to integrate its Paydentity UBO Service with Web Shield’s InvestiGate platform.
  • TASCET teams with Secured2 to launch Algo5 data security offering.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Latvian Bank Citadele secures mobile and online banking with VASCO’s DIGIPASS for Apps and CRONTO.
  • National Bank of Canada joins SecureKey’s digital identity network.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • HooYu to provide ID confirmation for U.K.’s Cars-as-a-Service easyCar Club.

Multiple Best of Show winner EyeVerify demonstrating its Eyeprint ID technology at FinovateEurope 2017 with partner YapiKredi Bank.

September

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Vera to provide data security services for GE.
  • BioCatch to power fraud prevention solutions for HoneyTek Systems.

Fintech-to-FI

  • DefenseStorm to bolster cybersecurity operations for Genesee Regional Bank ($551 million in assets).
  • Open Banking selects Ping Identity to provide the identity and access management to underpin the U.K.’s open banking framework.

Fintech-to-Ecommerce

  • Signifyd guarantees fraud protection for Magento Commerce Merchants.
  • Infosys Finacle partners with ToneTag to leverage sound wave technology to drive contactless authentications and transactions.

August

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Jumio partners with Plynk to bring instant verification to Europe’s first money messaging app.
  • FIS and Equifax partner to offer new identity verification solution, OnlyID.
  • Biometric Signature ID partners with National Fingerprint to provide virtual ID proofing and verification services.
  • BioCatch partners with LexisNexis to leverage data and analytics for better risk management.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Samsung to power biometric authentication pilot for Bank of America.
  • Mexican payment processor chooses fraud fighting technology from Featurespace.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • HooYu brings identity confirmation technology to BCRemit.

July

Fintech-to-Tech

  • ID Analytics partners with Acxiom to strengthen risk assessment and combat fraud.
  • HackerOne Powering bug bounty program for Tor browser.

Fintech-to-FI

  • MoneYou integrates Mitek’s identity solutions for real-time digital onboarding.
  • DefenseStorm to serve as cybersecurity partner for Bank of Jackson Hole to enhance security.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • International Air Transport Association chooses fraud prevention technology from Featurespace.
  • Signifyd brings its Guaranteed Fraud Protection solution to Authorize.Net’s U.S.-based e-commerce merchants.

Behavioral biometric innovator BehavioSec, shown here demonstrating BehavioSec on Demand at FinovateFall 2015, has won three Best of Show awards.

June

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Daon adds EyePrint ID to IdentityX platform courtesy of new partnership with EyeVerify.
  • IdentityMind Global to offer Confirm.io’s document authentication technology to its financial services customers.
  • Jumio partners with Monzo for strong identity verification.
  • iovation to integrate its device-based authentication technology with PingFederate from Ping Identity.
  • TSYS partners with Featurespace to deliver real-time decision capabilities.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Leumi Card to use Feedzai’s artificial intelligence platform to fight fraud.
  • Ghana-based Premium Bank selects NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution – FraudGuardian.

May

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Cisco and IBM team up on security.
  • BehavioSec partners with Kount.
  • Trulioo partners with Mitek to add facial recognition functionality to its ID verification platform.
  • Daon to integrate IdentityX platform with Experian’s fraud and identity platform, CrossCore.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Australia-based forex broker Pepperstone to deploy Paydentity verification services from iSignthis.

April

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Fraud prevention innovator Featurespace partners with U.K. digital family banking solution, goHenry.
  • Payment solutions provider Buckaroo chooses AML solution from Fiserv.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Global financial services firm chooses Mobile Verify and Mobile Fill from Mitek.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • Braspag announces integration of e-commerce and anti-fraud technology from ACI Worldwide.

A FinDEVr favorite, HackerOne and its bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure platform leverage white hat hackers to find critical security gaps before criminals do.

March

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Mastercard adds to authentication arsenal with acquisition of NuData Security.
  • Swiss financial sector infrastructure operator SIX partners with IBM Watson to build cyber-security hub.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Daon brings mobile biometric authentication to UnionBank.
  • Co-op Financial Services to leverage machine learning-based fraud fighting technology from Feedzai.
  • Pindrop to mitigate call center fraud for credit union service organization PSCU.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • Saltrex to use Jumio’s Netverify Trusted-Identity-as-a-Service.
  • Featurespace to provide machine learning fraud and risk management solution to CashFlows.

February

Fintech-to-Tech

  • BioCatch brings continuous online and mobile authentication to Nuance Communications’ Security Suite solution.
  • Icon Solutions joins forces with Featurespace to bring anti-fraud protection to instant payments.

Fintech-to-FI

  • Affinity CU becomes “trusted sign-in” partner in SecureKey Concierge.
  • First national private bank of Turkey, Yapi Kredi to deploy Eyeprint ID from EyeVerify for mobile logins.

Fintech-to-ECommerce

  • Feedzai and Merchant Risk Council (MRC) team up to leverage AI and machine learning to fight fraud.
  • MoneyGram using Mobile Verify from Mitek to meet AML requirements.

January

Fintech-to-Tech

  • Arxan Technologies partners with Cisco as to protect connected medical devices.
  • WISeKey and Stratumn partner to provide enterprise-grade process security software based on blockchain technologies.
  • FICO and Ethoca partner to improve card acceptance rates, fight CNP fraud, and reduce disputes.

Fintech-to-FI

  • ACI Worldwide to provide fraud protection for Kuwait’s Shared Electronic Banking Services Company (KNET).
  • NetGuardians brings real-time fraud protection to Nigeria’s Keystone Bank.

 

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Cloud Lending Solutions Picks Up Investment from ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund.

Around the web

  • Digital Onboarding and Geezeo forge new partnership. See Digital Onboarding at FinovateFall next week.
  • Icon Solutions initiates functional testing between Instant Payments Framework and RT1.
  • Veridium CTO John Callahan discusses the potential of iris recognition as a biometric security solution for the enterprise.
  • Harborx Wins two Innovation Awards from the World Finance Markets.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Roostify Celebrates Growth, Role of External Developers on its Platform.
  • Emirates NBD Enlists Efigence for UX/UI Makeover.

Around the web

  • Icon Solutions initiates functional testing between the Instant Payments Framework and EBA Clearing’s RT1 platform.
  • Infosys to acquire product design and CX specialist, Brilliant Basics.
  • TechCrunch: Coinbase to provide support for Bitcoin Bash in 2018.
  • RealtyMogul.com celebrates the first anniversary of the first crowdfunded REIT, MogulREIT 1.
  • AutoGravity announces reaching 500,000 download milestone for its app.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • SwipeStox Parent Company Announces IPO.

Around the web

  • Ghana-based Premium Bank selects NetGuardians’ anti-fraud solution – FraudGuardian.
  • CSI globalVCard partners with AmTrav Corporate Travel Management.
  • Paducah Bank’s insurance agency, powered by Insuritas, set a record: 58% of the customers that asked for an auto, home or business quote bought a policy.
  • Form3 partners with Icon Solutions to leverage Instant Payments Framework for SEPA Instant Payments.
  • Surety Bank taps NYMBUS SmartCore for a Digital-First approach.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Kony Appoints Former Hewlett Packard and NCR Exec as Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Fiserv to Acquire Monitise for $89 Million.
  • CrowdFlower Raises $20 Million to Bloom AI Adoption

Around the web

  • Computerworld Recognizes Jack Henry as one of the 2017 Best Places to Work in IT.
  • Icon Solutions expands into the Hungarian market via partnership with T-Systems Hungary.
  • DefenseStorm hires Steve Soukup as Chief Revenue Officer.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Coinbase Launches Open Source Ethereum Wallet to Promote Financial Inclusion.

Around the web

  • Expensify partners with TravelPerk to make business travel easier.
  • Bento for Business welcomes Lou Friedmann as Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Featurespace’s ARIC platform to power fraud prevention for GoHenry.
  • BBVA and Ripple complete blockchain cross-border money transfer pilot.
  •  Larky to power location-based perks platform for Sharetec’s CU clients.
  • Icon Solutions enhances Instant Payments Framework (IPF) to connect to The Clearing House for US Real-Time Payments.
  • Walletron helps Transactis grow its electronic billing and payments service, BillerIQ.
  • NICE Actimize unveils new, cloud-based, fraud analytics optimization technology, ActimizeWatch.
  • Global financial services firm chooses Mobile Verify and Mobile Fill from Mitek.
  • IBS Sales League recognizes Temenos as “number one best-selling digital and channels solution” worldwide.
  • Algomi teams up with OpenFin to deploy software updates faster.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Debuts: Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Helps Keep Banks PSD2 Compliant

Finovate Debuts: Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Helps Keep Banks PSD2 Compliant

Screen Shot 2017-04-04 at 2.23.38 PM

IT payment consultancy Icon Solutions is tackling the difficult task of helping banks offer instant payments. With PSD2 regulations looming in the U.K. and the industry’s shift to a more open banking structure, simply saying the phrase instant payments may be enough to make a banker break out in hives.

That’s where Icon Solutions comes in. At FinovateEurope 2017 the company unveiled its Instant Payments Framework (IPF). “We believe that unless banks and PSPs are using the same kind of technology as the market disruptors and internet scale providers out there, how are they able to compete?” Icon’s business development director Richard Dear asked during the demo. He added, “What we’ve done is codify Icon’s many years of experience with instant payments, within a new software product, the Instant Payments Framework, or IPF.”

Company Facts

  • Founded in 2009
  • Headquartered in Wimbledon, United Kingdom
  • Processes 20 million payments an hour via IPF

32101803654_6699620276_k

Tom Hay (Head of Payments) and Richard Dear (Business Development Director) debut Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Framework

Richard DearWe interviewed Icon Solutions’ Business Development Director, Richard Dear (pictured), in the weeks following FinovateEurope earlier this year.

Finovate: What problem does Icon Solutions solve?

Dear: Icon believes that real-time or instant payments will underpin the API economy and drive innovation. Yet, current market solutions cannot easily transition to instant payments, are heavy-weight, inflexible and don’t address the significant organizational, technical and business risks.

Icon’s Instant Payments Framework (IPF) is a light-weight software product that enables organizations to process instant payments. IPF comes with a reference implementation for each scheme, for example Faster Payments, SCT inst and TCH. We then enable our clients to graphically fine-tune these predefined message flows to quickly meet their needs. IPF has a small footprint and uses open source technology to ensure speed of deployment, high performance, low latency, and 24×7 availability whilst reducing the cost of ownership.

Finovate: Who are your primary customers?

Dear: Our primary customers are members of instant payments schemes, ranging from tier 1 banks to fintechs.

Finovate: How does Icon Solutions solve the problem better?

Dear: We’ll highlight three key areas:

  1. IPF complements the existing IT infrastructure. IPF is specifically focussed on instant payments and enables banks to rapidly get to market without a “rip and replace” of their existing systems
  2. IPF comes with a reference implementation for each scheme. Effectively we have codified our many years of expertise in instant payments within the product to smooth implementation. We then empower clients to graphically fine-tune predefined message flows to quickly meet the needs of the bank, putting the power to make changes back in the hands of the bank rather than the vendor.
  3. IPF has a small footprint and uses open source technology to ensure speed of deployment, high performance, low latency and 24×7 availability whilst reducing the cost of ownership. It uses similar technology to the GAFA’s and internet-scale providers, allowing banks to compete in the new world.

Finovate: Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution.

Dear: One of the key challenges facing banks when connecting to an instant payments network is how to detect payment fraud during transaction processing. With the increased volume in transaction processing accompanying a move to instant payments, fraud control and automation of manual tasks are key factors in the success of instant payments systems.

Icon has therefore been partnering with Featurespace, the world’s leading supplier of adaptive behavioral analytics technology. Their advanced machine learning platform detects anomalies in individual behaviour to spot new fraudulent activity in real time. Featurespace’s platform will allow Icon’s Instant Payment Framework (IPF) customers to monitor their data in real time and can reduce genuine transactions declined by over 70% and manual processing by over 50%. Featurespace’s ARIC platform complements IPF’s software as both are specifically designed for real-time processing.

Finovate: What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Dear: Firstly, IPF is brought to you by a team of accomplished professionals with hands-on delivery experience of local and international instant payments solutions. Icon has one of the best resource pools of instant payments knowledge globally.

Secondly, with recent advances in technology and the increasing competition from fintechs, Icon’s clients have become increasingly frustrated with traditional vendor solutions based on technologies that are now ten to twenty years old. As a result Icon performed a comprehensive review of leading edge open-source products and methodologies and their suitability to the types of projects we could see happening over the next few years.

The result has meant we are able to work with our clients to help them take advantage of these changes in several practical ways, for example moving to a DevOps approach, as well as building IPF.

Finovate: What are some upcoming initiatives from Icon Solutions that we can look forward to over the next few months?

Dear: Our focus over the next few months is on expanding the client base in Europe and the U.S., across a number of use cases, including instant payments and PSD2.

Finovate: Where do you see Icon Solutions a year or two from now?

Dear: In a year or two we would expect to see Icon acknowledged as the only organisation providing banks with similar technology to the GAFA’s and internet-scale providers, allowing them to compete in the new world of instant payments and API banking. We also look forward to being back at Finovate and showing how we have delivered other use cases based on the same transactional framework as IPF!


Tom Hay (Head of Payments) and Richard Dear (Business Development Director) debut Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Framework:

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • BioCatch and Experian Form Partnership.
  • Finovate Debuts: Icon Solutions’ Instant Payments Helps Keep Banks PSD2 Compliant.

Around the web

  • unblu receives European patent protection for 3rd generation co-browsing technology.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems earns EMV certification from First Data.
  • Payment solutions provider Buckaroo chooses AML solution from Fiserv.
  • Tech Loop interviews GMC Software Technology’s Michaela Rýdlová and Jan Růža.
  • Infosys recognized as “major player” in IDC MarketScape: Service Providers for EMA Utilities Vendor Assessment.
  • Quantopian to deploy order/execution management technology from FlexTrade.
  • BusinessWorld profiles BankBazaar and co-founder Rati Shetty.
  • Neener Analytics accepted into the Citibank WorldwideT4I Accelerator. Come see Neener Analytics at FinovateSpring on April 26  & 27.
  • Standard Chartered announces digital wealth advisory tool

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.