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audax Financial Technology and Paymentology forge Strategic Partnership to provide an end to end Cards-as-a-Service solution

Press Release

audax Financial Technology and Paymentology forge Strategic Partnership to provide an end to end Cards-as-a-Service solution

audax

15 May, 2024

  • Faster Time to Market: The partnership between audax and Paymentology allows financial institutions (FIs) to launch card programs quickly and efficiently, eliminating the need for complex infrastructure development.
  • Cost Savings: By leveraging the Cards-as-a-Service (CaaS) proposition, banks can significantly reduce costs associated with traditional methods, enhancing their bottom line while offering innovative payment solutions that improve the overall customer experience within own channels and in collaboration with co-brands.
  • Increase Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty: Banks and aspiring FIs can now introduce customised card programs swiftly to enhance customer engagement and deepen brand loyalty through real time data insights.
audax-paymentology-banner

SINGAPORE, 14 May 2024Paymentology, the leading next-gen global issuer-processor, today announced a strategic partnership with audax Financial Technology, (“audax”), a comprehensive digital banking technology solutions provider backed by Standard Chartered Ventures. This collaboration transforms the payments landscape in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and allows financial institutions (FIs) to seamlessly launch and manage their own branded card program in a matter of months.

 

With CaaS, banks and FIs can deliver frictionless payment experiences without the complexities associated with traditional methods, including time-consuming technical integrations into incumbent systems such as core banking, and dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership. By leveraging audax’s all-encompassing digital banking and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions alongside Paymentology’s advanced card processing capabilities, this partnership addresses a market gap and niche for CaaS in these regions, presenting a scalable and quick-to-market model that simplifies the initiation and management of the card-issuing process.

 

Paymentology leads the payments industry with its superior multi-cloud platform that supports shared and dedicated processing instances for all card types. Paired with audax’s digital banking technology solutions, the combined offering empowers banks and FIs to swiftly scale and modernise their existing infrastructure. This enables them to efficiently manage large volumes of customer data concurrently, deploy innovative card programs, streamline operations, reduce time-to-market, and ultimately enhance the customer experience.

 

The news comes as banks across the board face significant challenges amid economic uncertainty, with earnings reports highlighting the developing trend of slowing revenue growth and decelerating margin expansion. Despite similar regulatory and tax structures to larger banks, many institutions, including community and regional banks, often operate with lower reserves and less stable funding bases, rendering them more susceptible to financial volatility.

 

To fortify their revenue stream, banks and FIs must explore innovative ways to serve their existing customer base and attract new clients. audax and Paymentology’s joint solution aims to help banks and FIs streamline and scale the operations of card programs without the challenges associated with navigating complicated regulatory frameworks.

 

Merusha Naidu, Global Head of Partnerships at Paymentology commented on the partnership: “We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with audax. Through this collaboration, we will empower banks to thrive in the digital age by utilising audax’s digital banking platform in combination with our cloud-native next-generation platform. We aim to modernise the infrastructure of financial services institutions by accelerating the deployment of card programmes for issuers and co-brands, empowering them to run programmes based on customer and market needs efficiently.”

 

Michael Breen, Head of Commercial at audax added: “Our partnership announcement is timely as we continue to grow our presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Together, we enable banks to increase their customer base, balance sheet and launch compelling, relevant products at speed, meeting customer needs. By leveraging audax and Paymentology’s combined expertise, banks can navigate economic uncertainty and bolster their bottom lines by offering innovative payment solutions.”

 

About Paymentology

Paymentology is the leading next-gen global issuer-processor. It gives banks, fintechs and telcos the technology, team, and experience to easily issue and process any type of physical or virtual card; debit, prepaid, credit, BNPL, revolving and more. Anywhere in the world, rapidly and at scale.

Paymentology’s superior multi-cloud Platform offering both shared and dedicated processing instances, vast global presence and richer real-time data, set it apart as the leader in payments. Their payments experts bring deep, local market knowledge on the ground in 60 countries, across 14 time zones, guaranteeing 24/7 support. Paymentology is deeply committed to increasing financial inclusion worldwide, and to making a positive impact in the communities in which it operates.

For more information, visit https://www.Paymentology.com/.

 

About audax Financial Technology

audax Financial Technology is a comprehensive digital banking solutions provider empowering banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed. audax Financial Technology has enabled new business models and revenue streams for Standard Chartered under the SC nexus proposition, becoming the first global bank to provide Banking-as-a-Service in Asia.

For more information, please visit www.audax.io and follow audax on LinkedIn.

 

audax Financial Technology and Thought Machine announce strategic partnership to create customised end-to-end digital banking solutions, at faster speeds and lower costs

Press Release

audax Financial Technology and Thought Machine announce strategic partnership to create customised end-to-end digital banking solutions, at faster speeds and lower costs

audax

28 February, 2024

  • Holistic integration for modern customer needs: Delivering pre-integrated digital banking technology and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions.
  • Flexibility and scalability: Integrating audax’s scalable digital banking technology platform with Thought Machine’s highly configurable core banking technology, enabling institutions to swiftly modernise infrastructure and develop fully customisable financial products for end customers.
  • Seamless coexistence with legacy systems: Facilitating the swift establishment of digital banking or BaaS within months.
audax logo and Thought Machine logo

SINGAPORE, 28 February 2024audax Financial Technology (“audax”), a comprehensive digital banking technology solutions provider backed by Standard Chartered, and Thought Machine, a global leader in next-generation core banking technology, have announced a strategic partnership to transform and modernise the banking technology landscape.

 

Digital banking is projected to reach a USD13 trillion opportunity for banks by 2032[1]. With the launch of this partnership, audax and Thought Machine are positioned as key players in this expanding market. The partnership is centred on delivering innovative digital banking and BaaS solutions that meet consumers’ needs, at scale with faster speeds and lower costs.

 

The collaboration between audax and Thought Machine combines audax’s scalable digital banking platform that enables seamless API-based integration with partners and banks, with Thought Machine’s highly configurable cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core, which enables financial institutions to offer fully customisable financial products for their end customers. This integrated solution significantly reduces the need for multiple vendors, streamlining the entire process.

 

The flexibility and scalability of the combined technologies allows incumbent banks and financial institutions to swiftly modernise their infrastructure and create new revenue streams by opening new business models that offer various financial products at scale.

 

audax and Thought Machine’s joint solution can also seamlessly integrate with a bank’s current infrastructure, enabling financial institutions to rapidly establish a new digital bank or offer BaaS at speed. The partnership, combined with ready components and extensive customer journeys, facilitates seamless plug-and-play experiences and eliminates the complexities of development and legacy system integration for swift market entry.

 

“audax understands that the future of financial services hinges on the strategic collaboration between technology solution providers to empower incumbent banks and financial institutions as they begin their journey to adapt to a rapidly evolving financial services landscape,” said Kelvin Tan, CEO of audax. “This joint solution provides customers with the ability to obtain hyper-customised offerings, and we look forward to delivering these robust end-to-end digital banking solutions that address the diverse needs and use cases and needs of various financial institutions.”

 

Randy McFarlane, global head of partnerships, Thought Machine, added, “Our collaboration with audax reduces the challenges of building a modern technology stack, providing a seamless, efficient, and scalable digital banking experience. By integrating both innovative technologies we are empowering banks and financial institutions to navigate the complexities of modern banking with confidence.”

 

audax Financial Technology

audax Financial Technology is a comprehensive digital banking technology solutions provider empowering banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed. audax Financial Technology has enabled new business models and revenue streams for Standard Chartered under the SC nexus proposition, becoming the first global bank to provide Banking-as-a-Service in Asia.

For more information, please visit www.audax.io and follow audax on LinkedIn.

 

Thought Machine

Thought Machine has developed the foundations of modern banking with its cloud-native core banking and payments technology. Its cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core, is trusted by leading banks and financial institutions worldwide, including Intesa Sanpaolo, ING Bank Slaski, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, SEB, Lunar, Atom bank, Curve, and more.

Vault Core and Vault Payments have been written from scratch as entirely cloud-native technologies, giving banks full control to run any bank, product, and payment set to flourish in a rapidly changing world.

Thought Machine is a global team spread across offices in London, New York, Singapore, and Sydney and has raised more than $500m in funding.

For more information, visit thoughtmachine.net.

 

[1] Digital Banking Market Size by Service (Global Market Insights, 2022)

SC Ventures launches audax Financial Technology to help financial institutions accelerate digital banking capabilities

Press Release

SC Ventures launches audax Financial Technology to help financial institutions accelerate digital banking capabilities

audax

21 September, 2023

  • audax is designed to help banks compete in the digital age, pursue new digital business models, while complementing existing core systems
  • audax is the digital banking platform that powered the first global bank to offer Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) in Asia
  • The launch follows audax’s successful commercialisation of its BaaS offerings for Standard Chartered with leading Indonesian all-commerce platform Bukalapak

SINGAPORE, 21 September 2023 – SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, launches audax Financial Technology (“audax”), a digital banking technology solutions provider. It is designed to empower banks and financial institutions to accelerate their digital transformation, deliver new business models, serve new customer segments and derive new revenue streams.

 

By 2030[1], the business-to-business to any-end-user (B2B2X) market is expected to reach USD440 billion in annual revenues, driven by advancements in the financial infrastructure, digital banking and embedded finance space. audax will play a part in this growth market by helping incumbent banks in two distinct use cases: Digital Banking and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS).

 

audax provides an end-to-end digital banking platform with modularised capabilities that are designed to efficiently handle millions of customer data concurrently. Its plug-and play solution serves the entire client lifecycle – from client and staff interfaces, to deposits and lending products, to client servicing and data reporting. Built to complement incumbent banks’ core systems, audax’s infrastructure-agnostic technology also enables banks to pursue modern digital transformation without the need for costly and time-consuming in-house development or migration.

 

Prior to launch, audax’s solution powered Standard Chartered nexus (“SC nexus”), a white-label plug-and-play BaaS offering for large ecosystem players. Through SC nexus, Standard Chartered Bank was the first global bank to provide BaaS in Asia. Successful partnerships, include Bukalapak, an Indonesian all-commerce platform. Using audax’s technology, Standard Chartered nexus enabled BukaTabungan to simplify its digital account opening journey to be as fast as two minutes, since customers do not have to visit a physical branch or speak to a banker to complete an application. This is achieved through audax’s advanced automation, plus security technologies that employ artificial intelligence, biometric facial recognition and E-KTP (Indonesia’s biometrics-enabled ID programme) validation.

 

With audax’s platform, SC nexus will help Sociolla, a beauty e-commerce platform, set up digital banking for their customers. audax is also slated to support SC nexus with its third partner in a second market, targeted to launch in Q4 of 2023.

 

“audax’s digital banking solutions will help financial institutions unlock more opportunities,” said Alex Manson, who leads SC Ventures. “The successful partnership between Standard Chartered and Bukalapak to launch BukaTabungan is an example of how audax has provided a truly paperless, digital banking access, serving Bukalapak’s ecosystem of more than 150 million users and 20 million business owners. Going forward, audax can achieve the same for any other financial institution looking to partner with any platform.”

 

Headquartered in Singapore, audax aims to become a home-grown global technology company. The fintech is focused on accelerating the technology ecosystem starting with the APAC region. Its current mission is to empower banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed with audax’s digital banking capabilities.

 

Kelvin Tan, the former Managing Director and Global Head of SC nexus, will lead audax as its CEO, together with most of his incumbent team. audax will continue to serve Standard Chartered in a commercial capacity by powering its BaaS proposition, SC nexus, for current and future partnerships. Having navigated complex technical and regulatory environments within the ecosystem of a global bank and boasting a proven track record in driving client success through its external partnerships, the team is confident in helping incumbent banks achieve similar digital transformation results successfully.

 

“The meaning of audax is ‘courage’ – and that is exactly the defining characteristic of the team we’ve built and needed for what we are about to achieve,” Tan said. “We are excited to push the frontiers of what is considered possible. audax has showcased the potential of BaaS and how it has scaled the digital business for Standard Chartered, enabling them to acquire new-to-bank customers at a fraction of traditional customer acquisition costs. We are now ready to scale it for other banks and financial institutions globally, helping everyone create better value for their business without risking their existing estate.”

 

audax Financial Technology

audax Financial Technology is a comprehensive digital banking solutions provider empowering banks and financial institutions to scale and modernise at speed. audax Financial Technology has enabled new business models and revenue streams for Standard Chartered under the SC nexus proposition, becoming the first global bank to provide Banking-as-a-Service in Asia.

For more information, please visit www.audax.io and follow audax on LinkedIn.

 

SC Ventures

SC Ventures is a business unit that provides a platform and catalyst for Standard Chartered to promote innovation, invest in disruptive financial technology and explore alternative business models. SC Ventures was established in 2018 as a new business unit to lead digital innovation and to invest in Financial Technology companies. It aims to scale breakthrough business models, having launched 30+ new ventures, 2,700+ fintech Bridge community and 22 portfolio companies under its belt.

For more information, please visit www.scventures.io and follow SC Ventures on LinkedIn.

 

For media enquiries, please contact:

Media Contact:

Fernn Lim, Chief of Staff, audax [email protected]

Chi-an Chang, PR & Comms Lead, SC Ventures [email protected]

 

[1] Reimagining the Future of Finance (BCG & QED, 2023)