Change was selected in a cohort of 9 Australian fintechs to participate in the Fintech Australian and Austrade program to help financial services and technology providers scale in the US market.
Across May and June, the cohort will attend the in-person program in New York where they will promote their offering, meet partners, clients, investors and mentors to build their US market presence. The cohort will also attend the Lendit Fintech 2022 Conference at the end of May, which includes the Demo Day hosted by WEVE Acceleration and Austrade.
Austrade’s Steve Rank, Trade and Investment Commissioner New York, explained “Australia’s fintech sector will be showcased in New York when 9 of the best and brightest Australian Fintech startups visit in May.”
Change will be presented by Clayton Fossett (COO) and Brian Hodgdon (VP – Business Development and Customer Relations) and promote our Vertexon Payments as a Service and PaySim payments simulation and testing products.
Change will be joined by
Change is honored to have been selected along with such esteemed fintechs and looks forward to building our presence in the US.
- Exclusive six-year direct issuing partnership with Mastercard for prepaid and debit cards in Australia and New Zealand.
- New agreement strengthens Change Financial and Mastercard’s long-standing relationship in the US market.
- Change Financial provides mid-sized banks and fintechs with a faster path to market for prepaid and debit card products.
Australian based global fintech and payments as a service (PaaS) provider, Change Financial (Change), today announced an exclusive six-year direct issuing partnership agreement with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand. Under the agreement Change will begin issuing prepaid and debit cards in both countries from Q4 FY22.
Change CEO Alastair Wilkie said, “This agreement strengthens our long-standing relationship with Mastercard in the US, and transaction processing for existing clients.
“Our partnership with Mastercard will deliver direct issuing capabilities for our Australian and New Zealand clients, giving them a faster path to market for innovative prepaid and debit card products.”
Change uses innovative and scalable technology solutions to provide tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. The company manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide. Change’s payments technology and management services are used by over 147 clients in 41 countries. Clients include BDO Unibank, ME Bank and eftpos Australia.
Dan Martin, Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Australasia, Mastercard said, “There’s a significant opportunity to provide Australian and New Zealand’s mid-sized banks and fintechs with the tools and services to best meet the changing expectations of a more digital world. This partnership brings the best of our respective strengths, including Mastercard’s global payment network and technology, to enable Change’s customers to create and launch prepaid and debit card programs seamlessly, safely and securely.”
This agreement follows Change’s recent launch of Vertexon, a payments platform with host multitenancy and dedicated PaaS platform for Australian and New Zealand clients. Vertexon seamlessly integrates with a businesses’ core systems enabling them to easily deliver physical and digital card solutions to their customers as well as offering other features such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), transaction processing and integrated loyalty programmes.
Change is currently being onboarded on to the Mastercard Network to complete testing to onboard customers onto their PaaS platform from Q4 2022.
“Our partnership with Mastercard will deliver direct issuing capabilities for our Australian and New Zealand clients, giving them a faster path to market for innovative prepaid and debit card products.”
- Change’s direct issuing capability follows partnership with Mastercard in Australia and New Zealand.
- New capability allows clients to reduce operational burden and create new lines of revenue.
- Ability to tap into direct issuance is a key strategy for smaller operators as they go on the offensive with digital payments.
SYDNEY, 15 March 2022: Australian based global fintech and payments as a service (PaaS) provider, Change Financial (Change), today announced the launch of direct issuing services for card programs in Australia and New Zealand. This offering will enable bank and fintech clients in Australia and New Zealand to deliver digital and physical prepaid and debit cards to their customers.
Change CEO Alastair Wilkie said, “Change’s direct card issuing capability allows clients in Australia and New Zealand to offer virtual and physical cards, controlling expenses, reducing operational burden, and creating new lines of revenue.
We can help small to medium sized banks and fintechs compete in a highly competitive market without the operational expense. In fact, we are changing the dynamic by giving them the payment solutions needed to level the playing field against the bigger banks and competitors,” added Mr Wilke.
As the demand for online payments in Australia and New Zealand continues to rise, small to medium sized banks and fintechs are under pressure to innovate and keep loyal customers engaged. The ability to tap into direct issuance is a key strategy for many smaller operators as they go on the offensive.
Traditionally these financial institutions have had few options for card issuing and could not compete with the functionality and technical richness offered by major issuers.
“We have seen in the Oceania region, and specifically in New Zealand, agency services from the major banks restricting the use of digital payment options like Apple Pay to the likes of credit unions and mutual banks. Change can replace these traditional agency service providers to deliver modern solutions that retain and attract customers to smaller banks and fintechs,” Mr Wilke explained.
Change uses innovative and scalable technology to provide tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. The company manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide. Change’s payments technology and management services are used by over 147 clients in 41 countries. Clients include BDO Unibank, ME Bank and eftpos Australia.
Change’s Vertexon PaaS platform seamlessly integrates with a businesses’ core systems enabling them to easily deliver physical and digital card solutions to their customers as well as offering other features such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), transaction processing for all major schemes, including Mastercard, Visa, Amex, JCB and UnionPay and integrated loyalty programmes.
“Our clients outsource the operational work involved in direct card issuing to us so they can receive the scale benefits without the operational burden. Cards, whether digital or physical are a scale business. You need some way to offer and manage that and we can help,” Mr Wilkie said.
With its recently acquired Financial Services Provider (FSP) approval in New Zealand and with its Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) application underway, Change also takes on the burden of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification with the schemes, technology platform and processing, lowering the barrier for entry for clients in Australia and New Zealand.
By outsourcing issuance, banks and fintechs can focus on their core business and leverage the loyalty they’re known for, generating more customer satisfaction while creating new revenue and data streams. And, they don’t have to worry about losing customers to other financial institutions trying to cross-sell competing banking services.
Change’s direct issuing can deliver card solutions for fintechs looking to add card payments to enhance their financial product offerings. Small to medium banks and non-bank deposit takers (NBDTs) now have a partner to deliver modern digital cards to their customers without having to partner with larger competitors.
Award winning cloud banking platform Mambu and global payments as a service (PaaS) provider Change Financial (Change), today announced a partnership to deliver market leading digital banking and payment capabilities in Australia and New Zealand.
The partnership will see Change’s Vertexon PaaS platform, which enables banks and fintechs to deliver physical and digital card payments and processing, added to Mambu’s application programming interface (API)-driven cloud banking platform. With today’s customers expecting on-demand access to multiple digital payments and modern banking experiences, Mambu and Change will leverage an ecosystem approach, working together to deliver fast-to-market SaaS solutions to Australian and New Zealand financial institutions. The partnership will allow seamless integration of adding prepaid, debit and credit card and processing capabilities as well as digital card payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay to Mambu’s platform. Change’s solutions include Buy Now Pay Later features for cards and transaction processing for all major schemes, including Mastercard, Visa, Amex, JCB and UnionPay.
Mambu Managing Director Asia Pacific, Myles Bertrand said, “Mambu’s partnership with Change strengthens our digital payments capabilities, whilst enabling Change to connect its customers to our market leading cloud-native core banking solution.
Change’s product roadmap and focus on the provision of seamless digital payments is a powerful addition to Mambu’s composable cloud banking foundation. We see a great deal of synergy in this partnership, and we’re excited about the opportunities it will bring to our customers.”
Change Chief Product Officer, Vinnie D’Alessandro, said, “The strategic partnership with Mambu supports our growth objectives for the Australian and New Zealand markets. Our card payments and processing technologies are essential for a modern digital banking experience, and our combined solutions with Mambu’s composable banking platform will deliver innovative payment and digital banking solutions to our end customers.”
Mambu General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Paul Apolony, added “Change is a leading provider in the global payments space, like Mambu they’re committed to digital transformation using SaaS solutions and a customer-centric approach. We believe our combined functionalities will enable customers of both organisations to shift to a high-velocity operating model with minimal effort.”
Mambu will also be working with Change to make their payment emulation and testing solution, PaySim, available to clients. PaySim allows financial institutions to simulate and test the full payment lifecycle of their systems including load and stress testing as well as ATM, POS and card scheme simulation.
“We look forward to leveraging the synergies this partnership brings to deliver agile and fast to market results for our customers,” Mr Apolony concluded.
Mambu is the cloud banking platform where modern financial experiences are built. Launched in 2011 Mambu fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Our unique composable approach means that independent components, systems, and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands. Mambu has 800 employees that support 200 customers in over 65 countries – including N26, BancoEstado, OakNorth, Raiffeisen Bank, ABN AMRO, Bank Islam and Orange Bank.
Learn more about Mambu at www.mambu.com
Change Financial (Change) is an experienced global fintech, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) providing tailored payment solutions, card issuing and testing to banks and fintechs. Partnering with over 147 clients across 41 countries Change delivers simple, flexible, and fast-to-market payment solutions.
Managing and processing over 16 million credit, debit, and prepaid cards worldwide, Change also provides the default standard for payments testing for many Australian companies, including Australia’s domestic card payment service eftpos.
Learn more about Change at www.changefinancial.com
Change Financial was features in Fintech Australia’s Five Fintech on Friday along with Kanopi, FirstAML, MyLenda, and Radium Capital
Change Financial (ASX:CCA) partners with fintechs and banks, to provide tailored payment, card issuing, and testing solutions. The global fintech has over 146 clients across 41 countries, managing and processing over 16 million credit, debit, and prepaid cards, delivering flexible and fast-to-market payment solutions. Change’s Vertexon provides leading digital and physical card solutions for banks and fintechs. Vertexon makes it simple for clients to launch full featured digital payment experiences to their end consumers fast.
Five of the top ten global payment companies trust Change’s PaySim for payment simulation and testing solution, helping them meet the reliability and performance expectations.
https://www.fintechaustralia.org.au/five-fintechs-on-friday-february-4-2022/
Mastercard and Visa are moving from 6-digit BINs to 8-digit BINs for prepaid, debit and credit cards in the coming months. Both Visa and Mastercard have confirmed that from April 2022, they will no longer be issuing 6-digit BINs.
With the timing running out, have you tested your cards and payments system are compatible?
What happens if it goes wrong?
- Incorrect routing and authorisation failures
- Unexpected BIN fees / monthly management fees
- Settlement and clearing failures
- Host card management system, affiliate bank processing, reporting failures
- Incorrectly split portfolios across consumer and commercial
The impact of 8-digit BINs
The change to BIN will impact acquirers, issuers and processors. Affected systems may include
- ATMs
- POS devices and terminal
- Switches
- Authorisation and settlement systems
- Data analytics and reporting systems
Payment companies and services providers should be testing their systems to ensure they can acquire, issue and process transactions from cards with 8-digit BINs.
PaySim make testing your payment systems simple
Our payment testing and simulation solution, PaySim helps banks and fintechs ensure their systems are compliant and robust. We have a long history helping companies get ready for changes like the transition to 8-digit BINs.
For our own payments platform, Vertexon, we leverage PaySim internally to ensure we can support any mandated changes from the schemes.
Using PaySim to test 8 digit BINs and more
Payment testing is usually a time consuming and manual process. PaySim makes it simple for you to simulate the full transaction lifecycle and automate your testing processes.
PaySim product is easy to install and a cost-effective tool for accelerating your testing regime.
8 Digit BIN support could be a major internal change for any institution.
PaySim allows you to:
- generate transactions from different sources with different card prefixes.
- Transaction generation
- Transactions with different card prefixes from ATM, POS or Interchange
- Route Testing
- Any updated routing rules are correctly followed
- End to End verification of card prefixes.
- Messages for different card prefixes get processed by the correct processes.
Use PaySim to generate the transactions and authorise replies if required. Then do internal checks that all transactions have been processed as expected with the new 8 Digit BIN rules
If you want to find out more about PaySim or if you’re an existing customer looking for more information about 8-digit BINs, contact us we’re here to help.
Experienced Australian based global fintech, Change Financial, welcomes the proactive approach adopted by Senator Andrew Bragg’s Select Committee in its final report on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre tabled on Wednesday night.
The report’s recommendations for licencing digital currency exchanges and establishing a clear custody or depositary scheme for digital assets in Australia, gives credence to cryptocurrency as a viable currency and payment method. It would also provide cryptocurrency investors with some much-needed consumer protection.
The pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of finance while the global appetite for ease of use and efficiency in payment systems has increased from both the end customer and the provider.
The Bragg report’s recommendation that Treasury should lead a policy review to assess the viability of a retail, central bank-issued, digital currency for Australia would also put the nation on a par with many other countries in the emerging global digital economy.
A Finder survey, released on October 17, found a staggering 18% of Australians already own some form of crypto – one of the highest rates in the world.
Of the nearly 1 in 5 adults in Australia who own some form of crypto, Finder found bitcoin is the most popular coin; Ethereum is the second most popular coin while cardano came third. Two other cryptos Australians currently hold are dogecoin and binance coin.
Bragg’s bipartisan recommendations, if adopted, would bring some welcome regulation to this sector where currently there is hardly any enforceable rules and where local banks have largely avoided the sector.
The lack of regulations has constrained mainstream adoption of crypto, however we have seen countries in Latin America, like El Salvador, embrace cryptocurrencies and support growth.
In Australia, Change is currently working with several start-ups to bridge the gap between crypto exchanges and traditional payment infrastructure and networks using our Payments as a Service platform.
The ability to link a physical or digital card to crypto wallets is essential for driving payment growth and innovation in Australia. It will also open up opportunities for the “un” or “underbanked” as well as faster cross-border payments
Just like our current software as a service (SaaS) model that connects existing licensed banks with modern application programming interface (API) driven businesses and allows the end customer to use eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, and AMEX as well as connect to payment networks via Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay.
The ability for businesses to embrace cryptocurrency relies on support for existing payments technology to power seamless transactions.
Change currently manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide, serving 136 clients in 36 countries.
By Vinnie D’Alessandro, Chief Product Officer of Change Financial