- 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/
After onboarding multiple new clients to its global platform, Change Financial (ASX: CCA) is set to convert its recent product launches into new sales opportunities via Stockhead
Fintech payments leader Change Financial confirmed achievement of key platform milestones and new sales in an exciting quarter update this morning.
Among a number of operational highlights, CEO Alastair Wilkie flagged the successful launch of the company’s Vertexon platform, with additional products under development and a strong pipeline of new work opportunities – both in Australia and globally heading into 2022.
“We continued to grow our sales pipeline and see these opportunities progress through the sales funnel. During the quarter, we converted a significant number of opportunities into contracted revenue which will be realised in future quarters,” Wilkie said.
Importantly, Change commenced onboarding its first payments-as-a-service (PaaS) client in the lucrative US market during the quarter and is now pursuing multiple new clients leads across the US, Australasia and Latin America.
Accompanying that strong momentum, Wilkie and the CCA executive team have a clear strategic vision and key performance metrics to drive further growth in the year ahead.
Business highlights
Across the company’s operational objectives, CCA achieved a priority target in Q4 with the successful launch of Vertexon – a modern digital solution for banking clients to unify back-end process for prepaid, debit and credit cards.
During the December quarter, Change launched the Vertexon SaaS platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Sydney, to service banks and fintechs in the Oceania region.
Delivered on schedule and on budget, the platform is highly scalable with the functionality for rapid global rollouts in response to client demand.
Along with that in-market launch, CCA also completed the beta phase of testing on the new Application Programming Interface (API) for PaySim – its SaaS-based automated payment testing solution that allows banks and fintechs to accelerate their development and product release cycles, the company said.
“The API enables clients to automate load, stress and regression testing to produce comprehensive results reporting and is the foundational component of PaySim’s software as a service offering,” CCA said.
As a measure of its product market-fit, PaySim is already in use by five of the top 10 digital payments companies globally, and marks a particularly exciting growth channel for Change.
Client momentum
In line with those key successes in product development, CCA was also able to convert its momentum into a number of new client wins.
Among them was the addition of a new fintech Mastercard prepaid card program in the US, which will deliver a minimum contract value of US$700,000 (~$1.0m) over an initial three-year term.
Client on-boarding is “well-progressed” and is expected to go live in the March quarter 2022, CCA said.
In addition, the company has secured US$1.3m (~$1.8m) of sales across its new product platform, with “US$1.1 million of Vertexon projects and US$200,000 of PaySim projects for existing clients”.
“Change expects further significant client wins to close in the third and fourth quarters of FY22 as opportunities progress through the sales funnel,” the company said.
The net outcome is that investors can look forward to a steady pipeline of growth for new revenue and cash-flow channels, as CCA continues to build its client base.
Importantly, around 55% of CCA’s revenue has been generated from recurring revenue streams.
Contracted ARR increased to US$4.7m, led by the successful onboarding of Change’s new PaaS client in the US market.
And as evidence of its strong momentum, Change highlighted that its sales pipeline grew by a net-24 opportunities in the December quarter to 158, while 23 new client opportunities were won and closed out.
“There was a significant increase in customer invoicing in Q2, particularly in December, which is expected to drive cash collections in Q3,” Change said.
With a scalable platform that services more than 16 million payment cards and 147 clients in 41 countries, CCA continues to carve out a profitable niche in the multi-billion dollar global payments market.
And following a transformative period in the second half of 2021, the company is set for a big year of growth in 2022.
https://stockhead.com.au/tech/change-financial-continues-to-drive-growth/
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.
Change Financial (ASX:CCA) CEO Alastair Wilkie joined as host of ASX company leaders to share their highlights for 2021 via Stockhead.
It’s been another year of lockdown and supply challenges for all companies dealing with the COVID-19 variants as they pop up. But with challenges, comes opportunities to learn and grow. So as the end of the year approaches, we took the chance to tap our client list and ask CEOs of ASX-listed small caps – from sand miners to cannabis growers to fintechs – what they learnt in 2021, their highlights, and what they hope for in 2022.
Today, we ask: What was your company highlight for 2021?
Alastair explained “We had three really important events”
- Completing our core card management and processing platform in the US and launching it that into market;
- Following that, we made a strategic and transformative acquisition that expanded our US operations into a global payments solutions business. This, in turn, sped up our three-year strategic roadmap by 18 months; and
- We launched our customer ready integrated payments as a service solution “Vertexon.” This was an exceptional performance by the team to achieve that within a year
To hear the experiences from Alastair and the rest of the leader, check out the full article https://stockhead.com.au/news/ceos-look-back-and-share-their-company-highlights-from-2021-2/
Showcasing the features and future development of our Payments as a Service Platform, Change is proud to launch the Vertexon Roadmap.
Senior Vice President of Payment Solutions, Nick Beach, celebrated the release of the roadmap to Change’s website. “Our Product and Technology teams have been investing a huge amount of effort into our product roadmap for Vertexon. Now we can clearly show our broad feature set as well as our current future development plans. I’m excited to share the Vertexon Roadmap on our new website for our Payments as a Service offerings for Oceania, Southeast Asia, LATAM and North America. “
Chief Product Officer, Vinnie D’Alessandro, explains the importance of Change publishing its product roadmaps. “With the release of the Vertexon Roadmap, we now have complete transparency around the Change product strategy. Vertexon offers a wide range of card issuing and transaction processing capability and it can be difficult to articulate just how many features we can offer our clients. The Vertexon Roadmap gives us an elegant method of representing the power of our Payments as a Service platform and our upcoming features.
The roadmaps will be regularly updated as features are released, and new items are added to the development pipeline.
The Vertexon Roadmap is available on the Change website, along side our PaySim Roadmap for the payment testing solutions.
The deal with a US-based fintech company today was a major milestone for Change Financial, as it embarks on an expansion strategy in the US.
Just two weeks after signing a partnership deal with Axiom Bank, Change Financial (Change)(ASX:CCA) is already about to onboard a new client to its payments platform.
Change has just won a contract with a US-based fintech, which is set to become the first card program to be launched under Change’s partnership with Axiom Bank.
The client will transition to Change’s platform and leverage its Program Management service offering – a technology that enables clients to focus on value-added activities within their areas of expertise.
Along with processing, card and program management, Change’s payments platform also provides mobile apps, giving customers digital control of their cards.
The contract signed today will generate a minimum of US$0.7 million (A$1 million) in revenue for Change over an initial three-year term following launch, which is anticipated in Q3 FY22.
Revenue from the program will primarily be generated through interchange, transaction fees, cardholder fees, and program management services – with minimum fee commitments adding to Change’s annual recurring revenue.
Although still unknown at this stage, the company expects to earn more than the minimum US$0.7 million over the term of the contract.
Change CEO, Alastair Wilkie, said the signing was an important milestone as it executes on the strategy to grow in the US.
“We are thrilled to be adding a new client on the Change platform in the US, where we are starting to see increased traction with our product and service offerings,” Wilkie said.
“Supporting a benefits card program is confirmation of the versatility of our platform and also leverages our long-standing expertise in card program management and compliance.”
Expansion into the US
The three-year partnership signed with Axiom Bank in late September was a key step towards expanding Change’s reach in the US.
And as today’s deal showed, it’s a key relationship when onboarding fintechs in the country.
Change aims to onboard potential fintech clients with Axiom as the issuing bank, leveraging its Mastercard registered processor and payments platform, Vertexon.
Wilkie has said the US is a key focus of his FY22 strategy, as the company executes on its growth strategy.
Change’s top line revenue surged from US$300,000 in FY20 to US$8.4 million ($11.3 million) in FY21 – a year described by management as being “transformational”.
The company expects its sales pipeline to grow even further in FY22, as it focuses on global business development strategies.
CCA’s payments technology provides the critical infrastructure that connects existing licensed banks with modern API-driven brands, such as fintechs.
The platform currently manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide, serving 136 clients in 36 countries.
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
The launch of payments platform Vertexton is a critical milestone as Change Financial looks to grow not only in Oceania, but also in crucial markets like the US.
Global fintech, Change Financial (ASX:CCA), is set to further accelerate its recurring revenue base after launching its payments platform, Vertexon.
Vertexon is Change’s new Payments as a Service (PaaS) offering, which provides quick-to-market card and payments solutions to banks and fintechs around the world.
The software integrates seamlessly with the clients’ core systems, and is able to deliver both physical and digital card solutions, as well other features such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL).
The Vertexon SaaS platform is today being launched on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Sydney, to service banks and fintechs across the Oceania region.
In addition to SaaS, Vertexon offers full support for digital and physical card issuing, and is currently supporting over 16 million cards across the US, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
“This market leading technology simplifies the payments experience, helping to lower the barriers of entry for new payment products,” commented Change CEO, Alastair Wilkie.
“It delivers a fast-to-market solution that gets digital and physical cards into consumers’ hands.
“Vertexon will be a key driver as we grow our annual recurring revenue.”
Vertexon SaaS offering
Vertexon is accelerating growth and scalability for banks and fintech clients around the world by providing card and payments solutions.
Through the unifying of cards, payments and processing technologies, the platform effectively delivers a modern digital solution for prepaid, debit and credit cards.
It supports transactions processing by major card schemes including Mastercard and VISA, CB, UnionPay and AMEX.
It also supports core banking interfaces and loyalty programmes, integrated by APIs.
With the launch of Vertexon, Phase 2 of the platform project has now been delivered on schedule and within budget.
BDO Unibank, the largest bank in the Philippines, recently upgraded its card platform to the latest version of Vertexon, which includes new BNPL features.
The BDO’s Credit Card Systems team said the new version added expanded features and carried over bespoke business functions that could potentially give the bank market leadership.
The multi-tenancy design of the platform is indeed highly scalable, with future growth expected in multiple geographic markets.
The platform’s seamless integration also enables it to be easily implemented in any location worldwide in just a matter of days.
Change chief product officer, Vinnie D’Alessandro, said: “We started the build phase of our SaaS platform in April this year, and to have launched our customer ready platform on schedule and within budget has been a huge achievement for our business and clients.”
D’Alessandro added that the cloud architecture can be deployed into new regions in days, showcasing Change’s extensive payments and technical expertise.
The company is now working with existing and new Vertexon clients to establish their PaaS solutions, as Change grows its sales pipeline further into FY22.
CCA is a global fintech company with a technology that provides the critical infrastructure that connects existing licensed banks with modern API-driven brands, such as other fintechs.
Its platform currently manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide, serving 136 clients in 36 countries.
This article was developed in collaboration with Change Financial, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.