Tag: #finance

Remitly to create 120 new jobs with expansion of strategic operations in Cork

Remitly Global, Inc.  (“Remitly”), a leading digital financial services provider for immigrants and their families, has announced it will increase operations in Cork, creating approximately 120 jobs over the next six months.

Established in Seattle in 2011, Remitly employs over 1,800 full-time equivalent employees either working out of our headquarters in Seattle, Washington, at one of our seven other office locations around the world, or remotely. The mobile-first provider of remittances and financial services for immigrants has served over five million customers globally across more than 75 currencies.

In June 2020 Remitly established its Fraud and Compliance Centre of Excellence in Cork and in that time has grown to more than 100 employees. In this next phase of growth, Remitly will be hiring roles that include Customer Protection Associates, Customer Success Team Managers, Program Specialists and Compliance Analysts.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar said: “Congratulations to the Remitly team on this expansion, which will see the creation of 120 new jobs at the company’s office in Penrose Dock. Great news for Cork and I’m sure the company will have no problem filling the new roles with the wealth of talent in the area. The very best of luck.”

“As Remitly continues to grow, we’re incredibly excited to nearly double the size of our talented team in Cork this year,” said Rene Yoakum, Chief Customer and People Officer at Remitly. “We are working to transform the way immigrants send money globally and doing it in a way that is truly customer centric. We look forward to welcoming 120 new Remitlians to the team who share our passion for serving customers, solving fascinating problems and having fun with talented colleagues.”  

Remitly has recently taken nearly 20,000 sq ft at Penrose Dock, a new Grade-A office complex at the heart of Cork’s new docklands.

Fiona Nagle, Director, Global Risk Operations said: “We’ve already hired 110 employees in Cork and are currently recruiting for 120 additional roles, growing the Cork team to 230 team members this year. The opportunity to build the Cork team with local, and customer-focused talent is exciting.”

Dermot Kennedy, Director, Ireland Operations said: “IDA Ireland has supported our team in a business-friendly environment and has a strong record of collaboration found here.  Industry alignment is also key and we have been able to partner with University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology, which is exciting for us as we look to our future in Cork.”

CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan said: “Today’s announcement by Remitly is very good news from a company that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Remitly’s presence in Cork strengthens the South West region’s FinTech cluster. Its plans for its Fraud and Compliance Centre of Excellence is a strong vote of confidence in the highly skilled and talented workforce available in the region. I wish Remitly the very best with this expansion.”

Remitly is currently hiring across a series of functions including, Customer Protection Associates, Compliance Squad Investigators, Compliance Analysts, Program Specialist and Customer Success Team Managers. To explore opportunities at Remitly Cork visit https://www.remitly.com/ie/en/careers

Tips to calculate the cost of your business loan

A business loan is a very useful thing to have on hand, especially if you have a small business. If you plan to take one out, it’s important to understand exactly how much you’re really paying for it. These easy tips will help you consider which one is right for your specific circumstances.

Certain Data

To calculate the costs of your business loan accurately, you’re going to need a few numbers first. As those at Lantern by SoFi point out, “It can help to do some prep work to strengthen your pitch.” That way, you know what you need to get things in gear and off the ground. It also helps to know if you want to go for a fixed-rate loan or a variable loan. Many applicants are delighted to realize bad credit loans for small businesses are possible.

Interest Rates

One of the numbers that any business owner must know about their loan is the interest rate being charged. Interest rates vary to a certain degree. Having good credit means that you are likely to be offered a loan with a lower overall interest rate. A lender will also look at other factors when coming up with a loan interest rate. This will include the type of business loan you are applying for as well as how much cash you have on hand to run your business right now. It will also include a close look at how much profit you’ve earned since the business has been operating.

Possible Fees

Taking out a business loan means paying fees. There are many types of fees that you might have to pay in order to get the loan into closing. This might include what is known as a loan origination fee. This fee is the amount of money the bank is charging you to complete the loan. It can take many forms. In some cases, flat fee payment is required upfront. A fee of this kind can also take the form of part of the entire loan. This typically ranges from three to as much as five percent. That’s why it is crucial to make sure you know about all fees you’re going to have to pay on your loan before you sign the paperwork.

Calculating Overall Costs

Many factors will go into calculating the total costs. You should know exactly how much you’ve borrowed. You should also know the interest rate you’re going to pay as well as all the fees your lender asks from you as part of the loan process. It’s also best to know the repayment rates that extend over the life of the loan. This is the kind of data that you should have on hand when you are applying for a business loan. It will get you an idea of what the entire loan will cost you. 

Knowing how much the loan actually costs can help you find the right business loan.

Mobile Finance Usage Increases Through Time

It’s been an exciting year for mobile applications, as the COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in extraordinary growth across a wide range of verticals and industries. Fintech applications were already seeing a substantial increase in popularity in most countries, and their popularity has increased even more this year as economies and user habits change to accommodate lockdowns and social distance limitations.

The latest Mobile Finance Report, published in collaboration with mobile market intelligence specialists Apptopia, delves into the realm of mobile fintech, examining global and important regional trends across banking, payment, and investing applications. As well as best practices for finance apps and insights from finance industry professionals across a variety of countries, the study includes an extensive examination of finance app performance and how the epidemic has pushed digital banking adoption. The report is available for purchase here.

More and More People Use Finance Apps

Financial services firms must adapt to give customers more via their applications, according to a recent article from Mobile Marketer, which discussed the report’s results on mobile banking. To cope with the health issue, several financial institutions and investment firms either closed temporary locations or mandated that staff work from home. Meanwhile, many of their clients opted to remain at home to avoid face-to-face interaction. Because of these abrupt shifts in behavior, mobile banking applications are becoming more essential.

 

Investing apps saw a significant rise in activity in 2020, with an adoption of 88 percent and surpassed casual and hyper-casual games, according to the report. One of the main reasons behind this is that the popularity of mobile trading has increased significantly, as people stayed at homes and were seeking additional ways to make money. Furthermore, when lockdowns went into place and customers switched to their banking and payment applications more often, the cost of recruiting these new users dropped by 77% between February and May (a cost that had been increasing before 2020).

In addition to downloads and use statistics, time spent in-app is also on the rise in the personal financial ecosystem. More time spent within the app indicates that users are more interested in tracking their wealth growth and investments, as well as learning about new financial services that may aid in long-term capital gains. This is good news.

There has been a 63% rise in the amount of time people spend on personal financial applications each week, making it the most popular time of the epidemic. Even when compared to sectors like retail and e-commerce applications (65 minutes), entertainment apps (67 minutes), and music apps (70 minutes), these figures hold up (80 minutes).

Aside from people’s newfound interest in improving financial results, a greater amount of time spent in-app may be traced back to the rise in smartphone use among captive audiences during the pandemic, which increased by 10 minutes per day. There has been a 102% rise in the average use duration among Gen Z and millenials, according to research.

While it is undeniable that the pandemic was a driving force behind the uptake of personal financial applications, this change in behavior and attitude had been developing for many years prior to the outbreak. As the number of people using digital tools to monitor their spending, manage their money and increase their assets grows, the potential for growth in the personal finance sector seems limitless.

Targeting the Users

If consumers don’t stay around and keep using the applications, gaining a large number of them is of little value to fintech firms. In his piece on retention rates, Ian Kar, a financial sector thought leader and publisher of the industry magazine Fintech Today, looked at data from Adjust’s study.

In the latter stages of fintech businesses, customer loyalty is becoming an important measure. A company’s lengthy yet high payback over time balances historically growing acquisition costs such that these firms are profitable per-user over time due to sticky customers staying on the platform for years and increasing their engagement over time. Making a banking app that people want to use for years is a difficult aspect of the problem to tackle.

In all fintech sub-verticals, consumers’ preferences are shifting toward mobile devices, and businesses are responding by expanding their product lines to include new features and services that eliminate the need for in-person contacts. Fintech is a sector to keep an eye on because of the rise in digital usage and the possibility of unexplored markets.

Building client trust is the most critical step in the development of a personal financial app. Why should a user select your personal financial services over the many others on the market? Customer confidence in your brand has a lot to do with things like the simplicity of use and an overall smooth experience.

Personal finance brands may now build trust in a variety of methods, including via brand perception campaigns and the generation of social proof, such as through client testimonials, referral programs, or word-of-mouth from influential individuals in the industry. It doesn’t matter what you do, always keep in mind that running ads to build your brand’s trustworthiness isn’t enough. 

The Money Journal: A Simple, Analogue Way to Tracking Your Money

“There’s an app for that” has become true in almost every situation of modern life. People are tracking everything they do, from drinking water, to where their kids are, steps they’ve taken, and how much they spend. Apps and computer programs are also reminding us to do things, automating tasks like our grocery lists and distracting us from work or studies.

There’s no getting away from how intrinsically linked we are to modern technology in our daily lives. However, there may be times when going analogue is the right option. 

You don’t always need a program to do things for you. Additionally, sometimes it’s better for you to be actively involved in the process rather than to let technology do the work for you. Budgeting and tracking how much you spend is one such task.

Getting yourself an old-school ledger or creating a diary of your spending habits can give you a far greater sense of control. You are seeing the amounts you’ve spent in black and white on the paper, and you are actively adding things up and seeing the results. Being this involved in the numbers can help you get to grips with the money you’re spending and how you can better budget things moving forward.

Start By Picking Your Style

There are various ways to track the money you spend. Which one you choose will depend on your personality and the way you prefer to focus:

  • Daily Inputs

With this method, you note each purchase you make in your ledger as it happens or as a wrap up at the end of the day. This allows you to see exactly what you’re spending on a daily basis and gives you an incredibly accurate breakdown of your habits. This will help you see immediately what your triggers could be for indulging or overspending, allowing you to change bad habits into good ones over time.

This method is also extremely helpful because you can use your daily journal to reconcile your monthly statements for your credit and debit cards. It’s not always that easy to work out exactly what you’ve spent your money on at the end of the month. Especially when the vendor uses a merchant code or name that is nothing like the name of the actual business.

  • Monthly Audits

This method isn’t completely different from the daily method. For it to work properly, you need to keep a record of when and where you make purchases that don’t have some kind of automatic electronic record. Your cash purchases are often forgotten about during the month. So, make sure you have a book (or an app) to keep a note of those for the end of the month.

Then, at the end of each month, sit down with your credit or debit card slips, bank statement, and notes of your cash purchases, and get to work. While this method may take a few hours once a month, you don’t have to worry about jotting down every time you spend money as you go.

  • By Category

When inputting your daily and monthly spends, it’s a good idea to organize them according to a system. Many people like to go by category. These include groceries, clothing, fuel or transportation, rent, for the home, eating out, etc. With this method, you can also easily include how much money you get in from your job and any other sources of income you may have.

  • By Retailer

Another way to organize your purchases is to go by retailer or store. People like to see where they are spending more money than they should or which stores might be a particular weakness for them.

Setting Up Your Analog Journal

A bullet journal is one of the easiest ways to set up an analogue method for tracking your expenses and putting together a comprehensive budget that is easy to follow. 

Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you need to be good with design and colour, or use an array of cute decorations. Bullet journals are highly functional task management systems, you can just make them as elaborate and decorative as you want to.

  • Monthly Budget vs Spend

The best place to start is with a monthly budget. 

You may need to track your spending habits for a few months before you can start making accurate budgets. Once you have that, you can record how much you want to spend on categories or in certain stores each month and compare it to what you actually spend each month throughout the year.

  • Bill Tracker

This is where you’ll track each purchase that you make. You can have one page for daily purchases and another page for the monthly bills like rent, insurance or your Netflix subscription. This is where you’ll get accurate information to project your monthly and yearly budgets.

  • Debt Payments

Keeping track of your debt is always important. It’s also nice to be able to see a visual representation of your debts and how each payment you make is getting you closer to the end. You can also use this to help you decide if it’s worth taking out a loan or line of credit for a future purchase.

Keep in mind that if you reside in the area, you may even apply for bad credit loan in Singapore to help cover urgent financial gaps. This option, however, should be approached with careful consideration of repayment terms.

 

  • Savings

It’s also important to track what you have in your savings and how much you can put into that account or investment each month. 

If you earn any extra income from a side hustle, for doing paid surveys or any other kind of work, don’t fritter it away. Record how much you have made and save at least a portion of it if possible. You can watch the money grow and calculate how long it will take you to reach a particular goal.

  • The Contents

No journal is complete without a contents page. This will help you find the information you need easily and to flick to the right page quickly when you want to input new information. You can also colour-code each section with tabs, making it easier to jump to the right page directly.

There’s merit in using apps and there are advantages of going analogue. If you find you struggle to keep tabs on your spending even when you’re using an app, keeping written records is the best alternative. 

It’s common knowledge that it’s easier to commit something to memory if you write it down, and this applies to your money and financial situation too.

NESTLUMS released TODAY & ALREADY TRENDING on APP STORE – to TEACH KIDS THE VALUE OF MONEY. #Nestlums #Finance #Cashless

Nestlums – an innovative app to teach children about the working of money in our virtually cashless, digital world, where it may seem invisible to them –  launched today and is already trending on the App Store and has been for us on site too which is really great news for the company.

Wayne Travis (Creative Director of a  leading fintech company, Thought Machine) and his team mates, as parents concerned about their young kids limited understanding of money in our increasingly cashless digital world, decided to create an app to teach them the essentials, in the form of a game so enchanting they will be begging to keep on playing and learning:
Neslums is a new mobile app which offers modern money training for children through a unique, character-driven, gamified experience, without connecting to a bank account or touching any real money.
The modern digital world presents new challenges in teaching children about money. Research released today by Thought Machine shows that in 1 in 4 UK families, a child had made an unauthorised purchase online. When it came to parents teaching their children about financial literacy, 80% believe it is important that their child learns financial literacy concepts from an early age. Although 1 in 3 parents said that they were unsure their child currently has the necessary understanding of financial literacy concepts for their age.
The release of the research coincides with the launch of Nestlums, a new mobile app created by Cauldron in partnership with BAFTA nominated game developers Glitchers. The app offers modern money training for children through a unique, character-driven, gamified experience, without connecting to a bank account or touching any real money. The Nestlums team hope the app can provide tangible support in building financial understanding, especially where digital money is concerned.
“We know that getting to grips with money can be hard for kids, especially as it becomes increasingly less visible in the modern world. My seven year old daughter barely has a clue what’s going on when I tap my card in a shop!”explains Wayne Travis, Creative Director from Cauldron. “With the growing prevalence of virtual currencies and the rise of the dreaded in-app purchase, we wanted to reinforce the idea of earning money honestly, appreciating the value of money even if you can’t see it or touch it, and not blowing it recklessly.”
As families have been spending more time at home, it is likely children are also spending more time online. The Nestlums team hope the app can provide tangible support in building financial understanding, especially where digital money is concerned.
Nestlums can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for a one-off payment of £2.99, and features no subscription charges, in-app purchases or advertising.
For more information on Nestlums, visit: https://www.nestlums.io

An innovative new APP to keep parents sane and CHILDREN having FUN whilst LEARNING FINANCIAL LITERACY! #Nestlums

Launching today, Nestlums is a new mobile app which offers modern money training for children through a unique, character-driven, gamified experience, without connecting to a bank account or touching any real money.

The modern digital world presents new challenges in teaching children about money. Research released today by Cauldron shows that in 1 in 4 UK families, a child had made an unauthorised purchase online. A third of parents also said that they were unsure their child has the necessary understanding of financial literacy concepts for their age. 

As families have been spending more time at home, it is likely children are also spending more time online. The Nestlums team hope the app can provide tangible support in building financial understanding, especially where digital money is concerned.

Created for people who want their children to develop good financial habits early, Nestlums harnesses the power of play to make a typically uninteresting subject engaging and rewarding. In the app, charming ‘Nestlum’ characters encourage kids to earn virtual currencies through the successful completion of real life tasks, set by parents in the app. Upon completion, children can then go on to manage, save and spend their earnings.

 

“We know that getting to grips with money can be hard for kids, especially as it becomes increasingly less visible in the modern world. My seven year old daughter barely has a clue what’s going on when I tap my card in a shop!” explains Wayne Travis, Creative Director from Cauldron. “With the growing prevalence of virtual currencies and the rise of the dreaded in-app purchase, we wanted to reinforce the idea of earning money honestly, appreciating the value of money even if you can’t see it or touch it, and not blowing it recklessly.”

 

Nestlums features two virtual currencies: ‘Gems’, which let kids unlock and play games within the app, and ‘Coins’ which represent a tally of real world money that can be honoured by parents as actual pocket money outside of the app.

 

“We designed the wise little creatures in Nestlums to tune into a child’s innate sense of empathy, and give them something to bond and play with as they progress. We’ve always said to parents: if they won’t listen to you, maybe they’ll listen to the Nestlums!” explains Fox Rogers, Design Director at Cauldron. “We are striving to create responsible financial behaviours that translate into the real world.”

 

Nestlums is the first public initiative from Cauldron, the recently re-branded creative arm of fintech pioneers Thought Machine, and has been created in partnership with BAFTA award nominated games developers Glitchers.

The app is aimed at younger children who do not yet have their own bank account or smartphone, and is intended to live on the parent or guardian’s device. Nestlums has been specifically designed as a safe space for children to learn financial behaviours. For example, the app does not connect to a bank account or card and features a secure ‘grown-ups’ section for managing a child’s tally of coins against money spent/honoured in the real world. 

“Multiple children can be set up in Nestlums, and there is no limit to the number of tasks that can be set, rewards given, or games played, allowing Nestlums to be adapted to suit every family.” says lead Game Developer, Max Scott-Slade at Glitchers. 

 

Nestlums can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for a one off payment of £2.99, and features no subscription charges, in-app purchases or advertising.

For more information on Nestlums, please visit: https://www.nestlums.io