iSignthis acquires core banking tech vendor Probanx for €400,000
Core banking tech vendor Probanx acquired by paytech firm iSignthis
Payment and identity technology company iSignthis has acquired a core banking system vendor, Probanx Information Systems, for €400,000 (€300,000 in cash and €100,000 in shares).
John Karantzis, CEO of iSignthis, says the acquisition has come at a considerably lower cost than that of developing it in-house or purchasing a system from a vendor.
Probanx is a small entity founded in 2000 and based in Cyprus. Its flagship offering is the CorePlus core banking system, targeted at the low-end financial services and banking market, including start-up banks, payment institutions, niche financial services providers and microfinance entities.
It also sells auxiliary applications, such as for digital channels (internet and mobile), portfolio management, payments, lending and mortgages, and integration. Card processing module will be added later this year or next year once the vendor becomes scheme certified by Visa, Mastercard and JCB.
The software supports English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish and Hebrew.
Probanx has 15 customers scattered across the world. These include Marvin Payments in Gambia, Ehud Neor in Israel, Housing Finance Company in Seychelles, and Pacific Eagle Capital (formerly General Equity Building Society) in New Zealand. However, last year, Providus Bank in Nigeria replaced the CorePlus system with ICS Banks from ICSFS.
“For those of you that are familiar with Starling or Atom banks in the UK, the cost of their core banking platform has run into the tens of millions of pounds,” comments Kazantzis.
“Admittedly, their platforms will do a little bit more, but not that much more – and as ISXPay [iSignthis’ operating arm] doesn’t intend to have a retail function, we don’t have the same requirements for glitzy (and expensive) front-end consumer friendly systems.
“The key here is certification – the ‘business’ is certified for use by relevant regulators in Hong Kong, European Union, Isle of Man and into some Caribbean jurisdictions. For wholesale transactional banking, it’s ideal,” he explains.
iSignthis sees a lot of synergy between its own paytech solutions and Probanx’s CorePlus. For example, once integrated, the client portal will allow retail customers to view their ISXPay IBAN accounts online and via mobile.
At present, Probanx’s revenue model is predominantly based upon a software licensing model with annual maintenance fees, with licensed software installed on local servers operated by the banking client. iSignthis expects that the Probanx revenue model can be readily adapted to also include a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, which can be hosted as part of the company’s cloud infrastructure. SaaS services command higher fees, as they are ready to use without the need for infrastructure and case-by-case certifications, iSignthis notes.
“ISXPay’s certified Tier 1 card processing software will also conversely be available as a SaaS service from Probanx in due course, complementing the core banking offering and strengthening the value proposition to small banks and PSPs,” Kazantzis adds.
Probanx will operate as an independent business unit, with Chris Georgiou staying on as a director and managing the business.
