By partnering with the London Stock Exchange, TreasurySpring can now offer investment corporations a unique opportunity to access short-term sustainable funding from its fast-growing client base of 100+ cash rich investors.

Through the London Stock Exchange’s Issuer Services platform, TreasurySpring offers issuers a unique opportunity to access short-term sustainable funding from its fast-growing client base of 100+ investors. TreasurySpring’s clients will soon be able to access, sustainable cash investment products from investment corporations, in addition to the 300+ products already available through TreasurySpring’s Fixed-Term Fund (FTF) platform. The partnership leverages TreasurySpring’s existing infrastructure and technology, with the London Stock Exchange providing an accreditation for sustainable issuers, based upon clear, transparent criteria. 

This collaboration builds upon TreasurySpring’s central belief of delivering ‘a better way’ for investment firms to raise short-term funding. Through the TreasurySpring platform, corporations will now have a simple, digital route to seek to raise short-term (<1 year) sustainable borrowing that aligns with their broader Environmental Social Governance (ESG) objectives, diversifies their financing sources, and can reduce funding costs.  

For TreasurySpring’s clients, the initiative offers a new opportunity for excess cash investment to contribute positively to a firm’s ESG agenda, without compromising on core goals of maintaining security, matching liquidity and earning a fair return.

The London Stock Exchange continues to further its vision of serving customers across the funding continuum, encouraging innovation and reaffirming its commitment to supporting the growth of sustainable finance.   

The London Stock Exchange’s Issuer Services platform offers issuers access to the TreasurySpring platform through its Digital Treasury solutions, unlocking opportunities to manage their funding needs in an innovative and sustainable way. 
 1 Sign a simple, short-form unsecured facility agreement via the TreasurySpring platform.
 2 Specify the desired amount, term, currency and rate of financing.
 3 Go live on the TreasurySpring platform, enabling investors to view the offering.
 4 Receive funds when interested investors subscribe.

TreasurySpring’s FTFs are financial products that offer exposure to debt from a single investment grade issuer, for a fixed term. 
FTFs can provide access to highly-rated financial institutions, sovereigns, supranationals or corporations. 
All issuance vehicles on the TreasurySpring platform are regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission as alternative investment funds pursuant to the Alternative Investment Funds (Jersey) Regulations 2012. 

The London Stock Exchange will provide an accreditation to recognise sustainable issuers through the TreasurySpring platform. This will utilise LSEG’s ESG data and methodology to identify companies that meet certain ESG metrics or are contributing to the green and sustainable economy through their business activity and funding frameworks. 

To be considered a “Sustainable Issuer”, an issuer must meet at least one of the following criteria: 
 • Have a Refinitiv ESG score of at least B+, meaning that it ranks in the top third of its peer group. ESG scores are provided by Refinitiv, an LSEG business. 
 • Qualify for London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark, i.e. issuers listed on its equity markets derive at least 50% of their revenues from green environmental products and services, as defined by FTSE Russell’s Green Revenues Classification System 
 • Display its securities on the Sustainable Bond Market, with its published ESG framework aligning with:
 ◦ the ICMA Green Bond Principles 2021, 
 ◦ the Social Bond Principles 2021, and/or 
 ◦ the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles 2020.

Each of the above requires a firm to have implemented a sustainability strategy at issuer level.

“We are thrilled to be entering into this exciting partnership with the London Stock Exchange. Our collaboration is built on a shared passion for finding a better way to deliver greater access, transparency and liquidity to markets in general and to short-term funding markets in particular, underscored by a strong commitment to the growth of sustainable finance.”
Kevin Cook, CEO and Co-founder, TreasurySpring

“Integrating our unique technology and infrastructure with LSEG’s experience, data and frameworks, means we can build a simple, digital solution to a problem that the market has been grappling with for some time. Bridging the gap between significant investor demand for transparent, sustainable cash investment products and the ever-increasing desire for large corporations to align their funding to their firm’s ESG agenda enables us to deliver genuine innovation in sustainable finance.”
Henry Adams, CPO, TreasurySpring

“As a market infrastructure provider, committed to encouraging innovation, we look forward to collaborating with TreasurySpring. The London Stock Exchange is committed to supporting the expansion of sustainable finance through its equity and fixed income markets, and we look forward to extending this to the short-term debt markets through our Issuer Services platform.”
Darko Hajdukovic, Head of Platforms and Product, Primary Markets, London Stock Exchange

 Today Finastra announces the launch of Finastra Managed Services (FMS) on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable banks and financial institutions to access FMS in the AWS cloud. FMS being available in the AWS cloud has already demonstrated its benefits, helping a large multi-national U.S. bank on the West Coast roll out its lending solution.

Users of FMS in the AWS cloud benefit from increased efficiency and scalability, which improves spending and reduces carbon footprint. AWS empowers organizations to modernize their infrastructure, meet rapidly changing customer behaviors and expectations, and drive business growth.

Neil Budd, VP Finastra Managed Services said, “The move to bring our customers high quality managed services with AWS is a great step for Finastra. We’re committed to helping drive efficiency and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), so this move aligns closely with our strategy to help our FMS customers specifically to accelerate their move to the cloud and access the benefits it affords, including scalability and security. It is also a commitment to our FMS multi-cloud strategy which enables us to support customers who value a choice of cloud vendor.”

Yves Dupuy, Leader for Global ISVs, Financial Services EMEA/APAC at AWS said, “We are pleased to provide Finastra with the capability to bring Finastra’s Managed Services customers a secure and resilient global cloud infrastructure that will enable them to differentiate themselves today and adapt to the needs of tomorrow.”

SME funding provider Accelerated Payments today announced the appointment of Steven Conrad as Vice President of Business Development for North America.  Conrad brings over 20 years of experience to the role and will be instrumental in managing the regional growth of the company. He will be based out of Toronto.  

An internationally experienced, multi-disciplined professional, Contrad is a proven leader with career highlights in business development, strategic marketing, finance, audit, HR, communications and change management. He comes into the role with valuable board level experience and a track record of consistently achieving results in challenging corporate environments. 

The new hire comes hot on the heels of last month’s appointment of Industry veteran Neil McMillan as Head of North America and is a strategic move for Accelerated Payments, as it beefs up the size of its local staff to accelerate the fintech’s regional dominance in the alternative finance sector.   

Commenting on Conrad’s strategic role in the company, Ian Duffy, CEO of Accelerated Payments said: “We are delighted to welcome Steven to the team.  He has a proven track record for success and a reputation as a dynamic and strategic thinker. His experience in leading and influencing change in organisations has also consistently delivered results in improving client focus and developing more efficient internal operations. This skill set will be extremely valuable to our company as we continue our rapid expansion into North America.” 

Founded in 2017, Accelerated Payments is one of Europe’s fastest growing fintechs. It provides finance to businesses with an immediate need for working capital to fund new opportunities for growth or keep the show on the road while they wait to get paid. The company’s industry leading platform makes it simple, affordable and quick to access funds in less than 24 hours.  Based in Dublin, with offices in London and Toronto, the company has reported more than 56,000 invoices financed to over 300 companies since it began.

“This is an excellent time to enter the US market and AP is primed for success as invoice financing gains momentum among fast growing companies as a viable option for working capital,” said Conradm “AP’s deep expertise in the US and its hands-on approach to customer support has played a pivotal role in its growing popularity, and in the coming months I will looking forward to helping the firm win more clients across North America - particularly those wishing to expand locally and internationally. Joining AP is a tremendous opportunity for me to play a role in shaping the world of alternative finance and helping to provide much needed liquidity to great companies that are ripe for growth but are not supported by the traditional banking system. ”  

New Partnership Steps Up Cyber Resilience for Critical Systems

Kroll, the leading provider of data, technology and insights related to risk, governance and growth, today announced its partnership with Armis, to expand Kroll’s cyber preparedness and response services for operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) to secure clients far beyond the traditional endpoint.

Armis is a leader in unified asset visibility and security and has a knowledge base of over two billion connected devices, notably in the health care industry. Its asset discovery, network configuration and traffic flow capabilities give Kroll incident responders visibility into ICS and OT environments, which are continually secured through a managed detection and response (MDR) solution, Kroll Responder. The partnership will bring together Kroll’s experience of responding to more than 3,200 incidents every year and Armis’ technical visibility and expertise, to drive threat intelligence, detection and response capabilities. Through the partnership, Kroll is able to minimize the risk exposure of OT and ICS environments for clients, make informed recommendations to improve resilience and respond in the event of suspicious activity.

David Creed, Vice President, Worldwide Service Providers at Armis, said: “By leveraging Armis’ industry-leading platform, this partnership will help both Kroll and Armis clients stay better protected against cyber risks. Together, Armis and Kroll are uniquely positioned with their capabilities and offerings to serve organizations across industries, providing enhanced preparedness, response and unmatched visibility.”

Marc Brawner, Managing Director and Global Head of Managed Services for Cyber Risk at Kroll, said: “Identifying and protecting difficult-to-manage OT and IoT devices is an increasingly critical aspect of a modern cyber security program. The proliferation of these devices and related vulnerabilities is opening new avenues of attack by threat actors. By bringing together our extensive experience in responding to thousands of incidents every year with the Armis platform, together we can significantly reduce these risks. We look forward to working with Armis to further strengthen our client’s cyber resiliency.”

In 2021, Kroll expanded its MDR capabilities with the acquisition of Redscan. Armis further boosts Kroll’s MDR solution by integrating Armis’ agentless architecture to secure clients’ environments far beyond the traditional endpoint.

HCL Technologies UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global technology company, has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Confinale AG, a Switzerland-based digital banking and wealth management consulting specialist and Avaloq Premium Implementation Partner. Through this strategic acquisition, HCL will increase its footprint in the global wealth management market with emphasis on Avaloq consulting, implementation and management capabilities.

Founded in 2012, Confinale focuses on IT consulting in key specialist areas in the banking and wealth management sector. Confinale has one of the largest independent pools of Avaloq-certified specialists in Europe and its in-house developed products and solutions accelerate the implementation of the Avaloq platform. Confinale is one of only four companies to be awarded the title of Avaloq Premium Implementation Partner. With offices in Switzerland including Zurich, Zug and Geneva; as well as Düsseldorf and London, Confinale works with a host of leading banks and wealth advisors.

The intellectual properties that are a part of this acquisition support HCL’s strategy to create specialized vertical domain capabilities and positions the company as a leader in end-to-end implementation and lifecycle management of the Avaloq platform. This builds upon HCL’s recently expanded global partnership with Avaloq and its acquisition of German IT consulting company gbs in association with apoBank in December 2021.

“Becoming part of HCL is an exciting new chapter for Confinale,” said Roland Staub, CEO, Confinale. “We strongly believe in the need for banking expertise combined with software competence and HCL is the perfect fit for this. It is a truly global player with strong heritage in the financial services sector. HCL’s reach will enable us to further our growth and at the same time expose our team to new learning and innovation opportunities.”

“There is significant disruption taking place in global wealth management and this means an opportunity for technology-led innovation,” said Rahul Singh, President of Financial Services and Digital Process Operations, HCL Technologies. “This acquisition significantly strengthens HCL’s digital wealth and asset management capabilities and expands our presence in the heart of the global investment banking sector. We welcome the team from Confinale and look forward to continuing to drive digital banking innovation alongside Avaloq.”

“At Avaloq we welcome the coming together of two of our key strategic partners,” said Martin Greweldinger, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Avaloq. “Both HCL and Confinale have considerable domain knowledge in financial services and deep understanding of our technology. We see the combination as immensely beneficial as Confinale has strong implementation credentials, including being awarded as best implementation partner in 2020 and 2021. We believe that this coming together will help accelerate digital wealth transformation for our clients and in turn increase the pace of adoption of Avaloq’s products and services globally.”

Early results indicate potential for 42% more auto-approvals for auto loans and 45% more auto-approvals for unsecured loans

Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider Scienaptic AI announced today that Levo Credit Union, a 30,000 member strong credit union serving the South Dakota region, is live on its platform. Scienaptic’s platform will allow Levo to increase approval rates, augment its credit decisioning process and improve member experience with faster processing and approval times.

Originally chartered in 1934 and named as the Sioux Falls Federal Credit Union, Levo has, over the past nine decades, garnered over 30,000 members throughout Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties of South Dakota, providing a full range of consumer and business financial services across its six Sioux Falls locations. Implementing Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit underwriting platform will allow the community-focused, members-first institution to boost credit access for both current and potential borrowers.

“When we re-branded ourselves as Levo with the vision of going ‘forward together,’ we intended to empower members to experience the uplift they get when they collaborate with a credit union that understands its members’ needs, and offers services in a personalized, localized manner,” said Steve Stofferahn, VP of Lending at Levo Credit Union. “We believe in the philosophy of giving back, and Scienaptic’s AI platform deployment is another step towards understanding our members better and in a smarter way, approving their loans faster, and enabling them to flourish financially.”

Pankaj Jain, Co-founder and President of Scienaptic commented on the deployment, “It is incredibly satisfying to play a role in a member's journey towards realizing their dreams and through this deployment with Levo, we are able to deliver on this mission by enabling advanced and faster loan decisioning. Our platform enables Levo to give back to their community, and Levo is able to strengthen their decision making infrastructure and approve more members than ever before.”

Early results indicate potential for 42% more auto-approvals for auto loans and 45% more auto-approvals for unsecured loans

Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider Scienaptic AI announced today that Levo Credit Union, a 30,000 member strong credit union serving the South Dakota region, is live on its platform. Scienaptic’s platform will allow Levo to increase approval rates, augment its credit decisioning process and improve member experience with faster processing and approval times.

Originally chartered in 1934 and named as the Sioux Falls Federal Credit Union, Levo has, over the past nine decades, garnered over 30,000 members throughout Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties of South Dakota, providing a full range of consumer and business financial services across its six Sioux Falls locations. Implementing Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit underwriting platform will allow the community-focused, members-first institution to boost credit access for both current and potential borrowers.

“When we re-branded ourselves as Levo with the vision of going ‘forward together,’ we intended to empower members to experience the uplift they get when they collaborate with a credit union that understands its members’ needs, and offers services in a personalized, localized manner,” said Steve Stofferahn, VP of Lending at Levo Credit Union. “We believe in the philosophy of giving back, and Scienaptic’s AI platform deployment is another step towards understanding our members better and in a smarter way, approving their loans faster, and enabling them to flourish financially.”

Pankaj Jain, Co-founder and President of Scienaptic commented on the deployment, “It is incredibly satisfying to play a role in a member's journey towards realizing their dreams and through this deployment with Levo, we are able to deliver on this mission by enabling advanced and faster loan decisioning. Our platform enables Levo to give back to their community, and Levo is able to strengthen their decision making infrastructure and approve more members than ever before.”

Early results indicate potential for 42% more auto-approvals for auto loans and 45% more auto-approvals for unsecured loans

NEW YORK – May 9, 2022 – Leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider Scienaptic AI announced today that Levo Credit Union, a 30,000 member strong credit union serving the South Dakota region, is live on its platform. Scienaptic’s platform will allow Levo to increase approval rates, augment its credit decisioning process and improve member experience with faster processing and approval times.

Originally chartered in 1934 and named as the Sioux Falls Federal Credit Union, Levo has, over the past nine decades, garnered over 30,000 members throughout Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties of South Dakota, providing a full range of consumer and business financial services across its six Sioux Falls locations. Implementing Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit underwriting platform will allow the community-focused, members-first institution to boost credit access for both current and potential borrowers.

“When we re-branded ourselves as Levo with the vision of going ‘forward together,’ we intended to empower members to experience the uplift they get when they collaborate with a credit union that understands its members’ needs, and offers services in a personalized, localized manner,” said Steve Stofferahn, VP of Lending at Levo Credit Union. “We believe in the philosophy of giving back, and Scienaptic’s AI platform deployment is another step towards understanding our members better and in a smarter way, approving their loans faster, and enabling them to flourish financially.”

Pankaj Jain, Co-founder and President of Scienaptic commented on the deployment, “It is incredibly satisfying to play a role in a member's journey towards realizing their dreams and through this deployment with Levo, we are able to deliver on this mission by enabling advanced and faster loan decisioning. Our platform enables Levo to give back to their community, and Levo is able to strengthen their decision making infrastructure and approve more members than ever before.”

 Goldman Sachs announced that it was looking into the use of NFTs, particularly as it relates to the “tokenization of real assets.” Among the many potential real-world uses, real estate and other big-ticket items can be bundled up and tokenized. A major financial player like Goldman Sachs stepping up in that arena would be highly consequential, says one fintech CEO.

“The way that the industry is moving, tokenization could be a gamechanger in the financial sector. Imagine the opportunities, just in real estate alone, that would emerge with tokenization mainstreaming. It would allow middle-class families a way to invest in financial instruments that would have, not long ago, been completely outside of their reach,” said Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.

"We are actually exploring NFTs in the context of financial instruments, and actually there the power is actually quite powerful. So we work on a number of things," Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, said at the Financial Times Crypto and Digital Assets Summit.

“In many ways, the blockchain movement is one which is not just completely revolutionizing the financial sector, but it is evening the playing field. Between the movement for a digital currency and payment mechanism which is not beholden to government or big tech, and the ability to tokenize assets, blockchain-based technologies are changing our everyday financial lives in a way that we haven’t seen since the advent of consumer credit,” noted Gardner.

Modulus is known throughout the financial technology segment as a leader in the development of ultra-high frequency trading systems and blockchain technologies. Modulus has provided its exchange solution to some of the industry’s most profitable digital asset exchanges, including a well-known multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange. Over the past twenty years, the company has built technology for the world’s most notable institutions, with a client list which includes NASA, NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Siemens, Shell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.

“Technology has always been the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. If you can build a technology which improves lives or business processes, you’ll find success. Now, blockchain is bringing that concept to a brand new level,” said Gardner.

 Visma | Onguard, the fintech company that focuses on the order-to-cash process, has appointed Adriaan Kom (41) as Managing Director as of the 1st of June. Kom has been working at Visma | Onguard for one and a half years as Chief Commercial Officer. In his new role, Kom will focus on the further growth of the company as part of Visma. Part of this is to accelerate further innovation in the product portfolio and to make the customer even more central. With the appointment of Kom, Visma | Onguard focuses on being and remaining the stable partner and order-to-cash specialist for its global customer portfolio.

20 years of experience in the fintech world

Adriaan Kom is no stranger to the world of fintech. For the past eighteen months, Kom has been involved in the transition from Onguard to Visma | Onguard as Chief Commercial Officer and the commercial activities related to this. Before joining this organisation, he held various strategic and commercial roles at Altares Dun & Bradstreet, a partner of Visma | Onguard. At both the national and international level, Kom advised B2B organisations from various departments on the application of optimal data management in the field of credit management, compliance, fintech, sales and marketing. In doing so, he focused on innovations in the market and operated mainly at the front end of the organisation. 

Adriaan Kom, on his appointment: "Visma | Onguard is an inspiring company with a lot of expertise and domain knowledge that innovates time and time again to stay ahead in our field. It is an honour that, as Managing Director, I can bear the ultimate responsibility for this organisation. Together with my driven and experienced management team, we will ensure that Visma | Onguard is and remains the reliable order-to-cash specialist for its customers. I look forward to giving even more substance and direction to the path we have taken as a company over the past period." 

John Reijnders, Area Director BeNeLux at Visma, is pleased with Kom's move: "We are extremely proud to announce that Adriaan will become Managing Director at Visma | Onguard. I have come to know Adriaan as an optimist, a person who wants to keep learning and developing and who generates energy. His vision on entrepreneurship, balance and sustainability fit with the culture of Visma | Onguard. Combined with his experience on both the customer side and the trust he enjoys within the organisation, this gives me great confidence about the future for our customers and colleagues."  

NEAR Foundation, the Swiss non-profit that oversees the governance and development of the NEAR protocol, today announced it has partnered with local blockchain community Sankore to launch a regional hub in Kenya dedicated to ongoing blockchain innovation, education and talent development throughout the African continent. 

Kenya ranked fifth in last year’s Global Crypto Adoption Index, and Kenyans are already directly trading cryptocurrencies with each other more than elsewhere in the world. Besides expanding throughout Nairobi, NEAR is also reaching lesser-known cities in Kenya where no other Layer 1 blockchain has an established presence as yet. 

The hub will be led by Kevin Imani, the founder of Sankore, and supported by a core team of four members. Comprised of events, an academy, an incubation program, and the Sankore Bounty ecosystem, the hub will be a promising intersection of Africa’s most talented blockchain developers and international support for their innovations. 

“We are thrilled to be working with NEAR to educate and nurture talented individuals to become world-class blockchain developers,” said Kevin Imani, who will lead the NEAR hub in Kenya. “Our dream is to lead the way in blockchain innovations in providing solutions to Africa’s biggest problems. The NEAR Protocol allows tomorrow’s brightest developers to build custom solutions with scalability, security, and transparency and this hub is the next step in turning our shared vision into reality.”

The overwhelming attendance rates of Sankore NEAR-Meets, where locals gather to gain blockchain education and meet people in the NEAR ecosystem, have demonstrated the enthusiasm of younger generations in Kenya towards crypto, blockchain, and web3 education. 

The gatherings have allowed people to learn, share ideas, network, establish opportunities in the open web, and make Web3 a reality. A recent event held in Nakuru focused on Harnessing Opportunities in Web3 with a NEAR-Certified Developer advising local developers on acquiring blockchain certification and NEAR Developer Certification. 

The education arm of the hub has already made strong connections with local universities, with 77 registered students in the NEAR Certified Developer Workshops, seven students registered to the NEAR Certified Analysts Workshops, and six students already officially certified as developers. 

As for incubated projects, Sankore has previously gained local traction by supporting several forward-thinking projects such as Kilimo Shwari, an on-chain solution seeking to hedge Kenyan farmers against agricultural uncertainties such as bad weather and calamities like the recent locust invasion in Kenya. The insurance is based on smart contracts, gathering data on uncertainties and automatically compensating farmers.

Another incubated project is Ledja, which tackles fraud throughout the African region, and fights against forged documentation. By cooperating with higher learning institutions and initiating document digitisation using NEAR Protocol, it enables much faster, safer, and more secure document verification.

The continent has been undergoing a rapid digital revolution over the past decade, and African countries have been adopting crypto quicker than their global counterparts. Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa increased 1200% from July 2020 to June 2021, the fastest adoption rate in the world. Alongside this has been a growing appetite among African youth for technical training and education opportunities. 

“We are excited by the potential avenues throughout Africa for blockchain solutions, which come from innovation in development, education and talent,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation. “This hub represents a unique opportunity to partner with local talent not only for the opportunities that we know exist today but also for the opportunities yet to be created in the future."

Internationally, the excitement continues to build around the potential of the NEAR blockchain. Unlike other networks, NEAR gives software developers easy access to create new crypto applications, from Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to decentralised finance products and launching new business models and consumer products.  

The NEAR blockchain is also much faster than Ethereum, the world’s most used blockchain. It acts as a bridge to other blockchains, allowing for the free flow of assets and communication between networks for the betterment of all.