Glue42 Iress Connector automates and optimizes trading workflows to increase efficiency for business and technology users 

Glue42, the company that delivers integrated desktop experiences to financial institutions globally, and Iress are teaming up to optimize the user experience of traders and wealth managers using the Iress Order System (IOS+) by automating the workflow between IOS+ and other prevalent applications on the financial desktop. With actionable information now readily available at their fingertips, users can gain a competitive edge and create a hyper-personalized experience for their own clients. 

IOS+ is a complete trading and risk management software solution for global markets. Through the integration with Glue42, Iress users can seamlessly interact with applications such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Teams, Bloomberg and Virtu Analytics. 

Russell Thornton, Head of Trading Strategy, Iress, said, “Our clients are inundated with information and as we evolve with their needs, it’s imperative that the Iress Order System operates in harmony with other apps on the financial desktop. In isolation there is a limit as to what can be achieved and therefore, enabling Iress to participate in cross-application workflows just made sense.”   

“Glue42 helps us stay connected with other systems used by our clients,” he continued. “It’s all about enabling business and technology users to be more efficient and productive. Glue42’s desktop integration platform helps us execute on our vision at scale and in a cost-effective manner. It’s a win-win for everyone.”  

As part of the partnership, Glue42 has developed an Iress Connector, a black box built on its enterprise solution that optimizes Iress IOS by speeding up trading workflows and enabling ‘click to sync’, a single-click data synchronization between the Iress platform and other applications.  

Common use cases include integration with popular apps on the trading desktop to speed up time to market, allow for greater personalization and increased efficiency, placing critical information at the user’s fingertips. 

On the technical side, the Iress Connector enables technology teams to eliminate lengthy point-to-point integration projects. As a result, our clients can implement solutions within a matter of days not months.  

The connector follows continued client demand and is available through the Glue42 Appliance Store, a concept that brings pre-packaged business components that support the rapid integration of two or more applications, to the modern trading desktop. The store currently counts 30 connectors across the trading lifecycle that can be paired together to make a myriad of different appliances.  

Reena Raichura, Director, Head of Product Solutions, Glue42, said, “Many vendors in the financial industry are going on a digital journey by modernizing and re-shaping their own platforms. Our purpose is to facilitate this process and help vendors connect with other third-party or inhouse applications in a speedy fashion. In doing so, we want to ensure that we eliminate all tech constraints, so our partners are better equipped throughout their digital transformation journey. 

“More so, as financial institutions pick best-of-breed applications for their financial desktop platform, we want to ensure fintech vendors have a clear desktop integration strategy, so their applications maintain their relevance in the trading ecosystem,” she continued. 

For more information, view this video: Click to Sync: sharing instrument data between Iress and Bloomberg. 

New capabilities enable Verto’s customers to convert freely and make payments in twelve more currencies

Verto, the leading B2B cross-border foreign exchange (FX) and payments enabler, today announced the increase in the number of supported currencies that customers can convert between and make payments in. All of Verto’s customers can now accept and send payments instantly in 12 new currencies all from one single and easy to use platform, further eliminating the barriers to cross-border payments. 

These new currencies are simply an addition to Verto’s extensive list of existing currencies. The expansion in available currencies to Verto’s users, from 39 to 51, are available across the entire product suite, including e-wallets, creating seamless cross-border solutions for some of the fastest-growing companies worldwide and enhancing the customer experience. Businesses that struggled to make payments to and from countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Morocco and Sri Lanka, can now benefit from enhanced liquidity, faster payment capabilities and instant local settlement times. 

Verto is in the midst of tremendous growth and expansion following a $10 million in Series A funding in September 2021. Last year, the company onboarded over 7,000 new businesses and has processed nearly $1.5 billion transactions, with the total volume growing by 303%. 

The company has also grown its team, with 33 new hires since the beginning of last year, including the appointment of Tim Rudman as the new Chief Operating Officer. The majority of these new hires are positioned to strengthen and further enhance Verto’s offering to underserved businesses worldwide. 

Verto is working to ensure that businesses of all sizes have access to enterprise-grade cross-border payments, FX and banking solutions via its advanced API platform, automating and simplifying payments for businesses. 

Commenting on the expanded currency offering, CEO and Co-Founder of Verto, Ola Oyetayo said: “Verto is continuing to strengthen and expand its emerging markets coverage to bring efficient, affordable and secure cross-border payments to emerging markets worldwide. With the expansion of the number of currencies our platform offers, businesses, regardless of size, type and jurisdiction, can rely on Verto’s secure payments platform to send cross-border payments instantly worldwide.”

He continued: “The expansion of our currency offering also comes with the expansion of our tremendous team, as we continue on this growth trajectory and our mission to level the playing field for emerging markets. We look forward to making finding a specific currency pair between illiquid currencies, slow payments, and high fees, a thing of the past.” 

New capabilities enable Verto’s customers to convert freely and make payments in twelve more currencie

With a two-year revenue growth of 387%, the payment processing company breaks into the top 50 in its first Inc. 5000 Regionals: Midwest appearance

Inc. magazine today revealed that leading payment processor VizyPay is No. 26 on its third annual Inc. 5000 Regionals: Midwest list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies based in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Born of the annual Inc. 5000 franchise, this regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the Midwest region economy’s most dynamic segment–its independent small businesses.

“We began with a team of just one and fully bootstrapped our way to success,” said VizyPay CEO and founder Austin Mac Nab. “Our revolutionary Cash Discount Program, outstanding customer service and innovative products are changing not only what it means to be a cutting-edge technology company, but a game-changing player in the Midwest.”

The companies on this list show a remarkable rate of growth across all industries in the Midwest region. Between 2018 and 2020, these 144 private companies had an average growth rate of 147% and, in 2020 alone, they added 19,821 jobs and nearly $11.7 billion to the Midwest region’s economy. Companies based in the Chicago, Illinois, Noblesville, Indiana, and Overland Park, Kansas, areas had the highest growth rate overall.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Regionals: Midwest, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/midwest starting March 15, 2022.

“This year’s Inc. 5000 Regional winners represent one of the most exceptional and exciting lists of America’s off-the-charts growth companies. They’re disrupters and job creators, and all delivered an outsize impact on the economy. Remember their names and follow their lead. These are the companies you’ll be hearing about for years to come,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc.

VizyPay is an award-winning payment processing company bringing powerful, transparent, money-saving solutions to small businesses across the United States. Completely bootstrapped since its inception in 2017, VizyPay has achieved outstanding success, ranking No. 45 in America and No. 1 in Iowa on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies – placing in the top 1% nationally with an impressive 8,000% revenue growth. The company has rapidly expanded in recent years, installing more than 12,000 merchants across the nation, partnering with more than 700 independent sales contractors and onboarding 70 talented, in-house employees. VizyPay plans to bring even more tech jobs to Iowa and is currently undergoing a hiring blitz to level up to 100 full-time staff.

For more information, visit www.vizypay.com.

Bazaar, Pakistan’s leading B2B e-commerce and fintech platform has raised $70M in a Series B financing led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management. Through its expanding footprint of digital products and last-mile infrastructure, Bazaar provides procurement, fulfilment, operating software, digital lending, and supply chain products to merchants and suppliers in Pakistan. This investment, which comes just 6 months after its historic Series A, takes Bazaar’s total institutional funding to over $100M, establishing it as one of the most well-capitalized startups in the country’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem. 

Existing investors, including Indus Valley Capital, Defy Partners, Acrew Capital, Wavemaker Partners, B&Y Venture Partners and Zayn Capital also participated in the round.

“We are thrilled to support Bazaar’s vision of building an end-to-end commerce and fintech platform for millions of unbanked and offline merchants in Pakistan”, said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer Investment Group. “Bazaar’s pace of geographic expansion and new product development is a testament to the rare talent and culture Hamza and Saad have cultivated at Bazaar.” 

Bazaar’s mission is to build an operating system for traditional retail in Pakistan. This retail economy, worth over $170B, is primarily offline and mostly served through 5 million SMEs across the country. This merchant base, which is the lifeline of Pakistan’s economy, also lacks access to formal financial services in a country that hosts the world’s third largest unbanked population. At the same time, Pakistan is undergoing a massive digital penetration wave driven by widespread availability of affordable smartphones and some of the lowest mobile broadband costs in the world. Bazaar aims to capitalize on these fundamentals by building an integrated platform of B2B offerings that can aggregate, digitize, and finance the country’s fragmented retail landscape. 

Bazaar has been growing at an incredible pace since starting out less than two years ago. Its B2B e-commerce marketplace is now servicing 21 towns and cities across Pakistan, covering 30% of Pakistan’s population through more than a dozen functional fulfillment facilities. Bazaar is adding 3-4 new cities and towns to its last mile network every month, putting it on course to establish the country's largest tech-enabled last mile footprint by the end of the year. Through this last mile network, Bazaar provides hundreds of top brands and manufacturers direct access to underserved merchants and geographies across retail categories powered by real time analytics and intel on brand performance significantly improving their distribution capability.

Easy Khata, Bazaar’s merchant software product, has brought a new dimension to B2B e-commerce in emerging markets. Easy Khata serves as the core system of record for merchants, helping them digitize procurement, inventory management, customer engagement, accounting, and lending. The app has on boarded over 2.4 million businesses across 500 cities and towns in the country, recording over $10B in annualized bookkeeping transaction value. 

Bazaar Credit, the recently launched short-term working capital financing product, provides much-needed liquidity to its largely unbanked merchant base. To date, Bazaar has provided thousands of digital loans, with 100% repayment and significant uplift in merchant buying volumes. Bazaar’s proprietary credit model incorporates customer data from both its marketplace and merchant software products, giving it a differentiated ability to lend to this underserved segment. 

“We believe that Pakistan is at an inflection point in its tech ecosystem development. Bazaar is tapping into the massive merchant opportunity and is leading the charge in the country. We are excited to back their incredible team and phenomenal growth in such a short span of time.” said John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global Management. 

Bazaar was founded in June 2020 by Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, two high school best friends who moved back to Pakistan with a mission to create an incredible institution for and from Pakistan. Their strong focus on team, culture, and product has helped them attract talent from some of the best companies and investors around the world, creating a unique and unprecedented talent flywheel in the country. Prior to Bazaar, Hamza was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, while Saad was a product manager for ride-hailing and food delivery at Careem and for ad products at Snapchat. 

“We are humbled and excited to continue on the path to create a generation defining story for Pakistan. With significant backing of two of the largest venture growth funds in the world, we believe this will continue to change the narrative on the country and inspire countless more and bigger stories in near future. This is a result of the trust and partnership of our colleagues, suppliers and most importantly our customers – the small merchants who are the backbone of our economy.” said the founders, Hamza and Saad. 

With the fresh round of funding, Bazaar plans to expand into more cities across Pakistan, launch new marketplace categories, scale its lending offerings, and accelerate new product development. 

BidFX, a leading execution management system designed for the 6.6 trillion daily FX market, is pleased to announce its integration to Finastra’s Fusion Confirmation Matching Service (CMS), ensuring capabilities right through from execution to settlement for mutual clients.

BidFX CRO, John McGrath, commented, “Partnering with a market leader like Finastra to offer increased workflow benefits for mutual clients is a win/win project for all parties. As eFX markets become more sophisticated and workflow-based projects become paramount to generating alpha we are happy to work with innovators such as Finastra and the clients they service.”

Jacques Delaunay-Driquert FX Trader at VARO Energy commented, “The Finastra integration with BidFX increases the automation capacity for a trading platform, without requiring customer resources. BidFX is now increasing its automation for cutting-edge Treasuries like VARO to help integrate front-office to back-office workflow.”

“We’re delighted to have integrated with BidFX, adding another electronic trade execution partner to our portfolio. Offering more choice to our customers in this way aligns perfectly with our marketplaces strategy,” commented Claire Clarke, Senior Sales Manager at Finastra. “This end-to-end workflow for BidFX via our CMS solution increases straight-through processing and reduces operational risk for our mutual customers.”

Sentinels signs first digital bank and expands client footprint into Southern Europe

Sentinels, Europe’s leading intelligent transaction monitoring and client risk management platform, has been selected by Rebellion Pay to enhance and streamline the leading Spanish neobank’s anti-money laundering (AML) compliance monitoring and risk profiling functions.

By consolidating transaction data from multiple environments into an all-in-one monitoring solution, according to programmable business rules, the Sentinels platform allows compliance supervising teams to generate next-level client risk profiles and more reliably identify suspicious transactions and client behavior.

Using the Sentinels platform, Rebellion Pay can generate comprehensive views of the transaction environments across its full range of payment services, including prepaid Mastercard debit transactions and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, together with fiat-crypto exchange services offered by the digital bank for a growing number of cryptocurrencies.

By applying Sentinels’ AI and machine learning algorithms, Rebellion Pay will be able to assess client risk and accurately detect financial crime faster and more efficiently than ever before, driving down the cost of its AML compliance, increasing operational efficiency and, ultimately, eliminating all criminal behavior from its customer base.

“Sentinels is a dynamic, young and high growth start-up with a bright future,” comments Sergio Cerro, CEO and Co-Founder of Rebellion Pay. “We firmly believe that AI and machine learning will change the game in digital banking, and Sentinels is already confirming this belief in the transaction monitoring and client risk management space. The decision to work with Sentinels was easy to make. Its software is straightforward to use and crammed with cool features, and its level of customer care is second to none. We’re delighted to have them as our partner and firmly believe that we will see plenty more powerful and innovative products coming out of this company in the years to come.”

Joost van Houten, CEO of Sentinels, added: “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Rebellion Pay, both our first neobank and our first Spanish customer, to the Sentinels ranks. Rebellion Pay is a true disruptor in financial services and shares our love for next-gen technologies. We greatly look forward to axing the firm’s exposure to client risk by ensuring no illicit activity goes undetected. By boosting the accuracy of the bank’s suspicious transaction detection, we will also help its teams zero-in on real criminal behavior, and kiss goodbye to the wasted days spent processing false-positive alerts.”

Over 280,000 customers across Spain use Rebellion Pay’s financial services. While the neobank is focused on the Spanish market, it holds an e-money institution license issued by the Bank of Lithuania – a regulator known for its particularly strict AML compliance requirements. With expert knowledge of the international, nuanced compliance regulations, and clients already active in Lithuania, Sentinels is well-positioned to support Rebellion now and into the future.

For Commodities trading to continue to function well it needs to be flexible. Much like a muscle, however, this doesn’t come easily. It takes preparation, training and stretching to build a muscle into something with the capacity and flexibility to go through rigorous moments of endurance or sprinting.

This analogy ran through last year’s Reuters Events Commodities Trading virtual summit, with experts from across the commodities space coming together to agree that this was a time to learn critical lessons, both from the disruption of 2020, and from broader trends such as digitalization, the impact of the energy transition, the rise of alternative lenders and supply chain & logistics challenges.

Reuters Events have just released the 2022 Commodities Market Insight Report, produced in conjunction with Tradecloud, collating expert insights to map out the path to a net zero commodities industry, explore changing corporate priorities and the significant value in setting sustainability targets.

Download the Paper:  Commodities Trading 2022 Market Insight Report here > https://bit.ly/3IYqNXI

The report will explore key topics such as:

• Exploring the rapidly changing landscape surrounding the energy transition and the race to net zero to remain flexible and successful in the shift to a sustainable future.
• Understanding new market tools and technologies such as integrated technology alongside data solutions to keep pace with digitalization and increase efficiencies.
• Deep diving into the oil and gas transition, decarbonisation, and investment strategies to ensure you can embrace the energy transition.
• Investigating the rise of ESG investments, carbon markets and the value these bring to the entire trade landscape.

Download the Paper:  Commodities Trading 2022 Market Insight Report here > https://bit.ly/3IYqNXI

The report contains industry expert insight and examples from senior industry leaders at TradeCloud, The International Energy Agency, the European Commission, BP, Chevron and others.

With special thanks to Trade Cloud, for their expert insights and contributions to this whitepaper. This report was produced in the leadup to Reuters Events: Commodities Trading USA (June 7-8, Houston) which will unite 200+ industry leaders incl. trading houses, investors, producers, traders, buyers, and policy makers to keep pace with these seismic shifts and remain profitable in this volatile commodities market.

“The shifting market makes it even more important for us to connect with consumers based on where they are in their financial journeys,” said Ron Wivagg, national sales manager at Prosperity Home Mortgage, LLC. “We are excited to leverage Total Expert’s new Customer Intelligence product to give us this insight. And, when paired with Total Expert’s intelligent automation, it will help us deliver a personalized experience with the right message at the right time.”

• Mortgage Credit Inquiry Alert: Know when a lender pulls credit for a mortgage on someone in your database
• Rate Alert: Identify when a borrower can benefit from a current rate
• Equity Alert: See when a borrower reaches a target combined loan-to-value (CLTV) ratio
• Listing Insights: Know when a borrower lists their home on a multiple listing service (MLS)

“Borrowers are more loyal and receive a more rewarding experience when they’re working with a financial institution that anticipates their personal finance needs,” said Total Expert founder and CEO Joe Welu. “Customer Intelligence is a game-changer because it combines key customer insights with industry-leading intelligent automation. The various customer insights trigger customizable workflows, allowing lenders to take action by enabling the field with messaging and campaigns based on the individual customer’s unique financial situation at that moment in time.”

u.trust Data File is a software-based encryption solution to protect business-critical and sensitive data against unauthorized access

Utimaco, a leading global provider of IT security solutions, today announces the launch of u.trust Data File for data encryption. Adding the new product to its portfolio means that Utimaco now offers its customers a complete suite of solutions for data encryption, hardware security modules, key management, and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for their IT security requirements.

Protecting data is becoming increasingly important for authorities and companies across all industries. Rapid digitization and remote working have opened potential new attack vectors, with the increased use of cloud-based services leading to data being shared and hosted externally. Companies must therefore protect their data regardless of the storage location. Further, regulators hold organizations responsible for failing to comply with data management and data access standards that lead to data breaches.

Utimaco’s u.trust Data File addresses these issues by providing an easily integrated software-based solution that ensures compliant handling of sensitive data in accordance with data protection regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, PDPA, etc. At the same time, it is designed to be user-friendly, critical for the acceptance of security measures as employees will not notice any difference in their working routines.

Key features include:

• Role-based encryption of sensitive and business-critical data
• Protection of Data at Rest and Data in Motion with persistent encryption
• High scalability for all sizes of organizations in all industries for all types of files
• Flexible implementation of different protection scenarios to fulfill various data protection requirements
• Multi-platform approach: Windows (10 & Server incl. Terminal), macOS, iOS, Android, Linux (planned)
• Cloud & Multi-Cloud enabled: supports encrypted storage on the most common Cloud Storage Providers such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, or Dropbox
• Complete setup of an encrypted environment within large enterprises by definition of 5-7 generic rules
• Integration with Utimaco’s Key Management and Hardware Security Solutions for highest levels of security and certification

“The protection of business-critical and sensitive data is a typical challenge for companies worldwide. Utimaco u.trust Data File offers reliable data encryption without changing working routines for employees and administrators,” Mario Galatovic, Vice President Products & Alliances at Utimaco, commented.

“It is easy to use, grants flexible access management, and is, therefore, a solution for all kinds of use cases where data needs to be protected. With this product launch, we now offer a holistic data protection portfolio that fits seamlessly togethe