ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services, announced today that Annie Morris has joined the firm as Chief Product Officer (CPO) to lead ACA’s integrated product strategy and vision.

Annie joins ACA with 25 years of experience in product strategy and financial technology bringing new products to market and expanding established products to meet client demand. Most recently, she worked at State Street Bank where she was the head of product strategy for the asset servicing business, orchestrating cross-product solutions, industry intelligence, and client engagement.  

Annie previously led product management for Interactive Data’s (now ICE Data Services) Evaluated Pricing and Reference Data business and led Linedata’s North Americas business, overseeing front-to-back software services for hedge funds, asset managers, and fund administrators in the region.

Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, said: “The GRC space is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation. We are seeing increased global risks coupled with rapid changes in regulation to address the modernization across financial services. ACA is at the forefront with our clients, bringing our consulting, managed services, and technology together to empower their day-to-day and mitigate risk. Annie’s experience, understanding of our clients, and ability to scale solutions will elevate ACA’s product suite to the next level.”

Annie Morris, Chief Product Officer of ACA Group, said: “I’m excited to work with the ACA team to further our mandate to help clients develop and manage their GRC programs. At the core of the ACA growth culture are key values to transform through innovation and deliver excellence to our clients. I am inspired by ACA’s mission to reimagine GRC in these dynamic times – we provide the expertise, capabilities and best practices for clients to feel confident and prepared for what’s ahead.”

Scienaptic announces strategic partnership with Integrated Lending Technologies, the creator of Allegro™ Lending Suite, to expand credit availability for its clients

Scienaptic AI, a leading global AI-powered credit decision platform provider, announced today that Utah-based Integrated Lending Technologies (ILT) has partnered with Scienaptic AI and chosen its platform to boost credit decisions for its clients.

Based out of Salt Lake City, ILT released the first version of DILLS™ in 2001 which was replaced in 2017 by Allegro Lending Suite™. Allegro™ is a cloud-based loan origination system comprised of three modules, one for indirect lending (Dealer), another for direct lending (Branch), and a third for lifestyle lending (Provider). Allegro™ features an automated decisioning system, regulatory compliance tools, limitless reporting capability and integration with nearly all core management systems. ILT aims to make Allegro™ the ultimate management tool for CUSOs and other managers of multiple lenders and banks. Using Scienaptic's AI-powered credit decisioning platform, ILT plans to explore untapped credit opportunities and increase loan and credit availability for its clients.

“At Integrated Lending Technologies, we believe that credit unions, community banks and other lending players should redesign their approach towards lending to create more approvals for members and a better borrowing experience,” said Will McGregor, President and CEO of Integrated Lending Technologies. “With Scienaptic AI, we are excited to capitalize on its AI expertise to enhance our clients’ credit decisioning and expand credit availability.”

Correspondingly Pankaj Jain, President, Scienaptic AI, cited, “We are delighted to be partnered with Integrated Lending Technologies. Scienaptic's unique, adaptive AI technology will compliment and strengthen Allegro™. We are confident that their clients would be able to say 'yes' to more borrowers and automate complex loan processes without increasing risk.”

Plum, an employee health insurance platform, today announced the appointment of Aditya Bagarka as Head of Strategy and Innovation. Bagarka joins from ICICI Lombard, where he spent over a decade and last served as Deputy Vice President – Wholesale Products, building their Startups & Affinity business. In his new role at Plum, he will focus on product innovation and will work with insurer partners to simplify and digitise the customer experience.

Plum recorded a 800% growth in 2021 by addressing an unmet need of early-stage startups and SMEs with a product that is simple to set up and use. It serves over 1,000 customers and over 1,00,000 members so far.

"As a category-leader, Plum has an audacious goal. We aim to insure over 10 million lives by 2024. We believe our leadership and team is a moat. Aditya has been our mentor when it comes to the insurance industry and we have known him even before Saurabh and I started Plum. We are excited and honoured to have Aditya build Plum with us,” said Abhishek Poddar, CEO and Cofounder of Plum.

Plum’s mission is to be a company that counsels its clients on the best health and wellness benefits and has bundled employee health insurance with unlimited doctor teleconsultations, weekly wellness programs, discounted medicines and health checkups.

“I am inspired by Abhishek and Saurabh’s vision of making health insurance accessible to

thousands of companies. They have not only revolutionised the way group health insurance is bought and consumed, but have also expanded its reach to the smallest of organisations. I want to be a part of this disruption and enable quality healthcare for businesses to make the lives of their employees safer and better,” said Aditya Bagarka who joins Plum as Head, Strategy and Innovation. 

Plum recently announced the appointment of six new leaders in Marketing, Sales, Account Management, Partnerships and People Success and is aiming to grow to 1,000 employees by 2024.

• Amazon is seeking to exclude a proposal on workers’ rights from their next Annual General Meeting (AGM).
• The proposal was submitted by activist investor platform Tulipshare on behalf of retail investors, and asks Amazon to commission an independent audit of the working conditions that Amazon workers face.
• Shareholders hope to leverage new SEC rules to engage with Amazon and, if successful, it could be the first time a retail investment platform has successfully had their voice on the ballot of an Amazon AGM for the first time.

Shareholders of Amazon are fighting to end the unsafe working conditions and unfair treatment that Amazon warehouse employees have been subjected to through a workers’ rights targeted shareholder proposal. The proposal, submitted by activist investing platform Tulipshare to be on the ballot of Amazon’s next Annual General Meeting, requests Amazon commission an independent audit of the working conditions and treatment that Amazon warehouse workers face.

While Amazon strives to be the “Earth’s Best Employer” and “Earth’s Safest Place to Work”, a recent report indicated that Amazon warehouse employees suffer serious injuries at a rate which is 80% higher than those who work at non-Amazon warehouses.

In response, Amazon has written to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  requesting that the workers’ rights proposal be excluded from the company’s 2022 proxy statement. Amazon claims that workplace safety concerns and workers’ rights relate to the company’s “ordinary business operations”, and should therefore be excluded from the shareholder vote at the upcoming AGM.

However, the activist shareholders hope to leverage recent changes to the SEC’s new guidance, which came into force on 3 November 2021, to engage with the company. These new rule interpretations state that shareholder proposals raising significant social policy issues may no longer be excluded under the “ordinary business exception”. They will argue that the unsafe working conditions faced by Amazon’s warehouse workers qualifies as a significant social policy that transcends the ordinary business of the company.

If the shareholders are successful, it would be the first time a proposal submitted on behalf of retail investors would make it onto the proxy ballot at Amazon’s AGM. This would be a major win for retail investors who want to have a greater say on how companies operate by using activist investment platforms. Tulipshare is the lead sponsor to submit a proposal on workers rights at Amazon.

Antoine Argouges, Chief Executive and Founder of Tulipshare commented: “There is widespread demand for Amazon to improve the treatment of its workers. In 2020, over 400 legislators from 34 countries signed a letter addressed to Jeff Bezos demanding that Amazon better protect its workers. Despite this, there were no proposals relating to workers’ conditions included at Amazon’s 2021 AGM. In response, thousands of retail investors backed our campaign to ensure this issue is discussed in 2022. We are confident Amazon will listen to shareholders this year and work collaboratively with us to ensure the safety of all workers.”

Pierre Bergamin (VP of Engineering) and Roger Almeida (Head of Product) will support InDebted’s scaling and expansion into new markets in 2022

InDebted, the fast-growing global fintech aiming to transform the consumer experience of debt, has today announced the appointments of Pierre Bergamin as Vice President of Engineering and Roger Almeida as Head of Product.

Bergamin will be responsible for ensuring InDebted’s platform is scalable while driving quality across products as the company aims to become the industry standard API for collections. Almeida will oversee the expansion of the product team’s global footprint, including in UK and European markets, whilst continuing to ensure products always focus on the consumer and how the company can support their debt-free journey. 

A specialist in SaaS & product-led companies, Bergamin joins from Assignar where he was VP of Engineering from 2019 to 2021 following a period at Learnosity in their engineering team. An experienced leader in product delivery, Almeida previously held the roles of Head of Digital at DNX Solutions and Delivery Lead at Tyro Payments.

InDebted helps customers resolve their outstanding debts through the world’s most sophisticated, intelligent debt collection solution which takes a digital-first approach to reaching consumers. The platform has over 1,500 5* star Google reviews -  unheard of in the industry and the highest of any collections provider.

The appointments are part of InDebted’s investment in its product and engineering functions which work closely with consumers and business partners across the globe. The new hires also reflect InDebted’s rapid growth, with the business growing its headcount by 360% in 2021 alone and reaching 248 people in January 2022. This is underpinned by the onboarding of 93 new clients in 2021 across global markets, and the completion of its AUD$25 million Series B in July 2021.

Commenting on the appointments, Josh Foreman, CEO at InDebted said: “The next 12 months will be crucial for InDebted’s strategy. This means being the most valued debt collection partner to our clients, providing an industry leading customer experience, and creating a frictionless, agile and scalable product that can sustain our global expansion. We know that having the best talent and leaders on board is the key to delivering on this - to help us change the world of consumer debt recovery for good - with a long-term vision to how we can improve overall financial wellbeing too.”

Pierre Bergamin added: “When I met Josh, I really connected with his vision for InDebted and the future of product here. I strongly believe that there’s so much potential for us to build an ecosystem of products that will enable us to truly deliver on our mission and vision in empowering and innovative ways.”

Roger Almeida further noted: “We are taking the shame and confrontation out of debt. Everybody deserves the opportunity to recover from a financial mis-step in a way that is fair, safe and considerate - and most importantly - places their experience at the centre of the process. The opportunity to create change in this space with a unique customer-centric product design is of huge appeal.”

 Fifteen million UK borrowers have a ‘poor understanding’ of how to compare loan costs • 40% who took out personal loans did not compare the rate available with other  providers, and 23% did not know the “rough” APR on the loan they had taken out • Freedom Finance matches people to loans they are eligible for at the best possible  rates  

Millions of people are failing to compare lending products from at least two providers and risk not getting  the best deal available to them, according to analysis of FCA data from Freedom Finance, one of the UKs  leading digital lending marketplaces. 

The data shows a widespread lack of shopping around across most loan products, and a low-level  understanding of terms like APR that hinders the ability to compare products accurately. 

Proportion of people who did not compare products from two  

or more different providers by looking at the product features or prices

Car loan Personal loan Credit card Pay day Home collect 

62% 40% 42% 70% 87% 

Four in 10 consumers said that they did not compare personal loan products, with a slight increase among  those getting a credit card. Of those accessing car loans this rises to nearly two-thirds (62%) and even  more worryingly, seven in 10 did not compare payday loans from different providers. 

Just over a third (35%) of the 44.4 million who took out loans last year said they had a ‘poor  understanding’ of how APR works – this is the figure lenders must include when advertising products to  ensure borrowers can compare the cost of credit between different loan products and providers. 

Moreover, around a third (31%) of credit card borrowers and a quarter (23%) of people taking out personal  loans admitted that they did not know the APR when they took debt out. At the same time, almost half, 40% did not try to find a cheaper loan or credit card from a different provider. 

Younger borrowers in particular struggle with understanding the cost of loans, as 42% of Millenials (born 1981 -2000) and 73% of Gen Z (born 2001 onward) were found to have a poor understanding of APR. 

APRs on loans for £1000 currently range between 9.8% and 13.5%, meaning that someone opting for the  more expensive loan could pay over a third more in interest. With the most common loan lengths around  3-5 years, the extra cost of expensive debt could amount to £100s.  

Loan marketplace platforms, like Freedom Finance, help customers find the cheapest possible loans  available to them, and it’s extensive online guides will help borrowers understand how to make

borrowing  decisions.  

In the past 12 months, Freedom Finance has helped millions navigate finance and get help to access  loans with some of the UK’s largest lenders through its award winning financial marketplace. 

David Hendry, Chief Marketing Officer at Freedom Finance, said the findings were a red flag for a lending industry that should be on high-alert to the risk of poor consumer outcomes caused by failing to shop around or understanding the differences between product terms. 

“Credit plays a vital role for many people and when used appropriately can improve financial wellbeing by  minimising expensive, drawn-out debt,” he said. “However, paying more in interest and fees than is  necessary contributes to the risk of ‘over-indebtedness’ and can lead people to situations where they struggle to pay off their credit commitments.  

“The industry actively needs to be monitoring these issues and continue to drive up consumer awareness  of the benefits of using digital tools to shop around and make sense of what they are eligible for.  

“Otherwise, the danger is a two-tier system emerges where those able to navigate the system obtain the  best deals, while others are left overwhelmed by choice and exposed to the risk of poor outcomes.”