5ire, the 5th generation blockchain network, announced today that it had signed an MoU with the City of Alliance, Nebraska, USA.  The MoU will help develop Smart and Robust Policing for the city.

The MoU will create a public-private partnership between the City of Alliance Police and 5IRE to

●        Create and implement a robust smart policing solution that strengthens both transparency and accountability in policing procedures.

●        Would streamline procedures that are auditable and reflect all events in greater detail to stakeholders involved.

"This is the central piece of action towards building a civil society that any community can take. Responsible law enforcement that simultaneously serves the public and requires accountability from officials is something that was long expected and needed in our community.  As Sir Robert Peels’ principles established in 1829, “knowing the police are the public and the public are the police.” 5ire helps thrust us into policing the frontier," Phillip Lukens, the chief of Police for the Alliance city, said at the MoU signing.

The MoU signed with the Alliance Police Department is the first of its kind in the United States for 5ire that is gearing up to build confidence in its blockchain network, 5ireChain with a wide diversity of use cases globally.

"Police have a civic role that requires a delicate balance between law enforcement and accountability.", Pratik Gauri, the CEO and co-founder of 5IRE, said at the signing, "The smart policing solution that we are developing with the city of Alliance is one of many solutions across the United States that can be deployed on a public sector scale in a more efficient way than the existing solutions."

5ireChain acts as a bridge to facilitate the world's shift from the 4th industrial revolution, focusing on AI and technological advances, to the 5th industrial revolution, focusing on human-centred design and sustainable development.

"As the chief puts it, 'Policing is a delicate balance between the business aspect congruent with the human rights aspect.' and we are here to provide a tool that empowers everyone to benefit from this new frontier in technology," said Prateek Dwivedi, Co-founder, and CMO at 5ire.

5ire is focused on implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. So much so that 5ire has produced 5ireChain, an innovative blockchain technology with the UN SDGs written into its core. Non-financial factors such as environmental, social, and governance scores are weighted in the 5ireChain ranking protocol, impacting a party's participation in the 5ire network.

By incorporating sustainability into the network's base layers with its blockchain technology and rankings, 5ire is building a for-benefits economy with its mission to accelerate the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

End-to-end payment ecosystem provider, Monneo, will be the main sponsor at TES Affiliate Conferences’ upcoming event in Sitges,Barcelona, which runs between the 23-26 February at the Hotel Calipolis.

By bringing together a wide range of affiliate, media, buying and advertising professionals, TES Affiliate Conference delivers events, which greatly benefit the worlds of eCommerce, and beyond. Following last year’s hybrid events, the event organizers are now able to convene individuals from these sectors back into a face-to-face setting, by hosting an upcoming exhibition in Stiges, Barcelona.

Under its guise as presenting sponsor, Monneo will be hosting lobby bars within the respective venue as well as the main dinner and drinks event. With nearly 1,000 participants and exhibitors expected to attend, the end-to-end payment ecosystem provider sees the exhibition as an ideal opportunity to present its innovative fintech solution to an audience that would hugely benefit from it.

As a company, Monneo continues to make great strides into the world of eCommerce and affiliate marketing and has recently launched its innovative Pixelpay solution. By offering a closed loop financial ecosystem, Pixelpay resolves several major issues currently affecting the affiliate marketing industry, enabling frictionless payments between all involved parties.

As mentioned, the next TES Affiliate Conference will be hosted in Barcelona between 23-26 February at the Hotel Calipolis. As well as sponsoring the event, Monneo’s team of experts will be exhibiting at the conference, providing insights into the company’s revolutionary financial technologies at Stand H1.

Speaking on her company’s sponsorship of this year’s TES Affiliate Conference, Lili Metodieva, Managing Director of Monneo commented: “We were delighted to sponsor last year’s TES Affiliate Conferences and worked to ensure that we were also involved with this year’s event. Exhibitions like this provide an important networking opportunity for people across several emerging industries, such as ecommerce and affiliate marketing.

“As a company, we want to speak directly to this audience, not only through events like this, but with our product solutions, such as Pixelpay. The solutions represent a huge step forward for the eCommerce and affiliate marketing industry and make the process of receiving and sending payments simpler than ever. We will be looking to share that message at TES Affiliate Conferences’ upcoming event in Barcelona.”

For more information about Monneo’s please visit: www.monneo.com

ID verification company Sumsub is sharing the results of its research on face authentication solutions, which is aimed at enhancing anti-fraud protection during onboarding

Sumsub, an online verification platform that onboards tens of millions of users annually, is sharing data insights from its research on facial biometric checks. Otherwise known as "face authentication," facial biometric checks are designed to protect online businesses from fraud by ensuring that users are truly present during remote verification. Face authentication is also a great step towards global digital equality as it lets honest users easily enter the online services they need regardless of their gender, nationality, income or digital skills.

Based on data collected globally in 2021, Sumsub analyzed the performance of facial biometric checks and differences across countries and devices, along with common failures and manipulation attempts. Here are the most interesting facts:

• The average global pass rate for facial biometric checks is currently 95%, with some differentiation between countries. For comparison, ‘selfie with ID’ checks have an average pass rate of around 83%. This suggests that it’s more convenient for people to get authenticated by showing their face, rather than taking a selfie while holding their ID card. Though facial biometric checks can be used alone, they’re usually combined with ID document verification, which effectively replaces ‘selfie with ID’ checks.

• In the UK, Japan, Canada, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore and the EU, liveness checks usually take less than 35 seconds. In the US, they take about 45 seconds—whereas in Nigeria, Venezuela, Benin, Angola and Israel the average duration is 1.5 minutes. These disparities could be due to the check’s required facial movements being not as habitual for users in certain countries.

• There are striking differences in the average amount of time needed to complete facial biometric checks for users on different operating systems. For Linux, Windows and Android users, the process takes more than 50 seconds; whereas applicants on MacOS and iOS (Apple) devices need less than 39 seconds. Again, this difference could be a sign that Apple users are more accustomed to face authentication.

• 94% of failed facial biometric checks are due to improper conditions. Almost half of these (47%) are due to poor video quality or failure to perform the movements required to complete the check. There are also situations when the user’s face is too small (27%) or too large in the frame (16%). In 5% of cases, the applicant's face is otherwise not properly visible.

• Possible digital manipulation accounts for almost 6% of all errors occurring during facial biometric checks. Of these, the most common (70%) are bypass attempts such as screenshots, photo manipulation, physical/digital masks, or sophisticated deepfakes and 3D models. Other common attempts at defeating the face authentication system involve the use of different devices or people (16%). The remaining cases (<14%) have to do with forced verification and malevolent attempts with devices placed too close to the applicant’s face.

Press materials: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_ZCFq22lfT-8dJiJgzQAHPuxIw3iGIc9/view?usp=sharing 

• The Financial Services Permission (FSP) enables institutional clients to benefit from SEBA Bank’s digital asset banking services, including credit and custody solutions, investment advisory, and management

• SEBA Bank will leverage ADGM’s status as a leading global innovation hub to conduct regulated activities in the region

• Dedicated office and expanded regional headcount to drive institutional business growth and solidify status as regional leader in digital asset banking 

SEBA Bank, a fully integrated, FINMA licensed digital assets banking platform, today announced that it has secured a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from Abu Dhabi Global Market's (“ADGM”) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (“FSRA”) effective as of 07 February 2022. Following receipt of this FSP, SEBA Bank has opened an office in Abu Dhabi ADGM to strengthen support for its regional partners in the provision of regulated digital asset services.

The FSP authorises SEBA Bank to conduct regulated activities in the ADGM, including advising on investments or credit, arranging credit and custody, and arranging deals in investments; pursuant to the Financial Services and Markets Regulations 2015 (“FSMR”).

The office opening in Abu Dhabi will further accelerate the considerable growth that SEBA Bank has achieved over the past year. In January, SEBA Bank closed a USD 120M Series C round enabling continued high-trajectory institutional business growth through further investment in product offering and technology. ADGM is part of SEBA Bank’s strategy to establish licenced presences in the markets which we serve. With the dedicated office in Abu Dhabi, the bank will further expand headcount across operations, sales, and business development in the region.

Guido Buehler, CEO at SEBA Bank, said, “We are proud to receive a licence from the ADGM FSRA to provide our digital asset banking services in the ADGM. This licence is a valuable addition to our existing licences, as a FINMA regulated banking and securities dealer and licensed provider of custody services for Swiss Collective Investment Schemes for Digital Assets. Backed by the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s international financial services centre, ADGM is a leading global hub for driving innovation in technology and business development and will offer valuable support in meeting our growth objectives for the region. Our new office in the thriving business and financial district on Al Maryah Island will serve as a strategic hub for SEBA Bank to cater effectively to the evolving needs of our customers in the UAE and across the region.”

Dhaher Bin Dhaher Al Muhairi, CEO of the Registration Authority at ADGM, said, “We welcome SEBA Bank to ADGM’s expanding family of financial institutions at an incredibly exciting juncture for the thriving digital asset landscape. ADGM constantly seeks to advance its financial services offering to enhance the vibrant ecosystem and contribute to the growth and diversification of the Abu Dhabi economy. We look forward to supporting the SEBA Bank in its global growth strategy and serving as the GCC hub for business, financial services and client servicing activities.”

SEBA Bank is the Swiss smart bank providing a secure, institutional-grade, universal suite of regulated banking services for the new digital economy. As one of the world’s first fully licensed banks with a core capability in digital assets, SEBA Bank is trusted by investors, financial institutions, and corporations to seamlessly guide clients into the digital asset economy. SEBA Bank is a leader in innovation in digital asset services and has launched a number of landmark products in response to client demand. 

Christian Borel, Senior Executive Officer and Branch Manager at SEBA Bank AG ADGM, added, “The UAE is a global leader in digital assets and blockchain, with the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2022 providing a clear plan for cementing its place as a global hub for blockchain innovation. Abu Dhabi has established clear regulatory frameworks which allow licensed companies to operate with clarity in the country. As a regulated bank, SEBA Bank can act as a trusted counterparty to those interested in digital asset investment and banking services in the region.”

Virgin Money deploys refined customer onboarding journey using HooYu orchestration and UI journey tools

HooYu, the leading customer onboarding, and KYC technology provider, is partnering with Virgin Money, the full-service digital bank, to implement a new account opening journey for Virgin Money customers.

Virgin Money is focused on delivering great customer experiences and, following a review of their account opening processes as well as an extensive RFP process, they have redefined their new customer journey in partnership with HooYu.    

Manual steps and offline processes for customers that fail the database check process were eliminated and the journey was digitalised with a custom branded HooYu journey integrated into the Virgin Money site. Different versions of the customer onboarding journey were created depending on whether the customer was applying for a current account or a credit card.   

What once took at least several days when database checks failed, is now a seamless process reducing KYC abandonment, and increasing account opening conversion. The digital KYC journey allows the user to continue their application, with HooYu providing selfie capture, liveness detection, ID document capture and validation, facial biometrics, address proofing and geolocation.     

Linda Robertson, Head of Digital Customer Experience at Virgin Money, commented, “Our smart digital tools put our customers in control and the HooYu journey helps our customers to successfully pass KYC where traditional name and address checks fail. We chose to work with a regtech partner like HooYu because their platform enables us to easily build a range of digital onboarding journeys that are simple for our new customers to complete.”

David Pope, HooYu Marketing Director, added, “As banks like Virgin Money obsess about the digital customer experience, eliminating abandonment and driving conversion, they turn to HooYu to help them redefine their new account journeys and achieve their origination goals. It’s our job to help banks like Virgin Money to orchestrate KYC services and easily configure and deploy with a great customer journey.”

Global SME lending fintech Tradeplus24 is launching into the UK with the close of a £30 million debt facility provided by San Francisco-headquartered global credit fund, Partners for Growth (PFG), with advice offered by debt advisory, Neu Capital. 

The funds will be used to rapidly scale Tradeplus24’s highly competitive revolving lines of credit for SMEs across the UK, after already experiencing great success with SMEs across Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Australia.

The lines of credit range between £250,000 and £5 million, and are secured by trade receivables in a unique insurance-wrapped securitisation structure that is recognised as investment grade by institutional investors, large debt funds, and investment banks alike. 

The Tradeplus24 platform allows companies to unlock working capital for both domestic and international trade receivables, which is in contrast to a majority of invoice finance companies that only offer domestic solutions.

The deal also marks a major milestone for PFG as it represents the launch of PFG’s fintech and asset backed lending operations in the UK and Europe. This transaction is also one of PFG’s largest deals in Europe to date. 

Karthi Sepulohniam, PFG Managing Director, said: “PFG has had its eye on expanding its asset backed lending presence for fintechs in the UK market for some time, with the Tradeplus24 financing being our first UK deal in this space. It also represents the launch of our asset backed lending operations into the UK and Europe, to be overseen by our Head of Europe & Co-head of Fintech, Armineh Baghoomian. 

“Tradeplus24 has proven itself to be an innovative leader in SME financing, with its differentiated and superior receivables financing product which reduces operational burden for its customers in a way that other providers cannot match. The transaction made sense for us on many levels, and we look forward to growing with Tradeplus24 as it continues to scale in the UK and other markets globally."

Niels Turfboer, Tradeplus24 UK & Netherlands Managing Director, said: "PFG is a first-class partner to have by our side as we seek to modernise the UK SME lending space. PFG understands and sees that, unlike most UK lenders, our product was built with a customer-first approach. Our entirely unique solution allows our customers to focus on their businesses and not on managing an overly complex finance product. This debt facility will allow us to accelerate our growth in the UK market, and provide local SMEs with a competitively priced and seamless product.”

Leading South African Bank to utilize ACI’s award-winning ACI Enterprise Payments Platform

ACI Low-Value Real-Time Payments will enable Nedbank to offer real-time mobile payments to its customers

ACI Worldwide, the global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, today announced a partnership with one of South Africa’s leading financial services providers, Nedbank, to drive its digital transformation journey including real-time payments.

Nedbank is embarking on a wide-ranging modernization program, migrating all of its legacy systems to ACI’s award-winning ACI Enterprise Payments Platform, including the move to ISO20022, the global financial messaging standard.

Nedbank offers wholesale and retail banking services as well as insurance, asset management and wealth management. Its primary market is South Africa, and it also operates, through subsidiaries and banks, in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The ACI Enterprise Payments Platform is an end-to-end payments hub solution for retail and wholesale payments and encompasses all the capabilities of ACI Issuing, ACI High-Value Real-Time Payments, ACI Low-Value Real-Time Payments, ACI Acquiring and ACI Fraud Management. The solution enables banks to future-proof their payments foundation and meet new customer demands for all payment types across consumer, merchant, and corporate payments.

“We are excited about the modernization journey we have embarked on jointly with ACI,” said Marijke Guest, group technology divisional executive, enterprise payments, Nedbank. “Migrating our legacy systems to the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform will allow us to offer new payment methods with a quick time to market, reduce TCO, increase the speed of innovation, and ultimately prepare our business to successfully compete in the future.”

As part of the migration, Nedbank will utilize ACI Low-Value Real-Time Payments, enabling the bank to offer real-time mobile payments to its customers. ACI Low Value Real-Time Payments is a highly scalable, end-to-end real-time payments solution. It enables banks and processors to connect to all global real-time schemes, deliver value-added services to their customers and respond to the rapidly growing demand for real-time digital banking.

“With the increasing demand for digital and real-time banking services, the need for a solid payment infrastructure has never been greater, and this is why more financial institutions are turning to ACI,” said Brett Stevens, sales director, ACI Worldwide. “ACI Enterprise Payments Platform helps financial institutions around the world like Nedbank to meet the complex challenges of payments modernization.”

To successfully protect customers against rising levels of fraud attacks, Nedbank will also deploy ACI Fraud Management, ACI’s award-winning enterprise fraud management and prevention solution. The solution offers advanced machine learning as well as behavioral biometrics capabilities, predictive analytics, and expertly defined rules, to help banks identify and mitigate financial crime.

Renaissance Insurance Group, a digital leader in the Russian insurance market, increased premiums for life insurance products in 2021 by 24% to RUB 57 billion[i]. According to the All-Russia Insurance Association (ARIA) data, which was released today, Russia’s life insurance market grew by 22% in 2021 to RUB 553 billion. According to the ARIA, as of the end of the year, Renaissance Life, which is part of Renaissance Insurance Group, was the largest independent life insurance company in the country and the fourth-largest in terms of overall gross written premiums (GWP).

Growth in Russia’s life insurance market in 2021 was driven mainly by sales of endowment and credit life insurance:

• Renaissance Life premiums for endowment life insurance in 2021 increased by 46% to RUB 10.9 billion, while the market grew at a rate of 14,6%. As a result, Renaissance Life’s share of the endowment life insurance segment increased from 5.5% in 2020 to 7.0% 2021.
• Renaissance Life premiums for credit life insurance more than doubled in 2021 (increasing by 103%) to RUB 24.1 billion, compared to market growth of 39%. As a result, Renaissance Life’s share of the credit life insurance segment rose from 12.2% in 2020 to 17.7% in 2021.

Yulia Gadliba, CEO of Renaissance Insurance Group, said: “Last year was very successful for our key business lines. Despite the recent high levels of growth, Russia’s insurance market is still under-saturated compared the size of the economy and relative to other countries. This represents a significant growth opportunity for our business. In life insurance we are focusing on developing endowment and credit life products. We see that our offering is sought after by customers and we believe there is good potential for growth in these segments of the Group’s business.”

Oleg Kiselev, CEO of Renaissance Life, said: “We are proud of the fact that we outgrew the market in 2021 and greatly increased our share of the endowment and credit life insurance segments. In-house sales channels with no intermediary were key growth drivers in terms of endowment life insurance. Our investments in business digitalisation are paying off: sales via our digital platform accounted for over 30% of the increase in premiums. The doubling of credit life insurance premiums was driven by the successful development of existing and new partnerships, as well as growth in loan issuance by banks in Russia.”