GoldenSource, the leading independent provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and Master Data Management (MDM) solutions, has launched version 8.8 of GoldenSource EDM – its data management platform – providing faster value from data, greater automation through AI and ML, a mobile user experience and the option to run it on a PostgreSQL open source database.

With cloud becoming increasingly important, 8.8 is cloud native and agnostic, adapting to the user’s preferences with the ability to interact with their preferred provider, including but not exclusive to AWS, Azure and GCP. GoldenSource now also supports PostgreSQL as an alternative database to Oracle, with PostgreSQL easily deployed on and off-premise, adding to the flexibility. With its out-of-the-box set-up, 8.8 reduces time and implementation cost and ensures faster time to value for users.

Building on 8.7, new data visualization and user interface features have been added to further enhance the user experience. Most notable is the new GoldenSource Assistant chatbot, into which users can type natural language commands to interactively navigate and invoke functions, meta data or documentation on core applications, rapidly accelerating adoption by new users.

John H. Eley, CEO, GoldenSource commented: “GoldenSource is committed to helping clients achieve their business goals, and version 8.8 is a testament to this commitment. Through the enhancements we have made, users will be able to extract more value from data faster and, with the increased choice of cloud connectivity and databases, at a lower total cost. Good data makes good decisions and in today’s fast-paced landscape making good decisions quickly has never been more important.”

To accelerate return on investment of data management projects, 8.8 provides benefits to both the buy and sell-side, with multiple preconfigured, standardised use cases and workflows for entity, product, and securities mastering.

GoldenSource also provides a framework for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enable greater automation. 8.8 currently utilises AI and ML for scrubbing fixed rate and coupon rate data, with more configurations planned to facilitate greater automation in data scrubbing and exception management.

Clausematch reflects on recent success as it becomes a RegTech100 Company

Clausematch is delighted to be selected for the fifth annual RegTech100 list. This list recognizes the world’s most innovative technology solution providers that offer products and services in the areas of compliance, risk management, information security and financial crime. Preceding this achievement, in the last two months, Clausematch has announced its new strategic document modification functionality as well as partnerships with Barclays, PensionBee, and Ingenia. 

The RegTech (regulatory technology) industry has experienced rapid growth over the last two years as financial institutions dealt with the rising tide of regulatory changes and rules updates brought by remote working and increased use of digital channels post Covid-19. As a result, RegTech spending by banks and other highly regulated institutions is projected to exceed $130bn by 2025.

Speaking on the achievement, Evgeny Likhoded, CEO and Founder of Clausematch, stated: “We are proud to be recognised as a top performing RegTech company. We are committed to automating policy management and compliance, globally for every regulated industry. Ingenia, PensionBee, and Barclays are among the companies we are delighted to be working with as we continue developing unique and forward-looking compliance solutions.”  

Currently, 90,000 Barclays Bank employees across the globe use Clausematch’s cutting-edge RegTech platform. The rollout of Barclay’s Policy Portal in partnership with Clausematch is the successful culmination of a collaboration that spans more than six years.  

Barclays was an early supporter of Clausematch’s vision, having selected the company for inclusion in its inaugural Barclays Accelerator program in 2014. Now, Clausematch’s RegTech platform supports Barclays’ efforts to further its digital transformation and make financial and ESG compliance more effective. By streamlining the process of updating policies, frameworks, controls, new systems, and ways of working can be introduced more quickly, with less scope for disruption or human error. 

In October this year, Clausematch launched its new functionality - document modifications. The decision to launch modifications comes after a request from the company's core clients. The modification documents allow inheriting full content from the original document, automatically syncing with it for the latest revisions. It also allows updating the content in a smart and efficient way.

PensionBee, a leading online pension provider, has also adopted software from Clausematch to manage its internal policies and controls. In preparation for its listing on the London Stock Exchange, PensionBee first engaged Clasematch in late 2020. Presently, Clausematch aids PensionBee’s commitment to transparency and high standards of corporate governance. 

Clausematch and Ingenia formed a partnership in 2019, combining Clausematch’s regulatory technology solutions with Ingenia’s managed services. Clausematch, in collaboration with Ingenia, is undergoing significant growth in Asia. Clausematch and Ingenia anticipate collaborating with new clients in Asia and further extending their joint footprint in the Asian financial and fintech sector. 

Clausematch is looking forward to the new year where it envisions growth in its current partnerships, collaborating with new clients, and further extending its presence in the compliance, regulation and fintech sectors. 

 Bybit, one of the world's fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges, held its year-end product launch and review session titled "Bybit Next Level" where CEO Ben Zhou shared recent significant milestones and the exciting new products and services that the crypto exch

Upcoming Products & Services

• Options trading: European options, and linear options contracts collateralized in USDC
• USDC perpetuals and portfolio margin, which adopts a risk based model for experienced traders including market makers and institutional clients to increase fund utilization based on the underlying price and volatility across perpetuals and options
• Unified margin account that combines all account types to provide users with the flexibility and convenience to achieve their financial goals
• Grid trading that includes a trading bot within Bybit's ByFi Center that helps users automate their buy and sell orders placed at predetermined intervals by adjusting their desired leverage amount
• Institution services: tailor-made products and services for institutions
• Wallet 3.0: supporting > 100 different assets including DeFi, NFTs, which are built with smart contracts
• "Trader Circle" loyalty program
• Bybit NFT Marketplace

Concluding the session, Zhou said, "2021 has been a rollercoaster year for crypto. To our supporters, thank you for making history and being at the forefront with us to witness the evolution of the industry. We will continue to bring our A game and take the industry further by bringing Next Level Trading to you and elevate your overall experience".

ange will be launching soon for its global users.

LOCAL FINTECH SUPPORTS STUDENTS WITH CHANCE TO WIN BURSARY

 During the pandemic, UK firms have invested considerable sums in their technology as they cater for employees working from home. Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests this trend is continuing as investment in new technologies is still gaining traction – increasing by more than 7% from Q4 2019 to Q2 2021.*

The rapid growth of all things digital is no surprise throughout the covid crisis but it does provide real potential for a new generation of digitally savvy graduates entering into the growing world of fintech.

By April 2020, the pandemic had forced almost 1.6 billion children and students out of their schools and universities worldwide – with the number of active users of Google Classroom doubling to 100 million.** These children will be the first to have experienced such a technology-savvy education – raising the bar and creating a future generation of school leavers and graduates with high-quality digital skills – ideally suited to a career in the fintech industry.

Seopa has been supporting UK graduates with its Fintech Scholarship programme for higher education students, an initiative that has been specifically designed to help foster greater diversity in the fintech sector across the UK.  The bursary, now calling for final applications before entries close on 31^st December, will be awarded to one student from each UK region; Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland - receiving £1,000 each which can be used to cover part of the cost of their studies, course materials or any other living expenses.

The aim of the scholarship is to encourage students from outside the world of fintech to explore what the sector could potentially offer them as a career and enter a short blog post on what the next generation see as the future of fintech.

Marja Lahelma-Barnsley, Programme Leader for MSc Financial Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University, comments:  “FinTech is reshaping the ways that financial needs are met.   Man Met's FinTech qualifications are built with a recognition that innovation needs new ideas even more than it needs new tech.  Positive change is driven by enabling professionals with a range of opinions and experiences to drive the sector.  The Quotezone initiative supports the need to help a diverse range of future professionals and entrepreneurs start their journey."

Greg Wilson, Founder and CEO of Seopa, comments:  “Diversity of talent is key, it builds a more dynamic and innovative team.  Personally, I studied   Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering and started my career as a Stress Engineer, working on stress analysis of aircraft structures for Bombardier Aerospace before I created Seopa – a company that is now a household name in financial comparison technology.  We want this scholarship to give students the chance to explore their options and understand the potential in fintech.

“I suspect, given the investment in classroom technology during the pandemic, that we’ll witness a boom of digitally savvy graduates in the coming years – a very positive development for our rapidly growing company and the fintech industry itself.” 

Seopa has been recognised with six Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, and has been awarded a Deloitte Best Managed Company Award each year for the past three years – topped by the Gold Standard Deloitte Award for Best Managed Company in 2020 and 2021 – making it five consecutive wins.

The deadline to apply for the Fintech Scholarship is 31^st December 2021, full details of how to apply are available here:  Fintech Scholarship . 

As a leading fintech employer, Seopa has been investing in recruitment throughout lockdown, with new fintech roles in both Belfast and Timisoara including a Senior Business Development Executive, a CRM Specialist, a Product Owner, Front End Developers and multiple graduate positions.  Seopa also has several phases of recruitment planned for 2022 including a UK graduate recruitment process, due to start in February.

We are proud to announce that the 10^th NextGen Payments & Regtech Forum 2022 is going to be hosted on March 22^nd – 23^rd in Dublin, Ireland!

The 10th NextGen Payments and RegTech Forum is an inspirational gathering connecting leading decision-makers from across the entire Payments and RegTech community, delivering optimum benefit through premium content and bespoke networking opportunities.

This distinguished Forum will explore every aspect of Payments & RegTech - from upcoming regulation to new payment methods and practical case studies. Attended by senior executives from across the UK and EMEA - offering a unique opportunity to learn and network with leading international experts and like minded peers.

High-achieving specialists will inspire the participants by their knowledge and innovative concepts on how to evolve business activities in the world of technology advances, regulations, empowered customers and continuous development in a disruptive economy.

This B2B Forum is the perfect platform to build connections, educate and explore new business opportunities and meet the key decision-makers that are shaping this rapidly changing Payments & RegTech world.

TESTIMONIALS from our most recent edition: The 9^TH PAYMENTS & REGTECH FORUM took place on the 24^th & 25^th November in Limassol, Cyprus:

‘A great event, packed with so much knowledge and great speakers, offering a unique balance between digital payments industry trends and payments regulations. In short: offering a compact source of inspiration.’ INTRASOFT International

‘An event that was focused, yet provided the relevant outlet for solid business networking!’ EBO

‘Thank you so much for such an experience. It was very interesting and informative two days.’ EXINITY

‘Excellent networking, well organised, great location.’ WonderInterest

‘Very professional and pragmatic when it comes to networking and real valuable content.’ RCB Bank Ltd

‘Excellent organization, interesting subjects and knowledgeable speakers.’ CreditPilot

KEY BENEFITS FOR PARTICIPATING

• Build Thought Leadership
• Targeted Audience
• Generate Leads
• Global Reach
• New Prospects
• Interactive Hybrid Platform

 receeve, the innovation leader in collections & recovery technology, is proud to announce our newest customer, ABN AMRO, the third-largest bank in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam-based ABN AMRO selected receeve’s cloud-native, all-in-one platform to future-proof experiences for its most vulnerable customers and support strategy execution across international markets.

Additionally, receeve and ABN AMRO Ventures are announcing a strategic partnership to boost and accelerate innovation contributing to both the bank’s goals and to receeve’s product development roadmap. Through this partnership, which includes a seed-extension of €4m from the bank’s venture arm, ABN AMRO can now access receeve’s data-driven and client-focused digital capabilities to build and activate a unified view of the customer on top of their current technology and data stack - deploying in weeks, not months. The partnership enables ABN AMRO’s teams to quickly make data actionable, unlocking new use cases across the bank and ensuring they optimise their recovery efforts for the organisation and for their customers. With this investment, receeve increases its total funding over the past two years to €16m in total.

According to McKinsey & Company “encompassing strategy, operations, technology, talent, and implementation—can drive growth and position (organisations) at the forefront of a transforming financial services industry.”

Tom van der Grinten, Senior manager Operations Contracting & Credits at ABN AMRO observes, “ABN AMRO’s strategic ambition is to be a personal bank in the digital age for our clients. By integrating the capabilities of the receeve platform with our own digital client service model, we’ll be able to provide our customers with very user-friendly and tailored, actionable insights for maintaining a healthy personal financial situation. We look forward to collaborating with receeve’s team to deliver great value to our customers.”

Paul Jozefak, receeve’s CEO notes, “Both companies share a vision on delivering advanced data and digital solutions to build the best customer experiences. The commitment to innovation is reflected in ABN AMRO Ventures partnering with receeve to help forge the solution roadmap and be the leader in creating a better journey for the most vulnerable customers while at the same time providing tools to its employees to continually improve their experience as well. We’re delighted to work with ABN AMRO and help the bank dramatically improve automation and engagement and to truly make software deployment seamless.”

Hugo Bongers, Head of ABN AMRO Ventures adds, “receeve’s approach and growth trajectory immediately intrigued us. We look forward to collaborating with the whole team to not only deliver great value to ABN AMRO, but we are excited to partner as investors to fuel growth and expansion and build a market leader across Europe and beyond.”

Banking is undergoing a huge transformation and how collections operations engage customers and how it is measured is a part of that change. Attitudes towards collections payments acceptance and integration have changed.

Time-consuming, legacy technology stack dependent projects to optimise strategies and add new engagement and payment methods are no longer feasible. The ability to integrate a layer on top of existing technology infrastructure and to deploy quickly and easily has become a priority. Organisations have to adopt agile underlying tools to wrangle the data, streamline and automate processes, optimise segmentation and repayment approaches - ABN AMRO is taking the lead in transforming collections & recovery operations

• €60 million EIB guarantee to support illimity to unlock new liquidity for companies  by financing working capital, via reverse factoring for over €1 billion in turnover 

• €150 million EIF guarantee to support illimity mobilise €215 million in new financing 

The EIB Group — comprising the European  Investment Bank (EIB) and European Investment Fund (EIF) — and illimity Bank S.p.A  (“illimity” or the “Bank”) have signed two agreements to provide new liquidity to Italian small  and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them meet the challenge of the post-COVID 

19 recovery. The aim of the agreements is to unlock financing of over €1.2 billion under two  EIB Group guarantees totalling €210 million.  

This financing has been supported by the contribution of the European Guarantee Fund  (EGF), part of the European Union's €540 billion package of measures to address the  economic difficulties and production slowdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  

Gelsomina Vigliotti, Vice-President of EIB, commented: “The EIB together with illimity  continues to support the economic recovery of Italian companies hit hard by the economic  crisis caused by the pandemic. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe estimates that  SMEs have lost between €450 billion and €600 billion due to the pandemic. Via the European  Guarantee Fund (EGF) — which was specifically created to address the consequences of the  crisis — the EIB is providing businesses (particularly SMEs) with the liquidity they need to  ensure business continuity while paying employee salaries and supplier bills. Italy is among  the main beneficiaries of EGF funds to date.” 

Alain Godard, CEO of EIF added: “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the engine of the  European economy and supporting their growth and development is our priority. The  European Guarantee Fund is proving to be the right tool for meeting this objective, providing  the liquidity needed to support SMEs' medium to long-term investment requirements." 

Corrado Passera, CEO and Founder of illimity concluded: “illimity was created to enhance  and support the potential of SMEs and we are therefore delighted with the agreement signed  with the EIB, which will enable us to go even further help businesses, especially for supply  chain financing. In these unprecedented times, finance has a great responsibility to the  business world and illimity intends to make its contribution using all the tools at its disposal.” 

• Around 10% of global card payments are commercial or corporate in nature
• With a projected market size of $90.4 billion in 2020, the global corporate cards market is set to experience a compound annual growth rate of 18.9% between 2020 and 2025
• Virtual cards will continue on their strong growth vector and, with increasing recognition of the working capital benefits that the payment vehicle provides, should continue to grow long term at a 30% rate

The Payments Association (formerly The Emerging Payments Association (EPA)), today announces the release of its report Navigating the New Opportunities for Corporate Cards. The report looks at how the way that larger companies pay has changed in the two years following the pandemic, when digitalisation of payments was a major trend in banking for individuals and small companies.

The insight shows that although innovation in this area is slightly lagging behind the choices available to individuals through ‘challenger banks’, the fintech industry is increasingly offering larger companies increased flexibility and choice through digital technology. Created by a consortium of The Payments Association’s members that included senior figures from FIS, Cardlay, Schiltz & Schiltz, NatWest, FLEETCOR and Accenture, this expertise mix drawn from established banks, fintechs and regulatory experts gives a broad view of the corporate cards landscape and its future.

The consortium has found that commercial cards, whether they are issued to individuals to pay for expenses or used to pay for larger business expenses by the company itself, are a critical component of commercial client relationships, and the use of these cards is growing. Europe had an estimated corporate card market size of $7.8 billion in 2020, and this is predicted to grow by 7.4%, largely fuelled by demand for corporate and procurement and purchasing cards from governments, public sector entities and large corporations.

The rising demand for better payment solutions at enterprise level is driven by the difficult economic environment in the early part of 2020, in which commercial credit card spend outside of North America dropped by 42%. Although data shows that commercial card spending has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, this experience showed large organisations the need for agile, modern payments technology to protect their cashflow.

Fintech companies have entered the $7.8 billion European commercial card market with innovative solutions that expand upon what a commercial card can do with new digital functionality. Virtual cards that can be configured for each user with custom rules can significantly drive cost savings and reduce administration while also reducing fraud and misuse. Open Banking protocols are allowing companies to use Request-to-Pay (RTP) services to send and request money instantly. API integration means that companies can keep track of transactions from a single integrated platform, giving them an overview of spending in real time. These examples barely scratch the surface of what will be possible in corporate card payments in the coming years.

Tony Craddock, Director General at The Payments Association, comments: “We are very encouraged by what we have seen both from within the fintech industry, from established players in the payments space and from companies across Europe when it comes to the evolution of payments. Two difficult years have meant that the necessity of having access to working capital today rather after the sixty days terms in an invoice has been driven home, and we are seeing the payments industry create new products to meet that need.”

Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly, SVP and Head of Sales Europe at FIS, adds: “The regulatory and accounting requirements of large organisations often mean that change is slow, but there is a golden opportunity here for companies to become more efficient and increase their own working capital by embracing new digital payment solutions. We can predict that there will be a much greater uptake in modern commercial card solutions among large companies over the coming years.”

Cassini Systems, Ltd, a leading provider of pre- and post-trade margin and collateral analytics for derivatives market participants, today announced it has just completed a $20.5 million growth financing round led by Ten Coves Capital and joined by existing investor, Mosaik Partners. The company will use the proceeds to further accelerate its product development and global market expansion.

Regulatory changes enacted after the 2008 global financial crisis continue to drive increased margin requirements and collateral demand for investment managers trading in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, futures, options and related products. The Cassini fully integrated platform enables asset managers to assess and optimize the liquidity and carry cost of their diverse trading strategies across the trade lifecycle from pre-trade, to intra-day to post-trade. These tools allow firms to achieve large cost savings while improving resilience to collateral stress.

“This financing is a crucial next step as we continue to scale our operations and add to our global client base, which includes many of the world’s largest banks and asset management firms. With this latest investment, we look forward to deepening and expanding our solutions, and continuing to deliver the world-class service our clients expect,” said Liam Huxley, Cassini founder and CEO.

“Cassini fits perfectly with our strategy of investing in leading fintech companies with a strong platform for growth. The company operates at the intersection of three powerful trends: (i) integrated data and analytics, (ii) liquidity and trading cost optimization in the capital markets, and (iii) regulatory compliance. Its reputation for delivering powerful tools in partnership with providers of some of the world’s leading portfolio and risk management systems positions Cassini to continue to innovate and grow,” said Steve Piaker, Ten Coves Managing Partner. 

As part of the investment, Mr. Piaker is joining the Cassini Board of Directors.

The additional investment by Ten Coves and Mosaik follows a year of strong growth by Cassini, including entering into major new strategic partnerships and receiving industry awards for both its products and workplace.  The funds will be used to expand the company’s sales force and further broaden the capabilities of its highly sophisticated analytics platform.

Howard Mergelkamp, Managing Partner of Mosaik Partners, added: “The Cassini team has delivered on all fronts since our initial funding in 2018, and we’re delighted to increase our investment alongside Ten Coves.”