– Murex completes transformational project with major city commercial bank institution in China –

Bank of Hangzhou has completed a successful go-live on the MX.3 platform in close collaboration with Murex, the global leader in trading, risk management and processing solutions for capital markets.

Bank of Hangzhou now uses MX.3 across asset classes for capital markets activities, from front-to-back-to risk management, leveraging a localized solution specifically packaged for the China market and eliminating the need for reconciliation across multiple IT systems.

“We are delighted about the partnership with Murex. The project was delivered on time and with the right quality. Our team is enjoying MX.3’s rich functionality around OTC derivatives pricing, risk management and collateral management. It is already allowing us to expand our business to additional foreign currency derivatives and exotic products,” said Mao Xiahong, board secretary and assistant president of Hangzhou Bank. “Our traders now benefit from a flexible solution that gives them confidence to roll out new products in a timely manner as the need comes.”

Moving to MX.3 has unlocked opportunities for Bank of Hangzhou across business segments, increasing straight-through-processing rates and empowering the bank to seamlessly manage market and credit risk, using a unified platform. Furthermore, Bank of Hangzhou has gained access to an extensive product catalogue and advanced market risk functionality.

On the regulatory side, going live on MX.3 enables Bank of Hangzhou to comply with current Basel requirements and has readied the bank for upcoming challenges such as Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB).

With Bank of Hangzhou, Murex further expands its large footprint in mainland China, proving once again that it has the right product and team to accompany local banks through their transformation ambitions.

Tarek Barada, managing director of Murex China in Beijing, said that players in the financial services sector in China and elsewhere are seizing new opportunities for digital transformation.

“Financial institutions like Bank of Hangzhou have taken proactive steps to modernize their IT platforms and meet various objectives, including greater risk management capacity and adaption to evolving regulations,” Barada said. “As another successful implementation, this project underscores our strong commitment to the China market for clients eager to adopt a unified, future proof platform.”

GKPro ,the professional and institutional trading division of the global financial services group Global Kapital Group(“GKG”)is pleased to announce the appointment of Adam Dougall as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Dougall arrives with over 20 years of significant and highly relevant financial industry experience, giving him the necessary skills and expertise required to succeed in this very important role.

Among his former roles, Mr Dougall held senior positions with global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, the Nasdaq-listed broker FXCM, and the financial services group Britannia.

From a background in accounting, Mr Dougall has added solid corporate governance and compliance ethics to sound financial astuteness and business acuity and progressed to hold a number of senior positions in FCA regulated businesses, across several FD, CFO and COO roles.

GKPro is an established online professional and institutional CFD and forex exchange brokerage, providing advanced, low-latency online platforms, enabling clients to trade FX, Equities, Commodities and Indices, and with the backing of the GKG’s financial resources, experience and presence, it intends to expand further its products and services. Regulated by the FCA, GKPro’s business model is firmly aligned with best-in-the-world compliance and regulations.

Engin Çubukçu, GKG’s Chairman said:“ GKPro has been very successful offering brokerage services to institutional clients in the UK for over 10 years. Under Adam’s leadership and with GKG’s support, GKPro will be able to capture the considerable potential in the growing B2B market and implement its strategy of expanding its offerings to serve a greater B2B customer base.

Innovation, simplicity, people, and integrity are the core values of GKG alongside latency, spread and competitive commissions, which are fundamental to GKPro. Adam’s appointment brings further strength in these areas. The addition of Adam’s diverse experience, and finance and compliance track record, aligns strongly with both GKPro and the wider Group’s values.”

Adam Dougall, GKPro CEO, added: “I am delighted to join GKPro at this crucial and interesting stage in its growth journey.B2B brokerage is full of opportunities and GKPro can make a real difference. It is an exciting time for the trading market.”

Stockman Bank of Montana, a regional leader in agricultural banking, partnered with NCR Digital Banking to improve the customer experience, gain the agility to innovate more quickly and increase efficiencies within the digital banking experience. Since going live with NCR, the bank has seen a 3x increase in new digital banking customers and a 20% increase in existing user logins.

Stockman Bank, with $5.2 billion in assets, was looking to gain greater flexibility and control over its digital banking experience and capabilities. Perhaps most importantly, the bank realized that it needed to be able to innovate and differentiate at its own pace to support its strategic priorities. The bank ultimately chose NCR Digital Banking for its open architecture and commitment to helping drive a forward-looking digital strategy.

“Leaving behind aging legacy systems in favor of NCR’s modern, open platform has enabled us to deliver delightful customer experiences and solidify our competitive position in the market,” explained Kevin Guenthner, CIO, Stockman Bank of Montana. “With NCR, we have greater agility, efficiencies and speed. Now I have flexibility in what technology I use across the organization.”

Stockman Bank also partnered with NCR’s Professional Services team to build an integration layer that supports effective communication to back-end systems, resulting in more streamlined, efficient processes for their technology infrastructure. Since launching with NCR, the bank has experienced enhanced engagement, with an 18% increase in mobile app usage and a 37% increase in RDC deposits.

“Leading institutions like Stockman Bank understand that the future is digital, and they’ve made the strategic software and services investments to remain relevant and compete,” added Doug Brown, president, NCR Digital Banking. “By partnering with NCR, Stockman Bank has been able to create an easier, more convenient customer experience, which includes bringing new capabilities and functionality to market more quickly.”

Nationally recognized and respected advisors highlight the company's commitment to reinventing debt collection leveraging advanced technology, and consumer-centric strategies

Paydit, a disruptive fintech company that leverages an advanced tech platform using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-driven analytics designed to reinvent debt collections, is pleased to announce the formation of a strategic advisory board. The board will be tasked with providing instant acceleration, significant reach and superior guidance to further enhance the Paydit value proposition and technology, which has proven to enhance recovery rates, reduce compliance risk, and more importantly, provide consumers a vehicle they can drive to financial freedom.

Paydit's advisory board is made up of respected leaders who bring relevant experience, unmatched networks, and proven leadership. These individuals are a direct reflection of the company's vision, and its eagerness to offer consumer-centric digital repayment tools that eliminate debt. The advisory board - whose experience reaches across consumer lending, collections, technology, and capital raises - will work closely with Paydit's internal leadership and advise on all matters relating to the company's capital raising efforts, accelerated growth, deployment of existing Paydit technology across industries and the delivery of future technologies currently in development. Advisors include:

• Mark Denman, President of Genesis Credit, the private label credit card business for Genesis Financial Solutions, the nation's largest near-prime financial provider.
• Meidad Sharon, Chief Executive Officer at ChargeAfter.
• Boomer Muth, President & Co-Founder at Koalafi.
• Michael Bennett, Chief Executive Officer, Buddy's Home Furnishings.
• Ed Robinson, President and Chief Operating Officer at AAG (American Advisors Group).

"I am elated to announce the formation of our advisory board today. The unmatched experience of this group leaves Paydit incredibly well-positioned to execute on our mission of reinventing debt collection by harnessing the power of modern technology. We remain mission-focused and committed to delivering & developing state-of-the-art technology. I could not think of a stronger group of leaders to work alongside with on this journey. This is truly just the beginning for us," said Richard Formoe, Paydit Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer.

Cybercriminals are using MSPs’ own internal tools against them

Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection, has released today its annual Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022, an in-depth review of cybersecurity trends and threats worldwide. The report warns that managed service providers (MSPs) are particularly at risk — having more of their own management tools, such as PSA or RMM, used against them by cybercriminals, and thus are becoming increasingly vulnerable to supply chain attacks.

Supply-chain attacks on MSPs are particularly devastating, since attackers gain access to both their business and clients — as seen in the SolarWinds breach last year and the Kaseya VSA attack earlier in 2021, one successful attack means crippling hundreds or thousands of SMBs. The report also shows that during the second half of 2021, only 20% of companies reported not having been attacked — as opposed to 32% last year — indicating that attacks are increasing in frequency across the board.

“The cybercrime industry is a well-oiled machine, using cloud and machine intelligence to scale and automate their operations. While the threat landscape continues to grow, we see that the main attack vectors stay the same — and they still work,” says Candid Wuest, Acronis VP of Cyber Protection Research. “While the attack surface is growing and 2022 will surely bring us surprises, cyber protection automation remains the only path to greater security, reduced risks, lower costs, and improved efficiency.”

Key trends of 2021 — and predictions for 2022

Beyond the growing efficiency of cybercriminals and the impact on MSPs and small businesses, the Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022 shows:

• Phishing remains the main attack vector. 94% of malware gets delivered by email — using social engineering techniques to trick users into opening malicious attachments or links, phishing has been topping the charts even before the pandemic. It still continues to grow rapidly: just this year, Acronis reported blocking 23% more phishing emails and 40% more malware emails in Q3, as compared with Q2 of the same year.
• Phishing actors develop new tricks, move to messengers. Now targeting OAuth and multifactor authentication tools (MFA), these new tricks allow criminals to take over accounts. To bypass common anti-phishing tools, they will use text messages, Slack, Teams chats and other tools for attacks such as business email compromise (BEC). One recent example of such an attack was the infamous hijacking of the FBI’s own email service, which was compromised and started sending spam emails in November 2021.
• Ransomware still the #1 threat — to big companies and SMBs alike. High-value targets include the public sector, healthcare, manufacturing, and other critical organizations. But despite some recent arrests, ransomware continues to be one of the most profitable cyberattacks these days. Acronis predicts ransomware damages will exceed $20 billion before the end of 2021.
• Cryptocurrency among the attackers’ favourite playing cards. Infostealers and malware that swaps digital wallet addresses are the reality today. We can expect more such attacks waged directly against smart contracts in 2022 — attacking the programs at the heart of cryptocurrencies. Attacks against Web 3.0 apps will also occur more frequently, and new and increasingly sophisticated attacks, such as flash loan attacks, will allow attackers to drain millions of dollars from cryptocurrency pools.

Growing need for cyber protection in MEA: two data centres opening

Overall, in terms of cybersecurity, this year was the worst on record; not just for many organizations, but for many countries as well — including the UAE, a country now pushing to fight the global “cyber pandemic.” And despite their best effort, as Acronis’ own recent survey shows, 25% of people in UAE still do not use any cyber protection tools.

Malware attacks remain a global phenomenon, and every country has to fight it. Reviewing the normalized malware detection in our research, we saw countries like Taiwan, Singapore, China, and Brazil with over a 50% detection rate. However, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region also ranks fairly high on the list, with the UAE at 38%; South Africa at 36%; and Saudi Arabia at 29%.

We see similar statistics for blocked ransomware attacks: the UAE ranked 33rd globally, responsible for 0.3% of all global detections — a 63% increase from October 2021 — while South Africa ranked 30th globally, responsible for 0.4% of all detections — a 64% increase from October 2021.

While ransomware attacks are clearly on the rise in MEA, the high malware detection rates could mean that countries are paying more attention to cyber protection by upgrading their detection capabilities.

The Acronis #CyberFit Summit taking place as a hybrid event in Dubai, UAE on December 8th─9th aims to help local organizations and citizens build up their cyber defences. The platform engages world-class cybersecurity and industry experts, and provides an in-depth look at how companies can enhance their IT infrastructure capabilities — with a particular focus on MSPs, the backbone of channel business.

Acronis is also using this platform to pre-announce the opening of two data centres in Africa — Nigeria and South Africa — opening in Q2 2022, helping to fulfil the company’s ongoing plan of building 110 data centres worldwide  within two years.

Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022

The Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022 is based on examining attack and threat data collected by the company’s global network of Acronis CPOCs, which monitor and research cyberthreats 24/7. Malware data was collected by more than 650,000 unique endpoints around the world running Acronis Cyber Protect — either as a client of an MSP using the solution or a business running the solution. The end-of-year update covers attacks targeting endpoints detected between July and November 2021.

The full report provides in-depth insights into the top cybersecurity and threat trends the CPOCs observed during the second half of 2021; a review of malware families and related statistics; a deep dive into ransomware’s most dangerous groups; the vulnerabilities that contribute to successful attacks; and Acronis’ security recommendations for 2022 and beyond. Check out the findings for the first half of 2021 in our Acronis Cyberthreats Report: Mid-year 2021.

You can download a copy of the full Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2022 here.

Acronis #CyberFit Summit in Dubai, UAE

Remote work is here to stay, and so are the increased levels of sophisticated cyberattacks — and so it’s up to both companies and individuals to follow the best cyber protection practices available.

If you are keen to learn more about cybersecurity pain points and available solutions for businesses, register now for the Acronis #CyberFit Summit World Tour 2021. One platform that allows you to:

• Attend result-focused virtual sessions for free and learn from world-class experts on cyber protection.
• Enhance your MSP business’ cyber protection capabilities with advice from the top channel, cybersecurity, and industry experts.
• Hear exclusive case studies of successful, profitable, and scaling MSPs and MSSPs.
• Learn how to grow your business with cybersecurity-forward services.
• Join hands-on, interactive workshops, insightful panels and breakouts, and inspiring keynotes — while enjoying IT channel networking opportunities.

Bloomberg and Acadia, a leading provider of integrated risk management services for the derivatives community, today announced the integration of MARS SIMM with Acadia's IMEM (Initial Margin Exposure Manager) module for Standard Initial Margin Model (SIMM) Pre-Trade analytics. The new calculations enable clients to run pre-trade SIMM analytics through Bloomberg’s Multi Asset Risk Solutions (MARS) using Acadia’s IMEM CRIF data capabilities.

MARS SIMM is an optimization tool that allows traders to improve their front office decision making in light of the current Uncleared Margin Rule framework. The integration enables clients to run SIMM pre-trade analytics through MARS SIMM using Acadia's Initial Margin Exposure Manager (IMEM) CRIF capabilities. Firms will have the ability to import their respective CRIF files via Acadia to MARS in order to determine their margin exposure, and adjust their portfolios’ allocations to minimize custodial costs incurred by exposures of over $50 million. 

As part of the longstanding initial margin rule framework created by the Basel Committee and the International organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the remaining stages require a broader range of institutions to face the implemented exposure obligations. Baked into those requirements is the expectation that firms who surpass an exposure threshold of $50 million, will calculate an initial margin using ISDA’s SIMM, which can result in added costs and residual stipulation for impacted firms. 

The addition of the pre-trade SIMM analytics expands Bloomberg’s existing post-trade integration with Acadia. Since 2018, the service has enabled market participants in-scope for the calculation of initial margin for uncleared derivatives access to risk sensitivities calculation services both through Bloomberg and Acadia.  

“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Bloomberg,” says Fred Dassori, Chief Product Officer, Acadia. “The additional capabilities that we’re making available to MARS clients that use IM Exposure Manager, Acadia’s  most widely used tool for initial margin reconciliation, address a need for visibility into expected future IM exposure and enables clients to make more informed trading decisions.”

"Our expanded integration with Acadia will provide our clients a more comprehensive solution that enables them to better manage derivatives risk, while helping to minimize costs related to their exposures,” said Jose Ribas, Global head of Risk & Pricing Solutions at Bloomberg. “We remain focused on providing our clients with enhanced risk management tools and functionality through MARS that optimize their workflows, while helping them comply with regulatory requirements.”

MARS SIMM is accessed through Bloomberg’s Multi Asset Risk System (MARS), a comprehensive suite of risk management solutions. MARS, which is delivered on the Bloomberg Terminal and via APIs, provides risk analytics for cash and derivatives securities, from vanilla to complex and cash structured products. Bloomberg Risk solutions cover all traders and portfolio managers’ front-office needs across market risk, XVA, credit risk, collateral and SIMM among others, which are built on a common pricing library to provide consistency across client workflows.

The company is now laying qTerm’s wearable version architecture, which is planned to be an intelligent health monitoring solution

GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) (“GBT”, or the “Company”) started the development of its wearable version of its qTerm device. GBT's qTerm, is a human vitals device targeted to measure human vitals with a touch of a finger. GBT plans to design a wearable version of qTerm in a bracelet or watch form.

Wearable Health Devices are becoming increasingly popular over the past decade, assisting people to better monitor their health and activities. They are used for self-health monitoring, providing health related information that can help with earlier diagnostic and treatment. The technology is based on miniaturized sensors and electronics, that is enabling reliable and accurate wearable devices, assisting with health monitoring and potential detection of abnormalities. The qTerm wearable device plans to have the same features as the finger-touch version plus additional features that can be utilized due to its shape and size. The main wearable advantages are the capability to perform a background vitals check as part of its on-going health monitoring uses. Users will be able to initiate a check-per-demand at any time but the device is planned to conduct its own timely background checks based on user’s health concerns and conditions. In this way even if users forget to take their daily vitals, the device will automatically do so for them, alerting of abnormalities. The device could be integrated with clinics and hospitals data systems to inform the health care system alerting physicians about concerns even during telemedicine sessions. The wearable device’s hardware is planned to include optical sensors, Low Energy Bluetooth (BLE) radio, and an LCD display, Its plan is to be synchronized with qTerm’s web portal and its mobile application. As with its finger-touch version, the data will be kept on a high security data center used by an AI program for analysis and on-going monitoring. GBT started to work on the device’s architecture and plans to start its components design in Q1 2022.

“We started the design of qTerm’s wearable version architecture and plan to start the system’s components design in Q1 2022. As wearable health devices are constantly evolving, enabling continuous health monitoring of human vitals, we are taking this technology into a higher level, outfitting it with intelligent capabilities. One of its major planned key advantages is the capability to perform automatic background health measurements during a daily routine, relieving users from conducting on-demand checks, and in case of potential issue detection, the device will alert the user including his/her clinic or physician. This type of feature can be incredibly useful for users that forget to take their vitals at certain times, not aware of a potential health problem. The wearable version of qTerm is planned to be equipped with the same intelligent system to perform on-going health analytics and monitoring. Technically, the wearable device will include similar sensors with radio and mobile technologies, same as the finger version. It could be easily connected to hospitals or clinics data centers, sending the results to a physician’s office during telemedicine sessions. qTerm wearable version will include a web widget and synchronized mobile application. We are now architecting the system’s main components and its data structure. The device is based on multiple advanced technologies, among them are biomedical electronics, with radio software and data science. We envision our qTerm wearable device as an integral part of our personal health watching process, a concept with the purpose of positioning individuals within our healthcare system, managing their own health, working together with care providers to ensure a healthy lifestyle.” Said Danny Rittman the Company’s CTO.

There is no guarantee that the Company will be successful in researching, developing or implementing this system. In order to successfully implement this concept, the Company will need to raise adequate capital to support its research and, if successfully researched, developed and granted regulatory approval, the Company would need to enter into a strategic relationship with a third party that has experience in manufacturing, selling and distributing this product. There is no guarantee that the Company will be successful in any or all of these critical steps.

Nav and Creditsafe partnership unlocks one-stop access to personalized financing recommendations via the MyCreditsafe dashboard

Nav, the simple and intelligent financing platform for small businesses, today announced its integrated partnership with Creditsafe, the business intelligence experts providing instant access to business credit reports worldwide.

Easy access to capital is critical for small businesses to operate, and it remains difficult to determine the best financing options. With Nav’s embedded financing platform, Creditsafe customers can now access personalized financing options from Nav’s network of more than 50 lenders and credit card issuers, streamlining processes and guiding small business owners through all their financing needs. The embedded finance platform is an extension of the experience available through Nav’s website.

“Searching for loans continues to be a challenge for small business owners shopping for financing. Historically, traditional banking hasn't adequately served small businesses and sorting through options without guidance leads to higher than necessary rates or frustrating rejections. What’s more, with all the online options available now, looking for a loan online isn’t any easier,” said Greg Ott, Nav CEO. “With Nav’s plug and play financing platform, Creditsafe’s customers now receive a holistic overview of their broadest financing options right in their Creditsafe experience, allowing them to always know what is available and access crucial capital as easily as possible.”

Nav has guided over 1.4 million small businesses through the difficult lending landscape by providing the best business financing products for their businesses based on real-time business data. Creditsafe joins Nav’s roster of top enterprise partners dedicated to shifting the financing industry.

“Creditsafe empowers businesses with immediate, simple access to credit reports, and unlocks insight into overall financial health,” said David Mayor, Head of Payment Data at Creditsafe. “With Nav embedded into the MyCreditsafe platform it enhances the functionality we can offer to our users. As users build and improve their credit status, so too will the financing options offered through the Nav marketplace.”

Partnership will focus on the continent of Africa and data monetization strategies within the farming, agriculture and finance sectors

Data Vault Holdings, Inc., leading the way in tokenomics and metaverse data visualization, valuation, and monetization, today announces that 10 million users will be added to the Datavault^Ⓡ platform via its partnership with Tingo, Inc. (OTC: IWBB), a leading Agri-Fintech business in Africa that has delivered significant impact with its unique rural communities-based business model. Tingo is on a mission to become Africa's leading Agri-Fintech business, delivering significant social impact to many rural communities and providing a unique platform to enable financial inclusion, social upliftment, wealth creation and a sophisticated marketplace to promote its produce to markets. The groundbreaking deal will provide 10 million users throughout Nigeria economic autonomy via data monetization with the cryptocurrency exchange CoinField. This deal serves as a keystone partnership helping to build a data-backed cryptocurrency that will unleash the true economic power within Tingo’s user base.

Commenting on the partnership, Dozy Mmobuosi, Founder and CEO of Tingo said, “I founded Tingo 20 years ago with the mission to bring technology to underserved communities in Nigeria. My team and I are constantly looking to develop and deploy technology that will improve the lives and increase the income of people in rural communities in Nigeria and soon across Africa. The partnership with Datavault^Ⓡ is an important evolution in this journey and we are proud to lead the way with pioneering solutions that democratizes access to key agricultural data points and allows our customers monetize their data, increasing their household income. Innovations and partnerships like this pave the way for us to meet several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which we have adopted as our guiding principles.”

Tingo empowers its 10 million subscribers with two core platforms; Nwassa, a digital Agri-Marketplace where customers can top up airtime, make utilities payments, pay bills and access to insurance and lending services and TingoPay, a comprehensive mobile wallet to support financial inclusion. This partnership with Datavault^Ⓡ will now provide access to a patented solution for data monetization.

“We are excited for the multiple accomplishments this collaboration represents for Datavault^Ⓡ. This collaboration will democratize data for farmers and other agricultural professionals in a revolutionary way. Through our patented SaaS data solution, monetization is accessible to all--everyday working individuals, entrepreneurs, business owners, corporations, a new narrative that differs from the more self-serving monetization practices synonymous with Big Tech companies. Agricultural professionals, which make up the bulk of the employed in many African countries, will gain the tools to aggregate key farming intelligence and make the informed business decisions that can improve their lives. Additionally, the tokenization and exchange of this data through the CoinField partnership will also increase revenues, for a compounded economic impact. Within our crypto platform lies the seeds to make great change in the world,” says Nathaniel Bradley, co-founder and CEO of Data Vault Holdings.

“We are passionate about helping individuals, organizations, and businesses access the true potential of their derivative data, from increasing revenues to enhancing the quality of one’s life. We aim to use data transformation as a tool for social good and working with Tingo will allow us to make a significant fiscal mark on one of the fastest growing markets in the world--the nation states of Africa. Our team is excited for the varied capabilities within this collaboration,” says Alfred Blair Blaikie III, President of Data Donate Technologies.

Subscriber data from Tingo will be monetized through the cryptocurrency exchange CoinField, which trades approximately $32.2 million in volume per day and serves more than 186 countries worldwide. Furthermore, CoinField provides a highly securitized platform to trade digital assets such as Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH).