Solactive is delighted to announce that it was voted the Index Provider of the  Year in the inaugural ETF Stream Awards. It was the first time ETF leading publication ETF Stream launched an award, which aims at bringing together the ETF ecosystem and acting as a barometer of success in the industry. Solactive’s submission revolved around its low-cost offering, thematic  Indices, and ESG solutions. 

Solactive demonstrated its multi-asset approach throughout the year 2021 within the indexing industry. This strategy is reflected in the company’s consistent aspiration to deliver superior indexing quality and innovative index concepts, which are also cost-effective. Solactive’s staff is dedicated to developing cutting-edge quantitative and thematic index strategies, as well as delivering added value for issuers of structured products. 

In order to offer broader scope to investors, the company’s cost-efficient indices allowed Amundi to expand, in  September 2021, its Prime ETF range with another low-cost ETF, the Amundi Prime Emerging Markets  UCITS ETF. The ETF replicates the performance of the Solactive GBS Emerging Markets Large & Mid Cap  USD Index. As part of the Solactive Global Benchmark Series, the index intends to track the performance of the large and mid-cap segment covering approximately the largest 85% of the free-float market capitalization in the Emerging Markets.  

Furthermore, Solactive highlights its involvement in ESG, which leverages on longstanding business with asset managers actively asking for ESG compliant benchmarks or indices. The company serves as the provider of yet another flagship climate-oriented solution: the world’s first Paris-aligned Bond ETF, released by Tabula  Investment Management at the beginning of the year 2021. 

In September 2021, Lyxor Asset Management launched its Lyxor Corporate Green Bond (DR) UCITS ETF,  tracking the Solactive EUR USD IG Corporate Green Bond TR Index. With this ETF, investors can align their corporate bond portfolio with net-zero goals by adding only those corporate bonds to their portfolio that contribute to the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Steffen Scheuble, Chief Executive Officer of Solactive, comments: “We are extremely happy to win the first ETF  Stream Awards as Index Provider of the Year. An honor delivered by such a leading publication in the ETF world definitely bears testament to our dedication to remain at the very front of innovative index development and bring the best solutions to our clients every day. We are thankful to our collaborators and partners and we  congratulate all the winners of the awards.” 

• Digital asset economy’s value to India’s GDP will grow at 43.1% CAGR from $5.1 billion in 2021 to $261.8 billion over an 11-year period, resulting in a $1.1 trillion contribution to India’s GDP.

• Digital asset market capitalisation was approximately USD 1.5 billion in 2013 and the report states that the market capitalisation is at nearly USD 3.0 trillion today.

CrossTower, one of the world’s fastest and leading crypto and digital asset exchanges in partnership with US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) released its research report on “India’s USD 1.1 trillion Digital Asset Opportunity”. The report highlights India as having the potential to add USD 1.1 trillion of economic growth to its GDP by 2032. It shows how India can leverage the digital asset opportunity by adopting Web 3.0 and why blockchain technology is self-sufficient for digitising India's financial ecosystem.

In 2013, the market capitalisation of the digital asset market was approximately USD 1.5 billion. The report by CrossTower suggests that today, market capitalisation is at nearly USD 3.0 trillion. It also states that most of India's USD 1.1 trillion in the total economic growth in next 11 years can come from ancillary digital asset-related businesses that are yet to be invented.

Some of the key highlights from the research report are as follows: 

• The adoption rate of digital assets (as reflected by accounts opened on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges) is growing nearly twice as fast as that of the Internet. It took the Internet approximately 7.5 years to go from around 100 million users to one billion users. The same growth at cryptocurrency exchanges will take about four years.

• Web 3.0 can drive USD 1.1 trillion economic growth for India over these 11 years, but only with the right policies and regulatory framework. The global financial services market is estimated to be over USD 22 trillion in 2021 and will grow to over USD 28 trillion by 2025.

• From digital art to ticket sales, music, collectables, luxury items and gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could transform the way people interact day-to-day. While still nascent, NFTs are projected to emerge into a market of USD 1 trillion or more.

Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of USISPF, said, “India is poised for growth to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024-25 as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Digital assets are expected to have tremendous potential in the next 11 years across countries, due to their rapid adoption. They are expected to help India achieve the GDP of USD 5 trillion economy.”

Kapil Rathi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CrossTower, said, "Data shows that the citizens of India tend to be natural visionaries and with Web 3.0, India has the opportunity to harness its core resources -- its technologically savvy youth -- to be a global leader in digital assets and Web 3.0.  With the right policies and regulatory framework, India's regulators can bring safety, combined with hope and prosperity to India.”

Kristin Boggiano, Co-founder and President of CrossTower, said, “The Internet sector contributed approximately 10 per cent to US GDP in 2018 and 16 per cent to India's GDP in 2020. Given the Web 3.0 growth across all industries, digital assets and blockchain technology is expected to create profound impacts on economies globally. With the right framework, India is positioned to be a key catalyst to the new technological era.”  

The research reports also highlight the sectors that blockchain technology has the potential to contribute to and transform: 

• Government Projects: Government-related blockchain projects are estimated to drive close to USD 0.1 billion of GDP to India in 2021, ramping up to USD 5.1 billion in 2032.

• Digital Identity: The report projects that the digital identity could contribute USD 8.2 billion to India's GDP in 2032. 

• Payments and Remittances: The report projects this sector to contribute nearly USD 21.7 billion to India's GDP in 2032, as blockchain drives efficiencies for payments.

The report was released at Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi in the presence of Dr. Mukesh Aghi, President and CEO of USISPF; Kapil Rathi, CEO and Founder of CrossTower and Kristin Boggiano, Co-Founder and President of CrossTower; along with other delegates present at the launch.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitmart has emerged as the latest victim of a severe hack attack. An alleged $196 million (roughly Rs. 1,479 crore) stored as various cryptocurrencies have been stolen from Bitmart in this attack. The stolen tokens were directed to the unidentified hacker(s) hiding under the pseudo name of “Bitmart Hacker”. The breach that happened on the evening of Saturday, December 4 gained traction after security firm PeckShield posted about it on Twitter. While the stolen Ethereum-based crypto assets made up for $100 million (roughly Rs. 754 crore), the remaining $96 million (roughly Rs. 724 crore) worth of assets were based on the Binance Smart Chain, according to PeckShield.

In a series of tweets, PeckShield shared screenshots of the cryptocurrencies that have been stolen in this breach.

The hack has also been acknowledged by Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Bitmart who tweeted that the incident was caused by a stolen private key that had two hot wallets compromised. Internet-powered hot wallets are linked with public and private keys to facilitate crypto transactions while also acting as a security measure.

Xia also added that for the time being, Bitmart has chosen to suspend all withdrawals until further notice.

According to a report by NewsRoomPost, a decentralised exchange aggregator called “1inch” has been used by the hackers to swap the stolen assets in exchange for Ether tokens.

The obtained Ether tokens are being deposited into privacy mixer called Tornado Cash, making the hacked funds difficult to be traced.

Investigations have been launched to track the hacker responsible for this Bitmart breach.

A recent report has revealed that the total crypto crime in 2020 amounted to around $10.52 billion (roughly Rs. 79,194 crores).

In October, a major hack attack cost Ethereum-powered lending protocol called “Cream Finance” worth of crypto assets.

Earlier in November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that cyber scammers are making innocent people use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR Codes to complete malicious transactions and dupe them off assets.

FOMO Pay, the leading Singapore one-stop payment solution provider, today embarked on a partnership with Luxembourg-headquartered licenced bank Banking Circle, to enable Collection on Behalf of (COBO) and Payment on Behalf of (POBO) services for FOMO Pay’s corporate clients in APAC.

Banking Circle is a Payments bank committed to building a local clearing network for all major currencies, to deliver the fastest, lowest cost payments, with no hidden fees for the beneficiary. It provides a suite of unique and award-winning banking solutions, including multi-currency banking accounts and Virtual IBANs, bank connections for local clearing and cross border payments, all underpinned by market leading compliance and security. 

Empowered by Banking Circle’s COBO and POBO capability, FOMO Pay’s customers are able to have immediate and accurate identification of underlying payers and payees when processing international and domestic multi-currency B2B transactions. With this transparency and expedition, FOMO Pay’s clients will benefit from reduced payment and invoice reconciliation and processing time. COBO and POBO also reduces opportunity for fraud, facilitates optimised treasury forecasting and credit risk monitoring, and enhances visibility on individual business units’ cash flow. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance risks are also reduced with enhanced visibility.

Mr. Zack Yang, Co-founder at FOMO Pay said: “Our enduring commitment to providing a comprehensive and robust one-stop payments solution has brought us to this partnership with Banking Circle. Banking Circle’s industry-leading COBO and POBO expertise will enable our clients to focus more on their business and spend less time on reconciliation and monitoring. We look forward to deepening this partnership as we continue to reinvent the payment experience for our customers."

Mr. Anders la Cour, CEO, Banking Circle Group said: “We are proud to partner with FOMO Pay, a pioneer in Singapore’s fintech sector, to introduce our COBO and POBO solutions in APAC. FOMO Pay’s esteemed clientele and steadfast presence in the high-growth APAC market makes them a natural partner in this journey to bring innovative payments solutions to merchants.”

With the vision of enhancing reliability and efficacy of domestic and cross-border payments, FOMO Pay continually invests in innovative technology and infrastructure. This collaboration with Banking Circle brings new industry-leading solutions to APAC, and will spur further innovation across the region.

Enfuce, the leading European Card-as-a-Service (“CaaS”) platform for modern card issuing and processing, today announced a successful €45 million Series C investment round led by international growth investor Vitruvian Partners. The new capital will be used to further accelerate growth internationally as well as development of the Company’s leading technology platform.

Enfuce is one of the fastest growing fintech companies in Europe and the first to run a card issuing platform fully in the cloud. The Company’s CaaS platform sits at the core of an accelerating shift in the financial services industry towards modern API-first card issuing and payment processing solutions with traditional incumbents quickly being disrupted. With Enfuce, clients can bring modern and feature rich end-customer card and payment solutions to the market at unparalleled speed, in weeks rather than months, and benefit from superior platform stability and uptime performance. Key applications include expense management, neobanks, fuel cards, loyalty programmes, as well as corporate and consumer lending. Notable Enfuce customers include Pleo, St1, Gee Finance, Qred and Rabobank, among others.

Founded in 2016, Enfuce has over 13 million active card users on their platform for whom Enfuce processes close to €1 billion transactions annually. The Company recently expanded its geographic presence in Germany and France. In addition to Vitruvian Partners, the Company is backed by Tencent, Maki.vc and other early-stage investors. Tencent participated in the Series C investment round.

Vitruvian Partners has previously invested in several successful financial services and payment companies including most recently Marqeta and TransferWise as well as numerous Nordic champions that have become international successes, including Benify, CRF Health, EasyPark, Scrive and Unifaun. Vitruvian Partners is a London-headquartered international investment firm with more than 100 professionals in seven countries with a focus on market-leading high-growth companies.

Monika Liikamaa, Co-founder and CEO, Enfuce said: “The payments industry has seen hyper growth in the last 18 months and 2021 has been a groundbreaking year for Enfuce; since the launch of our CaaS offering we have more than doubled our number of payment customers and ARR whilst also seeing strong pan-European traction. We are thrilled to bring onboard an experienced international investor in Vitruvian who have helped scale numerous fintech companies worldwide.”

Denise Johansson, Co-founder and CCO, Enfuce added: “Year 2021 has pushed our Card as a Service offering with our integrated carbon footprint calculator My Carbon Action towards a big breakthrough. We are today powering some of the most innovative fintech and corporate payment solutions on the market and we are very excited to take this success even further together with Vitruvian Partners. Our market is currently on the verge of disruption – and pioneers and innovators such as Enfuce are needed to accelerate that change.”

Jussi Wuoristo, Partner at Vitruvian Partners, commented: “Enfuce has developed an unrivalled CaaS-enabled payment technology platform and has achieved impressive growth since the launch of their offering with ample opportunities in a vast market as the Company continues to take on international scale. Vitruvian looks to back exceptional companies with unique technology solutions and we are excited to be working together with Monika and Denise and their world-class team to further strengthen the leading position of Enfuce.”

Shawbrook has expanded its Corporate Lending team with the appointment of Matt Fannon, who has joined the specialist bank as Director to extend its presence in Leeds and reach across Yorkshire and the North East.

With more than 20 years’ experience in banking, Matt has spent the last 10 years at Allied Irish Bank (AIB), specialising in Acquisition Finance, Leveraged Finance and Cash Flow Finance.   At Shawbrook, Matt will focus on delivering the full Corporate Lending proposition, including asset backed and leveraged finance solutions, to help solve the complex funding needs of businesses across the region.

Commenting on his new role, Matt said: “Having established a great reputation in the Corporate Lending arena, Shawbrook has a big part to play in providing flexible funding packages and debt structures in what is a very buoyant market. These factors - along with the bank’s flexibility and appetite to lend - were key drivers that attracted me to Shawbrook.”

Commenting on Matt’s appointment, Mark Parsons, Managing Director for Corporate Lending (Midlands, North & Scotland) at Shawbrook, said: “Matt joins the Corporate Lending team here at Shawbrook at an exciting time.

“During the first half of the year alone the Corporate Lending team completed 30 transactions, providing £125m of new facilities to high quality UK businesses in a range of sectors including precision manufacturing, professional services, technology, wealth management, training and education.  Across Yorkshire and the North East we’re working with great businesses like Hawthorn Timber, Glazerite and Carnaby Caravans. 

Mark concludes: “The advisor community in Leeds is particularly dynamic and very active right now, and with Matt’s experience and knowledge of the local market I’m looking forward to supporting many more businesses across the region.”

 Broadridge Financial Solutions, a global Fintech leader, today announced the appointment of Dipti Kachru as Global Chief Marketing Officer, effective January 18.

As Global CMO, Kachru will be responsible for leading all aspects of Broadridge’s global marketing organization — brand and digital strategy, product positioning, lead generation and thought leadership. She will focus on driving measurable growth, building Broadridge’s global brand reputation, expanding client relationships, and supporting the organization’s revenue growth ambitions. Kachru will be a member of Broadridge’s Executive Leadership team, reporting to Chris Perry, President of Broadridge. She will be based in New York.

Kachru joins Broadridge from J.P. Morgan where she most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for the Wealth Management division and can be credited for launching the J.P. Morgan Wealth Management brand and building an industry-leading client acquisition engine that delivered significant business growth.

“Dipti is a modern, client-centric marketer with significant experience in financial services,” said Chris Perry, President of Broadridge. “Her proven expertise in strategic marketing and digital transformation will further enable us to scale our business, enhance our offerings and elevate our reputation in the marketplace, leveraging both her wealth and asset management/funds experience. We are also thrilled to welcome a purpose-driven leader who is deeply committed to developing talent and making our industry more inclusive.”

“Broadridge is an industry leading fintech with outsized impact across the entire financial services ecosystem, and I look forward to contributing to the momentum that is propelling the company and the industry forward,” said Kachru. “In addition to the business opportunity, I am inspired by the leadership team and company culture, especially its focus on corporate governance, driving digital transformation, and making a difference for clients, investors, associates and their communities.”

Over the years, Kachru has held several senior consumer and wholesale marketing roles at JPMorgan Chase and Oppenheimer Funds (now Invesco). She started her career in advertising, working on global brands like Pepsi, American Express and Microsoft. She received her undergraduate degree from Lady Shriram College, New Delhi, India and her Master of Science in Strategic Communications from Columbia University.

The innovative e-bike product will offer first-of-its-kind safety applications for cyclists 

Terranet AB (Terranet/the Company), (Nasdaq: TERRNT-B.ST). Terranet, the creators of groundbreaking vehicle safety technology, VoxelFlow™ announced today their latest e-bike innovation for urban mobility, BlincBike, a landmark step forward for micromobility safety. BlincBike is a connected e-bike product comprising a rear-view monitoring system that empowers cyclists to avoid accidents and assist in making smarter decisions on the roads by classifying the object, read the distance, and predict the intention of the object. Their first venture in the micromobility space. BlincBike will continue to move Terranet’s mission forward of making the world safe for urban roadway users, by a new collision warning system.

The first of it’s kind safety product will help bicyclists keep their eyes on the road ahead and fits into any e-bike. BlincBike will keep an eye on the hazardous events potentially occurring from behind the cyclist with a full capture rear view. The new class of a Rear-View monitoring system can detect, track and classify objects by using AI-based computer vision, machine learning and deep neural networks. Its leading algorithms will be able to classify objects and discern the appropriate threat and risk level, empowering cyclists to make smart and safe decisions in time. In-motion recordings will capture critical traffic situations to assist in the insurance claims processes, but also for easy social editing and sharing via smartphone.

“BlincBike is our first product to target micromobility, but we see a tremendous potential in providing safety products in the forsaken and rapidly expanding micromobility space,” said Terranet CTO Nihat Küçük. “In the last four years, e-bikes were responsible for nearly 200,000 emergency room visits in the U.S. With our urban safety mission in mind, expanding into rapidly growing micro mobility solutions is the logical next step for Terranet. We are thrilled to progress in using our unique technologies and continue advancing our mission of revolutionizing urban roadway safety.”

This smart bicycle product will predict the movement of objects not visible to a cyclist and alert the user when there is anything that needs immediate attention. For example, 30% of all bicycle crashes are caused by cars and the most common bicyclist-motorist collision type is a rear end collision.  With BlincBike, if a car suddenly approaches from behind, the cyclist will receive a warning on the rear view display mounted on the handlebars and/or through haptic feedback placed at the choice of the cyclist. This will allow the cyclist to avoid making any drastic turns that can cause a collision with the recognized object. A smart taillight will indicate the cyclist’s actions to the upcoming traffic: braking, moving or stopping.

The first product will consist of two easily attachable and detachable parts, one rear view display placed on the handlebars, and one camera with rear light placed underneath the bike seat. The rear view display will ensure that the cyclist will have crucial information about what is happening on the road behind in real time, but also get notified in case any objects are approaching from behind. BlincBike is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of urban citizens, where 70% of all fatal bicycle accidents occur and it’s a growing number of fatalities year on year. 

The announcement comes on the heels of holistic updates to the Terranet product line and brand as the company continues to bring new products to market. As parts of the  VoxelFlow™ technology expands into different aspects of mobility from Autonomous Vehicles and ADAS vehicles to micromobility safety products going forward VoxelFlow™ will now speak to Terranet’s overarching software stack used to power their mobility safety products. The VoxelFlow™ expertise and proficiency will be applied to the BlincVision and BlincCompute, respectively. A momentous end to a busy year, as Terranet continues to grow the company is excited to utilize VoxelFlow™ in new and exciting ways bringing the world one step closer to a world with zero urban roadway accidents.

The innovative e-bike product will offer first-of-its-kind safety applications for cyclists

Lund, Sweden - Dec 6th, 2021 - Terranet AB (Terranet/the Company), (Nasdaq: TERRNT-B.ST). Terranet, the creators of groundbreaking vehicle safety technology, VoxelFlow™ announced today their latest e-bike innovation for urban mobility, BlincBike, a landmark step forward for micromobility safety. BlincBike is a connected e-bike product comprising a rear-view monitoring system that empowers cyclists to avoid accidents and assist in making smarter decisions on the roads by classifying the object, read the distance, and predict the intention of the object. Their first venture in the micromobility space. BlincBike will continue to move Terranet’s mission forward of making the world safe for urban roadway users, by a new collision warning system.

The first of it’s kind safety product will help bicyclists keep their eyes on the road ahead and fits into any e-bike. BlincBike will keep an eye on the hazardous events potentially occurring from behind the cyclist with a full capture rear view. The new class of a Rear-View monitoring system can detect, track and classify objects by using AI-based computer vision, machine learning and deep neural networks. Its leading algorithms will be able to classify objects and discern the appropriate threat and risk level, empowering cyclists to make smart and safe decisions in time. In-motion recordings will capture critical traffic situations to assist in the insurance claims processes, but also for easy social editing and sharing via smartphone.

“BlincBike is our first product to target micromobility, but we see a tremendous potential in providing safety products in the forsaken and rapidly expanding micromobility space,” said Terranet CTO Nihat Küçük. “In the last four years, e-bikes were responsible for nearly 200,000 emergency room visits in the U.S. With our urban safety mission in mind, expanding into rapidly growing micro mobility solutions is the logical next step for Terranet. We are thrilled to progress in using our unique technologies and continue advancing our mission of revolutionizing urban roadway safety.”

This smart bicycle product will predict the movement of objects not visible to a cyclist and alert the user when there is anything that needs immediate attention. For example, 30% of all bicycle crashes are caused by cars and the most common bicyclist-motorist collision type is a rear end collision.  With BlincBike, if a car suddenly approaches from behind, the cyclist will receive a warning on the rear view display mounted on the handlebars and/or through haptic feedback placed at the choice of the cyclist. This will allow the cyclist to avoid making any drastic turns that can cause a collision with the recognized object. A smart taillight will indicate the cyclist’s actions to the upcoming traffic: braking, moving or stopping.

The first product will consist of two easily attachable and detachable parts, one rear view display placed on the handlebars, and one camera with rear light placed underneath the bike seat. The rear view display will ensure that the cyclist will have crucial information about what is happening on the road behind in real time, but also get notified in case any objects are approaching from behind. BlincBike is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of urban citizens, where 70% of all fatal bicycle accidents occur and it’s a growing number of fatalities year on year. 

The announcement comes on the heels of holistic updates to the Terranet product line and brand as the company continues to bring new products to market. As parts of the  VoxelFlow™ technology expands into different aspects of mobility from Autonomous Vehicles and ADAS vehicles to micromobility safety products going forward VoxelFlow™ will now speak to Terranet’s overarching software stack used to power their mobility safety products. The VoxelFlow™ expertise and proficiency will be applied to the BlincVision and BlincCompute, respectively. A momentous end to a busy year, as Terranet continues to grow the company is excited to utilize VoxelFlow™ in new and exciting ways bringing the world one step closer to a world with zero urban roadway accidents.