ED&F Man Capital Markets replaces legacy systems with TS Imagine’s fully-hosted, SaaS solution for high-volume, real-time analytics on cross-asset exchange and OTC trading

TS Imagine, a leader in capital markets technology solutions, today announced that ED&F Man Capital Markets has adopted its real-time risk, compliance and margin platform. On the platform, ED&F Man Capital Markets will be able to efficiently manage initial and variation margin risk for SPAN and VaR based methodologies across its futures and options trading and clearing business.

Data management, unoptimized workflows and the complexity of managing multiple systems led ED&F Man Capital Markets to seek out a new risk and margin management solution. Following the success of the TS Imagine platform at highly renowned clearers and prime brokers, and anticipating the need to upgrade their systems, ED&F Man Capital Markets selected TS Imagine’s fully hosted SaaS solution. The FCM has already seen improvements to data management, aggregation and reporting capabilities since deploying the platform.

Stephen Hood, Global COO and Global Chief Risk Officer, at ED&F Man Capital Markets, commented: “We needed a single platform that would enhance our ability to serve clients remotely, support business growth and relieve the pain points of managing three systems for stress tests, margin and end of day risk, and reconciling data and workflows. TS Imagine’s platform displays our risk, profit and loss and margin analytics side-by-side, while lowering our total cost of ownership across exchange and OTC trading.”

He added “The excellent work of both the TS Imagine and ED&F Man Capital Markets teams has allowed us to successfully deliver on a reduced timeline to integrate, test and go live with the new platform within a few months.”

Andrew Morgan, Chief Revenue Officer at TS Imagine, concluded “Client expectations and market conditions have pushed clearing firms to accelerate the transformation of their legacy systems. In parallel, firms are looking for ways to more efficiently manage risk and margin as their clients continue to demand greater levels of transparency. Our platform is designed to solve these challenges and we are delighted that it has been selected by ED&F Man Capital Markets as the foundation of their future-proof technology strategy.”

RVU, owner of Uswitch, Confused.com and Money.co.uk, has completed the previously announced agreement to buy Manchester-based Mojo mortgages.

Mojo, is a free online mortgage broker, delivering personalised mortgage recommendations through a hybrid of smart tech and human mortgage experts. The growing company of over 60 employees recently reaffirmed its commitment to the North West by relocating to Manchester city centre, while continuing to hire mortgage advisers on a remote basis across the UK.

RVU operates digital brands that empower people to make confident decisions. In the UK these include Uswitch, Confused.com and Money.co.uk, all of which offer consumers the ability to compare and switch across a range of utilities and financial services products including mortgages. 

Tariq Syed, CEO of RVU, said: “This is a win for the millions of mortgage seekers who are coming to us for help. Our combined scale alongside the expertise Mojo brings will allow us to have a hugely positive impact on this market, and those dreaming of owning their own home.

“To date, RVU has been instrumental in revolutionising the process of buying car insurance and switching energy. Now, moving our attention to mortgages - a market left largely undisrupted, we will get to work on improving their mortgage experience from start to finish. With best in class sector expertise, will make mortgages fit for the 21st century, empowering consumers to find and secure the right deal for their needs.”

For additional details on the transaction, please refer to the press release distributed by RVU in July 2021

Worldfavor, a global sustainability platform that enables businesses to access, manage and share sustainability information, is forming a strategic alliance with Aztec Group – an independent fund and corporate services provider.

Worldfavor is a global SaaS sustainability platform, digitizing and automating the collection, calculation, aggregation, and visualization for analysis and reporting of ESG data. Investment firms are using Worldfavor’s Sustainable Investments solution to gain insight and optimize processes for ESG valuations, in line with best practice and sustainability frameworks.

The Aztec Group is an award-winning independent provider of fund and corporate services, employing more than 1,100 people across Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, the US and the UK. Owner-managed, the Group specializes in alternative investments, administering more than €440 billion in assets, 450 funds and 4,500 entities for a range of clients, spanning the major asset classes including private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate and infrastructure.

Starting in December, the companies are forming a strategic alliance that will lay the foundation for enhanced ESG performance and sustainable business growth. Underpinned by the deep expertise in alternative asset classes and business sustainability from Aztec Group, the alliance with Worldfavor will build sustainable value through exceptional ESG performance.

The alliance between Worldfavor and Aztec will empower fund professionals to understand their impact across their portfolio, gain deeper insights, act faster, mitigate risk, and make bold investment decisions that fuel long-term growth. 

– Worldfavor was founded to be the best platform for sharing, accessing and gaining insights from corporate ESG information. Our mission is to make sustainability mainstream, and with that we offer solutions to accelerate sustainability through the value chain – from investors to companies and their far-reaching supply chains. We are very proud to present this long-term, strategic alliance with Aztec Group that will empower fund managers and investors to stay ahead of the curve and build sustainable growth through exceptional ESG performance, says Andreas Liljendahl, CEO at Worldfavor.
 

The alliance between Worldfavor and Aztec Group will commence on December 1st. The initial focus of the alliance between the companies will be focused on Worldfavor’s Sustainable Investments solution – helping private-equity and venture capital firms to easily track and boost the investments' sustainability performance. 

– Sustainability transparency is fast becoming one of the key concerns for our clients, commented James Gow, Chief Client Officer at the Aztec Group. Regulation is clearly a driving force, but we’re equally speaking to clients that are responding to increased investor expectations as well as developing their own ESG aspirations as they target long-term, sustainable growth across their investments. This alliance will enable them to better understand the impact of their portfolios and provide a quicker route to insight and decision making.

• The new capability enables partners to seamlessly offer Funding Circle loans of up to £500,000 to small businesses within their own website
• Powered by Funding Circle’s machine learning and Instant Decision technology, their customers can apply within minutes, receive a decision in seconds and have money in their account within 24 hours
• Funding Options and Capitalise are the first partners to leverage this new capability, with an exciting pipeline of partnerships expected over the next 12 months

Funding Circle, the leading platform for small business loans, has today unveiled an Application Programming Interface (API) that enables partners to natively embed Funding Circle into their website, providing customers with fast and seamless access to business loans. 

Leveraging Funding Circle’s decade of investment in its machine learning and Instant Decision technology, partners can now offer customers a frictionless way to apply for a loan up to £500,000 in minutes, receive a decision in seconds and have money in their account within 24 hours. The embedded finance solution is the latest in a series of new products and capabilities launched by Funding Circle that utilise Instant Decision technology, including FlexiPay, a buy now pay later solution for small businesses. 

Business finance platforms, Funding Options and Capitalise.com, are the first to integrate with the API, expanding their proposition and making it easier than ever to help customers to apply for funding. 

These first integrations provide a blueprint for the exciting pipeline of partnerships expected over the next 12 months and form part of the growing global market for API-driven embedded finance which is predicted to exceed $138bn by 2026.

Lisa Jacobs, CEO Designate of Funding Circle, said:

“We started Funding Circle to deliver easy, fast and flexible funding solutions to small businesses and we are constantly innovating and developing our technology to meet their evolving needs. Our new embedded finance solution enables partners like Funding Options and Capitalise to harness our technology and deliver a seamless way for their customers to access easy, fast and flexible finance.” 

Simon Cureton, CEO of business finance marketplace Funding Options, said: 

“Funding Circle has been one of the most successful innovators in the lending space over the past decade, which makes their integration to our Funding Cloud ecosystem even more exciting. Together we will be able to rapidly facilitate new lending at scale, supporting SMEs as they navigate the post Covid recovery. Our award winning Funding Cloud platform combines the use of technology, innovations such as Open Banking and advanced data analytics, to power real-time digital decisioning, transforming the experience for companies who need fast and reliable funding to grow and thrive. Funding Circle, together with other lenders on the platform, will play an integral role in shaping the SME finance sector for the future, which is a critical element underpinning the stability and growth of the UK economy.”

Ollie Maitland, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Capitalise.com, said: 

“Funding Circle coming on to Capitalise’s Instant Offers platform is a boost for business owners and accountants with fast, instant quotes. This gives them transparency and control over business finance to plan ahead with confidence.”

More details can be found here: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps21-22-primary-market-effectiveness-review-feedback-and-final-changes-listing-rules

The FCA has confirmed the following changes:

• Allowing a targeted form of dual class share structures within the premium listing segment to encourage innovative, often founder-led companies onto public markets sooner and so broaden the listed investment landscape for investors in the UK.
• Reducing the amount of shares an issuer is required to have in public hands (i.e. free float) from 25% to 10%, reducing potential barriers for issuers created by current requirements.
• Increasing the minimum market capitalisation (MMC) threshold for both the premium and standard listing segments for shares in ordinary commercial companies from £700,000 to £30 million. Raising the MMC will give investors greater trust and clarity about the types of company with shares admitted to different markets.

Anne Fairweather, Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Hargreaves Lansdown:

“Rule tweaks will encourage more companies to list in the UK providing welcome opportunities for investors. The Government must now look to address wrinkles in the way reams of information must be disclosed through the use of old fashioned prospectuses, which currently limit the attraction of offering new capital raisings to ordinary investors. Retail investors must have the opportunity to invest at IPOs and greater protections with secondary fund raises. A flurry of smaller companies joining the market will provide potential for some exciting growth in newly emerging technologies and industries, however this potential will go hand in hand with increased risk. As always, investors must weigh the opportunities on offer against the risks, we’d expect individual smaller companies to make up fairly small parts of a client’s overall portfolio.”

CUBE launches the world’s first Automated Regulatory Intelligence (ARI) platform, RegPlatform, a world-leading regulatory intelligence platform for large, global financial institutions.

• CUBE defines the new world of regulatory AI in its third-generation release of RegPlatform, which combines financial regulation with artificial intelligence to deliver end-to-end regulatory compliance for customers

• Built over 10 years, CUBE has the world’s largest, most accurate and up to date regulatory data, enabling RegPlatform to boast an unparalleled breadth and depth of capability

• RegPlatform intelligently automates complex regulatory change management processes end-to-end through a set of purpose-built modules that can be tailored to meet customers’ needs

CUBE, a global RegTech company working to simplify compliance for financial institutions, has launched the world’s first Automated Regulatory Intelligence (ARI) platform through its third generation RegPlatform. This latest release provides large, global financial institutions with unprecedented regulatory intelligence capabilities, along with the world’s most comprehensive and robust source of regulatory data. 

Regulatory change across the globe is being generated at a volume and velocity that is no longer manageable without Automated Regulatory Intelligence. Bringing together huge regulatory data sets with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, ARI enables customers to transform complex compliance processes in a way that’s not been possible before.

CUBE’s latest release leverages state-of-the-art technologies and design to optimise user experience with new unique functions and features, including customer machine learning which results in the platform continuously learning what is relevant and optimal for each individual customer.

RegPlatform ARI transforms complex regulatory change management, enabling compliance teams to significantly cut existing costs and move highly skilled individuals up the value chain whilst reducing risk. 

Ben Richmond, CEO and Founder of CUBE:

“I am delighted to announce the latest release of RegPlatform. Our team across the globe have worked round the clock to develop RegPlatform as the premier Automated Regulatory Intelligence offering in the market. This release will take the business value delivered to all of our customers to a new level and will streamline and automate our customers complex compliance processes.” 

TradeFeedr’s FX data and analytics now available within FlexTRADER EMS

FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, announced that Tradefeedr’s unified data analytics API is fully integrated and available within FlexTRADER EMS. Tradefeedr enables collaborative analysis of trading performance between liquidity providers and their clients using standardized common metrics. The first FlexTrade client, a European buy-side firm, is now live and in production using the integration.

The move is designed to deliver buy-side trading teams using FlexTRADER EMS seamless access to real-time, analysis-ready FX data to improve the speed and quality of trading-decision making –  crucial in today’s fast-moving environment.

Tradefeedr delivers a common, independent FX trading database allowing market participants across the sell-side, buy-side, regional banks, hedge funds, brokers, and central banks to connect, analyze their trading data, and collaborate. By doing so, it provides better, standardized data for market participants to deliver informed decision making and stronger relationships. Buy-side FX trading teams using Tradefeedr can leverage this data via a library of pre-existing analytics templates covering everything from transaction cost analysis, custom best execution policies and liquidity management, or use business-user friendly tools to build their reports and analytics without recourse to IT.

FlexTrade’s new API integration to Tradefeedr delivers FX data and pre-built, customizable analytics directly into the FlexTRADER EMS Order Blotter, enabling users to process vast volumes of real-time, actionable FX trading and market data within existing workflows. As a result, clients can seamlessly review their trading markouts, impacts, and spreads directly with liquidity providers within FlexTRADER EMS, improving accuracy and speed of FX trading-decision making and overall execution quality. Further, it can help to improve efficiency by supporting automated trading decisions, for example, by dynamically evaluating and acting based on algo performance.

Tradefeedr’s data and analytics solution is immediately available within FlexTRADER EMS as an add-on for existing FlexTrade clients.

Andy Mahoney, Managing Director, EMEA at FlexTrade, noted: “A significant operational burden buy-side trading teams face is producing accurate, normalized FX data on which to base trading decisions. Mahoney added, “By integrating Tradefeedr directly into our EMS order blotter, analysis-ready data and analytics are available at their fingertips, delivering actionable intelligence when FX traders need it the most.”

Balraj Bassi, Co-Founder at Tradefeedr, stated: “Tradefeedr’s FX trading and analytics platform removes the siloes traditionally associated with the buy- and sell-side, engendering better relationships and decision making, and removes the need to aggregate the disparate data sources associated with FX market and trading data. As a result, our platform will deliver significant benefits to our mutually shared clients by delivering better access to trading information.”

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True cloud insurance accounting software provider iplicit has launched a fully integrated stock control module – helping accounting and finance leaders to reduce manually intensive processes, decrease human error, streamline reporting, and improve inventory visibility. 

The UK-headquartered business has ploughed 15 months of development time and invested over £1 million into its latest stock and inventory management software development.

Alongside providing a detailed view of stock levels and values across multiple locations, users can see customer orders, items on order with suppliers and goods awaiting delivery – the software’s clever analytics functionality means that organisations can accurately forecast future stock requirements. This clear visibility helps reduce surplus orders and unnecessary spend, alleviating the impact of current shipping delays, and increasing the efficiency of the entire stock management lifecycle.

Additionally, the new automated feature allows users to manage multiple sites and multicurrency transactions with ease – all without the additional requirement of human resources. It will play an integral role in iplicit’s delivery of its true cloud solution to over ten-times more daily users – 60,000 – and 20,000-plus organisations by 2025.

Speaking about the company’s stock control release, iplicit’s product director Brian Weaving, said: “Accounting and finance leaders are coming to us with an immediate need to eliminate the annoyances they’re experiencing with clunky, unfit-for-purpose software that can’t keep up with the pace of their growing businesses.

“A big part of that is the lack of seamless integration between accounting and stock systems – and this is leaving finance departments operating blindly because they’re unable to collate and report on critical figures with any kind of accuracy or speed.

“Combining these functions, our stock and inventory management feature generates a single version of the truth – resulting in slicker, real-time reporting of stock and increased costs management visibility. Armed with this data, finance leaders have the crucial additional time and clarity they need to pursue their growth ambitions.”

Recognising that external factors may prevent some users from being able to switch solutions when they’re growing at pace, iplicit has retained the ability to seamlessly integrate its accounting software with other stock control systems, offering ultimate choice for users.

Brian added: “The beauty of iplicit is the different options we offer. We don’t want anyone to become a hostage to their accounting and finance software – as is the case with several ‘fake cloud’ options on the market. Our true cloud offering puts the power back into the finance department’s hands to make positive choices that impact their business’s bottom line.”

Launched in January 2019 by a team including the founders of finance solution Exchequer Software, iplicit integrates with other cloud applications and provides users – from industries such as accountancy, not-for-profit, recruitment, education and wholesale distribution – with real-time reporting capabilities, automated data migration, rapid implementation, and a public API to break down data silos.

More than 350 organisations and 5,000 active users – spanning 52 countries – currently access iplicit’s software daily. The award-winning organisation also recorded a 162% growth in revenue last year, and has launched a finance and accounting partner programme to continue its trajectory. 

For further details about iplicit, visit the website, email info@iplicit.com or call 020 7729 3260. 

emerchantpay, a leading payment service provider and acquirer, has formed a strategic partnership with Elsner Technologies, an award-winning web and digital marketing agency. Together they will offer greater payment flexibility to their customer base.

Many medium and enterprise-level businesses will now get access to Elsner Technologies and Emerchantpay payment gateways' services. Having a presence around the globe, it will be easier to work on a large scale. This partnership enables Elsner Technologies to give their customers access to emerchantpay's robust payments API with over 300 ways to pay, an array of integration options, advanced anti-fraud solutions and a global acquiring range.

"Our partnership with Elsner Technologies brings together two companies with a clear focus on providing innovative, value-adding solutions and exceptional service to their customers and partners. Today's businesses need more than just payment processing; they need a payment partner to help them accelerate growth and drive business results. This is why this alliance is so impactful," says Alex Apergis, SVP of Global Partnerships at emerchantpay.

"Our partnership with emerchantpay combines our ability to build powerful eCommerce websites with exceptional payment processing capabilities for our customers. As a customer-first company, offering cutting-edge solutions so our clients can expand their business and drive more revenue has always been a top priority for us," says Harshal Shah, CEO at Elsner Technologies.