“Cloud in Financial Services”, a joint report by Reply and Imperial College Business School, provides a one of a kind, in-depth look at how the cloud is set to transform financial services.

“Cloud services are here to stay within financial services and the pandemic has only accelerated the move” – commented Nelson Phillips, Professor of Technology Management at the University of California (formerly  Professor of Innovation and Strategy and Associate Dean of External Relations at Imperial College Business School) – “But financial institutions need to be strategic in the adoption and there are important questions that need to be addressed as firms progressively move more activity to the cloud. There are significant strategic and organisational challenges that need to be dealt with to ensure cloud adoption is successful and that firms derive maximum value from the move.”

Naturally, “Cloud in Financial Services” takes these strategic and organizational challenges head on, addressing the major topics that concern all c-suite executives, such as productivity, compliance and costs. Likewise, the piece will inform its readers of all the ins and outs of cloud transformation.  

For the financial services industry the future is cloud, an affirmation supported in this report by its accompanying survey, conducted with nearly 300 financial services organizations. In fact, when asked to choose the top three benefits of the cloud, respondents to this survey identified on-demand scalability (60%), the possibility to speed up implementation of new capabilities (51%) and by its ability to enable innovation (44%), all indicators of a forward-looking mentality. Operational efficiency gains and increased cyber resilience as cloud benefits where not too far behind (29%).

That said, financial institutions do face a number of challenges when moving to the cloud. In selecting the top three issues here, respondents singled out regulatory and compliance concerns (74%), lack of cloud expertise or cultural readiness within the stakeholder community (59%) and dependence on third-party cloud service providers (47%). The need to balance the risk of (excessive) reliance on third-party suppliers (i.e., CSPs) was also a point of concern for many financial institutions. Not surprisingly, a lack of suitable suppliers and the business case not being compelling enough were identified as the least salient challenges.

Cyber security is perhaps the matter for which the “Cloud in Financial Services” report unearthed the most striking paradox. A large percentage of respondents noted that the cloud significantly enhanced their security positions versus the traditionally hosted systems. However, many respondents stressed that security concerns were among the most challenging issues encountered in transitioning to the cloud.

As noted by Freddy Gielen, Executive Partner at Reply: “This report will show that the speed and impact of cloud adoption are highly dependent upon the availability of the right people, the existence of the right culture, and the readiness of leaders. Getting the technology right without having the right people, culture and leadership in place will not result in the business impact and return on investment that is possible from a well-managed transition to the cloud.”

Indeed, perhaps the most revealing aspect of the survey was that experience matters: the more experience respondents had with cloud the more they recognised that a well-executed cloud implementation can improve business. And it is here that this report, by drawing on wisdom from more than 5,000 Reply cloud projects (1,000 of which in financial services), will provide the reader with concrete and decisive information that can help set the course for a pleasant journey to the cloud.

The peak Christmas season is upon us, which means it’s also the busiest time of the year for online shopping. There’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and gifts to buy for loved ones. Plus, gifts to buy for yourself when the deals are this good! But beware, for cybercriminals ‘tis also the season to scam millions of pounds from unsuspecting people and companies. They’re banking on people being in a rush and distracted during this hectic season, and therefore more likely to fall victim to a scam, which allows them to cash in. Sounds a lot like the Grinch, doesn’t it?

People need to be extra vigilant and watch out for email scams such as phishing. These emails can make it past most security controls, because they appear to be coming from a trusted source; someone you know, a brand you trust or even someone from your company’s HR team or president.

Here’s a common scenario. You get an email from the sporting supply company you have purchased from several times in the past. But look carefully, is it really coming from that well-known brand? Before you click on that link with that great savings offer…

Look Carefully

Check the body of the email and the sender information to look for misspellings. Is the email from Amazoni, not Amazon? Hover over any links to see if the URL is correct. Clicking on that offer link may be all it takes to grant a grinch access to personal or business data. If an email receiver does click on the link, it could be an imposter website created by a scammer imitating a trusted brand’s website domain. If a site doesn’t use two-factor authentication (sending a code via email or text before supplying personal or payment information), anyone can be misled to update or confirm username, password, credit card, etc. Bam!

It’s not just individuals who are at risk. Businesses often suffer insurmountable losses in brand trust, credibility, and email deliverability, as well as millions of dollars of revenue from both fraudulent and legitimate purchases. If people fall prey to someone who has impersonated a brand, that business suffers, because every real email they send may now not be trusted. Plus, loyal or new customers might not feel safe coming to the legitimate website to make a purchase.

In email spoofing attacks, the sender display and domain names can look like they come from legitimate brands. To prevent this, businesses can implement DMARC authentication so that when an email is received, the server checks to ensure the sender is authorized to send emails on that brand’s behalf. To get around this, attackers will also spoof using lookalike domains (Amazoni.com).

Employees need to think carefully before responding to emails. Would the CFO really want you to send them gift cards? Of course not, but would a trusted supplier change their bank account details? Perhaps. Suspicious emails should be reported to your security operations team immediately so they can be verified and if found to be a scam, other employees can be warned.

How Else Can Businesses Protect Their Email Inboxes?

Security awareness training and processes will help stay one step ahead of modern-day grinches, as will email security solutions that use data science to inspect every incoming email message for authenticity. Based upon machine learning of typical behaviours and known senders, messages that can’t be trusted don’t make it to employee inboxes and ones that do are removed.

Having safety measures in place will keep everyone in good cheer and save businesses and personal gift budgets from falling victim to a big "Bah! Humbug!" this Christmas.

Accounting outsourcing service Knopka has implemented Smart Engines technology for Russian passport recognition into its HR system. The service users now have access to the capabilities of the Smart ID Engine software product, which provides fast and secure entry of passport data, simplifying the process of hiring new employees. Knopka is an accounting outsourcing company with management accounting and legal protection for firms and organizations in Moscow and throughout Russia.

Now clients of Knopka for a new employee's employment do not need to enter their passport data manually. The Smart Engines OCR will quickly and accurately extract data from the passport based on modern artificial intelligence technologies. Then it is automatically entered into the new employee's account fields in Knopka's customer HR system.

Smart Engines software products do not require any special skills from end-users. Flagship GreenOCR® technology provides high speed and accuracy scanning on scanned copies and passport photos taken from different angles and under other lighting conditions. The document in the image can be at any angle.

"Giving the user a useful hands-on experience means understanding modern standards and applying them in service development. Before using Smart Engines, customers spent up to 10 minutes entering data by hand. Now, this is not required, and the saved time can be devoted to solving the problems of your business," said Evgeny Kobzev, co-founder of Knopka.

For the fifth consecutive year, FICO is the Innovation category leader

• This is the second year FICO ranked sixth out of 100 companies in the RiskTech100® report - a comprehensive study of the world's major solution providers in risk and compliance technology

• FICO received category awards in AI Applications, Financial Crime - Enterprise Fraud, Retail Credit Analytics, and Innovation 

Leading applied intelligence company FICO today announced it has ranked sixth in Chartis Research's annual RiskTech100® report of the world's leading risk technology providers. FICO also won category awards for Innovation, Artificial Intelligence Applications, Financial Crime – Enterprise Fraud, and Retail Credit Analytics. 

"FICO's top-ten ranking reflects its focus on a cloud-based applied intelligence platform", said Sid Dash, research director at Chartis Research. "This involves operationalizing AI and predictive analytics to break down silos and become central to client operations. FICO’s win in the Innovation category for the fifth consecutive year highlights its commitment to innovation and developing technology that is relevant in today’s market. “

FICO is at the forefront of several industry-leading solutions in responsible artificial intelligence and machine learning in the digital space. The company’s commitment to helping financial institutions deliver on digital initiatives are meeting and exceeding customer expectations. FICO’s analytics solutions empower clients to better utilize large volumes and variety of data from across enterprise to make real-time decisions. The FICO experience in applying predictive analytics to critical risk management and profitability challenges are unparalleled in the industry. 

"We are extremely proud of this recognition and believe that when data-driven decisions are operationalized, they transform enterprises, change lives, and help create a better tomorrow." said Nikhil Behl, chief marketing officer at FICO. "FICO is focused on bringing human and artificial intelligence together, enabling business leaders to uncover new possibilities, make timely decisions that matter, and execute them at scale.”

This year marks the 16th annual RiskTech100® report. The comprehensive study looks at the world's major solution providers in risk and compliance technology. The rankings in the report reflect the analysts' opinions, along with research into market trends, participants, expenditure patterns and best practices.

• New indicators focus on changes to the environment, including urban growth, pollution levels, water supplies and agricultural output

 Alternative data specialist QuantCube Technology, today announced that it has added four new real-time economic indicators to the QuantCube Macroeconomic Intelligence Platform:

• Urban growth index – measuring development in cities and urban areas over time;
• NO2 pollution index – tracking human activity by comparing average nitrogen dioxide produced across different regions;
• Water stress index – monitoring water surface fluctuations to pinpoint the likely occurrence of drought and water shortages;
• Agricultural index – observing agricultural land usage to help predict changes in agricultural yields.

“Over the last two years we have been working closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) on a Demonstration Project, applying artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques to their Earth observation data to create a ground-breaking new set of economic indicators,” explained Thanh-Long Huynh, CEO of QuantCube. “Combining the satellite data from ESA with additional QuantCube data sources­ – including news and social media data, industry and employment data, international trade and shipping data, meteorological and oceanographic data, and more – allows us to provide a new set of indicators for measuring economic changes in granular detail across key sectors of the economy.”

The new set of QuantCube Global Satellite indicators are available through QuantCube’s Macroeconomic Intelligence Platform, which also provides real-time indicators for inflation, tourism, global trade, and key macro-economic variables. QuantCube worked closely with a number of financial institutions to ensure that its new Global Satellite indicators would meet their needs.

The objective was to create a set of economic indicators, using satellite imagery and big data not otherwise exploited, to provide a new source of real-time economic intelligence. The indicators fill a gap in the market for asset management firms, hedge funds, pension funds, investment banks and corporate treasurers that are hungry for economic insights. Longer term, there is also the potential for the indicators to provide insight into measuring environmental sustainability.

“ESA has guided the QuantCube team through ESA’s Business Applications programme in a Demonstration Project over the last two years and helped to co-fund the firm’s service development into the best way of incorporating Earth observation data, for instance from the Copernicus programme’s Sentinel satellites, within its real-time economic indicators,” explained Volker Schumacher, Applications Engineer at ESA. “We’re very happy that QuantCube is now launching these four new Global Satellite indicators to market and that financial institutions and other organisations will be able to benefit from this new real-time economic intelligence.”

“Cloud in Financial Services”, a joint report by Reply and Imperial College Business School, provides a one of a kind, in-depth look at how the cloud is set to transform financial services.

“Cloud services are here to stay within financial services and the pandemic has only accelerated the move” – commented Nelson Phillips, Professor of Technology Management at the University of California (formerly  Professor of Innovation and Strategy and Associate Dean of External Relations at Imperial College Business School) – “But financial institutions need to be strategic in the adoption and there are important questions that need to be addressed as firms progressively move more activity to the cloud. There are significant strategic and organisational challenges that need to be dealt with to ensure cloud adoption is successful and that firms derive maximum value from the move.”

Naturally, “Cloud in Financial Services” takes these strategic and organizational challenges head on, addressing the major topics that concern all c-suite executives, such as productivity, compliance and costs. Likewise, the piece will inform its readers of all the ins and outs of cloud transformation.  

For the financial services industry the future is cloud, an affirmation supported in this report by its accompanying survey, conducted with nearly 300 financial services organizations. In fact, when asked to choose the top three benefits of the cloud, respondents to this survey identified on-demand scalability (60%), the possibility to speed up implementation of new capabilities (51%) and by its ability to enable innovation (44%), all indicators of a forward-looking mentality. Operational efficiency gains and increased cyber resilience as cloud benefits where not too far behind (29%).

That said, financial institutions do face a number of challenges when moving to the cloud. In selecting the top three issues here, respondents singled out regulatory and compliance concerns (74%), lack of cloud expertise or cultural readiness within the stakeholder community (59%) and dependence on third-party cloud service providers (47%). The need to balance the risk of (excessive) reliance on third-party suppliers (i.e., CSPs) was also a point of concern for many financial institutions. Not surprisingly, a lack of suitable suppliers and the business case not being compelling enough were identified as the least salient challenges.

Cyber security is perhaps the matter for which the “Cloud in Financial Services” report unearthed the most striking paradox. A large percentage of respondents noted that the cloud significantly enhanced their security positions versus the traditionally hosted systems. However, many respondents stressed that security concerns were among the most challenging issues encountered in transitioning to the cloud.

As noted by Freddy Gielen, Executive Partner at Reply: “This report will show that the speed and impact of cloud adoption are highly dependent upon the availability of the right people, the existence of the right culture, and the readiness of leaders. Getting the technology right without having the right people, culture and leadership in place will not result in the business impact and return on investment that is possible from a well-managed transition to the cloud.”

Indeed, perhaps the most revealing aspect of the survey was that experience matters: the more experience respondents had with cloud the more they recognised that a well-executed cloud implementation can improve business. And it is here that this report, by drawing on wisdom from more than 5,000 Reply cloud projects (1,000 of which in financial services), will provide the reader with concrete and decisive information that can help set the course for a pleasant journey to the cloud.

To learn more, download the full report “Cloud in Financial Services”.

Global financial and insurance partners’ investment will drive expansion of Vesttoo’s multi-billion-dollar insurance-linked program and the world’s first fully digital marketplace for insurance-based risk transfer and investments Vesttoo CEO: “Mouro Capital and MS&AD see the same opportunity we see: Vesttoo as a global deal pipeline”

Vesttoo, a leading global Alternative Reinsurance and Investment platform, today announced its $15M Series B equity investment from Mouro Capital, which is backed by a large multinational bank, and MS&AD Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of Japan-based MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, the fifth largest insurance conglomerate in the world.

“Mouro Capital and MS&AD see the same opportunity we see: Vesttoo’s marketplace as a global deal pipeline that drives capacity directly from the capital markets to insurers, while delivering exceptional return on risk to investors by opening up this new asset class,” said Yaniv Bertele, CEO of Vesttoo. “Their partnership is an amazing vote of confidence in us and is a signal to financial and insurance institutions that we are significantly increasing business capacity. Together, we are going to scale our ILP and fully digital marketplace.”

The Series B round, which comes just three months after Hanaco Ventures led the company's Series A round, will drive expansion of Vesttoo’s Insurance-Linked Program (ILP) offering, an innovative security-based investment portfolio, as well as the world's first fully digital marketplace for insurance-based risk transfer and investments. Both are integral to Vesttoo’s business strategy, aimed at bridging the funding gap in the reinsurance market.

Vesttoo’s ILP investment portfolio is focused on fully collateralized Life and P&C reinsurance transactions. Through the ILP program, investors can pledge existing securities as collateral in these transactions, earning additional spreads over current yields (long-term, structured alpha), without increasing their risk profile.

Furthermore, Vesttoo’s marketplace, a first of its kind in the market, provides insurers with access to capital market originated capacity. Investors, on the other hand, benefit from direct access to a new asset class comprised of low volatility insurance risks and attractive risk reward.

Mouro Capital, which is backed by a leading multinational bank, is focused on investing in the future of financial services. Mouro Capital manages $400M in assets and has invested in companies such as iZettle (acquired by PayPal), Kabbage (acquired by American Express), Creditas, Curve, Ripple, Tradeshift, Trulioo and Upgrade.

“We are excited to partner with Vesttoo as they continue to innovate and bring new products, such as the ILP, to market for both insurers and the capital markets,” said Chris Gottschalk, General Partner at Mouro Capital. “ We have been impressed with team’s ability to leverage technology to build a truly differentiated marketplace”

Jon Soberg, Managing Partner at MS&AD Venture, said “Our team at MS&AD Ventures is really excited about the tech-driven approach to risk transfer that Vesttoo is applying to the reinsurance market. We believe this is the future and we see huge opportunities as risks such as climate and cyber become bigger and more complex. Vesttoo has a great team and we are excited to be part of the journey with them.”

TenureX and Elucidate have announced a strategic partnership with a mission to increase financial inclusion worldwide and tackle the laborious and outdated approach taken by correspondent banks when onboarding respondent banks and managing the periodic review process of counterparties. 

Both companies share the vision that everyone in emerging markets deserves the right to participate in global financial markets. To date, small and medium sized banks in emerging and frontier markets have been denied the ability to engage and create corresponding banking relationships which are the basis of fast, cost-effective payments across borders, often being inappropriately branded and de-risked solely based on their location or lack of scale.

Making use of the vast amounts of under-utilised data available, TenureX and Elucidate will together help small and medium-sized banks demonstrate their financial crime risk management capabilities, quickly access new payment methods and establish better, long-lasting correspondent banking relationships. These benefits ultimately result in a stronger and more transparent network, reducing friction and making the market work better as a whole.

Izhar Arieli, CEO of TenureX, stated: "We continue to focus on our mission to allow banks to de-risk a transaction and not to de-risk a partner. With our partnership with Elucidate, TenureX is adding to its offering a reputable regulated benchmark. Now, TenureX's reflect the best in class enhanced due diligence report on a respondent bank, created in unpresented speed and quality. This partnership is synergetic for both companies, enabling fast growth, effective scale, and high quality services.“ 

Elucidate adds unrivalled value through a data-driven, standardised approach to identifying and addressing money laundering, bribery, corruption and other financial crime risks, and will demonstrate that banks on boarded by TenureX have consistently proven their ability to control risk, providing evidence of this control via an independent benchmark. 

India's first attempt at global payments through UPI 

● Utility provided through the RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox 

● No more paper Forms, no new account setups, no more high processing fees - Investors can now fund their overseas account for global investments from home, for free! 

In a first-of-its-kind in India, leading cross-border fintech - Winvesta - has launched a pioneering feature that enables clients based in India to remit funds via UPI and net banking to fund their global investment accounts. 

One of the most tedious steps for Indians looking to invest in US stocks has been sending money to their overseas accounts. Normally, this process needs filling up A2 forms, paying high fixed fees, and even visiting a bank branch in many cases. 

With this new revolutionary development, Winvesta customers can remit funds for overseas investing through UPI or net banking. One just needs a bank statement, and the whole process takes less than a minute. Apart from the ease of transaction, the process also cuts the fixed fees to ₹ 0. In many cases, Indian residents otherwise need to pay a fixed fee of as much as ₹ 2500 for transferring funds. 

To send money on UPI, customers can start with as little as ₹2000 and send upto ₹1 lakh. For larger transactions, customers can use net-banking. The foreign exchange rate that investors get is also more favorable compared to the majority of banking channels. 

Winvesta Founder and CEO, Swastik Nigam, said "Winvesta's mission has been to stay at the forefront of cross-border finances for India and lead the change. After India's first multi-currency account, we are proud to introduce the country's first and only UPI-based foreign remittances. This is a big step forward in making global investing accessible to every resident Indian." The easy funding feature is being rolled out to all Winvesta clients after a successful pilot run with a closed group. 

"Not being able to fund their account using a local payment method such as UPI or Netbanking was the biggest pain point for a lot of our clients. Winvesta and ecosystem partners have worked very hard over the last several weeks to bring it to life. We really hope that at the end of this cohort, RBI approves UPI Payments so that the wider investor community can benefit from it and invest efficiently." said Rahul Gupta, Head of Product at Winvesta. 

This is part of a three-month cohort of the Regulatory Sandbox, launched by the Reserve Bank of India, and the feature is powered by Cashfree Payments India Pvt. Ltd. The theme of the cohort is how fintechs can solve today’s problems with cross-border payments.

Reeju Datta, Co-founder, Cashfree Payments said, “At Cashfree Payments, we are committed to bringing the cutting edge of payments to businesses. Making it easier for Indian residents to own productive assets globally is a step in the right direction, and we are glad to bring a solution to investors with innovative partners like Winvesta. We must also deeply appreciate the foresight and support of the Reserve Bank of India to allow this to operate under the ambit of their Regulatory Sandbox.” 

RBI Cohort 

Last December, the RBI announced the second cohort with the theme of 'Cross Border Payments'. 8 entities were selected to be a part of this cohort, including Cashfree Payments India Pvt Ltd. Cashfree Payments' platform will facilitate the purchase of assets listed on foreign exchanges (e.g US Stocks and ETFs on Nasdaq, NYSE) by Indian investors via local payment methods. The outward payments are automatically attributed to the LRS quota of the individual. 

The objective of the Regulatory Sandbox is to foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefit to consumers. This sandbox, in particular, is historical - it is India's first-ever attempt at global payments through UPI. 

The central bank had announced the opening of the first cohort under RS with the theme of 'Retail Payments'. It has also decided on 'MSME Lending' as the theme for the third cohort, details of which it will announce in due course. 

Geneva and Zurich

NeoXam, a leading financial software company, has strengthened its ties with Refinitiv to provide market participants with greater choice and simplification over their data.

Refinitiv will be providing reference, pricing, ESG, regulatory and tax data sets and more, while NeoXam will be disseminating and providing quality control through its NeoXam DataHub platform. The partnership enables financial institutions to seamlessly connect to key data sources without putting additional strain on IT infrastructure.

Through the NeoXam DataHub, asset managers and other market participants can connect to new data sources in much less time and at less cost compared to legacy data management or in-house solutions. The NeoXam DataHub addresses the challenges associated with aggregating and managing vast amounts of reference and market data in order to accurately manage and report financial positions.

Philipp Sfeir, NeoXam’s General Manager in the region EMEA North added: “This partnership is pivotal to help the financial industry address their pressing challenges. Refinitiv’s scope, quality and connectivity of information combined with our established DataHub platform is already providing our customers with more choice. As the market landscape evolves, we will continue to support firms seeking to efficiently respond to the explosion in data volumes in order to meet their client obligations."