Leading regulatory intelligence provider CUBE will provide regulatory technology to Revolut, one of the world’s fastest growing FinTechs

RegTech company CUBE is pleased to be working with the financial superapp Revolut. CUBE will provide Revolut with regulatory technology, with a focus on horizon scanning and managing regulatory change at a global scale.

Revolut will have unrestricted access to CUBE’s industry leading regulatory intelligence platform, which monitors the entire regulatory landscape in real time. CUBE’s powerful AI continuously monitors every issuing body automatically. This ensures close-to-real-time notifications of all regulatory announcements, enforcement actions, speeches and other regulatory updates. 

Over the past 10 years, CUBE has created a highly-innovative, purpose-built and fully-automated end-to-end regulatory change platform, with AI at its core. By leveraging AI to automate the management of regulatory change, CUBE has the speed and agility to capture, analyse and interpret high volumes of regulation, at scale, cost-effectively. This means that high growth companies like Revolut can stay ahead of the curve by anticipating future regulatory trends and frameworks and, most importantly, achieve risk mitigation in their current and future operational jurisdictions. 

Ben Richmond, Founder and CEO of CUBE says, “Revolut has grown at an incredible pace, and made the banking industry sit up and take notice. Being selected by a trailblazer such as Revolut, to help them build out their compliance architecture, is phenomenal. We are delighted to be working with such an innovative company, and look forward to continuing to work together in the years to come.”

Harry Gill, Group Head of Regulatory Compliance at Revolut says, “Revolut’s global horizon scanning and regulatory mapping processes are powered through a seamless API integration with CUBE’s RegInsight and RegBook, enabling Revolut to grow at pace whilst keeping up with the ever evolving regulatory landscape. We are pleased to be working with CUBE and excited about the continued use of this technology to solve for our compliance needs ahead.”

Shield-IoT streamlines the implementation of mass-scale IoT and 5G networks with the world’s first Coreset-AI security platform. “Shield-IoT’s innovative approach to anomaly detection provides accurate analytics at mass-scale,” says Ramanath Mallikarjuna, Chief Strategist at Akamai Technologies.

Shield-IoT, a leader in mass-scale IoT and IIoT network cyber security and operational monitoring, announced today the closing of a $7.4 million Series A round of funding. The Series A round was led by NextLeap Ventures and Bloc Ventures, with the participation of Atlas Ventures, Akamai Technologies, Springtide Ventures, DIVEdigital, and Janvest Capital Partners.

Founded in 2017, Shield-IoT addresses the escalating proliferation of IoT cyber threats to devices, data, critical services, and infrastructure. With Shield-IoT, service providers and IoT brands can monitor and secure their mass-scale B2B IoT and IIoT networks, reduce operational costs, and generate new revenue streams with value-added services.

“Shield-IoT’s innovative approach to anomaly detection enables Akamai to provide accurate analytics at mass-scale,” says Ramanath Mallikarjuna, Chief Strategist at Akamai Technologies. “Akamai is collaborating with Shield-IoT on innovative solutions to enhance cybersecurity and operational monitoring for customers of Akamai’s IoT solutions."

Currently, in use across multiple verticals including telcos, utilities, transportation, manufacturing, smart cities, and government, Shield-IoT offers a simple-to-deploy and easy-to-operate cloud-based software solution to protect any IoT device or application with no changes to end-customer networks.

Based on over 15 years of academic research and 50 academic papers, Shield-IoT coreset-AI patented technology revolutionizes IoT mass-volume data analysis through a unique transformation of “big data” into small datasets. “Coresets compress the data from n to log(n), or from 1 million to 20 data points, enabling context-free highly accurate anomaly detection in minutes instead of hours or days,” says Professor Dan Feldman, Chief Scientist at Shield-IoT.

“Shield-IoT removes the big data barriers and opens the door to a $50 billion IoT connectivity services market (2025)”, says Udi Solomon, CEO, and Co-Founder of Shield-IoT. “Our innovative technology is helping global IoT players to move forward and accelerate IoT growth”.

one in every two UK consumers is planning to ditch their credit card entirely for Christmas shopping this year, with two-thirds of credit card owners wanting to avoid paying credit card interest. Despite credit cards promising interest-free periods, 46% of Brits that used their credit cards ended up paying interest on their Christmas shopping last year. 

The data, which comes from Klarna’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday report launched today, confirms that UK consumers increasingly look for better value alternatives to traditional credit that can give them control over their finances, such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). 

BNPL consumers shop smarter. 

The figures released today by Klarna also show that BNPL consumers are much better at planning and budgeting for their Black Friday and holiday shopping: 

• Better budgeters: 6 in 10 BNPL consumers have set an overall budget for their holiday shopping, compared with just 42% of those who had never heard of BNPL.
• Proper planners: 6 in 10 BNPL consumers already know what to buy during the Black Friday sales compared with only a third of those who don’t use BNPL. 
• Smart shoppers: Half of BNPL consumers wait for Black Friday sales to make larger purchases compared to less than a quarter of people who never heard of BNPL 
• Savvy savers: Over half of BNPL consumers research the best deals ahead of time compared with less than a third of those who don’t use BNPL. 

BNPL consumers budget, plan, shop and save. 

A recent report by global management consultancy, Bain, found that BNPL saved UK consumers £103 million in interest and fees in 2020 by ditching their credit cards, and overall leads to much lower reliance on debt than credit cards. The average outstanding BNPL balance is £200 compared with over £500 for credit cards. According to Bain, BNPL accounted for 5% of total ecommerce, or £6.4 billion-worth of purchases, in 2020. 

Alex Marsh, Head of Klarna UK, commented: “This data shows that shoppers are  increasingly smart and mindful about their buying decisions. It’s no wonder they are abandoning high-cost credit cards that are designed to obscure spending to drive up debt and interest payments. Helping shoppers plan in advance and budget smartly is baked into Buy Now Pay Later, giving people better control over their finances to save money and keep them out of debt.”

Managed by Temasek-owned SeaTown, the fund with committed capital of more than US$1 billion is raising external capital for the first time

Private market exchange ADDX has enabled rare fractional access to a private credit fund with more than US$1 billion in committed capital, reducing the fund’s minimum investment size for individual accredited investors from US$5 million to US$20,000. The move helps diversify the investor base of private credit funds, which have traditionally been designed to serve institutional capital. This is also the first private credit fund to be tokenised on the ADDX platform.

The lowering of the investment threshold was made possible through the issuance of security tokens with an exposure to the SeaTown Private Credit Feeder Fund LP (“SeaTown Private Credit Fund”). Also known as digital securities, these tokens are more efficient to administer because they make use of blockchain and smart contracts to overcome manual processes at different stages of their life cycle – including custody, ownership tracking, fund earnings distribution and secondary trading. The use of security tokens also eliminates the need for multiple intermediaries, which brings down costs further for both issuers and investors. 

Fund manager SeaTown is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seviora Holdings, and is indirectly owned by Temasek Holdings. SeaTown has been investing in private credit since 2012, with US$2.1 billion of investments to date. In all, SeaTown manages five funds with US$6 billion in total AUM as of 30 June 2021.

Private credit funds are funds that make direct loans to companies or buy such loans from the secondary market. Technology is enabling the entry of non-institutional capital a time of significant expansion for private credit – also known as private debt – as an asset class. According to Preqin, private debt assets under management (AUM) have more than doubled in the past decade, from US$315 billion in 2010 to US$848 billion in 2020. Preqin is projecting private credit AUM to increase further, to $1.46 trillion by 2025.

SeaTown Private Credit Fund is raising capital from external limited partners (LPs) for the first time. The close-ended, four-year fund is focused on extending private credit to companies in the Asia-Pacific region.  To date, the SeaTown fund has deployed more than US$500 million in investments. Over half of the fund’s portfolio of deployed investments is in secured loans or bonds, while the remainder is in second-lien loans and preferred shares. The offering on the ADDX platform was completed last month, with individual accredited investors subscribing to US$7 million in tokens. The tokens are now listed for secondary trading on the ADDX exchange, which allows other accredited investors to take part.

Oi Yee Choo, Chief Commercial Officer of ADDX, said: “SeaTown is a distinguished name in the world of private capital. SeaTown’s link to the Temasek group of portfolio companies and its extensive deal sourcing network across the Asia-Pacific region enable the fund manager to be more selective in executing deals with a good risk-return profile.”

She added: “In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, the growth of private credit funds has accelerated in part because traditional lenders such as banks have taken a more conservative stance on lending. Amid this expansion, we can see the private credit fund space maturing and attracting a deep pool of professional talent. Giving individual investors access to this burgeoning asset class resonates strongly with ADDX’s mission of democratising the private markets. It is not feasible for an investor with a net worth between US$2 million and US$20 million to enter a private credit fund with a minimum ticket size of US$5 million. But at a US$20,000 minimum, that same investor is able to take part in this previously-inaccessible asset and benefit from the enhanced portfolio diversification.”

Founded in 2017, ADDX is a full-service capital markets platform with Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) licenses for the issuance, custody and secondary trading of digital securities. The financial technology company raised US$50 million in its Series A round in January 2021. Its shareholders include Singapore Exchange (SGX), Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital and Japanese investors JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC-VGI) and the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ). Individual accredited investors using the ADDX platform today come from 27 countries, spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas (excluding the US)

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 Ventures, 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."

• Product Reviews
• 22.11.2021 04:28 pm
• Global Payment Solution for Digital Sales

What does the product do?

Global Payment Solution (GPS) for Digital Sales is a best–in-class product designed by Softline Ecommerce for managing online payments, taxes, fraud and compliance.

Softline Ecommerce is a part of Softline Group, a leading global IT company with 25 year professional expertise and presence in APAC, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

The solution is aimed to help vendors in B2B and B2C who wish to sell products online and expand new markets to avoid the challenges and extra costs related to payment methods, currencies and fluctuations, invoicing and billing, tax and law requirements, language support. By selecting Softline Ecommerce’s GPS, vendors might significantly increase sales and checkout conversion rate, without having a headache with back-office operations.

Softline Ecommerce’s GPS is a unified solution for global ecommerce expansion that supports 200+ local payment methods (Blik, Przelewy24, Twisto, PIX, OXXO pay, KakaoPay, Wire Transfer at local banks and etc.) and e-commerce services. The unified solution offers a complete localization – taking account of languages, tax laws, compliance requirements, payment methods, automated checkout process, operating procedures and so on.

What is special about the product?

Softline Ecommerce’s GPS is an all-in-one solution for digital commerce and can provide:

• Customizable Templates
• Product Catalog Management (B2B & B2C Products)
• Check-out Process
• End-customer Account
• End-to-end Order Management
• Invoice Management
• Multiple Payment Options
• Subscriptions and Recurring Payments
• Installments and Micropayments
• Customizable Fraud Management Module
• Post Purchase Engagement
• Advanced Analytic and Reporting Tools

In comparison to rival solutions there are flexible rates and additional value added services. These services include BI tools, AI based fraud management feature, chatbots and marketing instruments.

Softline Ecommerce offers premium 24/7 customer support

Who is the competition?

The main competitors of Softline Ecommerce are Digital River, 2checkout, Clever bridge, Paddle, Nexway, Fast Spring and PayProGlobal)

What are some real case examples?

Among Softline eCommerce Solution Customers are such brands as Google, Microsoft, Kaspersky, Avast, ABBYY, ESET, Symantec, Acronis, Xerox and Autodesk.

One of the success stories is Outbyte, an Australian technology company developing and selling software products around the world.

Softline Ecommerce’s GPS has proven to be the best performing vendor for Outbyte. When it comes to this AB test, Softline Ecommerce stood out for several reasons:

• AI-based multi-acquiring (and local acquiring).
• BI powered anti-fraud tools.
• Personalized trigger e-mailing.
• Shopping Cart and Checkout customization
• Alternative payment methods
• Page load times

Another, success story is CyberProtect (ex. Acronis), an internet shop that used Softline for selling products through its website. The vendor has been selling corporate business-to-business products.

Working with Softline Ecommerce has helped CyberProtect (ex. Acronis) to increase e-commerce sales by approximately 20%.

Read more client success cases here https://softline.com/about/projects

What people say about Softline eCommerce Solution on other platforms https://www.itcentralstation.com/search?search=softline+ecommerce&page=1

Integral (www.integral.com), a leading technology company in the foreign exchange market, today announced two new hires to expand their footprint among European banks and brokers. Julian Elliot joins as Senior Product Director and Ina Patrascu joins as a Director in the EMEA sales team.

Based in the UK, Elliot will take on the position of product lead on the Integral MarginFX platform, a product built on Integral’s cloud-based technology that allows leading brokers to deliver state-of-the-art FX trading services to a global customer base. He has spent much of his career at Gold-i Ltd across the sales, finance, and operations teams, providing him with valuable insight into the foreign exchange market.

With a deep background in institutional FX, Patrascu will focus on selling Integral’s SaaS technology to European banks and brokers. Her experience will strengthen the Integral sales team as the business continues to grow in the EMEA region, contributing to the growth of global revenue streams.

Commenting on the new hires, Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral said, “We are extremely pleased to announce our new hires and welcome Julian and Ina to the Integral team. The key to our successful client engagements has always been our talented people. Both Julian and Ina continue in that great tradition and will allow Integral to meet the rapidly growing demand for our services.”

The hires come as Integral continues to expand its product and sales teams to support the accelerating shift to cloud technology by financial institutions.

Currently, real estate investments are back on the radar for many investors. Since  engaging with real estate as landlords can be time-consuming, many asset owners explore investing in  real estate investment trusts (REITs), as this asset class offers straightforward access to commercial real  estate via exchange-traded funds. ETF pioneer FinEx now issued an ETF, the FinEx US REIT UCITS ETF, focusing on US REITs, which tracks the Solactive GPR United States REIT ex Timber and Mortgage Index.  The ETF started trading on the Moscow Exchange on November 22nd, 2021. 

REIT investment has become popular among investors as REITs' nature allows investors to engage with real  estate investment seamlessly without the process involved that is required to buy physical property directly  on their account. Additionally, REIT investors gain access to commercial property, such as office towers or  shopping malls, which would be nearly impossible to access for the average retail investor. On top of it, REITs  tend to offer above-average dividend yields compared to the general stock market.  

The underlying index for the FinEx US REIT UCITS ETF is the Solactive GPR United States REIT ex Timber  and Mortgage Index. To qualify for index inclusion, REITs must be part of the Solactive GBS United States  Investable Universe Index and are not allowed to generate more than 60% of recurrent income from activities  in timber or mortgage as reported in the most recent annual report. The classification of timber and mortgage REITs is conducted entirely by real estate data provider Global Property Research (GPR). 

“In light of low interest rates, real estate investment became an attractive asset class for many investors, and REIT investments are an efficient approach to diversify one’s portfolio with real estate investments without  the effort of buying and owning property directly,” comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. 

Tata Consultancy Services’ 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study Brings to Light Current Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Strengths and Weaknesses, Priorities for Investment and Improvement, and Attributes of Top-Performing Teams

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting, and business solutions organization, published the TCS 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study: The Next Era in FP&A, based on a survey of 750 global senior finance leaders. According to the new study, many of these executives admit they rely on their instincts rather than data, and their financial forecasting falls short—and it’s especially true during the ongoing pandemic.

The study reveals 50% of respondents say they consistently fail to deliver short-term forecasts or make significant errors. What’s more, only 54% percent say their teams possess sufficient risk assessment capabilities. These executives estimate that, on average, 43% of their financial planning and forecasting relies on intuition instead of analytics.

However, a small group of finance executives are leading the way. TCS’ study dubs them financial ‘Trendsetters’. Making up only 6% of the total respondents, they have more mature digital capabilities, operate in a more agile manner, and demonstrate greater use of AI and machine learning. Trendsetters also invest more in transformational financial planning and analysis capabilities to future-proof their respective organizations before the next big disruption.

The clincher: Trendsetters are clear leaders in agility, effectiveness, and investments while others (Followers) are simply trying to keep up:

• 9 out of 10 Trendsetters (91%) say they can reallocate resources quickly when business demands shift. Fewer than half (48%) of Followers can say the same.
• 78% of Trendsetters believe they can develop budgets effectively, compared to only 43% of Followers.
• 83% of Trendsetters say they are planning to increase investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities throughout the next year, compared to 55% of Followers.

Despite the divide, current finance planning and forecasting shortcomings are driving organizations across the board to boost technology investments:

• 69% of all respondents said they plan to increase investments in cloud-based systems over the next 12 months; 63% say they already increased investments in cloud-based systems throughout the past year.
• 67% plan to increase investments in data and analytics over the next year; 61% said they already did so within the last 12 months.

Krishnan Ramanujam, Business Group Head, Business & Technology Services, TCS, said, “Today more than ever, financial leaders wear many hats—from crisis manager to growth officer. If they can supercharge and make the most out of their digital investments and insights, they will help their organizations become more agile, scalable, and proactive—and ultimately take on whatever challenges and opportunities that come their way.”

TCS’ 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study surveyed 750 senior finance leaders belonging to companies with annual revenues of $5 billion or more, from a variety of industries including energy and resources, healthcare, travel and tourism, technology, insurance, financial services, and manufacturing. Respondents hailed from nine nations: the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, India, and Japan.

Published by the TCS Thought Leadership Institute—which conducts primary research to help organizations transform for long-term, sustainable growth—the study offers data-based recommendations to help shape the strategy of forward-thinking finance leaders and drive higher performance at their organizations.

Enterprise Intelligence Platform One of Only 10 Certified Policy-Based Recording Solutions Worldwide

Insightful Technology, creator of the Soteria™ Enterprise Intelligence platform that enables holistic surveillance, compliance and governance, is one of only 10 solutions currently certified for policy-based recording solutions for Microsoft Teams.

Since its introduction Teams has been an important collaboration tool and from the start of the pandemic it has become mission critical for many SMEs and large global enterprises. Organisations operating in regulated industries such as financial services, they need to have the same policy-based approach to Teams as with other electronics communication. The best way to do this is to use a solution that is fully certified for Teams.   

To achieve certification, the software-as-a-service based Soteria™ platform was thoroughly assessed, for seamless integration with the Teams environment, by an independently appointed expert.  An extensive proof of concept and delivery was provided, as well as a full demonstration that it reliably, compliantly, and securely delivers all the promised policy-based recording features.

The Chief Operating Officer of Insightful Technology, Alan Stewart, commented, “Microsoft’s certification application is rightly an extremely thorough process. We are proud that Soteria™ Enterprise Intelligence is one of only 10 solutions to meet Microsoft’s strict criteria and just the second solution in the UK.”

“Solution integrations built by companies like Insightful Technology strengthen Microsoft Teams’ platform capabilities and create unique value for users and their organizations,” said Pete Daderko, Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft Teams Phone. “The product integration with Soteria™ is the type of solution that enables Microsoft customers to expand their use of Teams to meet their compliance needs.”

Soteria™ is trusted by nine of the top 12 global banks and more than 170 other financial organisations, to capture, encrypt, store, and surveil business communications (now including Teams) and market data in real-time. Using this powerful enterprise intelligence platform, organisations can minimise risk, whilst delivering a competitive advantage, by capturing proactive surveillance and e-discovery, historic importing, archiving, and analysing all communications in real time.