Partnership strengthens efforts to provide people and families with a safe digital environment.

Global cyber security provider F-Secure has joined the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a charity dedicated to the eradication of online child sexual abuse imagery. Joining the IWF strengthens both organizations’ efforts in protecting children by allowing them to capitalize on one another’s unique capabilities.

“F-Secure joins the IWF at a pivotal time. Last year was a record year for the IWF, with our analysts finding and removing more child sexual abuse content from the internet than ever before,” said Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF. “The threat posed by online sex predators, who will exploit anything they can to access and abuse children, cannot be underestimated. This is why working with organizations like F-Secure is so important. They are vital allies in protecting children and making the internet a safer place for everyone.”

The Internet Watch Foundation is a registered UK charity founded in 1996 whose mission is the removal of child sexual abuse images and videos from the internet. Each week, more than 3,000 webpages are accessed* and criminal content removed by the organization’s analysts. Last year they flagged millions** of criminal images and videos for removal.

On average, F-Secure prevents nearly 300,000 malicious websites from spreading malware or otherwise harming companies and individuals every single day. Furthermore, F-Secure’s global network of over 200 communication service provider partners – the largest such ecosystem of security conscious operators in the cyber security industry – puts it in a unique position to work within the telecommunications sector to create innovative new protection strategies.

“Not only organizations, but more and more consumers look for help to ensure kids are safe in our connected world,” said Joakim Öhrström, Director of Product Broadband & TV at Tele2, one of F-Secure’s Swedish operator partners. “Last year, F-Secure worked with us to create a content filtering system that met the specific consumer needs and regulatory demands of our market. After working together, Tele2 actually became the first operator in Sweden able to offer the kind of filtering capabilities parents and other stakeholders want.”

“Many of the security challenges that concern us all are too big for any single organization to handle alone. By cooperating with our partners, we’re able to find new solutions to problems like the spread of child sexual abuse imagery,” said F-Secure Executive Vice President of Consumer Security Timo Laaksonen. “And thanks to our expansive network of operator partners, we can quickly and efficiently spread the new solutions we create to millions of people throughout the globe.”

The Singapore FinTech Festival 2021 (SFF) held from November 8 to 12 in Singapore was attended by representatives of over ten top FinTech companies for the discussions on "Web3.0" and how FinTech companies can contribute to the post-pandemic era. Justin Sun, founder of TRON, attended the event and delivered a keynote speech on "Web3.0".

Organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the sixth Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) is the world's largest gathering for the FinTech community. Themed on Web 3.0 this year, SFF offered a platform for participants to explore how Web 3.0 can be used to enhance the efficiency of financial intermediation, advance key objectives such as green finance and financial inclusion, and examine the impact on financial regulation and supervision. According to the participants, there will be three essential factors that may reshape financial services in the next decade, including reconfiguration of financial products and services delivery through embedded finance (EmFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), and digital currencies, integration of ESG into the core design of financial services, as well as wide adoption of foundational digital infrastructure. 

Justin Sun stated in his keynote speech that TRON is always committed to the growth of Web 3.0, which boasts higher efficiency thanks to its nature as a distributed infrastructure. BTTC, the first heterogeneous cross-chain interoperability protocol in the industry launched by TRON, is a firm evidence of its commitment. It will serve as a solid and trustworthy bridge for us to march into the digital future and fully embrace the new era of "connecting all chains". Smart contracts are the name of the game in Web 3.0 since they open up possibilities for developers, allowing almost everyone to build DApps on TRON, and covering nearly all industries including finance and GameFi.

Founded by Justin Sun in 2018, TRON has established itself as one of the top three public chains worldwide after years of development. Today, TRON's public chain boasts upwards of 60 million users, over 2.5 billion transactions, and an all-encompassing ecosystem that covers DeFi, NFT, stablecoins, and distributed storage protocols. 

In addition to TRON, industry giants across the globe such as AMTD Group, Microsoft, Ant Group, Tencent, Mastercard, Temasek, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, HSBC, and PayPal also attended SFF 2021. 

Sovcombank has placed an issue of perpetual subordinated Eurobonds in the amount of USD 300 million with an annual coupon of 7.6%. With strong demand for the Bank’s securities from Russian and foreign investors, the issue was three times oversubscribed. The Bank will use the proceeds to optimise its capital structure for further business growth.

Initially, the benchmark annual yield on the securities was in the range of 7.75%–8.00%. Once the book building was complete, the coupon was reduced to 7.6%, which is 15 basis points below the Bank’s previous issue of similar bonds in early 2020, when the coupon was set at 7.75%. This comfortable level was achieved despite the increase in US Treasury bond yields due to growing inflation around the world.

Demand from investors peaked at USD 932 million. In total, 114 orders were received from major investment and pension funds as well as insurance companies in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. In addition, there was significant demand for the Bank’s securities from private investors and investment funds in Russia.

“Despite the challenging market conditions, we saw a lot of interest in our securities from foreign and Russian investors. This is an indication of the market’s high opinion of the Bank’s development strategy and consistently strong operating performance in recent years. We value our partners’ trust a great deal, and we’re focused on further sustainable development in the future”, said Mikhail Avtukhov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and Head of Sovcombank’s Corporate and Investment Business.

In addition to Sovcombank, joint bookrunners included Citi, JP Morgan, Société Générale, Alfa Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, Gazprombank, ING, Mashreq Bank, Raiffeisen Bank International, Renaissance Capital, SberCIB, Sova Capital, Tinkoff, UniCredit and VTB Capital. The bonds were placed on Ireland’s Euronext Dublin exchange.

~A unique digital savings account complimented with international VISA Signature Debit Card, Zero Forex mark-up and attractive interest rate~

Customers can now look forward to a smart way of travelling internationally as India's premier digital-banking fintech, Niyo, in association with SBM Bank India and VISA now offers a digital savings account with its highly trusted and travel-friendly product Niyo Global. Along with zero-forex mark-up, customers can now earn an attractive interest p.a. on the savings account. Niyo Global which has a legacy of serving over 3,00,000 customers in the last two years, with this latest development aims to simplify foreign exchange spending for international travelers and students besides allowing them to save and earn on their Indian currency.

There is also a plan for rapid expansion in market share by listing partnerships with major travel aggregation companies and OTA’s. Niyo Global is already the go to product for all students, and aims to achieve similar dominance in the leisure travel category too.

Indian passport holders can now enjoy all the features of Niyo Global card like zero forex markup on car rentals, flight and hotel bookings, live currency conversion, ATM locator on the app etc. Besides, the account also provides 100% digital onboarding, attractive interest p.a. on balances with monthly interest payouts, complimentary airport lounge access, UPI features, cheque book and all other premium banking offerings, including domestic and international offers. Niyo Global also comes with best-in-class security features, all of which make access to banking services completely hassle-free. Moreover, it is an international VISA Signature Debit Card which is accepted in 150+ countries.

Niyo’s co-founder and CEO, Vinay Bagri said, “We are delighted to partner with globally recognized entities like SBM Bank (India) and VISA. The Niyo Global is now upgraded to full service digital bank account for Global Citizens, and we believe that our premium offering will promote a smart way of travelling in the new normal. Niyo Global has been one of our most successful products, helping Global Citizens address multiple challenges. It has helped users save INR 50 crore in unnecessary markups on transactions worth INR 1000 crore in the last 2 years.

Commenting on the collaboration, Neeraj Sinha, Head - Consumer & Retail Banking, SBM Bank India, said, “At SBM Bank, we believe the age of #SmartTravel is upon us. In a new normal world, it is imperative to redefine the traditional products through a customer-first and user-friendly perspective. This is exactly what we are aiming at through our partnership with Niyo. Being an innovative fintech, Niyo brings simpler and efficient solutions which are implemented and customized by us – leading to a win-win-win proposition for not only us but more importantly – our customers. We look forward to many a more such product innovations with Niyo going forward.”

Besides being available for leisure travel, Niyo Global also aims to be the perfect choice for business travelers as well as students. Niyo is further planning to enhance the proposition by adding credit, making the offering equitably good to be used both domestically and internationally. By using Niyo Global, users can also enjoy exclusive travel and debit card offers with customized deals and rewards, thus making the user experience even more gratifying.

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and innovation incubator of Binance, announced Season 3 of the Incubation Program to support promising projects in the blockchain space. The Incubation Program is starting on November 15.

For the past 2 seasons of the Incubation Program, Binance Labs incubated market-leading and successful crypto businesses such as Polygon, Perpetual Protocol, Injective Protocol, SafePal, Cere Network, and Dune Analytics. Through the experience of incubating a wide range of projects at a very early stage, Binance Labs has acquired its own knowhow for developing and elevating projects.

The Incubation Program has some key elements:

·         8-week timeline for incubation projects to take advantage of the Binance Labs ecosystem, with a focus on mentorship from successful portfolio companies of Binance Labs, industry influencers, and potential investors.

·         Binance Labs will support value-add services like PR & marketing and fundraising advice

·         Incubation teams will join weekly fireside chat sessions with founders of Binance and other top crypto mentors for in-depth discussions

·         Incubated projects will exhibit at Binance Labs Demo Day and formally pitch their progress and traction to a wide audience of investors and mentors.

Bill Chin, the Head of Binance Labs Fund, said: “Binance Labs Incubation Program was first created to nurture potential and promising entrepreneurs and projects that can accelerate the adoption and innovation in the industry. Through the Incubation Program, we hope to help the future industry key players go through easier ways of development and I am sure our team and the mentors can also be inspired by the fresh and new insights of the talented founders and teams all around the world.”

There are 9 incubation projects that have been selected from the Fall 2021 Edition of the Binance Incubation Program submissions. They are all based in different parts of the world, and they are building products across a wide range of sectors.

·         (Game) Block Ape Scissors, a play-to-earn ecosystem built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), incorporating gaming, NFTs and DeFi together into exciting, diverse and rewarding opportunities.

·         (DeFi) Tranching Protocol, a yield optimization and hedging protocol implementing tranching for yield farming.

·         (Game) GAT Network, a web of connected NFT trading and gaming projects that already has launched several projects on BSC.

·         (DeFi/Stablecoin) Wombat, a trusted wallet for gamers and beyond to manage and trade their NFTs and token on different blockchains.

·         (DeFi/Credit) Bird.Money, a new type of decentralized oracle that empowers blockchain developers with access to plug and play analytics products for next generation web platforms.

·         (Social) Mint Club, a smart token building platform without the need for coding or providing liquidity on the BSC.

·         (Bridge) Raydius, a middleware solution designed to create a more connected blockchain ecosystem.

·         (Trading) Copycat Finance, decentralized copy trading and copy farming platform on BSC where the innovative social trading meets the high yield social farming revolution.

·         (Game) XII Braves (SkyArk Studio), a Singapore-based blockchain gaming studio.

Binance Labs invited mentors from the Binance team, potential investors from different venture capitals, and the leaders of previous incubation projects that went through similar processes as the 9 incubation projects will go through.

Ken Li, Investment Director at Binance Labs said “All of these incubation projects have strengths in what Labs has been looking into. We are excited to support them at an early stage and contribute to the future of the industry through mentorship.”

Chase Guo, Investment Director at Binance Labs added, “Our program has successfully incubated major projects for the industry in the past through other seasons of Incubation Program, and we hope to see the same track records from this season’s projects.”

After the 8 weeks of the Incubation Program, Binance Labs will host an official demo day for the 9 projects, open to a broad audience of industry experts, mentors and investors. Through the pitches, projects can appeal to potential investors and find partners who will collaborate with them.

Binance Labs has incubated projects that eventually secured funds from other market players and these projects are well-positioned in the industry.

Polygon, formerly known as Matic Network, is one of such projects leading the industry. As an Ethereum scaling aggregator to scale up Ethereum through various scaling approaches, the project has gone through a steady development. Last year, Polygon became the most adoption solution in the industry with 3000+ Dapps and achieving DAUs higher than that of Ethereum mainchain itself. Next year, Polygon is working hard to become the biggest player in the ZK technology scaling. Polygon has already acquired and initiated various ZK initiatives

Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, attending as one of the mentors for the Season 3 Incubation Program, said “Binance Labs Incubation Program was an important momentum if we see the history of this project. Through the programs Binance Labs has prepared, we could develop our business more, and eventually, we were able to launch our tokens through the Launchpad. On top of the financial investment Binance Labs made, the project was able to secure additional funding through the Launchpad and the attention of crypto users. We hope that through the Season 3 of Incubation Program, future market leaders can be discovered and incubated.”

Dorahacks, a global hackathon organizer and one of the world's most active developer communities, is co-organizing the Season 3 of Incubation Program with Binance Labs. DoraHacks' open source developer platform and curation market, HackerLink, provides unique on-chain tools to incentivize open source developments around the world.

Binance Labs will also launch applications for its Season 4 Incubation Program, which will kick off in March of 2022. As one of the benefits of being part of the Binance Labs ecosystem, all portfolio company founder, mentor or Binance alumni can directly recommend projects to fast-track into the final interview for incubation selection. Interested applicants can apply for the program here.

In an endeavour towards sustainable development, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, has signed an agreement with Varanasi Nagar Nigam for setting up a Waste to Energy (WTE) Plant worth Rs 180 crores.

The plant shall help in mitigating environmental hazards caused by solid waste and bring clean surroundings contributing towards our Honorable Prime Minister's vision of Swachh Bharat. NVVN has placed the order for EPC contract work of the plant today for fast execution of the project.

Setting up the plant shall be a milestone for the holy city of Varanasi towards Atmanirbhar Bharat using the latest indigenous Make in India technology for solid waste management in the country. Varanasi Nagar Nigam has allocated about 20 acres of land at Ramana for setting up the plant.

The agreement was signed between NVVN and Shri Dushyant Kumar Maurya, Addl. Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi.

The plant with a waste segregation facility of 600- 800 tons per day of Municipal Solid Waste will be installed under the project. Further, this waste will be processed and fed into the reactor to produce torrefied charcoal.

The torrefied charcoal which is similar to natural coal can be successfully blended with fuel in thermal power plants to produce electricity. The process is environmental-friendly as the temperature is lower than other technologies, due to which there are no toxic emissions.

Recently, NVVN signed a similar agreement with Bhopal Municipal Corporation.

• SEBA Crypto Asset Select Index (SEBAX®) delivers excellent performance and innovation in the crypto space which is honored by the public

• The “Best ETP of the Year” award recognises the SEBAX® Index as a leader in the multi-coin crypto space

• The SEBAX® Index is unique in that it combines the quality processes of a Swiss regulated bank with outstanding investment performance track record

SEBA Bank, a fully integrated, FINMA licensed digital assets banking platform, has won the “Best ETP of the Year” Award in the Swiss ETF Awards 2022 for SEBA Crypto Asset Select Index (SEBAX®), which is publicly listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. 

Presented by Xenix and Finanzen.ch, the Swiss ETF Awards 2022 honor ETFs and ETPs listed in Switzerland in 2021 across seven categories. SEBAX® was selected as the “Best ETP of the Year”, trumping nominations from well-known Swiss and global ETP providers. The winner, judged on excellence in delivery, innovation, and customer impact, was chosen by a public vote. 

The SEBAX® index leverages SEBA Bank’s one of a kind SEBA Research unit which applies the highest standards and complies with the Swiss Bankers Association research guidelines, and offers investors a diversified cryptocurrency market exposure while optimizing overall risk. As a second generation crypto-currency index the SEBAX® index is what one would refer to as a “smart beta index”, employing a unique coin selection and weighting methodology. In addition to market cap, the SEBAX® index employs a risk optimization approach which weights cryptocurrencies in inverse proportion to their risk (“risk parity”). The two-year live track record  speaks for itself, and is a testament to SEBA Bank´s mission to serve as a secure and convenient bridge into the digital asset world.

Stefan Schwitter, Head of Investment Solutions at SEBA Bank, commented, “We are delighted to receive recognition for SEBAX® in the Best Swiss ETP category by the public. We are proud of the two-year live track record of the SEBAX® Index having delivered twice the performance of Bitcoin at the same level of risk – a clear leadership position in the crypto space. 

On November 10th, TuringQ, China's first photonic quantum computing company, announced its completion of a pre-A round of financing of several hundred million yuan, led by Legend Capital. The funds will be mainly used for R&D and commercialization of quantum algorithms.

Recent years see global capital's favor to photonic quantum computing, while 2021 has been regarded as the first year of photonic quantum by the industry. Qihui Fan the Managing Director of Legend Capital, said that Legend Capital has been making systematic planning on core technology. Quantum computing will have a profound impact on many industries and even bring disruptive changes in all walks of life. Many startups and large companies have entered into the market, which helps boost the process of quantum computing from the laboratory to the real market. Legend Capital will help TuringQ further expand its leading advantages and promote the practical application and industrialization of photonic quantum computing.

Established in February 2021, TuringQ is committed to the research of quantum information. Through the R&D of lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) photonic chips and femtosecond laser direct writing technology, the photon chips that enable large-scale photonic circuits integration can be prepared and an optical quantum system with a whole new level of scale and complexity can be built. At present, TuringQ has achieved leading advantages in photonic quantum chips, scientific research-grade photonic quantum computers, photonic quantum measurement and control systems, photonic quantum EDA software, and photonic quantum cloud platforms.

The founder of TuringQ, Professor Xianmin Jin, who graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, has four-year experience in the photonic quantum chip, quantum computing research and development in the University of Oxford. During the period, he was awarded the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions by the European Union and Wolfson College Fellow. In addition, TuringQ has nearly 150 scientists and engineers from Oxford University, Imperial College, University of California, Berkeley, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, etc., with over ten years of experience in the field of photonic quantum information and photonic chips.

After the financing, TuringQ could gather more outstanding scientists and engineers to accelerate the pace of product iteration and application. At the same time, TuringQ can build an open and sustainable quantum computing application industry ecology, empowering various fields, including scientific research and industrial production.