The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory body has selected the Aiimi Insight Engine to deliver its new enterprise search and discovery solution.

Milton-Keynes based data and AI specialist Aiimi won the three-year, £1.3m contract for its proprietary Aiimi Insight Engine following an extensive evaluation process and eight-week Alpha testing phase.

How will the Aiimi Insight Engine help the FCA?

The new platform will help the FCA workforce gain even greater insights from its diverse datasets. By interconnecting valuable information spread across different systems, FCA users will now be able to conduct powerful rich context searches across assorted data formats held in diverse locations, both internally and externally.

User-friendly search results can then be easily visualised by data and non-data specialists alike to support collaboration among colleagues and teams within the FCA. This will make clear the true value of all the information and data readily available to the FCA.

Looking to the future, in addition to delivering new insights to users through cognitive search, the Aiimi Insight Engine has the capacity to bring enhanced intelligence and control to operations at the FCA. The platform’s advanced AI and machine learning capabilities enable organisations like the FCA to easily find and be alerted to risks – such as UK firms showing concerning indicators – before recording and learning from these findings using data training models.

Crucially for the FCA, the Aiimi Insight Engine also offers a secure solution to support the authority’s own information security access controls. This will ensure that FCA users see only what they are authorised to see – and that all search results inherit the security profile of their respective source systems. Likewise, the platform’s ability to track provenance and facilitate evidence-based decision making will help the FCA to prove diligence in the face of external audits.

During the three-year contract, the Aiimi Insight Engine software will be incorporated into the FCA Cloud, so it can integrate with the authority’s enterprise data platform and be fully configured to meet stringent FCA requirements.

Aiimi will also transition to offering platform support and services to the FCA. This move will help the FCA to fully develop its information capabilities and management strategy to become a more data driven organisation.

What is the future for insight engines?

Globally, the insight engine market is predicted to reach a staggering value of $4.14bn by 2026, as  more organisations realise the true potential of AI-powered search, discovery, and insight applications.

Aiimi CEO Steve Salvin explains: “Organisations are looking for new, better ways to become data driven and take control of their information. Insight engines offer a powerful solution to the challenge of discovering relevant, interconnected data and getting instant actionable insights precisely at the moment you need them. There’s huge potential in every organisation’s information, and an insight engine unlocks this.

According to global research and advisory company Gartner, insight engine technology “combines search capabilities with artificial intelligence to deliver actionable insights derived from the full spectrum of content and data sourced within and external to an enterprise”.

Managed services partnership provides an end-to-end, cloud-enabled Payments as a Service (PaaS) offering for mid-sized banks in Germany, Belgium, the UK and Ireland

Finastra today announced its partnership with Hexaware Technologies (Hexaware) to provide managed services for Finastra’s payments solutions deployed in the cloud. The move helps Hexaware customers in Germany, Belgium, the UK and Ireland take ownership of their payment infrastructure. The partnership brings together the companies’ industry leading payments and integration experience, to provide mid-sized banks with an end-to-end Payments as a Service (PaaS) offering which helps them remain competitive while mitigating operational costs.

Chinmoy Banerjee, Corporate Vice President and Global Head - Banking, Hexaware said, “Finastra’s strong payments offering enables our vision to help banks modernize and extend their digital footprint, by bringing their data infrastructure and applications to the cloud in an extremely fast, cost predictable, secure and co-engineered manner. Payments is a key focus area for Hexaware over the next three to five years. Our aim is to increase our service’s footprint through enhanced product competencies and establishing synergistic fintech partnerships, like that we have with Finastra.”

Domestic and cross-border digital payments can be expensive and complicated in terms of managing risks, keeping up with innovation and high transaction costs. To address these challenges, Hexaware will become a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for Finastra’s payments solutions, managing the payment licenses and supporting implementation, hosting and maintenance services for its customers. With industry leading products and over two decades of solution integration experience, the two companies are well equipped to provide a PaaS offering which will help banks to de-risk payments transformation and control transaction costs associated with product ownership and dependency on payment processors. It will also help banks adapt quickly to innovation and regulatory changes with a trusted advisor.

Oren Marmur, SVP and General Manager, Payments, Finastra said, “Hexaware’s expertise and outstanding reputation has led them to experience industry-leading growth for the past three years. With deep subject matter expertise in payments, Finastra´s solution will support their vision to accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of their customers. The partnership was formed based on a shared goal to bring greater value for our banking customers, across payment product capabilities and technology services deployed in the cloud. We are delighted to collaborate with Hexaware to help selected banks across Europe offer digital payments.”

Almost a third (28%) of regulated firms in the UK claim that analysing hard copies of documents is the most reliable method for identifying fraud - according to new research by leading RegTech firm SmartSearch.

These surprising results come from a survey* of 500 regulated businesses in the financial services, legal and property sectors. The research also found 28% of respondents were not aware of digital verification methods.

These statistics are particularly concerning as there has been a spike in fraudulent documents recently as criminals attempt to obscure their identity. SmartSearch’s research found almost half (48%) of respondents had reported a rise in financial crime attempts in the past 12 months.

Fraudulent documents have become even more sophisticated recently, and John Dobson, CEO of SmartSearch explained those relying on manual methods are leaving themselves dangerously exposed.

He commented: “Criminals are laundering millions of pounds in the UK, and they are using the most sophisticated methods possible to attempt to deceive.

“Therefore, it’s imperative that regulated businesses use all the technology available to them to fight against the growing wave of fraud.

“It takes an expert to even know the signs to look for in a fraudulent document, and those that are involved in money laundering are using state-of-the-art technology to create incredibly realistic forgeries.  Unfortunately, those we surveyed that believe they can spot a fake, are sadly mistaken.

“It is encouraging that the majority polled stated they would struggle to spot a forged document, however the gaps need to be plugged.

“Switching to electronic verification is the smart thing to do.  When it comes to preventing money laundering, it is the only real defense.”

With just a name and address, date of birth is optional, electronic verification combines credit reference data, biometric facial recognition, and digital fraud checks as well as electoral roll data and other reliable public sources to establish identity.

By triple checking these different sources of information a unique ‘composite digital identity’ is produced. This digital identity is virtually impossible to fake. All this can be done online, with no need for in-person meetings, face coverings or hard copies of documents.

The findings from the survey are part of the SmartSearch Electronic Verification Uncovered campaign, which has launched following the unprecedented pressure on regulated businesses since the pandemic hit.

Due to the pandemic lockdowns carrying out processes such as Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, and due diligence required by anti-money laundering regulation, became increasingly difficult with the lack of face-to-face interactions.

Criminals looked to seize upon the lack of physical contact, using software to alter images of ID, and as a result, the Financial Conduct Authority endorsed the use of electronic verification.

With the UN estimating that £1.4 trillion is laundered globally every year, those looking to prevent money laundering should look to make the switch to electronic verification as soon as possible, to avoid falling foul of regulations.

For more information about anti-money laundering solutions in the UK, please visit www.smartsearch.com

~Raj to accelerate growth in India and global markets as Chief Operating Officer

ZebPay, India’s oldest and most trusted bitcoin and crypto asset exchange, today announced the appointment of Raj Karkara as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). Raj joined ZebPay as Chief Business Officer in September 2020 and, more recently, had been promoted to the role of Chief Marketing Officer. With this role change, in addition to Marketing, Raj will now directly oversee Product Management, Trade, OTC, Global Growth and Operations (Customer Service & Excellence).

Raj Karkara comes with over 15 years of experience in the financial services, fintech and e-commerce industries. Previously, he was the Co-Founder of KansoStrategy, a boutique strategy and consulting firm that works with crypto, e-commerce, payments and fintech clients globally. Prior to Kanso, Raj held various positions such as Senior Vice President of product, CRO and COO at tZERO (www.tzero.com), the global leader in digital securities. Prior to tZERO, Raj held the role of Vice President of Product management for financial services, loyalty and new business development at Overstock (www.overstock.com). Prior to Overstock, Raj held the role of Director, Global Product and Solutions at MasterCard (www.mastercard.com), where his responsibilities included prepaid strategy and mobile money.

With this new appointment, ZebPay further strengthens its leadership team to enhance market share in India as well as expand into new markets globally. Raj’s primary responsibility will be to develop actionable business strategies and plans that align with the company’s short-term and long-term objectives. He will work closely with ZebPay’s Co-CEO, Avinash Shekhar, in setting and driving organisational vision, operational strategy, performance management and hiring needs. Additionally, he will work towards translating the strategy into executable goals for performance and further growth of ZebPay.

On this announcement, Avinash Shekhar, Co-CEO, ZebPay, said, “Raj has strengthened ZebPay’s presence and business in the crypto ecosystem since he joined us over a year ago and I am glad to have him as ZebPay’s Chief Operating Officer. With his extensive expertise, ZebPay will see rapid growth and global expansion to achieve our vision of becoming become the #1 cryptocurrency exchange in India and subsequently, the world. We are building ZebPay as an all-encompassing crypto company that offers innovative solutions and products to a diverse set of investors, from retail to institutional. I am confident Raj will continue to play a pivotal role in helping ZebPay chart new paths of success and achieve the long-term vision to create a social enterprise with a blockchain-based mutualized structure.”

Raj Karkara, COO, ZebPay, said, “ZebPay has been innovating and launching new and industry-first products to address the needs of a diverse set of customers ever since its inception in 2014 and I am excited to lead ZebPay as it gears up for further expansion. Crypto is booming in India with vast untapped potential for solutions that will make us a global leader. ZebPay is well-positioned to play an integral part and I am looking forward to driving strategies and building on our foundation of product and customer excellence to be the leading crypto exchange in India and Globally.”

• New fund is second from Digital Horizon and builds on successful strategy of first fund, which invested in high-growth businesses including Oxygen and Monday.com, generating overall IRR of 40% for its investors. 
• This second fund will follow the same multistage strategy and will invest in both early and late stage companies. 
• Focus remains on fintech and SaaS products, but with Asian markets targeted as well as Europe and Israel.

Digital Horizon, the venture fund and venture builder investment company, today announces the launch of its second venture fund with a target volume of $200 million. 

The first fund, which opened in 2019, is completing the investment stage and has so far returned 40% per annum to investors. Its portfolio contains more than 20 companies including Klarna, team management platform Monday.com, data streaming platform Ably, retail analytics platform Trax and InsureTech companies Cuvva and Obligo.

Digital Horizon’s new fund will retain the successful strategy of its first. This includes:

• A specific focus on the fintech and corporate software sectors. These are some of the fastest growing segments in venture capital. The volume of investments in fintech in Q1 2021 reached $98 billion, twice more than in the same period of 2020. Spending on corporate software, according to Gartner's forecast, in 2022 will grow by $70 billion in 2022 to $699 billion.

Digital Horizon has significant expertise in these sectors. The company has successfully invested in American, Israeli and European startups, and has also built technology businesses from scratch in Russia and the UK

• Unusually for venture capital funds, Digital Horizon will adopt a multi-stage approach and invest in companies at all stages of the startup cycle. This approach has generated high returns over a long period of time with the first fund.
• Digital Horizon is particularly focused on startups founded by passionate immigrant entrepreneurs with a clear vision and strategy. In 70% of Digital Horizon’s startup investments, the founders were building their business not in the country of origin.

“We are delighted to launch our second fund, following an oversubscribed first fund,” said Alan Vaksman, the Founder and Managing Partner of Digital Horizon. “In our first fund we moved away from the traditional venture approach and invested in companies at various stages from Round A to D. Investing in early stage startups can mean double-digit multiples, but this is “long” money, locked in for seven or more years. In later stage investments, the return on investment occurs in just one or two years, but growth slows to an average of 2-4x. A multi-stage fund provides high returns while enabling the investors shorter investment horizon and liquidity. Our new fund will adopt the same approach”.

“As an investment company which combines venture fund and venture builder teams, our team has a unique combination of investment and product building expertise. This allows us to comprehensively evaluate businesses that we are considering adding to the portfolio from both a financial and technical point of view, in a way that others cannot.

“We firmly believe in migratory talents and their abilities to build best-in-class solutions which drive economies forward”, adds Vaksman. “We are extremely proud of the success of our first fund and are confident that our investment strategy will be just as successful going forward.”

Straight through processing capabilities added to Paymode-X Network

Bottomline (NASDAQ: EPAY), a leading provider of financial technology that makes complex business payments simple, smart and secure, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Bora Payments Systems, enabling Paymode-X vendors to utilize straight through processing (STP) as a method of accepting virtual card payments. The combination adds new bank channel relationships to Paymode-X and capabilities that improve the network’s virtual card program, an important revenue driver for Paymode-X.

Today, most virtual card payments are delivered through encrypted email or via secure portal access. This manual task can become expensive and burdensome as a vendor accepts higher volumes of virtual card payments from their customer base. Virtual card payments made via STP are processed directly to the vendor’s bank account while delivering rich remittance data. That results in savings of both time and effort, as well as reduced card acceptance costs, for vendors with high volumes of virtual card payments.

“For more and more customers and channel partners, the ultimate digital transformation of payables requires a comprehensive strategy for all payments—domestic, international, B2B and B2C,” said Tom Dolan, General Manager, Paymode-X, Bottomline. “Today, however, the card payment piece of the equation can be inefficient and cumbersome. For vendors, these new STP capabilities eliminate manual processing associated with virtual cards, shorten their invoice-to-cash cycle and optimize acceptance economics. For payers, they help improve relationships with suppliers, providing them with more payments acceptance options that offer great efficiency and cost-effectiveness.”

The transaction was structured as an asset purchase for $15 million in cash, and is not expected to have any material impact on Bottomline’s previously issued financial guidance.

72% say moving to the cloud will help their organization achieve its business priorities

In a new survey of IT executives in the banking sector, conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and supported by Temenos (SIX: TEMN), more than seven in ten (72%) report that incorporating the cloud into their organization’s products and services will help them to achieve their business priorities. Just under half (47%) say that it will do so “to a great extent”.

Cost is the biggest driver of cloud adoption (43%), followed by the adoption of AI (34%) and improving customer experience (21%). Business agility, elasticity and scalability are together cited by 40% of respondents as top drivers.

The report ‘Capturing value in the cloud’ finds banks have generally been slower to take to cloud computing than other sectors. But the adoption of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud infrastructure has accelerated since the start of the pandemic, as banks seize an opportunity to cut costs and ramp up their digital transformation projects, with 82% of IT executives saying they now have a clear strategy for adopting cloud. This comes as established banks figure out how to use incumbency to fend off fintechs and challenger banks, while the newer entrants use the cloud to advance quickly into new market opportunities.

According to the report, banks are tapping into the cloud to speed up their ability to gain insights from data, and in turn to be able to innovate faster. Yet barriers stand in the way of a wholehearted embrace of the cloud—including security, privacy, compliance and governance concerns. These challenges are leading firms to invest in both technology and talent.

Andrew Reeves, Head of Temenos Cloud, said: “The pandemic has clearly lit a fuse under cloud adoption with banks having to deliver and scale digital services rapidly. However, cloud is also a prerequisite for success in the world of open banking and Banking as a Service. These are megatrends, powered and enabled by the cloud, that are shaping the future of banking.”

Twenty7Tec today announces that it has completed an APPLY integration with Leeds Building Society, enabling users of CloudTwenty7 to seamlessly submit applications to Leeds Building Society without the need for re-keying.

For this integration, Twenty7Tec have integrated with IRESS Lender Connect software, which Leeds Building Society is using to support transfer of data into its intermediary portal. Users of CloudTwenty7 will be able to complete a Leeds Decision in Principle application in the CloudTwenty7 platform, re-using customer data already captured, before passing the data to the Leeds Building Society portal and submitting to the lender.

The integration with Leeds Building Society is now in pilot with Mortgage Advice Bureau and Connells Group, with a wider roll out planned to all CloudTwenty7 users during late 2021.

Nathan Reilly, Director of Lender Relationships at Twenty7Tec commented "Although the market has cooled slightly compared to the unprecedented level of activity we saw earlier in the year, advisers remain incredibly busy so it’s vital technology providers and lenders continue to collaborate in order to drive more efficiency and time saving for advisers.

“It’s been a pleasure working with the team at Leeds Building Society to deliver a seamless mortgage journey that I’m sure will be well received by advisers.”

Martese Carton, Leeds Building Society’s Head of Intermediary Distribution, added: “We are committed to investing in technology and driving innovation that will streamline our mortgage journey and make life easier for everyone, and focusing on our systems that deliver a great service is an essential part of that.

“It’s exciting to be part of this Twenty7Tec integration as we continue to focus on ensuring that working with Leeds Building Society is as straightforward as possible.”

Paymob, Egypt’s pioneer in digital payments, has partnered with Mastercard to launch the Tap-on-Phone digital payment acceptance service in Egypt, the first-of-its-kind in the country.

Egypt has a tech-savvy population, and a smartphone penetration of more than 90%. Tap-on-Phone is a simple, convenient, and cost-effective digital payment technology that meets the needs of small merchants. The solution transforms smartphones and tablets into safe payment acceptance devices for contactless cards, mobile wallets – with no additional equipment or setup-related costs. Businesses can simply download the mobile app and offer their customers a checkout experience that is flexible, seamless, intuitive, and secure.

As Egypt races towards financial inclusion and digital transformation, Paymob is disrupting the field of financial transactions in the market, paving the way for accepting digital payments and reducing the use of cash in the process. Tap-on-Phone is expected to significantly benefit the Egyptian economy, giving SMEs opportunities that redefine the customer experience and meet consumer demands.

“The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is a major supporter of such initiatives that comes in line with Egypt’s development plan,” says CEO of Paymob, Islam Shawky, who points out that these initiatives create new opportunities for business owners and allows them to carry out their activities using the latest digital payment technology, pouring into the Egyptian economy. “With the increasing demand from consumers to use modern payment technologies, we are keen on providing the latest financial solutions by cooperating with Mastercard, in addition to a large number of businesses, companies and banks that contribute to accelerating the pace of financial inclusion and achieving Egypt’s Vision 2030.”

Tap-on-Phone is ideal for on-the-go services like couriers and bazaars. Acting as a soft Point-of-Sale (POS) system, the contactless payment solution will allow merchants to collect payments by simply passing the customer’s contactless card over their phones, automatically processing the payment through Paymob’s application.