Celebrating 40 Years of a global, common language of financial instruments processing

The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA), a global association dedicated to the support of efficient capital markets through the use of widely embraced International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, today announced the 40th anniversary of the ISIN, the International Securities Identification Number, used to uniquely identify financial and referential instruments. 

The first version of the ISIN standard, ISO 6166, was published on the 1st November 1981. Development of the standard was driven by an industry need to improve cross-border trading and global interoperability. Under rigorous processes, the industry has developed the ISIN to become the globally adopted, common language of financial instruments processing. There are now more than 79 million ISINs and related information available worldwide.

Early champions of the ISIN and the first National Numbering Agencies (NNAs) founded ANNA on January 29th, 1992, to be the registration authority of the ISIN. ANNA is a global member association that fosters standardisation within the financial industry by upholding and promoting ISO's principles for adopting, developing and maintaining the ISIN and other key international standards. ANNA now has 118 members and partners globally who are allocating ISINs for more than 200 jurisdictions. 

Another significant milestone for the ISIN came in 1993 when the first centralised ISIN reference database was established. It meant that for the first time, ISINs across all jurisdictions could be consolidated in a single database, and a new central repository was created. This database has developed into the ANNA Service Bureau, ASB, which was established in 2001. CUSIP Global Services and SIX Financial Information jointly operate and maintain the ASB providing daily support as well as evolving the service as needed, with the latest upgrades having gone live in September 2021. The ASB is now the largest database of ISINs and associated data available which can be accessed via a free online lookup service or through additional subscription services.  

Dan Kuhnel, Chairman of ANNA, said, “We are delighted to be celebrating ISIN’s 40th anniversary. Over the past four decades, the ISIN has assisted in bringing greater transparency and supervision capabilities to the global financial markets across the full suite of asset classes. Through ISIN use, organisations can leverage the efficiencies related to global interoperability and realise the benefits of harmonisation across capital markets. As a result, ISIN has become the recognised global standard for unique identification for all types of financial instruments, helping to connect and protect global markets.” 

Uwe Meyer, ANNA Executive Director & Secretariat, said, “Having joined ANNA in 1989, I have witnessed how industry has collaborated over the past decades to promote a standard to help the industry, and to better foster cooperation between countries on cross-border identification of asset classes. The early founders’ foresight was tremendous. It is heartening to see that even after forty years, there are still countries in the world that recognise the importance of the standard in their own jurisdictions. ANNA membership continues to grow, which is a testament to its professionalism and good governance. I am proud to have been part of the early journey and thrilled to see so much enthusiasm for the ISIN into the future."

This report produced by Innovation Eye and powered by Big Innovation Centre, Deep Knowledge Analytics, and Greengage presents an updated overview of the entire Blockchain industry ecosystem in the United Kingdom. It serves as a comprehensive follow-up to Innovation Eye’s Blockchain in UK Landscape Overview Q3 2018 (First Edition), produced in collaboration with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain. 

We collected information from several Blockchain companies in the UK and implemented it into Mindmap — an interactive platform with companies, investors, R&D centers, hubs, government agencies, etc. 

Almost 1000 distinct Blockchain-centric entities from the UK Blockchain space were categorized and profiled while considering the funding of various UK Blockchain projects and the geographical distribution of Blockchain companies. The report acts as a guide to Blockchain development in the UK since it considers: 

• Several Blockchain-based projects that have been funded (directly and indirectly) by the UK government or private investors; 

• The use of Blockchain in the UK’s energy sector; and 

• Ways in which the cryptocurrency market has seen institutional adoption in Britain’s financial sectors. 

It also offers deep insights into the rundown of the UK’s cryptocurrency market and developments in the decentralized finance sector (DeFi), along with the use of distributed ledger technology to help combat the pandemic.

Overview of the Contributors

• Innovation Eye

Innovation Eye was jointly founded in March 2019 by the Big Innovation Centre and Deep Knowledge Analytics to provide sophisticated market analytics, industry intelligence, comparative industry classification frameworks, and benchmarking case studies.

It develops advanced tools for analysis and visualization of technology and innovation ecosystems through reports, custom-made consultancy products and services, and dynamic interactive online IT platforms.

• Deep Knowledge Analytics

Deep Knowledge Analytics, the analytical subsidiary of Deep Knowledge Group, is a globally acknowledged DeepTech focused agency that produces advanced analytics on DeepTech and frontier-technology industries by harnessing sophisticated multi-dimensional frameworks and algorithmic methods. 

Deep Knowledge Analytics specializes in conducting special case studies and producing advanced industry analytical reports on AI, GovTech, Blockchain, FinTech, and Invest-Tech. The company has recently deployed advanced interactive online IT platforms, featuring dynamic Mindmaps and filterable, customizable databases updated with new industry developments in real-time.

• Greengage

Greengage has been servicing the Cryptoasset sector for over three years and is currently on the FCA temporary register for the Crypto MLR. Since Greengage’s inception in March 2018, the company has built an extensive network and market presence in the Cryptoasset sector. 

To expand its reach, Greengage is currently pursuing a banking license that will allow the company, once secured, to provide a full suite of classic products and services across fiat currencies (£, €, $) and Cryptoasset classes.

First Circle Group, a fast-emerging business specialising in manufacturing rigid plastic containers, has received a £10m plant and machinery loan and receivables funding facility from Cynergy Bank.  This is a new client to the Asset Based Lending (ABL) division of Cynergy Bank which launched in September.

Headquartered in Newport Pagnell, First Circle Group currently operates five sites across the UK and Ireland supplying over 700 million rigid plastics containers per annum.

The £10m facility will support the Group’s growth ambitions, allowing them to buy new machinery and enhance their in-house capabilities to service a number of different sectors; including household, personal care, homecare, agro chemical, automotive and others. Annual turnover is expected to rise from £70m currently to in excess of £100m.

Cynergy Bank worked closely with the First Circle team, their owners Greybull Capital, and their corporate advisers AlixPartners to structure the facilities. Bermans and Forsters provided excellent legal support and Hilco Valuation Services the appraisals.

Chris Phelan, Chief Executive Officer, First Circle commented, “Following a successful turnaround since the acquisition in late 2019 by Greybull Capital, the business has been able to invest in new technologies and machinery supporting its long-term growth plans. We’re now delighted to have selected Cynergy Bank as our financing partner in a move which will further enhance our growth plans.”

Paul Fraser Executive Director at Cynergy Bank commented, “First Circle Packaging is a fantastic business, they are pioneers in the plastics industry both in the use of recycled raw material and in creating recyclable products. They provide our key milk containers that most people will have in our fridges and are focusing now on also expanding their expertise to a much wider set of products in new markets. We are proud to have provided this £10m funding facility for this UK manufacturer to help drive their progressive investment, growth and development.”

Mastercard accelerates its decarbonization timeline, committing to reach net zero by 2040; Carbon Calculator gains strong adoption throughout Europe and in Latin America

As world leaders come together for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), Mastercard unveiled an acceleration of its net zero timeline by a decade, from 2050 to 2040. It is also scaling its sustainable solutions to customers across Europe and Latin America, including Banco de Costa Rica, ekko, Gránit Bank, and Sberbank, which have all signed on to adopt the Mastercard Carbon Calculator.

As part of its net zero strategy, Mastercard had already committed to meet its existing science-based targets (SBTi) for greenhouse gas reduction, which are aligned to the United Nations Business Ambition for a 1.5°C future. The company transitioned to 100% renewable energy in 2018 for its operations, and its emission reduction strategy primarily centers on further decarbonization across its value chain, including Scopes 1, 2 & 3 emissions.

Mastercard has received an “A” rating for Supplier Engagement since 2018 from CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) and joined the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders Initiative, supporting large and small suppliers with concrete resources and tools for measuring their emissions and developing climate strategies through the SME Climate Hub.

Supported by its new global Sustainability Innovation Lab, the company aims to encourage tangible action by people who use its 2.9 billion cards across the globe. This includes helping banks offer their consumers digital tools, such as the Mastercard Carbon Calculator, that encourage climate-conscious choices, and cards made from more sustainable materials.

“Tackling the global climate crisis will take all of us – and major businesses have a vital role to play. At Mastercard, we continue to raise the bar for ourselves, accelerating our commitment to reach net zero emissions,” said Michael Miebach, chief executive officer, Mastercard. “We will also use our technology and global network to inspire collective action that fosters a more sustainable digital economy.” 

Enabling sustainable consumer choice

According to a recent Mastercard survey,  85% of respondents globally said they’re willing to take personal action to combat environmental and sustainability challenges in 2021. New research from Mastercard also shows our society is now at an inflection point in both the supply and demand for sustainable options.

• Mastercard is helping inform consumers about the environmental impact of their spending through the Mastercard Carbon Calculator, created in collaboration with Swedish fintech Doconomy. Embedded across Mastercard’s global network earlier this year, the Carbon Calculator will now be adopted by leading banking partners – both traditional financial institutions and emerging fintechs – in markets around the world, including Banco de Costa Rica, ekko, Gránit Bank, and Sberbank. Together with Mastercard, each partner will co-create and define its customer experience, such as enhancing it with relatable and easy-to-understand equivalents (such as the number of trees required to compensate for the same amount of CO₂), integrating donation functionality to support reforestation projects, and providing tips about sustainable living.
• Mastercard’s sustainable cards program shows strong momentum: 148 financial institutions in 46 countries have now issued cards made with more sustainable materials, including HSBC and Banco Santander, as we look to reduce the use of first-use PVC plastic in card manufacturing. The company also recently unveiled a first-of-its kind badge to identify these cards made more sustainably from recyclable, recycled, bio-sourced, chlorine-free or ocean plastics.
• Through the Priceless Planet Coalition, Mastercard and its partner network also continue to offer easy ways for consumers to contribute to forest restoration. Uniting more than 80 businesses globally in the restoration of 100 million trees, the Coalition now has multiple consumer engagement campaigns running across markets to generate donations to the environment. The Coalition’s restoration partners, Conservation International and World Resources Institute, have also broken ground in key project locations.

To help accelerate progress toward Mastercard’s sustainability goals, the company made changes to its executive compensation model, linking it to three global ESG priorities including operational carbon neutrality. Mastercard also showed progress in 2020 against its existing 1.5°C SBTi-approved targets, including a Scope 1 & 2 reduction of 44% and Scope 3 reduction of 57% against a 2016 baseline, and was recently awarded for Supply Chain Leadership from the Climate Leadership Conference.

The BNPL provider will utilise the issuer processor’s in-depth pan-European experience to drive its expansion into new EMEA markets.

PPS, an Edenred company, today announces that it is supporting ViaBill with the rollout of its card-based BNPL solution, offering customers access to ViaBill credit through physical and virtual Mastercard cards.

Established in 2014, ViaBill has been instrumental in spearheading the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) trend, delivering solutions to both merchants and direct to customers throughout Denmark, Spain and the US. The member service, offered direct to consumers, allows customers to spread the cost of purchases from four to twenty-four months, offering transparent, flexible and smart payment options to suit their changing needs.

Utilising PPS’ technology and licensing, ViaBill now offers physical and virtual cards to its customers, facilitating greater access to even more flexible forms of credit. The move will further disrupt the fast-paced BNPL space, offering customers the same level of financial control they’ve come to enjoy when purchasing online whilst shopping at bricks and mortar stores.

To expand on its successful BNPL platform, ViaBill required a partner that could help it scale in multiple markets whilst remaining compliant with a wide range of jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction regulations across Europe. PPS is able to offer both card issuing and payment processing services in one place, whilst also providing a secure platform to satisfy ViaBill’s customers, making it the natural choice as the BNPL provider looks to accelerate its growth.

PPS is acting as the BIN sponsor, card issuer, and transactions processor, with the solution, currently live in Denmark, supporting DKK, and a further EUR rollout planned for Q4 2021. PPS has also integrated ViaBill with Apple pay & Google, offering customers further flexibility in how they pay for goods.

Whilst offering customers greater control overpayments, the solution has also helped to drive better integration for ViaBill’s portfolio of merchants. Through the platform, ViaBill was able to increase the number of merchants that offer ViaBill credit as a payment method from circa 5000 to almost all merchants that are set up to offer Mastercard payments.

The stark rise of BNPL comes at a time of great opportunity for European retailers; data released by Eurostat indicates that overall retail levels are 3% higher than those reported pre-pandemic (February 2020). BNPL solutions offer a range of benefits for merchants, with ViaBill’s customers seeing a 33% increase in average order value (AOV) and an 18% increase in conversion rates.

Ray Brash, CEO of PPS, comments: “The BNPL space is moving from strength to strength, and it’s really exciting to be supporting ViaBill bring its platform directly to users through cards, opening up access to flexible credit both in-store and online at a time when driving purchases at bricks and mortar stores is vital for retailers. We look forward to powering ViaBill to further innovate its BNPL offering whilst simultaneously reaching more customers throughout Europe.”

Jan Lytje-Hansen, CEO at ViaBill adds: “Customers today need access to versatile, smart payment options that will suit their needs, regardless of where or how they choose to purchase goods; in bringing physical and virtual cards to the BNPL space, ViaBill and PPS have helped champion access to flexible credit when purchasing in-store and online. By creating a secure platform that is fully compliant for customers on-boarding in multiple territories, joining forces with PPS has paved the way for us to expand our solution across Europe, building on our 490,000 strong network of members. What’s more, the project was initiated and fully developed throughout lockdown, a testament to the flexibility and dedication of teams on both sides.”

Moving forward, ViaBill is looking to expand its BNPL offering throughout European markets, leveraging PPS’ proven experience and in-depth understanding of the regulatory landscape to scale quickly and efficiently.

CAPEX.com’s overview of the post-pandemic spike in trading patterns.

A few short years ago, trading used to be a manual and highly tedious process. Those days are, of course, long gone. With the rapid increase in easy-to-use platforms and the availability of multiple resources to guide retailers, including the vast influence of social media, today, we live in times where investing has become the norm. In recent times, the world witnessed the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, which changed the trajectory of investing at large. During the pandemic, more people seem to switch their interest in trading the financial markets. A study by Bloomberg Intelligence revealed that the market volume of retail trading for the year went up 20%, surpassing both banks and hedge funds.

The Spike – What's Behind It? 

Online trading came on its own after 2010 due to automated software, user-friendly charting tools, and advanced interfaces. When it comes to investing, CAPEX, one of the leading global brokers, operated by Key Way Markets Ltd in the MENA region, always believes in the strength of knowledge. In doing so, CAPEX is changing the way retail traders in the Middle East invest, while making online trading more accessible, transparent, and secure in the region. 

CAPEX offers advanced and intuitive trading platforms, plus 0 – commission based leveraged products such as StoX, for more suitable trading conditions. Consequently, the markets witnessed huge interest from retail investors; mostly interested in crypto trading that have seen a boost in prices, as well as trading new companies going public with IPOs.

Access to information is another reason why online trading is progressing by leaps and bounds. Through CAPEX Academy, the team is educating new investors and helping them form a comprehensive understanding of the multitude of factors that affect the market, thus equipping them with the knowledge they need to make better-informed trading decisions. With so many events taking place and the markets changing every day, the more knowledge an investor has about factors affecting market positions, the more empowered they will become as investors.

Recent Triggers 

Certain events can trigger price fluctuations and momentum swings in the market. Another influential factor contributing to shifts in market positions is market sentiment, and in the recent past, we have witnessed many triggers that have created massive waves.

During the first quarter of this year, a new phenomenon emerged in the market, driven by retail investors active on the social platform Reddit, under the subreddit known as r\WallStreetBets. It involved buying shares that large institutional funds, hedge funds, were selling in short positions to reverse this downward movement and force institutional funds to close their positions with losses.  

As a result, GameStop experienced a massive increase of 1500%, and AMC witnessed similar growth. The subreddit r\WallStreetsBets adopted a mass position that was considered anti-system. The funds were accused of unethical behaviour, putting pressure on companies that would be forced to go bankrupt. 

On the other hand, there was a great controversy about whether the r\WallStreetBets practice would be constituted as market manipulation and was the subject of an investigation by regulators. In the end, there weren't any significant legal consequences, and the result was considered satisfactory for r\WallStreetBets since these stocks, although off the recent highs, have remained in the upper part, with average gains between 600% and 800% from the starting levels. 

The ease of communication provided by social media and current technology with online trading instruments has empowered retail traders who have escalated through the investor ranks. In the future, the difference between solid hands and soft hands in the market, which has always existed in the market until now, will decrease. When it comes to assessing and analyzing the markets, the opinions of retail traders who are gaining ground will have to be considered. 

Another significant growth trend that started last year and is expected to grow strongly is the intense buzz about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. While discussing cryptos, the topic will seem incomplete without the mention of Elon Musk. The move by him and other tech companies towards Bitcoin pushed the cryptocurrency into unprecedented territory. The markets saw this disruption coming for more than five years. Still, it is not specifically about the so-called cryptocurrencies but the technology that supports the blockchain. The technology development activity in the cryptocurrency sector has grown more than 530% in the last five years. 

This indicates why companies are constantly and increasingly investing in research and development in this sector. Inventions in this area cover tracking activities, finance, mobile wallets, and e-commerce. Cryptocurrency, tokenization, and most importantly, blockchain technologies are becoming increasingly common in networking and computing applications, security, industrial applications, and securities. 

Since cryptocurrency was expected to transform the way everyone does business, significant changes are already underway, for example, in the banking sector. Given the very special characteristics of these digital assets, due to their security, their usability and their limited offer in addition to the technology that supports them, it is foreseeable that the positive performance witnessed in recent months is bound to continue with the rise of information and retail traders. 

Find out more at ae.capex.com and start your online trading journey. 

 Rasmus Bagger-Petersen has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of NetDania and will be a member of the Danish fintech firm’s management team.

He joins from an institutional global sales role at Saxo Bank, with extensive experience in both B2B and B2C product and solution development. During his ten year career in the banking sector in Denmark, Rasmus Bagger-Petersen has focused on product development for a range of market segments, including corporate clients, hedge funds and UCITS funds.

In this newly created role for NetDania, a United Fintech portfolio company, Rasmus Bagger-Petersen will drive NetDania’s growth strategy and product development plans from a commercial perspective.

NetDania, a market analysis and information platform, has a global client base of banks, brokers and hedge funds including some of the world’s largest financial institutions. The organization provides market data, APIs, market terminals, and charting components on both desktop and mobile.

Thomas Elster, Co-Founder and CEO, NetDania commented, “We are super excited that Rasmus has joined NetDania. His experience over the last decade, particularly from working within a large institution, will be hugely valuable to us. This is a significant hire for us and Rasmus will play a key role in helping us to capitalize on our ambitious growth plans.”

Rasmus Bagger-Petersen, CCO, NetDania added, “This is a great opportunity for me to join a fast growing company which has a fantastic team and great products and services for both the B2B and B2C markets. I am looking forward to working with Thomas, the NetDania team and the team at United Fintech. I truly believe NetDania can become the preferred provider for banks, brokers and fintechs looking to develop features and products which can create more value for themselves and their clients.”

Founded in 1998, NetDania pioneered streaming price technology. With a strong position within corporate FX and trading, its products are increasingly used by Tier 1 banks, brokers, currency managers and analysts as alternatives to expensive legacy systems for trading, news and analysis.  United Fintech acquired a majority stake in NetDania in November 2020. For further information on NetDania, please visit www.netdania.com

United Fintech, founded by Christian Frahm, acquires and scales innovative fintechs in capital markets, creating a go-to fintech platform that financial institutions can benefit from to accelerate their transition to a digital world.  For further information on United Fintech, please visit www.unitedfintech.com

5 days of critical content to continue shaping Africa’s Digital Transformation happens virtually 08-12 November 2021 and everyone is invited.

The world’s leading Africa-focused technology, media, and telecommunications event will take place virtually for the second year in a row.  Building on the success of its first ever digital event in 2020 (thanks to global lockdowns), Africa Tech Festival, the home of AfricaCom and AfricaTech, will once again host global industry leaders, showcase innovation, and promote debate and discussion - all on one accessible platform – with a view to connecting the next billion people to the Internet and one another. 

Tom Cuthell, (Senior Event Director) and his team have once again drawn on the expertise of more than 300 speakers who will enlighten a global audience as to the developments and opportunities affecting Africa’s digital transition.  Cuthell also shares that the show has been extended saying: “Whilst we miss the physical on-site interaction and debate with our audiences, we are delighted to be able to continue the conversations, albeit virtually again. With so much content on offer by virtue of the event being online, we have taken on board the learnings from 2020 and have extended AfricaTech Festival to a full five days of presentations, talks and debates.  This should assist delegates in planning and attending more of their desired sessions.  

“However, as we did last year, we will also provide access to all the recorded content to all registered attendees for 30 days after the running of the virtual event, as this also proved to be beneficial for our attendees.” – Tom Cuthell, Senior Event Director.

For 24 years, AfricaCom has been at the forefront of uniting tech and talent and shaping how the continent responds to the digital migration of its socio-economic needs. Key themes that will be explored in this year’s event include:

• An equitable 4IR for Africa

• The evolution of Africa’s Telcos – evolutionary trends

• Digital Infrastructure Investment 

• Fair and progressive development supported by policy, governance, and leadership

• Green ICT and the sustainable energy equation.

AfricaTech will also field an exciting line-up in 2021, with streams that include emerging tech and enterprise digital transformation of the African continent. Also on the line-up, delegates can expect to get the latest insights into:

• Building a better digital world

• AI for Africa

• Cloud and Data Centres

• Cyber Security and Data Protection – a very hot topic with a developing Africa a key target for opportunists

• Fintech, MFS, Blockchain and Crypto

• Tracking emerging technology in fields such as AgTech, HealthTech, EduTech and eCommerce

• IoT Africa 

• What does the future of work look like for Africa and Africans in this digitally driven shift?

As always, Africa Tech Festival will field a raft of top rate speakers, who will share their wisdom and insights and no doubt spark debate too.   Some of the key presenters and panellists who will share their wisdom with registered delegates are:

• Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Republic of Sierra Leone

• Ghada Mostafa Labib, Deputy Minister for Institutional Development, The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT)

• Neelesh Pratap Singh, Group Chief Information Officer, Airtel Africa

• Nitin Gajria, Managing Director - Sub-Saharan Africa, Google

• Cathy Smith, Managing Director, SAP Africa

• Sérgio Pimenta, Regional Vice President for Africa, International Finance Corporation

• Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, Member of Parliament - The Klottey-Korle Constituency, The Republic of Ghana

• Dejan Kastelic, Group CTO, Vodacom

• Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO M-PESA Africa & Chief Officer Financial Services, Safaricom

• Tracy Bolton, COO, SAP Africa

• Alex Okosi, Managing Director - Emerging Markets, YouTube EMEA

• Ian Paterson, Chief Investment Officer, Africell Group

• Mungai Munene, Delivery Director, President’s Delivery Unit - Executive Office of the President, Republic of Kenya

• Habiba Ben Barka, Chief of Africa Section, United Nations Conference on Trade & Development

• Alastair Long, Trade Commissioner for Africa, FCDO

• Dr Brook Taye, Senior Advisor, Finance Ministry, Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

• Mercy Wanjau, Acting Director General, Communications Authority of Kenya

• Razvan Ungureanu, Chief Technology Officer, Airtel Africa

• Dr Olufunso Somorin, Regional Principal Officer, African Development Bank

More speakers will be announced in due course.  Delegates are reminded to visit the Africa Tech Festival website for updates.

As the importance of technology and telecoms continues to spread their influence, Africa Tech Festival will also re-welcome co-located events such as AccelerateHER, AHUB, the LeadersIn Summit and another essential summit dedicated to 4IR talent and skills development for Africa. 

Registration to attend AfricaTech Festival is currently FREE and delegates can apply here.

UK-based Unlock, a SaaS-enabled marketplace to build culture among remote teams, has raised a $2m seed round. 

The round was lead by La Famiglia, with other investors including Kima Ventures, Antler, GuideStar Ventures and well-known angels Eduardo Ronzano, Thibaud Elziere, Frederic Montagnon, Julien

Romanetto, Nicolas Steegmann, Philipp Moehring, Andy Chung, Ville Vesterinen and Deepali Nangia from Atomico Angel Network, Richard Faern, Ian Hathaway, Lu Li, co-founders of Personio and Foodora, VP Product at Malt and more.

CaaS (Culture-as-a-Service) is a new, $300bn sector attracting significant investor interest as both remote work and competition over the best talent continue to grow. With venture funding that was poured into European technology companies doubling in the first half of 2021 in comparison to the previous year, the fight for talent is becoming intense. 

Strong team culture is key to attracting and retaining talent in a more and more heated labour market. Layering on top increasingly hybrid forms of work, companies everywhere are having to think of new digitally-inclusive ways to create emotional attachment and loyalty among their teams.

Unlock tackles what it believes to be a core part of this new battleground in the war for talent - culture and belonging. Unlock gives workplaces an online venue packed with curated interactive experiences to end the struggle to build remote team cohesion. It already has 300+ purpose-built bite-size conversation starters and games, and 50+ curated experiences from virtual activity creators - ranging from an origami lesson hosted from Tokyo to an interactive song writing session hosted by a professional band. 

Companies can also choose to get personalised cultural calendars consisting of a range of different activities every month. Its unique way of combining a flexible video venue with a marketplace of distinctive experiences has already attracted well-known companies to their customer base. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for employee engagement platforms, with companies keen to provide more support to remote workforces. Unlock doesn’t try to build a virtual office and recreate a physical environment online, but rather build a digital first experience that makes it easier to build healthy remote team cultural habits through meaningful and fun activities, whilst adding a new source of revenue for virtual event creators.

Maria Wlosinska, Co-Founder and CEO of Unlock said: ““We’re in the midst of a culture shift. The companies we work with realise that in order to stay ahead in the talent war, they have to put a strong culture at the core, but that’s not always easy to do in practice. At Unlock, we know that with the right tools and content, gathering as a team online can be easy, engaging and really fun.”

“By providing the cultural infrastructure for companies, they don’t have to spend hours researching and managing how to drive culture in their teams. We make sure there is enough content variability within our platform and the experiences on Unlock are curated to feel refreshing and inspiring for teams to come back regularly.”

“From a product perspective, we believe that in order to create a more genuine social experience online we need to control the venue and its interactiveness. Generic video calls can very easily feel like a classroom experience, whereas we wanted to build a truly interactive team experience. It’s that combination of content variability, ease of use and the interactive elements that our customers appreciate most.”

Judith Dada, La Famiglia’s General Partner, said: “We are at the dawn of the Golden Age of the Employee: in the ever fiercer fight for talent, the cultural empowerment of employees is one of the biggest levers companies have on their quest to being successful, but also a real challenge for fully remote, hybrid, or geographically distributed teams”

“Given their remote team setup and expertise in the space of team culture, we felt Unlock had a unique insight to solving this challenge. Firstly, they bring individuals who are experts in driving meaningful team experiences (“hosts”) to the table, capturing tailwinds from the passion and creator economy. Secondly, they build a platform with features like game cards and on-screen tools that enables teams and hosts to take experiences beyond the limited functionality of meeting platforms like Zoom whose monotony causes fatigue and disengagement. Culture is not defined by a meeting, but by human connections and Unlock enables deeper team experiences purpose-built for connection and fun”.

Leading anti-money laundering specialist SmartSearch has enhanced its industry-leading international business reports service, with the addition of 97 new countries to its online platform.

The improvements have been made to give businesses more tools to deal with the rise in fraud and cybercrime, which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said has increased by nearly a third in the last twelve months.

SmartSearch’s international business reports are the most reliable solution to complete Know Your Business (KYB) checks available, and provide comparable and hard-to-find company information, and extensive corporate ownership structures. By using a variety of data sources, the service will verify international companies, helping to mitigate the risk of fraud.

The reports provide full shareholder and ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) details, alongside business identification data, consolidated financial information and also screens the business to ensure it is not on a sanction list.

John Dobson, CEO of SmartSearch said: “The national lockdowns in response to the outbreak of the pandemic, caused a spike in attempted fraud, with organised criminals using the lack of face-to-face interactions as the perfect opportunity to set up a fake company. And sadly, this increase is unlikely to slow-down any-time soon.  

“As so many businesses now operate internationally, ensuring a business is legitimate has never been more crucial. It takes a lot of time and effort to try to manually verify whether not only the person you’re speaking to is legitimate, but whether they are actually connected to the business they claim to be.

“Regulatory differences between countries can be challenging, but our solution is continually updated in line with laws and regulations, ensuring businesses always meets their legal requirements.

“Our new enhancement will help prevent businesses from falling foul to fraud and help protect clients from the rising number of fake companies.”

To generate a business report, clients simply enter the company name, business postcode and region, and the system will perform a full KYB check, including sanction screening on the entity and any associated entities retuned.

The checks can also be retrospectively conducted on existing clients to ensure a business is fully complaint in the case of an audit. The checks also include ongoing monitoring and sanction checks to ensure the client is alerted to any status changes, whilst providing continued regulatory compliance.

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