Barclays has announced CreditEnable as a winner at the 2021 national Barclays Entrepreneur Awards.

CreditEnable was named as the UK’s Rise Fin-Tech of the Year, which recognises a company that is leading the way as a FinTech disruptor and is building the future of financial services.

CreditEnable is a multi-award-winning credit insight and technology company that has developed a technology platform that efficiently intermediates the SME credit market by enabling cost effective lending and quick access to affordable debt for SMEs. The company applies proprietary data analytics and AI technology to solve one of the world’s biggest financial challenges: access to affordable finance.

Its lender solutions enable profitable growth by substantially reducing the time involved with underwriting SME loans, provide efficient access to quality borrowers and improve the quality of SME loan books. The firm’s borrower solutions help SMEs better understand lenders’ credit requirements, get prepared for debt and secure the capital they need at an affordable rate.

Nadia Sood, Group CEO & Founder of CreditEnable, said: “We are extremely honoured and grateful to be recognised for our work making affordable finance more accessible and driving greater financial inclusion for SMEs. It is a great recognition for the entire company and for all those of us who are using technology to bring easy, affordable access to SMEs.”

The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards recognise the importance of the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit, and showcase founders and their businesses from across the country, who amid the pandemic have succeeded in bringing together their creativity, passion and innovation to run successful high growth businesses. 

Katherine Morgan, Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs at Barclays, said: “The national awards are a celebration of the exceptional innovation and leadership entrepreneurs demonstrate, helping to create social change and boost our local economies. This is our opportunity to celebrate some of the UK’s most successful home-grown ventures, many of whom have skilfully utilised international markets, in turn generating new jobs and driving economic growth. These awards allow us to recognise and celebrate the founders behind these businesses, and we would like to congratulate Nadia and the team at CreditEnable on their success.”

The national judging panel was made up of key industry leaders and influencers, who selected the overall national winners, drawn from over 1,000 applications across the UK.

The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards consist of ten award categories, ranging from start-up through to international expansion. For the first time, a number of Barclays partners who provide services to help businesses thrive have taken the opportunity to sponsor a category.

Barclays Entrepreneur Awards full list of winners:

1. Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Barclays: entrepreneurs who have started new, fast-growing businesses. Winner - Hertility Health, London
2. Scale up Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Propel: entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing on a rapid scale. Winner – Itch, North East
3. Social Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Smart Pension: entrepreneurs whose companies have delivered transformative social or environmental change. Winner – Changes UK CIC, Midlands
4. International Expansion of the Year, sponsored by Nimbla: businesses that have established an impressive trading footprint and market growth in international markets over the last three years. Winner – ChickenGuard, East of England
5. Entrepreneur Icon of the Year, sponsored by MarketFinance: entrepreneurs who have successfully turned their vision into reality. Winner – Dr Harry Destecroix, CEO of Science Creates, South West and Wales
6. The Barclaycard Next Level Award: recognises the entrepreneurs/businesses that have overcome a significant challenge or grabbed their big business growth moment. Winner – T.H.Burroughs Family Butcher, South West and Wales
7. Eagle Labs Innovation Award: companies that have demonstrated impact through digital empowerment and innovative collaboration. Winner – Yoello, South West and Wales
8. Rise FinTech Company of the Year Award: companies from the Rise network and Barclays Accelerator Alumni who are creating scaling businesses that are transforming financial services. Winner – CreditEnable, Mumbai
9. Outstanding Contribution to Entrepreneurship Award recognises an individual who has had a profound impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, shaping and influencing the profile and importance of entrepreneurs for the UK and beyond. Winner – Brent Shawzin Hoberman CBE, a British entrepreneur who together with Martha Lane Fox founded Lastminute.com in 1998.
10. People’s Choice Award: for the individual or company who has received the most votes from the general public. Winner – BeoBia, Midlands

Compass Plus has made the final shortlist at the Banking Awards 2021 in recognition of its notable contribution to the industry to help fight the Coronavirus pandemic – aiding and supporting companies/individuals from the industry ecosystem economically, socially, and financially.

The ‘COVID-19 Response by Fintechs’ category recognises leading payments software providers that adapted their operations to meet and exceed the needs of their customers at a time when the world came to a halt in 2020.

As a payments software vendor, Compass Plus was shortlisted after delivering an astounding 660 projects remotely during the pandemic. While remote working seemed like a new trend, Compass Plus had already successfully implemented many projects remotely pre-Covid, and, as such, were able to accelerate and fine-tune its project methodology to 100% remote delivery. The most significant challenges included: country lockdowns not happening simultaneously, and customers being at different stages of their projects when lockdowns hit – from starting scoping to a few days before go-live. For customers, this was an extremely unsettling period, particularly due to key project staff being ill and adjusting to working-from-home.

As experts in delivering projects of all types and sizes across different countries and time zones, Compass Plus anticipated many of the challenges customers faced and adapted quickly.

The projects worked on by the Compass Plus team varied greatly. For new customers, these included full-blown migrations from legacy systems, as well as large payments modernisation projects. Compass Plus also worked with existing customers to help them expand globally, launch innovative new products, grow their payments ecosystems by integrating with multiple third-parties and joining various international and national payment networks, as well as assisted with onboarding large banks for its processing customers, and enabled compliance with new regulations.

Maria Nottingham, Executive Vice President of Compass Plus commented: “To be shortlisted for this award is testament to the talented people we have at Compass Plus. When Covid-19 swept across the globe, this was a particularly difficult time for everyone and for many businesses, they were navigating the unknown. However, we did what we do best and delivered outstanding results for our customers utilising our experience and knowledge of managing projects on a global scale. We were able to reassure our customers across all geographies and guide them through the process of remote project implementation no matter the scale, size or complexity.”

Hosted by Fintech Futures, the Banking Tech Awards are highly respected and well-known in the industry. The awards have been running for the past four years and recognise excellent products and services provided by software providers. The winners will be revealed at the final awards ceremony on Wednesday 24^th November at the five-star Royal Lancaster hotel in London.

For more information, please contact either Declan Kinsella or Ash Dhindsa PR@compassplus.com / +44 115 753 0120.

Taulia, the leading fintech provider of working capital solutions, has today announced the appointment of Todd Musselman as Chief Wellbeing Officer, reflecting the business’ commitment to prioritizing employee wellbeing, happiness and development.

Musselman brings with him extensive leadership coaching experience, having run his own business that offers motivational speaking, leadership training and executive coaching. Prior to this, Todd worked for his family’s company for over 25 years where he played an integral role in product development, marketing and sales strategies and guiding those in management positions. 

Under Todd’s leadership, Taulia will strengthen its wellness culture, empowering its 300+ employees around the world to put their wellbeing first, helping them maximize their professional and personal performance and development.

Cedric Bru, CEO at Taulia comments: “The wellness of our employees is of paramount importance to our business. We want to continue investing to ensure our employees are supported and nurtured. We see our role as crucial to help them to feel great and seize the opportunities ahead of them in their daily working lives and longer-term careers. Like athletes, everyone can benefit from coaching to get to the next level and Todd is bringing a fresh perspective and years of experience to help us improve how we do this. We want to help fulfill the curiosity and desire of our employees to grow and develop and Todd’s appointment will be a key driver of this.”

Todd Musselman, comments: “I’m excited to be joining Taulia and using my experience to help boost employee wellness, performance and career development. Taulia’s People Management function is world class, and I’m looking forward to working closely with the team to further promote wellbeing and help the team reach its full potential.”

The Build to Rent sector is being targeted by fraudsters with a 364% rise in fraudulent tenant applications in the past six months, according to data from tenant due diligence and guarantee firm Homeppl. To correlate with this upward trend, the detection of fraud in this space has seen a significant increase in value, meaning landlords are ultimately saving £1.59m from not accepting fraudulent applications.

Build to rent - where homes are built specifically for rental purposes rather than for sale and are owned and managed by a professional firm - has been growing exponentially in recent years.

The properties are high quality and include onsite extras, utilities are bundled into the monthly price, there is often no deposit and renters have the right to leave with short notice periods, making them a hugely attractive option for renters.

However, their appeal is also their downfall. The fact that utilities are included, and no deposit is due means that potential fraudsters not only avoid upfront costs - inability to pay a deposit would usually be a red flag - but also, they only need to pass one identity check before being approved by the letting agency, making it easier for them to get away with a fraudulent application.

The landlord is then left vulnerable legally and financially, with losses potentially running into the tens of thousands thanks to unpaid rent and utilities, damage to the property and legal costs.

Alexander Siedes, CEO and Founder of Homeppl said: 

“We have seen a sharp rise in fraudulent tenant applications within the build to rent sector over the past six months.”

“In the last 3 months one of Homeppl’s clients found 3.5% cases of fraud in the build to rent sector, which highlights the vulnerability of the sector and the property agents who act as landlords.”

“And while agents using our tenant referencing systems can be safe in the knowledge that fraudsters will not be able to fool our unique fraud detection tests - which use behavioural analysis, financial algorithms, and Open Banking data to validate the person’s identity and financial abilities - most checks are unable to reliably detect fraud or authentic data. Our clients have 0% defaults - the industry average is 8%.”

Siedes says that as the build to rent sector continues to grow, the problem of rental fraud will only increase.

“The build to rent sector was initially driven by demand in London - and that is still where most incidences of tenant fraud take place as the properties tend to be high end and therefore a target for illegal subletting - but the trend has now spread across the UK. This brings the total size of the sector to 205,500 homes completed or in development.* And as the sector grows, so will the fraud.”

Siedes concludes: “The companies looking after these developments need to ensure they have procedures in place to identify these issues and stop them before the losses become unmanageable as this will have a detrimental impact on the market at a time where demand for rental properties has never been higher.”

Leading dispute technology specialists, Chargebacks911, today announces the appointment of fintech workhorse and strategic leader, David Jimenez, as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). In his new role, David will be responsible for expanding Chargebacks911’s footprint and go-to market strategy, further aligning the business to meet the growing demand for back-office automation technology in disputes handling, merchant onboarding, and post transaction fraud management.

David joins Chargebacks911 with over 20 years’ experience in payments and fintech, with the last few dedicated to spearheading revenue growth for global payment processors and driving successful strategic exits. Through his tenure in fintech, he has contributed through various leadership roles with industry giants like JP Morgan Chase and Ingenico. David will remain on the Supervisory Board of WeChat Pay EU and continue to advocate for cross border fintech expansion as part of his role with the company.

David served as CRO for Ingenico ePayments, formerly known as Global Collect. Responsible for sales, account management and global marketing, he increased the company’s revenue and geographic reach into APAC and Latin America, which contributed to the exponential growth that led to their more recent acquisition. Equally impressive, during his tenure at JP Morgan Chase, David doubled the business over three years, while running the mid-market commercial bank sales channel.

David’s wealth of experience and know-how will be invaluable to Chargebacks911 and FI911.  As eCommerce transactions have grown, particularly following the pandemic, so too has the need to address relative increases in consumer and issuer disputes, a growing problem costing merchants and acquirers billions each year.

David Jimenez, Chief Revenue Officer at Chargebacks911, comments: “Chargebacks911 was a real opportunity for me to bring my skillset, industry knowledge and experience, to support the business as we execute our growth strategy. I’m excited by the challenge of growing this winning proposition, that is both sustainable and meets the market demand”.”

He adds: “I look forward to serving our merchants and FI’s with tools and technology that simplify their workloads in payment dispute management and merchant onboarding. Our clients challenge us to continuously evaluate our solutions, in order to improve on our brand promise. For this reason, you can expect us to continue investing in products, people and services in key growth markets, including North America, EMEA and APAC, with key hires and strategic alignment toward our FI and Software partners.”

Monica Eaton-Cardone, Co-Founder and COO of Chargebacks911, comments: “There has been a significant uptick in chargeback and dispute resolution in the last couple of years prompted by the ongoing digital movement. This means there is a growing need the business is uniquely placed to fulfil. David is unmatched with next level talent and experience that he will bring to the Chargebacks911 table. He is known and loved by the industry for his accomplishments and performance thus far – I couldn’t be more excited he is joining us to help expand our footprint and raise the bar as we join forces to thoroughly execute the company’s vision. There’s a lot to do given our expansion goals. David is undoubtedly well positioned to lead this effort, and we are absolutely thrilled to welcome him on the team.”

Chargebacks911 will be attending Money 20/20 Vegas October 24-27, 2021 – with both David and Monica available to discuss their key talent acquisitions in leading C-suite positions and other major milestones the company has reached recently. Monica will also be talking about the gender imbalance in fintech, why mentorship is critical and how their latest venture, LIFT: Elevating Women in Fintech, is helping to break down barriers. 

Acquisition expands Sysnet’s commitment to delivering cyber security and compliance solutions to organizations globally; the combined organization will be world’s largest QSA company 

Sysnet Global Solutions, a leading provider of cyber security and compliance solutions, today announced that it has acquired SecureTrust, a division of Trustwave, to further expand its cyber security solutions and accelerate its market expansion. SecureTrust, a leading provider of Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, provides innovation and processes for achieving and maintaining compliance and security. SecureTrust has over 20 years of experience providing solutions to customers in over 96 countries and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Sysnet is focused on delivering integrated compliance and security solutions to businesses globally. The addition of SecureTrust is a natural fit that broadens Sysnet’s customer base, security offering, and geographic coverage - augmented by proprietary security and compliance platforms. As a result of this acquisition, the combined organization will be the world’s largest Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) company and one of the largest providers of compliance and security solutions, with many of the world’s top acquirers and payment service providers as clients and over five million businesses using Sysnet’s platforms.

SecureTrust clients moving under Sysnet will benefit significantly from the new solution set, delivery team, and geographic coverage that will be unmatched in the market. They will have access to an integrated security and compliance platform with enhanced functionality and faster access to newly developed solutions. Sysnet’s dedication to providing premium solutions and support will give its new clients confidence that their changing needs will be met and exceeded into the future.

The emergence of new and advanced threats and the proliferation of complex cloud adoption over the past five years have driven Trustwave to rapidly grow and evolve its offering alongside client needs. While Trustwave’s legacy is rooted in PCI compliance, today the company’s core offering is centered around Managed Security Services (MSS), Managed Detection and Response (MDR), and Consulting and Professional Services (CPS). As a result, the services that SecureTrust provides are no longer closely aligned with Trustwave’s growth focus. Over the years, SecureTrust has worked to build a brand and culture that is distinctly its own and separate from Trustwave. Trustwave is immensely proud of this distinction, and this sale is the next phase in the separation process. As part of this transaction, Sysnet is also purchasing a portion of Trustwave’s MSS business primarily focused on the hospitality sector, further augmenting its existing MSS offering, which it already enhanced earlier this year with the acquisition of NuArx.

“We are very excited to have the SecureTrust team join Sysnet Global Solutions,” commented Bob McCullen, Chief Executive Officer of Sysnet. “The Sysnet brand has long been synonymous with trusted solutions in the managed security and compliance market. By integrating talent and technology from pioneering brands, such as SecureTrust, into our portfolio, we can deliver the innovation that our clients need to stay ahead of the curve along with the peace of mind that comes with working with a well-established authority in the space, no matter their size or requirements.”

“This business shift will allow Trustwave to rapidly accelerate its momentum as a leader in managed detection and response, world-class professional services, and data protection,” said Eric Harmon, Chief Executive Officer of Trustwave. “Trustwave clients will benefit from a narrowed focus on the offerings that matter most to them. This will translate to more innovations across our industry-leading client services and targeted investment in emerging technologies and world-class talent. We value the partnership and synergy that we’ve had with the SecureTrust team and look forward to their success and future with Sysnet.”

Sysnet’s acquisition of SecureTrust is the latest in a series of the company’s acquisitions over the last 12 months. Sysnet acquired ControlScan MCS and Viking Cloud in late 2020 and NuArx earlier this year. The combined organization creates a scalable platform for next-generation cyber defense with security consulting services delivered by the industry's leading experts.

Sysnet is backed by FTV Capital and True Wind Capital.

The Sysnet team was assisted in the transaction by Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Trustwave utilized Jones Day as legal advisors.

Blockpass, the pioneer of On-chain KYC(TM), is excited to announce its growing partnership with Seedify, the gateway to blockchain gaming. Seedify will be using Blockpass' proprietary KYC solutions to provide a safe, secure and compliant ecosystem where gamers and gaming enthusiasts can enjoy the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Seedify is a blockchain gaming-focused incubator and launchpad ecosystem which provides support and opportunities for innovators and project developers through access to funding, community and partnership building, and a complete support system to help drive the future of gaming and blockchain. The project is assisting gamers as they begin to explore new avenues, spending time on games and taking advantage of opportunities to earn in-game item NFTs and tokens. Through holding $SFUND, users are able to buy game tokens before they're listed on the market, by participating in IGOs (initial game offerings) on the Seedify Launchpad.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider which provides a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. Through Blockpass, users can create, store, and manage a data-secure digital identity that can be used for an entire ecosystem of services, token purchases and access to regulated industries. For businesses and merchants, Blockpass is a comprehensive KYC & AML SaaS that requires no integration and no setup cost. You can set up a service in minutes, test the service for free and start verifying and on-boarding users. Currently with more than 160,000 verified user identity profiles, Blockpass facilitates instant onboarding, and to date almost 5000 services have taken advantage of this opportunity to get access to users with reusable digital identity profiles.

"Seedify is a leader in the blockchain gaming industry and we were delighted to work with them to bring our compliance technology to that space," said Adam Vaziri, Blockpass CEO. "By bringing seamless and efficient identity verification to gamers we hope to facilitate a safe and secure ecosystem where they can play and earn."

"Blockpass' compliance software provides a vital solution, ensuring ease of use, along with a safe and secure KYC process," noted Levent Cem Aydan, Founder and CEO - Seedify. "This gives us the ability to seamlessly and efficiently onboard new users, maintaining the integrity of our platform and giving our community confidence that their private data is protected."

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of users and organizations it has partnered with and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. The existential need for DeFi projects to be regulatory compliant and the recent integrations have led to a surge in interest for Blockpass' On-chain KYC(TM) solution. Through its recent work with Animoca Brands, Blockpass is developing the ability to provide KYC where the delivery of the verification result is provably sent and shown on a blockchain without sharing the underlying data. This represents a significant step towards the future Blockpass hopes to bring about where identity verification can be proved without revealing any personal information at all.
 

• PPRO launches 2021 Payment Almanac to highlight regional payment trends

PPRO, the leading global provider of local payments infrastructure, today released the 2021 edition of its Payment Almanac.

As the global e-commerce landscape grows to be worth an expected $US 6.9 trillion by 2025, consumers expect to make purchases with their preferred payment method. Yet many firms still lack the knowledge, licensing, and technology to conduct local transactions. To help overcome this challenge, PPRO’s 2021 Payment Almanac provides comprehensive research on local payment methods, consumer behaviour, e-commerce data, trends and projected market growth for 150+ countries around the world.

For payment service providers and other businesses with payment platforms, the ability to enable alternative and local payments is complex – requiring knowledge about local payments cultures, regulations and local payment methods specific to each market. Considering 77% of global online purchases are not made with an international credit card, but with a local payment method, the Almanac provides the e-commerce industry with a resource to better understand the payments landscape, learn about the future trends, and meet the needs of their target markets.

Throughout the pandemic, many merchants, especially those based in the US, expanded their e-commerce presence worldwide. For companies looking to sell into a new market, the Payment Almanac will help refine their cross-border strategy by providing an analysis of market trends and payment methods in every region.

Some of the key findings per region from the Almanac include:

• Europe:
  • Overall use of digital payments in Europe is forecast to grow by 70% between 2020 and 2025.
  • Western and Central Europeans pay for 45% of online purchases using a credit or debit card. The next most popular payment method is bank transfer, which consumers use in 25% of online purchases, followed by e-wallets, standing at 23% of online transactions.
  • In 2020, e-commerce shipment volumes in Europe increased by 149% for internal purchases and 123% for cross-border purchases coming into the continent.
  • The e-commerce market in the UK is worth 282.8 bn $US (£204.8 bn) and the figure is expected to grow to 355.0 bn $US (£257.1 bn) by 2025.
  • 32% of consumers in the United Kingdom rely on various wallets for payments, and with the UK’s dominance as the top e-commerce market, it’s likely that mobile and wallet payment methods will continue to grow.
  • 24% of transactions in Eastern Europe are cash-based, while Western Europe is heavily dependent on bank transfer payments.
• North America:
  • US-based merchants remain a top seller worldwide, making up almost 50% of cross-border e-commerce purchases in Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Brazil.
  • In Canada, where 49% of its cross-border shopping activity comes from the United States, 23% of transactions are from digital wallets. For US-based merchants, that means offering Canadian consumers the option to use popular local methods like paysafecard, paysafe:cash and Hyperwallet.
  • Popular local payment methods like PayPal’s Buy-in-4, AfterPay, Venmo and more are continuing to increase in popularity, driven by the Buy Now Pay Later trend within e-commerce transactions.
• Asia Pacific (APAC):
  • 60% of consumers in the APAC region conduct payments with digital wallets, higher than any other region.
  • 72% of payment transactions in China are done with wallets like Alipay and WeChat Pay, and with 17% of cross-border transactions originating from the US, this is a growing region for US-based merchants.
  • 42% of Australian e-commerce activity is cross-border, as Australia and New Zealand continue to grow into a major e-commerce hub for the globe.
• Latin America (LATAM):
  • 14% of transactions in LATAM are bank transfers and 60% are card-based — signaling the popularity of local bank cards and payment methods such as Boleto Bancário, PIX and Oxxo.
  • Similar to other countries in LATAM, e-commerce growth in Argentina was up 76% in 2019 alone and growing, with 71% of e-commerce traffic being conducted cross-border.
  • The unbanked population in areas like Brazil is reducing as an effect of government actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased reliance on emerging payment methods like e-wallets, connected to a growing reliance on e-commerce.

“The reality of today’s e-commerce landscape is that brands are no longer siloed to one country or region, but instead conducting business across multiple borders,” said Claire Gates, Chief Commercial Officer. “This boom in cross-border e-commerce and the proliferation of niche local payment methods has intensified the challenge for companies who seek to make transactions simple and secure. The 2021 Payment Almanac not only provides a resource to better recognize consumer trends in each country, but showcases how the complexity of payments is increasing. Brands need to understand these regional differences if they want to capture new customers.”

To learn more about PPRO and access its e-commerce regional reports, visit  https://www.ppro.com/insights/.

• New investment strategy sees 15% allocation to private markets and is the first DC pensions provider to deliver impact across 100% of its portfolio.
• The investment strategy will invest in wind and solar farms, forestry, battery tech, green hydrogen and social housing.
• In an industry first, Cushon will engage and connect defined contributions savers with their money through private markets investments in environmental and social impact projects and programmes to feel proud of.
• 62% of employees would engage more if they knew their pension was having a positive impact on climate change.

The Trustees of the Cushon Master Trust, the world’s first net zero pension, have unveiled their new investment strategy to further improve engagement levels and ultimately member outcomes. The new strategy which launches in early 2022 will reduce investment risk as the world moves towards a greener future.

In an industry first for the defined contribution pensions market, the new portfolio of investments, through the use of listed bonds and equities and a multi asset private markets portfolio, delivers social impact that savers can feel proud of. It is currently the largest Master Trust allocation to private markets (15%) and the first in the DC sector to deliver impact across 100% of the portfolio.

Cushon’s new strategy aims to increase the potential for greater investment returns by focusing on greener companies which are generally expected to perform better in the longer term. Cushon’s 200,000 members’ pensions will be invested in environmental projects such as the planting of new sustainable forests and in financing new wind and solar farms. It will reduce risk by improving diversification, ensuring members’ money is safeguarded against lower returns from ‘brown’ (carbon emitting) investments as the global economy transitions to net zero.

To ensure strong returns for members the Trustees will, for the first time, include private market investments in both developed and emerging markets. These historically have not played a big part, if at all, in defined contribution pensions but they offer improved potential returns with markedly reduced investment risk as they allow for further diversification. 

The Trustees will work with Schroders Capital, which has $70 billion of assets under management and is the private markets investment division of Schroders, the global asset management group, to manage investments in new high impact projects including sustainable infrastructure, clean tech, natural capital, financial inclusion and climate insurance, as well as social and affordable housing. Lombard Odier Investment Managers will manage listed bonds focusing on the most promising companies that are accelerating towards net zero with the aim of supporting that transition. Wellington will manage listed social impact bonds, and listed equities will be managed by Macquarie to a Cushon custom-designed climate and social impact index created by Solactive.

Roger Mattingly, Chair of the Cushon Master Trust said: “The changes announced to our investment strategy demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and responsible investment which we believe supports better long-term financial outcomes for our members. We have spent considerable time undertaking due diligence of the investments and fund managers, as well as negotiating costs to ensure that we can include private market investments well within the confines of the charge cap. We are certain the new investment strategy will deliver excellent retirement outcomes for our members.”

Ben Pollard, Founder and CEO of Cushon said: “A good number of people will be able to name their pension provider, but a miniscule proportion will be able to name the underlying investments. This passive relationship has become the industry norm, but it’s one of the reasons there is apathy, particularly among younger savers. We need a new approach that places saver engagement at the heart of the pensions industry. That’s why a big focus of our new investment strategy includes, for the first time for the defined contributions market, connecting savers with investments in projects and companies that they can feel proud of and engage with. Our research shows that 62% of employees would engage more if they knew their pension was having a positive impact on climate change.”

Cushon’s Strategic Adviser, Julius Pursaill, said: “Private markets increasingly offer sources of return that listed markets don't - forestry and micro finance for example, as well as private equity - these give members access to better diversification, higher expected returns and ultimately significantly improved investment outcomes. We will deliver regular updates to members about the positive change their pension savings are delivering for the planet and look forward to announcing novel ways our members will be able to engage with these investments in the coming months.”

Above and beyond environmental projects, the new strategy seeks to ensure greater social impact for Cushon members’ investments, connecting savers with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and incorporating broader ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. This might include investments in sustainable infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries to improve access to telecoms, education and medicine, and investment in advanced AgriTech innovation to support smallholder farmers in a changing world.

When Cushon launched the world’s first Net Zero Now pension in January 2021, it used a mixture of environmentally friendly investments together with high-quality carbon offsets to ensure the fund was net zero. In less than a year, Cushon has gone even further to vastly reduce financed carbon emissions from the underlying investments from 80% of the UK average to below 50% and therefore reduce its reliance on carbon offsetting. Today’s announcement reflects Cushon’s commitment to year-on-year reductions of financed emissions, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the need for carbon offsetting completely in the near future.

Cushon will be announcing further details of each of the forward-thinking investment approaches for bonds, private markets and listed equity in the coming weeks. For more details about Cushon’s Net Zero Now pension and its new investment strategy for members, visit cushon.co.uk.

• £1.06bn offered through almost 6,200 facilities to smaller businesses across the UK
• Over 5,100 facilities have already drawn down, providing £823m of funding

The British Business Bank announces today that the Recovery Loan Scheme has passed a significant milestone, with 76 accredited lenders having offered over £1bn to smaller UK businesses as they steer a path towards a sustainable recovery.

Of the £1.06bn of funding offered through 6,190 facilities so far, £822.8m has been drawn down through 5,137 facilities.

The Recovery Loans Scheme launched in April 2021 and is currently scheduled to run until 31 December 2021. The scheme supports borrowing of up to £10m for individual businesses and up to £30m across a group, with funds available for any legitimate business purpose, including managing cashflow, growth and investment. It is designed to appeal to businesses that can afford to take out additional finance for these purposes.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “Businesses up and down the country are beginning to look beyond the pandemic towards the opportunities available to them in the recovery. The British Business Bank is committed to supporting smaller businesses in accessing the finance they need to grow sustainably in the future. In meeting the £1 billion milestone, the Recovery Loan Scheme is demonstrating its impact by helping thousands of companies to fund their further development.”

Data as provided to British Business Bank by Recovery Loan Scheme delivery partners at 18 October 2021. A breakdown of data by region and sector will be provided in future releases.