The third annual Russian Islamic Economic Forum “Russia – Guarantor of Partnership” is being held in the city of Grozny (Chechen Republic) on 14-15 October. The event has been organized with support from Sberbank and is aimed at promoting business cooperation between Russia and the countries of the Islamic world. The International Association of Islamic Business and KPMG are also co-organizers of the forum.

The forum included panel discussions entitled “New Development Vectors (Trends) in the Islamic Ecosystem (ESG, Green Sukuk, Digital Awakening)” and “Alternative Solutions for Regulating Islamic Finance in the RF”.

Oleg Ganeev, Senior Vice President, Sberbank:

“Sber is a pioneer in partner banking amongst the major Russian banks and is interested in the development of this field. According to estimates by KPMG, the potential Islamic finance market in Russia alone is worth $7-9 bn in the medium term. In light of global trends, we regard Islamic finance as a promising area and are continuing to adapt Sber’s products and services to customer demand, while also developing new solutions in line with the current legislation. Our overall portfolio of structured transactions in this area of finance currently amounts to $262 mln and 30 mln rubles.”

The first Russian Islamic investment indices and PayZakat were also presented at the forum. 

The new indices – the Islamic Investment Index (ticker MXSHAR) and the Total Return Islamic Investment Index (ticker MXSHARTR) were presented by Sber jointly with Moscow Exchange and include securities from issuers who have been checked for conformity with the principles of Islamic economics.

The issuers are selected by the Sharia Supervisory Board set up by Sberinvest Middle East Limited, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. The company is also responsible for checking securities for conformity with Sharia laws. In the future, Sberinvest Middle East Limited will offer its Middle Eastern clients investment products tied to these indices.

PayZakat is a charity platform for the Muslim community, enabling the collection and distribution of donations. To date, it has over 3,000 subscribers and the average amount received in 2021 is 8 000 rubles (112 USD).

The convenience of contactless payments is outweighing consumers’ perceived security concerns, according to the latest Generation Pay research by Worldpay from FIS^® (NYSE: FIS). Contactless payments have increased over the past year, with 55 percent of all UK credit and debit transactions being made via contactless during the first six months of 2021. Paying this way has now become second nature to many shoppers with research showing that 75 percent of consumers now find it easier to use contactless to pay.

Despite this many consumers still have lingering doubts about perceived security concerns. Almost two thirds (59 percent) of UK shoppers indicated they have reservations regarding safety and fraud when it comes to contactless card payments, with this amount increasing to about 61 percent for mobile contactless. However, the data suggests that consumers are willing to overlook these concerns in favour of convenience, with ease and speed now being the driving force in how consumers choose to pay.

Pete Wickes, General Manager, EMEA, Worldpay from FIS comments: “For technology adoption to be successful, there has to be trust and consumers need to feel empowered. As the UK contactless limit increases this week, it’s imperative that the industry comes together to reassure and educate shoppers about contactless payment security. The data shows that contactless is one of the safest ways to pay. Contactless fraud accounted for just 2.9 percent of overall card fraud in 2020[1], a decrease on the previous year, despite the rise in contactless limit.”

While it’s not surprising that younger generations have readily embraced contactless technology, with 38 percent of millennials stating they will now only shop in a store if it has contactless, the technology is also proving popular with older consumers. The research shows that almost three quarters of those aged over 65 now find it easier to pay via contactless, with this generation citing the pandemic as the biggest driver of their behaviour.

Analysis by Worldpay shows that last year’s £45 limit increase led to a 17 percent increase in the transaction value of UK contactless payments. With the UK’s contactless limit set to increase to £100 this week, Worldpay’s research has uncovered another potential barrier to adoption, with over one fifth (22 percent) of consumers saying they have not been issued a contactless card.

Pete Wickes continued: “With consumers indicating contactless payments are now the most convenient payment method, the fact that over a fifth of consumers still haven’t been issued a contactless card could be a barrier for merchants looking to improve the retail experience for their customers, especially as we as we enter the busiest shopping period of the year. The new contactless limit will increase both the volume and value of transactions, and it is vital that those who want to pay this way have access to this technology.”

21Shares AG (“21Shares”), the Swiss pioneering issuer of cryptocurrency ETPs, today announced that its Polkadot ETP (ASOL) has reached the key milestone of $100M in assets under management (AUM), which makes it the 5^th 21Shares ETP reaching more than $100M in AuM.

Polkadot (DOT) is an open source blockchain founded by the Web3 Foundation. A platform, which can be imagined as a grid connecting all the blockchains with one another — effectively becoming interoperable. The DOT token leverages the connector of blockchains to remove entry barriers for newcomers to the cryptocurrency industry. More information about Polkadot can be found in our 21Shares research primer on our website.

As of October,1 21Shares manages more than $2 billion in 17 cryptocurrency ETPs and 77 listings. Including the world’s only ETP tracking Binance and two ETPs with investor staking rewards (Tezos and Polkadot). Its crypto ETP products are listed on eight regulated European and Swiss trading exchanges.

After a successful launch in April 2021 and several projects already on track, the AURA Blockchain Consortium, is delighted to welcome the OTB Group as a new and fourth founding member. Since April, each brand has developed its own experience according to its specificities and customer expectations. Brands such as Bulgari, Cartier, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, Hennessy and Prada are already active on the platform. This initiative was the concretization of a common ambition shared by three major players of the luxury and high-quality industry to set and develop together new standards for the luxury industry related to innovation, transparency and blockchain technology. Driven by a strong sense of creativity and focused on the integration of digital and physical products, as a new founding member, OTB Group will contribute to further reinforce the efforts of the AURA Blockchain Consortium to make blockchain an even more impactful technology for our industry.

Through an unparalleled alliance and the development of a uniquely advanced and innovative technology, LVMH, Prada Group, Cartier, part of Richemont and OTB will continue to raise the industry standards to drive change and increase customer trust in the brands’ sustainable practices and product sourcing.

The Aura Blockchain Consortium has accelerated its activities in the development of the technical roadmap.

The upcoming projects include:

● the release of Aura Light, a SaaS solution for brands who wish to participate in Aura without having the necessary internal resources to develop their own systems and are therefore looking for an easy solution to implement

● the development of an NFT solution for luxury brands

The founding members of the AURA Blockchain Consortium commented: “The Aura Blockchain Consortium warmly welcomes OTB as our fourth founding member. The Group’s strategy which is geared towards young generations and its courageous choices, combined with its tech expertise, are at the heart of this union. We strongly believe that OTB’s contribution will be of great value for the evolution of our platform and the standards we aim to set for the entire luxury industry”. 

Daniela Ott, Secretary General of the Aura Blockchain Consortium: “I am thrilled for the OTB Group, its brands and teams to join the Aura Blockchain Consortium. OTB believes that the luxury and fashion world will coexist and merge physical and digital products. The team is already well advanced on its Digital Evolution Roadmap. With this mindset and actions, OTB is an ideal founding member to join in with us on the Aura journey.”

Stefano Rosso, Board Member of OTB Group and Board Member of Aura Blockchain Consortium: “It is a great honour for us to join the Aura Blockchain Consortium as a founding member. We aim to provide our strong contribution to this strategic collaboration focusing on a circular business model, transparency for the customer, innovation and sustainability. Aura Blockchain Consortium will be an impressive accelerator of our journey and we are glad to put our experience, bravery and innovative thinking at the service of the Consortium to further develop the applications of the blockchain technology and raise the standards of the fashion and luxury industry.”

The World Federation of Exchanges Publishes the Call for Papers for the WFE’s Clearing and Derivatives Conference 2022

The World Federation of Exchanges (“WFE”), the global industry group for CCPs and exchanges has published a Call for Papers for the WFE’s Clearing and Derivatives Conference 2022. 

The World Federation of Exchanges is organising its 39th Annual Clearing and Derivatives Conference, hosted by the Malta Stock Exchange, to be held in Valletta, Malta on 27-29 April 2022. If a physical meeting is not possible, the meeting will be held virtually as in 2021. 

We invite the submission of theoretical, empirical, and policy research papers on issues related to the conference topics. Papers accepted will be considered for a special issue of the Journal of Financial Markets Infrastructures (JFMI). The submission deadline is 13 December 2021.

The objective of the conference is to bring together academics, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to share original research and exchange ideas on the opportunities and challenges for the future of central and bilateral clearing. By bringing academia and industry together, in a mutually enriching conversation, the conference aims at stimulating the generation of new ideas and approaches to these topics. The programme will comprise keynote speeches, expert panels, and paper presentations. Accepted papers will be assigned an industry discussant.

As demand for in-store digitalization and solutions based on electronic shelf labels (ESL) is increasing, Pricer aims at meeting this expected continued higher volume demand with a new production facility in Europe, closer to its customers on this major market. Working in close collaboration to understand the customers’ long-term goals and their unique challenges, Pricer will be able to offer reduced lead-times and increased flexibility.

To maintain the highest product quality, Pricer has engaged with Zollner, a global electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider based in Germany, to expand the company’s production capacity of electronic shelf labels and set up final assembly capacity in Europe. This will complement Pricer’s existing production facilities in China and Thailand.

“In addition to mitigating the effects of geo-political uncertainties and dependencies on few suppliers, this decision is in line with Pricer’s intention to continuously improve our customer satisfaction. Moving production closer to our customers is a strategic goal that we believe will strengthen our competitiveness in the market, and also contribute to reducing our carbon footprint. Designing products for automation has been an important part of realizing this intention and we are pleased to be working together with Zollner to further enhance the degree of automation in our assembly lines”, says Helena Holmgren, President and CEO of Pricer.

“We are excited to support Pricer as an innovation leader in the retail sector with our manufacturing and engineering expertise”, says Markus Aschenbrenner, member of the Zollner Board of Management. “Automated production in one of our German sites will render ESL output scalable according to the needs of Pricer. Thus, even in a competitive high-volume production, quality ‘Made in Germany’ for the European market is guaranteed.” 

To meet Pricer’s high expectations on the new state of the art production site, Zollner is now fine tuning the production line for graphical labels with market leading performance and battery life. Deliveries from the new production facility are expected to start during the end of Q2 2022.