SIX today launches its “SIX Tax on Instrument” service to provide client advisors and portfolio managers in the Wealth Advisory industry with tax classifications on individual securities. The service allows users to analyse the tax consequences of financial products, to anticipate the tax-related costs of an investment on that security and to find better investment options.

While the existing product “SIX Tax Score” addresses the overall tax suitability aspect of financial products by looking at the tax cost of an investment, “SIX Tax on Instrument” is geared at pre-investment workflows in Wealth Advisory, allowing for more detailed portfolio simulations and portfolio constructions from a tax perspective.

Marion Leslie, Head Financial Information & Executive Board member, SIX, highlighted: “This latest tax offering is a great addition to our suite of tax data services, designed to increase efficiency and reduce tax complexity for the Wealth Advisory industry, enabling improved targeting of investments and portfolios.”

”SIX Tax on Instrument” enables clients to access up to 60 data fields per tax regime covering financial products such as Equities, Bonds, Funds and Structured Products with attributes on Income Tax, Wealth Tax, Capital Gains & Losses Tax, and generic tax details. The service is designed to help client advisors and portfolio managers achieve superior after-tax returns by providing insights about tax implications and costs, allowing them to optimize their clients’ investment portfolios.

The launch of the service meets a growing need among wealth advisors for detailed tax cost indicator information and additional tax categorisation attributes to help them make projections for expected returns, especially important in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. “SIX Tax on Instrument” currently covers the UK, Switzerland and France tax jurisdictions with plans to expand to a further 13 countries in the future including Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and the US among others. The service will be available via standard reference data feed or via suitability platform/API to allow for easy integration into clients’ existing systems.

SIX worked with market-leading partners Investment Navigator and NOVERAS to develop the service. NOVERAS acts as a content provider, enriching the data received from SIX with additional tax attributes and is responsible for organising the fiscal data categorisations. Investment Navigator receives this enriched data and shares these tax insights with users through its platform and API, enabling automated rule-based tax suitability assessments to identify tax harmful products. The Tax on Instrument data is also available on the Investment Navigator platform for clients with a clear suitability outcome for all financial products, cross-asset classes.

Following the launch of “SIX Tax Score” in September last year, “SIX Tax on Instrument” is the second service from SIX directly targeting advisors and solidifies that SIX is tapping into other parts of the value chain like the front-office of wealth management.

Conversational AI and payment processing combine to smooth payments and collections

South Africa’s leading payment solutions provider, Pay@, has announced its partnership with FinChatBot, a global technology company specialising in conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. Together, they are developing a first of its kind payment solution for the South African market that will launch in the last quarter of 2021, with plans to expand it to other territories in the future. By combining conversational AI with the ability to process payments via a number of channels (including in-store, mobile payment processing apps, EFT and bank card payments over USSD, and WhatsApp, among other channels), the solution aims to improve customer engagement, reduce friction, and take the hassle out of payments and collections for industries such as insurers, lenders, municipalities and ecommerce operators, in addition to others.

FinChatBot Director of UK Market, Richard Marsden, explains that, having spotted pain points in both of their markets such as challenges around DebiCheck, consumer engagement, and the operating costs associated with running call centres, the two companies opted to partner and develop a solution that addresses these and other issues. “By leveraging technology, we can provide customers with an enhanced digital payments and collections solution, all in one place.”

Barry Williams, Sales and Marketing Head at Pay@, adds: “Engagement platforms and payment solutions typically operate separately, but now we’re bringing the two together and providing customers with choice in the type of payments they make. It also bridges the worlds of digital and in-person payments – something which is crucial given the majority of South Africans’ propensity for cash transactions. Consumers now have the flexibility to decide whichever entry point they prefer to transact with a service provider. With our new solution, they can do so via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, SMS, Instagram and other widely used digital consumer portals using their mobile phones – all from the comfort of their couch.”

In addition to enabling consumers to receive bills and make payments through a multitude of entry points, the technology also onboards customers, walking them through the signup and buying process, while also verifying their ID and running background checks. It also deploys eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer), a process of verifying the identity of customers electronically to assess and monitor risk to mitigate fraud.

Plans are in place to enhance the solution with a customer service interface within the chat to handle queries, complaints and concerns. Pay@ and FinChatBot are also exploring how the technology could be used for facilitating the submission of insurance claims and reception of pay-outs and refunds.

“We believe that this solution holds enormous potential for a myriad of businesses to achieve growth while also developing new business models and services that are geared towards unlocking digital transformation in Africa,” concludes Marsden.

Joint Offering Offers ESG Data Integration, Verification and
Distribution Solutions to Meet Investor and Regulatory Needs

Cognizant today announces an agreement with Alveo to jointly offer a comprehensive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data management solution to the financial services industry. The collaboration will offer firms the ability to operationalise ESG data, integrate it into business processes for better portfolio options and address the rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

Using its digital expertise and knowledge of clients' business, Cognizant will provide data operations and technology services to support the implementation and management of Alveo’s ESG Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. Alveo’s technology has built-in capabilities exclusive to the financial services industry, including mappings between data sources and regulatory requirements. Its platform provides clients with an overview of data operations as well as the ability to query and investigate ESG data, including complete lineage. With Cognizant’s help, these capabilities will be uniquely integrated into clients’ application landscapes, business workflows and reporting requirements.

The importance of financial institutions better understanding the sustainability profile of funds has been quickly growing worldwide. This is principally being driven by investor demand for transparency, as well as new regulations, such as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

“ESG is one of the biggest trends impacting financial institutions, and it requires a significant investment in data and data management technology, said Mark Hepsworth, CEO, Alveo. “We are delighted to work with Cognizant on this initiative and believe they have the experience and expertise to drive transformative ESG capabilities, elevating the way financial firms provide investment products and advice that meets the needs of investors looking for societal and capital returns.”

“This agreement brings to market a unique and necessary solution for financial institutions to evaluate the societal impact of investment decisions and modernise their business practices to better align with their social responsibility goals, said Craig Stanley, SVP and Business Unit Head for Cognizant Banking and Financial Services. “Alveo’s data mastering and data distribution solutions, which support financial institutions around the world, together with Cognizant's digital implementation capabilities will help our clients meet new ESG regulations and the expectations of today’s socially conscious consumer.”

• Global API-first payment technology platform powers the world’s leading fintechs, including Revolut, Curve, Starling Bank, Zilch, WeLab Bank and Paidy
• Investment from Advent International and Viking Global Investors provides deep payments and fintech experience and capital; follows strategic investment by Visa in 2020
• Company intends to use investment to accelerate technology investments in product innovation and to continue the expansion of its customer base in 48 countries today across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East

Global Processing Services (“GPS”), the leading global payment technology platform, today announced it has raised over US$300 million from Advent International (“Advent”) and Viking Global Investors (“Viking”), who will co-control the company. The investment by Advent will be funded through Advent Tech and Sunley House Capital, an affiliate of Advent.

GPS’ API-first payment technology platform enables innovative card programmes for the world’s leading fintechs, digital challenger banks and embedded finance providers. Its platform has helped scale multiple unicorns and powers a vast array of prominent fintechs across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, including Revolut, Curve, Starling Bank, Zilch, WeLab Bank and Paidy. Through a single unified code base, GPS enables its customers and partners to launch and scale card programmes across 48 countries, supported by integrations with over 95 issuers. To date, it has issued over 190 million physical and virtual cards, and last year processed more than 1.3 billion transactions on its cloud-based platform.

“GPS provides key payments technology infrastructure, enabling the global fintech revolution. Their agile, resilient and modern cloud platform drives some of the most innovative use cases and allows fintechs to globalise through a single API,” commented Peter James, Director at Advent International.

“Through their customer-centric innovation, GPS has quietly established a leading position in key markets around the world with an attractive, diversified and global customer base. Together with Viking, we look forward to supporting GPS’ leadership team to expand the business’s product offering and accelerate its international reach.”

“We are delighted to partner with Advent and Viking, with their deep experience and track record in payments and fintech, and, who share our bold vision for the next generation of global payments,” said Joanne Dewar, Chief Executive Officer at GPS.

“GPS has been at the heart of the global fintech explosion, simplifying access to the global rails of the new digital payments era. This investment will allow us to turbo charge our geographic footprint and product expansion plans as we drive the payments ecosystem in the key verticals of today and tomorrow, including digital banking, Buy Now Pay Later, B2B virtual cards, financial empowerment, and much more.”

Advent has a strong track record in the growth of businesses across the payment and software industries, including a recent investment in Planet, the global integrated payments leader, and Dock, the Latin American financial technology infrastructure provider where Advent’s affiliate, Sunley House Capital, co-invested alongside Viking. Worldwide since 2008, Advent has invested ~US$5 billion across 12 payments platform companies.

Viking has a long history investing in payments and software, across both the private and public markets. Viking is investing in GPS out of its private equity vehicles, which currently manage over $17 billion. Recent payments investments include Dock, the Latin American financial technology infrastructure provider where it co-invested alongside Advent, and Clip, the Mexican digital payments and commerce platform.

The transaction will be subject to customary closing conditions.

New $7.25B Valuation Reflects Increased Demand for Unified Travel, Expense, and Spend Management Solutions

TripActions, the fastest-growing travel and spend management platform, today announced $275 million in Series F growth funding at a post-money valuation of $7.25 billion. Led by Greenoaks with strong participation from investor Elad Gil, Base Partners, and all key existing financial investors, the funding underscores TripActions’ rapid market penetration and the increased demand for end-to-end, corporate travel, payments, and expense management technology. 

“TripActions is experiencing massive growth as companies recognize the imperative for consumer-grade tech tools and efficiency that comes from real-time, contextual data,” says TripActions co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen. “Just as TripActions continues to disrupt the corporate travel market, TripActions Liquid is set to replace traditional spend management solutions. No other company is able to provide a single, unified T&E solution for enterprise companies on a global scale.”

Nearly two-thirds of businesses have or are planning to switch travel management solutions as a result of the pandemic. From Feb 1, 2020 – Jul 31, 2021, TripActions more than doubled its aggregate travel budget under management, while expense budget under management grew 1400% over the same period. Recent enterprise customer wins include Heineken, Crate & Barrel, and Snowflake. 

The combination of TripActions’ user experience and innovation, coupled with its fintech-powered spend management solution, TripActions Liquid, have created a cloud-based powerhouse that offers unmatched visibility, cost control, and efficiency as the company revolutionizes the entire corporate travel, expense, spend, and payments stack.

“TripActions is an N-of-1, durable company in corporate travel and spend management,” says Elad Gil, who deepened his initial investment. “Expanding my stake in TripActions was an easy decision.”

Sixty-eight percent of all end-to-end TripActions customers have switched from legacy T&E systems, gaining the benefit of a combined travel and expense solution that offers unparalleled visibility and efficiency. In the past six months, TripActions Liquid has recorded more than 500% growth in transaction volume and nearly 400% growth in active users. Legacy options require finance teams to review every expense transaction. Powered by physical and virtual corporate smart cards, just 5–10% of TripActions Liquid transactions require review, reducing reporting hours up to 66% and reconciliation time up to 95%. For end-to-end TripActions enterprise customers, reconciliation time is reduced from weeks to hours. 

“With TripActions Liquid, we have unlocked a new layer of spend visibility, enabling us to turn data into impactful decisions—all with the efficiencies and cost controls that were never available in our legacy solutions,” says Robin Bell, Procurement Consultant at Epicor Software. “I’m happy with how far we’ve come with TripActions’ end-to-end solutions and excited about where we are going.”

Investment into core travel will continue as TripActions has become an essential tool for companies as they enter the future of work, with industry-leading features that span health and safety, team travel, duty of care, granular real-time data, and sustainability initiatives that include an industry-first SAF offering. Booking volume at TripActions has now exceeded pre-COVID levels due to increased market share and product innovations that have differentiated TripActions and enabled corporate travelers to get back on the road faster than manual and disparate legacy options. 

“We chose TripActions in large part because of our confidence in their ability to rapidly develop and deploy high integrity, end-to-end corporate travel, expense, and spend solutions,” continues Bell. ”TripActions’ solutions are tech forward; we have visibility where we need it, control where we want it and the product is continuously improving, allowing us to evolve with it.”

With a broadening international footprint and backed by a world-class team of travel agents, the group will continue its rapid expansion in Europe, which has grown to represent 30% of TripActions business. Reed & Mackay, the newly acquired high-touch agency that also manages meetings and events and VIP services for TripActions clients, will see further investment in support, product, and sales teams. TripActions plans on adding more than 150 headcount in the UK, Israel, and across Europe this fiscal year. 

TripActions will also continue to ramp its personal travel  booking offering, Lemonade, which has already grown nearly 10x in booking volume this fiscal year. As the lines blur between office and home, TripActions Lemonade offers the same celebrated user experience to travelers across their personal and business lives — allowing travelers to seamlessly add on a personal day to a business trip or book their next family vacation.

“A sea change is underway in the corporate travel and spend industries as companies look for powerful and streamlined travel solutions in the post-pandemic economy,” said Neil Mehta, Founder and Managing Partner of Greenoaks. “TripActions is rapidly gaining traction among some of the world's largest enterprises, and no company is better positioned to lead the way as global travel recovers. We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with TripActions as they become a category defining company.

PTL, the leading independent trustee and governance services provider, today announced it has extended its partnership with leading anti-money laundering provider SmartSearch.

The new partnership will provide PTL with electronic ID verification on all death-in-service beneficiaries under its Group Life Claims Service, alongside due-diligence and anti-money laundering checks.

SmartSearch’s industry leading system uses credit reference data and digitally verifies the client, which negates the need for requesting a physical document, or an image of the document.

With just a name and address, date of birth is optional, SmartSearch’s technology combines credit reference data 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.

Dawn Harris, chief operating officer at PTL commented: “When settling death-in-service claims, it is absolutely essential that the identity of each beneficiary is verified, in line with anti-money laundering legislation, so that payments can be made quickly and securely.

“In the past, this process involved the receipt, verification, and safe return of physical documents – such as passports, driving licenses, and birth certificates. As well as being labour intensive and time consuming, it also carried the ever-present risk of documents being mislaid. This new service negates the need for the physical element of the process whilst all the time retaining the rigorous checks required.”

Harris continued: “We are currently settling more than fifty claims each month, so efficiency and timeliness are essential. With SmartSearch’s TripleCheck solution, which combines electronic identification and screening, document verification; and digital fraud checks, we can conduct an ever more comprehensive, GDPR-compliant identity check on each recipient in seconds.

“This process is fully secure and reduces the burden on beneficiaries at what is often a traumatic time following the loss of a loved one. Working with SmartSearch is the latest element of a significant investment in this growing area of our business, having expanded our dedicated team and created bespoke workflows within our CRM system to manage the claims process efficiently from end to end*.”

John Dobson, CEO at SmartSearch added: “The award-winning service that PTL provides is both compassionate and sensitive, and supports people as they go through an incredibly difficult time.

“By partnering with PTL, we can not only reduce the unnecessary paperwork and ensure compliance, but also make sure the process is as simple and efficient as possible. 

“By using SmartSearch, not only is the process quicker and easier for the end-user, it also is more secure. The system uses credit reference data to establish identity, and avoids the potential of someone using fraudulent ID.”

Trading Analytics will initially cover bonds, with plans to expand across variety of OTC asset classes

Parameta Solutions, the flagship brand of TP ICAP’s Data & Analytics division, has announced the launch of its global post-trade analytics platform, Trading Analytics. The new offering meets increasing demand for trading cost analysis and best execution in bonds enabling both sell and buy-side firms to monitor, measure, document, and improve achieved execution prices. The platform currently covers corporate, agency, government, and supranational bonds, with plans to expand into further asset classes in the future. 

The new Trading Analytics platform enables trading desks, compliance officers and portfolio managers to upload their historic transaction data to a web portal, and then, using ThoughtSpot's intuitive and flexible visualisation tools, the platform is able to provide a no-code front end capability for clients to schedule the delivery of trading analysis, which is based on Parameta Solutions’ aggregated market data. This data includes proprietary evaluated pricing, as well as trade, quote, and indicative pricing directly from both Tullett Prebon and ICAP brokerages. This breadth of coverage means that Parameta Solutions is able to enrich the data to create valuable and truly independent insights.

To ensure transparency, Parameta Solutions provides clients with the methodology used to generate data that feeds into the Analytics Platform. Observable pricing is available to be reported to meet regulatory requirements under MiFID II and other related legislation. The transparency fields also support reporting obligations for regulations such as IFRS 13, ASC 820, Prudential Valuation and FRTB.

“To date, trade cost analysis has been largely confined to equities and other exchange-traded instruments, where centralised tapes make it easy to access the necessary data. That is changing – with regulations like MiFID II requiring best execution for fixed income, and the necessary technology now being widely accepted. Our Trading Analytics platform reflects that change,” says Ovie Koloko, Global Head of Product Management at Parameta Solutions.

Ovie continued “As the leading provider of OTC market data globally, we are ideally placed to meet the market needs to deliver powerful trade analytics for more diverse asset classes. What’s more, our clients get the confidence that comes from knowing the underlying data is independent, robust, and transparent.”

Enhance performance and flexibility of the fastest generation LTO tape drives with exclusive ATTO products, features and technologies.

ATTO Technology, Inc., a global leader of network, storage connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive computing environments for over 30 years, announced today support for LTO-9 tape technology across its product lines.

Linear Tape-Open generation nine (LTO-9) technology improves upon the prior generation with more storage capacity and transfer speed. LTO-9 Ultrium tape stores up to 18TB uncompressed and 45TB compressed which is 50% greater capacity than LTO-8. Transfer speeds reach up to 400MB/s uncompressed and up to 1,000 MB/s compressed. LTO-9 drives are backward compatible with LTO-8 media.

ATTO supports backup and archive processes end-to-end with a full range of connectivity solutions for every environment. Industry-exclusive ATTO features and technologies allow for quicker and safer backups plus provide design flexibility otherwise unavailable to system designers.

ATTO Advanced Data Streaming™, built into all ATTO HBAs, bridges and Thunderbolt™ devices, manages latency to provide controlled acceleration for smooth data streaming to maintain the highest consistent performance.

When backing up data, write speed is the most important metric. ATTO SpeedWrite™ keeps paths between a host and ATTO XstreamCORE® intelligent Bridge filled with data to boost write performance by up to 25% over a direct connect SAS HBA connection to tape drives.

ATTO ThunderLink® Thunderbolt adapters and ATTO ExpressSAS® GT SAS HBAs deliver the fastest available connection to LTO-9 SAS tape drives. Featuring a full range of port configurations and driver support, easy-to-use features, extensive industry qualifications and integrates with up to 16 tape drives per bridge.

ATTO XstreamCORE intelligent Bridges enable the addition of direct-attached SAS tape to shared Ethernet networks, providing a flexible and easy way to scale and remotely share LTO-9 tape devices.

Solution Enables Confidence in Confirming Identities to Improve Consumer Experience
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, a leading provider of data, analytics and technology to the insurance market, has today announced that LV= General Insurance (LV= GI) , the UK’s third largest personal lines insurer, is strengthening its resilience to the growing problem of application fraud and ghost broking[i] through the use of LexisNexis® Emailage® Rapid. A powerful fraud risk scoring solution based on the email address and other personal information provided during the personal lines insurance application process, LexisNexis® Emailage® Rapid will provide LV= GI with an immediate verification of the applicant’s identity and that they are not linked to known fraud, prior to policy inception.

This identity check will form part of a swift risk assessment process via the LexisNexis® Informed Quotes platform, which offers a single point of entry to the widest range of data to help inform insurance providers in their quoting decisions.

LexisNexis® Emailage® Rapid is built from billions of transactions from global payment processors and other online industries, including 82,200 fraud events shared on average daily[ii], to provide an instant risk score[iii] at the point of quote. The score indicates a genuine identity, whether the identity has previously been linked to fraud or whether it could be a fraudulent ID created to either procure insurance with the sole intent of making a fraudulent claim, or to sell insurance on. It provides additional metadata points, such as whether the email address and domain even exist, when the email address was first seen, or whether the email address bears a close resemblance to the proposer’s name for the policy.

Dan Cicchetti director, client engagement, Insurance U.K. and Ireland at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, said: “While the pandemic has seen a rise in ghost broking investigations[iv], application fraud was on the rise even before the pandemic[v]. The challenge for the market has been in strengthening identity checks without causing a detriment to the customer’s quote experience. LexisNexis Emailage Rapid answers that challenge by providing a real-time score as part of a streamlined risk assessment process through the Informed Quotes platform. We are delighted LV= GI is now using Emailage Rapid as an integral and essential part of their identity validation checks.”

Mark Veasey, data enrichment and pricing services manager of LV= GI, said: “We have a responsibility to protect our customers from the rising cost of fraud and the many negative consequences of ghost broking. LexisNexis Emailage Rapid will help us ramp up our ‘front end’ fraud identity validation checks without slowing down the quote process or creating friction for the vast majority of our customers who are genuine.”

 Encompass Corporation, the provider of intelligently automated Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, today announces its expansion into North America, with office headquarters based in New York.

The expansion will allow Encompass to better serve the needs of existing global clients with a presence in North America, as well as secure new clients and partnerships in the region, in a marked effort to become the undisputed lead platform for automated, corporate KYC due diligence worldwide.

Alex Ford has been appointed President, North America, overseeing all aspects of the GTM, driving business growth and working with customers, partners and the Encompass team to transform KYC with automation in financial institutions and other regulated entities.  Encompass has received various notable awards recognition, including ‘Best Solution’ category for Customer Onboarding - Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence, shortlisted in the British Bank Awards, winner of Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe Award and regional winner at this year’s Barclays Scale Up Entrepreneur of the Year.

Joining in 2012, Alex has held Executive responsibility for several business functions at Encompass Corporation including Customer Success, Operations, Marketing, Product and Delivery. From 2015 to 2020, Alex was based in Glasgow with the launch and expansion of the UK operation. Most recently as VP Product and Marketing she was based in Sydney, before taking up leadership of the North America business in New York.

Joining Alex in the US will initially be six senior staff members before increasing to more than 10 by the end of 2021, and doubling again in 2022. This hiring initiative falls in line with Encompass’s commitment to growth, and the firm has already seen a sharp rise in global staff numbers and a significant expansion of the senior team over the last 12 months.

Anamaria Meauta, who was part of the core team that established KYC as-a-service for Refinitiv, will join Encompass as Head of Operations for North America. Alongside Howard Dilworth an experienced sales leader from Exiger, Fenergo and Alacra, who was recently announced as Head of Sales, North America.

Alan Samuels, VP, Product, already based in New York, means that two of Encompass’ executive team (Alan and Alex) will be local, affirming Encompass’ commitment to the market.

Alex Ford, President North America, said, “Encompass is diving into the North American market following an extremely successful 24 months, defined by new hires, partnerships and boosted revenue - an incredible achievement given the challenges posed by the pandemic.

“We will use our new presence in the US to better serve our existing global customers who already have divisions or branches in North American territories, whilst simultaneously securing new clients and partnerships and strengthening our foothold in the market for automated KYC technology.”

Wayne Johnson, CEO said, “The AML2020 Act has put an even greater focus on KYC in North America. Our rapid growth in the UK - known for rigorous KYC regulation, and a hub for RegTech has enabled us to develop a highly relevant technology solution and we want to expand to where there is a great need, with the evolving US market ripe for KYC automation.”