Published

  • 01:00 am

Robocash group, a global fintech holding, rolls out the mobile application UnaCash to offer a seamless experience of getting a cash loan without leaving home or work. This application laid the groundwork of the digital bank UnaBank in the Philippines. 

After 7 years of profitable expansion in Asia and Europe, Robocash Group continues to grow its business in the Philippines with the new product offering personal loans, UnaCash. The new service lets customers get a loan online and transfer the amount to any open bank account without leaving home. Previously, in December 2020, the company launched the service UnaPay in the Philippines, offering two new products : the “Buy Now, Pay Later” payment option and salary-linked loans. UnaCash, the latest business unit of the holding, is designed to address the customers’ financial needs in a convenient and reliable way. 

With UnaCash, users can obtain a credit online and transfer it to an account opened at any bank. Customers have the option to borrow up to USD 600 for the period of 1 to 6 months. The maximum loan amount will be increased to USD 2,000 in the foreseeable future. Customers can repay the loans online or offline once in two weeks through one of the partner banks or a partner outlet.

At present, UnaCash has partnered with the 6 biggest banks in the Philippines. Favoring progress towards improved conditions, UnaCash will soon start accepting online repayments from any bank account and launch recurring payments with special privileges for its clients.

“We see the great market potential in the Philippines. At present, 63.3% of Filipinos have a mobile phone. As of May 2021, 80.2% of Filipino adult registered Internet users have already purchased something online. This is a highly engaged mobile audience with rapidly growing e-commerce in the region. However, there is still a significant number of customers in the region without solid credit history, resulting in many people being unbanked. In 2019, 71% of the population did not have a personal bank account, and about 15% were underbanked. By emphasizing customer experience, we aim to provide a better financial infrastructure. Integrating all our services into UnaBank will enable us to create an efficient ecosystem and deliver even better value to our customers”– said Sergey Sedov, Chief Executive Officer at Robocash Group.

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  • 09:00 am
  • 32% of UK households with children have struggled to pay down outstanding debts since March 2020, compared to 16% of those without children
  • UK households report that their outstanding debt is nearly £9,500
  • Of those financially struggling, 60% are not seeking any financial help or support – comparethemarket.com is urging anyone who is still financially struggling to speak with money management services for free confidential guidance and check online how you could save by switching household bills 

While most UK households have felt the financial impact of the pandemic, some have suffered more than others. Almost a third of families with children at home (32%) are struggling to pay down debt which has accrued since the first UK lockdown began in March 2020, compared to just 16% of households without children, according to the latest Household Financial Confidence Tracker from comparethemarket.com.

Excluding mortgage repayments, UK households say that their debt sits at nearly £9,500. Families with children have more debt to burden, with this group reporting they have an average debt total of almost £12,000. By contrast, families without children say their debt equates, on average to nearly £8,000   Across all groups, households report that their highest debt is on personal loans, at an average of £2,688 per household, followed by credit cards (£1,900) and debit cards (£881). 

Of those struggling to pay off outstanding debt, the majority are suffering in silence - 60% have not sought financial support, either through universal credit, debt charities or charities like Citizens Advice. Many could be unaware that there are solutions and advice available to them that may help reduce their debt. comparethemarket.com is urging those who are struggling to seek financial guidance and to also check whether they could save hundreds of pounds by switching household bill providers. 

In order to manage debt levels more than a quarter (29%) of UK households have started a budget, 27% sold unwanted or unused items such as furniture, toys or clothes, and 26% decided to put off any large purchases. Confirming how some households have struggled to save for a rainy day, nearly a quarter (24%) have tried to pay down debt instead of putting any money into savings. Consolidating debts can be an effective way to reduce debt but only 8% have used this method. 

However, there is hope that this financial uncertainty will be short lived as a third (33%) of families with children anticipate their finances will be in a better position by the end of the year than they are today. 

Ursula Gibbs, Director at comparethemarket.com, said: 


“Families have faced extraordinary financial challenges throughout the pandemic. Even though the UK is now open again after Freedom Day, worries around debt that may have stacked up during lockdowns, in some cases to help make ends meet, means this may still be a stressful time for some. No one should suffer in silence and there is help available.  Money management services and debt charities, like Citizen’s Advice and the Money Advice Service, can offer free confidential advice and support to help people tackle their debt.”

“It is also worth seeing if you can cut down monthly outgoings by switching household bills. Of those surveyed, almost a quarter changed provider to get a cheaper deal and help reduce their debt. While it may seem like a small step, it only takes minutes and could save hundreds of pounds each year.” 

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  • 09:00 am

With the Antelop acquisition, Entrust will make it easy for banks to add secure, fully digital credit and debit cards to their mobile wallets – enabling an integrated approach to the payments ecosystem and flexibility for issuers and cardholders

Entrust, a global leader in trusted identity, payments and data protection, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Antelop Solutions, a financial technology company that enables financial institutions to issue secure digital credit and debit cards to their customers. Combining Antelop’s solutions with the industry leading Entrust card issuance portfolio, Entrust can help banks and financial institutions around the world create integrated, seamless digital and physical financial card and payment experiences for their customers. 

Paris-based Antelop Solutions was founded in 2014 and its customer base includes more than 40 leading banks in 25 countries. The firm has about 30 employees who will join Entrust with the acquisition, including founder and CEO Nicolas Bruley. He will continue to lead this team to advance digital financial credential solutions at Entrust. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Consumers want to transact seamlessly and securely, around the world and across platforms,” said Todd Wilkinson, CEO of Entrust. “Banks, credit unions and other financial institutions need to make both digital and physical card payment options secure and easy for their cardholders. Entrust is the world leader in secure payment card issuance -- the combination of Entrust and Antelop Solutions will empower financial institutions with an unmatched portfolio of digital and physical credential issuance and transaction security solutions.”

“We are extremely pleased to join the Entrust team,” said Nicolas Bruley, CEO of Antelop Solutions. “Our game-changing technology greatly reduces the complexity of issuing digital payment offerings. As a certified Visa, Mastercard and Cartes Bancaires (CB) partner, we can deliver fast, secure integration of all card features onto a single digital payment credential. This empowers banks, credit unions and other issuers to offer true digital-first payment credentials that fully align with consumer expectations for simplicity and security.”

The Antelop One Digital Card solution enables banks to deliver and manage digital cards securely in customer mobile apps with a single software development kit (SDK). This includes token management, NFC payments, customer authentication, secure interface, and APIs to launch digital cards into all major mobile wallets (i.e., Apple, Google, Samsung and more). Antelop solutions are PCI-DSS certified and help enable compliance with European PSD2 regulations.

“Entrust is empowering our customers to meet the challenge of next-generation payment solutions,” said Mike Baxter, SVP of Product Development at Entrust. “By bringing the Antelop secure digital financial credential solutions into the Entrust portfolio, customers will gain access to the latest thinking and innovation across the consumer payments ecosystem. Entrust has been investing and leading innovation in financial credentials for more than 50 years, and we expect this to continue for decades to come.”

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  • 04:00 am

Ransomware attacks have massively increased since the start of lockdown. Here’s what you need to know to protect your company.

When hackers targeted Transnet’s computer systems in late July this year, logistics at major ports ground to a near-halt for the second time in a month (following the protests and looting) as the company was forced to switch to manual cargo processing. “The IT industry has seen a massive increase in ransomware attacks since the start of lockdown, when companies’ digital footprints increased as remote work became the norm,” says Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA (West, East, Central Africa) at SoftwareONE. Problematically, many organisations unfortunately only realise too late that ransomware protection is a business issue and not an IT issue.”

This past year, JBS SA, PPS and Life Health Care group’s hospitals were just some of the companies that made headlines after similar attacks – at massive cost not only from a financial perspective, but also in terms of downtime and job losses. Sophos’ State of Ransomware 2021 global report showed that the average cost of remediating a ransomware attack in South Africa is R6.4bn.

In the first 100 days of the lockdown alone, Mimecast researchers detected huge increases in spam attacks (up 46%), impersonation attacks (up 75%) and malware, which spiked by 385%. Nearly half (45%) of the South African respondents said ransomware attacks had impacted their organisation. “And not only large corporates are at risk - but attackers also see SMBs as an ideal target because they are unlikely to have sophisticated defences,” says Moodley.

How it works

Ransomware is a type of malware that infects a computer or device and attempts to force a victim to pay a ransom to regain access to files – or to prevent sensitive information from being leaked.

In most cases, the malware is installed on a system after a user clicks on a link or downloads an attachment. “By now, most users know not to click on the link in an email congratulating them on a massive inheritance from some unknown uncle – which would likely lead to a system infection. But the attacks are more sophisticated than ever. Now, an email could seemingly come from your boss sending you an employee appreciation gift card or could feature a dangerous attachment posing as an invoice from a client. Just clicking on a link, without installing anything, can download a ransomware code,” says Moodley. Despite 99% of South African respondents in the study having received IT security awareness training, half still admitted to opening emails they considered suspicious.

Protecting your business

“Today, the question isn’t if you will get hit by a ransomware attack, but when,” says Moodley. She offers these essential tips to protect your business:

  • Awareness is key. The  stats show that since the onset of the pandemic, employees worldwide have been clicking on malicious URLs embedded in emails three times as often as before. Training employees is an essential step in preventing ransomware attacks.
  • Antivirus is non-negotiable. Newer software using AI can predict new malware signatures and should be installed on all endpoints, including servers.
  • Run regular tests. Malicious code generally needs to engage in a pattern of behaviour as part of a ransomware attack, so it’s important that companies test for these attack patterns and ensure their security controls’ effectiveness.
  • Plan for the worst. Specialised cybersecurity insurance, or at least insured protection against business downtime due to cyber attacks, should form part of your bottom line.
  • Back it all up. “The attack on Transnet highlighted the importance of having a backup solution in place. In the wake of a ransomware attack, the immediate priorities for most organisations are to uncover the cause, communicate with leadership and customers, and restore corrupted files. But most organisations simply don’t have the manpower to conduct all three. That’s why a service like SoftwareONE’s BackupSimple powered by Metallic is so beneficial. We conduct the restore so customers can focus on the rest. Our new partnership with Commvault also means our cloud-based managed service offering gives businesses, big and small, the confidence they need to know they’re protected,” says Moodley.

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  • 06:00 am

Synergies in evidence-driven design with design thinking, DesignOps, agile user research, multimodal experiences, and conversational user interfaces

  • Blink boosts Mphasis’ Experience competencies with end-to-end capabilities in User Experience Research, Strategy, Design, and Implementation
  • Blink brings a marquee client list in technology and consumer industries; with average ~10-year relationship; strong synergy potential for Hi-Tech vertical
  • Accretive acquisition:
    • Revenue/ Growth accretive:
    • Blink has been growing at over 40% CAGR in the past three years
    • Strong market synergies from an increased total addressable market in Mphasis direct accounts
    • Leadership accretive: Blink’s leadership team will further strengthen the Mphasis org. 

Mphasis, (BSE: 526299; NSE: MPHASIS), an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, announced today, it acquisition of Blink UX (https://blinkux.com), a User Experience research, strategy, and design firm that works with some of the world’s leading enterprises to create transformative digital products, brands, and experiences.  Headquartered in Seattle, with over 130 employees, Blink has additional studios in Austin, Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco. Founded in 2000, Blink has over two decades of expertise using their Evidence-driven Design SM process to define digital user experiences for clients.

“Customer centricity is foundational to Mphasis and is reflected in Mphasis’ Front2Back™ Transformation approach. The acquisition of Blink, consistent with our M&A focus, is in the forefront of providing well researched design and high impact digital experiences to our clients and their end customers,” said Nitin Rakesh, CEO and Executive Director, Mphasis. He also added “The Total Addressable Market for the upstream user research, strategy and design is growing 25-30% p.a. i.e., 4-5x the overall IT Services market. There is significantly increased focus on customer/ user centered design in the current environment. The synergy opportunity set will revolve around Product, Experience & Service design, as well as the end-to-end implementation services across the spectrum of clients & industries we service together.”

“Designing products that people use, love and remember is always our mission. Understanding user behavior, through qualitative research is the foundation of our product strategy and experience design work. Knowing what motivates a product’s customers, including their context of use, mental model, needs and opportunities, allows us to design experiences that are intuitive, innovative, useful, and usable. Designing products that meet user needs, and are friction free, is how we delight customers and enrich their lives through technology. We are so thrilled to now have Mphasis’ engineering skills as part of our core, providing end-to-end services for our clients and following our designs through to launch” said Blink CEO, Karen Clark Cole.

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  • 06:00 am

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) today announced that Ajay Banga, Executive Chairman, will retire on December 31, 2021. The Board unanimously elected Merit Janow, currently Lead Independent Director, to serve as non-executive Independent Chair of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2022. 

“With Merit as Chair and the strong foundation Michael Miebach has established as CEO, Mastercard is in incredible hands for the next phase of growth and innovation,” said Banga. “I am grateful for the role I have been able to play in Mastercard’s evolution and I look forward to where Merit and Michael will lead it next.”

This milestone completes a thoughtful and intentional executive transition announced in February 2020. When Miebach was announced as CEO-elect, the Board created a pathway for him to deepen his engagement with clients and partners and across every aspect of the business. Banga remained as Executive Chairman to support the transition, alongside Janow as Lead Independent Director.

Janow contributes an extensive global perspective as a dean and professor of international economic law and international affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, especially with respect to the Asia Pacific region. Her university career, public board service and other initiatives provide significant insight on technology, innovation, digital matters, cybersecurity and sustainability. She joined the Board in 2014 and also serves as the Chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I thank Ajay for his outstanding leadership and commitment to Mastercard for more than a decade,” Janow said. “His strategic and cultural vision transformed the company into what it is today – a leading payments technology company renowned for the strength of its management, extensive partnerships with organizations of all kinds, and an inclusive mindset and innovative approach to everything.”

Following a successful decade as CEO, Banga transitioned to the Executive Chairman role at the beginning of this year. Among his responsibilities during the transition were serving as a counselor to the CEO and facilitating a smooth transition of key external relationships – including customers and regulators – to Miebach.

“For the two decades I’ve known Ajay, he’s been a tremendous inspiration, mentor and friend. His vision and passion for what Mastercard could accomplish and what we could become is well known.  I am incredibly thankful that we had the opportunity to partner and create such a thoughtful transition plan,” said Miebach.

“Michael has continued to exemplify our values and customer-centric approach to the business over the past year, building on his pivotal role in the company’s evolution. The Board has full confidence in his vision, leadership and capabilities and we look forward to working with him to build on the extraordinary foundation built over the last 55 years,” added Janow.

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  • 08:00 am

‘AutoCIO’ is the world’s first fully AI-powered portfolio manager that emulates the human decision-making process in asset management

  • AutoCIO is powered by Arabesque’s proprietary AI Engine, run on Google Cloud, delivering the equivalent processing power of tens of thousands of computers
  • Arabesque’s latest offering is an industry solution to customise highly specific active equity strategies tailored to investors’ sustainability objectives and values
  • AutoCIO uses AI to forecast stock performance on a universe of 25,000 equities daily, and can create millions of active equity investment strategies
  • Over USD 400mio of investment strategies are successfully powered by AutoCI
  • The new technology coincides with a growing industry need to leverage automation and AI for product development, alpha generation and delivering a differentiated client experience
  • Arabesque’s technology is the latest evolution and the natural next step for the industry from active to passive and now to autonomous asset management

Arabesque has unveiled its Autonomous Asset Management offering for the creation of highly customised and sustainable active investment strategies, powered by an artificial intelligence technology that can generate and operate millions of active equity strategies.  

Developed by Arabesque AI, ‘AutoCIO’ enables asset managers and investment professionals to configure and build hyper-customised active strategies that can be tailored to each investor through more than a thousand different personalised investment options.

The launch comes as the asset management industry increasingly looks to leverage technologies like automation and AI for cost-efficient product development, alpha generation and delivering a customised and differentiated client experience.

With over USD 400 million currently powered by Arabesque’s AutoCIO, the platform offers investors an unprecedented degree of customisation through a streamlined web app that can generate a vast range of bespoke strategies, with AI used to forecast stock performance across 25,000 equities daily.

Speaking about today’s announcement, Georg Kell, Chairman of the Arabesque Group, said:

Artificial intelligence will play a pivotal role in the customisation of active investing in the coming years, with pressure growing to innovate both in terms of technology and client centricity.

“Whilst the market is increasingly demanding sustainable products that align with the objectives and values of investors, asset managers are currently unable to offer customisable, active solutions at scale. Investment firms face a fast-changing landscape where many traditional products, tools and approaches are no longer as relevant as they once were.

“AutoCIO is a game-changing solution that can enable asset managers to deliver an enormous range of highly customised ESG investment strategies in a cost-efficient and scalable way. Sustainability issues are fast becoming a global priority, and new technologies like this will empower many more investors to participate.”

Powering AutoCIO is Arabesque’s proprietary AI Engine, which identifies and analyses patterns in data on a large scale to discover subtle relationships that can be translated into alpha opportunities.

The AI Engine is capable of processing billions of data points each day for its stock signal outputs, using the equivalent processing power of tens of thousands of computers, and is run on carbon-neutral Google Cloud infrastructure. As new data is inputted, the AI Engine re-learns what is driving stock returns and aims to improve over time, removing human biases and reducing the potential for errors.

On the launch of AutoCIO, Dr Yasin Rosowsky, CEO of Arabesque AI, said:

“Asset managers today increasingly need to personalise products and services at scale to focus on customised strategies that incorporate investors’ sustainability objectives and values.

“We use the power of AI to build systems capable of handling the complexity of financial data and enable scalable investment process design for a wide variety of use cases in an efficient and cost-effective way. This is not a robo or passive investment solution, but fully active asset management, powered by AI.

“We are excited to bring AutoCIO to the market and provide asset managers and investment professionals with a scalable, digital tool to build actively managed, customised solutions that meet their clients’ sustainability goals.”

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  • 04:00 am

• Cloud-based, full-service platform can be white-labelled by any company

• Wide range of FX solutions available in over 30 currencies

• Enables customers to immediately generate new revenue stream

• Launch comes 3 months after Assure Hedge completed a EUR5m fund raise

Irish foreign exchange technology firm Assure Hedge today announces the launch of X Hedge, an out-of-the-box platform that can be white-labelled by any business looking to offer its clients currency solutions.

X Hedge allows businesses to quickly generate new revenue streams. Ready out-of-the box, the cloud-based platform can be provisioned instantly to new customers. These businesses can then, under their brand, start offering currency solutions to their existing clients – simultaneously meeting unmet client needs and adding high-margin revenues.

With X Hedge, Assure Hedge opens up new routes to clients, helping to bridge the risk management gap. A significant proportion of individuals and businesses fail to hedge their currency exposures. For instance, recent research from East & East Partners shows that around 70% of small businesses are not using hedging instruments. The key to addressing this gap is making these services available to clients at the right time and over the right channel, at the point where the risk arises. This will be increasingly possible as a broader range of businesses white-label the X Hedge platform.

Simon Turner, Managing Director at Yoption$, a business set up to help the yacht industry manage currency risk and which acted as beta customer for X Hedge, commented:

Typically, the lead time for the build of a yacht can be anything from 3 months to 18 months and when the builder’s currency is not the same as the buyer’s, there is significant potential exchange rate risk. X Hedge not only enables us to mitigate our clients’ risks, but to do so with great, intuitive user experience and market-beating rates, way better than any bank or competitor.

X Hedge offers a broad range of services in multiple currencies. The solution provides alternative banking services, such as wallets and payments, as well as currency solutions, such as spots and forwards, in over 30 different currencies. In addition, because Assure Hedge is an FCA regulated firm, the platform also allows customers to generate term sheets for derivative instruments, such as currency options, and in time will allow additional derivative instruments to be traded directly via the platform. As a result, it can be used by financial firms, such as FX brokers, to extend the range of services they offer to clients.

Fayaz Patel, Founder of Treasury First, an FX broker that also acted as a beta customer, said:

X Hedge provides Treasury First with a one stop shop that gives our clients access to products that were typically reserved for much larger corporations. With X Hedge, we can provide deliverable spot, forwards and options in a single platform. And with a state-of-the-art technology platform, we can spend more time on building customer relationships and customer service.

Barry McCarthy, CEO of Assure Hedge, added:

The launch of X Hedge is a major milestone for the company. Our mission is to provide currency hedging to everyone. With X Hedge we are a step closer to reaching everyone. Now, any company whose clients have FX risks can help those clients to manage these risks as they occur. We provide all of the technology and regulation. For the company, it is just a plug-and-play platform that can be set up in minutes. And the potential for them is considerable, solving a significant pain point for their existing customer base.

 

 

 

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  • 05:00 am

Partners Join Forces to Help Customers Deliver Secure, Reliable Work from Anywhere

Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, and Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS) are joining forces to help their customers deliver it. The two companies are announcing a strategic partnership through which they will provide secure, on-demand, and elastic access to apps, desktops, and data from any device, in any location, at any scale through Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and hybrid multicloud deployments of Citrix DaaS and Virtual Apps and Desktops services.

“Organisations continue to look for IT solutions to support the agility, flexibility and reliability required for a hybrid workforce,” said Tarkan Maner, Chief Commercial Officer at Nutanix. “Together, Nutanix and Citrix can deliver remote work solutions which can be deployed across private and public clouds, combining the simplicity of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, powered by the industry-leading HCI software, with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops™ services, to empower workers, wherever they happen to be.”

The partners have a successful track record of doing so, jointly powering remote work environments for thousands of customers, including large enterprises such as Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, large public institutions such as Arizona State University, and across vertical industries including healthcare, financial services and more.

Under the planned partnership:

  • Nutanix will become a Citrix preferred choice for HCI hybrid and multicloud deployments. The Nutanix Cloud Platform delivers an ideal IT environment to support Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops services in a hybrid multicloud environment. Customers will be able to take advantage of Nutanix industry leading HCI一whether on-premises or in the public cloud一delivering simplicity, cost advantages, and a unified management plane enabling workload portability across clouds.
  • Citrix will become the preferred enterprise end user computing solution on the Nutanix Cloud Platform. Delivered as part of Citrix Workspace™, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops enables organisations to serve up personalised access to the systems, information and tools their employees need in one, unified experience and dynamically apply security policies based on a user’s behavior and environment so they can work when, where and how they want with the confidence that their applications, information and devices are safe. The solution is the market-leading virtual desktop infrastructure broker for thousands of Nutanix customers including the largest global enterprises, and customers will be able to take advantage of it to create a unified digital workspace platform that delivers application and data security, IT efficiency, and productivity across all vertical and use cases.

Through tighter collaboration, Nutanix and Citrix can provide fully comprehensive desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) options for customers that enable them to procure, deploy, and manage their Citrix environments running on the Nutanix Cloud Platform, delivered with original equipment manufacturer (OEM), global system integrator (GSI), service provider (SP) and public cloud providers in an efficient, cost-effective way and accelerate their adoption of hybrid multicloud solutions.

The companies will also work together on go-to-market programs and enablement, product roadmaps and customer support.

“Companies around the world are quickly moving toward a hybrid workforce,” said Hector Lima, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, Citrix. “In strengthening our partnership, Citrix and Nutanix can deliver the right building blocks for customers to make the transition successfully and reap the benefits it can provide in attracting and retaining talent, scaling operations, and creating competitive advantage.”

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  • 01:00 am

The impact of financial crime for institutions goes beyond crippling fines

A piece of original research conducted by RegTech Associates on behalf of PassFort, the SaaS RegTech provider, whose platform automates financial crime and compliance processes, has revealed that customers who reported a better than expected compliance onboarding experience in the last 12 months were much more likely to remain loyal, advocate for their brands and acquire more products than those whose experience was worse than expected. These results underline the importance of delivering outstanding service along the whole customer lifecycle. 

The survey was conducted in July and August 2021 and addressed a representative sample of 500 UK financial services consumers who had acquired a new financial product in the past twelve months. Products had been acquired from a mix of high street banks, challenger banks, mobile and digital banks and building societies. Those who had a worse than expected compliance onboarding experience[1] were much more likely than their peers to believe their providers did little to protect them from financial crime[2]. They were also much more likely to underestimate the penalties facing providers, with one-third (32 percent) assuming they would get no more than a “slap on the wrist”[3].

Announced today to coincide with Donald Gillies’, CEO, PassFort, panel discussion at Money 20/20, the research highlights consumer attitudes towards their providers and the outcomes they drive, as well as digging more broadly into their perceptions of risk, their experiences of fraud and views on the current UK debate around digital identity. 

Regulatory technology that supports know your customer (KYC) compliance in financial institutions has historically been viewed as a cost burden. However, the findings revealed today clearly show a positive trend for those providers who execute well. The case for business benefit or value-add can clearly be seen in the correlation between consumer attitudes towards positive compliance onboarding experiences and a likelihood to go on to purchase additional products. 

In fact, as a result of their interactions, those customers who received a better than expected experience of compliance onboarding described themselves as:

  • more likely to recommend their provider (77 percent, which was more than double the rate of 32 percent for those whose experience had been worse than expected     )
  • more likely to buy more products (60 percent, which was almost 3.0x the rate of 21 percent for those whose experience had been worse than expected     )
  • less likely to make a complaint (50 percent, versus only 14 percent for those whose experience had been worse than expected)
  • less likely to switch providers (49 percent, more than 2.5x the rate of 18 percent for those whose experience had been worse than expected)     

“The complex compliance landscape has been under even more pressure with the impact of the pandemic. There were more than 1,330 pieces of covid related regulation introduced by August 2020 alone. Couple this with the enforced financial pressures on consumers and a global increase in fraud and financial crime and we have to understand that the perceptions and demands of consumers have shifted,” said Dr Christine Bailey, CMO, PassFort. “The compliance onboarding process shouldn’t be seen as a cost burden to financial institutions. Instead, what this research starkly demonstrates is the importance of onboarding at the beginning of the customer lifecycle in terms of how it influences customer loyalty, advocacy and future buying decisions.” 

Far from being an unseen element of the customer journey, KYC at onboarding can be a differentiator for financial institutions. As financial crime increasingly dominates our headlines, the public are becoming aware of the value and vulnerability of their digital identity. One of the many legacies of Covid is that consumers are demanding more from the organisations they engage with across the board and trust ranks highly on that list of expectations. 

“A stand-out result from the survey is the clear connection between the ability of leaders to exceed the customer’s expectations of what their compliance journey should look like, and the positive outcomes that follow. For example, in 90 percent of cases, customers who received a better than expected compliance journey would describe their provider as “trustworthy”, while 88 percent would say their provider was “efficient”. In contrast, for those whose experiences undershot expectations, the figures drop sharply, to 64 percent and 39 percent respectively,” commented Rob Stubbs, Head of Research at RegTech Associates. “Despite many customers telling us their experience was ‘as expected’ it’s clearly important that providers don’t rest on their laurels.” 

“Against this backdrop, firms cannot afford to view satisfactory delivery as being good enough. There is a very real opportunity for engaging valuable revenue streams and enhancing reputation for those who step up,” continued Dr Bailey. “The regulatory landscape is ever changing and incredibly complex, yet we still see an ad hoc approach to regulatory technology across the industry with many firms still relying on heavily manual processes.  In the same way we have seen marketing automation revolutionise the marketing function, it’s time to digitise compliance and streamline the entire customer journey.”     

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