~ Mcapital to meet MSME credit needs; aims to build INR 100 Crore loan book by March 2022 ~

 Mcapital, the lending business of Mswipe, today announced the appointment of Tanya Chadha as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). With over 16 years of experience in financial services and credit, Tanya will oversee building a loan book of INR 100 Crore by March 2022.

Tanya’s appointment comes at a time when Mswipe is gearing for a NBFC license. As India’s largest independent POS acquirer with 6.75 lakh POS and 11 lakh QR merchants, Mswipe will target the highly underserved SME segment with access to formal credit through Mcapital.

Joining the leadership team, Tanya will focus on accelerating efforts towards technology innovation and drive new product strategy and growth of the company. 

Mswipe CEO Ketan Patel said, “We are building interesting solutions at Mcapital which will fasten the journey of SMEs in accessing formal credit. Tanya brings a wealth of experience in financial services and lending space and we are certain that she will play a pivotal role in our journey to transform into a digital SME bank.”

“SMEs are often faced with the challenge of accessing finance and this acts as an obstacle to start and grow a business. We want to enable them to scale up their business and help them reach their full potential. I am excited to be a part of the fantastic and dedicated team at Mcapital and further accelerate innovation, ensuring compliance and drive organizational vision,” Tanya added on her new role.

Tanya was formerly the Vice President – Lending Product & Business Processes at Mcapital.

She has a rich experience in both secured and unsecured lending across functions like credit, product management, alliances and sales. In her previous company RattanIndia Finance, she led Consumer Finance including personal loans, small business loans and two wheeler loans. An MBA in Marketing and Finance, she has worked with leading NBFCs including HDFC Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Prime and Capital First.

●         10 million trees worldwide

●        100 members by UN Day of Forests 2022

●        Multi-million dollar initiative to help reforestation efforts

Binance Charity, the first-ever blockchain-enabled transparent donation platform, leads the most ambitious NFT tree planting project to date, to plant 10 million trees worldwide. Tree Millions Alliance launches next Tuesday on 28th September, led by Binance Charity. The initiative already has 17 crypto industry players confirmed to help with reforestation efforts and aims to have 100 members by 21st March, 2022 in celebration of the UN Day of the Forest.

The multi-million dollar fundraising campaign is open to both corporates and individuals. For every donation made an NFT certificate  encrypted with the details of trees planted will be issued. It repurposes NFTs as a tool to track how donors' money has been spent and record details such as the species of tree, where and when it's been planted. As with all Binance Charity projects, 100 percent of the donation will go directly to the project execution partners.

“The crypto industry is young and constantly evolving so we recognise the role our industry needs to play in protecting the planet. Tree Millions is just one step towards mitigating our impact on the natural world; we’ll keep innovating and collaborating to reduce this further. Blockchain technology is a powerful tool for building a fairer, more transparent, and more equal future. We’re determined to continue unlocking this potential,”  commented CZ, Founder and CEO of Binance.

Binance Charity is teaming up with Binance NFT, a world leading NFT Marketplace for Tree Millions to plant the NFT in Metaverse to create the world’s largest virtual tree planting forest. In addition, Binance NFT will line-up creators to take part in NFT for Good to drive fundraising efforts for Tree Millions. NFT for Good was first launched in June 2021 by Binance Charity and Binance NFT, with a vision to capture creativity to drive meaningful change. The NFT certificates produced for Tree Millions by Binance Charity will use Binance SmartChain, which uses less than 1% of the energy consumption of Bitcoin.

“The natural world is in crisis and we’re calling on the digital world to help. It’s increasingly clear that we’re all intrinsically linked so if we fail nature, we fail ourselves.  We know trees are a critical resource in the battle against climate change and an essential part in keeping balance to our fragile ecosystems that help to provide life on earth; that’s why we’re launching Tree Millions. We believe crypto is the future and we want to be part of a future that is green.” commented Helen Hai, Head of Binance Charity and NFT.

Binance Charity is working with established environmental non-profits to help execute the tree planting, such as One Tree Planted and Koala Clancy Foundation already on board with more to be announced soon. The first phase of the project is underway with a $2 million USD donation from Binance. Tree planting efforts have started in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.

Tree Millions Alliance is one step towards Binance Charity and Binance’s shared vision for a greener crypto industry. Last year, Binance launched Binance Smart Chain (BSC), one of the leading green blockchains. If the Bitcoin network consumes approx. 113.89 terawatts per hour per year (TWh/year) and the traditional banking systems consume 263.72 TWh/yr; Binance Smart Chain consumes less than 1% of it. BSC is extremely eco-friendly and cost efficient as a blockchain and as a NFT minting platform.

In its 10^th year, the MTN Business App of the Year Awards 2021, awarded South African technology company, iiDENTIFii, the Best Enterprise Solution for its biometric digital authentication and automated onboarding solution. Speaking after receiving the prestigious award, co-founder and chief strategy officer, Lance Fanaroff, said that iiDENTIFii felt honoured to win after entering the awards for the very first time.

“It was humbling to see iiDENTIFii in such an impressive line-up. We were happy to be a finalist, so winning was just an incredible feeling. The past three years have been exhilarating as we worked to develop what is now one of the world’s leading digital authentication and onboarding solutions. The credibility gained from this award is almost priceless, and will greatly assist us to further implement our growth across the African continent,” said Fanaroff.

The rigorous process of the MTN Business App of the Year competition was a valuable opportunity for iiDENTIFii to revisit and perfect its market offering: “As an entrant we were expected to deliver significant content, including a demo app, as well as participate in panel interviews. All of this was within a tight timeframe and certainly challenged us to produce our best responses. It was also a great opportunity to be measured against our peers and be awarded for what others also believe to be a game-changing solution.”

Fanaroff says iiDENTIFii offers an end-to-end digital authentication that delivers in under thirty seconds and meets the highest standards of security and data protection. While it is technically complex, the solution simply assures that an individual is a real person and present at the time of transaction or verification, and that the person’s online identity, in a digital world, is who the person claims to be. In essence, we wanted to make sure we could offer a secure and user-friendly technology platform that authenticates physical identities in a connected world. iiDENTIFii strives to be a trusted partner for businesses when it comes to remote biometric identity authentication.  It is very relevant in a world that is almost dominated by digitalisation: “It is well known that the Covid-19 pandemic has elevated the role of digital solutions, almost forcing businesses of all types to conduct business online. With the exponentially increasing online digital penetration almost all businesses need solutions that minimise their risk and make online business models convenient and safe to use.”

He says that iiDENTIFii believes that it is for these reasons that the company was bestowed the honour of winning the Best Enterprise Solution category: “It is imperative that technology solutions solve real world problems. We believe that innovation has to solve some of the significant challenges we have as a continent, and as a world. We already have some incredible examples locally and we are so proud to now stand among them too.”

Fanaroff says the award will assist the company to not only extend its footprint, but to also increase its scale and traction with clients, while working tirelessly to ensure the solution remains relevant and is constantly improved and updated, retaining the high standards that the company is known to achieve.

Lawsuit seeks compensation for harmed consumers, injunction, and civil penalty for alleged violations of the Telemarking Sales Rule

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today filed a lawsuit in federal district court accusing a California-based software company and its owner of providing assistance to illegal credit-repair businesses. The CFPB alleges that Credit Repair Cloud and CEO Daniel Rosen have violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA) by providing substantial assistance or support to credit-repair businesses that use telemarketing and charge unlawful advance fees to consumers. The CFPB’s lawsuit seeks relief for harmed consumers from the defendants, disgorgement of their unjust gains, an injunction to stop their illegal conduct, and civil penalties.

“Credit Repair Cloud and Rosen have been breaking the law,” said Acting CFPB Director David Uejio. “They are actively assisting credit-repair businesses in violating federal consumer protection laws. They facilitated and encouraged credit-repair businesses to charge illegal advance fees, causing broader consumer harm in the marketplace. The CFPB will not tolerate companies facilitating and profiting from other companies’ violations of federal consumer protection laws.”

Credit Repair Cloud is a California-based corporation founded by Rosen. Since 2013, Credit Repair Cloud has sold software and other tools to help others start and operate credit-repair businesses. A credit-repair business provides consumers with goods or services that purport represented to remove derogatory information from credit reports or otherwise improve a person's credit history, credit record, or credit rating. Such companies that use telemarketing are covered by the TSR, and may not request or receive fees from a consumer until the company has provided that consumer with a credit report that shows the promised results and that was issued more than six months after such results were achieved.

The CFPB’s complaint alleges that Rosen and Credit Repair Cloud are providing substantial assistance to credit-repair companies that use telemarketing to reach consumers and charge unlawful advance fees under the TSR. Specifically, the CFPB alleges that Rosen and Credit Repair Cloud have encouraged the credit-repair businesses that use their services – including trainings, materials, and software -- to charge unlawful advance fees and Rosen and Credit Repair Cloud knew or consciously avoided knowing that these customers were charging advance fees in violation of the TSR.

Enforcement Action

Under the CFPA, the CFPB has the authority to take action against companies and individuals that violate federal consumer financial laws. The CFPB is seeking monetary relief for consumers, disgorgement of unjust gains, injunctive relief, and a civil money penalty.

The complaint is not a final finding or ruling that the defendants have violated the law.

- Logiq, Inc. (NEO: LGIQ) (OTCQX: LGIQ), a global provider of award-winning e-commerce and fintech solutions, has entered into a preliminary agreement with Novaji Introserve, a value-added IT and financial services company based in Lagos, to provide home delivery and mobile financial services to millions of unbanked and underbanked people in Nigeria.

As a government-licensed value-added services and fintech provider, Novaji would deploy Logiq’s GoLogiq and PayLogiq platforms to offer home delivery services, mobile digital wallet and point of sale, micro-lending, and other mobile fintech products and services.

As part of the first phase of the engagement, Logiq is working with Novaji’s business and technology teams to determine product and feature offerings, as well as the necessary integrations and setup required to support a nationwide deployment. A pilot program is being planned for launch before the end of the year, which would set the stage for a full rollout in 2022.

Through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy program, the country set a target to ensure 80% of Nigeria’s adult population has access to financial services by the end of the year. However, a majority of Nigerian adults still fall into the categories of underbanked or unbanked, and remain largely excluded from the country’s financial system.

About 56 million or 56% of Nigerian adults remained unbanked, while according to a recent survey, 81 percent now own a mobile phone. This presents mobile financial services as the ideal pathway to bring more of the population into the national financial system.

“Joining forces with Novaji marks our first foray into emerging markets outside of Indonesia,” stated Logiq president, Brent Suen. “Nigeria, with a population of 212 million, is one of the most populous countries in the world, yet most people don’t have bank accounts. This creates a major opportunity for our mobile commerce and fintech platforms that have been especially designed for emerging markets. These field-proven solutions can provide much-needed financial services to tens of millions across the region.”

Logiq’s digital wallet technology enables several types of financial transactions to be conducted easily and securely, including money transfers, ‘buy now, pay later’ options, receiving and repaying loans, accessing insurance, buying airtime and data, and paying bills or merchants—all conveniently on a mobile phone, anytime, anywhere.

The new index series in collaboration with CryptoCompare gives institutional investors broad coverage of the crypto market

Prices are aggregated from top-rated exchanges that meet investment-grade ratings and can be traded 24/7/365

Wilshire, a global investment technology and advisory company, in association with leading global news organisation, the Financial Times (FT), today announced the launch of a new series of digital asset indexes to help investors understand and navigate this fast expanding market better. 

Developed with CryptoCompare, a leading global cryptocurrency market data provider, the FT Wilshire indexes combine CryptoCompare’s market standard exchange ratings and Wilshire’s methodology to aggregate the prices of digital assets from an initial seven of the most highly rated crypto exchanges. Requirements of a minimum A rating and overall score of at least 70 over the previous 12 months mean they have robust Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies, as well as legal and regulatory compliance and due diligence processes.

The series of indexes will allow institutional investors to more confidently access an asset class that has previously held greater appeal for retail investors with higher risk tolerances. Wilshire’s proprietary methodology will apply to both individual digital assets and indexes covering over 85% of the market capitalization on eligible exchanges. This rigorous and innovative approach offers higher levels of data transparency and establishes a set of credible benchmarks.

Digital assets have experienced rapid growth and flourishing innovation. The market capitalisation of the top five cryptocurrencies is estimated to be $1.4 trillion. Links between crypto and fiat currencies are expanding. Regulators are now stepping up with more standard-setting and greater consumer protections.

By aggregating the prices of these consistently highly rated crypto exchanges, Wilshire can build digital asset index products whose values are derived from genuine price discovery.

As digital assets are traded 24/7, Wilshire is also introducing closing times for different geographical regions, giving jurisdictions the flexibility for end-of-day valuation at hours convenient to their time zone. This can help institutions settle derivative contracts and satisfy regulatory obligations.

Institutional investors, fund managers and banks are keen to explore the potential of digital assets as global regulators and policymakers seek to harmonise and regulate the market. 

The new FT Wilshire Digital Asset Index Series is the latest product development under a brand licencing agreement with the FT, first announced earlier this year. The series will initially include 10 single asset indexes and three multi-asset indexes:

• FT Wilshire Bitcoin Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Ethereum Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Cardano Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Dogecoin Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Chainlink Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Uniswap Protocol Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Bitcoin Cash Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Polkadot Protocol Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Solana Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Litecoin Blended Price Index
• FT Wilshire Top 5 Digital Assets
• FT Wilshire Top 5 Digital Assets ex Bitcoin
• FT Wilshire Bitcoin & Ethereum Index

The new indexes, enhanced data and blended prices will be published in real time and feature among the FT’s markets data.

Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive Officer of Wilshire, said:  “Our role is to provide the tools and strategy necessary for safe access to new markets for investors. As new digital forms of investment and the adoption of blockchain technologies take shape, the financial services will need help to ensure institutional investors gain safe access and understand the drivers of performance and risk associated with digital assets.” 

John Ridding, Chief Executive Officer of The Financial Times, said: “Digital assets are a dynamic and fast moving sector with the potential to have considerable impact on financial services and the investment industry. They are drawing the attention of a wider pool of investors and regulators. There is a need and an opportunity to provide investors and readers with authoritative metrics, news and analysis. As a globally trusted source on market trends and innovations, the FT is supportive of enhanced data that helps readers understand the risks as well as the opportunities and informs their perspectives.”

Charles Hayter, Chief Executive Officer of CryptoCompare, said “We are seeing a substantial and increasing interest in digital assets from institutional investors. Since 2014, we have worked to develop an extensive and reliable suite of market data to offer access and transparency to this rapidly growing asset class. We look forward to working closely with the Financial Times and Wilshire to provide our trusted digital asset data to build these innovative products offering institutional investors new avenues for digital asset exposure.”

AI-powered Verification 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to plague industries, healthcare agencies are making strides to return society to regular life.

In industries like tourism, a negative COVID-19 test is necessary to book a flight or make hotel reservations, even when travelling within the same country. There are also many different situations when a person needs to have a negative COVID-19 PCR test result.

And this new regulation presents an opportunity for people to falsify their test results. Cases of fake COVID test results pop up in the news worldwide, from Brazil to India and Croatia.

Unfortunately, the available PCR verification tests solutions are insufficient in detecting forgeries. So, there is an urgent need for COVID-19 PCR verification software to spot fake tests.

In this article, we will discuss AI-powered COVID-19 PCR verification solutions and how to check COVID-19 test results with machine learning technologies.

But first, let’s go through some statistical data on fake PCR tests.

Fake COVID-19 PCR test statistics

The use of PCR verification to check COVID-19 results is a “young” technology, which makes it difficult to gather comprehensive data on forgeries. 

But through diligent research, we have collected some interesting facts and figures from around the globe, and we’ll share them with you:

• Counterfeit PCR tests harm the healthcare and financial sectors. According to an IATA survey, the cost of fake COVID-19 tests ranges from 77 USD in Australia to 90 USD in Japan. You can also get a same-day COVID-19 test in the United States for 100-150 USD. 

• The UK’s Cabinet Office has also released projections that COVID-related fraud will cost the government around 1.3 billion GBP (2.3 billion USD) and 7.9 billion GBP (2.3 billion USD). 

• In the same vein, the UK government has also reported that people use fake test results to gain compensation from the NHS. According to the HM Revenue and Customs, 10% of all recipients used falsified coronavirus records.

Reacting to these projections, the Metropolitan Police has boosted COVID test verification services to limit the potential financial losses.

• The situation is worse in other parts of Europe. In Croatia, 45 passengers trying to cross the border failed the mandatory RT-PCR report verification — and this was just in one county over a weekend.

• As it stands, the city of Detroit, Michigan, witnessed the largest arrest in a fraud case involving fake COVID-19 test results. The Department of Justice estimates that the defendants gained over 11 million USD by providing fake RT-PCR negative verification services.

• Furthermore, the FBI warns companies to implement PCR verification techniques to detect and check COVID-19 certificates. Based on the nationwide directive, companies could go bankrupt from coronavirus compensations.

• In developing countries of South America and Africa, the state of PCR validation test internal quality control is deplorable. Due to the lack of real-time PCR validation test, tourists can travel with fake corona tests hassle-free.

Fake PCR test and issues that they cause

Let’s check out the negative impacts of fake coronavirus tests:

• Threatens public safety

Any time a fake COVID-19 test passes PCR verification, it exposes millions of people to possible infection. Since COVID-19 tests are now essential travel documents, falsifying them means that a sick person risks spreading the virus to unsuspecting people around.

• Undermines the efforts of health workers

Since the start of the pandemic, healthcare professionals have been on the frontline, putting in overtime shifts to attend to the sick. With that in mind, every failed COVID PCR verify exposes health workers to the coronavirus and undermines their immaculate sacrifice to combat the spread.

• Promotes fraud

Corona test verification is an in-demand service at the moment. As a result, scammers now promote platforms where people can obtain fake COVID-19 tests. Also, PCR verification officials worry about the potential increase in cases of falsified health reports.

• Harms the economy

From the UK example mentioned earlier, fake coronavirus tests can cost countries billions of dollars in revenue. The FBI also reported that one US company lost over 170 000 USD due to falsified COVID claims.

How to identify fake COVID-19 test results

COVID-19 test result forgery verification is a very complicated procedure. Sometimes, you can spot forgeries with the naked eye. Other times, you might need advanced technological tools for the validation of COVID-19 test results.

Image forgery detection solution to check fake COVID-19 test

SDK.finance is actively developing an AI-based solution to validate the authenticity of COVID-19 test results.

How does the image forgery detection solution work to check fake COVID-19 test results?

1. Ask your clients to upload the document for the online verification process (or upload any )

2. Document scanning and validation process using AI, ML technologies:

- Testing pixels for authenticity. In other words, the solution detects any changes in a pdf/jpg file. This product answers the question “does this file was photoshopped or not

- File metadata checking. Extract metadata recorded behind the files, ranging from file size, data, geolocation and modification history to the software tools used to create them

3. Get a verdict that confirms the verification attempt as genuine or mark it as fraudulent (fake).

Below you can see the result of the COVID-19 test verification. Artificial intelligence highlighted those areas where changes in pixels were detected. In other words, this COVID-19 test result was ‘photoshopped and is not genuine.

Metadata checking result

Fake PCR test result.  Areas where changes in pixels were detected

Final words

The validation of COVID-19 test results is a public health concern currently. Government agencies, law enforcement, and businesses are trying to avoid financial losses from fake COVID tests.

With AI-powered verification tools, we can stem the tide of falsified documents and protect others from the marauding virus. 

Introducing Bybit Launchpad

Bybit Launchpad is designed to help connect innovative crypto projects and users who may be interested to gain exposure to promising projects, while protecting users and projects alike. Bybit Launchpad is open to Bybit users who have completed KYC L1, ensuring compliance with local regulatory requirements.

"We at Bybit are constantly inspired and amazed by the intrepid and imaginative experimentation in the crypto space and the talented and committed folks working for a better future of finance," said Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit. "With Bybit Launchpad, we hope to shine a light on promising projects and help bring game-changing innovations to a wider audience."

BIT Coming Soon to Bybit Launchpad

BIT is the native token of BitDAO — one of the world's largest Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) that aims to allocate massive financial and talent resources to support DeFi growth. BitDAO is supported by Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Pantera, Dragonfly, Spartan, Alan Howard, Kain Warwick, SushiSwap, Polygon and more.

Bybit is an initial proponent of BitDAO, and has pledged to contribute 2.5bps of futures trading volume to BitDAO's treasury. The contribution, at 2021 rates, is projected to exceed $1B per year. The BitDAO treasury balance stands at more than $540M as of Sept. 16.

Bybit's listing of BIT will include launch rewards and free giveaways for participants. Timing and procedural updates on the BIT listing and airdrop will be updated on the Bybit blog.