- Mansley Group enjoy an exceptional experience using Invu Verify, saving the Finance Team valuable time and lowering stress levels -

Mansley Group, known for its luxury serviced apartments in London, Edinburgh, Inverness and Cheltenham, has been the beneficiary of its own exceptional experience as it redesigned its invoice approval process. 

Using Invu Verify, a cloud-based automated accounts payable system from Invu, Mansley Group has removed the need for supplier invoices to be distributed far and wide across the UK, cutting the invoice approval process down from three weeks.

Before implementing Invu Verify, Mansley Group had a huge logistical challenge getting an invoice approved. Approvers were based across multiple locations and required invoices to be scanned and sent for approval. Due to this, Mansley Group only operated a one-step approval process, as it was too time-consuming to send the invoice to multiple approvers. 

To improve this outdated method of invoice approval, it was crucial that Mansley Group found a solution that provided better control and visibility over invoice processing with a complete audit trail and supported a multi-tiered approval process.

Colin Stone, Group Chief Operating Officer at Mansley Group noted, “We did not find any other software that gave us the advantages that Invu Verify has. I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted and Invu Verify fitted that requirement perfectly.”

By implementing Invu Verify, the Mansley Group now has a multi-tiered invoice approval process, allowing staff to approve invoices much faster from their respective offices.

Targeted at users of Sage 50 and 200, Invu Verify shifts the work away from mundane tasks like data entry and posting invoices, towards value-added activities like dealing with exceptions, exercising controls over expenditure and maintenance of supplier relationships.  

Stone continues, “Getting invoices approved by approvers based across different locations has only been made possible by Invu Verify. The speed of making payments has improved significantly as well as the accuracy. We have fewer missing invoices and the data input is of a higher degree of accuracy because of the automatic capture of invoice details.”

A distributed and slow invoice approval process often results in late payments to key suppliers, having a detrimental effect on supplier relationships. This is proven to be the case in a recently commissioned independent research project that showed almost a quarter of UK finance decision-makers (23%) say that it currently takes over 10 working days to process supplier invoices, with 29% of these saying it takes more than 20 working days. 

Ian Smith, GM and Finance Director at Invu, said: “In many businesses today, teams are often spread across multiple locations, or even working remotely from home, increasing the risk of fraud and error. To combat this, businesses need improved visibility of where the invoice sits in the process, better control over approval processes to ensure invoices are consistently sent to the right people for approval, and identity management, to make certain that the person signing it off is authorised to do so.”

Finance departments across the UK are ready to embrace automated accounting processes. Research has shown that 44% of finance workers think that automating processes would make them more productive, with one in five (22%) claiming they would welcome automation in their business.

Smith concludes, “With Invu Verify, those responsible for expenditure budgets can be certain that they have control over what is charged to their budgets as it is approved only by themselves or their chosen delegates.”

Integration sets the standard for future EMS integrations and enables buy-side firms to receive Appital opportunities directly into their current trading infrastructure

Appital, the Equity Capital Marketplace, today announced that FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, is the first EMS provider to integrate with Appital’s bookbuilding platform. 

By working with pioneering firms like FlexTrade, Appital is driving the technological infrastructure development necessary to integrate their platform into existing market structures and bring innovation and automation to equity capital markets.

Appital’s platform will be fully integrated with FlexTrade’s FlexTRADER EMS, bringing a historically manual order flow process to an automated platform. Through FlexTrade’s integration with Appital, buy-side firms will have access to the liquidity and efficiency of executing on Turquoise, LSEG’s (London Stock Exchange Group) pan-European MTF with seamless straight-through-processing (STP) to over 20 settlement venues. Sparked by demand from some of the largest asset management firms globally, the integration will offer the buy-side community a more efficient and transparent way to execute large orders with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion.

Andy Mahoney, Managing Director EMEA FlexTrade Systems, commented: “This integration with Appital  brings transparency and automation to an area of the market traditionally plagued by opacity and outdated, phone based bookbuilding activity. We see significant demand for Appital’s offering from some of our largest asset management customers. As a result, we have been collaborating with Appital to develop standard integration procedures to ensure our clients have seamless access to Appital’s platform directly within the FlexTRADER EMS order blotter to actively participate in the liquidity discovery process in the market for size”. 

The integration with FlexTrade has led to the establishment of a working group that includes some of the largest asset managers globally. The group helps mutual clients define how they want to interact with the hard-to-find liquidity in the market and proactively build books of demand, while ensuring that the integration to existing workflows remains seamless. Other EMS providers are now able to code to the established, FIX based protocols, to the benefit of the buy-side community overall. 

Dr Robert Barnes, CEO, Turquoise Global Holdings & Group Head of Securities Trading at London Stock Exchange Group, said: “Turquoise is pleased to build on our innovation in partnership with Appital to unlock latent liquidity for the market. Through FlexTrade’s integration, buy-side participants can look forward to Appital’s novel bookbuilding and seamless execution to settlement of liquidity at the right price through Turquoise.”

Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, said: “In our mission to put buy-side firms in control of their bookbuilding activity we are excited to work with innovative firms like FlexTrade to help us shape the technology infrastructure for EMS integrations. FlexTrade clients and the asset management community can now gain exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before. This integration transforms a traditionally manual order flow process, that historically sits outside any EMS, into an automated, electronic platform. 

Badyra added: “FlexTrade has been instrumental in developing the Appital workflow alongside ourselves and the team at Turquoise. This is a major step forward for not only our combined client base, but the market as a whole, and we look forward to scaling this integration market-wide in the coming months.”

Appital gives the buy-side community greater exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before. Buy-side traders looking to execute large orders in excess of 5 days ADV, including in highly illiquid, small and mid-cap stocks, have access to real-time visibility, full transparency and maximum control over the bookbuilding and deal distribution process. They can proactively source liquidity and efficiently drive the bookbuilding process in real-time, on one automated platform, with the ability to make distribution adjustments throughout. What’s more, Appital users will be able to execute all deals through the Turquoise MTF, via a single point of access and with seamless straight-through-processing (STP) to over 20 settlement venues.

Tinkoff has announced the launch of Tinkoff Private — a new offering in its ecosystem that will serve affluent customers. It is a digital private banking service that combines a wide range of both traditional and innovative services for affluent customers in the HNWI segment that is now available in the Tinkoff and Tinkoff Investments apps. 

Tinkoff Private creates a detailed customer profile to determine a customer’s long-term goals and offer them the most relevant selection of services. Tinkoff Private has divided its products into three segments: investment support, banking services and lifestyle, within which they will develop the  following services:

Investment support and access to exclusive financial instruments and ideas:

The Advisory Model – a comprehensive approach to customer service, which includes assistance with long-term investment portfolio planning in line with an investor’s financial goals, personal needs and investment profile.

Private Equity – investments in private equity funds, which enable customers to invest in private companies with high growth potential that are inaccessible to most investors.

IPO and pre-IPO – investing in companies planning their initial public offering. 

SPAC – companies that are created specifically to go public in order to merge with a promising private company. As a result of the merger, the private company goes public faster than it would in a traditional IPO.

Banking Services

Proxy Institute – customers can authorise a proxy (for example, their personal assistant or another attorney-in-fact) through the app in order to manage their investment account or bank accounts, while maintaining full control over the proxy’s powers.

One-Click Cash Delivery – cash collection for individuals in accordance with all banking security rules, which are fully implemented through the banking app.

Tax Consultations – Tinkoff Private experts assist our customers with their taxes and the associated paperwork, while Ernst & Young, the world’s leading consulting firm, takes care of the most complex cases.

Tinkoff Private Cards – premium Mastercard World Elite metal cards with a unique vertical design.

Lifestyle Services

Events and services related to culture, arts, sports, travel, alongside closed club discussions and plenty of other tools to help customers fulfil their philanthropic goals.

Tinkoff Private Expedition – a unique voyage to the shores of the Antarctic, where  exploration of the remote continent is combined with investment discussions and lectures. Tinkoff Private customers will visit extraordinary places and ne able to take in the wilderness from the comfort of a boutique hotel.

Safe Travel – Tinkoff Private covers up to USD 150,000 of travel medical expenses per insured individual (for up to five people).

Wheely Trips – Tinkoff Private customers who maintain and expand their Tinkoff Investments portfolios receive complimentary rides with a private driver in Wheely’s luxury cars.

Lounge Key – unlimited access to Lounge Key airport business lounges across the world upon presentation of a Mastercard World Elite card.

SimpleWine Privé – access to an exclusive wine club and online consultations with sommeliers.

Prime Concierge – access to a personal assistant within the Tinkoff app, that can book customers tables in the best restaurants, get them in the VIP box at a match where their favourite team is playing and even organise a family event within a couple of hours.

We conducted a soft launch of Tinkoff Private at the beginning of 2021, where we provided loyal customers, including from Tinkoff Investments Premium, and company owners using our Tinkoff Business services, with access to the services in a closed capacity.

Ilya Oprenko has been appointed Head of Private Banking at Tinkoff. Prior to joining the company, Ilya worked at the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS). He will develop Tinkoff Private and grow its assets, while managing the private banking teams. Dmitry Panchenko, Director of Tinkoff Investments, will oversee the development of Tinkoff Private.

Oliver Hughes, СЕО of Tinkoff Group:

“With 16.7 million customers, Tinkoff is Russia’s third largest bank in terms of active customers, while Tinkoff Investments is a pioneer nd leader in the private investment market. 

Tinkoff Investments boasts 2.3 million customers, and has total assets exceeding RUB 500 billion. Our services have been increasingly used by high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), who traditionally operate in the wealth management segment. This has inspired us to create this new segment, where we can offer these customers private banking services. 

Tinkoff Private is committed to digitalising traditional private banking services. We are staying true to our philosophy of being a “bank without branches”, as this allows us to improve efficiency, offer a superior customer experience, and launch new products ahead of the market. We have set an ambitious goal – to make Tinkoff a key market player in the Private Banking segment as early as 2023, and we are sure that this unique approach will play a vital role in helping us meet this goal.”

The Government's newly announced “data reform” programme aims to “boost innovation, economic growth and protect the public”.

A public consultation will be run on proposed changes to the UK’s “data landscape”, which would involve a new governance structure for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), bringing its operations more in line with those of other regulators such as the Competition and Markets Authority, Financial Conduct Authority and Ofcom. At the same time, increased enforcement powers would be given to deal with the sending of nuisance calls and text messages.

The announcement comes shortly after the news that the government’s preferred candidate to succeed Elizabeth Denham as Information Commissioner is the current New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, John Edwards (who appeared before the DCMS committee earlier this week in a pre-appointment hearing).

Less clearly, the government announcement suggests that the ICO will be empowered to “champion sectors and businesses that are using personal data in new, innovative and responsible ways to benefit people’s lives”.

Commenting on the announcement, Adam Rose, Head of Mishcon de Reya’s Data Practice, said:

“This is a further gesture from the Government suggesting a willingness to push the boundaries of our recently granted data protection adequacy agreement with the EU. However, behind the bold words there is little detail so far to indicate much in the way of concrete proposals or changes to the underlying law. And that’s no surprise, given that our data protection laws are already based on international (as well as European) frameworks that go back forty years or so. There is a good argument that those frameworks, and those existing laws, already allow for the data innovation and economic growth which the Government is so keen to encourage.”

Majic Wheels, Corp. "Majic" or the "Company"), a Delaware corporation, that is positioning itself as a player in the disruptive industries of fintech and software development by means of acquisitions, announces that it has signed an agreement with New York based Investment Bank Donald Capital, LLC.

The Company is proud to announce it has signed an agreement with Donald Capital, LLC. to provide M&A Strategic Advisory and Investment Banking services to the Company as a lead placement agent. Donald Capital will assist the Company to raise capital in a private offering of up to $50,000,000.

The Company believes this agreement will further increase the scope and size of its acquisitions strategy and create a leverage to exponentially create growth and value for its shareholders.

Donald Capital, LLC is a FINRA Member Investment Bank founded with the intent to build a legacy based upon the fundamentals of Honesty & Integrity. The principals’ highly regarded Wall Street reputations, broad experience across multiple industries and geographies, plus a results-oriented approach enables Donald Capital to provide solutions to the complex problems facing companies in today’s challenging business environment. Donald Capital focuses on a market that has not been properly served for some time - the Private, Micro, Small and Midcap Markets.

“As we keep growing the Company through the organic growth of our existing business lines and the acquisition of synergistic value adding candidates, our Company will be well advised by the extensive experience of Donald Capital’s team. This is another step towards our NASDAQ up listing goal. Institutional backing is essential to a successful up list and we feel this step represents another milestone in the NASDAQ direction” said David Chong, Chief Executive Officer of Majic Wheels Corp. 

Rich and diverse ecosystem developing outside of traditional/established ESG Data providers

Substantive Research,  the research discovery and research spend analytics provider for the buy-side, has published the findings of its independent survey of the evolving Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) data provider marketplace.  Its final report is entitled: “How to Combat Greenwashing? Find the Right Data Partner”.

Background

Spending on ESG data is on the rise at an annual growth rate of 20% and forecasted to approach $1 billion by 2021, and global ESG assets are expected to reach $53 trillion by 2025, on track to represent more than a third of projected global Assets Under Management (AUM). Investors are therefore now placing greater emphasis on company disclosures, ESG integration and ratings agencies. 

With concerns over the ‘greenwashing’ of sustainability performance amongst organisations, identifying those ESG data providers who present information with transparent methodologies has never been more important.  

Substantive Research’s Role

Substantive Research has developed an industry-first, ESG Data Provider Dashboard that provides a searchable database of more than 140 ESG data providers, mapping out the ESG data market and showing the choices available. This gives customers the opportunity to discover and compare suppliers of ESG data all in one convenient place, as well as providing confidence that they are gaining accurate views of actual ESG performance. 

Survey Methodology

Over 300 data vendors were analysed through multiple sources, including direct 1-on-1 interviews with over 200 potential data vendors to construct a database of high quality providers, including those new to the market, as well as and the longer-standing firms. 

Findings

Substantive Research has identified a series of trends and insights in the evolving ESG research market:

• Whilst many consumers of ESG data select well-established institutions as their supplier, Substantive Research has discovered an extremely rich and diverse ecosystem of providers outside of the ‘household names’. 
• Start-ups (1-5 years in existence) already make up over a third of market supply, some 39% of Substantive Research’s list, while Mid-level (started 6-10 years ago) and Established firms (started 10+ years ago) constitute 24% and 37%, respectively. 
• 53% of the providers are generalists, in the sense that they provide all three Environmental, Social and Governance data to clients while only 33% specialize in ‘E’, ‘S’, or ‘G’ only.  As the ESG process within asset managers evolves, shopping for data is likely to increasingly target specialists, as buy-side firms look to create their own ‘special sauce’.
• Of these specialists, just 5% are targeted towards Social, 70% specialize in Environmental and 25% in Governance.
• 70% of the providers have developed their own ESG frameworks in combination with one or more of 20 other global sustainable reporting standards.

Mike Carrodus, CEO of Substantive Research, said: “The ESG data market is evolving at a dizzying rate and it can be tough for the buy-side to stay on top of what’s out there.  We’ve found that there is already a wide array of providers, with many offering different specialisms and expertise, so there are definite advantages out there for those who look further than well-known names."

“As startups already make up over a third of the market, we expect market evolution to further accelerate, as more providers enter the market to fill some of the niche gaps, and incumbents continue to grow and improve their offerings.  Transparency in ESG research methodology will be the key to combat greenwashing and monitor sustainability issues accurately.”

He added: “Covid has pushed Social issues to the forefront with topics such as equality, human rights, labour rights, and product safety and quality rapidly emerging.  So although the ‘S’ in ‘ESG’ can be difficult to quantify, we expect the number of providers specialising in ‘S’ to grow from the current low proportion of 5%.”  

Substantive Research’s ESG dashboard was launched in June of this year, and is already helping 30+ buy-side clients make sense of the rapidly evolving ESG data provider marketplace and find the right providers for their needs. 

ION Markets, a leading global provider of trading, analytics, and risk management solutions for capital markets, announces the acquisition of Clarus Financial Technology (‘Clarus’), a provider of SaaS analytics, data, and research for global derivatives markets.

Derivatives markets are being transformed by regulatory change and the adoption of SaaS analytics. As part of ION Markets, Clarus will offer its SaaS analytics products for real-time margin and risk management of both cleared and uncleared OTC derivatives. These will broaden ION’s XTP offering and complement ION’s JANUS pricing and valuation expertise with Initial Margin for OTC derivatives, as well as delivering new portfolio risk management analytics. Clarus’ functionality also enables firms to comply with the new Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) regulation for OTC derivatives.

Clarus’ data provides transparency into the trading of derivatives, covering Exchanges, Clearing Houses, Execution Venues, and Trade Repositories. This data is relied upon by both buy and sell-side participants, brokers, service providers and regulators to analyse, inform, monitor, and act in traded markets. Clarus also provides weekly market commentary and analysis on global derivatives markets, delivered in the widely read Clarus Blog, which has over 20,000 active monthly users.

“The acquisition of Clarus expands ION Markets’ offering within its XTP platform, further automating and simplifying the post-trade derivatives business. This strategic expansion demonstrates ION Markets’ leading position as provider of capital markets management solutions and our ongoing focus on digitising and automating workflows.” - Hishaam Caramanli, ION Group Chief Product Officer.

“OTC derivatives is a market with regulatory tailwinds driving change and SaaS analytics and data is essential for success. As part of ION Markets, Clarus will be able to best capitalise on this trend, maximising the ability to serve customers while providing complementary services to ION’s XTP, JANUS, and other ION Group offerings.” - Amir Khwaja, CEO of Clarus Financial Technology.

Open banking brings a variety of financial services to customers, but at the same time, challenges the way they think about these services. Customers are now required to provide access to their accounts if they want to start using various innovative services. And we strive to make this access more secure and transparent by using open banking and PSD2 initiatives. To help your customers in adopting open banking-powered solutions, it is critical to ensure a smooth and intuitive user journey.

With this in mind, we’ve been racking our brains to find ways for making the user journey as seamless as possible, while meeting all the regulatory requirements. Throughout the last 18 months, we’ve accumulated feedback from our clients and their end-customers on the best journey of connecting a bank account via Salt Edge. And after careful considerations, we’ve set a roadmap of improvements – part of which is already implemented in the newly Salt Edge’s bank connect widget V3. 

What is the bank connect widget? It’s a set of interfaces where end-customers choose their desired bank from which they want to share account information or initiate a payment toward a third party, and where they grant their consent for the corresponding action.

Salt Edge bank connect widget as part of the payment initiation user journey

To promote engagement, understanding, and ensure adoption, we’ve followed 4 important user experience principles, to varying degrees: trust, security, transparency, and speed. 

So, let’s take a look at what’s new!

Optimisation of bank search

Earlier, when a user would type in a bank name, they would get a pretty long list of matches, with no specific order of branches by country. While this worked well for finding a small bank in the list, a new approach had to be implemented for searching banks that are part of big multinational groups, Unicredit being a good example of that. 

Now, even before typing in the bank’s name, the user is presented with the most popular banks from the country they are located in, based on geolocation data. And if the desired bank is in that list, the journey gets greatly shortened – following the ‘speed’ user experience principle. Otherwise, the user continues the journey by typing in the bank name and a list of all the branches sorted by country or group is displayed, in the case of a multinational bank.

Luke Massie, CEO of VibePay, comments on PayPal’s move to introduce new fees for payments between businesses in the UK and those in Europe, from November:

“This decision will severely impact many SMEs and sellers who have already struggled to stay afloat across the past 18 months. Margins have become increasingly tight as the middlemen in payment infrastructure have taken their cut, rather than those merchants who are really delivering for the consumer in the supply chain. This move, driven by Brexit, may be the final nail in the coffin for entrepreneurs and sellers, making their business models unsustainable due to excessive fees.

“Open Banking can offer a solution if the industry really makes a transition to utilise the technology, and various benefits as a result, on offer.  Legislative changes such as PsD2 have made this possible and companies like VibePay are doing our best to drive positive change, but there is more support needed from the banks in ensuring APIs are reliable. The payment infrastructure needs to evolve from traditional, fee-heavy rails, to emerging solutions that are low cost and faster, and enable businesses to operate within viable margins.”

Keren Levy Appointed President and Arnon Kraft Joins as Chief Operating Officer

Pamela H. Patsley Joins Board of Directors

Payoneer Global Inc., the commerce technology company powering payments and growth for the new global economy, today announced three key Payoneer Chief Operating Officer, Keren Levy, will now serve as President, focusing on increasing Payoneer’s global profile as it scales. She will also continue to lead Merchant Services, one of Payoneer’s newest and fastest-growing business lines. Levy was recently honoured by PaymentsSource as one of the Most Influential Women in Payments 2021.

“Keren has been a strong, inspirational leader at Payoneer for the past 12 years,” said Scott Galit, Chief Executive Officer at Payoneer. “She has been instrumental in driving our growth worldwide, passionately and relentlessly delivering for our customers, and she has been critical to shaping the corporate culture that defines us. Keren’s tireless drive, combined with her compassionate approach to leadership, have helped us maintain the energy, spirit, and values that are so distinctly Payoneer.”

In other appointments, Arnon Kraft has joined Payoneer as the company’s new Chief Operating Officer. Kraft is a seasoned executive with global experience at large enterprises including Microsoft and SanDisk. Kraft will be instrumental in shaping the next phase of Payoneer’s global growth and execution.

“I’m excited to have Arnon lead the expansion of our capacity and bring his unique perspective and skillset to Payoneer,” said Galit. “Arnon’s global leadership experience and commitment to delivering an excellent customer experience align perfectly with our business, as he continues to expand our localised operations all over the world.”

Payoneer will also be strengthening its Board of Directors with the addition of Pamela H. Patsley. Patsley was most recently executive chairman of MoneyGram International, Inc. and was Chief Executive Officer of the company from 2009 -2015. Prior to MoneyGram she held executive roles at First Data Corp., Paymentech, Inc. and First USA, Inc. She serves on the boards of Texas Instruments Inc., Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. and Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. She will also serve on the Audit Committee as chairman and will be a member of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.

“Pam possesses extremely relevant executive and Board experience in the financial services industry and we are thrilled to welcome her to the Board,” concluded Galit. “She joins us at an exciting time at Payoneer, after our entry into the public markets and as we continue to execute on our long-term strategy to be the world’s go-to-partner for digital commerce everywhere.”