Heiner Leisten and Joe Euteneuer appointed as Chairs of NAX’s development and securitization platforms 

NAX forms ecosystem ahead of next phase of growth

 New Asset eXchange (NAX), a company that  creates new markets and ecosystems around corporate assets, has today announced the appointment of Patrick Nicolet as Chair of its technology platform, Bridge. 

Patrick Nicolet - formerly Group CTO and Executive Board Member at Capgemini - will lead NAX’s technology platform as it works on the development and deployment of enterprise-grade solutions to power digital asset economies. The platform’s current focus areas include coin & tokenization solutions, payment & disbursement processing, aggregated blockchain solutions and deployment services. 

The arrival of Patrick Nicolet coincides with the appointment of Dr. Heiner Leisten as Chair of the Genesis Project, NAX’s development platform,  and Joe Euteneuer as Chair of LiQid,  NAX’s securitization platform. Both already sit on the NAX Board alongside high-profile business figures such as Frank Strauß, former Global CEO of Private and Commercial Banking at Deutsche Bank. 

Jeff Schumacher, CEO and Founder, NAX said: “Patrick is a world-class technologist and business leader and brings vast experience to the team. His arrival further strengthens the NAX ecosystem; a development platform that mines corporate assets to create asset-backed ventures and markets, a technology platform that provides technology tools and solutions to power digital assets, and a securitization platform to make corporate  assets tradeable. With Heiner, Patrick, and Joe at the helm of each, alongside our broader leadership team, we’re building an infrastructure that can fully realize the trillions of dollars of dormant value residing in corporate assets.”

NAX formally launched in January 2021 after two and a half years in stealth development. It focuses on building new markets and ecosystems around corporate assets. Led by serial entrepreneur Jeff Schumacher, NAX comprises three distinct but complementary platforms that provide a new lifecycle to repurpose corporate assets:

1. Creating asset backed ventures and markets

NAX’s development platform Genesis Project mines dormant corporate assets to create asset-backed ventures and markets.

2. Leveraging assets for DeFi

NAX’s technology platform Bridge deploys enterprise-grade technology solutions to power digital asset economies.

3. Making alternative assets tradeable

NAX’s trading platform LiQid securitizes corporate assets to make them tradeable.

Schumacher added: “The vast majority of assets globally are not listed. At NAX, we’re building an infrastructure to change that. From seed to securitization, we unlock value from underutilized corporate assets and, in doing so, are building next generation markets.”

Funds will be used to expand responsible lending model nationally and grow SaaS business unit

Tricolor today announced a $90 million convertible preferred equity investment from funds managed by BlackRock (“BlackRock Funds”), which converts to a minority stake. The new capital will be used to rapidly expand its mission-driven, AI-powered approach to the purchase and financing of high quality, affordable used vehicles for credit invisible Hispanics nationwide. In addition, the infusion of funds will help scale its recently launched software-as-a-service (SaaS) business unit, Tricolor Financial.

Meeting the Needs of Underserved Hispanics
The more than 59 million Hispanics in the United States would collectively rank as the eighth largest economy in the world. Yet, according to the FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, 31% of this US Hispanic population has no or limited access to mainstream credit.

Tricolor uses artificial intelligence, nearly 14 years of proprietary customer insights, and over 22 million unique non-traditional credit attributes to provide high quality vehicles and affordable financing for these low-income, credit invisible Hispanics. To date, Tricolor, a U.S. Department of the Treasury certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), has disbursed over $1.5 billion in affordable auto loans as part of its mission to empower underserved customers and provide them a path to a better life.

“For decades, the deck has been stacked against low income or credit invisible Hispanics in the United States when it comes to the purchase and financing of a used vehicle,” said Daniel Chu, founder and CEO of Tricolor. “We’ve proven that our technology and teams can reverse this dynamic, helping people gain access to reliable, affordable transportation. Now, with this investment and the support of the BlackRock Funds, we can grow to help even more people improve their lives.”

National Expansion for FinTech Tricolor
The investment from the BlackRock Funds will be used to expand Tricolor’s business and its affordable financing options into new markets and geographies. Primarily located in Texas and California today, Tricolor is planning rollouts into new states over the coming months.

Additionally, the company recently tapped veteran industry leader Stephanie Hansen to grow its Tricolor Financial business within the used vehicle sector and into adjacent industries. By using this investment to help fuel the growth of its SaaS offering, Tricolor can help other retailers and service providers more effectively meet the needs of low-income, credit invisible Hispanics in the United States.

UK drivers considering a move to electric driving can discover how much they could save and the electric vehicle (EV) model best suited to them thanks to EV8 Switch, a new space-enabled app. The app from EV8 Technologies, is supported by NatWest Group and is free to download from the Apple App Store and the Android Play Store.

Designed to cut out consumer confusion around how an EV could work for their lifestyle and driving habits, EV8 Switch helps drivers go green with confidence by analysing 14 days’ worth of real-world driving data to provide independent, personalised insights.

A 'Switchability' score shows how much money UK drivers could save by switching to an EV compared to their current petrol or diesel vehicle, along with detail on the CO2 savings and air quality improvements they could achieve.  Drivers can also see which electric vehicles would be the most suitable for them based on their current vehicle and how switching to electric could fit in with their current lifestyle.  EV8 Switch users can also see how close their nearest chargepoints are, and which journeys can be completed without the need to top-up enroute.

Richard Forrest, EV8 Chairman of the Board and Senior Partner, Kearney, said:

“As the climate crisis accelerates, many of us are making changes in our daily lives. Opting to drive an electric car reduces emissions substantially and EV8 Switch helps give drivers the confidence to go green. The app lets drivers make an informed decision, based on their individual driving needs. We encourage people to download EV8 Switch, take the 14 Day Challenge, and see for themselves exactly how an EV could work for them.”

James Close, Head of Climate Change at NatWest Group, commented: "By supporting the work of EV8 Technologies, we are offering a solution to help people and businesses understand their opportunity of going green. We want to be the country’s leading bank in helping to address climate change and are determined to play an active role in the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy. Powerful partnerships will help to accelerate the speed of that transition, and we look forward to continued collaboration with EV8 Technologies in the roll-out of the EV8 Switch app.”

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “As we get ready to host the major UN climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow later this year, the UK is leading the way in using space to help us build back greener. With innovative government-backed projects such as this harnessing of the power of space, making the switch to an electric vehicle will be easier than ever before, helping us take a giant leap towards our goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.”

Robert Evans, CEO of Cenex, adds: “Encouraging the public to switch to zero emission electric vehicles is essential in order to meet the carbon targets set out by the Government and to improve local air quality. EV8 Switch makes that switch easier, by dispelling some of the key myths around range anxiety and chargepoint availability on an individual basis and highlights the personal cost and emissions savings. The results from the app mean users can make informed decisions about future vehicle choices that are best suited to their driving habits.”

Development of the EV8 Switch app was supported by the ESA Space Solutions programme as part of a demonstration project called Human Switch.

Roberta Mugellesi Dow, ESA technical officer for the Human Switch project, commented: “The EV8 Switch app is a superb example of how space-based innovation can promote the transition to electric vehicles. Satellite technology enables the EV8 Switch app to provide clear information about the financial and environmental benefits that switching to an electric car could yield."

Nick Appleyard, Head of ESA Space Solutions, added: “We all know we should make better choices in the climate emergency. But finding the time, the information and the motivation to change somehow stops us. The EV8 Switch app gives us the nudge we need. It gives us just enough information to see how we can save money, cut our pollution, and change to the better driving experience of an electric car. A triple benefit. At the European Space Agency, we want to use space as a tool to help the green transition, so we are proud to have supported the development of this service.”

EV8 Technologies is a joint venture between global consultancy partnership Kearney, independent low-emission transport group Cenex, and Brixworth Technologies a boutique development house which specialises in asset and software solutions.

The UK Space Agency has invested £2.7 million into the EV8 Switch app, through the European Space Agency’s Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES). EV8 Switch is supported by and co-branded with NatWest Group, who hopes the initiative will help people and businesses go green, demonstrating the bank’s commitment to playing an active role in tackling climate change. The bank plans to offer the free app to its customers via a marketing campaign and its mobile app over the coming months.

First annual W*rk Automation Index shows how changing behaviours due to the pandemic increased the use of automation processes

Workato, the leading and fastest-growing integration-led automation platform, unveiled today its inaugural W*rk Automation Index, a data report focused on the key trends that shaped automation over the past year. The anonymised data, pulled from nearly 700 mid- to large-size enterprises using Workato across a variety of industries, reveals major shifts in automation priorities as organisations responded to the pandemic, seeking to boost efficiency, increase sales conversion rates and manage their finances more closely.

Workato found there was an increase in how automated organisations were overall, with one-third of enterprises using automated processes in five or more departments during the past year, up from just 15% in the year before the pandemic began.

Among the top findings of the report:

·  Customer Support automations saw the biggest growth of any department. As customer interaction shifted online, the customer support department saw the biggest increase in automation use, up by more than 290% year-over-year. Within Customer Support, there was a significant increase in the automation of returns and refunds processing which experienced growth of 476% from the period before the pandemic.

·  Recruitment saw the highest automation growth of any single process at 547%. With much of the world in lockdown, the process of hiring, onboarding and offboarding employees shifted almost entirely online. As part of this, more companies recognised the opportunity to implement automated recruitment processes throughout 2020.

·  Finance automation is a growing priority. The volume of automated processes across the finance sector increased by 199%. Order-to-cash was the single most commonly automated process across all departments.

·  Data-pipeline automation surged by 152% as companies became more data driven in response to the disruption around them. These pipelines connect business apps with cloud data warehouses such as Snowflake, BigQuery and Redshift, ensuring that current, accurate data is available for business intelligence use.

·  Security and compliance automations grew by 171%. With many employees working remotely, enterprises needed to lock down security processes to keep networks and data secure. This, combined with companies increasing their use of cloud and SaaS applications, contributed to this significant growth.

·  Automation is a team sport between business and IT. IT users accounted for 55% of all the automation workflows created, while business users accounted for 45%. Of those business users, product teams made up 19%, followed closely by operations staff who work in areas like sales ops, marketing ops and finance ops, and who accounted for 18% of workflows created.

·  Collaboration apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams were used in 20% of all automated workflows. Whether it’s approving an offer letter or an expense report, creating an IT ticket, or sending a notification, chat apps provide a familiar, friendly interface where employees spend increasing amounts of their time - especially when working from home.

“Enterprise automation experienced a rapid surge in adoption this past year — no surprise, as business leaders closely examined where they could be more efficient in their operations and support remote teams amid a global pandemic,” said Carter Busse, CIO at Workato. “Automation was a key driver in departments we anticipated like IT and finance, but also provided increased capabilities in areas we didn’t expect, such as recruitment and customer success. From boosting employee productivity to creating better customer experiences, automation freed businesses and teams to focus on the priorities that mattered most at an incredibly uncertain time in the market.”

Designed to uncover the workflows used and the role automation plays across departments and functions, the 2021 W*rk Automation Index analysed 698 medium ($50M to $2B in annual revenue) to large and enterprise (over $2B in annual revenue) Workato customers who use automation in their businesses. The team looked at all automated workflows created by these companies from April 2019-March 2020, and at all the automated workflows created from April 2020-March 2021 to compare the two time periods and determine the growth or decline of each process between the periods before and during the pandemic.

Click here to access the full report. To learn more about Workato’s enterprise automation solutions, visit https://www.workato.com/.

About Workato

Workato is the leading Enterprise Automation Platform. Recognised as a leader, Workato is the only enterprise platform that enables both business and IT to integrate their apps, automate business workflows, and drive real time outcomes from business events, without compromising security and governance. Workato is trusted by over 7,000 of the world's top brands and fastest growing innovators. For more information, visit www.workato.com or connect with us on social media:

UK’s leading secure digital voucher system, part of the PayPoint Group, now providing wider access for people who need to be paid in cash

The UK’s leading secure digital voucher platform, i-movo, part of the PayPoint Group, has joined forces with the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and ClearBank, the cloud-based clearing bank, to deliver payments to those without access to a standard bank account. Previously, many UK benefits recipients, who choose to receive their benefits in cash, collected their payments using a paper-based voucher system or a Post Office Card Account, which is coming to an end.

i-movo and ClearBank aim to make benefit payments quicker, simpler and more convenient for customers, with hopes also of reducing cost and complexity. Under the new initiative, the Payment Exception Service (PES), each benefit/pension recipient can choose from a range of methods to receive their cash payment vouchers. These can be used to withdraw funds at any one of 28,000 PayPoint retailer outlets or 11,500 Post Office branches from 9^th September 2021.

Through integration with ClearBank’s API, i-movo receives BACS and Faster Payments and translates these into secure digital vouchers, which are issued in real-time using the customers chosen delivery method. These include SMS, a unique barcode displayed on a smartphone, PDF delivered by email or a re-useable mag stripe plastic card. The new service also offers customers online access to their payments history while a Helpline service provided by PayPoint is available too.

i-movo was acquired by the PayPoint Group in November 2020. Nick Wiles, Chief Executive at PayPoint, commented; “Through this new service, the unbanked will be able to receive their benefit payments simply, safely and conveniently, just like those who do have access to a bank account.

“Fundamental to its success is i-movo’s leading secure digital voucher technology. By drawing upon its experience of the last three years, we have worked with DWP to deliver an innovative solution that brings new benefits to all stakeholders. However, this initiative has required an impressive level of teamwork, bringing together i-movo, the ClearBank platform and both the Post Office and PayPoint networks.”

Charles McManus, CEO of ClearBank added; “Today it’s imperative that everyone is able to access the benefits of digitisation. We believe digital financial services offer an unmatched level of convenience that is crucial in ensuring no-one is left behind as we advance towards a digital-first future.

"This new service is an important step forward in providing help for vulnerable claimants – one that we are honoured to be a part of – and is testament to the vision of i-movo, PayPoint and the DWP. We’re looking forward to continuing this collaboration, using the latest financial technologies to help those that need it the most.”

Businesses integrating Flutterwave in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia can receive payments via MTN Mobile Money

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has today announced a mobile money partnership with MTN Group, Africa’s largest telecommunications provider. This partnership will allow businesses integrating Flutterwave in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia to receive payments via MTN Mobile Money (MoMo).             

MTN MoMo is a fintech platform providing consumers and businesses with an electronic wallet, enabling electronic transfers and payments as well as access to digital and financial services. At the end of June 2021, MTN MoMo had 48.9 million active users and 581,514 merchants. MoMo enables businesses to accept and make payments within the mobile money ecosystem. This new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.

In recent years, Africa has witnessed an explosion in mobile penetration as smartphone adoption has risen rapidly. According to the GSMA, this year Africa will hit the half a billion mark of unique mobile subscribers and the continent will reach 50% subscriber penetration by 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is responsible for more than 45% of the world’s mobile money accounts with the number of account holders exceeding half a billion by 2020, as shared on Statista.

Through this partnership, MTN and Flutterwave will positively contribute to this trend by increasing mobile money usage and penetration in Africa to improve local economies and livelihoods as well as create opportunities for individuals and businesses across the continent.

Commenting on the partnership, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer said: “As we progress on our journey to becoming the largest fintech platform in Africa, we will empower millions of businesses to embrace e-commerce in our markets to accept digital payments from MoMo consumers. We believe this is an enabler to accelerating digitized payments in Africa. Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy and we will continue to invest in expanding the reach of our platform to consumers and businesses in Africa.” 

The new partnership will further expand on Flutterwave’s previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda – with the potential of deepening adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa, a sector expected to reach $29 billion by 2022, according to Statista. 

 AstroPay, the global leader in online payment solutions, is pleased to announce a new partnership within The Premier League, the top level of English and world football, with Newcastle United Football Club. 

As part of the sponsorship deal, AstroPay will have its branding and logo visible on the pitchside LED advertising at The Premier League matches and on the club’s press conference backdrop. AstroPay’s branding will feature regularly on matchdays at St James’ Park,  providing the company with wide exposure from both national and global reach as it looks to expand its range of products and services worldwide. 

This partnership follows the recent renewal of AstroPay’s sponsorship deal with Burnley  Football Club and its tie-up with Wolves, which all help the business’ profile among sports fans in the UK and around the world. 

Mikael Lijtenstein, CEO of AstroPay, said: “As a major football team with a strong fan base,  Newcastle United FC is an ambitious club which matches the global spirit of AstroPay. We are thrilled to be joining forces with them as a sponsor and are looking forward to working together. 

“The English Premier League has always been very competitive, popular and global, which sees brands using the event as the perfect vehicle for driving brand awareness, interest and revenue. This partnership with Newcastle United FC is part of our global strategy to continue  boosting brand visibility within the UK and Europe.” 

Dale Aitchison, Head of Commercial at Newcastle United said: “We are really excited to welcome AstroPay as our new Official Payment Solutions Partner and look forward to launching the beginning of a new, mutually beneficial relationship. AstroPay is a pioneer in global payment solutions and we look forward to assisting in providing a platform to engage with our international audience”. 

Affluent to ultra-high-net worth (UHNW) investors in the UK are the most conservative in terms of investment risk among international peers, according to new research among banking and wealth management clients in ten leading economies, including China, India, Switzerland and Japan, commissioned by Avaloq, a global leader in digital banking solutions.

More than half (54%) of UK respondents rated themselves as conservative in terms of their approach to risk, with 20% describing themselves as ‘very conservative’. Only 10% said they take an aggressive approach to risk – the lowest of any nation surveyed. In contrast, almost half (45%) of respondents in China said they were aggressive in terms of risk, with just 19% saying they were conservative.

Respondents in the UK also stand out for the relatively high use of financial advisers and planners, with around a third (29%) saying they use them, the highest of any of the nations surveyed. While a high proportion of individuals (72%) said they also manage their own investments, this is still the second lowest globally after France (65%). In addition, one in seven (14%) of UK respondents reported they use a robo-advisory to manage their investments.

According to Avaloq’s research, part of an extensive international study looking into investment behaviours and market sentiment of wealthy investors, the primary reason (cited by 66%) given for saving and investing by UK respondents is for their retirement – perhaps reinforcing the low-risk, long-term mindset of UK investors. Retirement was ranked far higher than other reasons such as future healthcare costs (35%) and entrepreneurial activities (17%).

In terms of asset classes and underlying investments, affluent investors in the UK show little appetite for exposure to complex structured instruments. According to Avaloq’s study, they have one of the highest allocations to investment funds (cited by 56%) though use of ETFs is the lowest of any nation at just 11%. In addition, more than half (53%) say they hold investments in cash.

Despite a high number of UK respondents stating they have a low-risk approach to investing, almost a quarter (23%) said they have exposure to cryptocurrencies in their portfolios – showing some understanding of emergent investment opportunities and, possibly, a need for advisory support. The UK figure was in the middle in terms of respondents from other countries, with wealthy investors in India the most invested in cryptocurrencies (49%).

John Wilson, Managing Director of the UK and Ireland at Avaloq, said: “We believe that our study underscores the opportunities for wealth managers and other investment professionals in the UK, particularly when it comes to appropriate risk profiling, portfolio diversification and allocation to products such as ETFs. The clear interest in cryptocurrencies should also be seen, we firmly believe, as a strong opportunity for financial institutions to expand their service offerings.

“The capability to deliver a hyper-personalised, bespoke service proposition to wealthy clients already exists through the use of cloud computing and powerful data analytics. This focus on providers to deliver a truly unique investment management experience to clients will likely be a key competitive differentiator in the UK and globally as institutions look to build market share. As a global leader in innovative wealth management technology, Avaloq is well positioned to help financial institutions capitalise on the fast-digitalising UK wealth management market.”

To view the full report, please visit this link here.

Axyon AI today announces a partnership with DMALINK as part of its mission to become one of the first true AI specialists for financial institutions. The partnership will enable the first ever use of deep learning artificial intelligence to dynamically manage liquidity, detect market and order anomalies, and create smart algorithms for trade execution in the fiat FX space.

Axyon AI will combine its technology with DMALINK’s ECN infrastructure to innovate FX trading. For the buy side, deep learning models considerably improve the quality of order fills. For the sell side, the application will ensure firms maintain a positive yield curve. The deep learning technology will also detect market anomalies in spot FX, giving DMALINK participants access to one of the most powerful risk management tools developed in the ECN space. Smart algorithms, dynamically created by AI will instantly adjust trade execution as a function of the market dynamics.

Daniele Grassi, Chief Executive Officer of Axyon AI, says “We believe that the leap from humans telling computers how to act, to computers learning how to act, has momentous implications for financial markets trading. Our partnership with DMALINK will be a paradigm shift for the FX trading industry.”

Manu Choudhary, Chief Executive Officer of DMALINK, says: "In spite of the pace of innovation within the ECN space, liquidity management, anomaly detection and algos have been left behind by advances in deep learning AI technology. The ability for Axyon AI’s deep learning technology to leverage insights in a fraction of the time of a human-driven equivalent provides opportunities for the procurement and analysis of unique data to dynamically manage liquidity, risk and trade execution for the first time.”

Sopra Banking Software, a global leader in banking and specialized financing software, is proud to announce that Sopra Financing Platform (SFP) pricing engine, Freehand - a reference in pricing engines in the UK Asset Finance industry - is now available as Software-as-a-Service REST API.

Currently live with a major Asset Finance lender, SFP Freehand Connect provides access to the same rapid and accurate pricing calculations trusted by the industry right in all points of the lender’s operational systems.

Speaking about the launch, Mark Elliott, Business Development Manager (SFP) at Sopra Banking Software noted:

“We operate within an increasingly interconnected landscape with financial institutions often taking a best of breed approach to their systems and providing a unified experience to their users through the use of APIs. SFP Freehand Connect is perfectly aligned with this landscape. Freehand’s pricing calculations have always been trusted, and now they can be delivered in a seamless way in a variety of other applications and websites.”

The API approach overcomes a challenge previously faced by the industry – how to ensure that financial calculations remain identical across the front, middle and back-office systems. With SFP Freehand Connect, there is a single source of data across all systems.

Addressing this point, Elliott said:

“We know from experience that the Freehand calculations are widely regarded as the benchmark by which the UK Asset Finance industry measures the accuracy of the calculations of other products. Our API means those same calculations can be embedded directly within those products providing a single, accurate, and trusted source of truth.”

SFP Freehand Connect is made available via Sopra Banking Software’s public cloud infrastructure, providing world-class security, reliability, and availability.

To provide flexibility and growth linked to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), the services’ pricing is on a pay-per-use model.

“A utility pricing model is ideal for these uncertain times,” says Elliott, “our pricing model allows a lender’s outgoings to flex with demand – removing one more headache for lenders concerned about paying a fixed price for a product during a period of reduced economic activity.”

SFP Freehand Connect is the first of a series of innovations Sopra Banking Software brings to the platform. Building on SFP Freehand Connect, a web-based version of the Freehand UI will be available later in the year.